Getting Through That Ugly Phase!

You Gotta Start Somewhere to Get Somewhere

Hey there, cool kid,

Wow, is it already the 2nd week of Advent?! Time is marching on, the Christmas decorations are up, and the sun is going down by 4:30. Yup, it’s almost the end of the year.

My SmArt School class is going to be starting up again soon, so I’m starting up with painting again and…I think I forgot how to paint! I really need to dust the cobwebs off and get back into the swing of it, but it’s pretty tough. I’m really struggling on this next piece, a take on the MTG card Ecstatic Electromancer.

It was at this point where I realized I was in trouble.

I have to keep reminding myself that it will take several layers and careful working up to get the painting to the finish line, that it’s okay for the piece to be in an ugly phase. In fact, Dan Dos Santos said in our SmArt School class that “all of art is an ugly phase”. And in order to get to the pretty art, you have to stick it out through the ugly, right? Right?! That’s what I’m hoping.

Another bump in the road that I had to contend with was my size 8 Cotman brush was loose and wiggly—too wiggly to paint with accurately. Though not loose enough to pull off an re-glue. Thank goodness we always have hockey tape on hand to save the day!

Hockey tape is more cloth like, so it’s perfect for this application where it might get a little wet. It’s a good fix for now and will extend the life of my brush for a little bit longer.

Lando Norris’s Mom Will Make Your Day

We have a new F1 world champion! Lando Norris won the 2025 World Driver’s Title, and by only 2 points! I have to say it was quite refreshing to see a title battle be THIS close, to have three drivers all of great skill and compete on a roughly equal level, unlike the past several years where it was a pretty major blow out with very little competition, with the only real challenge happening between teammates.

And while I wish all the congrats and accolades to Lando, what I really want to highlight is his mom. She’s easily one of the best parents on the grid. She’s not a model or a celebrity. She’s a normal mum, here to support her kid. And I love that.

She even gave Lando’s teammate Oscar Piastri a big hug post race! Even though Oscar was ostensibly Lando’s biggest rival, and the two had several nasty run ins over the course of the season. In the words of David Kroft, “a mum knows when someone needs a hug.”

Lando’s mum gives his teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri a big ol’ hug.

Insert obligatory “it will be different for Ferrari next year” coping.

Finally, a Good F***ing Book

While we were traveling to and from Chicago, I had Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson loaded onto my phone to read during the drive, as a way to do something more productive than just scrolling. WOW this was a great book! Maybe I’m off base since I love to listen to bad book reviews on YouTube while I work, but it feels more often than not that modern Fantasy books are just not good. I stand corrected because Vespertine is heckin’ AWESOME. 400 pages, a high concept, no exposition dumps, a rivalry with more depth and chemistry than most “romance” plots, and a YA version of a grimdark world with French Medieval dressing. In a world full of bloated “epics”, this one hits hard, fast, and with great satisfaction. I also just loved the spooky darkness of a world infected with all different manner of ghosts.

The official synopsis:

The spirits of the dead do not rest.

Artemisia is training to be a Gray Sister, a nun who cleanses the bodies of the deceased so that their souls can pass on; otherwise, they will rise as ravenous, hungry spirits. She would rather deal with the dead than the living, who whisper about her scarred hands and troubled past.
When her convent is attacked by possessed soldiers, Artemisia defends it by awakening an ancient spirit bound to a saint’s relic. It is a revenant, a malevolent being whose extraordinary power almost consumes her—but death has come, and only a vespertine, a priestess trained to wield a high relic, has any chance of stopping it. With all knowledge of vespertines lost to time, Artemisia turns to the last remaining expert for help: the revenant itself.
As she unravels a sinister mystery of saints, secrets, and dark magic, Artemisia discovers that facing this hidden evil might require her to betray everything she believes—if the revenant doesn’t betray her first.

Vespertine got all my neurons firing, restored my faith in books, and helped get my creative batteries recharged. Easily 5 stars for me.

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Parting Note

Next time, we’ll look at 2025 in review!

‘Till the next time,
Melissa J