Squashathon


Squash bake off here. Two pumpkins, a spaghetti squash and two butternut squashes roasting up a storm in our fifties electric stove cranking out a pretty autumnal scent. Plans are to roast and scoop and freeze for soups later. While the squash is cheap, I should make hay as the beta carotine is great in these veggies and is good and happy making in the dark winter. I have another cookie sheet of butternut squashes in the oven to bag and freeze later this afternoon. They are predicting snow tomorrow. Imagine.

Am fooling around in my sketch book. Nothing gelling. Need to get back to looking and thumbnailing things for November and Hartford. I think the figures need to be seriously looked at, and tracing is in order. I am getting tool locked up in the details to really envision the image which will have details as this is part of the stretch this MFA should be doing. I could keep doing the vector thing (big bold,no context, no environment) which is okay, but making full fledged pictures is a whole nother thing.

Need to work on grown up stuff like contracts and flow charts. Also have a booklet and a logotype to finish by the end of next week. Crash and burn once the grownup stuff is done. One more holiday card too.

Need to look at clothes for NYC and for the Celebrity Naming Cruise that is on the horizon. Shoes? Passports? End of year stuff? Dramamine. Funny compression bracelets. Maybe the man who runs the art galleries on these ships will be there? or at least someone I can talk to?

fall back is next weekend.


The above obsessed picture inspired by the wonderful Chad Grohman's inspired illustrations in his moleskines>> He blows my mind....He is an extrordinary talent, wit and hand. Check him out>> Last night, R and our pal Bruce went down to see Eilen Jewell (a real favorite amongst all of us natives), K went to a party, A was recovering from a race and I dove into my illustration with a happy abandon as the congestion from the month had cleared. I have a few weeks until the Hartford Tribe meets again, and I wanted selfishly to have some time to craft and tweak my Vin illustration which has morphed (and to all my art directors around here, bettered) and begin to work with the figures...which my thesis advisor advised. On it. Maybe not great. But, on it. Was working on some patterny things which surprisingly felt emotionally pretty hollow compared to the pictures I have been working on. I am back on studying the Indian painting book. Am intrigued by the symmetry of their images and the simple faces and figures they have. I was going Leger on myself and reminded myself of the illustration conventions and figured I would go Indian again to see where it could go. The Indian paintings are not about personalities (though there are some remarkable portraits of Princes and well to do men) but more about the patterny rug of flora and fauna, layers of forground, foreground and foreground, and the sheer, unabashed delight in flat color. Forget the shading. So, more to study even before the pencil hits the paper.

Yesterday was rain. Today was perfect. Made a few apple crisps and slid them into the fridge. Yesterday, I cooked with everything on the edge making an impromptu, vegetarian mushroom soup, a pasta dish, a cranberry salad. Today, the impromptu began with the crisp and now I have another potato soup on the stove for the week (or better, tomorrow). We bought 2 pie pumpkins, a bag of butternut squashes, a spaghetti squash, 3 delicato squashes, and a box of fresh potatoes while we visited Sheldrake for the afternoon, the sun and the fall colors. It was perfect in Sheldrake with sapphire water, and trees on fire. The osage orange (monkey brains) has been dropping fruit so we had a nice time filling a wheel barrow with the fruit or lobbing it at Shady Grove.

This week promises a bit more sanity.

rainy day


Rainy like crazy here. Poor A. had a cross country event in Marathon which turns out to be the same (miserable weather as last year)--with A pushing hard during his XC event with the end being heroic (tossing cookies) with the steady,cold weather. I am setting them up and knocking them down-- with hard work on Friday and then continuing today with prints of images for my clients, polishing up images for Hartford, contract writing and basic writing assignments.

K cleaned her closets today with the payout being invited to a party tonight. R and our guest are off to see Eilen Jewell at Castaways and last night, Toivo at Felicias. I was working.

I was a wild girl yesterday and after thinking about all the hopping around that I am going to be doing, I bought a $300 mini laptop (pc) with a 8.5" screen (ACER from New Egg) for the internet-ability. I love my iPhone, but beyond the prefunctory "I have your email messages", the communications gets a bit tough. And, I figured for 2 lbs. and the inexpensive price I could download word and pdf reader, I could at least have a blogging machine for you all, and a place to really better see the files I need to see and not feel guilty that I am not taking my 17" Powerbook. It has a 6 hour battery, some power and the only downside is that it get a bit hot on the lap (as does my wonderful Apple powerbook). We will see. Amazon and New Egg customers raved about this product. We will see! I will be able to walk all over NYC with this in the bag and a camera versus the camera, the backpack etc. with the rigamarole on planes etc. It is too much.

Started working on some figures for Adam and Eve. I know the two illustration conventions I need to know. One, women do not have big honking noses or bottom lips. There is a shorthand to drawing women. The other is that things that move away from trunks (bodies, trees) taper. Hands taper from arms, feet taper from legs, snakes taper. Need to proceed and amend accordingly. Think mirrored images. Think flat. Have done two eden pix for Vin. Have started some figures to just begin. Wow. do I have work to do.

I have, unfortunately been looking at Leger for figures and he doesnt work in the illustration conventions for his figures. Big noses that have lines on either sides. Bottom and top lips. Muscles and not shy with big, massive hands. I also have been looking at Hicks (as you know) and the wonderful Hirshfield with his wacky naive figures with short foreheads and stiff bodies.

Need to get going as A has outdoors club which starts early (another early a.m.--the whole weekend early a.m. for the past month both Sat and Sun). Need to think about Christmas now. Cards, more cards and starting to wrap what I have. Urg. It is December 1 before we know it.

Bulbs in the ground


Put 20 of the red plant, FRITILLARIA imperialis Prolifera (Double Crown) which grows way tall (around 40") and its primordial partner, Fritillaria Persica (the purple picture) which is slightly smaller--but we planted 50 instead of the mere 20. Also, planted 350 daffodils --one a mix of bulbs and a 100 of a fragrant white narcissus which is a pinch from mother nature that yes, yes indeed, spring is here. This is my little treat to me and mine, and those who stroll down Camp Street, that color happens early, unexpectedly and happily. If we keep putting these truckloads of bulbs in every year, there will, after a decade, be a significant show for all (and flowers for vases too!). Nothing skimpy.

For those of you desirous of big quantities of bulbs, these guys are the place:
Van Engelen>>

And may the snow now fall. We had some slushy rain. So, know it, its coming.

Monkey Brains.


This is Shady Grove and her prized toy, an Osage Orange otherwise referred to by those of us who collect them as Monkey Brains. It is a fascinating fruit that are softball sized (during normal years of normal precipitation) but this year are more cannonball sized which Shady has problems with gripping between her teeth. The Monkey Brain is Shady's favorite autumn toys to chase and bring back to us in the throwing fest. The great thing about the Brains as they are heavy, and upon being thrown,they gain in momentum as they roll and roll and roll giving our doggie girl a great run and scramble for her fun. They fall on the ground and if they arent picked up over the course of the winter they become blackened and skanky looking. I love the way the Monkey Brains look in bowls or wire baskets outside with pumpkins for the oncoming halloween holiday. Note: get pumpkins this weekend and if we have a chance, carve them. As an aside, don't you love how Shady Grove becomes purple in the context of the green grass? She sometimes becomes our plum colored dog.

Have been rereading To the Scaffold by Carolley Erickson--a great biography about the life and end of Marie Antoinette by one of my favorite biographers. Erickson tells a great story with the right embellishment,tone and social history. Its been a pleasure and a break from the regular--a chance to take my mind off of all the craziness at the office. If you like history, Ms. Erickson is a treat. She's covered all the tutors, Catherine the Great, Josephine and many more. As she puts them out, I buy them, read them and shelve them and then read them again. She has also written some fun historically based novels like The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette where she uses her broad historical skills and weaves engaging stories that make for a cozy read.

Work Stuff: One holiday card to print today! Yeah.

And one more to go. Had a lovely chat with the Executive Director of the Hangar Theatre this morning. There are big things planned for our Hangar from an expansion and improvement of the facility along with more programming and outreach. I might be able to help them with posters and images after my thesis is done next year. Could make a nice body of work that could work for shows for me, and image building for them.

Another work idea is that cases of GlimmerGlass are here to sell. Tom has a case shipped to us>> and who knows, there are sales opportunities on the horizon that could get the product moving and make us a bit of money. I have a little glimmer of hope that this might evolve into a little tiny profit center. No plans for big. Just enough.

Need to jump up and get some rice going for dinner. More later.

rushed

Got a haircut today. Took a bit of time...but am delighted with the results. We have guests for this week so I need to be a bit more on my game> breakfast, lunch, dinner and the office thing.Am going a bit crazy as I just keep throwing work out the door, doing travel arrangements, holiday planning, and OMG here comes Xmas! I really want a span of meditative drawing and planning as the last three weekends and weeks have been solid work with no ease in there. I hope this weekend will give me a bit of tranquility and time to draw. Am suffering with a logotype...P and D with innocuous imagery as the work is hard to depict. Out come the tiger stripe. Out come the poking in and poking out of the letterforms. Overlapping, redefining and juxtaposing. Dinner is ready to be served. Must cut it quick tonight. Tomorrow is soon.

please hold


Running a freaking travel agency here. Remember the good old days of sitting with a lady behind a beige selectrics typewriter who would quiz you about your favorite things, your seat preference, food, and so on. You would spend time travelling the world in your imagination with this person who somehow knew about hotels and how those bulky card decks of tickets worked and the money you will need. Now, it's figure it out yourself baby. So, I decided today, I would cash in a ton of miles. I scheduled a RT to San Francisco (first class as its the same mileage as coach...as coach is never available) for March, and a bunch of one ways from Miami in the next month. Now, all I will need to do is go to Hotwire for hotel rooms in Miami when we aren't covered by expenses. Closer to the date is better. I have gotten four star hotels for $100 a night in Miami before. We'll see with the economy tanking. It feels great to get this planning off the table. I think I can do a round trip to NJ in one day and save myself two hotel rooms and incidentals that I might need to incur with the alternative way I was going to use to get there. Plus, I get two full days of work versus 2 halves and the day away.

I have more holiday cards, a booklet, and a logotype to design. Need to get going. Soon, I will have to have a scanathon with the ink drawings I have in my notebook. Need to change out the Vin picture this weekend for NYC in a few weeks.

More later.

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.