Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Interview with an Artist - Heartopia Exhibit

I was able to get a rare interview with the critically acclaimed up-and-coming young artist, Tania Aiston. Tania has recently revealed her "Heartopia" exhibit exclusively at her home, and is kind enough to share it with you here.

Here is a photo of the young artist at her work station.


CA: How did you develop the concept of "Heartopia"?

TA: I drew a picture of a girl with heart-shaped pants, and then I had the idea of a heart-shaped world.

CA: Do you like hearts a lot?

TA: I like them a little bit, but I like stars more.

CA: Let's discuss the drawings. Can you tell me about this one?


TA: The three sisters, Hearty, Lane, and Seara went to a photo shoot and got their picture taken.

CA: How about this one?


TA: The children are protesting outside Sunday School, so the cops are there to keep the peace.
CA: Why are they protesting?

TA: Well, the teachers gave the kids free toys so that they would tell their parents they wanted to come to Sunday school, and so the kids went home and begged their parents to go to Sunday school and they begged so much they had to say yes. But when the kids went to Sunday school, there were no toys.

CA: Tell me about this drawing. Sorry the photo didn't come out very well.


TA: That is the first picture I drew with a red writing pen. I drew all her clothes heart-shaped.

CA: So your world has a queen. Is she nice? Tell me about her.


TA: She has one kid and a husband who hates pink, but hearts can only be red and pink. He loves blue and green, so he has a big problem. The queen lets people in her castle and the princes goes to school with Hearty, my main character. The queen is nice.

CA: This is a picture of The Coeur School. Coeur is French for heart. Are you interested in France?


TA: They learn the French language in Heartopia.

CA: This one is inside Hearty's house. Tell me about her house.


TA: She has two sisters and will be having a little brother. Hearty's father is a police officer and Hearty's mother is a stay-at-home mom. Her sister is Ceara, and she likes books so she found a job that paid her $7 and hour at a bookstore. Her other sister, Lane, is ten years old and goes to Coeur school just like her and is one of Hearty's best friends. The house is seven years old. When Hearty was born, they first moved inside of it. When Hearty's oldest sister was 12, she had friends over for her birthday party. When Ceara went to the bathroom, she found a surprise in the toilet - a frog!

CA: This is part of Hearty's house too? Is her room upstairs?


TA: Her house has three floors, and she and her sister, Lane, share a bedroom on the top floor. She has a play room and a bathroom.

CA: This is the grocery store. Is it different from grocery stores that we go to?


TA: It is not different at all. They have food samples and they give out prizes every year for who is the hundredth person to walk through the door. They have all organic healthy food.

CA: What is this picture of?


TA: That's the mall. It has a two-shoe train. The ship looks like a shoe. It can only hold two people and it moves on fake water. Hearty and her best friend, Ally, went to the mall and they rode on the two-shoe train. They thought it was very fun.

CA: Cool! They have a newspaper! Do you want to say anything about the newspaper?


TA: The newspaper is called The Heartogonian. It gives the latest news because in Heartopia, they only have one TV. It is at the mall in the TV room, and people come in and turn on movies that kids might like, and there's another TV that has grown-up shows on. It's just like the movies.

CA: All of Hearty's outfits. Are you into fashion?


TA: Yes, actually, I am. When I grow up, I want to be a fashion designer, and so, in some of the latest pictures, you'll see Hearty wearing some of these things.

CA: Tell me about this one.


TA: Hearty is in a ballet recital. She is one of the main characters. She is Princess Sarona and her two friends, Ally and Emily, are standing right next to her. Her other friend, Timothy, is watching them in the audience.

CA: Is this the playground?


TA: This is the playground, but Hearty's sister, Lane, is having her birthday there.

CA: Is this a restaurant?


TA: Yes. Hearty's sister, Lane, went to a restaurant with her friend and said that Hearty could come along too.

CA: Is this the disco?


TA: No.

CA: Why is there a disco ball?

TA: Because they just went to a dancing place, not the disco.

CA: What is this?


TA: This is at Hearty's birthday party. It was a pool party.

CA: Just like yours. Ooh! This one is cool! I like the dark sky. Is it night time?


TA: Yes, it is night time, around Christmas, because Hearty's birthday was that day and they put Christmas lights up. She helped her dad.

CA: This is the last one in the collection. Can you tell us about it?


TA: This is Hearty's friend Ally's house. Ally has a little brother named Zack. Zack is three years old. Ally is seven years old. Ally lives with her mother and her brother cause her dad died.

CA: She looks like she has a really cool backyard.

TA: She has a swing set and a merry-go-round and a little table to play on. Ally's family is rich.

CA: I really enjoyed hearing about your world, Heartopia. You drawings are very cool and pretty. I hope that next time you have an exhibit, we can discuss it and display the drawings here. Do you work with any other media?

TA: I use paint, clay, pastels, crayons, colored pencils, and anything else I find.

CA: Thank you for your time.

TA: Thank you for letting me explain my work.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Our somewhat boring lives

I like to update every few days with pictures and such, but I feel like our lives are such a snoozer. Boooooringgggg. Let's see, we went to the park...


We went to soccer...


Tania loooooves soccer, by the way, and she has a mean kick.

Oh, Tania got a ton of new books recently, and at night she sits under a desk in our room, next to a nightlight, and reads and reads and reads. Today, Tania is out with her grandparents, who are in town. Shopping. Oh yes.

Here's what Tania and Lu do while I cook dinner...


And Lu has a new favorite toy...


Norton Anti-Virus, the gift that keeps on giving.

Anyway, things will get more exciting soon. I have a lot of plans.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Just Lu and me


Tania spent the night in Vancouver with my parents, and Joey had work late and school early, so it was just Lu and me. We played. We did some holding. We had some boobies. We ate some ziti.

Check out this awesome set of blocks my mom brought for Lu. It's crocheted, and it used to be Tania's when she was a tiny tiger.


Lu liked them okay.


I think she likes her fashion book better.


But her favorite toy was a paper cup from Tania's party.


Anyway, we had fun, but missed Tania. She came back today, and my 'rents went down to the vineyard. We might see them in a couple of weeks, but who can really know what Pam and Mike will be up to? They could go fishing, or to wine events...they can't be tied down.

Also, today is Tania's real birthday, so I had to take a photo of her. My little 8-year-old, all grown up. Sniffle.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Birthday Party!

Yesterday was Tania's birthday party. We had a lot of fun. We ate and had cake, then swam in this really cool pool. The room is heated, and the water is too. There's a huge slide. Here are some photos.

Everyone eating:


Lu sucking on a red bell pepper slice:


The fam:


Tutu, Talula, and Tania:


Blowing out candles:


Cupcake:


Girls on the playground after swimming:


Tania, seeing how high she can reach:


Lu's first time on the swing:


Afterward, we went out for pizza. Guess which vehicle we'd been driving around all day?


Tania had a really fun day, and is now off to help Tutu and Granddad bottle some wine in Vancouver, WA. I have to clean.

Friday, February 16, 2007

V-day, ice skating, and all that jazz

Tania's an ice skating graduate.


Which means that she can skate without touching the wall, although, not terribly far away from it.


Mama's not sayin' anything, though. Like, "Stop hugging the wall!" or "Use your arms to balance!" or "Falling down isn't gonna kill you!" Nope. Mama's not sayin' a thing.

Except, "Smile!"


So, we don't really dooooo Valentine's Day around these parts. Commercialism, consumerism, blah, blah, blah. But we had sort of a nice, weird bonding day anyway. I helped Joey with a project he had due that evening for Interior Design. It was really fun working together, and when he gets frantic, I get really calm. We sort of balance each other out. It made me think about how important collaboration can be. I have always thought that I worked better on my own, and in some cases I do, but something really special can happen when the right people come together for the right project.

Today, the 'rents are coming in from Hawaii. This means we will no longer have monster truck. I think we'd better start looking for a car of our own. Monster truck is a pain in the ass anyway. She's a bitch to park, and she requires too much gas. Strangers hate monster truck and its driver. Strangers on bicycles especially hate monster truck. I've never seen so many middle fingers.

We are getting ready for Tania's birthday party. It's tomorrow. I'm making a vegan chocolate cake, and a whole array of little sandwiches, vegan and fishian (tuna). I'm excited to swim tomorrow. Yeehaw.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Playtime with Lu

We haven't really been up to much, and when we go places, I've been forgetting the stupid camera. We've been prepping for Tania's birthday. We went to the Dollar Tree yesterday, and I bought 51 things. Party things, arts & crafts supplies, organizational items...I could not be stopped. We went to play at Mt. Scott Park yesterday. It's really pretty there. Me likes. Today we went to the Kennedy School, which is a former school bought and refurbished by the McMeniman brothers and turned into a hotel/movie theater/restaurant. We had a playdate there. It was fun.

Here are some photos.

The Beatles? Oh, I just looooove the Beatles!


This thing is delicious!


Along came a spider, and sat down beside her.


Best Sister Forever!


Baby mania. Lu is thinking about maybe crawling sometime soon.


That's all for now. Tryin' to stick to a schedule here!

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Been Reminiscing...sniffle


Tania will be 8 years old in a few days, and Talula is almost 8 months old. They had a little picnic today. They're getting so old. Wahhhh!!! So I busted out some pictures from a year ago to see how far they've come and how much they've changed.

I guess Lu has changed the most. She looked like this a year ago:


I looked like this. I have to say, I'm a pretty sexy pregnant broad, doing the crossword in my bikini. Hot damn!


I found this photograph of the bay we used to live on, Kaneohe Bay:


And this photo of Joey and Tania reading together at our old house. We used to drink rookie beer before we moved to the capital of brew-pubs:


I found this photo of Tania skating down the street at my mom's house:


I found her 7th birthday photos. She looks sooooo different to me. She's longer and thinner now, and her hair is a bit darker. This is Tania with her BFF. Oh, and that's my BFF in the background!


Tania with her BCF (Best Cousin Forever). They were sick of photos at this point, so they had to exaggerate the grin:


Pool fun:


And I found these gems too. We had a birthday party for Tania's baby. BFF and BCF were invited. Cake time:


Swimming:


Wahhh!!! I miss those little girls!


I hope they're always close.


Well, in another week, we'll have new birthday photos to post, but with all different people and in a new place. I'm so thankful that we have made friends, but miss the old ones so very much.