Bringing Fire


Prometheus, Rockefeller Center
Prometheus , Paul Manship (1934), with the fire in his hands in front of the Rockefeller Center in New York with lines from Aeschylus inscribed

Well, in the cracks of the day--I am beginning to make some headway. I have one valentine done and down. I have another one almost tinted. A third in a very 2/3 mode where I thought it was done, and its not. My tiger is getting an overhaul with color and clouds. Thanks to some coaching from Will Bradley, this spot illustration is beginning to be more. Textures, simple backgrounds, environments to ground the figures. I have another bird and another bee one planned.I have one with a squirrel (reference done) to do in the Will Bradley simple chapbook style. So, as I said, I needed to blast through the "I'm going to jump" phase with more work...and it will keep the gyroscopes going so I can do this thing. I am really loving this work--its level of finish--using the first drawing as a starter. Cleaning it up on the computer, outputting it and then working color layers (really quick) in ink on lovely, thick vellum> scanning it in in greyscale and converting it to single color layers I merge in photoshop. Much faster than drawing them online...and still maintaining the handmade. I will add highlights and small details in photoshop (drawing with vectors), but I am trying to keep that to a minimum. I feel confident I could have a dozen by San Francisco with a New York piece (perhaps a valentine to Greek coffee and hot dogs? or the statue of Liberty pastiche valentine? or the architectural valentine?or or or...inspired by Rockefeller Center Valentine!!). That's it...the Prometheus at Rockefeller Center.

Snow days for every school in the area except for Tburg. I guess they figure we are made of stronger stuff...and have us doing school because the last legs of the regents tests are today (3 hrs in the pm for Kitty) and midterms for others. Kit can walk...but I cringe to think of the schoolbuses trundling down the slippery streets with the happy, chattering kids in it. Being a schoolbus driver is a heroic job...and miraculous on days like this.

On a terrific note, The Chicken Chokers will be playing at the Pourhouse on Saturday. R wants me to start working with hand drawn chickens and choking hazards as there is much potential there. We will be there as it is always a ton of fun, the music extrodinary and all our pals at our Tburg Clubhouse, the Pourhouse. A treat!

Off to pour another cup of the most delicious coffee in the universe, and settle in for a morning with animation in powerpoint (something I know very little about...and have a project in!). Onward.

Phew.





No longer ready to jump...Will Bradley has once again, rescued me from the edge--with his more refined chapbook style (seen in the Sleepy Hollow book illustrations). I love these images as he uses tigerteeth and some interesting woodcut conventions and simplification that I can learn from. I need to work on a few things in my notebook to better understand/ model this look/feel. Bradley has simple, strong compostions which parallels my work--and I like the way he sets the stage with the trees in the backgrounds or the integration of type.

I also got interested in Wil Barnet's prints/illustrations. Love this stuff too.




Ripping my hair out

Now this is the thesis I remember. The hair ripping part of doing a thesis. You toddle along, making images, having an illustration party with yourself, making pictures, amending pictures, moving to the next picture--setting them up, knocking them down. Then what happens, is that the track splits and you need to change, amend, rethink, or keep going with the thesis--keeping all the plates spinning and work coming out the back end. I am so good with this. Started with the concept of "Visions of Paradise" which evolved to the Garden of Eden story. All was great with the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Good and Evil. It begin to get nasty with the separation of the firmaments. How to depict God? The first reminder was to myself..."why are you doing this" What is the end game for July 09?" After a dozen pictures messing around with the Genesis project, I jumped off and started to just look around after the immersion in Indian painting, Mexican woodcuts, and the usual suspects (in the world of inspirations). I needed to work on a technique with this black and white work--so that the ink work could evolve into colored illustrations in the occasion they needed to be color. I am so good with just black and white, and this stretch to color is pushing me a bit. I figured I would give myself a vacation from Genesis and work on work related to what happened after Adam and Eve were cast out. True Love For Ever....Valentines. I have a hive (done), a lady (needs color), a singing bird (needs color), a tiger, a finch in a leafy shape, and plans for another beehive married with a frame and a honeycomb pattern. I am working with all sorts of reference from Audubon Natural Science books to more Indian work, more woodcuts etc. Am getting a bit more fluid with how to take it to color albeit with the 80/20 measure, it is puzzling me as I work with it. Not that it's unachievable, its just making me think, which makes the work go a bit slower. I will have 6-8 Valentines for San francisco, the existing Eden work with a change in the firmament piece, a piece dealing with the trees that bear fruit with the grasses that bear fruit, the birds of the sky (hopefully) and the beasts of the seas...The hair ripping is I feel like I've hit ice....I am slipping and sliding around and feel that though the work (compared with the decorative work of last July) has tightened and has more resolution, more finish than before. I am thinking more about the work, how the image is put together and how to take it apart to make it right again. I am making parts to add to symmetrical/ flipped images to make it seem more integrated. I am making parts for borders, for frames. I have stand alone beasts and beasts that just seem stuck on am image. The heart from last night, despite the color work still couldn't sit up and breathe--so that time is moot. Simple and elegant, break lines and bars, remember tapering, remember the 80-20, remember the sense of context. Try to give the image a place where it lives....Man, can't I go back to tracing Prince Valiant?

So the track has split. What I have learned when this happens is to soldier through. Left foot, right foot as this is the place were the energy happens. Nuclear fission. This is where you gut it out, keep the time and passion on it--and we may see a leap ahead. I should understand this in my spirit...it is just so disheartening.

Exams next week for the home team. There were some small badger fights to get the information on which tests, when...with a lot of bold, laxidaisical talk that merited my getting off my haunches and doing the who/what /where/when on all the subjects. I really hate this stuff. Long day. Hopefully, an early night.

Curry flavored dreams.




Working on a valentine with frogs. Have done it as a reflected piece, adding and overlaying in photoshop to see how I can make it a bit less flippy...putting things on the spine, stripping in stuff into the black. Am taken with doing a leafy frame with an animal inside ...with some sort of play between an animal and bird/ heart. Also on the tiger drawing with a leopard in the plans. This Janist painting style is very stylized (which I love) and have lovely conventions like crazy geometries and decoration and the figures do things the human body would never concieve of. There is an illustration in my wonderful book (From the Ocean of Painting, India's Popular Painting from 1589 to Present by Barbara Rossi (ISBN0-19-511194-x)) of archers kneeling within a shape in the upper part of the image described entirely by arrows facing in, and these archers are shooting out. What if that shape was a heart, there is a valentine there...beyond cupid and his dinky arrows that prick but not eviserate. These indian guys are not messing around in their picture. Specifically, these images that I have fallen in love with are from the Deccan area of India...and as they are for the populus versus the elegant Indian Paintings I have been trying to imprint on my brain. With the popular, the conventions are stronger--the images more iconic as they have to be knocked out to sell a lot of them. There are pilgrimage paintings created with the same imagery--some rendered more simply than others...but the same mannerisms, same decor, same pose of the figure. I have been plucking images out of the marginalia of these pictures for details in these valentines. Sweet.

I just tried to find these tigers online to share with you. Turns out, LACMA has a significant collection of indian art that they purchased from the collections of Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck. Heeramaneck was a collector whose works were sold by Sotheby's--and there is a catalog of the entire collection. LACMA also has quite a few wonderful examples online to review. I just adore this stuff. Look at those nutty palettes. Not quite the great grey/blue north that I live in...but believeable in Miami.

IF: Climbing


Climbing is unadulterated hard labor. The only real pleasure is the satisfaction of going where no man has been before and where few can follow.

Annie Smith Peck (1850–1935),
U.S. mountain climber.
As quoted in WomenSports magazine, p. 15 (December 1977).

Said c. 1925 by the pioneering climber who, at seventy-five, was still scaling mountains. She conquered her last peak at age 82: the 5,363-foot Mt. Madison in New Hampshire.

Annie Smith Peck is an inspiration to all of us, to continue to climb and strive for goals that may seem unattainable at the time. This tree, the Tree of Knowledge represents that goal, the pursuit of learning, growing and understanding. With this, comes wisdom and understanding.

Interesting Article from the Design Observer on Decorative Illustration

The Curse of the D Word
Steven Heller

Do you make things look nice? Do you spend more time worrying about nuance and aesthetics than substance and meaning? Do you fiddle with style while ignoring the big picture? If your answers are yes, yes, or yes, then you are a decorator.

Being a decorator is not how graphic designers necessarily want to perceive themselves. But what's the big deal? Is anything fundamentally wrong with being a decorator? Although Adolf Loos, an architect, proclaimed ornament as a sin in his essay, Ornament and Crime, an attack on late-nineteenth century Art Nouveau, in truth decoration and ornamentation are no more sinful than purity is supremely virtuous.

Take for example the Psychedelic Style of the late 1960s that was smothered in flamboyant ornamentation (indeed much of it borrowed from Loos' dreaded Art Nouveau). Nonetheless, it was a revolutionary graphic language used as a code for a revolutionary generation — which is exactly the same role Art Nouveau played seventy years earlier with its vituperative rejection of antiquated 19th-century academic verities. Likewise, Psychedelia's immediate predecessor, Push Pin Studios, from the late 1950s through the 1970s, was known for reprising passé decorative conceits. In the context of the times, it was a purposeful and strategic alternative to the purist Swiss Style that evolved into drab Corporate Modernism, which had rejected decoration (and eclectic quirkiness) in favor of bland Helvetica. In their view, content and meaning were not sacrificed but rather illuminated and made more appealing.

Anti-decorative ideological fervor to the contrary, decoration is not inherently good or bad. While frequently applied to conceal faulty merchandise and flawed concepts, it nonetheless can enhance a product when used with integrity — and taste. Decorators do not simply and mindlessly move elements around to achieve an intangible or intuitive goal: rather, they optimize materials at hand to tap into an aesthetic allure that instills a certain kind of pleasure. (more>>)

left foot, right foot


Made a great soup with the stock from the weekend. Just added 3 types of mushrooms (portobellos, shitakes, oyster)with parsley, 3 pieces of hard peasant bread and a handful of those mini carrots. Cooked em down until the carrots were soft. Used the hand chopper to puree. Splash of 2% milk. Done. No effort. Delish. I am so into this making stock thing. Use it all up--and processed a mess of veggies that were minutes from becoming compost. Now, it feeds the team--with comfort food we all adore. Did you have a chance to hear Mark Bittman (my all time favorite) talk about the carbon footprint attached to food this morning on NPR. Really speaks to me--making a compelling argument for reducing meat consumption (health, environment etc)and considering the impact an individual's eating program can effect on the environment. Not even considering health...which goes hand and hand with the environment. Good for everyone.

Trip to the House of Health today. Split my time so I had 20 min on a bicycle, 20 on the treadmill and 15 lifting weights. This is a real deal...and not a snooze. It was great. Going to do this again tomorrow.

Back to amending files for the big company. Need to sweep the desk clean to get back to clean new work. Am being a bit tortured as they want high tech images for free...(read, my Shutterstock account)--and Shutterstock has its limits. Really has it's limits...So, the end product suffers. But, it is what it is. Better than a MSWord design that was going direct to customers.

Time for valentines!

cold day on the plateau

Busy. Had all sorts of fun last night at the Rongovian Embassy celebrating with the fun Rongovians complete with the Rongotron, great dancing with The Destination, costumed individuals and a ton of people I love to chat it up with. My goodness, we are so lucky to have such a nice community of people. There were spangly hats, tuxedos, people wrapped in flags and even a guy that looked sort of like a cross between a shaman and someone from Bladerunner. Too cool for this school.

This morning, R. was out and on the road by 5:30 a.m. to get to the plane to go to NYC for the Winter Antiques Show set up for the Museum of Glass. The Museum is the featured institution for this event--and thus the trip and presence by R. So, it was early up and going. Did a bit of dinner shopping as I knew my private and personal time was to be spent in the afternoon with the insurance assessor looking at the possible damage at the Luckystone which was very interesting and action oriented which was very solid for me. It is something we can sequentially act upon to get results versus the big old head scratch that I have been experiencing. I also have an evening meeting of the Moms with kids in the school play. So, frozen food is in order.

Lots of business stuff with the creation of the 1040s, the writing of the W9s etc. More fun than you can shake a stick at. Also, I feel pretty great as I was worrying about the ethics of a project I was going to work on--and resigned the project before it even happened as it conflicted with my thinking and honestly, my sleep. So, I feel a mile high as in all things, "do the right thing". Plus, I may be able to do a good turn for friends of mine.

Working on a valentine with a prod from a primative indian tiger. Round teeth, curly tongue and hindu inspired valentine. Lots of yellows and corals/ pale blue and white. A delicate palette might be fun to do. I was also thinking of getting back into the derivative palettes we worked with this summer. Perhaps a Vermeer colorway for an indian picture?

" Praise song for walking forward into that light"


I was teary first thing this morning at the House of Health, not because my muscles were burning but from the visuals of waiting and watching for Barak and Michelle Obama to get into their car to go to church for prayer and reflection prior to taking the mantle of responsibility and power in this new job. It struck me as remarkable--a quiet waiting time, a time we have experienced with family and self, of waiting for the bride. Waiting for her moment before she goes to the church to make vows--leaving her old life , and contracting with her partner to make a new life..joining forces, joining families, joining with her beloved. Obama is our bride. Obama has married us--and has taken on new forces, new families and is forging his own future with ours. His gravitas and sobriety in his demeanor and speech is steadying and affirming. I love it that Obama has had dinners with his former foes (that with John McCain), that he is attempting to bridge and bring some maturing and new life into this role. It is a new day to see GW Bush get on the plane and go back to Texas and Dick Cheney get wheeled out of town. We need this change. We need a focus and positive motion around our lives as Americans that speaks to personal responsibilty, to service to the common good. Now the work begins.


Frosty here. Beginning to engage in how to fix the Luckystone. Calls in to the right people. Small steps, small tactical steps.

Gig at the Rongovian Embassy tonight. There is an inaugural ball (as an aside, the Rongovian Embassy has been known for these sorts of escapades in the past):

Plans are finalized for an evening of solemnity and hilarity -- a little schizophrenic, but that's how things go in Rongovia. The band's tuning up, official visas have been produced and certified, the Chorus of Greater Rongovia has sprayed their collective uvulae with Fingerlakes Lite Toothwash and Tonsil Oil in preparation for the singing of "God Bless Rongovia," and sundry public and not-so-public officials, including Mayor Marty Petrovic, Ulysses Town Councilwoman Liz Thomas, and the Grand Poobah of Rongovia, Larry Reverby, will be offering greetings from their respective republics and duchies. If you miss the inauguration (some of us DO have jobs) there'll be nearly instant replay on the huge RONGOTRON. In an effort to maintain a semblance of order, the Royal Court has appointed Dan Burgevin Herald and Master of Ceremonies. Bring your republic's greetings.

The Rongovian Mixologist General has devised an addition to the Bastard menu -- come and toast change with a Departing Bastard. Need proof you were there? Have your photo taken with a full-sized cardboard cutout of Barack Obama.
Plans are finalized for an evening of solemnity and hilarity -- a little schizophrenic, but that's how things go in Rongovia. The band's tuning up, official visas have been produced and certified, the Chorus of Greater Rongovia has sprayed their collective uvulae with Fingerlakes Lite Toothwash and Tonsil Oil in preparation for the singing of "God Bless Rongovia," and sundry public and not-so-public officials, including Mayor Marty Petrovic, Ulysses Town Councilwoman Liz Thomas, and the Grand Poobah of Rongovia, Larry Reverby, will be offering greetings from their respective republics and duchies. If you miss the inauguration (some of us DO have jobs) there'll be nearly instant replay on the huge RONGOTRON. In an effort to maintain a semblance of order, the Royal Court has appointed Dan Burgevin Herald and Master of Ceremonies. Bring your republic's greetings.

The Rongovian Mixologist General has devised an addition to the Bastard menu -- come and toast change with a Departing Bastard. Need proof you were there? Have your photo taken with a full-sized cardboard cutout of Barack Obama.


Note: The Bastard Menu is a drink menu of punch type drinks from 14850 dining:"I highly recommend the series of bastard drinks, properly consumed in order... the suffering bastard, dying bastard, and dead bastard. These insidious libations have a little bite, a little sweetness, and a little fruitiness, and each drink in the series adds one more ingredient." To think there is now a new drink, the Departing Bastard. Cin Cin to that!

quiet day.

Sunday, ski bus day. So, up and at em. Skibus study hall, or at least a partial study hall is on my agenda. Will be working on more illustration, perhaps coloring some of the inked drawings to see where they go with the Murray Tinkleman 80//20 warm/cool attempt. I am excited to see if I am academic about this...so see the results (as will you in the valentine month of images!).

The trip for beauty and clothes was a huge success. Kitty got a very cute dress for the Snow ball ($10.) with never been worn shoes ($8)--black platforms, ankle strap, flower on the toe. We couldnt resist as there was this perfect dress (for prom) that makes K look like a zillion buck (cost $49.) that is a solid bead and sequin dresss (read dark blue sequins and dark grey beads) that looks like a gem encrusted midnight blue overall. The dress is single shoulder (which normally I hate...but works here), a straight sheath that is fairly modest until she turns around and the back is a basketweave with the open space being just Kitty in the dark grey beads. The dress is slit to 12 below the hip (minidress height). With the shoes, Kitty looks like Motown Barbie...totally glamourous and not Prommmy poof. But chic. Chic for 17 but also chic for 27. We are thrilled. We got Alex 2 wool blazers (each $15) which we both screamed when we saw him try on . With the new spiky hair and the chalk stripe blazer (dark blue) with a black buttondown he was already wearing, he looked right off the Burberry's ads. So we took home a haul for $100.with a lot of laughs and fun. It was great.

The week promises lots of opportunities to be productive and get a lot of things done...or at least moving. R. is going out of town for the Museum to go to the opening of the Winter Antiques Show where the Museum is the featured institution.

Got a turkey carcass with a load of back of the refrigerator vegetables and two leeks roasting which I will make into a soup later today. Pretty domestic scene.

Maybe more later when my head engages.

Panoply



Colder than cold. All the pipes at the Lake froze solid with even the drips of water frozen in place. Apparently, the gas man decided not (and stated so) to deliver the propane gas we were on order to get--and allowed the tanks to run dry. The furnace is trashed, all the copper frozen and all the steam heat radiatiors (we hope not) shot. Lets just put it this way. Hell hath no fury...

Back to happier topics. Getting teen haircuts today along with a trip to the everfabulous, Trader Ks for some "Snow Ball" attire. Trader K is a consignment store and what with the happily charging Cornell students, there are no end to garments still with the tags or worn once. Kitty's delight is the entire basement is filled with prom and formal dresses and shoes that she and her friends use as their dressup spot...and place to buy a formal dress for $20., look like a million and not have your mom stress over where the next meal is coming from. Who knows how Alex is going to deal...but maybe there will be that perfect crushed velvet or plaid suit to sport. It should be fun. I hope I can be patient.

Valentines are still plugging away. I had forgotten about Sailor's Valentines. (from Wiki)

Sailor Valentines are a type of antique souvenir, or sentimental gift originally brought home from a sailor's voyage at sea for his loved one during the early 1800s. Sailor Valentines are octagonal, glass fronted, hinged wooden boxes ranging from 8" to 15" in width, displaying intricate symmetrical designs composed entirely of small sea shells of various colors glued onto a backing. Traditional shell designs often feature a centerpiece such as a compass rose or a heart design, and in some cases the small shells are used to spell out a sentimental message.

Although the name seems to suggest that the sailors themselves made these objects, a large number of Sailors' Valentines originated in the island of Barbados, which was an important seaport during this period. Historians believe that the women on Barbados made the Sailors' Valentines with local shells, or in some cases with shells which had been brought to Barbados from Indonesia, and then the finished products were sold to the sailors.[1]

It has been concluded by John Fondas in his Book Sailors' Valentines, that the primary source for Sailors' Valentines was The Old Curiosity Shop, located in Barbados, and a popular place in the 1800s for sailors to purchase souvenirs. John's research tells of a sailors' valentine reconstruction, where the reconstructing artist found pieces of a Barbados newspaper inside the backing.

Today, antique "Sailor's Valentines" are once again in demand for their beauty and unusual qualities. Interest has sparked a resurgence in this art form[2]. Many Sailors' Valentines, both new and old, can be found on the Island of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

The Baileys-Matthew Shell Museum [1] has an extensive online exhibit of this art form.

Plus, with Murray's suggestion of how creatures help an image--I am actively reading the Audubon Guide to North American Insects with great happiness and planning. Hello bugs. Also drew a miserable frog yesterday but see how he is so inviting, I will need to get him more right before prime time.

Off to the frozen cold, beauty and hair and of course, Prom dresses.

brrrrr


House of Health visit this morning. On the treadmill like all the rest of the gym rats moving towards health nirvana. It was a bright and frigid drive down and back. Clear and cold with a beautiful sky.Lunch with a client. Lots to talk about from holiday card successes to a new, zine inspired approach to the Annual Report looking original and inexpensive. I think we are going back into a design cycle that things are measured against things looking "expensive" (ie lots of color, coated paper, multiple varnishes, high production which, to you who know, often costs the same or less if you are clever) but need to communicate affordable (and now green can figure into this piece too!). This was rampant in the mid to late eighties in particular--so I feel smug that I have this experience from "way back".

Lots of junkie television last night--with drawing. I need to find some reference of flying birds to begin to sample some images.I need to pull the gardening catalogs filled with pictures of flowers and grasses. I need to think parts and pieces as Chad suggested, two parts making three...thinking complexity, thinking diversity in the images and content. Fuse them in photoshop. I think this Sunday studyhall will be coloring and tinting. Seeing where it goes. Balancing 80/20 color, line, spirit and density. Client valentine went to PSPrint today.

Started a group on Facebook for Hartford.New experience. Easy to use. Very effective. Love the twitter/tweeter feature/app on Facebook and the fluidity that you can effect change in both social sites. Learning how each work is very interesting. The more I use them, the more valid this Web 2.0 for numbskulls becomes. Maybe no "direct" successes, but lots of building a brand, promoting an idea/viewpoint, or a message. I think after 6 mos, I might really be able to talk about this.

Just got a book on Mendez (a follower of Posada). More to read.

I have a brilliant mentor.

Had a great chat with Murray. I sent him a handful of the sketches I was working on looking for pointed input and editorial. He was wonderful. More decorative illustration milestone conventions for me to integrate into my thinking while I work. I started talking color and Murray said that the black and white hangs together and I could leave it at that. We then talked about color just to see where he sat on it..I mentioned the hot/cool thinking that many of my real live illustration friends use (particularly those that were trained as real illustrators)--the whole red/blue, orange/turquoise, hot/cold thinking as a way to think of coloring an image. I thought that maybe Murray would expound on this convention...and instead, I got something bigger. A big handle to individually assess my work as I am going. What I needed to do is broadly think about the balance of the picture--and that balance needed to be either 80%/20%, 75%/25%-- something more than 50/50 from the color (warm/cool), the contast balance (dark/light), the balance of the family of shapes (sharp/soft, ambiguous/defined))--It is, as Murray said, a checklist of how to review the work-- I love this thing. His input on the bees, the birds, the details, definition of the heads--all good. More to do, more bugs to draw.
Onward to the month of love.

cold here


Just bundled up a few confabs of bits and pieces. I figure if today is mid January and Valentines Day is mid Feb, another week of whaling on love et cetera is okay. I do have a printer deadline to meet...so one more week and then I need to choose and go. I was, in my dreamy haze, thinking about type, about type bars integrated with images that could be a nice part to go with these pictures. I def have a bee one. Want to do another that really focuses on the skep. I would like to do a bird one and another a rabbit one. Am getting pretty excited by the methodology that evolving from the inked drawings to scan. Then, the scan becomes scrap, like chapbook scrap that I can monkey with> clip from> add to and recreate new imagery from. Plus, as it is all out of my hand, it all goes together. I have been pouring over floral catalogs and thinking about how that integrates with my valentines.

Need to get on some logo designs that a client needs in another week or so. Need to get some kid work done (scheduling, research etc). Things are slowly winding up--and by the end of the month, we will be in full swing.

Got a great book on Jose Guadalupe Posada ( Jose Guadalupe Posada, Ilustrador de Cuadernos Populares) from Alibris yesterday. First off, I have discovered this new art publisher in Mexico who puts out extrordinary books with beautiful production (Editorial RM, Mexico). The style and level reminds me of the old beauty, FMR (Franco Maria Ricci) my absolute favorite mid nineties magazine from Italy with wonderful eccentric content, all beautifully printed, designed and written. Many of the images are silhouetted on a matte black field so the extrodinary nature of the images, the objects are showcased. This is a little book that focuses on Posada's non political work, his more domestic, softer content--chapbooks, songbooks, advertisements. As it says in the translated Introduction:

"In fact, we preserve a more initimate Jose Guadalupe Posada, a master illustrator concerned witht he commercial appeal of this covers, a skilled publicist and forerunners of Mexican graphic design, who took pains to win overe a broad sectior of the population and made it possilbe to acquire a beautiful engraving for a few centavos".

With all the significant writing translated for us--I look forward to absorbing this in the next week or so. Time is moving fast. Need to go.

arctic blast, not a wintery mix


I love these euphemistic words that the weather folk come up with to get us all thinking and understanding future weather.Wintery mix is a optional mix of snow, wind, cold and any and all inbetween. Arctic blast is not a new flavor of chewing gum, its coldcold cold. Arctic Blast is planned for tomorrow. More socks than you can count. Hats, multiple layers and even the fingerless gloves. Final step is the laprobe while I work...we will wait and see.

Went to the House of Health again today. Wonderfully pleasant. A zillion people there striving for health and strength. Then came back and bought some cat food to keep the damned cats from clawing me to pieces (they snag their pesky little claws in your pants to remind you they are hungry and mad at you) or starting their amazingly humorous little trick of pooping in the tub. Surprise! We are pissed at you. So, cat crisis averted. Got a bunch of projects off the desk to all clients...moving and grooving today/ tomorrow. Need to reschedule some doctors stuff as my client wants to have a meeting with a consultant they are possibly hiring to talk about "look and feel".

Working on valentines. Have about 4 in the works...some frames, some pieces, some complete ones that need to be flopped and pieces added to it in photoshop. More to come.
You will see the stuff as we go...just more mileage with the pieces. I have a ton of energy around it.

for Pauliez


Tipperary: Beekeeper Philip McCabe attempts to break the world record for a ‘beard of bees’ in a field near Cahir, Co Tipperary, Ireland. The current record of 350,000 bees weighing 87.5lb was set in 1998 in California. ap