Maranda Russell's Blog, page 31

I love those cartoon characters who are grumpy and depressed…

Feeling grumpy today, so thought I’d share this old post from way back in 2013! This post is one that gets frequent traffic, even though the likes and comments on it are not high. Most of the traffic it gets are from Google searches. I would love it if you guys showed it a little love with a few more likes and comments if you relate!

Maranda Russell

Do you love cartoons? I absolutely do. However, I think when most people think of cartoons they think of funny, silly stuff. What I love are the depressed, angry, grumpy, slightly emo characters…

Those like Eeyore, who walk around like they are on the verge of suicide, but are just too lazy to actually do it.Wile E. Coyote who is so darn smart but seems to have really ticked off the powers that control nature and gravity. (I really wish I could see an episode where Wile catches that bird, roasts him and then tears him limb from limb with a fork and eats the stupid thing.)Lucy, who likes to snatch the football away at the last minute and laugh, or Charlie Brown, who falls for the same trick over and over and then wonders what the heck is wrong with him.Scar, who can look around and…

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Poetry – Pride and Prejudice Rewrite

[image error]Sometimes toxic mothers need to go…

We are all well.

Imagine our surprise,

when our poor mother

was sent off

with bad news,

and never came back

for the truth…

(“rewritten” using bits and pieces of prose from the novel itself)

Music Themed Art Contest – My Final Picks for Submission

I wrote a post the other day about my anxiety over entering an art contest I placed in last year, well, I went ahead and chose my three pieces to submit and thought I would show you guys the ones that made the cut. Here are the three I made that I submitted to the contest:

[image error]Oil pastel, 2.5″ x 3.5″, Synesthesia  (the contest theme is officially “music and synesthesia” this piece illustrates synesthesia, in this case, the ability to “see” color when you hear music notes).
[image error]Oil pastel, 9″ x 12″, Feel the Music
[image error]Acrylic/Gouache painting, 8″ x 8″, Sound Storm

I also made this fourth painting, but could only submit 3 pieces to the contest, so I ended up listing this one for sale on my Ebay store:

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Stressful Week – Sick Kitty & CFS Flare Up

[image error]Our poor, sick kitty Spyder.

This week has been stressful. First off, I have a sick kitty that has recently cost us over $700 in vet bills (for severe diarrhea) and even after spending all that money and giving him antibiotics and treating him for parasites just in case, he isn’t any better. The clean up hasn’t been any fun at all either.

I’m not sure if he is not any better because something else is wrong with him or because we had a hell of a time getting him to eat the food with his medicine in it. I don’t know how much of the medicine he even got down. He has a follow up with the vet this Friday, so we’ll see what they say. Maybe they’ll give us another way to give him the meds or run more tests to see what is going on. Either way, more $.

I have also been struggling with exhaustion, full body achiness, and general malaise since our trip on my birthday near the end of October. My CFS/ME is flaring big time. Chronic fatigue syndrome sucks and the name is misleading, because it is so much more than fatigue. It is more like the worst flu that keeps on going and going and coming back again and again.

Wish I had better things to report, but that’s the truth, and I always try to be honest with you all.

Art Show Anxiety – Past Wins, Future Failures? Am I Good Enough?

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Ok, so this past year I placed and won an award in a pretty prestigious art competition. One of those fancy ones where you have to pay hundreds of dollars to even go to the art show and sale, and the auction bids can get pretty crazy. It was for charity though, so I didn’t mind the high price stuff related to it. This was definitely the most “high-brow” art show I have been a part of.

Now they have announced that the first year’s show was such a success that they are doing the competition for 2020 too. I plan to enter and am excited about it, but also really nervous and filled with self doubt. I keep feeling like if I don’t place at all next year or at least place as high as I did this year that I will somehow be failing.

I tell myself this is ridiculous. There are so many talented artists out there and if I don’t place again it won’t mean that I am less talented, it will only mean that they preferred someone else’s take on the contest subject matter. Also, I want other artists to feel the happiness I felt when I found out I had been selected as a winner. I don’t want to be selfish.

I know deep down this is probably about my perfectionistic streak and low self-esteem. Part of me feels like it was just a lucky fluke to be recognized by the “elite” art world at all. I wish I could not put this unnecessary pressure on myself. I know it isn’t healthy or helpful. Any suggestions for how to let go of the fear of failure?

Poetry – Unicorn Toilet Dreams

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Outwit by sleep,

somewhere between dreaming

and awake –

I pick out a unicorn

drinking from a toilet

among the ribbons

of candid snapshots

winding around my head

like cinema still frames.

Wordless Wednesday – More Halloween ACEO Art

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(Check out my art for sale on my Ebay store!)

A Few Favorite Photos From My Birthday Trip

My husband and I had a great time on my birthday trip, although I am exhausted and extremely sore now! It will probably take at least a week for me to recuperate physically, but it was worth it! Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip:

[image error]Rainy days are still beautiful in Kentucky.
[image error]Just a girl walking along an autumn road…
[image error]A reminder that even while we are on vacation, social issues abound. House the Homeless.
[image error]Two aging sweethearts lol.
[image error]Watching the leaves fall into the river.
[image error]Dance as if no one is watching.
[image error]This speaks to my Irish soul.
[image error]Art and nature combine.

 

Weekend Birthday Trip – Spooky Fun, Here We Come!

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My birthday is the 27th of October, so my husband and I are going away for the weekend to Louisville, Kentucky (about 2 hours away or so) to find some spooky Halloween fun. I love to visit places that are supposedly haunted or paranormal, so we plan to go to a haunted sanatorium which used to be a tuberculosis hospital in the early 1900s, during the “White Plague”. Needless to say, there was a lot of tragedy there, which seems to breed hauntings.

We also plan to try to find a cursed “witch’s tree” and visit one of the local cemeteries to see KFC’s Colonel Sanders’ gravesite. I need to decide on something to leave at each site as a gift. It is recommended to leave ketchup packets at the Colonel’s grave, but I don’t really get that as I don’t think of ketchup at all when I think of KFC. I’m more likely to think of BBQ sauce, gravy, and honey for my biscuits. As for the witch, what do witches like? Especially nasty ones that will curse you if you don’t please them?

We also might do a little bit of antique shopping and visit a candy shoppe there if we have time. A lot of that depends on how well I hold up though. With Ehlers Danlos, CFS, Fibromyalgia, and chronic back and feet issues, I have to be careful to not overdo it too much. I know I will come back exhausted and sore and need to recuperate for a few days, but I don’t want to have to recuperate for weeks if I can help it!

Wordless Wednesday – My Cat (Spyder) Likes to Stick His Tongue Out at Me

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