Art

by aaron on April 30th, 2008

It’s Wednesday night. Michelle and I spent an insane amount of money at Target today getting a bunch of things we need around the house and baby stuff. CUTE baby stuff.

Tomorrow morning we’ll get up early and load up a borrowed SUV to take a crapload of paintings, an easel, two chairs and a small table down to Harding Academy. We have until noon to set everything up and we’ll need it. Then we have a prenatal appointment in the afternoon. Then we’ll go to Whole Foods to pick up some vitamins and whatnot for momma. Unless we do that tonight. I don’t know when we’re going to Whole Foods, my head is not really on straight right now. But anyway, we’ll go back to Harding tomorrow evening for the show opening.

In the past, Thursday night has been packed. And Friday night is the same way. It’s kind of more of a social event than an art show. Although there will be a LOT of art and in the past, it’s sold very well. But I like the show a lot when a lot of people are there. That’s when it’s really fun.

So anyway, come by the show if you can. I’m sharing a booth with another artist again this year. I’m only assuming I’ll be in the same spot in the corner … it’s actually a great spot, I was a little surprised that they gave it to me last year.

See you then!

(Directions and such)

The nursery has been painted.

by aaron on April 26th, 2008

Sweet lord hallelujah.

Not the first reminder, not the last.

by aaron on April 23rd, 2008

Thursday May 1: 6:00pm–9:00pm
Friday May 2: 10:00am–9:00pm
Saturday May 3: 10:00am–3:00pm
*Hint: Thursday and Friday nights after 6, there will be free food, wine, etc.

Feel free to mark you calendars. All of them. Even that little one in the back of your checkbook.

I sent in my inventory list on Monday and apparently I’ve done 68 pieces for the show. Most of them are fairly new, too … a lot are BRAND new. I hope I can find the time to post some of them online before May 1st. Last year I took 50 to Harding. For some reason I thought I was under-prepared this year, until Michelle helped me count them all up.

So, um, yeah, you want paintings, I’ve got paintings.

See more info about the show here.

Baptism

by aaron on April 20th, 2008

We went to the Baptism of Lucas this morning (Mark and Di’s 2-month old son) … it was really nice. I was surprised at all the family and friends that were there to witness this very meaningful moment in their lives. I got to be videographer (with a borrowed camera) for the Baptism and the whole time I was just thinking, man, I hope this is actually recording … I’m pretty sure it did. I think. Afterward we all went out to lunch in Green Hills, and it was just all so nice, it felt like we were part of a family beyond the one we grew up with. In some ways I’ve always been confused and turned off at the idea that family can only include blood relatives or the in-laws. Or the step-people. And in other ways I felt let down when I grew up around much of my step-family instead of my “real” family … I guess that confusion over what makes “family” is a consequence of growing up in a home where we had three last names on our mailbox.

In the future, I want Michelle and I to decide who is in our family. We have some very close friends who I feel are part of our family. We have lots of them, actually, and the lines between blood and not blood get blurred. Bloodlines are important and I’m increasingly interested in my Italian heritage lately. But I don’t want to divide out family and non-family based only on who your mamma is. I want it to be about relationships.

All this to say that I was able to feel like I was part of the McCormack family today, and it was really great. They’ve always treated us like family. I want little Futureson to grow up with that same sort of feeling, that he is loved and cared for by lots and lots and LOTS of different people.

I’ll probably give the kid a complex, in fact. He’ll become a megalomaniac and believe all the hype. He’ll start telling me what to do and beat me in basketball by the age of 5.

I create monsters, people. Monsters I say.

Sage

by aaron on April 15th, 2008

It’s been one of those weeks. Over the weekend we were chin-deep in the hell that exists when you find out you owe your Uncle Sammy a lot more money than you actually have. (Uncle Sammy doesn’t like that sort of thing) And the rest of my week will be spent (awake) doing freelance projects that I am embarrassingly behind on. And somehow I’ve got to finish my paintings. Oh, and work at my job.

Trying to hold it together.

But today we got to meet Sage. Our friends Megan and Derek gave birth to a beautiful 7.2 oz. baby girl yesterday. In the middle of all the chaos going on around our lives and home, we made sure we went by the hospital for a couple hours because how often do you get to spend time with a 1 day old baby girl? And as a plus, we were getting to spend time with two of our best friends, who had just carried each other over the threshold into parenthood. And what amazing parents they will be!

And Michelle and I are fairly convinced that baby Sage may one day be our daughter-in-law :) If arranged marriages weren’t archaic, invasive, oppressive, and just downright weird, I’d be all for it. Plus, she’s a real looker.

Futuredaughter-in-law, maybe?

Light

by aaron on April 10th, 2008

Today I feel better. I talked with my boss and he’s going to let me work a lot more from home. Not that I was being stopped from working from home before, I just hadn’t done it. But there is SO MUCH TO DO in order to get ready for baby. And I am spending all my time either at the office or working on freelance or painting. Occasionally I sleep. I think having the freedom to come and go from the office as I please, and work from home as much as I want is going to help out tremendously.

I’m scared and relieved at the same time. We’re having a freaking baby. In like two months. Less than two months. That’s insane. Our friend Megan, who’s due date was a mere two months earlier than ours is about to pop any second now. How did 9 months seem like so far off in the future, and yet somehow it got to be April? I think someone is jacking with the calendars, because there’s no way Christmas was 3 1/2 months ago.

I’m excited and I want a baby. I’m scared because I don’t know how I’ll be as a dad. I know how I want to be. But can I do it? Will he like me?

Blah Blah Blah. Michelle’s on her way to pick me up from work. I’m hoping I can talk her into taking me to dinner :)

3 Grams

by aaron on April 9th, 2008

Our photo got in this month’s Nashville Arts magazine, when we were at our Untitled show last month. It’s proof, people. Proof we still get out. We still mingle. We still converse with other humans on occasion. Sometimes we even show up at our own art shows. And we even pose for photos with people we met ten minutes ago who have the same general last name as us (interior designer and friend-of-a-friend Neela Graham).

And it’s a good freaking alibi, if necessary.

libary

by aaron on April 7th, 2008

Yesterday I was at the downtown library. I got in the elevator and on my way up to the third floor, I noticed that the permanently-affixed directory posted inside the elevator had two words misspelled. One was Tennesseana instead of Tennessean and I think the other was Registration spelled wrong.

In a library. The downtown-metro-center-of-it-all library.

I LOVE the downtown library. But this was kinda sad.

It’s just stuff

by aaron on April 6th, 2008

So last night Michelle’s mom and brothers helped us out immensely by coming to our condo and carrying away two carloads worth of stuff to take down to the yard sale in two weeks. And my mom has donated part of her spare bedroom to store a short ton of old art that Michelle and I have done. Michelle and I (though mostly Michelle) have spent the last 2 weeks going through our condo, ruthlessly setting things aside to either sell, give away, or carry down to the dumpster.

We watched a DVR’d episode of Oprah (we rarely get to watch live television anymore) that had the Aussie guy on there who helps people organize their stuff. It was a show on hoarding, and they were showing this house where they had been buying and storing stuff for over a decade, and they literally were able to clean out 75 TONS of unnecessary junk from this 3,000 square-foot house. Aussie McGee’s (until I find out his name, that’s his name) philosophy was to envision what you wanted that house to feel like when you first moved in, and use that vision to determine everything you bring into that house.

We want our condo to be a sanctuary, a place where we can come home and not feel overwhelmed. We want a home where we can have friends over, and parties, and not feel like we have to hide anything. We want to be able to have clients and patrons come over. We want a clean and safe environment for our baby, who we realize will accumulate more stuff over the years than we can imagine. And so we started going through our rooms judging everything by that criteria. It’s made it so much easier to see clearly and to just get rid of our stuff. We keep things because maybe they are still in great condition, or maybe we might need them some day. But will our house be better with or without it? That’s one principle of good graphic design/art … will the piece be better with or without this line? If it’s better without it, then get rid of it!

I admit, we have a pretty awesome condo. It’s pretty small, but it’s got character. And that’s hard to find in Bellevue. We had it looking pretty good for some Christmas parties we had last year. But then after the job thing, we decided to get our stuff out of the storage unit to save money, and we also decided to take everything out of our home office to try and make it more efficient, and then we got really swamped with cake tops and paintings and graphic design, that our condo has been in a state of transitional limbo, and quite honestly a mess. It’s still got a long way to go, but we made a HUGE dent in it over the past couple weeks. And we’re still pumped and motivated to do more, because we want our pad to be something that we DON’T have to worry about once Junior arrives.

Beautiful day today. I guess whoever that was doing all the rain dances finally pulled a hamstring or something.

Funny spam

by aaron on April 3rd, 2008

I’m sure all blogs get lots of spam … I got this today from somewhere in amsterdam, and I think it’s my favorite so far:

“Please stop saying stupid things! After reading your posts I want to laugh! You are trying to act and talk like an experienced person, but it does not work in your case. You can’t imagine how funny you look. I didn’t want to say anything bad but words just came out of my mouth! You must be crazy!”

Geez, at least I hope it’s spam :)