Walking Satellite

Moving my blog

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:25:00 +0000

I am gradually moving my blog to Wordpress. Getting Christmas cards out right now and working on other stuff but I am using Lynda.com to learn Wordpress and should be done soon.

New blog: WalkingSatellite.com

Check out new Christmas cards plus one scandalous one at Cafepress.

Vibrant Women

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 01:47:00 +0000

The font is done! We are calling it "Vibrant Women". Thirty-one characters dancing, skiing, reading, having coffee with a friend, playing softball, tennis . . . When it is up and running I will link to Rae's site but meanwhile I have done a set of cards featuring four of the women with more to come. They are up on Cafepress -- greeting cards, a few posters, you can even get an iPad sleeve of this one! In the above card, I used Rae's typeface called "Best Regardz" for the text and her "Leaf Doodles" for the vegetation at the bottom. She has really cool fonts and every month there is a FREE FONT! Check out her site:

www.Outside-the-Line.com

Women, Fishing, Yoga

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:11:00 +0000

Almost finished with the Woman Font which still does not have a name. Any ideas? If you think of something good there may be free fonts in your future. Just reading an article about how artists look at the whole painting as they paint -- I had to do that with this drawing when it was done. When I looked at each part, it seemed out of proportion but when I look at the drawing as one piece, it works. You can imagine the other arm somehow. And if that sounds like I don't always know how I do what I do . . . yeah, I can't explain it.

My yoga class went well. I've taught other classes but this one seemed like the real deal. I think because it is an 8 week class, Yoga for Abs, and I made the whole thing up from scratch. It progresses. The students are cool. I did so much research, practice, thinking, thinking. I think the most important thing I learned was that a tense muscle cannot be strengthened. So forget about sucking it up. The main job of the abdominal muscles is to act as the Stabilizer and to strengthen them you have to use them in that capacity.

New Class Starting

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:40:00 +0000

Yoga for Abs. I'm teaching a class at Pratt School starting Wednesday, September 28. Come if you can!

Yoga for Abs

7:30 to 8:45 PM

Wednesdays, September 28 - November 16

$45

Pratt School

66 Malcolm SE

Minneapolis, MN

Just did this new T-shirt. You can find it on Cafepress.com

song practice

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:20:00 +0000

Tonight You Belong To Me. I get to sit in with a small group of musicians and singers. They tell me I have to SING LOUDER! I'm shy but I'm starting to know the songs and the voices to harmonize with and sometimes it will be a song that I actually do know and I will get loud. This is one of the songs we are practicing and one of the group showed us this clip he found. It's all the same guy. The broom dance is my favorite.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

DStress

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:49:00 +0000

http://i344.photobucket.com/albums/p347/heyemilyhey/807MarineCorpsEmblem.jpg

Callers will speak with veteran Marines, former FMF corpsmen with years of experience on 'the green side', and licensed behavioral health counselors who have taken Marine Corps-specific training to understand our culture. That's what it says on the website for DStress. It looks pretty cool, a service of the Marine Corps -- that seems like a good thing. I think it's also for "attached sailors". Don't know if there is something like this for the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Guard, 9/11 Firemen . . .

DStress
http://www.dstressline.com/index.cfm/about-us/

Thoughts on "Yoga for Vets".

see "Nest of Stillness" on Facebook
(on the left)

One Bad Painting a Day

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:00:00 +0000

That's what my friend Jane said to me a long time ago when I was stressing about lack of talent, lack of ambition, time, whatever pathetic excuse I could muster, "Do one bad drawing a day." It takes the stress off of it. Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good.

I met an artist here at a studio in the Northeast Arts District and fell in love with her paintings. Then got up the nerve to ask if she had classes or workshops because I had the rare feeling that I could learn something particularly valuable to me, if that makes sense. No workshops or classes but I could stop by and talk if I wanted. So I did, a few Saturdays later.

I didn't want to impose on her but she kept diving into dark corners and bringing things out to show me -- easels, brushes, sketchbooks, paintings, photographs. I was there for an hour. At some point I realized I was getting my first lesson. I got invited back.

One of the things she told me to do was start painting every day, just quick little sketches of things at hand. This is the first one, done in 45 minutes.

Font for Women

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:12:00 +0000

Business Woman

Running Woman

13 done, 17 more to go. Just realized how tired I am so that's all I really have to say . . .

Thank you

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 01:48:00 +0000

Seane Corn Teacher Training, Day 4. Intense, sweating and today there was also apprehension because we were all asked to teach a pose -- without knowing what that pose would be or when in the sequence. I didn't shine like I wanted to but I didn't suck either.

At one point, we were asked to think of the person who made us believe we could teach. That would be my sister Molly. It was a long time ago, before I thought of becoming a yoga teacher. We were talking about personality tests and she was positive that's what I should be. I dismissed it because I didn't think it was true. But obviously it stuck in my head and today it popped up again. So thank you Molly. And not just Molly but every one of my friends and family who said "I know you'll be a wonderful teacher." It means a lot to me!

FYI. I now have my 230-hour teacher certification, I'm registered with the Yoga Alliance and in September I will teach two classes at Pratt School in Minneapolis for Minneapolis Community Ed. That is, if enough people sign up!

P.S. Miss Nancy is what my mother used to call me -- it didn't come from Romper Room, which I vaguely remember . . .

Miss Nancy Drowns in her Own Sweat

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 02:29:00 +0000

It's not torture. It just feels like it sometimes. Holding a pose for a long time, really using your muscles and your mind to stay in it -- the end result is something like burning prairie grass to create new growth. Today I used my Mysore rug for the sweating, seemed to work better than the Gaiam towel which kept slipping.

Working the Shadow

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 01:11:00 +0000

So, the reason I'm taking this training. Yes, it's Vinyasa Flow and I love it and want to learn more about technique and sequencing and all that. Yes, it's Seane Corn speaking to teachers, training us. And, by the way, being in the room with other teachers is also a plus -- we are all learning from each other as well.

But the thing that pushed me toward her was her interview on NPR's "Speaking of Faith". We were asked to say why we were there. I said some of the above and then added that I liked the way she described faith, as something coming up from the street, a gritty, hard-scrabble kind of believing. "Yeah, you're a freak!" she said, with a big grin. "Welcome to the club." And gave me a thumbs up. That was kind of cool.

In the above video she talks about her teachers, the ones who have explored their own darkness, -- working the shadow -- and emerged with a deep faith.

"Like" Nest of Stillness. Click on my Facebook page to the left to see why I used to be the Yoga Teacher's Pet and why this was not a good thing.

Seane Corn, Vinyasa Flow

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 03:15:00 +0000

Vinyasa Flow Yoga with Seane Corn, a week-long, all day teacher training. I will post stuff every day. More tomorrow about why I chose to do this training.

I've been doing vinyasa flow forever, almost since the beginning of my yoga experience thirty years ago. Only it used to be called ashtanga and then Power Yoga. It's the practice of flowing from one pose to another, linking breath and movement. Last year I got to practice with and interview Bryan Kest, whose Power Yoga videos I used to practice to over and over and over.

Buckets of sweat. In the morning we did one hour and 45 minutes of vinyasa flow which included sun salutations, standing poses, forward folds, etc. all without stopping. I had no idea I could sweat that much and felt like a freak till I looked around and saw everyone was dripping wet. Tomorrow, my mat with towel. The good news is that it wasn't overwhelming, it felt very good, even wonderful. I think it helps that I do yoga every day.

Personality type. Seane has come up with her own psychological profile of people attracted to Vinyasa Flow Yoga. Type A, domineering, like to have their own way, want things to be perfect, driven . . . Interesting. I have to fight my own personality sometimes. I tell myself: "Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good." (Ted Kennedy) Doesn't always work.

La Femme Font

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:47:00 +0000

Working on another font. This one is all women, doing all sorts of things. We haven't thought of a name yet. There might be a contest, with a chance to win free fonts (from Outside the Line) if you can think of a good name for this font.

Rae says she likes them because they are simple yet tell a story. I like that because there is always a story in my head about each drawing. The woman at the top is Italian or maybe Ava Gardner. She is sexy and independent and she likes to buy flowers for herself and her home. I wanted a European feel, that's why the price is in Euros.

For this one, I looked at paintings of women reading. There are a lot of them over the centuries -- reading is an abiding pleasure. A lot of illustration that I do has a 40s feel to it. That is the decade where I feel most at home in fashion, style, furniture, movies . . . The woman is totally absorbed in her magazine, lazing in the sun but what I really had in my head was the lounge chair. It's definitely from the forties, with that solid oak, well made, folds up easily to be carried under the arm and back up to the house for cocktails.

Rest in Peace, sweet dog

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:51:00 +0000

Diego. Buddy.

Made in China

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:31:00 +0000

Got an email from a friend about things Made in China. It talked about a report done by Diane Sawyer. Everything not made in the USA was removed from a house leaving little or nothing behind and then replaced with stuff made in America for only $64 more. I've been trying to avoid Wal-Mart and buy US for a few years, mainly because I watched a crazy person named the Rev. Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping for a hour -- I couldn't stop watching it. They were traveling the US by bus and "protesting" outside Wal-Mart and other stores just before Christmas, shouting "Stop Shopping! Stop Shopping!"

This is the Reverend Billy. Yes, he's crazy but it's a good crazy. "Let's flip our own switch that says the Earth is a place that we love. We want to live here, exalt it, make it healthy . . ."

But. There are other places in the world that need our money, like Mexico. Artists need to make a living. Etsy.com is a very cool place to buy handmade goods. (I will have a shop up soon.) And there are quality goods made in China. Here is another opinion about that: "Made in China" wants respect.

Minneapolis Loves Bikes, Gays, Yoga and Hipsters

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:09:00 +0000

Unexpected unless you live here, like I do. My daughters especially noticed all the hipsters when they came for a visit. Didn't realize there is a "uniform" but apparently there is: fedoras, tight jeans and sweaters, scruffy little beard, ironic thinking. Bicycles have their own lane on almost every major street, people even bike here in the winter. Funny article to read.

Yoga Journal recently named Minneapolis one of ten "Yoga Friendly Cities" in their August 2011 issue. I finally got my certification and registered with the Yoga Alliance as a registered 230-hour yoga teacher! Taught three volunteer/free classes at Lake Harriet, sailboats rocking and clinking in the background. People came up to me afterward to say how much they liked it which was encouraging. The best thing was that after agonizing and terrorizing myself, practicing, practicing, practicing . . . I discovered that I love teaching. I got hired to teach yoga this fall for Minneapolis Community Education.

In April 2012 my lease is up. So from now until then I will concentrate on teaching yoga wherever I can and finish my novel, Get Lost, which may or may not be illustrated. Plus the occasional font, cards, T-shirts, etc. And then, who knows? I might stay here, I might not. That gypsy wagon is still in my mind, has never really left. I've been paring down without really noticing, not adding new stuff, "thinking about what I want to continue with and what I want to change."*

*That's from a piece in O magazine by Jane Fonda. She has always been an inspiration to me. I read her memoir, "My Life So Far" and gained even more respect for her. I love her movies and DVDs, her energy and love of life. She's had her share of screw-ups but so has anyone who really lives. You just salvage what you can and move on. It's called building character.

Gillian Welch, David Rawlings

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:11:00 +0000

Got invited to a concert at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul last night. I had only heard one song from Gillian Welch called "Leaving Train" on the "Horse Whisperer" movie soundtrack. I do love that song. My first impression when she walked onstage was of a scrawny girl kind of hunched over her guitar. But then she and singing partner/guitar player David Rawlings stepped back from the microphone for a swift, ethereal humming tune-up -- I think it gave everyone in the theater a thrill -- and then they launched into awesome, tight, energizing, beautiful music. (Review of concert) A sample above where you can see David Rawlings' virtuosity on the guitar -- he does all that with a pick, moving capos up and down all night. His hair is short now, looks better.

Leaving Train
by Welch/Rawlings

The finest silver needle
Shouldn't ever slide between
When lovers stand as parting friends
Gonna put myself on a leaving train
And I won't come back again.

I could wait 'til morning
If it don't come down today
A dime say I won't be satisfied
Gonna put myself on a leaving train
And I won't come back again

The words that go unspoken
On the color of the sun
And the coolin' air of the evening shade
And the breathless hours on the sleeping plane
And the last taillight on a leaving train
And I won't come back again
And I won't come back again.

Woof! is up and running

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Tue, 17 May 2011 11:30:00 +0000

Woof! is done. Here is a blog that Rae wrote about the font. This is what I say about it: Woof! is a font full of the best-loved dogs plus one mutt. Distinct lines convey the character and heart of each breed. That was the most fun for me, unearthing and creating that defining characteristic, whether it was a grin, the tail, a certain stance or quality of attention, attitude. The font comes with a name chart. If you would like to order it, go here. Enjoy!

The next font will be a silhouette font of women doing things: playing tennis, shopping, doing yoga, running, having coffee, running a meeting . . . I have an old photo of my mother aiming a rifle and I would like to put that in there. Here is a preliminary sketch:

Warning: graphic image

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Mon, 09 May 2011 15:07:00 +0000

This is an LBJ moment. Some of you won't know what I'm talking about. LBJ was famous for showing off a scar. Well, it feels like an ordeal, something overcome, gotten through. This was knee surgery -- arthroscopic surgery for a meniscal tear. They go in with a camera and lasers to cut off the dangling nerve ends, which are the cause of the pain. I had a wonderful surgeon, Christie Heikes, who told me all the options, talked me through it and then let me decide. She put her initials on the knee so everyone would know which knee was being operated on. Apparently this is a big problem -- the wrong limb undergoing surgery. I thought it looked like a signed piece of art. The kind of art that the NEA would fund and then get in trouble for.

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good. The surgery was Friday, now it's Monday and I'm walking around, putting weight on it. It's still swollen and stiff but it has that healing aura about it. I found out that where most people have a notch in the femur I have none. Apparently this is the reason for a lot of falling down I've done in my life. I thought I was just a klutz so this was a revelation for me.

Onward. Now I can turn my attention to the arthritis in my knees and in my neck. It's in other joints but those two places are bothersome. I'm going to work on diet and exercise, some pills -- just experiment and see what works. In the fall, I hope to teach a Yoga for Arthritis class.

Trigosamine®. A pharmacist recommended this product over some of the others. It has the combination I want to experiment with: Hyaluronate30 (an essential building block in synovial or joint fluid), Glucosamine15 (may or may not build cartilage), Chondroitin12 (promotes joint flexibility) and Vitamin D (overall bone health and I know I am low on this vitamin). Stay tuned.

Twin Towers

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Mon, 02 May 2011 15:31:00 +0000

This came to my mind this morning.

"When I see someplace beautiful to put my wire, I cannot resist."
-- Phillipe Petit

Oils

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:02:00 +0000

Two weekends ago, I tried painting in oils for the first time in a very long time. Last weekend I finished the painting. It's not actually finished -- there is a lot more I could do with it -- but it's a copy of a painting by Edgar Degas, Woman Ironing, and I want to try something on my own . . . to be continued!

So tempted

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:40:00 +0000

I sent out a 'call for help' message to friends the other day asking them to give me reasons NOT to get a dog, or a cat. I am barely taking care of my plants. But looking at dogs every day, getting inside them so to speak while I study their characters and mannerisms -- well it's almost been too much, too tempting.

I got a lot of answers, most of them alerting me to the responsibility and loss of freedom that comes with having a pet. Which I already knew, having had one. There is a lot of fun to be had as well. Just not for me, right now. This little guy was the hardest because I was captivated by the stories for each dog. This one is a mix of what I saw -- I had already decided it had to have one black eye and one white and one ear up, one down.

In the Woof! typeface, the mutt will be found under the question mark -- type "?" and get a Mutt. A brilliant idea, not mine -- thanks Molly!

PS If anyone has a favorite rescue place, charity, humane society etc. feel free to post it in the Comments section.

News Alert: Audrie J. Neenan

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:42:00 +0000

Sister Act opened last night, on Broadway! With my cousin in it! I'm so cool! No wait -- she's so cool! Can I be cool by association? Anyway, apparently the audience loved it but the critic (Christopher Isherwood, NYTimes) naturally had to be critical.

Who could resist the vision of a stage full of saintly sisters flaring their gams in unison like the Rockettes, or swiveling their hips, Supremes style, to the silken beat of an R and B tune? Presumably nobody in the audience at the Broadway Theater, where this latest stage adaptation of a hit movie opened on Wednesday night.

He went on to mention Audrie:
Deloris’s converts to the cause are played with genial comic finesse by Sarah Bolt as the jolly Sister Mary Patrick; Marla Mindelle as the sweetly mousy postulant Mary Robert; and the particularly funny Audrie Neenan as the puckered-up, sarcastic Sister Mary Lazarus.

Here is the rest of the article:
http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/theater/reviews/sister-act-comes-to-broadway-review.html?emc=eta1

This is a video of the sisters backstage as civilians, in which Audrie appears:
http://youtu.be/6bjC1HjPeGk

And this is just for a laugh. I discovered this a while ago on Youtube -- it's a scene from "Sudden Impact" a movie in which Audrie plays a lesbian, rapist gang member (I remember that the movie theater audience applauded when she died and I felt bad -- "She's not really like that!"). In this bar scene, Clint Eastwood kicks her in the ass. It's been dubbed in Spanish.
http://youtu.be/gScHZwdCBto

Going to the dogs

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 23:11:00 +0000

So far, so good. I have 23 dogs done and 7 more to go for our upcoming dog font, Woof! It's been hard work (2 to 3 hours per dog) but also lots of fun.

I thought I was a cat person. But when Rae sent me this delicate little figurine thinking it was a Dalmation I thought, "But it looks like a Great Dane, with spots." Because the legs are long and placed gracefully in front of him, the head is big, the ears small. Dalmations hardly stay still and if they do, they curl up. The strange thing is that I don't know how I know this. Apparently I have been observing dogs all along . . . (I did learn that Great Danes do have spots).

Most dogs took 2 or 3 hours except this one. It took two days to draw this Boston Terrier. For each dog I think about what makes them that particular breed. I want you to recognize in a glance, in a few strokes, which dog it is. The Golden Retriever is happy, happy, tongue out. The Chihuahua might start shaking at any moment. The Doberman is tough and proud. But this little guy has so much character and so many faces -- it was like trying to take a photograph of a fast-moving object.

The German Shepherd spends a lot of time sitting but not necessarily at rest. He's guarding, watching, always aware of what's going on around him. I was happy when I figured out how to draw the teeth and the tongue together. In order to make the font work, the drawings must consist of filled spaces. There are no lines even though it looks like there are -- it becomes a challenge to see how it can work, part of the fun.

Had to draw a Sheltie of course, since I had one of my own. A sweetheart named Diego who happened to be a purebred Shetland Sheepdog. For this one I used a photo that I had taken of Diego, in the snow. For the other dogs I start with the AKC characteristics of each dog, skimming that to get a basic and correct idea. Then I look at tons of photos -- one photo might have the perfect nose, another have beautiful markings and the next one a characteristic paw. All of these things are then expressed in a simple line.

This is the latest one, a Saint Bernard. A big, sweet, drooling former rescue dog. Hope you like them! Watch this blog for the finished font or check with Rae at Outside the Line type foundry. She just did a very cool Drop Cap font.

warm-up

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy Vala) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:35:00 +0000

It's been a long time since I painted with oils. I don't even remember the last time -- but the paints were still juicy, not dried out. I barely know what I'm doing but there's nothing like mixing up oil paints. Yes, it's more time-consuming and you can't clean up with water and you have to wait for things to dry etc. etc. But the colors and how they blend, it's heavenly.

There was a slice of a painting by Edgar Degas in my calendar book called Woman Ironing that caught my attention a month ago. It stayed in my head, for the colors (muted blues and browns) and for the serenity. You can almost feel the steam and the quiet. I would see the same tones of blue on a barn or a piece of cloth and feel a little tug of longing. This past weekend I started rearranging things in my kitchen and my easel ended up in what can only be described as a tempting spot. So on Sunday I got out my paints and started blocking out colors. A warm-up exercise . . .