Tuesday: Looking towards the weekend

Sweetness Alight, Q. Cassetti, 2010, pen and inkTuesday started early. I got double thumped by the cats around four a.m.—impatient for cookies and attention.We then had to get rolling early to get Kitty and a friend to Corning with Rob for the day—to see the Rockwell Museum of Western Art, The Corning Museum of Glass and the fun on Market Street. Alex has a new job (self elected) at the Rongovian Embassy to the US on Main Street here is sunny Trumansburg. Dishwashing. He called me to say he was washing a pile of dishes and will be working until 6 p.m. Hard work, hard lessons…but all good because I am not jamming it at him. He has brought it on through his own motivation. I am thrilled.

Alex and I are going to learn how to smoke meat this summer. We bought a smoker from Josh Ozersky (now ozersky.tv and food writer for TIME) and tried it once. But Alex is anxious to perfect his bro-meister skills…which may incorporate barbeque and smoking to the mix of bro skills. The Urban Dictionary defines a “bro” as:

“An alpha male idiot. This is the derogatory sense of the word (common usage in the western US): white, 16-25 years old, inarticulate, belligerent, talks about nothing but chicks and beer, drives a jacked up truck that’s plastered with stickers, has rich dad that owns a dealership or construction business and constantly tells this to chicks at parties, is into extreme sports that might be fun to do but are uncool to claim (wakeboarding, dirt biking, lacrosse), identifies excessively with brand names, spends a female amount of money on clothes and obsesses over his appearance to a degree that is not socially acceptable for a heterosexual male.”

The MFA program at Hartford is beginning to ramp up. You can see the work of the incoming students here>> I am also collecting the Texas contact period illustrations from the current students (classes of 2010, 2011) and this is where we are>> Take a look. Pretty exciting.

We have three screenwriters in the back room meeting. I am friends with one of the guys who was looking for a place to have a 3-4 hour meeting (not at the coffee shop) so I said “come here” as we have chairs and tables and coffee too. So we have people busy chatting about interesting things that we get snippets as we go in for tea.

Work to do.

Monday startup

Sweet Maiden, Q. Cassetti, 2010, pen and inkYesterday was quiet. I was wiped out. I guess it all added up with the passage of visitors, kid parties, and visiting family. I just needed to shut down. I knew it when the uber petty was forefront in my head and I kept cycling on the trite. So, I slept the afternoon away. And the trite went away, and in that vast vacuum, ideas of bees, of Kama (the indian cupid) and  the world as a hive filled that space. I dive into my Lubok book on a regular basis now…enjoying the odd russian tales melding Russian Orthodoxy  with folklore, legends and myths. Human headed birds, bear armies, midgets and dwarves, and strife between husband and wife. Of course there are heaven and hell infusions as well. Dreamy.

This hazy state is a nice one from last year this time with the frantic rush to the thesis finale, multiple guests in tow and flat out from June 1 to  September 1. The summer stretches ahead of us in a long green ribbon with work and play interrupted by swimming , music and the daily vacationing we have here on the plateau and on the lake. Bliss.

I just finished another bee book: Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind, a wonderful journey through the history of gathering, growing and living with bees with chapters on food, medicine, religious rites, mythology and science by an entomologist . This is a wonderful second to Holley Bishop’s Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey—The Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World. Wonderful summer reading. Sweet in its depth, in it’s topic and gives more meaning to the bees buzzing in your large trumpet vines and roses. These books put nature squarely in your lap and makes the lovely agricultural lands that surround you more poignant and the cities more approachable (tales of a beekeeper, Jean Paucton at the Paris Opera who has kept five hives on the roof for a decade and sells his honey through very exclusive concerns such as the opera gift shop and Fauchon in his home town). I think another bee book is in the lineup. Just need to choose.

More later.

Proud Mama Alert!

Katherine Carroll Cassetti, Class of 2010.Okay, okay…I give you fair warning. I might be a proud Mama a bit today…so you are warned. Best turn off the computer or click to YouTube and watch something amazing versus being bored by a middle aged mommy happy for the accomplishments of her daughter.

If you haven’t guessed, we had graduation  yesterday. I was so proud of Kitty and honestly, every person that crossed the stage to receive a diploma. One proud  student after the next. We had songs performed by classmates. We had amazing, confident message filled speeches presented with wit and wisdom way beyond the presenter’s ages. The valedictorian thanked individuals in a poetic and meaningful way and then clipped his sax on and played us a thoughful and beautiful version of “Its a Wonderful Life”.  After all the speechifying, the graduates led us all up to the baseball field where they tossed their caps and there was a little gathering of all the attendees and parents. This was the photo op with all sorts of hugging and groups of students standing together for the pictures. Honestly, I wasnt prepared for any of this, nor were any of  my tribe, so we visited, took some pictures, chatted about nothing and congratulated the grads we knew. I should have been in puddles, but sheer pride, excitement and soaring hopes filled my heart as this is our future, and what a future we have in store for us. Kitty was confident and charming—glowing as she does, and quietly making her way saying hello to friends. She really didnt quite understand what all the fuss was about. On to the next!

We had lunch at Americana with Kitty, Alex, Gloria, Melody, Rob and me. It was lovely. Kitty, Alex and Melody went off to a party with food, World Cup and a lot of hugging. We prepped for a small dinner with the Cassettis and Gloria and a surprise (happy) visit by none other than Princess Berryboo! We had a nice time with the ladies all fiddling with the scarves I had as party tokens (Kitty of course had it all tied up on her head, Berryboo jauntily swept around her neck) with lots of chatter and gossip and the like. It was fun.

Princess Berryboo

Princess Berryboo, Q. Cassetti, 2010, digital.Princess Berryboo joins my portrait collection. Look for more celebrities in the next few weeks!

 

Work in Progress, Princess Berryboo, QCassetti, 2010, digitala

Work in Progress,2, Princess Berryboo, Q. Cassetti, 2010, digital

Jewels from the Orchards

Cherries at Ball Diamond Road, Q. Cassetti,2010The universal cry that came from the group this morning was that we all live in an extraordinary and beautiful place. Kitty and Alex and I piled into the Wonderbus with Shady this morning to pick sour cherries with our friend Peter and Peggy (and Meryl) on Ball Diamond Road. Little did I understand the marvels and wonders of this experience.I am hooked.

First off, it promised rain at 6 a.m. when we left. I was a bit worried as Peter picks whether it rains or not…and I was not psyched about that. But as we pulled into the orchard, the sky miraculously cleared…swept down the lake by the breezes, and the cool humid air surrounded us as we joined the few to start the picking. There were gigantic dark red/black cherries (sweet) clustered in trees, and the beautiful cream and pink Queen Anne cherries (sweet) surrounding the patch of our trees we picked.

Peter and Meryl  had a for real picking basket, which is truly the key for true productivity. The basket is hung around your neck and fastened at the hips. There is a canvas flap across the bottom that hooks up and over the bottom of the basket so it can dump the fruit easily into a container without any spillage. We had metal bowls and postitioned ourselves around, “using the gravity” as Alex proclaimed to help us fill them. We really hit it right as the crop was robust and you could stand under the tree on the underside and pick and pick all the low fruit (I am short, so finally this is something I can do). Kitty got up into Kitty up a Tree, Q. Cassetti, 2010the trees (shes a climber) and positioned her bowl close to the trunk of the tree, casting down handfuls of fruit for collection—our silver bowls brimming with brilliant red fruit.  Shady guarded us (read, lay in the grass and wagged her tail at anyone that came by) and will filled many bowls and delivered them to Peter who was sorting them. Peter has all sorts of culinary projects to divide the pulp, the pits and the skins between so nary an ounce is wasted. It is always fun to see what Peter comes up with every year and to be involved on the absolute front end is an annual occurrence that I hope will become a tradition.

It was lovely with the birds, the wind, and the view down to Seneca Lake with the early morning evolving and warming. By 8 a.m. we had made a big dent on what Peter wanted to accomplish and by 8 a.m. we were not the only people picking. The Mennonites arrived promptly at 8, bringing all the right tools from ladders to all sorts of buckets and pails to take their collection of sweet and sour cherries home. There was far more interest by more parties in the sweet (which left the garnet jewels, the sours, to us). It is the fruitier’s  first day of fishing season—this first day of cherry picking. It is truly remarkable that these trees bearing white flowers only around six weeks ago had fruit for us to take home before the first of July.

Work awaits, but I had to breathe a bit of this your way….happy first day of summer…try some cherry picking yourself!

Feathered fun

Images of KamadevaKnocking em down. Alex is done with his exams. Kitty has a little summer bug. Mr. Percival B. White has settled in…with lots of lolling about, sleeping in odd places, cuddling with shoes. Nigel is done this week— he has a little trip planned. Rob is Manager on Duty tonight…so he will be running late.

More pictures of Kamadeva. Love the parrot made up of green sari’ed ladies…or the little cart pulled by a pair of birds.

From Indian Divinity:

 

Kamadeva, the god of love, is very fair and handsome and the best looking among the gods. He carries a bow made of sugarcane and strung with a line of humming bees. He shoots with his bow the five flower-tipped shafts of desire. RATI (passion)his wife and his friend VASANTA (spring), who selects for him the shaft to be used on the current victim accompanies him. Kamadeva’s vehicle is the parrot.
Lovely, lovely exotica.
Now for a channel change. Jim Reidy told me about this fabulous, free presentation site that one can create truly cool presentations in a distinct, non linear way. Prezi.com—defines itself as a “zoomable interface”. Not only is it cool as a way to go beyond the stupidity of Powerpoint—but as an artist/illustrator/ designer… thinking of this medium as a way to tell a story is very cool. Need to fiddle with it a bit…but the ability to zoom in /out can add focus, and draw the viewer in to a story. Take a look.
One more exclamation on the local level. We have a bulk foods store moving into the former Artisan Cafe space “Good to Go”! I found out about this on 
Facebook as they are vetting their logotype to the group at large…So, another new retailer in our little hamlet.
More later.

 

 

Love God

KamadevaDoing a little cerebral multi tasking while looking at my lovelly Lubok book, reading a book on Devi (Hindu Gods) and having (as usual) bees on the brain. The Lubok illustration just vibrates with strong power albeit naively distorting things and living very much in the land of the flat and patterned. I am working on another Lubok bee picture, picking up elements (some typographic frames and detail) as I chip away at it. The Devi book is chock full of tiny stories of different iterations of Vishnu  other gods. Of course, there is Ganesha (the elephant headed guy) and the horrifying and compelling Kali (goddess of blood and death) and now, there is Kama (Kama Deva). He is the god of pleasure— and is shown riding a parrot (!!), shooting a bow with a sugar cane bow…Kama is known by these attributes as well as bees…! Wikipedia says:

Kāmadeva is represented as a young and handsome winged man who wields a bow and arrows. His bow is made of sugarcane with a string of honeybees, and his arrows are decorated with five kinds of fragrant flowers. The five flowers are Ashoka tree flowers, white and blue lotus flowers, Mallika tree(Jasmine) andMango tree flowers.

So, there has to be a picture or two of him…as there are all things good…Parrots, bees and bows and arrows. An indian cupid albeit he is a bit more about divine love, heavenly love, and the desire for that. So, russian folk art will meet hindu gods…Yay!

Rob got home yesterday afternoon. He had a great time and seems like he learned a great deal during his journey about work, design, and perceptions of the GlassLab. We are glad to have him home.

I am clocking down the work. Tomorrow, I am really seeing the pile reduce and quiet before the craziness that often comes with summer. Its great to have it settle down.

The Yearbook team met today which evolved into a planning session for the first half of next year’s class, what we are doing, how we assign the teams, what the jobs are and how we will keep the project on target and responsible for the production of the book. I am optimistic. I bought a few of the “Day in the Life” books from Alibris—which I took over to them as an inspiration for the type of photography we will do. We have 100 pictures a week as a mandate (and the students will edit 10 out, and submit them to the yearbook team for review every three classes). Here is a link to this years book to show you what we printed with Lulu>>. There is more interest at the Middle School and other small schools around here about “how we did it”. I  predict we will be talking to others in the next few months.

First day of Summer, 2010

Summer Bounty, Q. Cassetti, 2010Not much to say. It was redding up last night and a load of laundry this morning. Shady went out with me to check on the efficacy of the Irish Spring treatment on our apple trees (its working) this morning. She managed to get herself tangled up in velcro weed and ended up covered in thorny, green pods which wasnt the end. She found a delicious patch of something that she started rolling in…ending up sticky, and appropriately stinky. Then, she shared the wealth with me. Cut to the chase, a bath before nine….for Ms. Shady Grove along with a lot of brushing.

Kitty is finishing her adirondack chair this morning. Hopefully we can engage her in class selections and take her picture for Hampshire. Long and drawn out.

I discovered my illustration work was being posted, “blogged” and “reblogged” on Tumblr.com There are posts by people talking about reusing my artwork ( I know, I know, that this is wrong…but how do you stop it). I am fine if they want to use it, its more the sheer courtesy, yes manners, of asking before taking. But, I am showing my old age and fussy upbringing in even saying this. Erich is always reminding me that things have changed despite the laws, and that once things are  posted, they are public and out of my control. Tumblr is microblogging, in a sense like twitter, but a way to share ideas, images, photographs etc. How would you address this…? Yes, its like Twitter and Facebook but feels somewhat more random for me. Here is what I found on Tumblr re: me, me and did I say, me? 

Starting a new sweet picture in the Lubok spirit….same topic, new style (or changed style)… More later. These take a bit longer.

Sunday Berries

In Search of the Sweet, Q. Cassetti, 2010, pen and inkAlex and I had a quiet evening—chatting and hanging out. It was really nice to spend one on one time with this thoughtful person. He has lots of good insights and ideas. He has a great intuitive pulse on people and I trust his observations as they are founded in a balance of good values and clear thought.

The picture to the left is a bow to Lukok, the Russian folk art style I have mentioned in the past. I loved the playing card inspired face and the bizarre interpretation of the horse and his eyes… I was thinking of crusaders and the things they took with them or even found during their trips and decided that a skep filled with honey would be a grand thing. The torch in the riders hand is a primitive smoker that the beekeepers need to  quiet the bees before they break into the hive.  I cannot resist doing more of these goofy horses…they are so funny and rock. .Thus this image. It looks pretty woodcutty. I don’t know if we need color? Jim Reidy saw this and this is the basis for the Cayuga Blue Notes image. Fun, Right?

Alex and I and Haley all went to Silver Queen Farm (Stillwell Rd, Trumansburg) to pick strawberries. It worked out that Alex and Haley picked strawberries and peas while I gathered a bucket of raspberries, which I have mascerating in a bit of sugar right now. The plan is to break these berries out into separate containers for cakes etc. later. The delicacy of “soft fruit” was apparent to me while I cruised down the lanes of trimmed and shapely raspberry hedges. I was noting how clean and non weedy the whole operation is…but musing that if I was a snake, I would be in those toasty bushes making my nest in the quiet, fragrant, hot darkness. Creeping myself out, I shook the idea. Then as Alex and Haley came to shake me from my meditation, I was going for a dark space and a twinkle of a serpentine head with a long (2”) forked tongue appeared…and I squeeked. They were there…so it wasnt a creepy thing…it was a real part of the story!

Two double batches of granola out of the oven. A full one going in for Kitty’s teacher who is “hooked” to the stuff, and the other to fill the cache we have here that is dwindling. Need to go  finish that project and wrap some graduation presents. No rest for the wicked.

Muggy

Two new banners at the Hangar Theatre, Q. Cassetti, 2010Last night we attended the comedy, “The 39 Steps” at the Hangar Theatre…their opening night in the newly rennovated space. Imagine my surprise and delight  when we pulled up to the Hangar to find 3 of the 6 large scale banners hung on the building! Yes, I know I did the work, but to see them bigger than life and better than anticipated (how often does that happen?) Man, to gloat a bit, this vector stuff really works big like a dream. I need to get back to working this style a bit more…cause the huge piece matches up nicely with the tiny reproduction on the cover of the program. The theatre looks great and real. We are so lucky to have such generous citizens donate to make this a theatre facility to match the talent and shows being presented. Wendy Dann, the director of  “The 39 Steps” took us all on a very imaginative journey with four very skilled, comedic actors creating environments out of parts leading us  to places outlandish or predictable.  We were in trains, planes, automobiles and rollercoasters. There were no end of windows and doors that were cued beautifully…(Alex’s observation) to interesting and odd locations. It was a fun confection, the play, the place, the rich evening rolling in front of us after this fun experience. I highly recommend it. I need better pix of the banners…but hey, here are the point and shoots.

Saturday a.m. at SaudersGloria and I got up early and went to Sauders for granola makings, fresh strawberries and the like. I bought bacon ends, free range eggs, and something called “Amish Wedding” Cherry juice. We got strawberries which were glorious and the shape that say, “I am not from California or Florida” in an entirely different coloration and red. I got some chicken, some cheese, and containers to pack more granola in as there seems to be a new demand for the stuff. I snapped some shots to show you that no…this is not holllywood Amish stuff, but the real Mennonite scene.  We left at 8, got back by 10 with a 40 -45 drive each way. It was great driving north on RT. 414 through Romulus which we call the Amish Mainstreet. Farmstands galore, with tons of big draft horses grazing or even better, harnessed and working— truly defining 12 horsepower. Its not quite that time, but with twenty bucks and a big cooler, I can easily fill the box with produce for a week from these farmstands. Soon…but now its asparagus, fresh peas and the new strawberries. Cherries are a week away…particularly the sour cherries which I will pick with Kitty and Alex and Peter Hoover sometime during the first week of July.

We just got back from Americana Winery for lunch with Gloria, Rob’s sister who is visiting. The food was glorious and we sat outside and pretended we were on vacation…talking and having fun. The only damper to our lunch was that another table brought their feisty Shepherd mix who decided to try to get into a fight with the two winery chocolate labs. Amazingly enough, the Shepherd’s family sat placidly there while the lab was threatened very loudly by their pooch. Certainly made lunch a lot less pleasant with that sort of floor show. Note to self: keep the dog in the car or at home…and let everyone have a nice time.

More pictures in the works. I am working on a Lubok (Russian Folk Art) inspired bee picture. When Jim R. saw it.. we decided to fuse this approach with the new Cayuga Blue Notes band he is in. Love it. Should be fun.

Gotta go.

IF: Paisley

Boot, Q. Cassetti, 2008, digitalPaisley comes from a town in Scotland where paisley shawls were woven. It is also a particular pattern which has these stylized teardrop shaped “paisleys”. These boots are as close to paisley as I have right now.

Before the storm

Under the golden light, Q. Cassetti, 2010, mixed mediaLots of kids and activity here yesterday. Alex got a golf game in despite the rain. Kitty worked at the makeup company, Silk Naturals helping to put together a series of mini kits. It seems to be quiet work, but it makes Kitty happy.

The grass is thick and lush…and LONG. Another day of promising rain, first thing this morning. Poor Chet, the lawnmower man, will have to put bigger tires to raise his mower up to clear this long, long grass. We took Shady out last night and I threw pinecones (Shady’s passion) into the brush and she, poor driven thing, went “to ground” to find the cone, coming out of the greenery wrapped in “velcro weed” and absolutely covered with seeds. She was patient and very sweet letting me comb her to get the green prickles out of her long dark hair. I am thinking that maybe she gets another haircut today.

This picture is another in the works. I think I like the components better than the overall…and may chop it up and see if I can make a pattern block or two from this. The triangular tulip could make a nice repeat as well as the yellow posies. I have mounted a few patterns to Spoonflower, but the catch before the patterns go live, I think I have to order a swatch to proof it. So, that’s where the money is. I am going to make some pillows out of a bee fabric or two…and I have these cool tibetian charms (golden bees) that I would like to sew around the edges…Could be really nice.

I have been going a bit crazy with the charms and bee stuff. They are really cheap on ebay from Asia…and want to package them up for sale on Etsy. The bees are dear, and the religious ones…well…are religious (which for me is **!!).

I finished up the teeshirt for the Pourhouse…They seem pleased. More stuff for the big client…There is a down and back to Corning in late afternoon for Kitty’s teeth. Big day.

Hermione Camp is Mr. White. We took her to the doctor and after a lot of flipping him around—they ruled he wasnt a she. New sex, new name…