blog – Dawn Blanchfield

Posted on March 2, 2019 by Dawn Blanchfield — Leave a comment

Again with the words…

Well I finished my video game. There may have been tears – but you have no proof, so move along! There was a huge twist, a couple shocking and painful betrayals, and then an amazing ending that leaves you chomping at the bit for the next installment of the game! A quick google search assured me that it is in the works, although I didn’t watch the recently released trailer because there is only so much a girl can handle in one afternoon!

Of course I’ve since started the game over with a new character who will now make all the opposite big decisions to see what happens. It is strange how even the most off-handed comments from the companions takes on new meaning now…

But you didn’t come here for talk of video games -or did you? More geek less art? What about when worlds collide??

::sigh::

Fine. Art. ha!

I have a solo show in June at the Sacramento Poetry Center. Ta-da! ::hides paper bag I’ve been breathing into behind back::

I keep waking up with my brain running around in circles trying to decide on a show title. oh my god. my brain is so annoying! So I invited Bethanie (who’s fault this is, feel free to join me in shooting her dirty looks) over the other night to discuss details and what not. I had planned on showing all my recent drawing (and now the watercolors), but the Sac Poetry Center is a pretty big space and she suggested I hang some paintings too. I’m not sure that helped my head. So, now it’s not just the drawings but all the things! I woke up this morning thinking all the thoughts!! The madness continues. So, I’ve got some work to do. And most of it revolves around not stressing myself the fuck out for shits and giggles. Cause that’s kinda what I do. Crap! What if she wants an artist statement??!!

Practical to-do list: purchase a lot of mats and frames. Stain sides of newest paintings. Buy more paper bags.

June 8th will be the 2nd Saturday reception. I’ll get more details up soon, but mark your calendars and come out and see the work in person – always so much better than the photos on little screens. You can see me too. We’ll talk nerdy things and it won’t be awkward at all. ::thud::

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Dawn Blanchfield — Leave a comment

Changes

::insert some David Bowie here – play ridiculously loud::

So. It looks like color is slowly coming back to my creative mix. After what feels like a year of working in primarily black and white and avoiding paint brushes, here I am painting – with watercolors no less! Strange days indeed.

I am definitely in the midst of a shift. The video game I have been immersed in is about to end. A final battle to be won and then it is over. I could have finished it yesterday, but busied myself with old side quests instead. I don’t want it to end. The story has been so good and I was so in need of the escape, but that is at an end too.

If you know me, my love of playing video games is no surprise. And as with my art, I move in and out of playing as the mood strikes. But every now and then I go deep and play a lot. It’s usually when I have a bunch of things on my mind and I see it as a way to process. It is often accompanied by a creative dry period. Again processing. But playing a lot can also be an avoidance mechanism, a way to distract my brain from unpleasant things I don’t want to thing about. And that has been what this latest game has been – a beautiful distraction from the far too real reality of impending surgeries!

I started the game at the beginning of January knowing that my husband had a benign tumor on his jaw that would be removed Jan 25th and I had periodontal surgery scheduled for Feb 14th. That is a shit-ton of stressful worrying to deal with! So a fun and engaging game was perfectly timed. Chris’s surgery went well and he is doing great – only a little lingering numbness at the incision site. All good. And the beard he has grown is damn sexy.

Me? Well, I’m still kind of in the weeds. Sunday morning, the week before my scheduled mouth surgery, I broke a tooth. That obviously sucked, but there was no pain. Went to the dentist on Monday I got a temporary crown. Not fun, but still no pain. Wednesday I had a root canal. So. Not. Fun. Thursday, a week before my surgery, and I’m all OHMYGODTHEPAIN!!

But I got through that. I got through the surgery. And then this…

Right??!!

And today? The roof of my mouth is still tender, but I’ve stopped mainlining Motrin and am slowly healing. I go back to doctor in a couple weeks to see what’s next with the graft. There will be a Part 2 surgery in the summer to look forward to, but I’m not going to stress that just yet. Plenty of time to find another game.

In the meantime, I have an upcoming solo show in June to fret about! Oh yes, that is some big news to have just set aside, but I obviously had bigger fish to fry. (oh man, I would kill for some fish and chips right now – this soft food restriction is killing me!) However, the last couple mornings I have woken up thinking about it so I guess it’s time to start giving it some serious attention. Right after I kill this boss.

Posted on January 21, 2019 by Dawn Blanchfield — Leave a comment

New Year = New Website

Some people are all about spring cleaning, but I am a New Year cleaning kinda person. I take down the Christmas decorations and get all inspired by the uncluttered spaciousness of the house and I’m off! My studio always gets cleaned up for company in December because it is technically the formal living/dining space and we host Christmas dinner, so by the time January comes around, the studio is already in pretty good shape. But there is always room for some organizational improvement and the purging of hoarded “I might use this someday” art supplies! This year I tossed a bunch of old magazine and sorted through a pile of random packing materials and papers on a shelf of the workbench. Usually, that would be enough procrastinating and I could get back to making art, but noooo….

My arch-nemisis “Big Dumb Brain” decided that maybe Ink & Bone Alchemy should include a Society6 account in addition to the Esty shop. Oh and we should probably learn to use a new vector art program while we’re at it. And if it doesn’t seem like I hate myself enough, yesterday I decided to redesign my website!

oh. my. fucking. god. why??!!!

::deep breath::

::one more::

I’m fine. I only obsessed over it for a day and a half. What theme will best bend to my will? Galleries or pages? And I still am not sure how things should be organized! But I think I have the site looking and functioning close to what I wanted. I still have more new work to add (I’m going to have to warm up my scanner soon) and a shit-load of information to add to all the new galleries, but at least it is up and running again.

I was just informed today is Sunday, not Saturday like I thought. huh. I should probably shower.

I have also been buying/transplanting a bunch of plants. I obviously am not killing enough things in my new video game! #elfinikills #brownthumbforever #poorplantsneverdonenoonenoharm

One last Christmas procrastination to complete!

Posted on January 23, 2014January 23, 2014 by Dawn Blanchfield — Leave a comment

A blast from the past on several levels

I opened up WordPress this morning to make a small change to my sidebar and then I was going to be on my merry way. But look! A comment on my last post! I’ll make a quick reply. Done. Happy. Now let’s get outta here and – wait. What is that?!

There! At the bottom of my post. Under those silly (but intentional – as in I remember adding that plug-in to my site) “Post to” buttons. Where the hell did those “You might also like…” links come from?? Sure, I’ve seen them on other sites. Might have added them myself to design jobs. But I have never seen them on my site before?? Have they always been there? Was the plug-in added and then somehow in the last week activated without my knowledge??

Elves? Sleep-coding? You never know… there has been a lot of Nyquil consumed this past week.

But while I was trying to wrap my head around how this happened (my head hurts and I haven’t had my second cup of coffee so I could very well be hallucinating the whole thing!) – I clicked one of the links.

Floor and Water… Doh!

A post from January 31, 2008 about making my dad’s Beans and Dumplings. Not only were my heart-strings tugged, but my stomach started to growl. The Plug-in is staying. And I’m wondering if a couple of those ham-steaks will work…

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Dawn Blanchfield — Leave a comment

How do you solve a problem like Elfini

damn this blog.

At least the zombie genre is still popular, cause this blog just won’t stay dead. And that’s not really what I want anyways, but what to do? Add to my general apathy to write anything (insert Social Media killed the Blog argument here), there is the issue of the name “elfini”. It feels over for me. It was a past life that doesn’t resonate anymore. Yet to change it isn’t the answer either. So I made a new banner. And got rid of a sidebar. There. New year, new look. Still nothing to say. So it goes.

But, since we aren’t ready to give up just yet, I will make an effort to post here more often. Something. Even if it is only pictures of Erin for the Uber-in-laws. Hey! Speaking of the Ubers – they are having their 50th wedding anniversary this month! That’s pretty damn awesome. And my job is to scan 50 years worth of photos for a slideshow. I scanned 36 pics this morning and have many many envelopes still to go. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

Bob_Paula003 — damn. This is making *me* feel old.

Bob_Paula021 — Aww, a six day old Chris! They called him "Kit". ??? And there is the mighty boxer Brutus. I think he wants to eat Kit!!

Bob_Paula025 — Yes, I think Chris could use a new pair of red overalls with white polka-dots too!

Bob_Paula032 — Brutus is all "Can I eat *this* one?!"

Well, I think that’s enough for today. Time for dinner. I’m thinking … BRAAAIIINS!

Posted on May 29, 2012May 29, 2012 by Dawn Blanchfield — Leave a comment

Extreme Procrastinating

Hells bells. As I mentioned in this post from my website, I have a new job! Entry Level Self Promotion. yay me.

However, as you can see from my freshly vacuumed floors and the start of another zombie apocalypse blog post, I am in avoidance mode. It must be time to write Artist Statements and emails with newsletter invites. gah.

But first let me tell you about my weekend!

We went to Santa Cruz. It was cold and perfect. I didn’t do any of the work I had assigned myself, but painted and took pictures. Let me show them to you!

We drove by the beach.