night and day





I am just beginning to get my wits back from a master blaster weekend, week and weekend before. Saturday it was packed with life stuff, Art Trail and then a party of 130 friends who figured in our moving and living in Trumansburg. Sunday was up early to get A to the Chris Bond Run (he placed first in his age group), see the run and then another day of Trail. Sunday was by far the better day with more interesting people, chatty high school and college students who wanted to talk about studies, their work, schools, and people who were more of the "tribe". So, we finished on a positive note down to selling all the Garden of Eden pictures (framed) confirming I might not have to dump this work as they liked it. The yardsale approach ("I am emptying my portfolio concept...all prints on the dining room table $25.") worked. Those who understood it..bought 4-5 images, those who didn't, didn't. Cards sold at the new price. So, the Trail paid for our party and the frames.

I have since last year moved in my thinking. I want to have national noteriety. That is what is important to me. Being celebrated locally is more important to me as a civic moment, as a good neighbor, as a illustrator/designer for parents of artistic kids--a posterchild for the ability to make a living as a "creative". That is what makes me tick more than local illustration jobs. As art directors who visited and dangled sad carrots (free poster illustrations, or holiday cards), I found myself not psyched about that because the only art director I want to work for is me. R. and a few more...but not these simple people who will put a wingding type treatment on my work. It may sound snotty, but this is where it stands. If I am going to work for any other art director, they need to be of the highest level...not a tertiary player with little experience. I didn't understand this at the last Art Trail. I do, now. I would rather develop work for Surtex, for merchandising, for books or self driven projects. If I can sell Memento Mori illustrations on projects for wine and glass, or a not even fully fledged Garden of Eden project for a holiday card...I am at least pursuing my interest and making it pay a bit. No interlopers. Just me and the end client.

The food from the Regional for the party was perfect. I bought a case of smoked trout, an enormous pate de campagne, a jug of pitted greek olives, a wheel of Maytag Blue, a wheel of herb brie, and a big hunk of pink peppercorn chevre from our local Lively Run Dairy. We got crackers and filo crackers. Snack mix with those lovely sesame sticks, packages of dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), baba ganouche and humus. Every scrap devoured. I bought vegetables and bread Saturday morning--and I had K and M conducting the chopathon Sat a.m. I also bought some nice italian sausages, artichokes and roasted peppers to add to the general cru dites that normally show up. I bought 6 baguettes, 6 packages of pita, 3 cibattas along with 6 packages of crackers which manifested itself as an empty basket by 10 p.m. We should have had a spiral sliced hunk of meat...a "centerpiece" or sorts...or even a box of spanakopita to flesh things out. But it was all done by K, M and me. No caterer. Just cutters and stylers. The music was fabulous and I think the musicians had fun too. We had people dancing and many of my favorite people from our plumbers and electricians and contractors to professors, artists and glassmakers, to bastions of our community. All ages and sizes. We had teachers and writers, nurses and naturepaths. And they all seemed to get along together and talk and talk and talk. With the ease of how this all came together, we should do it again, soon.

Back to the Eden Story.

"First God made heaven & earth 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. "

How does one depict the Spirit of God moving over the face of the water? What does that look like? There is a lot of abstract energy. Hmmm.

Pix up top are of my office, our hallway ready for the Art Trail, our dining room table sale and a corner about Memento Mori.

A new Hicksite


Its almost like a spring day. In the sixties with mild rain falling. The wind was kicking up, so coming back from taking K and A to school gave me carpets of red and gold coating the street...magical the way unbroken snow is in the winter, with leaves falling, tumbling and continuing to build the thick carpet of color.

Am mulling over all sorts of stuff from pictures to ideas. I need to create some "go to" images when I get stuck which are just therapeutic to draw. I need to start creating some heart images, valentines and love related stuff as I want to send a 16 pp. Lulu book to my clients and people I love for Valentines--so making some images as we go will help me accomplish that. The other option is to do a little folded piece with the images on each folded panel. I think I could do that through Ofoto as they have a folded image option that I could just send scans unstead of family pictures to do the same thing for about a buck and a half a piece. I also think I just need a length of time to pencil in more of the book as thumbnails to get the wheels turning...versus the near standstill position they are in now. Just too much on the plate with my work as a designer.

Did a bit of looking at Edward Hicks(1780-1849) I love Hicks as he was raised and apprenticed as a carriage maker in the Philadelphia area. One of my ancestors, a Mr. Quarrier, was a carriage maker in Philadelphia as well--so somewhere in my irrational way, I have adopted Hicks as one of my own. Not, but hey, fantasy is a wonderful thing. Anyway, Hicks was bitten by the painting bug and was able to reconcile his interest in painting with his religious beliefs and practice as a Quaker, becoming a Quaker minister and painter. His view of Pennsylvania and it's wilderness, its native people and of course the animals that do not live in PA (Lions, for instance) and how he packs them all together--never tiring of his peaceable kingdom theme that he kept bringing into many of his pictures.

John Braostoski in his article from the Friends Journal says in his article "Hick's Peaceable Kingdom":
At first his fellow Quakers looked a bit askance at his profession, and because of this, at one time he gave It up to be a farmer. He was unsuccessful at farming, however, and returned to his brushes. It was honest work, so fellow members of his meeting eventually forgave him, especially since he was becoming a strong preacher, traveling among many meetings. He did agree with them about certain vanities in art and refused to paint portraits, which were too ego-centered.

He worked at the time when both the United States and modern American Quakerism were young. His spiritual beliefs came from Barclay and 18th-century quietism, which espoused simplicity, self-discipline, and contact with the Inner Light. FIias Hicks, his second cousin, was a central figure in a religious storm. Ed- ward Hicks was a spokesman, in word and in image, for those who became known as the Hicksites. It broke his heart to see Quakers becoming worldly, with excessive material goods and inflated pride, and leaning towards the creation of a spiritual elite. He felt this corrosion also in the authoritarian control of elders, as mere men, and not as followers of the Inner Spirit of Christ. He had a genuine feeling for the Scriptures, along with hope for a continuing sense of insight open to all. Some of the divisions between urban and rural Quakers have been laid at the feet of visiting Quakers from England, justly or unjustly. In his travels, Hicks spoke much of this.

So, I need to kindle my inner light and move forward in this grey, rain filled day.

Tick Tock

I got back from a meeting at the school this morning to find a big truck being unloaded with all of our planned goodies for our party this weekend. What? Where? From the Regional Access, which is a company that takes our good upstate cheeses, compost,organic produce, organic meat and eggs to New York and comes back with trucks brimming with delicious things from New York for our restaurants (or you, if you buy a case) of terrific things at good prices. I had ordered a raft of wonder from smoked trout and pate to cheese (even Maytag), to nice snack mixes and frozen lemonjuice (no preservatives). I got baba ganouge, grape leaves and olives, goat cheese with pink peppercorns and a lovely brie. And to top it off, it was delivered in person by one of our local treasures, Richie Sterns of the Horse Flies, of Richie Sterns, of Natalie Merchant, of the Evil City String Band formerly with Donna the Buffalo. As sweet a person that lives...and his work, his vision, his music is sublime. Now, all I need to do is take a big look and think 125-150 people and visualize. Yes, I can get apples and bread. yes, the crudites are happening. Yes, I have the compostable paper goods. Am I missing anything? Ostrich cutlets? Bison spread? Armidillo croquettes? I am feeling good that this wonderful order (via email and delivered to my front door) will fill 90% of the bill, stylishly, and yummishly.

Am churning along on a book for the Museum, and am thinking about two logotypes I need to put pencil to as they are due at the end of the first week of November. Need to wrap up a bunch of stuff and resolve them prior to the first week of November because by the first week of November, it is Thanksgiving in no time...and then, dear god, its the holidays. Yikes. I feel the tinsel and happy holidays pulling me fiendishly into the abyss of self loathing and deadlines. And it is right here. Hello ebay. Hello Harneys Tea Company. Hello Sierra Trading Post. Need to get rolling. There is the option of the big TJ Maxx shopping spree and calling it a day (which, come to think of it, could be the fastest, most direct approach). Plus, there is the week with Hartford in November tagged with the celebratory cruise with the newest ship for Celebrity, the Solstice Class happening immediately after the week of illustration. That will be great as R is at work so I can use their divine gym (almost guilt free) and draw my fool head off after the hoped for spur that the NYC trip will provide. Then its back to Tburg> rush to the holidays with a long weekend with Art Basel Miami (I am so spoiled) for ART ART ART and fun with the museum boys. It blew my head off last year. This year, I am bolder and have my bearings...so more to happen. So, November and December will be a bit nuts with our going to LA during the Christmas break.

And to think, today marks the midpoint of October. You would think my middle name was Tick Tock. Wow.

that lucky old sun


I needed a break. So, driving to and from Corning got me recalibrated. I was taking too much way too seriously..and being pissed off at clueless behavior from clueless people....taking it all to mean more than it should. Makes sense from someone who is always looking for symbols and messages in the pictures, and finding them. Or, imagining they are there and "reading" the picture in my medieval way. Love the blazing landscape. There were some trees that were mainly yellow, with red tips on the leaves that would twinkle with line work. We went to Corning to get K and A to their six month trip to the dentist. We laughed and talked, and teased each other with K and A waxing on about growing up in Corning and the things they loved and enjoyed, the things they wondered about and the things they are happy to leave behind. It was curious as they were in agreement that when they thought of Corning, they thought of the fall. While they were in their seats, I took a quick spin over to the garden store, Massi's on the Victory Highway (love the name) and bought 11 ornamental grasses (fairly mature) at 30% off to my delight. Deer do not eat these things...so we can have hope.

I am back in the saddle today to catch up and do some blocking and tackling of future work. Dropped into the new used bookstore we have on Main St. after a meeting and bought the Oxford version of the Bible for the Garden reference. Also bought St Augustine's City of God to go with it. I love his writing...and feel that maybe there is some hook to find in his book to brighten my work and thinking as I move forward.

"key learnings"

* You probably didn't know I have a thing for corporate speak. I adore it. Collect it and whenever possible, use it. The phrase "Key Learnings" came from one of my corporate jobs where essentially, one used this phrase in place of "In Summary" or as a "recap". One might have one of many meetings, and at the end of the meeting, "key learnings" would be bulleted on a flip chart. This entry is about yesterday's "key learnings".

Art Trail was slow yesterday...with lots of interest and for me emotion over the imposition of certain people on my attempts to show the work and welcome my visitors. It really upset me...and got me off my game. I know it's very petty of me, but this Art Trail takes time, effort and work to make happen, and I do not approach my work, my self promotion lightly. So, as it's my gig, control is important to me. Funny thing, as I had mentioned before, the Art Trail experiences forces me to actually think about what I want to do, really want to do, and how I feel about myself, my work etc. What I discovered is:

> If I am doing pro bono work for ANYONE, its my rules, my design, my work. No second guessing, no criteria, no politics, no showing it to a zillion people for input. If it's pro bono, its a gift from me to the recipient and as with gifts, the giver picks it out. Gives me something back in better work, fun work and work that can be shown on a national level.

> Showing my work in a local dark space as a "payback" for possible probono work to "promote myself" is not something I value. Surprisingly, my work has had local recognition and I guess for me more celebrated national venues also have recognized my work. Some pokey little poke poke space to the side of a main venue (that is not a visual arts venue) to show my work to an audience of non-buyers, non-specifiers is work for me with not much emotional/professional payback. Not worth the time.

> I am not starting my career. I have got some miles on me, so my work needs to be seen on a much bigger platform/stage which the Society, 3x3, Communication Arts, Print Magazine will do. Web presence...in a bunch of places. A more focused approach. More national approach. Do the work that will be seen at that level. That is the playing field that is important to me. I have moved beyond the local status in my head.

> Sure, its nice to do this thing to let people know that we have a concentration of people in Tburg, but I am not the Chamber of Commerce...and I could do a more focused Open House and accomplish much the same thing on a nicer level, even tagged into the Holiday Festival here. Still nice, but not 4 full days with very little to speak of-- which feels like work.

> I am losing confidence in my hand drawn work. I am worried.

> To confirm it one more time, I have no patience for fools. Absolutely none.

Off this topic and on to the week. Things to do (tons), prep for next week's Art Trail and party for 150 (the regional truck comes!), teeth for K and A in Corning, 2 guests coming, and prep for a client visit. Of course, there is project work to whale on.

On a nicer note, we heard an owl in the darkness last night, hooting, and hooting with a remarkable little trill occasionally at the end of his cries. He sounded as if he was almost on my shoulder he was so close in the darkness. It was a quiet way to end our otherwise wild weekend.

Sunday's news

The sky is clear with a brilliant array of stars ( and probably
planets) as I wait for the grill to heat up for dinner. The Trail
started slowly with intermitent traffic until it was closing time. And
then in the last hour and hour past closing time, we were busy. Again,
even at my yard sale pricing, no one was freely parting with their
cash but happily eating snacks and spending time. So, I need to chalk
this all up to exposure and in a funny way, to community service as it
gets folk to Tburg to eat lunch, ice cream and antiques if the art is
too much to consider.

It is going to be hard to go to work tomorrow as I have been at work
all weekend and I do feel that I will need to plan in a break to just
get some air.

Ithaca Art Trail: Week One: Day One

None of us wanted to get up. We shirked our work last night to eat dinner and go to bed at a reasonable time. So, up we got to hang, clean, dust and stuff our trash bags with ancillary paperwork and trash. Now, the junk is not on our desktops, but in the bin. Yay. Frames are put on new work and you know, I like black and white more for the Garden of Eden  than the color. The color sucks some of the whammy out of the image. My new reduced palette work is together...and suggesting I do a few more to really have it function as a body of work. So, a woodpecker is in  line and a cat (big shape with the face really worked out) and perhaps a deer head (another request) which could be great silhouetted letting the antlers go a bit wild.

We got a steady stream of people throughout the day. The new pricing strategy (lower) is working a bit, but folks are not parting with their cash happily--but we are still moving stuff, talking to people, talking about art, their passions. A form of encouragement for me...a form of counseling for them. The chex mix and puppy chow (chex with chocolate and peanut butter that is shaken in a mountain of powdered sugar) was a hit. Interest by a lot of the local professional bird people that perhaps there is a link up with the Lab of Ornithology (at Cornell, referred to casually as "the lab of O"). What do you think of Q. at the O.?  Lots of interest in the birds, the dogs (if you have the breeds I have images of) and nature oriented stuff). I am thinking that there is more to the wildlife and solidly designing some new images not only to push the single color work which is really working in frames etc), allow me to really get my eye tuned into what is working and what isn't.Perfect Forget Me Not blue skies. The trees are peak. Golden and red.Twirling leaves. Green green grass. Grey mists, blue lake, purple hillsides.

More later>> people on the porch

From Punky, Mouse for a Day illustrated by Murray Tinkelman






I got home early (getting on the road at 6:00 a.m.) and to my delight, my ebay purchase of Punky, Mouse for a Day written by John Moreton and illustrated by Murray Tinkelman (sited that this was his 6th children's book in the credits) was awaiting me in it's bubble wrap on the dining room table. I was thrilled to crack it open (it was formerly of the Plains Library in Plains, Montana) to find Mr. Rapidiograph Crosshatch himself whimsically presenting us a tale of a magical, transforming mouse named Punky. You can click on these images and they will enlarge as the scans are at 100%. Murray is also Mr. Black+White, to my delight--with the designs/compositions being strong and elegant, the detail insightful and funny and his lettering (see the squirrel illustration) being sensational. I am charmed. I hope you are too. More later as there is a peacock and a sea monster and a few others I would like to share with you. Time's a wasting! >> I need to get rolling.

long day, long drive, short meeting


It was a long day with an early drive that started a bit late as I was slow getting my wits about me. Northern Pennsylvania was brilliant, with red and yellow trees, pumpkins galore, inexpensive mums, and low hanging clouds, puffy and suspended in the valleys. I listened to a book on tape--so though the time seemed to drag a bit until I started timing milestone to milestone of the trip. Our meeting was beyond positive--with terrific results allowing me to move quicker on the design work...pushing the work ahead a month or so to everyone's pleasure. So all on the up and up.

I hope to get to bed early to be back in the office by 10:30- 11 a.m. I am meeting with a member of Toivo to see where they want to set up next week for our gathering after work. There is more stuff to do for the Art Trail from getting signs up (which they want us to put balloons around ( I cannot handle that) or ribbons or more stuff) to more framing, to creating and cutting the tags/price tags (and pricing! OUCH). We have change, a reciept book, envelopes, and the basic doing business stuff. Then, of course, we have coffee cakes to make to offer....I don't know when, but its on the list unless I buy a few boxes of donut holes and stack them into pyramids. I have to order the food that Barb and I planned from the Regional Access and then generate a list for the other stuff that we need to chop and bag (crudites etc). How much seltzer, how much lemonade, how much wine? beer? We are expecting a TON of people. Yikes.

Head down time.

whoa! stop!


Look at the time! I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Too much in compressed time. Did get to the House of Health and went into the "girls only" weight room which was quite fun after walking fast and listening to books. Then, back in the saddle here and it was full steam until I got to a computer failure and I had to slow down. The printer has been having (I think issues with paper because of the low humidity)--a moment which makes things going out the window a concept worth considering.

Revisions of illustrations needed chop chop. Am figuring out how to work fast...might not be the ultimate scaleable work as the vectorization takes big time...but am chopping in amendments, adding and cutting to change the art without constantly having to redraw. Though, tonight I have a redraw for a client...which hopefully will go on the board during the debate.

Called K's art teacher to talk about whether I needed to drive to Ovid and back to get a package to Indiana so K's postcards would get to her friend and back by Friday. K missed the date, its due Thursday. And, the cards should have been at the postoffice by the end of September. So, the first date was missed and we dawdled until the wee last moment. I am losing patience. I guess I need to read her planner each night as she is not keeping track of her work...and I am going to lose sleep over this. Not K...there is something wrong here.

Barbara made me a belated birthday lunch (all cooked on her grill) of a autumn squash lasagne with hot italian sausage, and a Erich made a salad. She also made a cheesecake (on her grill!). Brilliant....and delicious. I was touched. We put our heads together and made a list for the Regional to order later this week...Good stuff....and a nice range from crackers, cheese, bread sticks, olives, pate, smoked trout and grape leaves. We will need to do a bit of a fill in with Wegmans--but we will have it covered. I am feeling a bit better.

Tomorrow, I have a trip to Pennsylvania for a naming session. Should be interesting...and beautiful with the pumpkins and mums. Hopefully I can pick some good stuff up on the way down/back.

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.