Tuesday morning


Snow on hand today and tomorrow. R. to NYC today after his car didn't start in the lot last night (I am thinking tooooo cold to turn over though he has other ideas). K had a real growing experience with being pushed out of her corner to be the hands to perform the fetal pig laboratory in Biology. She had been worrying it for weeks (we had hints but not a direct confirmation that this was going on)--and had all the workarounds and thinking all worked out. A. is busy with basketball and friends. Not much bugging him these days other than there aren't enough girls or time for those girls. I, had the deer incident... but was really productive (with more today).

Spent an hour hunting down eccentric Caslon fonts yesterday. Am working on a logotype for a show for the Corning Museum of Glass based on antique bookplates and handbills. I have some caslon...but the italic is blimpy and round...not pointy and eccentric with whack ligatures. Found a handful and today I will need to buy one or two. The type is good for this Museum piece...and we are building some funkiness into the look.

Talked with my mother who hates my memento mori work.She doesn't get it...and making no bones or attempts to understand it. She was poo pooing the first book and hoped that would stop with the first batch of images. The fact there was a second book on the way, the body of pictures and that this was the basis of my thesis work really didn't work for her. Then, when I told her that the work was a treasure trove for a series of illustrations for the the Steuben funeral, memorial program they are developing. Even linking a dollar sign to this obscene work didn't legitimize the work, the thinking, the pursuit. I am not waiting for any sort of approval or I wouldn't do anything at all. Come to think of it, this headset would only be happy if the work served her and the "small season" of entertainments and friends that she has embraced. So, acceptable work needs to be lightweight from the content standpoint and "pretty". However, it does point up that I need to distill what this work is, what it is about, where the themes and content flows from, where the technique and style comes from etc. Sounds like I need to do some writing to give me an "elevator speech" (a distilled mission/vision) on this work.

Are you ready for valentines day? Amazon awaits!

potpourri


The Democrats came, drank coffee and red wine, ate boxed cookies and speechified to all of our delight. There were an amazing group of people--all very bright exuding excellence and inspired. These are giving people who give to their community who are working to preserve and intelligently develop a strategy and plan around how our little village and slightly bigger town can grow and change. We had a great time learning about the projects, efforts and thinking of this small group of excellent people. Had a great talk with Jules Burgevin about Memento Mori. Turns out, that Jules was teaching at Ithaca College taught on death to a group of 250 students for a semester. We should get together get a glimpse of his thinking and impressions. Jules is the personification of effusiveness...he is lovely (as is his wife who fell in love with a heron I had illustrated)...and would inspire more thinking. He wears a coat with patches of all the fire departments he volunteered for with the words, (in all caps in an arc) TREMENDOUSBURG shouting out how he feels about our little hamlet.

Carol Tinkelman sent a totally excellent schedule for the up and coming trip to Ft. Worth...with a great lineup of illustrators and sight seeing. She is so amazing and through...I cannot believe it...from what we are doing, when and where to the hotels etc unlike my former program which I found part of the degree was to be a travel agent as well. We are so lucky to have her smart brain, her unparalleled organizing skills, and her focus on doing things the right way. I feel absolutely privileged in having her as the iron behind the program.I am psyched. Am trying to sum up what my thesis is...and will try to see someone about the idea and where it could go. It will be good to see where the current second/going to third year students are...their thinking, the breadth of the work etc. to gauge where I could go.James Tennison, Ray-Mel Cornelius, Gary Myrick, Dorit Rabinovitch, Jack Unruh, Phil Boatright, Don Punchatz, Real and Muff Musgrave, Bart Fobes, Jose Cruz are some of the illustrators we are going to see. We are also going to Billy Bob's and the Rodeo as part of the fun.

On the way to the Pool of Dilemmas, I was slowed down and driving the speed limit in Jacksonville (40 mph) and clipped a deer who approached the car from my blind spot. Scary. I am okay...It cracked part of my bumper (bummer) but all else seems okay. I did swim (thank goodness) and worked to a normal state. Still am a little rattled as you never want to do that.

Need to go. Work continues on.
Later

Gerlof Smit





Amazing, amazing work. Gerlof Smit is a wonderful artist--who stretches the idea of silhouettes to a new, fresh place. He infuses them with a new vision, a modern image--mixing them with photography, or using them in a way to build a community, express a couple's life through a distinct portrait. He cut an entire village's portrait, "Everyone from Schingen"--of each and every person--Here is what he says about that:

Last year I spent quite some time on a bus to San Francisco and waxed lyrical about all the different silhouettes around me. Capturing it all is hard when you're sitting on a bus, but I live in Holland where I'm also surrounded by lots of beautiful silhouettes. So why not make cut-outs of everyone from Schingen, the village where I have lived for about 30 years? In mid-June I dropped a letter in everyone's mailbox. In this letter I explained what I was planning to do, and a week later I rang the doorbells of all the scattered houses and farms, drank many a cup of coffee, and took digital photos of every single inhabitant. I started working on the cut-outs for the Schingen project around mid-September. When you cut out a portrait in A4 size, the hair really shows up in the silhouette and you can easily spend two hours on the portrait. But it does give you the opportunity to become fully absorbed in a person's portrait. You notice that the person grows on you and becomes increasingly nicer. Each time I finished a few portraits I put them on my website and the subjects of the portrait could see themselves on the internet. By early November, everyone was cut out and I invited the entire village into the recently restored church of Schingen. I had a 30 ft. long table set up in the church. All the silhouettes were displayed on the table in three neat rows and everyone was able to see their silhouette in the original for the first time. The cut-outs were exhibited in the church on two weekends. I had already announced in a letter that everyone would receive their own silhouette as a gift. After the close of the exhibition, all Schingen inhabitants took their own silhouette home with them, during which the village surprised me with a few original gifts. Giving away these portraits was a small happening, and the responses were overwhelming, and sometimes even emotional. All the silhouettes can still be viewed on my site: www.gerlofsmit.com. You can also see what everyone's name is, where they were born and how long they've been living in Schingen (the youngest inhabitant is 0 years old, the oldest is 81-year-old Ale, who has also lived in Schingen for 81 years).

Smit tried to cut the entire night staff of a McDonalds in Texas and was stopped. The work he did was sublime. What I like about this work is that his cutting reminds me of the work I do in illustrator, the cutting of hair, the curves and interpretation that happens when one is drawing with vectors. But, his work is inspired and fresh. I think he is now one of my new heros. Move aside Shepard Fairey!

black paper





Have been doing a little survey of silhouettes--both american vintage silhouettes, english silhouettes, german and dutch ones. I love the mexican cut paper decorations (and bought quite a mini collection on Olivera Street in LA over the holidays), and the chinese decorative ones. But these American/and European ones are thought provoking relative to Memento Mori. Many are actually concurrent with the puritan community represented in Allan Ludwig's Graven book. Can I mesh them together? Do they jive (I think they do as they fit the whole "big black shapes" search, there can be some whimsy brought with them...and to be honest, I want to fiddle with them!). There are three different kinds of silhouettes--cut paper, cut and paste and the final, inked. So, it fits with the technology practiced here...along with some of the random "hobo" style, klutzy frames I have cut for MM. Keep going...keep seeking.

Here is a great link that can take you around the world with paper cutting>>

I am loving the old stuff and the new twist...is very cool.

Memento Mori Vol2 is done! Uploaded! Sample Ordered! Yippee!!

Democrats coming here tomorrow. Yipes!

IF: Choose [choice]


We do not choose the day of our birth nor may we choose the day of our death, yet choice is the sovereign faculty of the mind.
Thornton Wilder
The Eighth Day Harper & Row 67

Choice rules! Our lives are filled with opportunites to choose from the ordinary to the extrodinary, from what's for dinner to what will I do with my life. Those choices can change and bend around other choices--but we must own these choices, taking responsibility for that moment of decision.

from the desktop


Steady and slow. Wet snow with big big snowflakes. Winter is back. Slugging away on project work. Touching everything, moving things left foot/right foot forward. Need to go deep and look at a bunch of different (more historical reference) Caslon fonts this p.m. to tune up and funkify a mark for the new show at the Corning Museum of Glass, Glass of the Alchemists. Need to make some changes to a big trifold for the Museum on the soon to open show, Reflecting Antiquities. Moving and grooving.

Schedule it in: ICON 5

ICON 5
July 2-5,2008
New York City
(a block of rooms are available at the Roosevelt Hotel)
The Icon Blog>>on the doings of the conference.

Whitney Sherman, inspirer, innovator, illustrator and educator, is heading up the conference. I wish there was a bit more on the plans etc. but, it will be a fun time...and a real charge. I wish I could fit it in--but with Hartford starting a few weeks later, I will have work to get in front of prior to the two weeks doing full time illustration. If I wasn't doing the education thing, ICON would def fill the brain juice department. Think about it. Will be fun and rewarding.

Working on a bunch of corner and border elements as it relates to Memento Mori today. Am blocking more solids in and not slashing in as many highlights and saw tooth shapes in as much just to see how it looks and balances out.

More later>>

Twinkling grey


I am thinking about the future education component at Hartford this summer and have been worrying over the pending projects. I think that the Pool of Dilemmas might be an interesting self authored/illustrated book to do with Ted and Betsy Lewin. Its a great topic that I think could have legs--and it would give my ink style a chance to stretch a bit outside of the land of remembrance. I could introduce Skittles, The Russian Ladies, the look of the people with goggles etc, the distance between the crosses, the dumping of the worlds problems, the olympic swimmers, the water runners...etc. It has a color palette (blues, greys), and it could be designed/laid out to be in the windows like a graphic novel. Could be interesting to develop and render the cover and 3-5 spreads. i want to do the images anyway. So, this gives me the opportunity to think about it..and take it further.

The other children's book options are: something using the translation of Stuwwelpeter/Slovenly Peter; the little book of "epitaphs"--taking memento mori images further...; or something more traditional... I think the original writing and images might be good. A bigger stretch. Maybe chippy little poems?

All the streams and waterfalls are swollen with rain and snow like springtime today. Raging water swamping the banks...particularly Taughannock creek by route 96 is particularly impressive. It was misty and cloudy this morning. Very romantic and beautiful with mist and spray rising out the morning greyness. Hanging in the air below the bridge.

New client prospect linked in today. Also, new potential work with Steuben. Finishing up Ithaca Art Trail application--its a good thing to have to assess my resume/statement etc. Only yucky part is having to get my picture taken. How I hate it.

More later>>

Super Fat Tuesday


First, vote. Then, eat pancakes and King Cake. Red, white and blue mardi gras beads? Is Obama the Mardi Gras King? Hilary the Queen? Why hasn't there been a photoshop merge of these ideas. A big super fat event...complete with a color palette, staging and entertainment with a full fledged cuisine that could drive extra funds for Katrina victims while amusing us with donkeys and elephants. Why didn't I think of this earlier?

One more page of the second volume of Memento Mori and then it will be ready for Lulu. Lots of moving the images around to make more complete ideas. It is interesting as doing this sort of project as themes emerge along with approaches. It seems that I am more deliberate with the work recently. I am doing today- I work through an approach with 3-4 renderings which may not be the end of the pursuit. I did about four looks at this layout of a head and wings (not the one posted today which was a random one off). Volume three is in the works...with writing, quotes etc. 

Heard a great story on NPR today about a musician in the Reich-ian mode, Stephen Scott, who writes music for bowed piano. The music is wonderful--trancemaking again, but a bit more emotional, range-y than Reich. His newest album was sampled-- The Deep Spacesis bright and listenable.

This is the Bowed Piano Ensemble, Colorado College for your amusement and inspiriation. NPR said that seeing this type of piano performed was like watching an operation. I think they have it.

More later>>

a nod to the Burnt Over District


Just out of the Pool of Dilemmas. Phew. I must have left a good 4% of the world's problems behind. I pity the Pool Man who has to scrub all the residue and debris left by all the swimmers in the pool that the chlorine cannot scrub out--all the personal detrius, political strands, project grains and all problems that are dispelled in the daily back and forth in the magical blueness down the tiled line, between the blue crosses. Think about the leavings. And the takings? The Pool of Dilemmas solve more than surface them... Or maybe it dissolves them?
Could it be the chemistry of the water? Or just the flow of water to water...the osmosis of our 94% water to the pool and vice versa?

The Mount Everest of Super Bowl dining (making a pile of chicken wings) was attempted--and from the responses--it was achieved. The novel phrase "Mad Chill" and "Madgood" were impulsively spouted by the silent and stoic, non-evocative teen male. Our gal was, as always, positive, bubbly and happy to eat any and all (no sauce please). We are down to 2 scones and a pyramid of chicken bones. Those went down too...without a blink. It is nice to have an audience to perform to ...and all the output is input immediately. The Super Bowl made the boys happy. I watched YouTube videos about Gordon B. Hinckley, the former President and Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I am interested in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints--This has been a longterm fascination for me after visiting Salt Lake City in my teens on a family trip out West. Since then, we have visited Independence, MO (on a business trip...with a side bar to Independence), the the NYC church, to Palmyra NY for the annual Hill Cumorah pageant. Since high school, I have been devouring books about the LDS faith, Joseph Smith and all the history and controversies surrounding the faith, the facts and the lifestyle. It was coincidence that we moved here, to NY State, particularly that of Central New York which was the hot bed for social changes, religions and religious communities and thought--giving this region the nickname of the Burnt Over District. Some of the leading lights of this time period (1800- 1900) include: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglas, The Fox Sisters, Joesph Smith( First Prophet of the LDS Church), William Miller and the Millerites, The Shakers, The Perfectionist Community --The Oneidas, to name a few. I love all of these local groups and delve into their history and imagery.

However, the LDS Church has become more dimensionalized for me since the web has come on with the blogging community and podcasts. I listen to most of the Mormon podcasts with my favorites being Steven Kapp Perry's Cricket and Seagull, a weekly half hour music and church related interview show; and John Dehlin's Mormon Stories. John Dehlin presents all sorts of aspects of the church, turning over ideas, philosophy and practices with experts in a very thoughtful, careful and prepared way. He shows great respect towards his listeners and his guests--providing, I would think, a huge resource for those members of the faith who may have questions without a place to go within the church at large to surface questions and get some direction. I admire the work and time John Dehlin gives to his podcast, his candor and the strength of his beliefs. Combined with my reading on history, lifestyle, the FLDS subset, and visiting the various locations, John Delhin provides balance and makes this American church real and somehow less victorian and kooky that is presented ink on paper. He has made me think of religion beyond beliefs--but that of community and lifestyle that are meshed together.

Take a listen through iTunes. It is an education--particularly in the visibility the church has with Hinckley's death, the new Prophet (to be announced), Mitt Romney and all the other LDS people and organizations beyond the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Donnie and Marie.

More later>>

More stuff.


I was wandering around the web and found these cool Ackerman pens at Comic Artist Supplies. The Ackerman pens have this bladder system (like the old refillable fountain pens with a lever that one raises to fill a bladder, in place of a refillable cartridge) that you can fill with paint or ink. There are three types: a brush (with replaceable tips) a nib and a crow quill version of the pen. It eliminates the tedious dip,dip,dip thing. Seems like something worth trying as the cartridges seem to burn out with my pens, and I can use the divine Star Matte Black full time in this guise. There is also a brushpen in the Manga supplies at Comic Art Supplies-- the Tria Brushpen--also with a refillable ink reservoir that work with a Tria ink, Metallic ink or an Aqua ink. Need to look into that.

Great story on NPR this morning about the anniversary presentation of Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich performed by students and faculty of the Great Valley State University--now available from Inova, I love Steve Reich--his clean, trancelike music and sounds--and the state it can take you to--floating somewhere between here and there--a netherland of sound--that holds you in a place that imagination cannot take you away from but is very much here and now. iTunes rates this as a 4.5 stars --and the reviews confirm my thinking. I think this is a must buy. Steve Reich, in an interview on American Public Media's site with Gabrielle Zukerman said this about 18 Musicians:

So “Music for Eighteen Musicians” happened. We were living across the street, believe it or not, in a loft building on Warrant Street. We had the top floor. I rented four spinets, which I kept set up in a large room in there. And I guess about every two, three weeks we rehearsed for a period of two years.

I wrote the piece in sketches in my notebook. I was working with multi-track tape, playing things against each other and then putting down what I needed to put down. And then I transferred it out in parts without the main score. On the parts would be: “Look at Russ here,” or “Bob nods.” Essential information!

The piece was written so that a conductor would not be necessary. Now to do that you must substitute, if you have eighteen people playing, something else has got to take the place of that. The conductorial responsibilities were delegated to the vibraphone player who, every time he played, it was a cue to, “Get ready, here we [gong] go,” and everybody changes.

That was an idea I took directly from Balinese and African music, where the drummers--as you know--will make the [call]. Everybody knows, when these guys start going fast, you go with them. In African music there are what they call “changing patterns.” Very simple patterns that sort of stick out because they’re so simple. That means, “Get ready, and off we go!” Everybody changes on a dime to something else.

Then there were soft-edge changes, based on the human breath, which is a big part of “Music for Eighteen Musicians.” Pulses that are played by the bass clarinets. To people who don’t know what they are, they think they’re sort of electronic frogs or something. It’s bass clarinets played very rasping with a microphone shoved way down into the bell almost. And it’s a very characteristic sound in the piece.

NPR did a great interview with some of the musicians who spoke to the technical aspects of physically making this music--using Sol Lewitt-y type of direction (with illustrations of how the musicians should situate themselves relative to each other to the direction to do 4-8 or this sort of repetition--making the musician an active participant in the presentation and the actual music). Reich spoke about his inspiration around this trancelike, non precise music which dovetailled nicely with what the musicians spoke of. And the aspect of the spiritual plane, the trance, the suspension that this music provides for the musicians was something else surfaced....which I loved hearing as the recordings do this--imagine being within the tangible sound--it must be amazing.

Whomped out a lot of cooking and baking after dropping K and A and friend off at the 7:45 ski bus this a.m. 2 big plates of lemon/cranberry scones, some oatmeal/peanut butter/chocolate bars, and a gigantic pot of chicken chili which I modified (spicier than usual) with a sprinkling of chipotle pepper powder. A sprinkling is enough. Plans are a foot to attempt the Mount Everest of Super Bowl dining--chicken wings--this p.m. Super Bowl is a culinary event here as many of us know nothing about the sport...so a reason to eat homemade junk food is reason enough to celebrate. Sort of a pre-fat Tuesday event. We will see how this goes. I think the trick is hot fat...and I am getting skills with this with the recent eggplant parm boom that has been occurring here. We will see.

Must go as things need to get pulled out of the oven NOW!

Creative Summit, San Marcos, Tx. March 28-29, 2008

About the Creative Summit

The Creative Summit was founded by Chris Hill to further the knowledge and spirit of creativity for his students while teaching at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University, San Marcos). Now in its 20th year, the Creative Summit has grown into a highly respected regional student competition and conference attended by students and professionals from all over the country. This annual event is coordinated by Chris’ studio, HILL, with the support of the faculty and students from the Department of Communication Design at Texas State University, San Marcos. The Creative Summit is a non-profit organization. All proceeds go towards scholarship monies awarded for outstanding student work.

Alkek Library Theater, Texas State University
San Marcos, Texas
http://www.creativesummit.com

Looks like fun!

Talking


Is your silence that golden?
Are you comfortable in it?
Is it the key to your freedom
Or is it the bars on your prison?
Are you gagged by your ribbons?
Are you really exclusive or just miserly?
You spend every sentence as if it was marked currency
Come and spend some on me
Shut me up and talk to me
I'm always talking
Chicken squawking
Please talk to me

Joni Mitchell, Talk to Me

Copyright © 1976; Crazy Crow Music

"A real artist is going to like a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and it's going to take an entire life to assimilate them into something new," ... "It's not going to happen when you're young, and this is a youth-driven market. It's like painting: everybody knows, or they used to, that it takes a long time to distill all this. You don't become a master until you're in your 50s and 60s."

Joni Mitchell from an interview with the Guardian's Paul Sexton
'I came to hate music'

Wet Paint, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Discovered that Wet Paint has more than just the Pentel Pocket Brush pen (and cartridges). I like Wet Paint cause they have stuff that Blick, Utrecht and ASW (Art Supply Warehouse) do not have. None of them really rock with the graphic stuff. And guess what? Buried in the subcategories, Wet Paint has a lot of this cool stuff--like manga and cartoon paint (black, white, grey and the basics), same thing with cartoonists ink (I assume black is what its about...load on the carbon?), all sorts of british dip pens and nibs, manga and cartoon boards (with or without photoblue printed windows, grids or layout formats all under the subcategory in Paper as Comics). I cannot wait the Graphix Introductory Kit (duoshade drawing board kit)--a wonderful item of exotica that this novice is on the edge of her seat about. What? You ask, is this miraculous thing? Well, let's let the pros from Wet Paint tell us:

... this is an often requested product: Duoshade drawing board by Grafix. These drawing papers are processed with two invisible tones (dot & line patterns) that are made visible by applying the developers with a brush or pen. Its like having hidden screen tones right in the paper!

This kit includes three 3-ply bristol boards and one sheet of vellum, all 8.5x11; developers; illustrated information and pattern chart with complete directions for using Grafix shading mediums.

Can you imagine? OH. My. god. Can you say fun? Probably more toxic than anything we can imagine---second hand smoke? Turpentine? all those goodies you need to do screenprinting? But a barrel of monkeys more fun too. (can you guess-- I have one on order!). I also got some of the preprinted board, manga ink and some red Herbin (closeout) ink cartridges to put in a rotring for added partying.

Wet Paint, Inc.
Artists' Materials & Framing
1684 Grand Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55105
651.698.6431

I am ready to go!!

wheeeeee


Man, what a week. A screamer from the start til Friday. Lucky me, however--I got all the work done so Sunday is optional unless I want to wrap up (which I do) Momento Mori 2, getting the new images for the illustration site (from Memento Mori 2) and start some new pix for the Baker (a cat and a horse). I see an hour or so making new pictures for myself.

Icy on the ground here. Get on the spikes. Just standing still, and you move. Dark grey sky at a quarter to nine in the morning. Looks like snow. But, it doesnt smell like snow.

Am delighting in reading snippets from Braudel's social histories (all blocked out during time periods). I love these books as you can jump entirely into clothes, fashion and style, or food and dining, or houses and living, politics and religion. It is written beautifully, a rich slice to snuggle with before the marvelous state of dark unconsiousness I look forward to every day. I am reading about food right not...and how those foods that are out of everyman's reach (and therefore expectation and taste)--once they become adapted by the rich, having it extend into the everyman's diet is not far behind. And once it becomes an everyman's dish, it loses it's exotic quality and cuisine advances. He was listing all the meat (which he surprises us to say was really commonplace--for every plate (time frame is 1550-1650) from all sorts of four legged beasts and every bird imaginable from swans, to herons and cranes to small birds. He is talking about the development of the fork and plate--how they were expensive and very expressive of wealth and position. I need to dive in again soon...drinking my delicious Gimme! Platinum Blonde (favorite) and toasting my toes to the Jotul 602 Cricket.

Had a great chat with Carol Tinkelman about this and that and most particularly about Hartford. I may do a little copywriting (ey yi yi!) for her for a postcard (which I have been enjoying musing about) to promote the program. I am thinking we should probably have some running text with a sidebar of bullets so we get it all out---with a shortie punchlist should someone not want to read the copy. Carol sent me a great press release that they are sending out and 3 CDs of the opening slide shows for the first day of school and the graduating show for the class of 2007. The Graduating show was impressive (a tad long) but really depicts the process of the program, the camaraderie and relationships the students and teachers have, and finalizing with the work. My only critique from this show and from the opening shows is that maybe we can have some snapshots of each person to link name with face with work. She also sent me a bunch of testimonials/critiques from the students about the program. Some of the former SU graduates mouthed my expectations that they thought that the UH program would be a mirror of the SU program, its energy etc and how wonderfully surprised they were in how the UH program is a new paradigm, a new beat, a higher bar. And, what is really cool was that I had the chance to see the first slides of the same students before they entered the program and then with the graduation slide show, I had the chance to see how their work had moved from the experience. And, everyone's work significantly moved --some people phenomenally, to a higher level and presentation. How does one depict that change? And the invisible stuff like personal change and growth? Hmm.

More later.

IF: [Security] Blanket


noun: 1. A blanket carried by a child to reduce anxiety. 2. Informal Something that dispels anxiety.

For anxiety, as we have come to use it to describe our characteristic state of mind, can be contrasted with the active fear of hunger, loss, violence and death. Anxiety is the appropriate emotion when the immediate personal terror—of a volcano, an arrow, the sorcerer’s spell, a stab in the back and other calamities, all directed against one’s self—disappears.
Margaret Mead (1901–1978), U.S. anthropologist. “One Vote for This Age of Anxiety,” sect. VI, New York Times (May 20, 1956).
...when the immediate personal terror......disappears. I would say that this is a security blanket, not a wet blanket, for us when we question our mortality...and remember it...Memento Mori.

quick note


Off for a morning at Cornell to talk about the Baker Annual Report and a freebie, graphics for a Triathlon being held at Taughannock State Park this summer. I smell an illustration for that--do you?

Its a crisp, clear morning with promises of winter storms, sleet and snow later today. I know it sounds crazy, but we need it. Snow, that is. The herd of deer that lives on our property need it...and we would like a water filled summer like we have had recently--versus the parched, needle sharp, brown grass we sometimes get around the beginning of August. So, please, a bit of water.

Woodstove got another workout last night. R. brought a basket of wood in from the stock we have outside (from the trees we have had cut down before they would fall down)--and arranged it all to look as if Martha Stewart and her minions had gotten a job here. I peered nearsightedly at the basket and was shocked (as was R) to see that one of the logs wasnt a log...it was a part of a deer leg...complete with the hoof and fur. Shady and her girlfriends must have been saving a deercicle for a snack along with the walnut logs...just for "later". I let out a hoot--R did a doubletake and the hoof found itself out in the woods in an instant. Good thing it didnt make it into the stove...Imagine! Not a good way to break in the little black cricket on the hearth.

We are having a benefit with the local Democrats on February 10th to raise money for the up and coming local elections. I am thinking little plastic donkeys and marzipan in red white and blue. Maybe streamers and red white and blue sprayed carnations What do you think? Tasteful enough?

More later>>

Dreams


I know, I know. You are tired about hearing this--but did I extol the virtues of Dr. Martin's Black Star Matte Ink recently? It is amazing. Lays down matte and thick...and is just pure sex as it is luscious and rich and....well. I am in love over and over with this ink and the cheap brushes (only the best) to help me work through my issues with my mortality in my monteval all media field sketch books (another find!). I am slugging away with pictures of spirits and had a mini epiphany. As I was looking at the images in Graven--I noticed that the planes of the wings are really just big ole shapes with some linear detail worked in to say "feathers" or "nose and eyes". I figure I should do the same thing. Big planes and maybe create the line work on trace...scan it in and reverse it out of the image. Fast and good. Plus, gives me a chance to work bigger, bolder, and god forbid..more graphic...which, honestly, I have been shying from as it is too easy to do. Cheap trick, I guess. But, nonetheless...it is part of the progression of images and imagery. I was thinking about how this work is furthered beyond manifesting it in other forms (like embroidery, glass etc.)--How does one develop the sketches beyond what is there? Deal with more fears? Like, how do I get over being afraid of color? Or should I embrace my fear of color and stick with more black and white as this pool is something I like to swim in? Is it medium? Technique? Or should I embrace my fear of paint...in the same way? Should I forget all of that and deal with content (which is really interesting) and take a dozen images further--really developing them...running parallel with developing product/fabric/patterns/? Or should I work on a body of images that progress with some sort of personal story? I need to think. And more importantly, I need to keep the work coming.

Two new projects flew in through the window yesterday. Quickies. But..hey. Keeps us busy. The Steuben project has been moved up--and will be shown to someone tomorrow beginning the chain of presentations to sell the job. Am keeping my fingers crossed on this one. Feels like another working Sunday this weekend with the work and the short deadlines--

Got the work to Society of Illustrators LA. Need to get the Print and CA work figured out and done too. Deadlines are more than a month away...but I am likely to flake on this and it would be nice to get something in.

Purple sky this morning has blown through to give us cold, blue skies and an amazing whippy wind which is taking limbs and trees down. Promising a bit of snow...but not much.

Fired up the cricket (Jotul 620) for the second time last night. A gem. I am pleased we have this little woodstove as it will take the sting out of the future new kitchen (which in this 1848 house was the original kitchen...complete with a deep fireplace with iron firebacks, original cranes and iron cooking devices). Our existing kitchen is a 1940s remodel of the old servant's dining room and pantry. It serves as the family entrance of the house now...a crossroads that I happen to cook out of (on an old, early 1950s electric stove that looks like a car and works like a charm...it has convinced me that I don't mind working on an electric stove ), kids do their homework...etc. The current kitchen is going to be converted back into a space that doubles as an entry and passage along with a pantry for the future new (old) kitchen. Plans are afoot for us to get a wood cookstove (as an add...not as the sole cooking tool) for this new passage to provide heat, to cook on and if needed to work as a water heater as a nice add to the house and as a fallback for all of us should we lose power (which really does happen). I like the idea and the challenge of learning to cook on a woodstove...seems somehow cool...even if its soup. I like the added heating option. And the emergency thing I love too. There are too many people (and some of them older) who need support...and this will be a big help. Now, all I need to do is convince the boss that I also want a series of Honda generators...that might take some doing.

But, girls can dream can't they?

Sheets of Ice


Sheets of ice on the roads, on the sidewalks making us all shuffle and skitter to get around this morning. The pool was happily not crowded so I could continue to solve the world's problems during my regular back and forth. I love the striped line and the two crosses at either end of the pool acting as the comma, the comma, the semi-colon, the open quote and then finally, the close quote..of the thinking and journey through the water. It was very cathartic and filled with intellectual lists of things to do, things to send out, things to complete.

Was thinking about the ideas of "passing on", "passing","slipping the bounds" and the images that surround those ideas. Also thinking about the snake biting it's tail as seen in the wonderful Suzanna Jayne marker and the opportunities with that (the symbol of continuous life, life everlasting--a symbol of a continum). I love the way snakes look--their graphic quality, the texture they have and the way they can fill a page...creating a dynamic layout. Entwining, overlapping...calligraphic.

While musing on snakes, ropes (the bounds) and doorways (all in the Memento Mori context) I started thinking about decoration or decorative illustration versus editorial and my preconceived bias that one is "better" than the other. One is truly Illustration (with the capital I) and the other is "paying work". I am feeling a bit like the work that I am doing is more in the camp of decoration versus "real" illustration--and frankly, I am getting through this without worrying about the real-ness. My new thinking about illustration is that the world of editorial work has shifted out...much like typesetting in the eighties...and there are new opportunities out there beyond editorial. Editorial is just one slice of the illustration pie. There are a bunch of newbie illustrators being graduated annually from schools across the country--and there seems to be all sorts of work out there. Plus, if you look at it through my lens, three years ago I would not have been considered nor had the confidence to say that yes, I can do this project, yes I can create an image and yes, I can hold my head up and not feel like I am pulling some rabbit out of a hat. And someone (meaning my new clients) think I can illustrate too. It is going into publications, on products, within environments (just found out that a mix of animals are going to be part of a new lobby design at Cornell's Baker Institute--need to do a llama to complete the mix). It's paying. I can say that I have made the money for my time at Hartford (or will by that time) with illustration. So, a new income stream has opened up for me as well. And recognition? This is the stuff that is getting me noticed too.

So, real or not-- I guess it's working. And it's been a significant shift in the last year. Such that it is occupying a real spot on my work roster. And, the more illustration I do, the better I get...and the wheel starts spinning...right now, its spinning pretty quickly.