Work continues apace. Setting em up and knocking em down. Hopefully, I will have a stretch of time to start on a 16 pp. pub. I do for the Museum of Glass. Lots of copy, lots of pictures and the whole jigsaw puzzle of fitting them together without it looking like anyone did anything. Now, what is it that you do?
London trip announced--We, the students of Syracuse University ISDP Program (to close in 2008) are going to London 3/12--for our contact period. These contact periods expose us to a range of illustrators and illustration related folks--generally 4 folks a day for 5 days. We also get critiques from the assignments we do, and catch up on the status of our thesis. So, we get this note....4 illustrators and 1 painter. That is all there is lined up. Essentially a days worth of exposure for the cost of a big plane ticket, hotel and food and a weak dollar. Although my plans were to see some museums, I think that has expanded to seeing a lot of museums. Not my plan, and to be honest, not worth the time right now. How can SU think that pulling people out of jobs, billing and paying jobs, for a totally inadequately planned contact period is acceptable. Maybe there is no thinking. Just kind of doing--not real doing...I mean, the V & A have a spectacular collection of childrens books and illustrations--why isnt that planned in? Couldnt we get a meeting with the curator there etc? There isnt anything happening that one couldnt do on their own. The SU connection could open doors that might not open to individuals and it is not being leveraged. There is absolutely nothing special going on here. It reeks of someone wanting and delivering on a family vacation, forgetting the real purpose of the trip to fall by the way side. I could lead a tour of western Massachusetts starting with the Rockwell, the Clark, Mass Moca, the Carle Museum, the Yale Museum and cover more in a week than this is planned. Unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. Can you gather, I am pissed?
I just hope there is no trouble with the thesis. I do not want to continue with the burkas--and to be honest, I did them to be game, but not to make this my hook. I could take them further--but I am bored with them...and that isn't something that will get you up in the morning, and grab your entire weekend. Plus, marketing them???
The birds have my attention and interest. I can market them, and they can be leveraged into a bigger world. Carol told me about the Duck Stamp competition. And there are a bunch of wildlife, naturalism galleries that might be interested in this stuff. Plus, the individual reception I have gotten is positive. As Erich says, flowers and/ or birds are classics. Who doesn't love birds? My thoughts exactly.
Richard and I commiserated. He told me all about High Fructose, a new publication in the Juxtapoz mode that is less about graffitti and more about painting. I am good with another entry in that world and am going to seek it out and get back to you.
Am listening to a great audio book (Audible), The Hummingbird's Daughter--an inspired, layered story on a ranch in Mexico. It is very dense--and verbally has similar clues to Pan's Labyrinth and the third Harry Potter. I am only an hour into it--and it is around 15 hrs.--but its great so far.
More later>>