Happy Michaelmas!

Coffee--real, high-octane Trader Joe's organic French roast with pumpkin spice creamer and half 'n half--in the Los Angeles skyline mug, "Lay Me Down" by Crosby and Nash on iTunes--it has been running through me head for the past hour, might as well be coming into my ears too. The loan application is IN. I faxed all 102 pages of it in yesterday--and wasn't THAT fun! You know how sometimes the pages stick together going through the rollers? Well I caught all but one of the times it happened. Somewhere in part two of four there was a double up. I figure they'll call me and me to refax it when they get around to reading it. In my naivete I called the Chase business loan center to tell them about the problem to see if someone could look at the fax machine and tell me which page was missing. Of COURSE faxing doesn't work like that at a bank! All the faxes in the country come into one 800 line and are scanned as they come in. Then the scanned set is routed to the appropriate department. I put the same cover page on all four of my sections (including the fourth one that I had to send three times before it would all go through) so I hope they'll be able to put it all together. I haven't heard anything from them in any case. Let's hope this wasn't a big Waste Of Time.

Today J's school celebrates Michaelmas as the festival of strong will in timing with the fall equinox (which was Tuesday, in case you missed it ;-). The morning was complicated a bit by my strong-willed child because she had to dress in "warm colored clothing"( to symbolize flame as she is being chased... by the dragon (in the form of the 8th graders)? I need to get the rest of the story today) and she did NOT like any of her clothing choices. "Snow" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers on iTunes now. It's a good morning mix.

I might have burned out the pump yesterday emptying the basement/crawlspace at the studio yesterday. I hope it just shut off because it was overheated. It looks like there's still about 4-5 inches of water down there that I need to get up before I can get the furnace repaired (please, please, please not replaced!). When I looked in yesterday I could see that one of the big ducts had pulled away from the furnace and it probably filled with muddy water. I'll call Ray--our heating and air guy extraordinaire (that's the only kind we have)--to see what he thinks over the phone and then see if I can coax him down to take a look at it. He doesn't really work in this area except as a favor to us so I am going to have to sound really pitiful. Come to think of it, sounding pitiful is not going to be a problem at all right now--this cold is beating the crap out of me. Today I sound like one of Baxter's squeaky toys when I try to talk.

This morning I get a kiln-load in, work on Dave's birthday present--which got pushed to a far back burner by the paperwork and flooding issues--and give a call to a web expert to get an opinion on how to structure my website to be both attractive and appropriate for my gallery customers and to serve the new Resource Center clients with class, materials, and technical info. Think about it--websites are powerful communication tools and they may set, if not the first then potentially one of the most important impressions someone has of you and your work. If you are a production artist, as I am, you want to project a professional image so that gallery owners can pull up your website to show prospective clients our work and information about you. They don't want to have to go in through a a retail/supplies website and raise the question in the client's mind "Is this person an artist or a shopkeeper?".

Many people deal with the split identity issue by having two different websites, but I am resisting that solution. I have been Siyeh Studio for over 20 years, I don't want to have to be somebody else as I add this new Resource-Center/teaching aspect to my work. My studio name is also tied to my book through me, and I want to use the book to provide credibility to the Resource Center and my classes. So on the phone I go. Then I have just under a month to get it laid out and implemented. ROFLOL! Oh I am funny this Friday morning!