Avocation

A merry belated Christmas to you all. I hope all my east coast friends are enjoying their snow day today. Alan had a four-day weekend for Christmas. At the moment, he’s in the other room playing guitar. We had a good Christmas here in Colorado. I bought Alan Call of Duty Black Ops, a Buddha statue, and a tin of peppermint bark (it’s been very hard to find out here). He got me Dance Dance Revolution (which I am terrible at. LOL!), the Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 Blu Ray, and The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. My parents sent us a set of fireplace tools and some Vermont maple syrup, which is crazy expensive out here. Alan’s mom gave me the new Shrek movie and sent Alan some candy from Williams-Sonoma and his grandparents in Florida sent us a box of cookies. I guess there’s something else on its way that should be here sometime this week, which is about when our presents will reach them.

Alan and I have been quite social this weekend. We went over to Charlee and Kelby’s house for dinner on Christmas Eve and they came over here for dinner last night. We also played Rock Band, which was a little hilarious. Then today we went to Barnes & Noble for a planner for me and a calendar for the kitchen and ended up getting them both for 50% off, which meant they were cheaper than the marked price on just the planner. So awesome.

Since we came home I’ve been painting. I’ve been painting quite a bit the last week or so and I’m pleased with the results. Especially since I had a lot of pencil drawings that needed painting. It also keeps me in the habit, which is important. Unfortunately, at the moment, Elfwood is down, so I can’t upload the one I finished today. So I’m posting it here! Yay!

So, this is Lyra Belacqua, called Lyra Silvertongue, and Will Parry, from Philip Pullman’s "His Dark Materials" trilogy. They’re both about 12 or 13, and this picture is a scene from "The Amber Spyglass." They are together in a parallel world inhabited by creatures called mulefa who are the caretakers of a particular kind of tree that produces seedpods like wheels that the mulefa use for transportation. Already in this world is the physicist Mary Malone, who comes from our own world, just like Will. If you haven’t read the books, they’re really wonderful, but this might be a bit of a spoiler. In this scene, they are searching for their daemons, who they had to leave on the shores of the World of the Dead. They sense that they are nearby and that they’re together, so they settle down in a small wood, hoping that the daemons will come to them. They are in the embrace of young love and Lyra has just fed Will a juicy red fruit. They have Fallen and the Dust that is a sign of consciousness and adulthood is beginning to swirl around them, attracted by their sudden awareness.

The Dust was done in Photoshop, but the rest is painted with watercolors.

~Liz