willow

Willow sketch as part of the body of Memento Mori images. Came close to wrecking the car driving back from Rochester looking at the drapey willows lining the road. Also have been looking at the willows from the Marblehead cemetery for reference. More later on this>>

Happy Birthday from Steuben


Happy Birthday
Robert Cassetti & Q. Cassetti, 2007
Height 2.25"
Item 9175
$500 each

Mark a very special birthday, a new baby's arrival or a personal milestone with this delightful confection — a gift that will be cherished forever, especially when personalized.

Glass cupcake. Good pricepoint. Originally was to have a silver candle or a silver candle in a silver candleholder that could actually hold a real birthday candle (wax) that you could light. Proposed was for the packaging was a small, casebound, bakery box tied with red and white string with a mini doily under the cupcake. As you can see, it was pared downn to keep it conceivable price wise.

Suspended Canoe

The holiday card for the dog client is cute as pie. Really. I think this thing might have "legs" and maybe get into Print Regional and or the lesser of the illustration shows (upcoming deadline). It has been the first of my illustrations to print...and it was very exciting to see it live on press. This stuff prints well with all the flat color...so I am re-energized to start rolling on more dogs, a fox, a llama, a tiger and a few cats for possible use in a pub for the same client. Could look really good...and push that hand/ approach to illustration along.

While on press, I was given a new Steuben catalog to find out there were 4 brand new Q&rc designs finished, photographed and printed. The cupcakes were featured in the section on gifts. Too bad the silver candle was dropped off the design...it really made the piece work. Rob's NYC piece will sell. Kind of makes me want to think about doing some more designs (self motivated)--as they do get done...and they do spin a little $$./

The drive up and back from Rochester was beautiful on 96 to 5 and 20. The produce is bursting this season...with the funny stand after stand of pale green cannonballs of cabbage for sale. Fields and fields of cabbages to be picked and open topped big trucks filled to the brim with them too. Lotsa cabbage and corn (cheap now, $2 a dozen), tomatoes by the bushel, peaches are still here with nectarines coming in. The amish farmstand I support had huge blackberries for $2.50 a huge box. These were black and glossy and as big as a lychee nut each. They had gigantic red peppers for $.35 each...so I have 5 of them ready to roast and keep around. They are so lovely to have. The parking lot sized stands featuring mums on a grid in every color imaginable (except for blue) were in business. This is such a robust time of the year. Everything at full fruition--full bloom, full tilt. Even the huge dahlias, those dinnerplate dahlias are bursting forth. This is the time we should have Thanksgiving. So much to be thankful for.

Had a nice swim in the lake last night, and just repeated it early this morning. The sky and water were the same color so it seemed that the canoes we could see from our windows were suspended in the air. The only give away was the shadow on the water that seemed to ripple occasionally.

Peace on Earth

New Steuben Design:

Peace on Earth
Robert Cassetti & Q. Cassetti • 2007
Height 4.5" with base
Item 9172 • $3,000

A pair of angels trumpets good news. Their figures, etched in a renaissance calligraphic style called "chancellersca", seem to multiply in the prismatic facets out of this elegant design, creating a chorus of angels to celebrate a happy event.

More later. Just back from a presscheck...and need to catch up>>

Thought bubble


I woke up early, very early this morning and let the stream of images and ideas amuse me until it was time to crawl out and drink coffee at a more "civilized" time. Lots of good ideas I want to capture:

Memento Mori:
>Consider the gravestone shapes. Some of them are absolutely puritanical (just a rectangle of tremendous proportions), some are slightly embellished rectangles and others go for baroque. Instead of putting borders on an image, consider the image shape...and how does it go someplace from there.
>Note that when drawn with a point, a picture goes from nice to mean and scary. Good point. Stick with the points...unless its a cherub.
> Yesterday's fun with cut paper silhouettes manifested some cool stuff with drawn images. Work on that more. Do a spread of urns and a spread of either cherubs or winged skulls and see what happens. Could put the slash style on a better footing. More designed. Also, looks like some of the early Warhol advertising art. Look at that.
>Work on more hand lettering. This is the stuff that can be integrated into the drawings. Type for the copy.
> Excerpt blog for copy. Edit the crap out of it.
> Write a nice acknowledgment to the two people who were the impetus to this work. Write a nice dedication to the home team. Design it as a sticker to print on the epson and can be applied to the book.
>Work on line drawings of the willow. Marblehead cemetary had some nice references. Consider a willow spread with an urn knocked out of the pattern for copy. Could be pretty.
>Consider using the mighty epson for a book jacket cover (that folds all the way into the spine of the paperback book). Consider drawing some intense sharp shapes to make a pointy/scary pattern. Remember the ribbon idea (thread it through 2 slits made in the book jacket cover (as the paper folds into the book) on both covers, and run the loose ribbon between the book jacket cover and the cover. The ribbon is only to be seen at the side of the book. Keep the ribbon either black (grograin) or a metallic pewter to maintain the one color job-bed ness of the piece.

Valentine's day piece:
> Consider the square Lulu book.
> Consider a folded piece of output from the mighty epson inspired by the quicky done at SU for Whitney
>Consider selling it via q.cassetti.com Why wouldn't people be interested in custom valentines ($20-$25)/ Goes beyond flowers, shows some intelligence and an ability to use the web?
>Consider selling it on Esty.
>Send to customers.
>Consider the folded "ice cream cone" shape that then could be a japanese accordion book type of thing. Gluing a piece of duplex board to the top and bottom single "ice cream cone" shape...could be cute. Maybe overly cutsy.
> If its a book, what's the packaging? Can Lulu perfect bind a 24 pp. book? (they seem to work in signatures of 8 and 16).
Could I do a 32pp piece? (16 spreads?)
> Or do the book and repurpose the illustrations into a series of folding cards that are printed chez studio.

Other thoughts:
> These projects are going to generate a lot of art.
>Consider other uses for the art in addition to packaging the whole thing as a show (and having the pubs for sale along with giclees of the images (selected) from the show.
> What else?

Good thing this is a part time enterprise.

That's the dump. Gotta get to Tburg early cause I have a meeting exactly at nine. Looks like a beautiful day. School is a week away. Yipes!

Note: Willow Tree - Grief, death, earthly sorrow. Often carried at Masonic funerals, the willow is the tree of human sadness.
Interesting that the willow tree shown in the picture commemorates someone named Felix, which in latin means happy. If you didnt know it was a person, the juxaposition is good.

solid blacks





Scanning around in the world of Memento Mori and have found some great type samples I will use as my model for some of the lettering I plan on messing around with in the psychotic Book of Kells mode. I like the naive thicks and thins...and think I may try to not just render the forms, but look at adding the incision to the forms. We'll see. The nice thing about the words MEMENTO MORI is that I will not have to design 11 letters but 7...and as M and N are derivative, and I and T are relateed...it knocks things down...albeit, there might be a ligature or one of those funny letters that ascend? The gravestones commonly show the word "Ye" as a Y with the e nested in the V of the letter Y. Very cute.

Also am planning to cut a bunch of silhouettes and shapes with some nice black paper R surfaced in out neatening and throwing during the weekend. I am also trying out some big ink shapes that I will bring into photoshop/illustrator and cut into digitally. The nice thing that happens there...is the "hand" still exists...not so perfect--a bit wobbly, so the digification is not so apparent... I also plan to work on some line art and merge it with the cut silhouettes as there might be something there as well (red and blackware from Greece as a prod or advertising art of the late 50s and 60s...). Just a thought.

The double portrait logotype will finish up today. Done. May work on a new typographic mark for Glass Lab...a portable glass studio that is going to start travelling the world for art shows--simple applications like teeshirts and a hand out rack style card.

Got my holiday cards (I am selling) back from PSPrint. Color was a little brighter than what I had anticipated (but really not to the detriment of the illustration along with snappy red envelopes I am going to package them with. Got some pale blue envelopes for the dog holiday card (thinking of selling) and orange ones to go with the "High on Life" skull card I am planning on producing. The holiday cards are being sold in sets of 6 for $9...or $8.50. The dog cards will be more (they are bigger)--probably around $2.25 each or sets of 6 for $12. High on life card will be $2. each. All for the Art Trail party.

Also, will need to get the work to the SPCA show later this week. I think we are on to something with these clip frames with images that are full bleed. And the checque to the State of the Art Gallery for the Art Trail intro show. Biz-ee.

Need to go wake the kinder up>> the day awaits>

To Dude

As someone's mom, to be "dude-ed" has been rather unsettling. First off,I am no dude--I am someone's mom. Second, in the informal --dropping dude into sentences much the way "uh" is--slurred into whatever content being communicated--what does that mean? Or the ecstatic, cheery opener to a conversation that sings "Dude!!" (in a LOL spirit) with a musicality...that can be translated as perhaps "Hey! You!". I have not liked being a dude until I have put it into the italian context which it is the furthest from. I think that dude pretty much morphs into use the way the italians use Regazzi.

Regazzo is a boy. Regazza is a girl. More than one boy is Regazzi. More than one girl is Regazze. Mixed group, Regazzi--informally, kids--Ciao Regazzi (guys, gang?). So, the word Regazzi is used often, fast and furiously. To that, I can dig dude. Dude is sexless and really ageless. It can be used as a place holder like "uh"--but you can draw it out to make yourself sound pretty dumb/stoned without much trying. Dude is also a good swap for "guy" which also is pretty generic.

Okay, dudes?

Cool day today due to the rain and front that came through last night. Am working away on urns, swirls and thinking about hourglasses. Have thumbnailed the lulu pub...and am on track. Planning on 32 pp +4 cover. Black and white throughout.
Need to check on that. Might have to be 48 to get it bound. No problem on that. If I make Oct.1. my cut off for the images, there will be plenty of time to do the final layout, copywriting etc. for a November 5 delivery. The Lulu folks said it takes 2-3 days to do the printing. And, if I send one out just as a dummy...and then do a mini production after that...I will still hve the time. Maybe a little virtual chat online tomorrow...to get some guidance.

Just made a blueberry cake and a keylime mango pie for guests tomorrow along with a denudification of the veggie stand a block away. If the clouds move a little, it will be perfection.

Gravestone imagery from Wiki


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravestone

"Gravestones may be simple upright slabs with semi-circular, rounded, gabled, pointed-arched, pedimental, square or other shaped tops. During the 18th century, they were often decorated with memento mori (symbolic reminders of death) such as skulls or winged skulls (called "death's heads"), winged cherub heads, heavenly crowns, urns or the picks and shovels of the grave digger. Somewhat unusual were more elaborate allegorical figures, such as Old Father Time, or emblems of trade or status, or even some event from the life of the deceased (particularly how they died). Later in the same century, large tomb chests or smaller coped chests were commonly used by the gentry as a means of commemorating a number of members of the same family. In the 19th century, headstone styles became very diverse, ranging from plain to highly decorated. They might be replaced by more elaborately carved markers, such as crosses or angels. Simple curb surrounds, sometimes filled with glass chippings, were popular during the mid-20th century.

Some form of simple decoration is once more popular. Special emblems on tombstones indicate several familiar themes in the Christian faith. Some examples are:

* Anchor - Steadfast hope
* Arch - Rejoined with partner in Heaven
* Birds - The soul
* Cherub - Divine wisdom or justice
* Column - Noble life
* Broken column - Early death
* Conch shell - Wisdom
* Cross, anchor and Bible - Trials, victory and reward
* Crown - Reward and glory
* Dolphin - Salvation, bearer of souls to Heaven
* Dove - Purity, love and Holy Spirit
* Garland - Victory over death
* Gourds - Deliverance from grief
* Heart - Devotion
* Horseshoe - Protection against evil
* Hourglass - Time and its swift flight
* Ivy - Faithfulness, memory, and undying friendship
* Lamb - Innocence
* Laurel - Victory
* Lily - Purity and resurrection
* Mermaid - Dualism of Christ - fully God, fully man
* Oak - Strength
* Olive branch - Forgiveness, and peace
* Palms - Martyrdom, or victory over death
* Peacock - Eternal life
* Poppy - Eternal sleep
* Rooster - Awakening, courage and vigilance
* Shell - Birth and resurrection
* Six pointed star - The God
* Skeleton - Life's brevity
* Snake in a circle - Everlasting life in Heaven
* Swallow - Motherhood
* Broken sword - Life cut short
* Crossed swords - Life lost in battle
* Torch - Eternal life if upturned, death if extinguished
* Tree trunk - The beauty of life
* Triangle - Truth, equality and the trinity
* Shattered urn - Old age, mourning if draped
* Weeping willow - Mourning, grief

Greek letters might also be used:

* αω (alpha and omega) - The beginning and the end
* χρ (chi rho) - The first letters spelling the name of Christ
* IHS - Stylised version of iota-eta-sigma, a Greek abbreviation of Jesus"

Elaborately carved grave slab at Shebbear (Devon, England) showing a skull sprouting flowering shoots, as a symbol of resurrection

High Summer


One of those hotter than blazes summer days. I was musing that it would have been sad for the summer to end without a few little firecrackers to remind us that it is and has been summer. We all are trying to do stuff and are dragging around with the heat. The breeze is blowing however, which makes it slightly more bearable. Back to the spa water in about 20 minutes to lower the core temperature. The hosta we have in front of the house are beginning to bloom--big 6" long white trumpets that exude the most amazing fragrance. I have tried to identify the species...and they never get into the nuances that are needed so as to match what we have. These plants are beasts--always giving more when I chop away in the spring (quite nastily) to cleve the plants "for their health"--and more like in greed to have more of these lovelies. Beautiful beasts none the less. The hosta I threw in lakeside adore being there...so the hosta snacks that are being consumed by Bambi et al (quick...the gun!)are making a 15 minute trip north and will, next summer be residents of the lake.

The water was crystal clear, brisk and heavenly this morning. We all tread water and threw sticks for the dog. The only really scary thing about being in the clear water is seeing the big, floppy carp that like to swim along with us. Mother duck and ducklings were making the rounds along with a duck Kitty proclaims is a common merganser.

I am chipping away at all the little places that collect crap, litter, old ikea parts etc along with the random crayon, bead, rubberband, snippets of this and that. Out, out out. Musty yarn> good bye! Broken pots, rusty dull shears. See ya! Old magazines that reinforce my Rip Van Winkleness. Paperbacks that have been read...and will not see the light of day. Books given to us that none of us will read. Old pads of paper with 2 sheets of paper in it. And of course, my favorite, the thousands of used double and triple A batteries that haven't grown legs to walk to the trash can.It is a good week of stuff clearing, but it is cathartic to begin this process.

Going to make a lemon bagna calda with blanched green beans, and a Mango/Key Lime Pie along with steamed and cold local produce and some grilled chicken for friends tomorrow. Need to see the vegetable man at the top of the hill to see what else he has to offer. Blueberries? Peaches? Tomatoes? Kitty and I are eyeballing a curried pea soup (cold) in the July Gourmet...maybe that for later this week? And there is a blueberry "pudding" that looks delightful as well. A's birthday is next Saturday--so thinking about food for that is inline...however, stuff with anchovies, capers or anything wierd is off the list.

More later>>

photo: Common Merganser

Old Burial Hill, Marblehead, Massachusetts: Mrs. Susanna Jayne (1776)



"The Susanna Jayne headstone was carved by Henry Christian Geyer. The top part, known as the crown or tympanum, has an unusual shape, although it is obscured by the protective granite now encasing the original stone."

Inscription:

Deposited
Beneath this Stone the Mortal Part
of Mrs. Susanna Jayne, the amiable Wife of
Mr. Peter Jayne, who lived Beloved
and Died Universally Lamented, on
August 8th 1776 in the 45th
Year of her Age.

“Precious in the Sight of the Lord is the Death of his Saints.”

Here Sleeps the precious Dust — She Shines above,
Whose Form was harmony, whose soul was Love.
What were her Virtues? all that Heaven could Spare
What were her Graces? all Divinity Fair.
Mingling with Angels, they admire a Guest,
As spotless Good, and lovely as the Rest.

Gravestone Symbolism
"The Jayne stone features an unusual abundance of symbols. A skeleton, representing Death, is the central figure. It wears a crown of laurels, indicative of victory. In its hands are celestial objects: the moon in one hand and the sun in the other. Behind Death is the scythe it uses to reap its harvest. Encircling Death is a snake, with its tail in its mouth, possibly indicating the neverending nature of eternity. In the upper two corners are winged cherubs, or angels of heaven. In the lower corners are bats of the underworld. The upper panel has an hourglass flanked by bones: Death moves in when time runs out."

from Old Burial Hill

Sensational reference. The whole site is from imagery to wonderfully wierd ligatures etc.

Struggle


I have been thinking a lot about how to make type bump up against my illustrations better. My mentor and teacher, Professor Arnold Bank, known for his singular and definite opinions on things had a dictate. You make your letters with the same tool you do the illustration with. So, pencil drawing, pencil lettering. Music pen lettering>>music pen drawing and so on. How this parlays to type is another thing...unless the illlustrations are like chapbook illustrations or even silhouettes --black and blocky--then black and blocky be the type. If the type is elegant and refined, inspired by the romans, drawn by the angels, elegant line drawings suffice.

However, the type just looks "stuck there". I do admire the way Ludwig Hohlwein integrates and designs the type or in some cases a wonderful hand-drawn script with his work. It seems to flow better with the illustration--incorporating the two versus the whole heres the image and here's the type. This is where the men and boys are distinguished. This takes skill. Bernhart isnt shy either. Nor is Julian Klinger, another poster designer in the early part of the 1900s. Maybe it's because the illustration is more graphic, more amenable to being married to type.

Poster by Ludwig Hohlwein.

Another thought I had the other day was the typographer/designer that is in me needs to take a break. I was randomly drawing some letters for the Happy Healthy Holiday card in a kind of wack job, highly illegible way--think lines broken up with dots and curves etc and all smashed together using a single line pen (a la Steinberg)--having it come out in a Book of Kells-y on crack look. I scanned it into photoshop and randomly began to color it. Interesting process. The result was relatively cool and not in any way pure typography. Maybe the way to crack this typography nut is to forget (or put the pause button on) and try to be more in the world of "automatic drawing" and see what evolves. The less planning, the better.

Illustration Friday entry next...?

Wellspring


It's funny how we all seem to go back to the well, the same well we have been going to since we picked up a pencil and started to draw or think about drawing. In this well are the personal favorite things...topics, images, techniques that are always there whenever a roadblock is there to start the cycle of thinking and wondering. This memento mori thing has been in my well...and never really been tapped the way I am beginning to wail on it. I have always been fascinated with the whole end of chapter thing..death, the death industry, architecture and art, history of traditions and expectations--almost exclusively western culture. I have read books on the subject --and devoured them. I learned to drive in a cemetery near my house as I feared the streets and figured the only people I could really kill were already dead in the Homewood Cemetery. My father was proudly on the board of the oldest cemetery in Pittsburgh, The Allegheny Cemetery, where we would regularly go a visit the family plots and marvel as the bizarre ways that people wanted to memorialize their lives and accomplishments. I love the monuments--particularly the high victorian ones and the family mausoleums. In the Allegheny Cemetery, there are miniature greek and roman temples, Richardson Romanesque bunkers and some beautifully rendered, high camp Egyptian pyramids with gilded and polychrome sandstone columns. There are urns on columns, of course the plethora of angels, even a stone tree with it's limbs sawn off (all sandstone) with the bark all carved with care, the the names in ovals where the limbs used to be saying "Mother", "Father", "Brother"...you get the idea. I love the lettering of any time, the older and odder the better. I love the shapes of the stones (again, the older the better).

Trips to Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Philadelphia and Civil War Battlefields always promised a visit to the cemetery so see the illustrations, the shapes, the lettering the sites. It gave context to the antique. When I was in Italy for 4 months in college, I was taken to numerous cemetetaries--surprised by the above ground graves, the non-parklike settings we are so used to. I reveled in reliquaries and the bones in the cathedrals and churches. Bones in gilded boxes. Bones with fuffly, serious bows and ribbons. Carved stone bones as part of the decor of the spaces. This was a sensibility I couldn't wrap my mid-western head around...but loved. I don't know if I love it as much now...but the sheer oddity is appealing.

This is odd that this is what has leapt up out of the well for me. Maybe it's the contemplation I have been doing about being fifty (soon), maybe its spurred by the work the Avian Flu series promised, or maybe is a direct reaction to the work I have been focused on for my thesis...or at least maybe that reaction is the spur to try some new stuff and get it out. Having this lulu project has been the incentive. Whatever. You poor devils are going to see a bunch on this stuff (so much so, I have made a label for this sort of chat for the blog..so it's not going anywhere fast).

Enough musing.

Off to Cornell this morning to talk with writers and lunch (a treat) with a very interesting scientist who is changing the world by his research and projects he has started that stemmed from his research and travels. The Trumansburg Fair continues. More rides for the teens...more hanging out in adolescent clusters. This is all very important to do.

Will update later.

Put wings on it.


Live from the sketch book. Holiday cards...gone (for now!). Inspiration from the gravestones below. More inspiration..more images.

Missed the Demolition Derby last night. It was just plain too cold, too grey and too humid to really soak it in. All sorts of trashed cars are in the parking lots waiting for the weekend dem derby and possibly the figure eight. I love this stuff. The scene is essentially this: most of trumansburg congregates in the grandstands of the fair ground. Bursting with people. The various sports teams represented by players in uniforms are working the crowd selling candy and cookies to glean as much money before the school year happens. Between the grandstand and the stage is a dirt track that they race horses on etc. On the stage side facing the crowd is the entire fire department in total fire gear with hoses etc. ready to jump on any problem. There are 3-4 tow trucks in tow--at the ready. There are a ton of very important people on the stage who comment, dedicate and recognize. I love it that our local car dealership stands as the sponsor of the event. Perfection.

Within this space are fifty (or so) cars, parked nose to nose. The cars are total art. All the windows are out. All the interiors are stripped out to being a seat and a steering wheel. Some of the roofs have been chopped, some have been lowered to close to the ground etc. Then, the paint jobs are either a spray collage with names/words/ phrases/ the names of the cars...or my favorite kinds (very Mad Max-y) that are matte black with a really primative single letter on the side (lettering beyond great...) with the chopped squished roof. Inside are the drivers who range from young women and men to all sizes and shapes of middle aged men. So, on to the sport. When the sign is given, the drivers pull forward, and go backward...for a long time until someone is too bashed up to move any more. The driver jumps up and out of the front window, climbing to the top and jumping off the car and running off the field of automotive centaurians. Smoke and steam. It is a bit scary thinking of the "what ifs"..but I looooove it.

Horse pull tonight.