Kathryn Downing

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

ARGHHH! - A Monstrous Art Exhbition

The Fitch Gallery in downtown Des Moines, will present “ARGHHH!” an exhibition of paintings by the Paintpushers group. The exhibition will open on October 18 and continue through October 31, 2008.

“ARGHHH!” will feature artistic interpretations of the idea of monsters. Inspiration for the work has come from sources as varied as B movies, mythology, childhood fears, criminals, crypto zoology and world domination.

Fitch Gallery is located at 15th & Walnut in downtown Des Moines. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9am until 4pm and Saturday, November 3, from noon until 4pm. An opening reception will be held Saturday, October 25, from 5 until 9pm. Costumes are encouraged. Admission is free. For further information about Fitch Gallery call 515-770-3810.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Homage to Sawyer

I spent all day yesterday disassembling and re-canvassing some old crappy paintings and boy are my hands sore. I decided I should finish this little painting that I’ve had in the works for a while.The Illustration Friday theme this week is “Sour” so I figured this was a good fit too. More photos can be seen on my Flickr page:

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

What to do when you’re stuck at home after surgery

Maybe I should title this “what not to do"… Everything went well with the surgery and the hospital stay was pretty uneventful. Let me just say how much I don’t like the clear liquid diet. It consists of broth, hot tea and sugar water in various different forms— fruit juice, Italian ice, jello, etc. Don’t get me wrong — I like a little sugar every now and then, but when that’s all you’re eating it’s overkill. Especially if you have dry mouth, you forgot to pack your toothbrush and you’re stuck using one of those wimpy hospital toothbrushes with bristles as hard as limp noodles.

I got my staples removed yesterday and according to my doctor, I’m not supposed to drive for two weeks. I’m not really sure why because I’m not in much pain at all. We took the bus downtown for the Art Festival on Sunday and I managed to walk around (although I was pretty sore by the time we left). The pain hasn’t been nearly as bad as I had expected (thank goodness!). I sat on the side and watched Tobias and Troy do Tae Kwon Do on Thursday and felt like a bit of a loser. Here I was sitting there, looking completely normal and everyone kept asking me why I was sitting out. I didn’t want to go into the details of my reproductive system or show off my incision or anything so I just said I had surgery. I was feeling a bit rebellious (and bored) so I drove to the Paintpushers meeting this evening. Don’t worry — I made sure I didn’t take any pills all day so it wouldn’t affect my driving.

Before surgery, we took a trip to the Apple store and I picked up a MacBook. The idea was that I could sit wherever (in bed) and still check my emails and stay connected with work while I’m recuperating. While I have been on iChat frequently, the main thing that’s been getting used is Sporktris (a free Tetris game). How lame is that? Maybe I should have just bought another DS. Just kidding. At least I’m using it to type this entry. Plus, now I don’t have to borrow Troy’s laptop when I’m doing a demo for someone. And if I start doing art shows again, I could always have it display a slideshow of my artwork. Who knows? Theoretically, I could use it to have customers pay through PayPal, but in reality who’s going to be comfortable typing their personal information into someone else’s computer? I wouldn’t be. Hmmm… what else could I use it for… A portable DVD/CD player? I’ll definitely have to come up with more ways to get my money’s worth out of it.

Another thing I’m doing to pass the time is reading some books. I just finished A Good and Happy Child. Next up, I think I’ll read Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story. Then either Then We Came to the End: a Novel or The Yiddish Policemen’s Union: A Novel. I have to admit, I’m a sucker for a well-designed/illustrated cover. That and an interesting description on the back of the book are about all I need.

Of course, there’s always TV to eat up the hours. It’s starting to amaze me how many crime and forensics shows are on during the day. I can’t stand watching the court shows like Judge Judy or Joe Brown because the people on them are so stupid, but I admit I enjoy watching American Justice and Cold Case Files. I’m also a Law and Order fan although that’s kind of a bust because they’re all re-runs. I did get sucked into watching a marathon of the First 48 yesterday. If you combine all those with shows like Dateline NBC and Primetime:Crime in the evenings it gets to be a bit much, so I even it out with Ace of Cakes and Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network. No wonder I’m not getting anything productive done!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Under the Knife

So life’s thrown me for another loop. I have surgery on Tuesday to remove an ovarian cyst. Unfortunately, it’s too large to do a minimally invasive surgery, so the procedure will be somewhat similar to a c-section. It may have been close to eleven years ago, but I remember exactly how painful that is so I’m definitely NOT looking forward to it.

Call me a nerd, but part of what bothers me the most is that all my hard work doing sit-ups, leg-lifts and cannonballs for Tae Kwon Do will be lost and I’ll have to build my abdominal muscles back up from scratch. I don’t think push-ups will work either. My surgeon said I can walk, but that’s it for exercise until my checkup 4–6 weeks after surgery. That means I also miss the next TKD test and I’ll have to repeat my current rank for another 10 weeks. Bummer. If I work hard, I should be back up to speed in no time and on my way to making black belt before I turn 33.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Adventures in Home Owning: Part 2

About a month ago, we decided it was time for our 10-year-old to start having more responsibilities around the house. Doing the dishes seemed like a good place to start. The first few days, I stood over his shoulder and nitpicked at him how to load the dishwasher, clean the sink, wipe the counters, etc. Then I figured he could handle it on his own. If he needed help, he’d ask me, right?

Last night, I walk into the kitchen to wash my hands and see ants crawling around on the sink. Growing up, we had ants around the dog food, but I don’t remember them crawling around on the kitchen counter. Of course, I look around and see why. Dirty dishes in the sink and on the counter. The stove top hasn’t been cleaned in a few weeks. There are empty pizza boxes on the counter. I don’t remember the last time the floor was scrubbed (I’m guessing at least a month since I’m the only one that does it). Tobias goes to bed. Troy takes the pizza boxes out to the trash and I spend the next 3-4 hours cleaning the kitchen alone while he plays Grand Theft Auto. In the immortal words of Charlie Brown… “Arrrgghhhh!”

I got some Terro over my lunch break and put it out, but I didn’t see any ants crawling around. Hopefully there isn’t a huge colony in the house. I’m praying they’re only there because the ground outside is too wet. Needless to say, we need to keep the house cleaner.