thank you!

thanks to all who came to my last featured artist show at the workhouse! you are the best.

stay tuned for details on a home studio open house...

in a month or so...

true confessions

i might be turning into a morning person.

and i kind of like it.

except when i don't.

you're invited

personal altared tectonics

(i spelled it that way on purpose)

new artworks

by ann elizabeth gedicks

(that's me)

august 11 - sept 5, 2010

opening reception saturday august 14, 2010 7-9pm

(you should come)

workhouse arts center

building 4

9601 ox rd

lorton, va

did you know chickpeas have agency?

i'm going to be a blogger. i mean a real, live scheduled blogger. on a blog other than my own. this could get interesting, since i generally only write as passion or fancy strikes (which, as you followers know, can be rare). but now, in addition to a schedule, i have guidlines to follow - they have standards, people, a statement of purpose!

help.

i asked for a deadline because i work best under pressure. pressure begat writer's block (can you have that when you're not really a writer?), which begat stress, which begat more blockage. so of course i procrastinated and turned to gchat:

10:33 pm
me:
looking back through my posts, i think the good ones are either really randomly funny (like putting pantyliners in my armpits or chickpeas falling down my shirt) or really personal

mb: chickpeas?

me: yes
i was making hummus one day and testing the chickpeas for tenderness

mb: with your shirt?

me: one of them jumped down my shirt and got stuck

mb: are you ascribing agency to the chickpea?

me: yes. yes i am
here...read it for yourself

mb: haha
it's the classic story, really; fall, then redemption; dilemma, and reconciliation.
you have the same basic plot here as in most jane austen novels.
except instead of a poor virtuous woman you have a chickpea.

me: lol
maybe i'm the poor virtuous woman
taken advantage of by a chickpea
and the lima beans are redemption
?

mb: haha. an uncommunicative chickpea who refuses to confess its true feelings until the lima
beans bring him to proper temperature.
10:48pm

***
we then discussed veggie tales, jimmy carter, peanuts and boxes of junk in our parents' garages. and then i wrote my post...which you can read here on July 8. it has nothing to do with chickpeas, but owes a lot to mb. thanks, friend.

since you asked...

...the closing walk and talk went really well.

lots of people came.

i said some stuff.

the good days are still winning.

if you missed the opening...

come to the closing!

i will be speaking briefly, along with the other artists. hope i see you there!

Abstract Realities
May 14 - June 13
Closing Reception and Artists Talk: June 13, 5-7pm

Curated by Trudi Van Dyke
Apprentice Curator: Pam Rogers

Featuring work by Allen Levy, Ann Elizabeth Gedicks, Zoé Hathaway, Cherie M. Redlinger, Felisa Federman and Damian Yanessa

6 contemporary artists in a variety of media explore reality with abstract presentations.

District of Columbia Arts Center - 2438 18th Street NW - Washington DC 20009

why is danny devito trying to kill me?

maybe because i can't spell his name. your guess is as good as mine. but in my dream the other night, he sure was persistent. he chased me all over the city with a machine gun. until ss discovered that if you stand on top of a bed and face him, the bullets have no power over you. it was all very care bears meets matrix meets labyrinth. of course, in the dream i was the hero, despite the face-off being ss' idea. what? it was my dream; they never make sense and they've been particularly strange lately.

ps. i love you mom. fer rills. thanks for borning me.

remember how i'm an artist?

Abstract Realities
May 14 - June 13
Opening Reception: May 14, 7-9pm
Artists Talk: June 13, 5pm

Curated by Trudi Van Dyke
Apprentice Curator: Pam Rogers

Featuring work by Allen Levy, Ann Elizabeth Gedicks, Zoé Hathaway, Cherie M. Redlinger, Felisa Federman and Damian Yanessa

6 contemporary artists in a variety of media explore reality with abstract presentations.

District of Columbia Arts Center - 2438 18th Street NW - Washington DC 20009

please oh please come.

yes, you. come.

pretty please.

runnin on empty (runnin wiiiiiiiiiiiiild)

i ran this race the weekend after easter with my friend a.s. (i contemplated posting our before picture, but it looks suspiciously like an after picture.) it's a beautiful course 'round the monuments, usually lined with cherry blossoms. but they came out the week prior and then most were knocked out by the high winds and rain we had just before the race.

here's a lil run-down.

we met at the smithsonian metro just after 7am and listed all the reasons we weren't prepared for this race (this is the part where i complain). i didn't sleep or eat much that week,* didn't drink enough water and had waffles with whipped cream for brunch the day before, which my mouth loved, but my stomach did not. and it let me know sunday morning when i could barely choke down a bite of cliff bar without it closing up slash rebelling. that's all i'll say about that. i started waking up at 3am, stopped trying to sleep around 5am and finally got up at 5:55 on race morning. also, i was wearing brand new shoes and had gotten a pedicure the night before. total amateur.

and now a list:

miles 1 and 2 - cramps in my arches - probably from not being used to actual support

mile 2.5 to 3.5 ish - cramps in arches gone, replaced by side ache

mile 4.5 - remembering that i felt GREAT at this point last year. not so much this year.

mile 5 - i'm only half way? why am i doing this again?

mile 6 - blessed water stop!

mile 7 - considering stopping at portas, just so i can rest

mile 7.5 - water stop is half mile earlier than expected, throwing off what was left of my sorry mental game

mile 8 - calves hurt a little. that's it. stop to stretch.

mile 8.75 - last water stop. only a mile and a quarter. i can do this

mile 9.5 - the finish is just over that hill. chaaaaarrrrggggge!!!

halfway up the hill - maybe i shouldn't have floored it

top of the hill - where's the damn finish?!

mile 10 - "ma'am, you have to keep moving; please collapse over there"

despite all that, it was a fun race...because i like to run. also, finally a semi-decent race picture. i think its the sunglasses. they really bring the whole ensemble together, no?

hmm...i need to work on my form.

*i can count the number of times this has happened on one hand. i like to eat. a lot. it generally doesn't even have to be good. if it's there, i'll probably eat it.

it aint' nothin but a g-thang

this post alternately titled, what i did at work today - part four. or five. or whatever.

on a whim, i decided to play softball for the sidley sluggers, part of my firm's summers program. i put my name on the sluggers email list and proceeded to miss every game until last tuesday. they needed another woman or they'd have to forfeit. title nine rules or something.

because i can catch and throw, they stuck me in right field...a safe place to stick a girl in the outfield, right? paul, who, consequently will be freddo's t.a. this fall, played right center and told me, "if it comes near you, go for it and i'll back you up."

wait, what?!

"if it comes near you, go for it and i'll back you up."

just checking. i thought maybe i'd heard wrong. a guy who will actually let a girl field the ball all on her very own? i don't mean to be sarcastic (except i do), but that's craziness. his wife should know (and i'm sure she does), he's a keeper. not wanting to let paul down, and playing for the reputation of pseudo-athletic girls everywhere, i dutifully paid attention. coach klazkin described the game as "an epic thriller that will likely go down in Sluggers history" but it was pretty boring in right field. i guess i shouldn't complain. i mean, i DID move around a lot. i smacked my fist in my glove. i squatted in ready position, trotting forward when a woman was at bat and jogging back again for the men.

despite the boredom in right field, the game was definitely a nail-biter. we defended the diamond well, with a double play and some spectacular outfielding. and we were true babes at bat. but just when we thought we had the game in the bag, "back-to-back-to-back fielding errors allowed the contract killers back into the game, as they put up 5 runs in the top of the 7th." another friend and fellow legal assistant, josh, threw his glove across the field in disgust when we finally made our third out. he's a little intense.

to keep from being throttled by said glove-thrower, we rallied. as coach wrote, "With 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th inning, reece hit the game-tying single to put the game into [an extra] inning. And finally after a game saving, diving catch in right field by rookie sensation ann gedicks, the sluggers were primed to take back the game in the bottom of the 8th."

wait. let me run that by you again. "...after a game saving, diving catch in right field by rookie sensation ann gedicks..."

did you know i'm a rookie sensation? me neither. but hey, i can't take all the credit. i had help. paul was true to his word and let me field the ball.

anyway, we managed to pull out the win. you should know that when we play extra innings, we play one pitch rules, meaning each batter gets only one pitch. (i know, right?) if it's a ball, you walk. if it's a strike and you don't hit it, you're out. imagine my stress as i walked to the plate, with one out already against us. i knocked out a single, made it to second on a walk and actually scored the winning run when the contract killers bobbled an infield single. "when asked about her amazing and game-altering 8th inning catch in the field, gedicks humbly replied, 'ain't nothin' but a g thang.' "

can you hear it, friends, can you hear it? it's kenny loggins, telling me i'm playin, playin with the boys.

(i need a haircut)

[note: coach klazkin, a friend and fellow legal assistant who played ball in college, creatively writes up each game to rally the team and entice more players to the field for the next week's game. there's a bit of a contest to see if you can get in the write-up and which song lines he'll use as your quotes. i wanted to wholly rip off his entire article, but...well, i work for lawyers, so i just quoted. pretend this is a footnote.]

a litta art show

i only have a few pictures of the may workhouse show because once jared left, i didn't bother bribing anyone else to play photographer. 

annie, may cause devastation in populated areas, lauren

ashley, annie, skin buckled, straight spine bowed, aaron, nancy

lovely flowers, annie, aaron, nancy

new work! no space left to remember

no space left to remember (detail)

new work! 

on the walls inside her head

now you know

the color's kind of off in this image (a little green) but i don wanna fix it right now.

on the walls inside her head (detail)

on the walls inside her head (detail)

i had more new work, but it sold already. and i think the images are on my external hard drive and i don' wanna fin' 'em

so. now you can contemplate the meaning of the universe, or at least what's going on inside her head.

should a made a left toin at albukoykee!!*

dear friends,

ok in the last month or so i've probably either 1 - begged you to run this race with me, 2 - bragged to you that i'm running it or 3 - made you listen to my training strategy (lots of ice cream and chocolate chips and an occasional long run). so i thought you might like to know that you're invited to a ummmm...party where 5 of the 36 legs start and/or finish and all 12 team members can be there at the same time (usually you're relegated to one van, and don't get to commingle except at major exchanges). so if you happen to find yourselves with nothing to do approximately 10pm on friday night, feel free to drive on up to boonsboro, md. it's in the middle of nowhere, between gettysburg and dc. they're calling it the "oasis," but really it's boonsboro high school. most of us will have only run 1 leg at that point, so we won't smell TOO bad...yet. if you can't (or don't want to) make that, you can watch us finish around 3pm saturday on the potomac river trail between the jefferson and FDR memorials (park at the lots under the 14th street bridge, by the jefferson).

boonsboro high school
10 campus ave
boonsboro, md 21713

ubudee ubudee...that's all folks!


*our team name. we'll be the ones decked in WB gear.

did you know...

that i'm all set to win my office bracket competition? i just need unc to win tonight. so i think you should all watch it and cheer for them and send them happy winning thoughts. ok? ok. thank you.

livin on a prayer

apparently bon jovi makes me run faster. he's gotten me through a half marathon, my 9-mile leg of the ragnar relay and now, the cherry blossom 10 miler.

sunday was a gorgeous day for a run around the monuments, through streets turned pink with cherry blossoms. but i was rather unprepared. i didn't drink enough water on saturday. i stopped sweating around mile 4 or 5. i didn't train and so around mile 8, i really wanted to quit. but i didn't. (bless those that cheer for runners other than their own). i am now sore. very very sore.
also, i decided that my friends need to tell me when they're running races so i can cheer for them. and then i'll tell them when i'm running and they can cheer for me. because 10 miles gets kind of lonely all alone with only the finish line to look forward to. and at about mile 8, pretending other peoples' signs and "go runner!" cheers were just for me, just didn't cut it anymore. BUT, that said, it was a great race and i had mucho funno. i even managed to scrape in just under my goal time. can i get a woot!woot!

so, anyway, when's your next race?

mine's april 24-25. we'll be comin into dc sometime the morning/afternoon of the 25th. i'll keep ya posted.

what i did at work today

NOTHING! i didn't go to work today. woo hooo!

instead i ran 8 miles because i'm running the cherry blossom 10 miler and haven't trained since the richmond half in november. it's gonna be ugly. but it was a lovely spring day (finally!), despite the light drizzle. and along my route - 4-mile run to the gw parkway trail - i saw:

a blue heron. i felt a little bad for it, standing so gracefully next to waterfall draining from the water treatment plant (or at least that's where the pipe comes from)...

a pelican. it dove straight for the water and after a splash and a short struggle, came out with a fish...

a cute couple, probably in their mid forties or so, that didn't know how to roller blade. well, the woman did, but the man looked like a six year old on skates for the first time. precious...

some fishermen. they told me they'd caught some catfish. i took my first fly-casting lessons earlier that morning so i just HAD to ask if the fishing was any good...

and then i got to the 14th street bridge, my turnaround landmark. i turned and there they were, across the potomac, explosions of pink popcorn. i couldn't resist. i ran across the bridge to join the throngs of people enjoying the budding cherry blossoms.

i tried not to stand too close.

on my way across the bridge, i saw two of my friends biking back from the rained-out kite festival in the middle of the 14th street bridge and tried not to freak out as the passing traffic made the concrete structure bounce.

across the bridge, at the jefferson i saw:

rows and rows of porta potties...

a wedding party climbing into a limo, looking rather chilly in strapless gowns...

an adorable child in a blue fuzzy sleeper, complete with hood capped with star antennae. turns out it was my friend's nephew...

one chat and a bathroom break later, i was on my way home. that was pretty uneventful. all i saw was my breath. and the blue heron.

another shout out to miss kitti

seriously, she has some awesome post ideas. and so i'm stealing another.

last summer, the women of the colonial first ward were asked to bring our favorite pair of shoes to a get-to-know-you enrichment night.* we were supposed to talk about how the shoe represents us. i had no idea what to take. i have a pair of red strappy 3.5" heels that i LOVE for a night out with the girls or to go dancing or just to feel sexy. i LOVE my hiking shoes (i think that one's self explanatory). i love my great leopard print platforms. i love my running shoes. i love my black pumas with the little nubbies on the sole. i love my red clogs. i love my black spike heel boots. and my knee-high brown spike heeled boots. and my brown clumpy boots. and i think all these shoes represent different facets of my personality. how can i just pick one?

i'm all of these things. i like to dress up. i like to go dancing. i like to sit around the house in sweats and do nothing. i like to randomly choreograph dances with friends. i like to go hiking, preferably for weeks at a time. i love to wear dresses, but when i was younger, i wouldn't be caught dead in a skirt, except at church. i love to wear jeans and t-shirts. i don't like wearing make-up** but i do cause my face currently looks like a piece of pizza with all the cheese picked off. i like the color pink, except when i don't. i love going to the symphony and rodeos and monster truck rallies and concerts and baseball games. i love playing sports (even though i suck). i love traveling. i love staying home and reading. i love making art. i love being the center of attention, until i actually am. i love to run. i love to snowboard, sew, cook, dance, sleep...

i've been called princess, a little bit granola, sweet, "worth paying money to watch on tv," preppy, artsy, blond at heart, refreshing, shy, intimidating, serious, fartsy...

i turn 29 on saturday (jan 31)^ and i think i'm finally comfortable with not fitting a mold. maybe you think i fit a mold. that's fine. we can do that mold-y stuff together and be friends. and hey, let me know if you need to borrow a pair of shoes.

*for you unfamiliar with mormon vocab, a ward is a congregation and enrichment night is when we women get together and do different stuff to enrich our lives. this often includes cookies, some kind of craft paint, and (apparently) shoes. the actual title of the program is "home, family and personal enrichment."

**except i love mascara cause i have kick-a$$ eyelashes.

^buy me presents.

i've got chiiiiiiiiills

they're multiplyinnn. and i'm looooooooooosin contro-ol. cause the pow-werrrrrr you're supplyinnn. it's electrifyin!

i did. i got chills when they announced it. and i just watched obama's acceptance speech and teared up right here at my desk. (what? there was something in my eye...) i am thrilled to have an intelligent, eloquent, inspiring president again. i know he won't be able to keep all of his promises; that's just politics (and life), but today i'm optimistic about my country's future and my president-elect's ability to affect change. for the first time in 8 years, i'm pleased as punch, tickled pink (well, blue) and downright proud to be an american. (hopefully my roommates will still speak to me...maybe over bbq.)

god bless america.



see mccain's concession speech here. i hope that i would be as gracious if my candidate had lost.

suckfest 2008

this post is dedicated to sherry carpet, who is the only one who's voted as of 10:48 pm est.

ok. i'm not sure who the andersons are, or why they suck, but apparently they do. another friend of mine joined the revolution; apparently it's cool. and since i rock, here are 20 reasons why i suck. keep in mind, this is not an attempt to get you to tell me how wonderful i am (i already know that i rock - try to listen), just an attempt at being real.

1 - i really dislike judgemental people. sometimes i really don't like people at all. especially when said people are a large mob of lds singles. they give me anxiety.
2 - i am very judgemental, particularly of judgemental people.
3 - i pretty much always think i'm right.
4 - i'm very selfish. i talk a lot about myself, but don't always bother to ask the other person about him/herself. i suck at turning off lights, doing my dishes, not leaving my stuff lying around, locking the top bolt on the door, taking out the trash, cleaning in general...i have become THAT roommate (my excuse...see #12).
5 - i don't sleep enough, and then complain that i'm tired all the time.
6 - i am over indulgent and/or have no self control. i can't go a day without chocolate and diet coke.* in fact, i think my diet consists of 2 parts diet coke, 1 part sugar, 1 part whatever i can scrounge out of the fridge/cupboard, with a healthy dose of tv. not that i have time to watch tv.
7 - i have major pack-rat tendancies. i don't clean up after myself and thus can't find anything...the stamp i KNOW i've seen in the recent past, the black tablecloth i want to use in my studio, my keys, my phone...yesterday i left them in the studio bathroom and a fellow artist returned them to me. she washed her hands first.
8 - i procrastinate everything. even things that will make me happy, like scheduling a massage. "i'll do it tomorrow..."
9 - i'm very easily distracted.
10 -
11 - i rarely finish projects that i start. i like to plan them, but not finish them. it takes too long. (see #9)
12 - i always think i can do more in a day than is humanly possible, even for superwoman. thus, the boring parts of my extensive don't get completed. as a result, i have not been grocery shopping in a month nor done laundry, but know who won project runway (see #6), went dancing, caught up with a friend, and applied for a job.
13 - i play devil's advocate even if i disagree what i'm advocating, particularly if i think the person is misinformed, or i think they're giving a knee-jerk response or if i just don't like their tone.
14 - as my childhood friend laura used to tell me, i think i'm funny when i'm not. but even when i'm not, i still think i am. and sometimes i think being mean is funny.
15 - i'm over-sensitive and pick apart every insult, slight and backhanded comment, but don't necessarily think twice about the ones i've handed out over the years.
16 - i speak in absolutes even though it annoys me when other people (like newscasters) do it.
17 - i correct people's grammar. and grammar/spelling errors in ads. i mean, seriously, people...if you're going to publish something to millions of people, do you really want to look like an idiot?
18 - i eat baby animals. and i don't really feel bad. maybe a little bit. but really, is it any worse to eat a baby than it is to eat its mother? i submit to you that it is not. also, i saw a t-shirt once that said, "meat is murder...tasty tasty murder" and i thought it was funny.
19 - i stress out about driving anywhere/anyplace i'm unfamiliar. my least favorite thing to do is drive around in an unfamiliar area, in an unfamiliar car (like a rental) looking for someplace i'm not sure exits, particularly using googlemaps. once i took a classmate's head off when i was driving for a school trip. not literally.
20 - i suck at moderation. yesterday i ate a half bag of dove dark chocolates before noon. today i ate the rest. before 10am. i cannot limit my intake of anything. as soon as i tell myself i'm setting a limit, i immediately want more. so when i tell myself, only 20 oz of dc today, i, of course drink 60, even though the past few days i've only had as much as 24 oz.

so that's it for now. there are more. probably some you're thinking of right now...i just won't admit to them. :P

*I have given up diet coke and all other forms of caffeine (except maybe excedrin) see counter below...**


**update: i couldn't find a counter that starts at a particular date and counts up the number of days/hours/seconds i've been without caffeine. so. i will just tell you. i have been caffeine free as of sunday october 19 at approximately 11am. we're excluding chocolate from this particular endeavor.

i rock

mary and i went country dancing last week. i spent a long time talking to a construction worker* covered in tattoos, who was married, with 5 kids and proclaimed himself incapable of love because the girlfriend he had at 14 was brutally stabbed with a pair of scissors 37 times with "I heart ?" carved on her chest. he told mary that he was incredulous that i don't have a boyfriend and that if he weren't married, he'd snatch me up in an instant. ignoring the fact that i would probably not actually date him for a myriad of reasons, i really needed that.

i will tell you, though, why i don't have a boyfriend. it's because i'm awesome. i grew up an awesome fish in a pretty decent sized pond. and then went to college as an awesome fish in a decent-sized lake. and in grad school, i was one of the few awesome lds girls. yes. i rock. but, so do the other zillion women in the dc metropolitan area. and with a male-to-female ratio of 1:2.3 (the actual statistic from ward conference last year), being just another awesome fish in the sea is equivalent to being just another fish in the sea. not so advantageous. so, men - single men of the mormon persuasion - you should move out here. there are plenty of big fish for you to catch. whether you prefer to cast a fly, bait a hook or set your net, i promise, you'll catch something awesome.


*despite what the rest of the sentence may lead you to believe, he was a great conversationalist and was very interesting to talk to.