Laborless Weekend
“Waiting” by sergeyloie
Time to revel in the celebration of relaxing from the fruits of labor. Now time to go squander all that hard earned money on some frivolous bit of tourism driven enterprise.
Ohs Noes!
Gilding is at a bit of a conundrum. If you’ll scroll down the page you’ll notice that most of Gilding’s lovely images have been replaced by Photobucket’s ugly “Exceeds Bandwidth” sticker. On the one hand that ugly intrusion means that you readers have made Gilding the Lily rather popular. Popular enough at least to, well, exceed the bandwidth. On the other hand, that means that if Gilding doesn’t want this to happen every month that she’ll have to start forking out money to pay for an increase in bandwidth with Photobucket. That means forking out money for a blog that doesn’t make money. But without the images, Gilding the Lily isn’t so popular. Popular, but not that popular. That could be interpreted as either without the images the blog isn’t as I catching in the great wide web. Or, that no one really wants to read Gilding’s rants–but the pictures are pretty! Its ok, Gilding knows the truth of the matter. No need to lie to sooth her ego. You can do that with monetary donations and all will be forgiven.
Anyhoo, just be a little patient. Remember, Gilding is a college student. Which means she’s fucking poor. The pictures will be back up at the end of the month when her bandwidth limit resets. We’ll have to see just how long it takes to run up the bandwidth at that point. In the meantime, Gilding will be thinking about what she wants to do–spend money and starve for her art of ranting on the interweb. Or deal with this rude intrusion in her creative process by Photobucket.
Love me, hold me, keep my blog warm in the cold, cold bareness of no images.
A Monstrously Gilded Beetle
Gilding has been in a bit of a nostaligic mood, having recently gone through some stored away photoboxes of her grandmother’s filled to the brim with photos, lost away in her mother’s storage room. Sadly, Gilding’s mother had to throw away hundreds of her grandmother’s pictures after they were water damaged in one of Florida’s regular summer storms (don’t ask; the reason behind how they got to that predicament still has Gilding a bit pissed). So Gilding rescued the photoboxes and made a weekend of scanning the photos into a digital format. But that was just the beginning. Gilding went scan happy again last night, this time going through her own — well stored — photoboxes; intrigued, delighted, and sometimes surprised to find out what photos she had tucked away.
And then she came across this picture:
It is a picture of Gilding’s Grandmother washing her powder blue Volkswagen Beetle. Having bought it in 1970 or so, Gilding’s grandmother kept this car till around 1985 or so when she bought her first ever luxury car — the one she promised herself she would get if she ever had enough money…it was a Thunderbird. Laugh now — and probably later — but Gilding’s grandmother had an infatuation with the Thunderbird since its first construction when she was a mere teenager. The Beetle was gone but not forgotten.
Truthfully, the photo probably interests no one but Gilding, but this will, and Gilding found it interesting that this happened to be the first thing she stumbled upon this afternoon after having just found this picture. This afternoon Gilding stumbled upon this:
The “Monstrous Car” by artist Rich Page. Not much to tell on this except that he didn’t have a sketchpad that night so he decided to custom outfit this ride instead. [Rich Page on [U me]
Troll Fee
This summer has been the Gilding Duo’s foray into ceramics that has kept the pair so busy for the past couple of weeks.
For those who don’t know, Gilding’s husband was in a car accident some 10 years ago that left him paralyzed from the neck down — the technical term is quadriplegic. Mr. Gilding also happens to be an artist, which leads us to a very experimental venture into most things art.
As an art major, it has been a test of wills and boudaries in the world of traditional art education; many of the required courses for art majors are 3-Dimensional art forms and require the use of hands that are fully functional — and often lacking in even the best of times. As ironic as it sounds — in a major that’s supposed to be all about pushing and reinventing and even tearing down the boundaries — art institutions are simply baffled and often disgusted by the notion of giving someone a degree for which the traditions of many of their art institutions were substituted with some other form. So we devised a way of life that both confounds but thus far has earned us the respect of these institutions — Mr. Gilding creates the design of his imaginings, and from the outside looking in, acts as another pair of eyes with a separate line of perspective as Gilding acts as his hands. Because of this the pieces created are a unique collaboration, his being fully the driving idea, while Gilding’s being a subconscious result of her mind directing her hands. The end result is a blending of both our styles that thus far has resulted in TOTAL AWESOMENESS!
The assignment was to create a trophy, though the stipulation was that the trophy had be of an original idea — no remakes of “#1 Dad” of “Mom of the Year” and other such generic awards. It had to be in celebration of something, whether it be good or bad or otherwise, and the it had to be discernable what quality the trophy was awarding. Mr. Gilding struck upon the idea of a play on words, hence a trophy became a “Troll Fee” and we hashed out the meaning behind the award would be a celebration of capitalism — a social commentary on the visibly corrupt system that capitalism has become yet that it is revered and celebrated as an individual freedom when its has such qualities of greed and gluttony that for all other intents and purposes is seen as sinful but regarded highly in industry.
There is much symbolism in the piece itself, the overall form is meant to connotate something large and hulking over a structure that barely contains its weight and at the same time holds the wealth of the people, which they will never see once its cashed in. Though the figure is obviously a troll, his polished veneer and coiffured hair denote a semblance of civility, though only one that is outwardly worn. The suit, which also features tails, denotes an authority that is recognized even if you know what lies beneath is actually a beast not to be trusted. The teeth are gleaming and while visually they are meant to be a bright spot on an otherwise dark structure, they are a show of the wealthy being able to afford healthcare, while most others cannot. The structure itself is strong though there are creeping, vine-like lines that appear to be burned on and crackling while its color is rusty, denoting decay and degredation. And the coins, though a gold color, are dirty in appearance underneath their bright veneer. Finally, the scroll contains the word “Fee”, its length symbolizing the large list of collections to be paid, while its overall form of a scroll conotates an age old industry that dates back a century or more, yet its crisp white shows an inability to ever die — a pretification if you will.
Not bad for our first time working with ceramics, eh?
Happy Mother’s Day
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Image thought to be from Sunil Kathare.
Gilding found this image in a Google search, the link taking her to someone’s photobucket collection. Presumably the original image came from Sunil Kathare, at least that’s what it looks like after tracking back the image’s URL. In any case, the person storing this image had appropriately titled it “Mother’s Day Drawing to Ape”, which is the first thing Gilding thought when she saw it. Stop sneering. Aping isn’t bad if you admit you did so and credit the source. It was just such a cute image that Gilding couldn’t help but want to paint her mother something similar for Mother’s Day.
As is Gilding’s penchant to do for gift giving, every gift giving event is done so in a theme — the presents, the wrapping, the card, all of it subject to this chosen theme. This year for Mother’s Day Gilding wanted to really get back to the roots of what Mother’s Day meant to her and Mommy Dearest (meant nicely, not all “No Wire Hangers” scary) when she was a child — and that was that Mother’s Day was about the innocent, unconditional love of daughter to mother. You know, that thing you felt when you were young that inspired you to draw umpteen pictures in every crayon color no matter how eye screechingly bad it was to give to your mother to hang every friggin where. Yeah, those days. Gilding wanted to recapture that this year after feeling a morbid sense of disconnect to pretty much everything in life. This, what was originally a Mother’s Day E-card supposedly, was the perfect inspiration Gilding needed and so she ran with it. Isn’t it cute.
Book Art
So Gilding has been storing a cache of all these wonderful things that people did with their old and unwanted books. Gilding herself has a multitude of ARC books that she was just waiting for the perfect project to prevent itself.
So the first two images are those of the creations that Gilding found inspiring. The first one is a picture holder made by Sweet Paul. The second was made by Freshly Found. The final image is a montage of the ones Gilding made. Though the composition isn’t very aesthetic, much more a point and shoot deal, the purpose was just to get them out there. More to come later.
Vegas Bound
So, the Gilded Duo are Vegas bound this Christmas. T-minus 253 days and counting.
Saucy
Gilding is feeling saucy about her dwelling. So, she decided to share a few of her newest acquisitions in the road to filling her new apartment. Remember, in the way of everything dwelling, she has nothing. A thing of which she and Mr. Gilding are slowly remedying.
So here are the newest prized pieces:
Composition Mission
Sometime last year, Gilding began keeping composition books with which she filled with schematics and composition ideas for her photography, random quotes and sayings she found along the way that she wanted to have some way of always remembering, and the plethura of random shit she discovered along the way that she wanted to read, write, and/or blog about. During her move into her new apartment, in a see of packed boxes, she lost the composition book that had collaborated with her during FanPhin, it traveled with her during spring break to the Harn museum and explored the beguiling Dali museum. It researched little known fairytales and favored the ones written by Dutch authors with her. It met artists and found artists. It remembered shutter speeds and websites; people, places, and things; and even font styles. The dear old composition book was hidden from site, lost to the light of day, but not forgotten.
Gilding continued onto a new composition book. Consoling herself that it would have been time to anyways since its predecessor had been filled but for three spare pages. But there were things written in the former that Gilding had wanted to write about that the latter just couldn’t provide her. So while the new one’s pages have slowly been filled with the continued randomness of its owner, Gilding had never stopped secretly seeking the original. And then she found it. Of all places, tucked away in a box in the bathroom.
Gilding has spent the morning perusing her old friend, stunned by just how much there is in there still left to write about. Suppose now is as good a time as any to catch up.
Narcissism Abounding
Holiday vitrine, Paris. From Paris Parfait. Photo by Tara Bradford
Gilding, for the most part, abhors the umpteen spam applications and “do this” requests that she gets from friends and family on facebook. But, like most things you do for those in your life, she simply ignores them and lets the friends and family remain blissfully ignorant (or willfully stubborn that they will convert her). But every once in a while one such chain mail request comes along that is mildly amusing and will receive an iota of Gilding’s time. No, this is not a final chink in Gilding’s fortress walls, dear friends and family, to give you hope that you are finally breaking through with incessant attempts to make Gilding social. Nope, mostly its boredom and that one moment of curiousity inspired by you meant yet another way for Gilding to excerise her narcissim. Take this chain “do me” request she received from dear old Berkey some time back.
The object of this was to type in your name along with ‘needs’ in quotation marks in your favorite search engine and see what were the first ten “needs” that popped up. See, a narcissistic moment. So, in a rare moment, Gilding will be using her real name. These were her needs:
[1] Tamara’s needs for structure.
[2] Tamara needs a forever family that will encourage her talents and recognize her need to be the center of attention.
[3] Tamara needs your help.
[4] Tamara Needs Our Prayers Again!
[5] Tamara needs a favor
[6] Tamara needs, you can tuck the combination much more a great deal. (this was in reference to a tummy tuck)
[7] Tamara needs a cell phone for work. – Trust me…that’s the LAST thing I need at work.
[8] What Tamara needs now. A few authors or publishers who realize that their book needs to look like it came from a BIG publisher. …
[9] Tamara needs your help with makeup as she will go to the cinema and don’t know what style to use.
[10] Tamara needs to make another CD because I’ve practically worn this one out! …
Hahahahaa…funny…all of them…and sooo true…ok, all but #9. That would so not happen….ever. If ever, she would certainly not admit that she was seeking help. That’s between her and her fashion magazine of choice.
A Rare but Gilded Moment
So Gilding is having a girly moment. It’s Hamtardo’s first pic. The little fucker managed to get out of her plastic hamster ball so she got a flashbulb in her eye. Enjoy .^_^.
Gilding the Newly Pad
Wondering where Gilding has been of late? NO!? Well, pretend dammit! Gilding has been moving! Yep, moving into her very own, lovely, two bedroom apartment. And no worries, she brought Mr. Gilding along too. What can she say, she loves the brooding, girl crazed husband of hers. He’s entertaining. And who says bitching gets you nothing. According to family and friends Gilding is now radiating so no need to worry for her — just worry about the rest of the populace to which she has been unleashed on.
The place isn’t truly a handicap accessible apartment but it is large enough that Mr. Gilding is able to move about freely in and function independently for the most part so that made them a winner in Gilding’s book.
So busy as a bee as Gilding has been she shall try to be more regular with her postings once again. Perhaps she will begin a new habit of posting while cooking — er, that sounds dangerous especially when Gilding is concerened. Perhaps, blogging while washing dishes — em, scratch that. Gilding is frightfully messy when washing dishes; water goes everywhere. How about blogging while unpacking — though that sounds terribly unproductive. Nope, looks like you’ll get blogging while Gilding is on the pot — the good old fashion way. Gives literal to this being her shittiest idea ever, eh.
Gilding the Ill Lily
Gilding has found herself so ill of her life of lately. Seems so selfish in a world of chaos, yet she can’t stop the postulations that the world is always in chaos, therefore, to reflect on one’s own life and lack of wants and overabundance of personally perscribed ills is a forgivable selfishness. Perhaps it is not in finding the woes in one’s own life that is the sin, but allowing those woes to influence selfish denial in the face of others woes. Gilding is not at the point — at least she doesn’t think she is, and none have pervailed of screaming to the heavens and all who would listen that she is a bitch among bitches, which in and of itself is an indication to Gilding’s feelings of ill in her life. What is life is Gilding isn’t being bitchy? Down-right fucking blah. Just blah — no true emotions of one way or the other.
Perhaps it is the downward spiral of recession that brings Gilding these feelings of grey. Certainly it this recession that meets Gilding with poor odds of obtaining a Small Business Loan. It is this recession that keeps Gilding’s pay rate at such a minimal (to puny proportions) as budget cuts and lack of funding for Florida’s education system prevents any possibility of a raise in the near future. A much needed raise, by the way, for Gilding to qualify for even the most meager of loans. Which is also preventing Gilding from moving out of the temporary abode that she and Mr. Gilding moved into while waiting for moving plans to finalize in Gainseville, where they were to attend the University of Florida. Though any who read this blog knows that that did not happen because budget cuts have restricted Universities across the state from accepting transfer students. And don’t even get Gilding started on how inadequate “handicap accessible” requirements for apartments falls far short from being wheelchair accessible, making living in an apartment for Mr. Gilding nearly impossible. Yet the temporary home we live in isn’t accessible at all either. Its only perk is that it comes free of rent and bills allowing the Gilded Duo to save money for their future endeavors of someday finding a place to move to. And God bless the generosity of family, but living with them doesn’t make liking them any easier.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, but certainly not the worst of it. For it is not the above mentioned that really has Gilding feeling grey. Sure, they play a part, but merely they are the symptoms of consequence that are otherwise endurable. Afterall, recession doesn’t equal depression — well, of the economic proportions…just yet.
No, the greyest of Gilding’s woes is the lacking. The lacking of real desire to craft or create art. Not that ideas have been lacking — oh, far from it. Ideas have been abounding. Gilding just hasn’t had the desire to move forth, to produce, to revel in the glue and grime and paint and messiness of art and craft. Nor has she had the desire to write — not her novels and not this blog.
And as for the blog — usually a font of randomness of all sorts — has suffered from nothing-is-interesting-enough-to-write-about-itis. Seriously, how in a world of such choas, of such idea producing times, does everything seem so trite, contrived, and quite frankly aready thought of. Like regurgitating the same old shit. It is said that nothing is an original idea anymore, but at the least fresh eyes were capable of seeing it in new ways. Gilding hasn’t felt that way about anything she has read or seen of lately. So why write about it? If its not interesting enough to excite reading about it why the fuck would she want to right about it.
Its a sign of sad times when Gilding finds playing Neopets more exciting and interesting than spreading her rantings of a mad woman over the interweb. Oh, by the way, Gilding’s Neopet is a Xweetock. She’s totally, pathetically cute.
Is It Sunny Outside?
Gilding is tucked away in her hovel planning her next big scheme. So miss her dearly and come back often and she’ll have some off the wall tidbit for you to peruse and question WTF? soon enough.
