From the Larder: Canine Christmas Cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1 1/4 cups cornmeal
1 1/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon pieces
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
1 large egg

Special equipment: a pastry or bench scraper; a dog-biscuit cookie cutter

Pulse flours, cornmeal, oats, wheat germ, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with pea-size butter lumps. Add 1 cup water and pulse until a coarse, dense dough forms.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead in parsley and mint until well distributed. Gather, then halve dough with scraper. Form into 2 balls and flatten each into a 6-inch disk.

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 2 large baking sheets.

Roll out 1 disk of dough into a round (1/3 inch thick) on a well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin. (If dough becomes too soft to roll out, wrap in plastic and chill until firm.) Cut out as many biscuits as possible and arrange about 1/4 inch apart on 1 baking sheet.

Gather scraps and reroll, then cut out more biscuits. Repeat with remaining dough, using other baking sheet.

Whisk together egg and 1 tablespoon water. Brush biscuits with egg wash and bake, switching position of sheets halfway through, until tops are golden brown, about 35 minutes total. Turn off oven and dry biscuits in oven overnight.

Cooks' note:
Biscuits keep, layered between sheets of wax paper or parchment, in an airtight container at room temperature 1 month.

Servings: Makes about 5 dozen biscuits.

Gourmet 2005

from the drawing board.


Two day turn around for a comp to show a potential customer for my client. The trick I have learned is to work the illustration in positive and then give them art reversed which allows the black things to read in the glass as dark...and the light stuff gets the texture and whiteness. If this goes, there are either 6 or 12 illustrations that will be needed lickety split. Hello another stream of income from illustration through the business. Plus, I am digging the treee and think that a piece with a bunch of trees at different planes in the glass might make a nice piece...R. thinks that this technique might suit an ice skater with NYC in the background (hello cash machine)--So, this might have some legs.

Off to the grocery store to provision and to the post office for the final packages...
We are going to get snow like no ones business tomorrow and Monday. The closings are being planned as we speak.

K and I are making our traditional Christmas dog biscuits for fun.

More later

IF:Little Things


Little things about the Puritans from Graven Images by Allen Ludwig:

"It can be assumed that glorified souls become angelic bodies but they are by no means the equals of the created angels. Sometimes the two can be distingusihed from one antoher but more often than not the stones are equivocal. There is not real doubbt that the angels bearing the Antram soul to heaven are not representations of glorifed souls but created angels performing their proper duties."
Allen Ludwig

"Consider, if we fear God, the Angels will not forsake us at death. They will be with us all our lives long; uea, and at and after death too; when we must foresake all the world, when our Bodies and Souls must part for a time; when our Souls foreske our Bodies; the blessed Angels will not leave us, until they have brough us into the presence of Christ om Glory... When ye fall, that is, when ye die or cease to be in this world; they may receive you, that is to say that they whose office is to receive you, namely, the Holy Angels, that they may receive your Souls into their Arms, and carry them upon their winges into everlasting Habitations."

Increase Mather,
Boston Minister, author and distinguished angelographer
(1639-1723)

love these little kites


Superliner - 2007
acrylic, paper, dacron, wood
165 x 395 x 18cm.

Jacob Hashimoto was represented by the Mary Boone Gallery at Art Basel Miami. There was a lovely installation that was very inspiring I thought I would share him with you.I love how decorative his work is using tying, knotting and little kites to create this magical world you can live in...even if its for a short time.

designboom.com says about him:

jacob hashimoto is one of the most interesting young activists in the contemporary art scene. what he does with paper creates real magic -a ravishing cascade of cloud white paper shapes flowing from ceiling to floor like a waterfall frozen by winters icy breath. viewing the piece fills you with a deep and profound stillness.

jacob hashimoto is perhaps best-known for his installations in which he creates large-scale sculptural forms out of thousands of 'kites'. drawing on the tradition of kite making, he creates each of the kites by hand, using bamboo rods, string, and offset prints. or all of their exquisite lightness and ethereality, the sculptures are expression of air, light, and space.

More on Jacob Hashimoto at his website :Studio La Citta>>

Think about it. Live from Art Basel Miami


TITLE: Bat Love
ARTIST: Gabriel Acevedo Velarde
WORK DATE: 2007
CATEGORY: Prints
MATERIALS: silkscreen
EDITION/SET OF: 5
SIZE: h: 100 x w: 140 cm / h: 39.4 x w: 55.1 in
STYLE: Contemporary (ca. 1945-present)
PRICE*: 4,000 US$ (Convert prices to your currency with our Currency Converter)
GALLERY: OMR +52 (0)55 5511 1179 Send Email
ONLINE CATALOGUE(S): Art Basel Miami Beach @artnet Dec 6 - Dec 9, 2007

Kind of begins to validate the stuff I have been doing. Don't you think?

more on Art Basel stuff


Bari Kumar was at Art Basel and I love his work! He was part of a group of really interesting and talented Indian painters that take eastern ideas and marry them with a western perspective. I love the way Kumar also introduces a very moody Indian inspired palette, a painted digitization/digital artifact and western symbols to create a very mixed and interesting message.The Indian artists and indian art magazines were one of the interesting categories that inspired me. Anishen Avini uses bleach on giclees of Indian imagery--erasing faces and details to create interesting new images. Galleries from New Delhi were very much in evidence.

Other observations include:
Black and white/ inked drawings are acceptable. Chris Ware's original inked layouts are being sold alongside Steinbergs etc. Great gallery (Adam Baumgold) in Aqua specialized in this sort of thing. Donald Urquhart, Herald Street Gallery London, is doing some whimsical, almost sixties-ish fashion brush drawings with very loose, scripty writing.

New technology: Karin Sander created these interesting little 3 dimensional people figures (about 8" tall in paper) that were 3D body scans that were output by a 3D inkjet printer. The laser cutter for flat pieces of paper was very much in evidence and unfortunately looked too predictable and too hallmark-y to be successful. For a laser cutter to be effective, one needs to build flaws and inconsistency into the image to have it feel genuine versus gimmicky. An artist at the Mary Boone Gallery, Che Fueki did an image called "Owl" with regular paint on canvas and then built up layer upon layer of puff paint to take the picture to the maximum with decoration and detail. Very cute and original. Another painter took pictures during her morning walk and translated the color fields to these soft, very very smooth gradients on stretched polyester (very shiny and not much texture) that seemed to take the idea of airbrush to a whole other place.

Joe Coleman, Barbara Kruger and Nedko Solokov are using words, phrases, personal narrative or biographical narrative as integral to their work. The neon guys doing complete lines of copy were impressive. The Deitch Galleries/Projects used hand painted sign making and vinyl signmaking using copy/type and illustrations to great effect. Type independant of image is less so...but integrated is very much in evidence. Charles Krafft's "Sharing is loving" pair of delft inspired bunnies in porcelain flanking a huge hypodermic needle (illustration to just give you a glimmer of it's wonderfulness)

Organs and parts very hip. Barbara Kruger and her brain. Sigga and her glass organs. There was this wonderful artist doing penance for his partner's illness. He created an outline of the body in coloraid paper (to size), with selected systems called out in other cut paper (all of it put down with matte scotch tape)--with a chalky multicolor heart, lungs, circulatory system in the hands, the brain etc. Very evocative.

Then there is old technology made new. Matthew Brannen, an artist that makes these very simple layouts--letterpress with polymer plates that he makes one saleable piece and one artist's proof. He did a great piece with suntan lotion bottle and stone crab claws. But my all time favorite was a stacked piece showing a shark as a shape with a turquoise water (expressed with a thin, turquoise woodgrain) and the pooor shark's stomach holding skeleton hands and wine bottles. It also had the shark's small digestive tract and equally small brain complemented with price tags and manila's little tags as well. Totally perfect.


Huge Scale. Walton Ford's fabulous tiger. Huge C prints of landscapes that totally suck you into their vortex and their rich, rich evocative state. The color and saturation framed up either as a slice of a luscious landscape or an elegantly overdetailed Baroque court salon that transports you to another place and time. The big size and deep color takes you to an entirely different place. Oversized is great.

Work inspired by Velazques. A wonderful compliment of images and figures in the park inspired by the Infanta in Miami. Also, the Felipe IV inspired Velazquez by Manolo Valdez was a reason to pick up a paintbrush or in the case of this sculpture, a knife. Gorgeous.

more later>>

Joe Coleman is amazing


There were many outstanding images at Art Basel, but a real showstopper and one I spent time with was this image "Behold Eck, 2006" by Joe Coleman. As I googled for this image, it turns out that the NYTimes has done a writeup on Joe Coleman's recent show that I will forward to you for your enjoyment before I start my yammering>> I had seen an interview of Joe's work in Juxtapoz and didnt really understand his work until seeing this singular picture which captures the best of graphic novels with a Bosch/Breughel aesthetic in truly an american and almost victorian view. With these portraits or pictures, Joe Coleman tells you the story of the person's life from different viewpoints and little snippets from rendering little gargoyles to exemplify a personality trait, to tiny little newspaper clippings (all rendered copy in less than a single hair brush with such control and dexterity--he matches any medieval monk painting marginalia). The printed version of this painting does not even begin to show the freshness and subtlety that Coleman expresses in the original. His work is extrordinary, original and thought provoking--and as illustrators, we should all take a look at someone really using the two dimensional plane to tell a story beyond the picture and weave a complex depiction of the personality, life and deeds in a truly rich and thoughtful way. There is a book out on his work "Internal Digging" worth pursing.

More later>>

Thoughts on Memento Mori


Barbara Kruger (who I found out was a graduate of the orange school, Syracuse University in 1965) in a piece represented by the Mary Boone Gallery, showed an enormous piece of output (could have been 12'x 15'--stretched with a stretcher and frame..no glass or plexi) showed a color (huge benday dot) blow-up of a cross section of the brain and in her signature typography and red bars holding the type she relates:

"In the beginning there was crying"

"In the middle there was confusion"

"In the end there was silence"

Which kind of says a lot about the death thing or about the brain...or both. I was musing with my friend Tina, curator to the stars...or better the Curator of the Modern and current work at the Museum of Glass. Tina is fascinated by everything and anything and is deep into the Masons, the scene at Lilydale, Spiritualists, obscure and wonderful saints...you get the idea. She was telling me about a spiritualist she consulted with...and they tape recorded the session. As they reviewed the tape, there were other voices that she had not heard during the consultation --confirming her thinking that the spirits are not just energy but there is intelligence and involvement here on this plane. So, to that, maybe Barbara Kruger has got the end part a little wrong. Maybe in the end there is silence to our ears...but a rush of communication on another level. Maybe the puritans had it right, that there are spirits about us, those spirits that travel with us through our lives and then help us to transition when we pass from one plane to the next. Its funny how all this stuff is out there when you just tune to the right frequency.

More on the antics in Miami>>

Back for Lunch


Finally! We stayed an extra night as there was a promise of some nasty ice in Syracuse--and the concept of flying into Syracuse to an ice storm at midnight didnt sit well with us. But hey, we are back. The picture above is of David's Cafe (a block from the Lincoln Road shopping district) where R and I both had cuban sandwiches (as in this picture) and two cafe con leche yesterday for lunch. It doesnt get much better than that. But, in Miami, every experience tops the last one.

The trip to Design Miami, Art Basel was stupendous. My brain is bursting-- so there will be lots of chatter in the next few days reflecting on all that I saw, the people I met, and my hopeful expectations. Of course, there is just a ton of chatter about the wonderfulness of Miami, it's people, it's energy and all the nature and urban life all rolled up like a cigar (Davidoff were rolled at ArtBasel). I decided against my taking my computer which I regret. However, the new point and shoot camera is a real trooper (Canon Powershot A720) and works well in low light situations. So, you didn't get realtime blogging...but I will try and give you a flavor of what was going on.

I will be doing posts in the next few days on:
--the Art and Art Basel experiences >> see the flickr set
--Observations on the Art and how it relates to ME
--the ancillary shows at Flow, Aqua, Art Now, Red Dot and the Beach activities for Art Basel
-- GlassLab and my friends and new friends >>see the flickr set

We stayed at a nice, modest hotel (three hotels up from the Eden Roc) called the Miami Hotel and Resort. There was a lovely swimmable pool with access to the beach and the snappiest stone and tile floors that reek of the Mary Blair/ Jim Flora whimsies of the fifites. When the Wyndam decides to roll some cash into this place--it has tremendous bones and will be quite special when it is done. Each door in the hallway has a big, schmaltzy doorknocker with lots of curlicues. The carpets are redolent with palm and tropical leaves, huge and greens. At each door, in the carpet is an enormous hibiscus flower like the point on the end of an exclamation point.

The flight down on Corning's jet was the way we all should go (and never do. Airport to airport was around 2.5 hours without the crazy shoe taking off and the tons of security mojo. Jet service for 4 with sandwiches and fun conversation, then greeted by a smiling man with a big, black car. Whisked off to the hotel immediately and the fun began. R was already off at Design Miami with the GlassLab. I did a little swimming in the dreamy pool and then got over to the GlassLab around 6ish on Thursday for the Vernissage event.

Design Miami happened in the new and beginning to happen Design District on the fringes of downtown. The design district is very much like the early days of Long Island City and the move of all the contract furnishings showrooms going there. That along with some fru fru stores like Fendi etc. and some new restaurants (Brosia, the newest, was the GlassLab's neighbor in the Oak Plaza). Brosia has an entirely tiled facade with outdoor seating in groups (sofas and the like) The new Addidas and Yoji store (Y3) just opened--the store and more particularly, the stuff was great. Really good looking sports stuff with more design and a really creative approach to the materials and the look. I even bought a cool bag there. More time and money would have def parted me from my cash.

The GlassLab was having the Brazilian Campana brothers and Sigga Heimis work with them that evening. The Campana Brothers are bigtime fabu, famous art/design guys who have a real following. Sigga is a designer from IKEA with a nice design sense and a lovely person to boot. The team enjoyed her spirit and ideas (complete with books on the human body) with her sketches. Sigga created human organs in glass with the kidneys and heart being home runs. It took a few days for the team to get used to her expectations and design sense, and for her to begin to understand the process of design with a hot glass team. The Campanas did a series of open branches that could work as vases and a candle holder etc. There was lots of good energy around the work and working with these designers and hopefully this will be the beginning of an ongoing glass-filled conversation with happy results.

More later>>

new from the land of the dancing vectors


Hooded Merganser on the drawing board. Am liking whats going on here as I have been away from the land of the dancing vectors. I hope to keep this looser than I have gone recently--it feels fresher and more serigraphic if I do. Not done yet, but in progress. Wanted to share it with you.

Felt like sleeping in the freezer last night. Fab!

Deep cold


This is the kind of cold that is lacking in humidity. The kind that produces whispery white snow filled with ice that you can hear as it hits your windows. Its been Miami prep today along with work. Packing, putting away, buying food, writing schedules with phone numbers etc. I made 4 quiches (one for a French Club event, one for our grandmother, and two for teeny A and his snacking) and lunch for our construction crew. The site is a bit frightening with all of the cement getting moved away before the new porch happens. Slow, slow progress.

Good news. The Baker Institute for Animal Health Annual Report (2007) won a silver metal in the Annual Report category of the CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) competition. My client was ecstatic as this is truly something in the eyes of her peers, colleagues, and the broad university. This was her first big print job that she had ever managed--and so she was not really expecting this--We are delighted for her and for us. There may be some good PR for this recognition. She had a tremendous time at Eukanuba in Long Beach--the west coast version of the Westminster at Madison Square Gardens...and had some very insane breed related displays and presentations.

Did I tell you about our new scanner? The company has a little money to move before the end of the year so we got a new scanner to replace the tired old thing that we have been using for years. I was always bothered and sad with our small scanner and decided we should get a large format ( 12.5" x 18") with a transparency head. We got the Epson 1000XL and its a beaut. Lovely that it is one swipe with the big notebook...no juking around--with nice software that is easy to use to modify the scan before it's done.

I was thinking about remains and "the departed". Seems a bit obsessive, but its interesting to toss around as I mill through my laps at the House of Health. Consider, when you are dead, your body is done and your spirit has departed--your brain has shut down--all the memories, all the chemistry, all the ideas that were stimulated by electrical pulses, genetics, chemistry and stuff--go away. When you take the thinking part away from the body, I can understand that. But taking the thinking away from the spirit is a new idea. So, that life spirit is divorced from human intelligence. Is there a spiritual intelligence or intuition? Once the spirit has been blasted away from the dead weight of the remains, the memories, ideas and earthly intelligence also either go dormant or become part of that remains. Makes sense, but a new thought for me. So what is the characteristic of the spirit? Does it just come down to good and evil? Positive energy? Does the life spirit even have a will of it's own as there is no brain to drive it? Or are there aspects of one's human intelligence and spirit that goes with the departing force?


We leave before lunch tomorrow--so I could be bouncing in the ocean by 3:30, reading trashy novels and thinking higher thoughts like the 6 black cloaked women that always stood by the corpse during the time after the service and before the burial as part of the puritan traditions. Was reading about the Puritan religion and beliefs along with the theological turmoil that was stirring up the colonists at the Massachusetts Bay Colony that threatened the ability of this group to stay together.
I love the idea of the 6 black cloaked women, flanked by candles with their "good gloves" and golden rings to honor the death--very Edward Gorey but puritan and not the victoriana that he popularized and referenced.

More from sunnier climes>>

Art Basel Miami: Marc Burckhardt


Marc Burckhardt on Drawger talks about he Know Art Books Exhibition he has been invited to be in. It's at the Claremont Hotel, No.215, 1700 Collins Ave at 17th St. from 10 a.m.- 8 p.m. Scott Bakal comments on the post and cites Mark Murphy's blog which cites the show and deliberately goes through the work of each artist and their viewpoint. Each image is an eight by eight inch square painting. He has some of the big names in the new world...and he has everything from charactor designers, to graffiti people to just plain fun guys. Here is his explanationof the KNOW show:

Art Basel in Miami is the nation's largest art event featuring a small grouping of other art fairs. Mark Murphy will be exhibiting this year at the Art Now Fair (booth 215) promoting a new group show entitled, "Know."

andrew foster, william buzzell, amy crehore

O V E R V I E W

KNOW looks to introduce the fans of art and culture to more that 50 major works, 8" x 8" in size with various social and political themes. Curator and publisher, Mark Murphy will be on hand to introduce you to the artists who are featured in "Know" and who actively celebrate the fine art of visual story telling.

All art work is available for acquisition and features the inspired talent of Anthony Lister, Jeff Soto, Greg Craola Simkins, Marc Burkchardt, Lola, and 44 other inspired artists. In addition, limited edition monographs will be available for Cathie Bleck, Martha Rich, Mark Murphy, Bob Dob, Jeff Soto and Jonathan Viner. Not to mention, high-quality art book editions that celebrate the today’s visual arts narrative moment.
F E A T U R I N G
Robert Bellm + Cathie Bleck + Marc Burckhardt + Cynthia von Buhler + William Buzzell + Luke Chueh + David Chung + Amy Crehore + Warren Dykeman + P-Jay Fidler + AJ Fosik + Keith Greiman + Matt Haber + Brent Harada + Ryan Heshka + Jordin Isip + James Kirkpatrick + Pamela Jaeger + Travis Lampe + Lola + Daniel Lim + Tommii Lim + Anthony Lister + Jen Lobo + Jason Murphy + Mark Murphy + Joel Nakamura + Kathie Olivas + Brandt Peters + Chris Pyle + Jermain Rogers + Chris Ryniak + Erik Sandberg + Greg Simkins/Craola + Kim Scott + Keith Shore + Jeff Soto + Matt Stallings + Peter Taylor + Mark Todd + Jonathan Viner + Amanda Wachob + Esther Pearl Watson + Damien Weinkrantz + Gord Wiebe + John Yanok

I N F O R M A T I O N
KNOW : Art Exhibition
Curated by Mark Murphy

Art Now Fair : Art Basel Miami
Murphy Design : Booth No. 215
December 6 – 9 : 2007
Thursday – Saturday : 10 am - 8 pm : Sunday : 10 am – 6 pm

Claremont Hotel : 1700 Collins Avenue at 17th Street : Miami Beach

www.murphydesign1.blogspot.com
www.murphydesign.com
www.artnowfair.com

Kick off to a big week!


To do and done:

>Society of Illustrators paperwork, files and framing. Got the paperwork and files done. Check completed. Got the image to my pal who is a registrar at a local museum who understands the whole web of framing, shipping and what is acceptable or not. I am blessed to know this person. This is an arena frought with monsters.

>Ditto on Illustration West 46. Did you know that the work stays on the web for 2 years...that's the show. Impressive.

>Memento Mori with Steuben is on. They picked 4 designs. Awaiting detail. It is going to be breakneck turnaround when they get focused on it. No problem here. There are tweaks like make it bigger and smaller. That's it. I feel relatively unscathed.

>Got 2 bookplates I have been working with Anne Bialke on out to PSPrint to be made into stickers for a new collection at the library for children in memory of Sally Sutcliffe. Anne did a beautiful black and white illustration in both horizontal and vertical formats of a mother loon and her babies. The secret to this is that the mothers often ride the babies on their backs. Too perfect. And Anne's line work is exquisite. I am honored. And, to beat our chests for a moment, she is a full time SU graduate from the tribe of Murray. Wha Who! We should see them in 12-14 days...no rush...
The great thing about PSPrint is that after having a delivery wobble, they had amazing customer service offering reprints at no charge etc...doing a ton of the tracking etc. Takes the randomness of this on demand to another level with service like they offered. I am impressed.

> Pat Cozzarin, known as Pat the Bug Man, former NYS gymnastics champion came today to see what he could see about the critters who scrabble between the rafters for the nuts they laid in. Makes sleeping a sleepless activity--with the anticipation of what is happening next. Grey Squirrels, not the nasty Red ones...thankfully. Traps have been laid. Lets see how fast we can catch them.

Need to go. We had Tburg basketball tonight. K has all of her clothes inside out in the wishing for a big snowstorm.News is:

CT SNOW ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT EST TUESDAY NIGHT.

OCCASIONAL LAKE EFFECT SNOW SHOWERS AND SQUALLS WILL CONTINUE ACROSS THE AREA TONIGHT. SNOWFALL RATES WILL OCCASIONALLY REACH 1 INCH PER HOUR. THIS SNOW...COMBINED WITH NORTHWEST WINDS OF 15 TO 25 MPH WILL CAUSE BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF SNOW...WITH NEAR WHITEOUT CONDITIONS AT TIMES. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL PARTICULARLY DIFFICULT.

BY EARLY TUESDAY MORNING...SNOWFALL OF 3 TO 6 INCHES IS EXPECTED.

LAKE EFFECT SNOW SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE...BUT WILL BE WEAKER IN INTENSITY ON TUESDAY. SNOW WILL FINALLY BEGIN TO TAPER OFF LATE TUESDAY EVENING. ADDITIONAL LIGHT SNOW ACCUMULATION IS POSSIBLE ON TUESDAY... WITH TOTAL SNOWFALL BY LATE TUESDAY EVENING OF 4 TO 8 INCHES EXPECTED.

I think K has a chance. Don't you?

PrepSunday

Thanksgiving dinner is in the oven. Somehow the feast that never happened is going to happen tonight. I have two turkey breasts, two pans of stuffing (one in the fridge), cranberries and some vegetables. To load on the carbs, I made up a bread pudding in a springform pan which as always, worked like a charm, looked good and the crowd devoured at least a half of the 12" round.

Even got much of Christmas wrapped and boxed. All we need are labels and badabing. Done. Set up my 36" white feather tree I bought last week (knowing I would get throughly teased and tortured by the home team)--from a junky craft store. Looks really good, chic. They all liked it. We decorated our chandelier with all these Mary Blair inspired ornaments along with twirly ribbons and beaded tassels. Nutty...but cool. I even had a pink glass cake stand for dessert. It was very festive and not ponderously HOLIDAY-ish.

We have snow. Enough snow to have the driveway plowed. So, its for real. Forecasts predict possibly enough snow to cancel school should the front come our way. Makes sense for the poor retailers who have been waiting for things to pick up what with the mild weather and warm breezes.

However, Miami is just a stone's throw away. I am going down on the corporate plane (a jet!) with a small group of 3. We are leaving around 11:30 --nonstop--getting into Miami around 2:30. There are all sorts of talks, galleries and fun...and then the opening party and event which should be great. Our pal Steve, from CMoG and our cruise will be down there as a resident expert...he has plans for casual seafood...and of course, there is the land of Tiki. If there is a minute, I would love to see the Wolfsonian prior to leaving. If not, I don't think this will be the last shot we will have at it. I am curious to see how Biskup, Baseman, Shepard Fairey are shown. R. says the Luz de Jesus is there. I wonder if the Levine gallery from NYC will be there? All to learn. I am not taking the big sketchbook, but a little one...and travelling with discretion...and lots of batteries for my camera. And my Powerbook to send you the updates. We come back on Sunday late via JetBlue to Syracuse (I think one of their direct flights)--so should be good.

Read more about Art Basel Miami>> and Design Miami

More later.

just your average Saturday pre-holiday blitz


Today we finally had real snow. Snow that stuck to the ground...not the lovely floaty, mothlike snow that promises winter or spring depending on where you are on the calendar. We tied up all sorts of loose ends here from further plans for the demolished facade on the carriage house to wrapping the odd present and sealing up the boxes for shipping. After signing K up for a type of dance called, Caili (sp>?) (pronounced Kale-lee) which is an irish style of dancing with a group with group figures, R and I went down to the Cornmira Horseflats area to check on CMoG stuff and then attend the annual Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) Studio sale. It was sublime.

First off, we visited this wonderful and "Twin Peaks"-y place called the holding point. This is a series of serious storage spaces where the solid and true Larry Orr, Signpainter to the stars was applying vinyl graphics of my logotype for the GlassLab to the GlassLab which was hours away from being packed up for Art Basel Miami (which, dear friends, yours truly is going as Mrs. Cassetti, insider, spy, blogger and aspirational artist--and you all will get a dose of....the powerbook is going, and so, are you!! Get your suits ready as the surf beckons as does art with a capital A).

The Museum has also announced a collaboration with Celebrity Cruise Lines:

At The Corning Museum of Glass, our mission is to engage, educate and inspire visitors and the community through the art, history and science of glass.

We are pleased to announce a new collaboration with Celebrity Cruises that helps us further achieve that mission. Beginning December 2008, the cruise line’s new ship, Celebrity SolsticeSM, will feature the Hot Glass Show, providing this hot glassmaking educational experience to guests the world over.

Outreach beyond Corning, New York to a group of people that might not usually get the glass experience--up close and personal.  It will be wonderful.


More later>>

IF: Excess


Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light.

Plato (427 BC - 347 BC), The Republic

look out.

 If we talk about the bodily remains and the spirit that departs--the remains and the departed in another way it can get really perplexing or interesting.  And memory might feed into this too.  The remains have no value after the life force or spirit has departed. It is parked or put to  "rest" as if asleep, commemorating that this life happened and that life is remembered (a memory)by those that were effected, changed, or related to that person, that body, that spirit.

So, what happens in the cyber world? We all have personalities and presences without physicality derivative of our cyber communities, relationships, experiences and creativity. We can be the people we are in the real world, or we can be poseurs--assuming an alternative disguise or avatar. We can live in those personalities, developing our cyber lives and when we die or pass on, the servers can or might continue to distribute our ideas and writing we had created during our lives. Does this become memory? or it is life? There may be remains (those e-bills and e-mails, the reciepts and paperwork that are assigned to life transactions) but the spiritual continues to exist. The only way to pass on is to have the server fail and the technology to become antiquated. Then your work and ideas become memories or are they memories the day after they are written? Puzzling.