Paying Homage to Winsor McCay

I am always happy when Google pays homage to what some may argue is an obscure artist or literary figure.

Today's Google tribute is to Winsor McCay, who is legendary in the comics community.

McCay's work is considered groundbreaking for creating an illustrated strip revolving around Little Nemo representing the fascinating fantasy world of dreams.

His early work in animated film has made him one of the forefathers of our modern era of animation.  In a sense, we can thank him for inspiring Walt Disney and others for the accompanying empire of animated film that resulted from groundbreaking work such as this.

It is especially relevant when seeing movies like ParaNorman, Coraline, Frankenweenie, Nightmare Before Christmas, and a host of other stop-motion animated films that came before and will continue to delight us.  Stop-motion bears the closest resemblance to the process laid out over 100 years ago, requiring patience as frames are photographed one by one.

In the link below, Winsor McCay films a cute silent film about putting together a short animated feature and and selling the idea to others, then presents his month of work.  While it does drag a bit by today's standards, it is a true marvel considering there was no such thing as color film in 1911. In order to project in color, it would have had to have been hand colored frame by frame.

To give me even more of a feeling of connection as an artist, he was born in Michigan and went to Ypsilanti Normal College to study art. My great grandparents made a home in Michigan, my grandfather was born there, and my father grew up in Michigan.  As well, my mother's side of the family has provided me with a gaggle of Michigander cousins.

Even without the Michigan connection, much of our animated entertainment can give a hat tip to those who set the stage for modern animated entertainment and until today many may have never even heard his name.

So, Winsor McCay, I salute you.  For helping pave the way for a happy childhood and fostering dreams of artists like me for generations.

Sharing the love

Zoya polish in the color Faye

Anyone that knows me well, knows that I am kind of a huge fan of nail polish.  For lengthy reasons I will save for another time, I spent my childhood and a large chunk of my teen years banned from wearing polish.

Yet when I was small, I dreamed of wearing it.  My aunt was an aspiring actress who worked in local theater and was always going out on auditions.

She was gorgeous.  She bleached her hair this beautiful blond, and she looked like a grown-up Barbie doll to me.  She was thin enough and curvy, and had this great stash of nail polish lined up in the bathroom.  She was Marilyn Monroe without the crappy personal life.

I would love to watch her do her nails or her other makeup, borrow some of her clear and gooey clear lip gloss that tasted like candy cane, and flop on her gigantic canopy bed with the pretty green and white bedspread.

Once I became older and nail polish was no longer banned, I rekindled my suppressed affection for brightly colored fingers and toes.

Zoya Marina--aka the color on my toes

Then a couple years ago, I started having allergies to all kinds of chemicals.  I had asthma issues and all kinds of allergies.  The worst was discovering that I apparently had an allergy to formaldehyde in nail polish.  This was quite a shock considering that for the most part I had been led to believe that the majority of my polishes were free of formaldehyde.  Despite labeling that said 3 Free, and one of those is supposed to be formaldehyde, I discovered that some had been able to claim to be free of formaldehyde and then sneak it into a resin and still use it.  For months I had been suffering off and on with really strange eye allergies that made me look like I had a shiner. But thanks to an article my mother read, I found out that I likely had an allergy to polish with formaldehyde.  Sure enough, I tossed the majority of my polishes, and my eye problem disappeared.

The only ones that stayed were ones that had no formaldehyde resin.  Luckily, I had already happened upon this brand of polish called Zoya which was already a 4-free polish and had no formaldehyde or formaldehyde resin.  They pride themselves on making a cleaner product, not test it on animals, and make it vegan.

And the formulas are generally considerably better and only a few bucks more than the better drugstore polishes without the risk of dealing with hidden formaldehyde.

Ever since I discovered them, I am often complemented on my color and often get asked what brand it is and I gladly tell them Zoya.

This year, they began a "Share the Love" campaign, where I get points for those who create an account and purchase something.  And as a bonus when you sign up you also get $5 off your order.  Sweet deal, yes?

I certainly think so.

So to share the love with my readers I'm providing you with a link where you can sign up, cash in on some booty, and get yourself something cool for the holidays. They have some cremes, some gels, and some glittery polishes.  I especially like the microglitter, because it's embedded in the polish and makes it sparkly without getting glitter all over the place causing you to pick glitter out of your nose hairs and off your check and earlobe for the next 6 months.

They just came out with the new holiday collection that ships October 15th, so feel free to check it out.

https://www.artofbeauty.com/rd/014D83CA

So, if you're interested join me and get yourself a little something nice and we'll both benefit. Sound good?

Customer Service

Some of you know that I have a small side business selling used books and CDs on Amazon.  For the most part, it has become a wonderful part of my daily routine to check emails, find out that something else of mine sold, and that not only am I getting a couple bucks but also I know that my item is on its way to bless some other home.

Most of the time it is a fun and comforting thing.

Then on occasion you find a few people where doing business is far less pleasant.

As a new entrepreneur, I am just now learning that statistically speaking, there are difficult people in the world that will have to be dealt with in as calm and loving a manner as possible.  This actually has created a bonding experience between me and my dad in the realm of customer service.

While regaling him with my tale of annoyance, we were both reminded of his days in retail.  One of the most notorious stories of his was while working in vacuum cleaners.  A woman had come in and bought a vacuum cleaner.  A few later, her husband returned with the vacuum and ripped my dad a new one about what an awful product they had made.

He then proceeded to take the new vacuum cleaner and slam it into the tile floor of the Sears store, right in front of him, and then he huffed out.

When my father went to examine the wreckage, the problem was abundantly clear.  The woman had obviously been using the vacuum cleaner but hadn't once emptied the bag.  The vacuum cleaner was full, so of course it wouldn't work anymore!

The great part is that my dad didn't lose his composure and handled these things with grace.

Truly I think this is the mark of any true professional, is when you have firmness and confidence enough in yourself to let others vent without that negativity sink in.

I believe the likelihood of business and relationships increasing grows exponentially when we learn to take things in stride.  To look at life positively, and not allow negativity to weigh us down.  The world is a much better place, even when others storm around us.

Pinterested??

When I first joined Pinterest, one main question that I asked myself and then others asked was "Why?"

And another, "What's the purpose?"

On the one hand, Pinterest gives the user the ability to be barraged by images all at once.  I think for some it comes across as just some sort of massive assault to the senses.  In some ways, it definitely is.

However, when you delve a little deeper, it is more than just visual splendor. You can peruse links to various websites but also follow others (much like Twitter) who have similar interests and categories.

You can make boards to sort things to pin into any category you like, so this makes it particularly handy for somethings that I like to browse Pinterest for:

1) Future Art: Since my fabulous art classes in high school and college, I often longed to have a more convenient version of my clip book.  Back in the old days, one would clip photos out of magazines and stuff them into categories so that basically you had a catalog of stock photos of various people, animals, places and objects to do art studies.  Now through the magic of the internet you can find these things readily with a Google search. But Pinterest makes it even easier by giving you a way to find and pin images for future use.  Extremely handy if you ask me.

2)Recipes: Few things will make me more hungry than browsing Pinterest at mealtime.  It's my own fault for following people who post fabulous looking items.

3)Clothing: I'm not exactly a clothes or shoe horse, but I do like to look at items and dream of creating a wardrobe where I didn't have to worry about what an item costs.

4)Landscape Photography: Again this fuels my dreams of travel.  I love looking at photos of beautiful, exotic places that I can't possibly afford to go to.  Yet I still imagine myself in a cabin in the woods, relaxing in some Italian gondola, or drinking something delicious and tropical beside pristine waters and crashing waves.

So, as you can see it isn't necessarily merely a time waster, though one could certainly waste plenty of time.  Much like Facebook, it isn't a site's fault if you use it to misuse your time, that's your own fault. And certainly for the visually oriented it can help sort, plan, experiment and dream.

Who doesn't like that?

http://pinterest.com/saratheartist/

Fitted Sheet Ninja

Just this morning, I was reminded once again of how much my life has changed since I learned the secret of folding a fitted sheet.

The biggest problem I have had is that my mother is a fitted sheet ninja. Much like her mad sewing and cooking skills and amazing handwriting I would try my very best but fall short.  I would always follow the directions to the letter, and felt like Martha Stewart while doing it.

I would always expect my sheets to look exactly like the above demonstration.  Nevermind the fact that the photoshoot likely had someone on hand with an iron every 3 minutes. Regardless, Mom's sheets always looked like this to me.

Yet despite my years of practice and concentration, my fitted sheets always look like these on the right:

My poor sad sack sheets have long lived in shame in my cupboards, unable to ever be counted among the beautiful.

However, a number of years ago my good friend Nathalie was kind enough to share her secret.  She would go ahead and fold her sheets as best they could be, and then stick them inside their matching pillowcase.  This goes for the top sheet and spare pillowcase as well.  Then one can neatly place the beautiful "pillows" on the shelf, and they can stack nicely.

As I took out my rumpled mass of fitted sheet I had to smile.  My sheets will always be a little wrinkled, but they look great on my shelf.  All thanks to a good rescue from a friend.

Finding motivation

There are a number of things on my list of items that I find particularly difficult to motivate myself to do.

Chores fall into this category.  Laundry and cleaning are incredibly unmotivating when it's unseasonably hot outside.

But as a new year and a new decade of my life open up, I am often struck by how hard it is to get motivated to do things that will give me more energy and better motivation.

One of the biggest universal chores that my friends and I find it hard to motivate ourselves to do is exercise.  I say chore, and some of those who always had fun, athletic, bramble about the field childhoods don't know what I'm talking about.  While I didn't grow up drastically overweight, I did grow up clumsy.  I had flat feet that required orthotics and was moderately dyslexic.  This made all team sports the bane of my existence.

In junior high I sprained my ankles eight times in two years.

I sprained my hand doing shot put.

I dislocated my shoulder when I tripped on the sidewalk on the way home from art class in college.

I've had whiplash and hurt my low back lifting something too heavy at work.

I tore a piece of cartilage in my right knee in 2000 during a move.

In sum: I'm a mess.

So exercise always makes me weary, for I know that bad outcomes loom large. One wrong move, and I'm out of it.  Add allergies to the mix and I'm likely to have multiple coughing fits.

However, I now have two of my closest friends and I creating a support group.  Normally I hate recording my exercise, but for each other we now have a goal.  A movie or a light lunch or some treat at the end for a winner and as a trophy none other than the patron saint of lost causes, St. Jude.

We create a chart each month giving ourselves a point each day for the exercise we clock in, even if it's shorter than we would like.  We still did it.  It counts.

While I've never been one to like the whole physically exercising with other people thing (the emptier the gym was the better), there is something very comforting about having friends to share in your collective misery.  You can look at your friend's progress and say, "Okay.  She dragged herself out and did it.  I need to as well."

At the end of the month, we have our own little ceremony. We hand the St. Jude over, do a little acceptance speech, and have a hilarious moment in a restaurant.

Even though I haven't lost a ton of weight yet, and even though I've slacked off a few times, I find it much easier to get back to it, knowing that I've got others waiting to see my progress.  To cheer me on, and likewise I can cheer them on.

So really, it's not about magic formulas, or particular websites.  It's what works for you, drives you on, and keeps you motivated.

So whatever you are dragging your feet on tonight, know that it just takes a little help from your friends. A little motivation can go a long way.

A New Era

Fall usually ushers in our love for scarves, hats, and crunching leaves. For me it always ushers in that sense of renewal.

While I could go into the many reasons why fall is the season of choice for me, one big and quite fantastic reason is that the last day of September is the illustrious day of my nativity.

Enjoying my birthday with a  Guinness.
 "They come in pints??!!"

This year's celebration of my birth marked a rather grand passing from one decade into the next.  Now I get to check out and try to prove correct the adage that 40 is the new 30.  I'll just have to see about that. What I do know is that just a couple days prior I was carded, did my little happy dance, and was given the "No way!" reaction when she looked at my I.D. and I told her I was about to turn 40.

And frankly, my last week of being 30-something was perhaps one of the most interesting yet and has absolutely added perhaps the most spectacular LML (Love My Life) blog entry yet. While I have yet to find a teaching position that works for me, that I would be qualified for, I realized that my roll-with-it mentality doesn't confine me to that particular job pursuit.  As some other doors have been opening up that, granted, don't make me large amounts of cash quickly, they seem to indicate what could possibly be a plausible career direction.

Case in point: Film Series Planning.

A good friend of mine is a professor at my grad school Alma Mater and was kind enough to offer me the job of helping him plan a film series.  This has proven to me that I am pretty darn good at publicity, public relations, planning events, and may possibly lead to an income doing grant writing for various non-profits. I love the idea of finding funding for worthy causes and utilizing my writing skills for making a difference!

As part of a discussion of the various mythologies of Greek and Early American Literature, my good professor friend has a fantastic way of including pop culture in ways that are different and creative.  The first in the film series was Meredith Willson's The Music Man starring Robert Preston and Shirley Jones.  I spent a good chunk of hours helping publicize and negotiate between departments, draw up a personal appearance contract, and schedule with talent management the appearance of Shirley Jones.

Sara's Shirley Jones Nirvana

In the end, I got to sit back and watch The Music Man on a large screen, and listen to Shirley Jones answer questions about the making of this classic film.  It was fantastic!

Having such moments at the end of my thirties has thrown down a gauntlet for my forties. What could top this? Why, just watch and see.

Ushering in my new era this way makes me all the more convinced that I have amazing things yet ahead of me in my life.














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And to usher in this inaugural era of life, I'm joining the Ultimate Blog Challenge again.  This time, hopefully I will succeed!

Since I mentioned LML--> Blog Hop