on it


It was a very wierd and enlightening moment yesterday. I had several of my pieces, hand drawn, and vector all on my computer screen all about the same small size. And surprisingly, they all seemed to come from the same place, not that there was this type of work, and that type of work. Somehow this blew me off my chair. I really do not have to differentiate my vector work from the hand drawn thing...they def live in the same space...albeit one from in between my ears, the other inspired by manipulated photographs etc. Same look and feel. May not be able to live on the exact page but sure can sit on the same wall next to each other.

Yesterday it was a day of groceries and walking around Ithaca Commons. We had a great time at Petrune--a vintage clothing store that we can take our own Ken and Barbie and make them try on things. The best were these Saville Row, handmade grey pinstripe suits that fit A. as if they were made for him to the tune of $75- $80 a pop. Gorgeous english tweed jackets. We got a very cute late fifies dress (stiff, pleated, full taffeta skirt in steel grey with thin pink horozontal stripes with a chocolate brown velvet waistband (tall) with a brown wool bodice (knit) with little knit tied bows on the short sleeves and at the back neck). Then, off to the used record store to buy The Who's Quadraphenia for A. and his passion for older music in very out formats. Next will have to be Quadraphonic, eight track in his pad.

Early out this a.m. with a trip to the House of Health. It was great. I am beginning to like it more again. Lots to do...more later.

wake up!


You know, as I get close to another idiotic, self imposed deadline I mutter about my own stupidity etc. etc. but find that in this time of crunch and focusing down, I discover stuff about my work. What I have been discovering in the framing and making sense of the illustrations from Memento Mori and now the sketches/illustrations from the Garden of Eden are the following things:


> I have changed and improved since last October when the original roll on Memento Mori happened. The design is better, tighter, and the hand is surer. The black and white patterning is more deliberate and considered.

> Since Hartford, the work has gotten better, tighter and more graphic. Versus fighting it...I am giving it a bit of head...and trying to really work with it. R. says to the better. Yes, there is a place for my obsession with detail and twiddly stuff...but to have some restraint versus binging in every image with pattern, line and swirl.

> This decorative, hand drawn work, I felt was weaker and not at strong as the vector work. Well, when printing it out bigger than usual, matting it and treating it with a bit more respect than a wiggly ink drawing in my sketchbook--these babies can stand up as well as the vector work with a bit more whimsey and imagination than the original group that comprised my Syracuse thesis. To my great surprise and astonishment. Hurray for the Art Trail...new views.

> The new vector studies (something I want to tune my hand and eye do do)--essentially limiting the palette to maximum 2 greys, black, white and a single color) really sing. I hadn't really finished one up until yesterday and they are really going some place. So, new goal in place (which I was mouthing but not believing) is that I need to do a few more of these (maybe with the city pictures) to build that work out as well. This minimal vector approach was inspired by the first one of the series, the Chicken Chokers logo/illustration which was/is harder than it looks...but with it's success...these images have potential insofar as shows, but also in the world of graphic design as logos, images, symbols beyond the usual cutting into letterforms, spinning shapes etc. that often become rote. Acceptable and to many companies, well worth the investment...but not putting more me,, more humor, more touch to their marks. I am hoping that the logo I may be working on soon (this week we work on names) may have some of this illustration assigned to the process. Plus, the portraits I have done for the Masters of Studio Glass.

Recycled soup is on the stove. A gargantuan lasagne using up all sorts of bits and pieces from the refrigerator is done and ready for this evening. K R and I have bets on how many sittings this monster will last...I have it that it will be gone by tomorrow dinner ( size: 4" tall, 16" x 20"). Wow.

Gotta go now.

Saturday mix


There's all sorts of activity afoot here. My mother in law is having 25 for drinks and a buffet, so there is lots of thinking around where to park, moving of furniture et cetera. I am printing small things to go into 3.75" x 5.75" windows in these rich mats from Nielsen Bainbridge and measuring the other pre-cut mats to see which sizes are needed to scale the work accordingly. Next Saturday is the first Ithaca Art Trail Weekend, and my hope is to get the work ready and/or framed so we can hang the work next week/ next Friday and price. Last year I went a bit nuts offering all sorts of stuff...and giclees in tons of sizes, two types of holiday cards in boxes, boxed notecards, Memento Mori books, folded mantle art (dogs and death), Ithaca Trail Mix in a cute kraft paper box, collections of postcards for a buck... etc. It was a wealth, or even an explosion of what was available. This year, no explosion. I am offering what I am offering...with some (underline some) random giclees. The majority of the offering will be framed (which will take the per piece price up...but selling in a more distinct and frankly more finished way). If the Ithaca buyer winces at $75. for a matted and framed illustration and that same buyer hesitates at a $20 print in a sleeve...then that buyer is just not buying. I do not need to underprice myself to move prints...undervaluing the work,, but to offer up what I have and if I do not ring the cash register, I do not ring the cash register. It might have been too many choices combined with basically  a cheap audience that uses the Art Trail opportunity to nose into people's houses and studios with no need to pay anything. What with the free cake we are encouraged to provide etc. why should you do anything but eat and meddle. So, with that thinking, why am I going greyer  on this one? Plus, with the added insanity of having a party the first night of the second week...and truly, expecting 200 people, I need my planning and thinking to get through this one.

The illustration above was a floral study done for a client with their logo to be inserted into the picture. This was rejected in place of the sun and moon put up on Thursday. I was looking at this floral against what I drew last spring (08) and I have definitely come someplace with the random drawing and sketching I am doing with the HAS Garden of Eden. I am not patterning everything...and am letting the balance of black and white relax a bit which is nice. I am doing a bunch of pictures of Genesis 2 (Day two) with a series of books on japanese illustration at my elbow. The temptation is to mimic the wonderful Hiroshige Wave when working on water...but it is so singular and doesnt sit nicely with the hand I am working in...that it seems out of sorts. Clouds are another thing...and you know, in real life (outside of reflection) they often resemble each other.

I am listening to this great book, The 19th Wife, which weaves a fictional story of the 19th wife of Brigham Young (this expose that this wife wrote, blew the doors off of the image of early Mormons and polygamy--such that the Church represesses all the original writing etc>played against a tale of murder set within a Mormon sect/cult modelled on my favorite, Uncle Rulon and Warren Jeff's own FLDS Church in Bountiful, Utah. The book makes the time with the printer far more fun than imagined. I love having a subscription to Audible--and all the books that await listening to. Vincent Bugliosi's book on how George Bush is a criminal and needs to go to jail is next. I hope I can listen to this without throwing my iPhone out the window. Speaking of the iPhone, Wordpress has an iPhone application that I want to use on my phone...because it will allow me to blog (to a wordpress blog I will link to when I am not close to my computer). More on that...I am a bit fearful as the typing on the phone is slow, and cumbersome...so those entries will be short and garbled. But, maybe that is all you all are used to anyway.

Another exciting thing is that my big bottle (twice normal size) of the Heart of Darkness is almost a half done. Thanks to the plunger/converter with my fab Sailor pen, I am cranking through the ink (my notebooks will attest to this) and am not throwing away cartridges...so eco-illustrators unite~!

Gotta go. More on the table to do.

IF: Sugary


I figured I would try and make some sweetsie pie pictures to see if I could...so this image Papillon Avec Les Papillons happened. And sweetsiepieness occurred.

There is no sugar cane that is sweet at both ends.
Chinese proverb.


The phone rings, I pick it up. New project, 2 hour turn around. Okay. Push the other work aside, work for two hours, the next two hours and then amend for two hours. Get the pushed aside work, back in front, and try to get my head into it. Back into it. The phone rings, another new project, 2 hour turn around. Okay, Push the old work to the side, get this one done. And so on. That is how the last two days have gone. I think I have gotten the rushes off my plate and then can move forward. Then, its the changing thinking of some clients...so the original thought (which has been sketched and designed) is tossed for another take and they are not going to pay for two go rounds with the "creative brief" shifting like quicksand. Oy. Its work, its paying and I need to get with the program. Forgive my bleeting.

Am doing a lot of "quick"illustrations for the Museum and my New Jersey clients. It is taking some time working in ink, cleaning them up and translating them to vectors...which I am getting the hang of (thank you so much, Chad...you are so right about it being a great way to work). I am working on a floral, a tree of life, an equinox image that with the conventions I am learning taking hold, and my new understanding of editing in photoshop is making things quite exciting.

One more year




Today is my birthday. One more year. Three hundred and sixty five days to make pictures, read books, make lunch, shepherd teens, sleep deep sleeps, swim among the clouds. Three hundred and sixty five opportunities to change, evolve, and try to keep things interesting for myself and others. Three hundred and sixty five wishes and lists. Three hundred and sixty five (plus or minus) blog entries for us to share. And so it goes. Keeping the wheels spinning. Maybe more hair dye?

No plans here. Need to get ready for Art Trail and for my mother in law's guests coming in this weekend. Bathroom needs to be tidy, bed and towels new and clean. Grass seed replanted where the wonderful Dare Daniels dug up the stuff we planted this spring (which really fully integrated (complete with the crab grass and plantain weeds) and looked just like it had been there forever.

Working on a bunch of approaches to Genesis 2--the separation of the firmament. But need to also do a Winter Solstice picture for the Museum, recolor the Tree of Knowledge for my client to use for a holiday card. Found these images from the New York Public Library Digital Archives. Love the bony Adam and Eves with with skinny dumb tree with the crowned snnake tempting them. Such a sad little scene, a bit of knowledge of good and evil looked pretty good. So somber and sad. And the miniature painting in a psalter of Adam and Eve being expelled by a bronzed angel is the polar opposite.

More later>>


I was twiddling around on Wiki to find out there is an egg in Israel called the "Bereshit Aleph' or the first chapter of Genesis, which is written on an egg and kept at the Israel Museum. Wiki sez:

Bereishit (parsha)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bereishit, Bereshit, Bereishis, B'reshith, Beresheet, or Bereshees (בראשית — Hebrew for "in beginning,” the first word in the parshah) is the first weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. Jews in the Diaspora read it the first Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in October.
The parshah consists of Genesis 1:1–6:8. In the parshah, God creates the world, and Adam and Eve. They commit the first sin, however, and God expels them from the Garden of Eden. One of their sons, Cain, becomes the first murderer by killing his brother Abel out of jealousy. Adam and Eve also have other children, whose descendants populate the Earth, but each generation becomes more and more degenerate until God, despairing, decides to destroy humanity. Only one man, Noah, finds grace in the eyes of God.


Also from Wiki
Creation
When God began creation, the earth was unformed and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and God’s wind swept over the water. (Gen. 1:1:2.)
God spoke and created in six days:
First day: God separated light from darkness. (Gen. 1:3–5.)
Second day: God separated the waters, creating sky. (Gen. 1:6–8.)
Third day: God gathered the water below the sky, creating land and sea, and God caused vegetation to sprout from the land. (Gen. 1:9–13.)
Fourth day: God set lights in the sky to separate days and years, creating the sun, the moon, and the stars. (Gen. 1:14–19.)
Fifth day: God had the waters bring forth living creatures, and blessed them to be fruitful and multiply. (Gen. 1:20–23.)
Sixth day: God had the earth bring forth living creatures, and made man in God’s image, male and female, giving man dominion over the animals and the earth, and blessed man to be fruitful and multiply. (Gen. 1:24–28.) God gave vegetation to man and to the animals for food. (Gen. 1:29–30.)
Seventh day: God ceased work and blessed the seventh day, declaring it holy. (Gen. 2:1–3.)

Genesis Chapter Two


Day Two. Separate those firmaments. Sketch from the wirebound book. Today, in the cracks of time of the day.

quiet day


Red beans and rice on the stove for the team (we will have 8 or so today) for lunch. I am thrilled with the Indian food section at Wegmans, the Museum of Food as I have started buying basics from...like big bags of basmati rice, spices, garlic and ginger paste, and indian cooking sauces. Of course, how could I forget the jars (multiple) of coriander chutney that is consumed in massive quanitities between the team, the teens and others...dumped in soups, spread on sandwiches, eaten with rice and tzaziki. So I bow to the Museum of Food and the new adds to helping cook dinners and lunches week in, week out.

Pinned two teens into togas before 7:45 a.m. It was a bit of a time push...but they both were respectable toga teens for Pep Week at Trumansburg Central School's Charles O. Dickerson HS. Homecoming week. The expectations of bonfires, pranks, the big game and the top of the pyramid, the big dance. We looove the dances. Whoa. Thank goodness I could put my hands on a box of safety pins or we would have been in trouble with the bed sheets.

Plugging away on projects, mailings, work for Hartford and getting ready for people descending on my in laws this week (need to prep a guest room). Back at the House of Health. Loving getting back into the schedule of the walking and biking machines. Am listening to a book about one of of Brigham Young's wives, the 19th wife, and her disallusionment and leaving the church. Good stuff. Keeps the left foot, right foot continue and eyes on the inlet with the graceful rowers and teams. I have been looking at the foliage and pretending I am an indian miniature painter...and trying to see the stylization.

Very exciting news. One of the Tree of Life illustrations have been accepted by one client for their holiday card for this year. They print well over sixty thousand pieces...! Getting the work out there.

More later.

Whhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Well, gravity took hold today in the market. Freaking sleigh ride on rails, greased rails...and its not done. Love it that the Republicans couldnt deliver the votes...a short fall of around 20 votes (or less) that the soon to be candidates couldn't stomach taking home to Ohio or Kansas or Nebraska...and thus throwing Mr. Henry Paulson's rescue plan (with many top men exempted from the salary/ golden parachute exemption) keeping many of the crooks ensconced complete with big salaries and fat packages. Crooks, Liars, Cheats. It needed to be voted down. Why couldn't this bill be a pure, unsullied one versus another polluted, partisan platform. Enough all ready.

Nice chat with Murray and Carol. More to do on the Eden piece. Was messing around with the splitting of the firmaments. No where near finished...but just wanted to get the vibe down. There will be around one or two million sketches to make this right...but I am liking where this is going.

"6And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

If only we had it so easy! Was at the House of Health today...getting back into the swing of things...from the rapid walking on the machina di passigiare to the bicycling machine (complete with silent t.v.s showing us the wonders of Sarah Palin without the sound...and to absolutely no sacrifice to the message)!

Took poor Ms. Shady Grove to her doctor appointment which they poked and prodded her to see if they could draw blood. After around 10 tries out of legs, jugular vein and back legs, with her looking at me saying, "please, lets not do this any more...I have almost, just almost, lost patience with you and these clumsy ladies>" After 3 shots and lots of snacks...it was time to go. She was truly a miracle dog, sweet as sugar candy. I am lucky to have such a wonderful pal.

late night. gotta go.

Attention!


Finished up the redo of the illustration above. Brightened the colors (slightly), redrew the entire thing (by half) and merged and added via photoshop (the floral border of the tree was absurd and needed to redraw along with skinnying down the trunk of the tree...and then fused with the new half/flop). I am pleased with where this has gone.I may try stripping in some light texture or putting on an antique paper to see if this might give it a bit more UMPH. Who knows.

Bought new spikes, compression shorts and tee shirt for the Cross Country guy. It was a great day filled with subway tile(five boxes...and lots of hassling the Lowes guys to do their jobs...), eating burritos, and laughing a lot with teenagers yesterday. Today evolved into more laughter, pancakes (with peaches bought from Rick at the top of the hill along with tomatoes, red peppers (I've roasted), zucchini and a melon), homework (me and the littles....I got some pagination work done on my book for HAS--promising).Lots of mist and rain, particularly to Kitty's delight. A. ran with a friend. R. drew moulding profiles and K and I delivered my buffalo to the State of the Art Gallery for the Art Trail show and finished the afternoon off at the Museum of Food, Wegmans. We had a wonderful time from admiring the russian tea cakes, taking pictures of the octopus, buying pesto and tzaziki, greek yogurt (a new favorite) and salmon...and touring the organic products exclaiming over what was there and the packaging pros and cons. We went wild in the indian food department (as usual) and got very into the interesting smells and the prepackaged naan offered.

Poor Shady Grove was a bit under the weather yesterday. As R and I admired the brilliantly streaked sky over the lake, suspended over beautifully clear water and still winds, Shady looked to find refuge under our legs to the produce the goods. After R didn't even miss a beat, the dock was clear of poor Miss Grove's woopsie--and we went about checking her out. She had a dry nose and a bit of heat. After giving her a bit of couscous and treating her gently, she was back in the game today-- chasing balls, and finding the worst place to be and spreading out in it. Thank goodness...she had us going. Evidence was that she inhaled the salmon skin this evening and was looking for more. Upset stomach be damned!

Now for the political moment:

The Orphan Works Bill is something we need to rally around. Everyone!
Let your voice be heard...it is immanent...and will affect your work, your world and your legacy you leave your children or inheritors. Brad Holland in a succinct article says:

Proposed US Legislation Could Orphan Copyrights

by Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner

From Illustrators’ Partnership

Proposed US Legislation Could Orphan Copyrights
February 20, 2006

The US Orphan Works Report: On January 23 the U.S. Copyright Office issued their Orphan Works Report, outlining a proposed amendment to the 1976 Copyright Act. It defines an “orphan work” as any work where the author is unidentifiable or unlocatable, and applies to both published and unpublished works, US and foreign, regardless of age. The legislation would be retroactive. http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/orphan-report-full.pdf

The proposal would not re-impose formalities, but would penalize artists who didn’t re-impose formalities on themselves. The strategy is to “limit remedies” for infringement in any case where an illustration or photograph was published without “relevant information” on the picture itself - or where relevant information has been removed:

“For authors and copyright owners, marking copies of their works with identifying information is likely the most significant step they can take to avoid the work falling into the orphan works category. This is particularly true for works of visual art, like photographs and illustrations, that otherwise do not contain text or other information that a user can rely on to help determine the identity of the copyright owner. Nothing in the Office’s recommendation would make such markings mandatory...Nevertheless, the presence and quality of the information on particular copies will be a highly relevant fact as to whether a reasonable search will find the copyright owner.” (p. 9, emphasis added)

continued>>

Check out this mental paper from the Register of Copyrights, Mary Beth Peters>>

this we lift from Flickr>> Who, I think synthesizes it beautifully>>

no news doesn't mean good news. pay attention:

orphanworks.blogspot.com/

www.nikondigital.org/dps/dps-v-4-08.htm

www.tomrichmond.com/blog/?tag=orphan-works-act

www.sellyourtvconceptnow.com/orphan.html

"Photos on the internet could be orphaned. With tens of millions of photos shared online with services like Flickr, Shutterfly and Snapfish, there is a huge opportunity for unauthorized use of your photos... legally.

You could see photos you take of your family and kids, or of a family vacation, used in a magazine or newspaper without your permission or payment to you. You would have to pay to register your photos, all of them, in every new registry in order to protect them. Say the average person takes 300 photos per year (I take a lot more than that). If a registry only charges $5 per image, that is a whopping $1,500 to protect your photos that are protected automatically under the current laws. If there are three registries, protecting your images could cost an amazing $4,500. Not to mention the time it would take to register every photo you take. Plus, you will also have to place your copyright sign on every photo.

That's not including all your art, sketches, paintings, 3D models, animations, etc. Do you really have all that extra time and money? Plus, even if you do register, the people stealing your work can still claim it was orphaned and, unless you fight them, they win. Even if you win, you may not make back your legal fees.

It gets even better. Anyone can submit images, including your images. They would then be excused from any liability for infringement (also known as THEFT) unless the legitimate rights owner (you) responds within a certain period of time to grant or deny permission to use your work.

That means you will also have to look through every image in every registry all the time to make sure someone is not stealing and registering your art. You could actually end up illegally using your own artwork if someone else registers it. DOES ANYONE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS?"

With the god damned melee happening in Washington, this baby has been slipped in and approved by the Senate. It is not about retouching pictures of grandpa. Its about our work, our sketches, our intellectual property and art as illustrators. Please, let your voice be heard. It is critical. Please engage wheither you are an illustrator, artist, or someone interested in the arts. It is the rug being pulled out from under us in a world filled with people who believe every image on google images are royalty free from family photographs, to corporate images, to illustrations the neighbor next door put on Deviant Art to share with their friends. The time is now to Act. Please consider this.

From the pews of the Church of What's Happening Now

Man. The debate was wearing. And, with Obama depicting the virtual financial apocalypse that is eminent, the absolute need to do something versus hurry up and wait became foremost for me. However, with the image of Mr. Paulson on his knees in front of the cozy group at the White House, Mr. Obama, Mr. McCain, the President and various and sundry other important thought leaders, is so abhorent I cannot stand it. First off, lets remember that Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke are Wall Street insiders who are begging for hand outs to help their friends maintain their quality of life and to validate the unsanctioned, (almost?) criminal behavior that have run rampant with this threatening world collapse-- Why can't this be a loan? or Money parsed out as the story unveils itself? Isn't that what you would do for friends, or family or children? If your kids ask you for a thousand bucks, would you just dumbly hand it over and ask for some sort of accounting later. NO. This is the same "take no prisoners" crap that was handed to us with the funding of this expensive and stupid war. Where is the non partisan Leadership here? Where is the touted MBA President (Major Bullshit Artist?) in this time of crisis and psychological shakiness? Do we really need to blindly hand over cash without any strings, oversight or guidance? Where are all of our friends? Where is Alan Greenspan? I like the idea of Warren Buffett buying a stake of one of these failing companies and then putting his brain, his experience and his strategies to bear on this rogue institution. I wish we would have the time to allow this sort of trickle down to happen to really see capitalism move and change with the shift of money and interest. If we get out or over this thing, I truly hope that big changes beyond the bank, big cultural changes will occur. At least I can hope--though we Americans don't really like any change beyond what is on the TV. Dancing with the Stars? Who Wants to be a Millionaire? or American Financial Idol?

Gotta go.

country haiku


I picked up my apples this morning from the refrigerator at the Black Diamond Farm and was entertained by the little note clipped to the handle of the paper bag that held this weeks cache.

"What's in the bag?

Liberty
Sansa
McIntosh
Zabergau Reinette
Cox's Orange Pippin
Gala
Honeycrisp"

Just the list sounds biteable? Right? Kind of country haiku. It is creeping towards fall...with temperatures in the mid seventies and forties in the night. Everything is holding on to it's greenery as long as it can with the rain that we have had. Mandy and I have seen the two piliated woodpeckers next door. Man, those birds are huge and very primordial in their sharp red heads and the odd way they cling to the tree vertically...getting ready to hammer on its bark. We should see the return of the stamping, meat headed turkey vultures and of course, the flocks of turkeys are quite visable these days.

Everything seems to be on slippery rails these days. A. was caught cheating on his homework paper yesterday, so we are dealing with that here...along with managing it on the school side. He was shocked...and it has been a major learning thing for him..that maybe his pushing the envelope has landed him squarely back in the zone again. It seems that this is the month for him and his friends to push the bounderies from school work to smoking just to see what they can get away with. Makes me want to scream...but hey, I am a minor player on this stage. K is forgetting a bunch of things that really need to happen and I am afraid that my patience has become impatient with her slacking off. I really am worried and nothing seems to trickle into that head of hers. When she is on, she is on...and when she shuts down...she stubbornly doesnt budge. Lots to do on the work front, the Art Trail Front, the house and and parties thrown in. I need to finish up the invitations today and get them in the mail.

The world is also getting on my nerves. The repurposing of this financial "crisis" which has been brewing for well over a year now into something that is politicized--having the candidates sit with the president to work out a plan (who is the financial expert in this group? the MBA President?) is ridiculous and frankly, tragic, given the fact that many americans actually believe that these shills, in their daddy roles, can put a financial band aid on the boo boo and the poof! it goes away. Lets say it once and have it done with...there is no Poof! to this program. More like Ouch! or Thud! It also points up that the dems have absolutely no strategy or tactical saavy relative to all of this. If McCain decides he has to skip the debate, then why isn't the Homecoming Queen, a heartbeat from the President allowed to debate Obama. Or to make it fair, Biden. Have you been listening to her responses she has been permitted to make to softball questioners like Katy Couric? How can anyone take her seriously for Governor let alone Vice President? The dems have got to stop being defensive and grab the reins and start driving the messaging, image and impression of themselves and their opponents. It blows my mind that with the pathetic ratings the president has, the republicans even have a chance. And they do...So someone better snap out of it and get on with it. We are talking less than 8 weeks.

spinning off the axis


Clocking em down. Peacock not quite refined..but on its way. Need to work the spokes back in color (quiet them down so the head pops), equalize the thinness of the legs...refine..Got the Deadman's Mile volunteer school graphics done. Got the initial pops on the holiday card done and in FedEx. Feeling like anything is possible.

Was working with the vectorization of drawings yesterday and I feel that this could happen. I am sure with more crunching on it, it could become more automatic. Am going to redraw the Vin piece for the slick cover of Eden...and see what I can do. Its a draw half, flip it, correct and erase it and then turn into workpaths all in photoshop. Then its save the workpaths to illustrator and see what happens. Then, its resaving the illustrator file and importing those paths back into photoshop to add highlights and burn and dodge areas to see what sort of magic I can get. And, the last thing is to have it look like I did the whole thing on my art table and not with the wacom.

Just got some beautiful frames with thick and generous mats (Nielson Bainbridge) with plexi (not glass) from Dick Blick today. Plan on filling them up for the Art Trail. Will need to get an image down to the State of the Art Gallery this Sunday for the preshow for the Trail. I think the buffalo is going to be the "one" to be framed. I love the Nielson Bainbridge frames. Look really good and have all the stuff in one place (and if you shop the sales you are not bankrupt framing your work). I think Christmas may have some framed pieces given to family members and friends.

Speaking of Christmas, I don't know about you, but the world has become a pretty scary place and I worry about December as god knows what is going to be happening with wars, the economy, the state of the state. I hate all this paternalistic crap that is dished out about how the "American Public doesn't have to worry or be responsible for the bad debt and and foreclosures" going down. This is a real problem. We all must be responsible for our mortgages...not big brother or the government. If you sign on the line, you are responsible. If you cannot make the payment, you move on. Yes, the banks were going to town giving people ideas about what they could afford. But don't you, as an individual have the responsibility for understanding your min/max and not exceeding what you can afford? The growth of the plastic sided mcMansions did not grow in accordance with people's incomes skyrocketing in the double digits. And, with people plugging so much of their own wealth into these "homes", with the market and the projected resale taking a downward turn, so do many people's retirement income et cetera. Additionally, even these overpriced mcMansions were stupidly built (ie we saw thousands of houses (abandoned and not even sided) outside of San Diego, built on these dirt hillsides that looked like one false move and the entire group would slide down the hill. They were crummy construction and were scheduled to sell in the MILLIONS), stupidly sited and badly detailed with cheap materials. So, in the quick break to make a huge buck--quality, design and location were all severely compromised.We all are responsible for this home craze...the growth of the pretend market of pretend houses that the owners cannot even afford. Its is the Walmart headset of everything we as an american populace expect-- more is better than good. Cheap is better than quality and well made. Leveraging everything for image transcends the reasonable-ness of paying off the credit cards and being liquid. Television reinforces this...but it has rooted in the American consciousness....How can we change this lack of thought, this disrespect of liquidity, this inability to say No or "we cannot afford it". We need to honor responsibility before image.

And the banks-- the bonuses must stop. The outrageous salaries must stop. Investment banking must align with the rest of world--and if the US is going to own these institutions...business cannot continue in this fricking dreamworld they live in. Lets just remember, bankers do not make ANYTHING. There is nothing tangible that a banker makes and can hold in their hands and say "facit" (latin for I made it). The layer cake of deals leveraged on deals on top of deals that teetered on selling debt etc. was irrational and stupid--as stupid as the deregulation that happened. People need controls as greed and passion can override intelligence and forward thinking--and need a governor to keep them in line. I do not see either party responding to this nightmare that we now have to shoulder along with debt from this war, and no end to debt from Katrina and 9/11 and other national needs...nor does it seem there is an easy way out. So regardless of how we vote, schools will continue to be underfunded, we will not be able to send our kids to college affordably, healthcare will go unresolved etc. Imagine rolling $700,000 Billion into healthcare? or to split hairs healthcare, education and innovation?

What a waste.

daily note


....turns out that Queen Juana would travel around the countryside with the corpse of Philip the (not so) Handsome in a lead lined box...with her opening the coffin and kissing him publicly. Prior to being put in the coffin, Philip was made to sit upright with jewelry and crown and Juana would sit at his feet and talk to him. Now, we are getting the low down on how how the English King decided that yes, though Juana was certifiable, at least she was fertile and brought a large part of Spain with her. Juana made up her own version of a nun's habit, with a cowl hood that she would shrink back into. She stopped eating and shrunk down to nothing... So, nutty and hungry which is almost a cyclical thing. All of this is driving us to the negotiated deal allowing Henry VIII to marry Katherine of Aragon, Queen Juana's more sober and sadder sister. Katherine really wasnt given many breaks in her relatives, her parents, her husbands and her sad life after she couldn't present Henry a son. Sad all around. Katherine's symbol/ cipher was a pomegranate. Love that.

On the hook for the holiday cards going out tomorrow so the peacock may be close, but still needing a little tweaking prior to final. Working on a bunch of stuff for the Corning Museum of Glass..getting closer, I hope.

Chet the Lawnman has just come for his money. He is off to the adirondacks to take in some fishing and hunting(?) and camp. Next time, he promises there will be leaves galore.

I ordered a ton of bulbs from Van Engelen. A naturalizing mix of narcissus (350 bulbs), 15 Frittilaria Imperialis (red) and 50 Fritillaria Persica (in deep purple). This will give A. and his pal Chris a busy day to make a little cash. It all seems so silly to do every fall, and I forget by spring and we have these wonderful surprises of color and scent. If we just keep plugging away on the planting, it will begin to take on a momentum that we are just beginning to see every year. Van Engelen is wonderful. Their bulb quality is great, prices excellent--the only downside is that you have to buy fairly large quantities as that is their focus. You can buy the same material at smaller quantites at John Scheepers. No time like the present to think of handfuls of flowers in April and May.

Visited with some of R's family last night. We had at the table a retired architect, a retired pathologist and a retired NASA engineer/scientist (he plotted the trajectory of one of the early missions (all with a slide rule!)). The conversation ranged from the political to grandchildren and ancestors, to the Civil War and the improvements made at the Gettysburg National Battlefield. It was pretty much full bore and exciting until it got to Obama or McCain. At that point, both kids stood up, said their goodbyes and am-scrayed as fast as their little feet would carry them. I should have taken their clue.

A. runs in Watkins Glen tonight. It's a perfect day (high mid 70s) with a blue sky and trees trying to think about changing color. Crisp and brilliant. I hope he does well.

Gotta go. Work awaits.

La Loca, ME.


Rushing around like a nut. Got back to the House of Health today--and am climbing the eternal mountain at a set speed. Listening to a biography on Katherine of Aragon and her crazy sister Queen Juana of Spain. I am feeling a bit like Queen Juana, who was wierdly obsessive...and was going to be shut away by her husband, Philip the Fair (a Hapsburg..read that key-razy chin) until Philip dropped dead. I feel more like the wild and obsessive Queen Juana...no need to imprison, quite yet. It was great looking out the window over the inlet, with the still green trees, mounding into shapes I am trying to press into my brain, looking at the color variation and how tree next to tree renders itself different and distinct from its neighbor.

Philip the Handsome (left), Juana La Loca (right)

Got more work to do on the posted Peacock. Murray and Paul Z. weighed in on the big feet/leg thing. Murray wants the tail to connect to the bird. Can do. Also have a few Museum projects on deck and some identity work for other clients. Need to nail down some of the Christmas cards. Also, need to get the company card done and printed (simple cards) so we can generate lists/output labels and get them done and ready for November 1.

Slow Sunday.

Baldwinsville is a for real little Upstate Canal town with a vital main street and nice residences. The Central School is beautiful, huge and well maintained (making me a bit jealous)with a nice cross country trail. The day was perfect--blue skies, low humidity, sun with green grass, and lots of all different teams, runners and individuals in multicolored uniforms eating apples and stretching. We had a chance to see A. run...very well to our thinking as part of the Junior Varsity team. He was pleased with his time. Being part of the pack, the team was equally pleasant as they all took naps together waiting for their race. The Tburg team in general, given their small size as a group, but their big heart did quite well. I cannot say enough of the camaraderie and spirit this group has...and how it has so wonderfully swept Alex into its wake. An absolute highlight of his new freshmanhood.

K, R and I went to the Home Despot to buy fixures and sinks for the emerging two bathrooms. Turns out, the sale bins really paid out. Our favorite sink we put into the Luckystone was well over half off and we found some european fixures which were simple and elegant, not a gorped up interpretation of vintage hardware--that were cheap...(also on a sale shelf). It was a haul, but a good one.

Then it was home to drawing, reading, and of course, making dinner. It was an early night and a slightly later morning with pancakes and invitations to address.

I hope to put some time into drawing for my holiday pictures. Additionally, I have Art Trail coming up and need to put some thought around how to configure the house, what to sell etc.

More later.

getting ready for Baldwinsville


Hand drawn peacock. Tail was flipped. Modified neck in the computer to correct the drawing. Did the Chad> res it up bigtime, select the image, save as workpath> export to illustrator> open in illustrator and then, where the hang up is--anything that knocks out of the single shape, needs to be reknocked out as paths as the counter/ or the white space within the shape will fill if you change the colors around. Another thought is that in photoshop, you can make a bunch of different selections either with color range (the big blunt tool) or by drawing paths, for different colorways etc. and save each one of those out (a la different screens for each color in screenprinting) as a workpath and bring into photoshop. My little brain is ticking away on this technique...it opens up new possibilities with hand drawn images while getting them in a scaleable place.

I am starting to look at oriental carpets and china design as well as Indian paintings. I started paginating the book...really not a problem in the beginning as God did some big stuff for the first 7 days. Then, when Adam and the Troublesome one, Eve, come on the scene, the sense of time melts away. However, in the Book of Jubilee, everything is essentially, time, date, length of time...Whoever put this gem in place Looooved numbers.

"These four great works God created on the third day. And on the fourth day He created the sun and the moon and the stars, and set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon all the earth, and to rule over the day and the night, and divide the light from the darkness."

"And in the first week of the first jubilee, [1-7 A.M.] Adam and his wife were in the garden of Eden for seven years tilling and keeping it, and we gave him work and we instructed him to do everything that is suitable for tillage. And he tilled (the garden), and was naked and knew it not, and was not ashamed, and he protected the garden from the birds and beasts and cattle, and gathered its fruit, and eat, and put aside the residue for himself and for his wife [and put aside that which was being kept].And after the completion of the seven years, which he had completed there, seven years exactly, [8 A.M.] and in the second month, on the seventeenth day (of the month), the serpent came and approached the woman, and the serpent said to the woman, 'Hath God commanded you, saying, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'"


This stuff is so specific, I have to believe law was written from this book. To see more on the books of the Pseudepigrapha and the Apocrypha of the Old Testament>> I have always loved the odd extras that the Apocrypha put out there, and now to think there is more extra odd stuff with the Pseudepigrapha,  I am thrilled. Not exactly the trite, night night reading I really want to do, but boy howdy, perfect for sitting in the doctor's office or the airport for that little bit of focus before you have to unfocus again. I think there is plenty to work with (and edit, to my thinking) for this thesis project.

I was having illustration fun on ebay, typing in illustrators names and seeing what popped up. Mary Blair, I discovered, not only has a ton of books that are real movers on the site, also designed and illustrated printed hankerchiefs. The Provensens are there in force --books and prints. Jan Balet has prints. And our very own mentor mio, Mr. Tinkelman has a books up for sale>> Punky the Mouse, Aesops Fables and the Rodeo book to name a few. So, for amusement, type in an illustrator you know or want to see work of, and see what happens. Its very fun.

Off to Baldwinsville (north of Syracuse) for the Cross Country Invitational. A is grumpy these days, shrugged into his new royal blue sweats like a monk with attitude. I hope a bit of running with help him to snap out of it. K. has a little infection and needs to take some pills to bring her around. We have an invitation guest list to generate today for the big party we are throwing dovetailing with the second weekend of the Ithaca Art Trail. Need to do some thinking around what we are going to offer to eat and drink. I'm thinking something totally old fashioned and totally do aheadable and delicious>:> Chex mix! or maybe Cheesy Ranch Chex Mix! I def know I will be buying some tubs of stuff from the Regional, making salsa and cutting crudites. Baby Gloria and Cousin Lisa (might) will be here from SoCal, and Bruce will be here from Maryland. I need to think about who they would like to meet. Members of the band, Toivo, sweetly came up to us at the Pourhouse and told us how pleased they were to do the gig. We are blessed to live in such a wonderful place. Should be fun.

Need to think holiday card for the office. Cannot let this become the shoemakers children. I do have quite a few holiday trees floating around....and if Simple cards can do a 4 panel/ 4 color, we can fill it up with illustration to beat the band. Now, I am getting some wind on this one. Next Week, or else!

Gotta go. Time progresses.