ohmygod! a note from Kevin (as it was listed in the email box)

Who is this Kevin? Does he want me to buy real estate in Hawaii? Is he one of those random folks that have odd stock picks as related to one's astrological signs? If I open this letter will my computer fill up with the red ants of virus and hate? Or does Kevin have odd supplies and off brand ink for my printer? Is Kevin really his name? Should I open it...?

November 16, 2007

Dear Exhibitor,

CONGRATULATIONS! Your entry or entries have been accepted into the 50th Annual Exhibition for the Society of Illustrators. A Letter of Acceptance has been mailed. You will be receiving it shortly. This letter will have the specific entry or entries that were accepted into the 50th Annual Exhibition. We ask that you please refrain from calling the Society of Illustrators before you receive the Letter of Acceptance.

Thank you.

The Society of Illustrators

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!! Now its the waiting game to see what got in!!
Yayayayayayaya. Big time! Yeah! I really hoped....really!

Hello membership in SOI!

Crushed

Have been crushed by work. Its that time when everyone understands the year is about to end...and they need to get all the work they have shelved for most of the year...done. And we get it...and would love a bit more time to do the quality we want...but hey. It gets done. We all survive. Just with a little less sleep.

Will need to take a day or so off the Memento Mori drawings to work on some Tikis for the Museum of Glass. They are doing a 2300˚ event featuring the famous King Kukulele, and the musical feature will be Fisherman's Vibraphonic Tiki Orchestra--to everyone's delight. The tiki that the Museum is looking for should stem from the Easter Island heads versus the textury fun tikis that inspire folks like Shag etc. There was a cool show in London, the London Luau earlier this year featuring tikis that was a cool starting place. Room to move...and post Momento MOri, there is def a body of work in these guys too. There is a Saint Patrick's day illustration in the mix too. Maybe a little illustrative typography a la Tim Biskup woven with shamrocks and stuff. No leprechauns. A feminine illustration for the LPGA and 2300˚ using golf balls and a Motown musical reference (thats a head buster...I may go fluffy with that). So, I will be posting some of the sketches for your reading and looking pleasure.

Speaking of illustration, check out this month's Thanksgiving Mad Magazine. Our pal Richard Williams truly outdoes himself with the traditional Rockwell image of grandma and grandpa at the table with the turkey...only problem is that their guests are Nichol Richie, Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan and Brittney Spears all embracing their signature sins (drink, children, nudity, etc). Now that I know Richard, his work sparkles with his wit and technique...the job he did was glowing and beautiful. So run to your newsstand. Mr. Williams awaits on the face of MAD.

House of Health has been fun. There is this new breed of Russian Lady. They are the waterwalkers. These ladies gather in one lane of the lap swimming pool. There may be as many as three ladies together. They are neat and tidy and have these lovely, sparkling water shoes on their feet and they chat and walk up and down the lane for twenty minutes or so. Up and back, back and forth. Some of these ladies have a tough time walking and moving outside of the aquatic environment. In the water they are graceful and happy. It takes the passion and intensity of the superswimmers down--as they are there, having a nice chat, keeping a dry hairdo--but moving and getting a bit more flexible in the wonderful medium of the water in the pool. the superswimmers have a passion and intensity that I love watching as these are folks that do not kid around. There are wonderful tattoos on the superswimmers from flora to a lovely bouquet of keys on one individual. There are goggles and caps...the nicest cap which is a pearly, white/silver from another planet. I am thinking there is a series of pictures of swimmers with caps and goggles...tight crop --portraits to really define it...of all sorts of people. Maybe call the body of work, "Bathing Beauties". Nice creamy mats. Cool palette using a bunch of semi off, acid-y colors.

Need to get plans squared away before Tgiving. We are off the join the clan don the Burg. Primantis in order. Tom promises something rootsy on the Northside. The cousins will convene. We will deliver 80% of the Christmas presents too. Rolling Rocks and Iron City awaits. Yikes!

Enough of this rambling. Need to do some file correction and a little research on CD sleeve production.

a tiny bit of crowing!


Just got an email this morning from the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles (SILA) regarding their Illustration West 46 Show. I got 3 things in: The Chicken Chokers CD (in the Entertainment section) and my "Fear and Rage" red and black burka image for display on their website. The illustration used on the Cornell Baker Institute for Animal Health's Holiday Card got an honorable mention and is invited to be in the physical show in addition to the website representation.

If you haven't guessed....
I'm thrilled. They may not be gold or silvers...but I'm in.

Yippee!

Interesting traditions


From Graven Images:

"The burial procession itself was a spectacle as grand as the Puritans could offer. The horses pulling the coffin were often draped with cloth painted with the "scutcheons" of death, probably winged death's heads, crossed bones, picks and shovels, imps of death, and coffins.....The mourners were equally resplendent. Many of them wore long black "Mourning Cloaks" with large white scarves around their necks, and "good gloves" on their hands. Often gold rings were worn under the gloves....rings still exist. They are sometimes ornamented with coffins, angels, or winged death's head and engraved with names or initials. The funeral procession moved from the meetinghouse where a sermon ws read to the burial grounds where more orations and players were read....While the coffin was still in the meetinghouse, it was usual to be surrounded by six mourning women traditionally garbed in black. After the burial the family conducted an "open house"for freinds where large quantities of food and wine were consumed."

"Before the day of the funeral itself, the rituals of invitation were hard and fixed and certainly symbolic. Gloves were traditionally sent as invitations to funerals....Gold rings were also sent out....they were only distributed to family and close friends. Rings, of course, were traditional at marriages. But the interweaving of rings and gloves and feasts at both rituals leads one to the conclusion that death ws conceived as a spiritual marriage between Christ and the soul,while corporeal marriage was its earthly counterpart."

Wow. Rings. Gloves. Food. Decorations for the horses. Food and Drink for everyone. I love the simple tradition here married with the printed materials and stones that surround this final send off. The Victorians took these trappings to a high baroque level..but the pared back version, to me is far more appealing..and interesting as these traditions were the roots of the insanity that happened a hundred years later.

Monday Monday


Everyone has today off but the slave driver (me). K is doing an outdoors club hike. A has a friend over and they plan on sleeping late as the night was long last night with too many movies. R. plans on haircuts, grass seed planting on the newly configured driveway. I have more Christmas happening--with much of it going into boxes to be shipped out this week. We need to get some speed around fulfilling the Art Trail final orders, getting the stuff framed for the 171 Cedar Art event and for getting on the walls around here. We have finally decided on a holiday party of those who have worked for us, with us or we have worked for...and the list (sans kids) is at 80 though I know a bunch will drop out. So, we need to kick the house into some semblance of order, get new pictures on the walls and get everything on the upswing as the end of the first week of December is Art Basel Miami...and it needs to all be in motion before we leave.

Need to write a bunch of stuff today and get some stuff billed. End of year thinking relative to the business needs to happen--thus the need to prod my bookkeeper and accountant to talk to me...so we can figure out how we are going to close the year and any surprises re taxes and more taxes that we have to pay. I hate this stuff.

Learned a little in the world of the Puritans. They would show pinecones and evergreens as symbols of (you guessed it) eternal life, Ever Green. There are some great images of hands extending out of the clouds holding a palm frond (very Edward Hicks-ish) out of the corner of a gravestone. And Crowns....lots of soul effigies wearing crowns....triumphant crowns of resurrection.
Whoa. Remind me to write a bit about the bad little demons that had a short play in this world. Love them.

hmmmmmm.


R and I had a very interesting talk about promotion this morning. I have been wavering between here and there about what I need. Do I need the Ispot? Portfolios.com? or the new offering the Directory of Illustration? First off, I am an art director--and frankly, feel competitive and anxious working with other art directors. I play nice...but such agita that surfaces my competitive dragon--and it is not easy to be pleasant. The thinking of why does this guy have this client, and or why am I helping this guy be successful when the work they do is equal or less than my own graphic design.

I have been incorporating my illustrations into my work evidence Steuben, a new wine project, the old wine project, work with Cornell. I have been selling work off the website and with Ithaca Art Trail. We are getting royalties on work both of us have designed together. So, we are driving the ancillary income stream. Next, the only work that surface with these web sites are clueless jobs (on spec, or total buyouts with quick turn around for $300 an image, or for entities like cigarette companies). All of that does not work at all for me. Third, the illustration invites people into the design work and vice versa--one helps the other for me.

The Memento Mori work will evolve into illustration, product design and development around that idea and content. My website is working and maybe another website will work too (not as expensive as these other places). What I need is a rep, a team of people to help me figure out an entree into the market and for the images that do not go there, a gallery (even local) that will carry my work. I would like to sell my little books (maybe through places like the Dia Bookstore) and would like to target the skate and surf market which some customized pieces and marketing would help.

So, probably no re-up with these organized illustration sites. My website can do the same work--and the exposure to art directors and art buyers is not really something that is going to effect my working in the markets and with the people i better understand who I want to work with.

More later>>

Hinting at Christmas!


The sample Lulu books came yesterday. I created one that was 8.5" x 11" in full color and the other, black and white in the "Crown Quarto" size. To use the hackneyed corporate phraseology-- our"key learnings" were:

--the paper and ink changes depending on the size and type of book.
--the lovely offwhite paper with luscious blacks only live in the 6"x9" and the 7.5"x 7.5" books.
--all other books are on a bright white (white is calibrated as a 96 --I learned about all of that trolling the paper at Staples and trying to understand what all that means)-- a 96 is a bright bluish white.
--Lulu has a good page that talks a bit about the paper and press work albeit they do not get into colorspaces of files etc.
-- Also, they only use two presses: a Docutech or a Xerox IGen3 (specifically for the Comic sized book in black and white.
--the Crown Quarto book I got back (printing "black and white") were on a bright white paper. The full color black and white cover was perfect. The single color interior was washed out, and to be honest, looked shitty. The solution manifested itself in either going for the cream text and black in the 6" x9" size or the 7.5" x 7.5" which gives you almost screen printed matte blacks. Or, to run the job as four color process, using the color to reinforce the blacks. In the Color book I ran, I put in "acceptable quality" stock imagery, imagery from my portfolio, solid and screen tint colors, solid and screen tint type, type in very subtle color moves to see what was picked up, what wasnt. The surprise was that in my vector work, the color ran extra hot (heavy red and yellow) really pushing the imagery. The more neutral the image, the better off we were. However, my guess is, if you have a portrait, the way they have their presses calibrated, the person you have in your book will be semi acceptable versus color like a corpse or a heart attack victim. The black and white examples I put in the color sample were good and dense...looking wonderful.
--Another key learning is that the black and white books that are saddlestitched are heavier paper (80 lb vs 60 lb) in all cases except for the creamy books aforementioned.

So, go figure. I might put together a little Memento Mori "holiday book" (being the 7.5" square to see how that looks. Could be cute albeit the subject matter might make most people cringe. I find it hard to think that this work lives in the world of halloween--and not year round.

Had a nice IM'my type exchange with Paolo from Lulu to find some of this stuff out...the customer service thing is very can do...and good. You can get an answer as you go...which is super good. They are not terribly techy--but they know where on the site you can go...to try to get the info.

Wrapped and tagged Christmas presents today. My goal of having it all done by Veterans Day (an annual goal) may not be totally achieved, but I am a good half way done. Christmas done by Thanksgiving is a must as December needs to be left open for work for my clients as the time speeding by doesn't register until is is two minutes to midnight and the concept of turning back into a pumpkin becomes very real. I anticipate pumpkinhood daily...sometimes hourly. Thus the desire for a blue pill or something illicit like that.

The new driveway is tres luxe. I feel I might be working for the folks that use that driveway. Next step, a tiny "powder room" under the center stairs. I am not a big powder user, however when I was a Lauder girl, I discovered that powder was up front and center to the whole makeup thing. It went on top of the spackle/ foundation and in a combination of foundation and powder you could eliminate all wrinkles, pores and anything that breathes and become an airbrushed face before the airbrushing happens. In our powder room, there will be no space for the foundation and powdering that needs to happen...however, it will serve for the daily needs a powder room provides beyond the powder. Another step is where the apple trees go? I got a pair of tree peonies in the mail on Friday (ordered in the throes of tree peonies this April/May) from the Park Seed company. We will need to heel them in tomorrow as the freezes promise to return soon...It feels a tad late.

Late here. Gotta go.

IF: The Scale of things


Death or life or life or death
Death is life and life is death
I gotta use words when I talk to you
But if you understand or if you dont
That’s nothing to me and nothing to you
We all gotta do what we gotta do

T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot (1888–1965),
U.S.-born—British poet, critic.

The scale of death and dying looms over each and everyone of us. It transfixes us and can transform our view of living and life. We all gotta do what we gotta do.

On the road


Will be doing a little travelling today to see my pals in Corning. Big meeting day tomorrow too. Need to get the intrepid Erich loaded up to keep forward motion on all of the things that have surfaced.

Mr Palmer made great progress yesterday. Today, it's crush and run...crush and run and topsoil "sprinkling" as he said early this morning. He was shocked that here in sunny Tburg we didn't have the solid frost and ice on the windshields like he had out at the office. It will be nice to have the new driveway finalized and changing the way people approach the house.

Reading a bit in Graven Images--learning a bit about the transformation of the european cherabim into the soul effigies or heads/ heads with wings that are realized in these early colonial gravestone images. These heads are either simple and articulated or stripped down to a few lines with eyes, nose and mouth reduced to basic geometric shapes. Fueling the fire.

The prelim lulu book part two is being shipped. We should see how the crown quarto shape works out. Another thing to think about is that our friends at PSPrint is having a sale on folded greeting cards. For example, a folded 10"x 7" (finished 5" x 7"0--250 cards printed four color one side, or four color over one--$96. Not bad.
May send them some images from Memento or some of the birds. New chicken still in the works. Need to get back on the chicken...need to do at least a dozen.

more later>>

Big, bad, dozer man


Mr. Frank Palmer arrived this morning with a smile on his face and a bounce in his step to begin the two day odyssey to create a new driveway with new crush and run, and a new place for my team to park (also crush and run). With him he brought a big dump truck and two big dozers (one a bucket truck) and the great earth moving and digging begins. And they are at it...to every ones delight! The ground is still very pliable as the freeze has not set in...only two nights of cold--albeit we will not have a good shot at growing grass before the snow. But, I could be wrong. Grass seed can surprise you. Mr. Palmer was effusive about the soil he had "back at the office" which we could use to supplement ours if we needed it. Given how jazzed he was about this dirt, I would like to say bring it on...just to see what good really is.

Am on a mission to write a lot today. I've got some proposals to put out which I have been mulling over as each new idea or job is distinct and demands its own approach. I used to think that if you had a nice boilerplate that you could plug numbers into--that would be the solution. But it never is. This document will have a verbal description of what we would like to do along with a diagram with decision diamonds etc. to graphically make a snapshot of our thinking. I don't know if I will personally be able to propose this, so the document needs to do all the work. Plus, another toughy is that the folks interested in the work may not have a good handle on how much this stuff really costs. I want to propose a value solution without going so cheap I devalue my own work before I even start. I often end up feeling this was as I want to price according to minimum, and to some degree invest in a possible long term relationship. Urg. The stuff they don't teach you. Onward. I think I will start with the chart. Seems like the simplest thing to do first.

Was at the House of Health this morning with all the Russian ladies. What are Russian ladies? They are the stocky ladies in dark swim suits that wear entire head covering bathing caps, dark swimming goggles and all assume this stance when observing the pool. They are ageless and all the same in this rig..and they get in the pool and swim like maniacs. I call them Russian ladies as a bow to the National Geographic articles I read growing up about Russia and what the Russian people are like and what they do. Inevitably, there were pictures of ladies at public pools, outside swimming in the rivers in the winter or something of that ilk...and they all had the Russian lady look. Dourly sizing up the situation with arms akimbo, legs apart, with no expression and the headgear/suit combo that doesn't let any of us know who she is...a swimming version of the burka. I love watching them. Who knows...I might become them.

More later>> must get to my charts.

Who would have guessed?


as part of the "visit Pittsburgh irregularly, and discover what is good about the place" insight:

Pittsburgh is a bakery place. A place with the corner store having a bakery near by from the Patty Cake Bakery in Bloomfield, to Prantl's on Walnut Street in Shadyside to the magnificent Waldorf Bakery in Squirrel Hill. There is always a place nearby with high transfat sugar cookies, decorated within an inch of their lives, miles of cookies extruded out of a gun, sprinkled and dolloped and decorated with sparkling sugar or little blurps of colored goo, endless trays of sticky buns, tea cookies, small cakes, cupcakes, petit fours or iced swirly cakes that look like a fixed version of a soft serve cone. There are pepperoni loaves, cheese loaves and bread dyed in every shade of the rainbow for tea sandwiches. Prantls is known for their alligator shaped bread along with snakes and turtles. Prantls is known for their absolutely scrumptious burnt almond torte...a stellar Pittsburgh culinary moment equal to a Primanti capicola, egg and cheese sandwich with coleslaw and fries under the top piece of greasy bread. A true show stopper (and a heart stopper, too!).

So, visiting Pittsburgh for the wedding of the decade (they served burnt almond torte and klondikes!!) we discovered the fabulous Oakmont Bakery.No end to cookies, cupcakes, minicakes, and tons of wedding cake examples with my favorite having the wedding vows transcribed on the verticals of each level in brown and accented with leaves. They had endless cakes and cakes decorated to be other things like bright orange pumpkins, steelers logos. You get the jist. More crisco than you would know what to do with. Amazing. I will take pictures over thanksgiving. It is way too wonderful.

Monday Mori


Back to Memento Mori. Released a sample to Lulu to see how the new size was working. Am changing over to the Crown Quarto size (wider and a bit taller than the 6 x 9 size). I did something new with my layout. I worked in InDesign as spreads, then released the spreads in the document setup page prior to setting up the acrobat document. I worked in the actual size and then changed it (again in document setup) by expanding it with the bleeds--and tweaking the image area with the bleeds before creating a pscript file). It worked like a charm...unlike the last book. Also created an 8.5" x 11" color pub for a sample to look at color, screens, type sizes and weights with the digital production. We saw some little dots etc. with the all black work...It will be curious to see how that all resolves itself.

Back on Graven Images too. Lots on colonial belief in guardian angels and bad angels. Whoa.

the 'burgh

There is a bleakness to Pittsburgh that becomes apparent when you don't visit for a while. A dullness, a greyness, everything verging towards the middle...no sharp contrasts from the way people live, to the industrial landscape that rots versus other types of architecture that inspires. The people live in clusters from tiny little brick houses piled one on top of the other craning for a view of the river or the road from those without much to those with quite a bit...the brick houses get a bit fancier and the yards a bit bigger...but not in a hugely contrasty way. There are piles of stones--massive public buildings that are tidy and maintained all clustered together in a very heroic and monumental way that go on for blocks--becoming museums and hotels, universities and hospitals and then abruptly, smashed right into that explosion of public buildings and works is another clustery pile of little houses that tumble into the hollows or climb the hills out of the valley. Vestiges of steel rolling plants rust by the railroad tracks which claim the most beautiful views the city offers versus those who need nature to continue to be inspired, to see glimpses of the valley that the early settlers saw, loved and lived in. Endless bars with no windows, strip clubs and dirty store fronts that offer little enticement to spend your money to embellish yourself or your little house, to distinguish yourself from the others. Little in the way of trees, places to walk or much else. Just a grey, beigy, pall.

Makes me happy to be back on my plateau.

Three weddings in Heinz Chapel



My cousin Liz married Charles Altman in Heinz Chapel in 1976 (seen above). Her daughter, Sarah married Brian Bumstead yesterday in Heinz Chapel(photo at absolute top 02.14.08--what a total valentine for all of us!!). Her mother, my aunt Jean (seen below), was married as the first bride to have this privilege in 1946. There was a story in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette yesterday to flesh it out. The New York Times had this to say about that>>

Jean Eddy Succop and John C. Succop walk down the aisle of Heinz Chapel after being the first couple to marry there in 1946. Their daughter, Elizabeth Altman, was married there in 1976 and their granddaughter, Sarah Altman, will be married there today.

It was a lovely wedding with happy people, jolly cousins, lots of music from bagpipes to a R and B Tribute Band all at the Soldiers and Sailors Hall...a wierd amalgam of civil war styling and architecture. We had a terrific time albeit with bookend long drives. Back to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving...so the speediness of the visit was not too bad. Loved seeing all my cousins and their offspring. It is curious to see the faces of one's grandparents and uncles and aunts peering out of faces of the next generation. Almost a little spoooky...but cool nonetheless.

IF: (tip of the) HAT

"A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected."
Carl Sandberg

This next week, please vote.

November 1


Hardly feels like it. Was an early evening last night...with a bit of candy left over, all the lumieres extinguished and pumpkins drying out. The party is over. Lots of cute kids--even the teenagers. Lots of neighbors stopping by to say hi. It was fun.

Being considered for a nice big job with a significant college at Cornell--with lots of brainwork and guidance, pure consulting that could evolve into a bunch of design and communications. I am going to need to find a handful of writers as this may be needed sooner than later.

Possibly may be visited by a local gallerist who was unable to make the Art Trail weekends. "We're always looking for new people". We'll see.

gotta go.

Sugar coated mourning


Perfect day for costumes and gummy eyeballs. We carved and changed the lightbulbs until late last night. We should see around 300 kids between 5:30 and 9. I have a new girl friday from the source of all good workers, the high school, coming this p.m. Her first new assigment is to fill 100 paperbags with a scoop of cat litter and a tea light. Then place them...and at around 5:15--lighting time. Also, there might be some raking to add to the jumbo composter we have. R. checked it the other day after loading it with leaves and that baby was literally smoking. Hot compost!.

Just started the Ludwig book.The book was written in the sixties as a graduate thesis that got funded and we now have this invaluable reference. I love what he says about the context of writing this book:

"The sixties were, among many other things, a time when high art finally succumbed to low. All kinds of objects crept into the museum, which were previously banned by the keepers of the gates. The very definition of what was art was challenged by the likes of Johns, Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, and Warhol. Most universities were often far behind the museums in their willingness to accept these new developments. Cultural history in general and art history in particular were based on the trickle down theory. According to the mantra of the day, culture flowed from the top down. At the bottom of the barrel, below quilts and samplers, lurked kitsch."

"I stumbled into what was then considered the chaos of low culture when I got lost on the way to an outdoor pig roast and found myself looking at the Thomas Cushman stone of 1727 in Lebanon, Connecticut. I remarked at the time that it looked like the kind of stylization that would have appealed to Paul Klee. The more I discovered, the more I became convinced that here was the early religious art of New England."

This was the beginning of his journey. We will share it together.

This is your treat. No tricks here.

The Bible for Gravestones


I was surfing around and this name, Allen Ludwig kept popping up. Mr. Ludwig photographed a huge portion of the important stones and the key to learning about him was through a university library website and the collection of originals that they have of his work. So, off to Alibris and then finally to Amazon to type in his name and find out that yes, his work and writing have been published as a book,
Graven Images, New England Stonecarving and its symbols, 1650-1815
Looks like I have something to read. Really Read. Jam packed with reference from very primative stuff, to portraits with lots of information on carvers, geography, art, handbills of the time. Sets this funerary stuff in the social context of the time.

day before the candy


I wanted to show you one of the Vermont stones...very feminine and florid. Look at this square jawed preacher. So proud with the set of his mouth, the vacant eyes, the square jaw and the funny hairdo (maybe you can't see) that consists of a band around his head with two little bumps on either side (in the vicinity of the eyes) that I think is either a wig or a colonial do. And those wings? Wow.

Did 8 death heads inked in circles yesterday. Going to keep rolling with that and see where it goes. When I am in the automatic writing mode...things can get interesting. Need to keep an eye on reference or things go off the rails. I was thinking of skeletons masked or in clothes. Funny thing, the more I think about adding that type of detail it either becomes halloweeny or day of the dead-ish...and off my focus of remembering one's death/or one's mortality. Adding clothes and masks make the topic go silly.

Lots to do today with driving in between. Holidays with the new client. Tee shirts and brands for the Museum. Posters and newsletters for the big client. We are busy...and with the add of Halloween, the wheels are rolling.

More later>>