Day 38: Big Fish in a Small Rectangle

Truth be told, I know that my entries have been sub par the last few days, but there wasn't anything worth mentioning.I did, however, start and finish a new painting. Also, this weekend I think I ran a total of fifteen miles, give or take a few. I probably wouldn't be moaning in pain right now had I not decided to go the extra mile and run up and down stairs for about 30 minutes, which is not as easy as it sounds. If you don't believe me, ask my aching hamstrings. Lately I've been watching videos of the Tarahumara, trying to analyze their running form. The Tarahumara are a group of Indians living in the Copper Canyon who are champion long distance runners. I read a book that spoke of them called, "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall, and have been borderline obsessed with them ever since. They wear sandals made out of used tires to run 100 mile races across the Rockies. Holy Mackerel. Since I read that book, I started running in my dirty, old, worn out red converse shoes, and found that I could run longer and with less discomfort than with my uberexpensive, high tech running shoes. Now, I prefer even running barefoot to running with the unneeded "arch support" that is prevalent in all athletic shoes. Like McDougall says in his book, if we needed extra arch support, evolution would have given it to us.
Still, while I would love to run barefoot, living in Santa Ana makes it a necessity that I wear shoes. Running barefoot in Santa Ana means contracting TB.

Now, time to unveil my new painting. Like always, I finish these usually around night, so by the time I take a pic, the colors are represented pretty poorly. For example, the grays on the scales are really a rainbow of pinks, blues, greens, lavenders, peaches, but in the photo, well, they are just gray.


I'm pretty happy with the painting although I wish that I had cropped in differently. I was hoping that it would have a different affect, but its just a little unsettling.

So, what to do tomorrow? I'll be working on Painting Number Ten. I've been thinking of ways to reward myself as I finish paintings, so I have an incentive, and have come up with a couple ideas for when I finish the first ten paintings.

1. Taking a whole day off painting, without going over to my canvas at all (this almost never happens) and instead spend the day going to yoga, running, watching movies and eating junk. (Shut up, it's called balance)
2. Buying a delicious wine at BevMo, sticking it into a backpack, and taking it to O'neill Park with Tom (?), a blanket, maybe some good cheese, and definitely and some good reading (but WITHOUT Bonsai).
3. Go to the Getty and spend all day there, wandering.
and last but not least,
4. Get my entire body waxed. I know what you are thinking. The whole thing??!! Yes, the whole thing. Okay, MOST of it...legs,arms, and of course, the Brazilian. It's not that I'm freakishly hairy, I've always wanted to do it, and why the heck not? I'll be thinking about it until the day I die if I don't I see what its like. Plus, I got a coupon in my email that claims I can get it done for 40 dollars. To me, that's a bargain for a lifetime of curiosity assuaged. Yes, I am terrified of the certain humiliation that this venture will involve, but I read customer reviews of the grandmotherly Indian lady who will be doing it, and apparently she greets her customers with lines like, "Who's here for pain?", which I think is amazing.