Megan Monday Prints

Craftamongus!

2011-11-08T18:40:00.007-05:00

Craft Fair a' comin'!

Super G Carpentry

2011-06-15T17:54:00.010-05:00

I *LOVE* taking portfolio pictures for others' creative business endeavors.

I love getting right up close to what people are passionate about.

What they put their time, energy, and intention into.

The things people craft out of their loves, obsessions, interests, needs.

The things people build with their own hands.

Here are images from a new project: Super G Carpentry, a.k.a. Dan Ganch, a fine furniture maker based in Mt. Horeb, WI.

He has a website in the works. You can see the full set of images of his family, his workshop, and his work here.

Documenting the Procession

2011-06-10T19:37:00.002-05:00

My friend Jet and I are working on a small documentary about the awesome Madison PROCESSION OF THE SPECIES. The community art project is fueled by many, but is directed and inspired by a woman-of-boundless-creative-energy, Laurie Rossbach.

The procession is a parade/party/performance art piece that is held twice annually to celebrate the solstices, bring art to the local community, voice left-leaning politics, and bring attention to environmental concerns.

Right now Jet and I are attending the workshops in which the giant puppets, mask-making, and brainstorming takes place. The workshops are open to the public and happen each Saturday and Wednesday leading up to the event.

A slideshow of my images from the workshops can be found here.

A little gulp in a period of dormancy

2010-08-08T13:44:00.003-05:00

A few recent illustrations.

The one above was commissioned for Good Eater, the latest in the Greetings From Motherland shows.

Good Eater is still up, by the way, at the Eagle Heights Community Garden in Madison, WI. The site specific installation will stay up from July 31st to August 20th (2010).

It's the perfect place to take a picnic- witness the gardens in full bloom, roam under the arbor strung with food narratives. There are plates suspended in the air, a hand stitched and hand printed photographic table cloth swaying in the breeze. It's rather lovely; go on a sun soaked day.

This bookplate was drawn for a friend's book swap gathering. It was fun to draw (and fun to attend!)

Otherwise the summer has been somewhat quiet. A stall. Broken foot for me, while the new walker finds his way. Waiting.

Greetings From Motherland

2010-04-15T19:40:00.008-05:00

The time has come to talk about Greetings From Motherland, an art project that I've been involved with for the past few months.

GFM is the conceptual/project baby of Mindy Stricke, an artist from Toronto who is visiting Our-Fair-Madison for a year. She's a community artist, pulling people together to make participatory, interactive art about collective experience. This project is about womans transition into motherhood. In her own words:

"After I gave birth to my daughter... I felt as if I had landed in a foreign country that I had only seen in glossy brochures. Publicly, I was expected to navigate ‘Motherland’ with ease and allowed to express only joy, while privately my acclimation was sometimes overwhelming and isolating....as an artist, I came across few unsentimental representations of this new landscape. It seemed that by the time women have the energy to make honest art about the full range of experiences of new motherhood, they’ve blocked a lot of it out."

And so in the thick of this early motherhood period, we meet. We gather as artists, as mamas, as women. Each Monday we get together to brainstorm, create, and commiserate. To unwell portions of this rich and, um, very textured experience. Not only do we make things together, but meeting shoves a little fuel into our personal fires; so sometimes we even manage to create things on our own again, at home, amidst the takeover of babyhood.

We are having a show of our outcomes on May 23rd, at the Goodman Community Center in Madison. I hope you'll mark your calendars; come celebrate with us.

I'll leave you with a few pictures I'm working on for the show...

Fruition

2010-02-15T12:50:00.000-05:00

A Rambling Path Cookbook

Recipes, Odes, and Musings: Food Throughout the Year

Well, the cookbook we've been working on did get finished. And actually, it was a lot of fun.

Lyss kept poking my side to get moving on this project, and in the end we had a mad dash to the printing deadline. Lyss blocked off a long stretch of time (without the boys), A. took charge of our boy, we set up dueling computers, and the layout and final illustrations got pounded out.

It was nice to work on something intensely for a while, and good to finally see a finished project, what with all these half finished ones cluttering my house.

We have it for sale (at cost, for now) here. You can also see a full preview here.

Get a copy for monthly inspiration!

Journey through a year of food with two friends who share their stories, musings, and recipes. Focus on local food and reclaim time-honored home culinary traditions!

This count is on

2009-12-03T11:08:00.000-05:00

Will the cookbook get finished in time for holiday gifts??????

Yikes, It's December 3rd.

Mulberry Pie-lettes below.

Indigo Dyeing

2009-11-14T14:33:00.003-05:00

Indigo Dyeing. A Magical Pot.

A few weeks ago I met Lyss at her weekly waldorf chat n' craft. It's a bit of a drive eastward from madison, but an excuse to see her and little D, and the indigo pot, of course. Another of the many little projects we have stewing is plant dyeing. Mostly yarn, but the chat n' craft ladies were kind enough to let me also throw in some of F's things... his knightly halloween costume was indigo dyed "armor".

This thick n' thin yarn is waiting to become the sweet baby mossy jacket...

So We're working on the cookbook

2009-10-18T22:27:00.001-05:00

Really, we are. It's coming along by hook or crook. Lyss steals moments to scribble on loose paper while her boys run around the living room with legos, I steal moments staying up later than everyone to tap away at this keyboard. And to make a few drawings, like the marmalade, above. To use color, or not to use color, that is the question. Thoughts?

Trust Me; I'm a Jedi

2009-10-18T22:14:00.005-05:00

To a boy who loves star wars, from an auntie who has only ever seen "space balls".

Suspended, Impossible Autumn

2009-10-18T22:10:00.000-05:00

This is how we do our autumn walks: A, always looking up, watching light filter through the canopy. Me, always looking down, keeping my eyes peeled for the perfect red leaf. And now F, this time asleep against A in the carrier.

The new yellow, seeing wild turkeys, balancing on a log. Thinking:
Diaphanous.
and then:
the diaphanous gown of fall's canopy,
the arch of a fallen knobby limb
that acts as drawbridge
between this beckoning color and
a girl who never liked to walk alone.

Other sentences; we traded turns making them up, and I don't remember them all now.

But I will remember the eyes of this sleepy boy just waking up
to the yellow all around him
for the very first time.

Foxtrot

2009-10-07T12:33:00.003-05:00

We have a thing for red foxes in this house.
For A, my guess is that it's some transfer from his childhood favorite story, Peter and the Wolf.

For me, I know that I have a pleasure center in my brain for the color red (and it's warm derivations). Strangely, I dislike red when it's the dominant color, but I like it a lot in small quantities. The majority of my shoes are red, for example, but I have no larger red gear, like sweaters or dresses.
I also have a quite large pleasure center for mysterious wild animals.

Finn, who knows. But we assign him to liking foxes until he can tell us otherwise. We did get a red fox puppet for him. Trying to imprint a fox friend memory?

So, Fox, here in our little house? We'll be your friends.

Archery

2009-10-05T11:21:00.000-05:00

A mama sea turtle, perhaps?

2009-09-30T10:14:00.001-05:00

Any other animal suggestions?

4 Months

2009-09-29T20:58:00.009-05:00

It's been four months since f. was born and hence, about four months since I've really checked into this space. The little one is rolling over, teething, chuckling and growing like a weed.

I, meanwhile, have been growing too. In all the early parenthood ways that you would expect. Love, patience, pride. And though most days it doesn't feel like it, I actually have been getting a few crafty things done. I have a few endeavors to share, and will be dolling out the posts over these next few weeks, as a way to ease myself into this discipline again. You'll see drawings, knitting, a few arrangements. But first, I have a chuckle party to talk about.

The above drawings will be printed on canvas, cut into patches, and faux-serged on the edges. They will be the Finn Chuckle prizes, given out at his "The baby laughed" party to anyone who makes Finn chuckle.

The idea for a chuckle party was planted by Midwife Mary when we came in for our 6 week appointment.

When we arrived Mary asked: "Has he chuckled yet?"
We replied in the negative: "Smiles, but no chuckles."
Mary used to work at a Navajo reservation hospital in the southwest, and the nurses would always ask this when parents brought in a new baby for a checkup. The idea is that in the first weeks of life, the baby is hovering between the spirit/ancestor world and our physical world. The baby stays in this limbo until the first chuckle. It's at this moment that the child has decided to fully engage in the world, and to join his/her family and community. The first chuckle is a cause for celebration, and whoever elicits this chuckle is responsible for throwing the family a party! The nurses didn't want to be always throwing parties, so they'd always ask to see if it was *safe* to try and make the baby laugh before they did it!

So who made baby laugh? We did. Right in this very house, where he was born and continues to grow. So we're saddling up and baking a cake for the adults and throwing a chuckle party. Hope it doesn't rain.

Since it's a baby party, these patches are designed to adorn baby carriers or diaper bags. I'm making three: a babe, a pala, and a mama. But what, oh what, animal should the mama be?

More to come. Thanks for stopping by.

Learning

2009-07-21T16:35:00.003-05:00

I haven't known what to post, seeing as how feedings and changings have taken precedence over art + craft projects as of late, but I wanted to check in with a little photo and say that life, at this stage, is sweet.

Balance with projects will come, and you'll hear more from this little space when the pendulum swings. Soon.

(A digital tablet was given as a birthday present; I anticipate drawings...)

2009-06-12T17:31:00.001-05:00

One thing about Freezer Paper Stencils

2009-05-17T09:56:00.003-05:00

is that they are always mono prints. You can't really detach and re-iron on the previously used design- it just won't stick again, try as you might, even if you've managed to carefully pull off your stencil without ripping it. (Which would be good for practicing patience, but not actually all that useful in terms of getting more mileage out of your stencil.)

One way, however, to get a wee bit more distance from your time spent with the Exacto is to use your positive. The one I recommended to just throw away last post? Yeah- that one.

Here I used the positive bird from this shirt. I followed more or less the same steps: ironed it on where I wanted it, and just painted around it this time instead of inside it.

The difference this time, of course, is that the image will be a negative once you paint around it, and you'll have to decide on a shape to contain the stencil (and therefore the paint). I chose a simple square here, so I just cut out strips of extra freezer paper and boxed in the bird.

Just a way to get a little more life out of your efforts.

And ALSO, how very exciting to have had a little moment on WhipUp a few days ago! Woo-Hoo!
I'm honored; they are truly the compendium of craftiness.

Freezer Paper Stenciling Tutorial

2009-05-11T10:55:00.011-05:00

It's likely that if you're reading this, you were either there for the freezer paper stenciling of 2 weekends ago, or you already have read tons of blog entries on the how-to's of freezer stenciling. So now that we're agreed, let's not call this a formal tutorial, but rather some more show and tell, and thoughts on the process.

You see, freezer paper stenciling has been buzzing around me (and everyone else) as a project idea for some time, and I just never had gotten around to it. In fact I had grand ideas of doing all manner of printmaking these last few months, not just baby projects but making "real" prints. I wanted to really dig in while I have the relative quiet and the steady sleep pattern to enjoy.

Well, certainly I could say something about the 'best laid plans'. But instead let's just say it that it took this baby party to get me actually making stuff, and for that I'm glad. Cause after stenciling for the baby, I found that I was still feeling pretty stencil-happy, and so decided to make a gift for a friend. And I hope this is just the beginning of my embellishing days cause this whole freezer paper stencil thing, in case you haven't seen it done before, is relatively pain free and straight forward.

Here's what you'll need:

Freezer Paper
An iron and ironing board
an Exact-o knife
a cutting surface
a pencil
fabric paint (I've been using Jacquard)
stenciling brushes
and of course, some inspiration and something to print on.

You start by drawing your design with a pencil onto the non glossy side of the freezer paper. (Make sure you measure the size of the freezer paper against what your printing on to make sure it will fit!)

Using your cutting board and Exact-o knife, carefully cut out your design in detail. You'll be keeping the negative image and throwing out the positive (unless you use that later for a reverse design, but more on that another time.)
If not all the shapes connect, it's okay- you can iron them into place later:

(as I did here, with the bird eye and the inside blocks of the endless knot.)

Go ahead and iron your cut out, negative design onto your fabric. The glossy side of the freezer paper should be directly against the fabric, and it's a good idea to iron some extra pieces of freezer paper on to block out areas in case you cut your design too close the the edge. This will help prevent those potentially infuriating stray paint marks!

Once you're ironed on, you can use your fabric paint and stencil brushes to tap paint into the open areas. Before you start though- put either extra freezer paper, wax paper or cardboard between any layers of fabric to prevent bleeding.

I found it was best to hold the stencil up to a window every now and again to make sure enough paint saturated the fabric. Otherwise your stencil will look blotchy and not quite filled in.

Once dry (and do wait till it's dry; it's as agonizing as waiting for fresh bread to cool- but otherwise you might smear it), peel off the freezer paper and VOILA! You have your basic stencil design! Depending on the fabric paint you're using, you may have to set the design with some quick ironing at this point. The directions on the paint will let you know if that's necessary.

I decided that my design needed a little something extra at this point, so I took a thin brush and added some hand drawn detail on top with white paint. The alterations you could make are pretty limitless.

Freezer Paper Stenciling

2009-05-11T10:39:00.001-05:00

2 weekends ago, A proved again that he's an awesome partner and threw a surprise baby shower. There was Indian food, there were baby gifts, there was freezer paper stenciling. Rather than the typical baby shower games, we broke out all the blank onesies and everybody got a chance to design their own baby outfit for The Bean.

It was a really sweet day.

Yes those are special ginger cupcakes... I accidentally ironed some crumbs into this particular outfit...

A Forest of Books

2009-04-27T10:49:00.005-05:00

Man, it's been awhile since I went a'blogging.
I even promised to write about Alyssa's and my monthly recipes, and so far haven't.
My excuse, or at least the one I'm using, is that I've been increasingly distracted by Baby Prep. My due date is late May, so there's still about a month till then, (unless the bean is early!) but whether late, early or "on time", I know these last days will go really fast. I've been scheming to make my own mattress (for a discontinued, oddly sized, craigs-listed co-sleeper), buying fabric for bumpers and sheets, sorting clothes from generous friends and neighbors, going to childbirth prep classes, renting a tub, and gathering supplies for birth. In reality it's not a whole lot to do, and we're certainly keeping things low key and collections minimal (no dedicating and painting a baby nursery or buying baby toys or anything like that), but it was a lesson for me to realize that just choosing a carrier or stroller can take hours of sorting through the customer reviews and recalls, not to mention the multitude of options. Guh.

Anyway, one project that I've made time for and can now share are the personalized bookplates I made for A's birthday.

When I met Adam (for the second time), he was 22 and living in CA with very few possessions. Part of that was because he'd simply moved out with little: only a duffel bag and a guitar tossed into his green Tercel (which I still drive). The other reasoning was because there was, I'll admit, some kind of delusional romance to sleeping on the floor in just a nest of second hand blankets and borrowing your nightly reading from the public library, not to mention knowing you could roll all your belongings up into an arm load or two and be off (whether you ever went anywhere or not).

When I entered into his picture, I was the collector. I too moved out to CA in a tiny car, but mine was packed to the hilt with art supplies, music, books, clothes, even my sewing machine made it out. As our lives morphed, our collections grew mostly due to my tendencies. For the first few years A was always diligent about semi-annual purging, but over the years he has picked up one real habit. I don't know whether my pack-rat-isms have rubbed off a little, or if stable life has let his own tendencies grow, but what A really loves to collect are books.

We've affectionately taken to calling him the Book Troll. This can be seen in action if you ever walk into a (cheap) second hand book store or library sale with Adam: he can be witnessed hobbling around with his arms wrapped protectively around a sizable stack of treasures.

Well, last year A lent out his favorite book and never got it back. This was a little devastating for him. Though we don't have a lot of first editions in the house, this one was, and also had a kind of sentimental value, so I decided for his birthday that I would make book plates for his loaners in hopes that they would encourage borrowers to remember from whence the books came. I chose to make a drawing of mushrooms to go along with A's Book Troll persona: it helps me have little daydreams of him as a furry footed book collector, reading amongst the moss and cold stones.

The plates started as a drawing:

And from there got messed around with on the computer:

And finally converted into the final:

I found the fonts here, the rest is either drawn with a pen and scanned in, or shakely drawn with a mouse. I'd really like in invest in one of those digital drawing tablets, but having never used one, I'm not sure if they'd be worth the expense (anybody know?). I'd also like to do more of these. I always talk about starting an etsy shop (one of those non-follow-through things), but if I ever get around to it, maybe a selection of book plates would go in (and thanks for the idea, Lyss).
Ahh...nothing like starting off a shop selling something people hardly ever use!

Oh, and Happy Spring :)

Spontaneous Citrus

2009-03-10T11:17:00.005-05:00

I'm so glad that we manage to keep a bottle of lemon juice on hand at (almost) all times.

Lemon juice is kind of a staple in our house and during the summer I have to restock every week. A blows through our stash by taking straight swigs or often adding a glug to whatever he happens to be drinking (summer means kombucha, mostly). Last summer fetching lemon juice was a very pleasant chore: we lived in Rochester proper, only a short backstreet bike ride to our co-op. I'd swish through the warm summer air on my used (but new-to-me) bianchi, yellow plastic bin attached on back to haul small grocheries, tomato plants, books, and various other summer collections. It was nice.

During the winter a bottle of lemon juice can sit undisturbed in the fridge for months (good thing acids have a long shelf life!), only to be recalled when I cross paths with some alluringly lemony recipe (thanks for the link, lisa), get inspired and jump up to make it. Right now the apt is getting filled with the pleasantly sweet/sour smell of lemon bread baking. (It will make a good afternoon treat for A after his big day of job decision making.)

I had just (barely, but almost exactly) enough sugar on hand to make the recipe. Whenever that happens I agree with lyss, who said: "Having just enough of things feels just right, like I was meant to make just that recipe just when I did."

Speaking of alyssa and making,

We are making a mini cookbook.

Its our self imposed project for the year. One recipe a month, worked out by spending time in the kitchen together brewing away, taking pictures/making doodles of the final products, with the hope that it all coalesces into a nice printed book for holiday time giving next year. We started in January, and now I hope to start a-blogging about the recipes as we go.

In Jan. we made a new years feast of eggs benedict. In Feb. a winter's dream of marmalade. This month we're thinking lemony brioche (we must have lemon on the brain). I'll be back to post about the marm...as it fits in nicely with the recipe linkage I found with the lemon bread.

But right now that lemon bread is smelling done, and when warm citrus treats await, I go.

On Knitting

2009-02-20T10:53:00.003-05:00

If I were to categorize myself, I'd say that in general I'm more of a crochet gal. Crochet is arguably more free form than knitting; it provides more immediate results, it's easier to hide your mistakes, and is less exacting. You can easily make things up while crocheting and don't even have to count stitches if you don't want to.

My mom taught me (and my little brother, who right now is making crazy crocheted costumes out at his grad school) how to crochet. I was in college when I learned and went through a spate of crocheting scarves and wonky looking hats and even one very, very embarrassing sweater where I used all leftover yarn and totally made up the pattern and didn't count anything. It's acrylic and horrid and striped and the arms are different shapes, but I digress.

Though knitting seemed painstaking to me, I always loved the look of smartly knit things. I love the tidiness of knitting. The put-together-simpleness. So though knitting seemed like something I'd never take on, I have been lucky enough to know a few knitters in my life.

You would think that with all the hullaballo around knitting these past years I would know more, but I actually only know three true knitters. Knitters that really are serious about their craft, that go beyond making a hat or scarf once a year and really pull out the big needles. They knit sweaters and bags and garments and they amaze me. The best thing about knowing serious knitters is that they sometimes gift you or barter with you for their sweet and tidy creations. I have a favorite black shrug that was knit by a dearest friend and given to me for my birthday. It is perfect for 3 seasons of nights out that have a little nip in the air (or not); it's consistently commented on and very well made. I have a bartered white knit bag that I like to carry around to the point of it getting perhaps a little too well-used looking. I have a new red hat this winter and cute grey fingerless gloves. Knitted gifts are really the best gifts.

So after all this knit love and lust, Ms. Alyssa (the shrug knitter) decided to teach me how to knit.

The first attempt she made laid the groundwork, but unfortunately didn't take right away. A year ago I knit a cell phone case. The stitches vary in size and the whole thing is way too big and though she left me with my very own pair of wooden needles, they were left in my big basket of fiber project stuff for, oh, the rest of the year.
Then some bug bit. It may be that cliched old thing about pregnant women picking up knitting to make baby things, I dunno, but suddenly I wanted to try again.

A has one of the aforementioned wonky hats from my crochet days. A little too pointy on top, and a crappy blend before I knew any better than to just buy cheap yarn; overall he's been a saint for wearing it all these winters with no complaints. So I decided that for my first real knitting project, I'd knit him a new winter hat.
Lyss was kind enough to jog my knitting memories one day while I was over at her place making marmalade.
Funny thing: I found out that knitting can be almost as free form, make-it-up-as-you-go as crocheting. I am not a real knitter, and I only know knit and purl, but still the possibilities are clear. AND, as any new knitter can tell you, it's kind of addictive.

So I knit A this hat in just a few days. Knitting while watching the daily show online, while listening to radiolab, while in the plane to visit A' s folks. While still on our trip, the knitting itch continued and so thought I'd try to make a matching hat for The Bean. I didn't really know what I was doing, and am accustomed to just making stuff up and trying it out, (sometimes failing miserably, of course) so I thought I'd just try 1/2-ing the stitches (for what will be a much smaller newborn noggin). Those few stitches were too small for the circular needles so I knit it straight with intent to sew it together on a seam. Turned out too small, so I knit a smaller section and kinda grafted it on.
I guess I'm back to my old fudging-it crochet tricks. It's not perfect, and after a few projects I know that knitting is not my true calling. I likely will forever be a one or two projects a year kind a knitter. A hat knitter. A scarf knitter. A knit and purl simple-stuff kind of knitter (but a happy knitter). And that's why I feel so lucky to know the knitters I DO know, who kindly send their knit love my way, and I rejoice.

Just a little housekeeping

2009-02-03T13:36:00.004-05:00

An updated look...
Not quite sure if I'm pleased with this or not, and I might revisit to tweak it more: but I figured change'll do me good, especially mid winter.

So a new banner, a little reorganization, and some modest but overdue link lists.

Belated

2009-02-02T12:37:00.004-05:00

Though its been awhile, here are some more of the holiday era makings:

Our friends Kyle and Lisa have 2 cats.
Lisa says: "Megan, paint us an oil painting of our cats!"
Kyle says: "Can you make it reversible so we can not look like crazy cat people when company comes over?"
Too funny. I thought cat pillows would be a good compromise.

This may be hard to see, but I kept the original drawing up on the windowpane(which I was using as a light box to transfer the drawing to fabric) because it amused me: Looks like Lily (the cat) is staring up at the crow (which is an amazing carved wooden bird by Jason Tennant, btw.)

And then here are more of the hand carved stamp stationary sets I made:

Surprise!

2009-01-29T16:03:00.000-05:00

Omg. What mystery, what suspense! Who, who, who sent The Bean this blue woolen rabbit???
It arrived today with no note besides the card from the etsy seller who made it!
It makes me grin ear to ear and I am filled with suspense trying to track down the thoughtful genius who sent it our way...

winter still, and little joys.

2009-01-28T14:27:00.000-05:00

First off, aren't ice patterns just lovely? I really mean it. I'm not being sarcastic in an I-wish-spring-would-come already kind of way. Sure, it's been cold here for a long time...sure, this has been my first winter with consistently negative temperatures, and sure, there's been snow on the ground since October, but I am still appreciating some of the more aesthetic qualities of the cold.

Like when dusk falls and the fresh snow twinkles as if it's laced with crystal.
Like when the snow is packed just so and it makes that pleasing crunchy squish sound under your feet.
Like when ice crystals form into delicate patterns like little gifts on your cold kitchen window pane in the morning.
They look kind of like lithe ice birds, (or fairies, i guess) don't they?

Meanwhile, again not a baking blog, but I did make very my first 100% white flour (gasp!) loaf today. Per the Peter Reinhart thing.
White flour isn't near as tasty in my opinion, but certainly it's supple and slack and smooth and nice to dough around with.

And lastly, as this is purely a picture day, here are some pretty potatoes cut up as prep for dinner tonight. A vagabond flock that I gathered at the Dane Winter Market. Creamy butter yellow, startling deep purple, mottled plum. So satisfying when your little daily tasks are pleasing to the senses, too.

Just an update for my (very few) peeps

2009-01-22T12:25:00.003-05:00

As the snow falls and we hole up with soups and bread and books, I thought I'd go all personal and wax on about a few things that are going on for us in this brand new year.

A is taking a writing class. It just started yesterday, and runs every other wednesday for a semester. He's working on 2 stories. One is a collection of interrelated shorts about characters who share the same apt building in Rochester. It's called Blossom Towers (the name of the building) and involves a few maintenance guys, a couple cantankerous nosy ladies, a young woman raising twins on her own, and various other sundry characters and how they relate. A lot of the interactions take place on brief but telling elevator rides between the 8 floors.
The other story is about a young boy and his summers spent along the Maine coast with his grandfather. There are interspersing of the boys' dream life with his real days of nature observations and interactions.
A has been really diligent about writing since we moved. He's amped up his weekend morning writing to everyday morning writing. He gets up at 6am and spends an hour tick-tacking at this very keyboard I'm writing on now. (The pink in my cheeks is either pregnancy hormones or beaming pride.)

Also, I can't remember if I've mentioned it, but I joined an art board for a local community center. We (there are 5 of us) are putting together a show currently and will be in charge of putting together shows for the next year or two with a focus on local artists. I'm finding it really fun to sort through submitted work, choose favorites, discuss work with other board members, and eventually (we do the first install next week) meet with the artists and help them realize their show in a gallery space. I think it will be rewarding; and I have to say I really like being on this side of things.

In other Nurturing-Creative-Interests news I just signed on to be "test baker" for Peter Reinhart's next book. (P.R. of the aforementioned cinnamon bread post). He's kind of a big deal bread man, and apparently when he works on a new book he puts out a call to home baker types and gets them to test recipes for him and give him feedback so he can make tweaks before his book goes to print. I think there will be something like 200 home bakers testing things for him. This time I'll be one too.

To close this personal update-y post, I thought I'd share this blog I found and have been enjoying reading: it's personal too (but much more succinct that what you just read) and can be kind of poetic in it's sparse pictures and few words. It's called habit.

Happy late January.

Mami Wata, two unexpected finds, and a feather.

2009-01-11T12:24:00.005-05:00

Last week I finally made it over to the Chazen Art Museum, which is here in Madison and part of the UW.
They had an exhibit called "Mami Wata" on that I wanted to see: it was a showcase featuring various depictions of the Water Goddess within a few different cultures. The focus was primarily on West African depictions, but they also had a few pieces that were Indian in origin (related to the Nagas, I guess? Though there wasn't any information about that on the walls) and also Mami Wata manifested as Santa Ana in some depictions from the Americas.
Mami Wata is apparently quite a polarizing force. Some see her as a powerful goddess that will bring you wealth, prosperity and luck, but if your cross her, Watch Out. There was one painting in particular of a man who seduces (or is seduced by) Mami Wata along a shoreline. Mami Wata sheds her mermaid tail, they make love, and he is afterwards blessed with fortune. But when Mami Wata sees that the man gets caught up in material possessions (there is a panel of the man with a house, car, etc), she kills him the next time he visits her.
Mami Wata seems to be a manifestation of the fierce feminine: she'll give and take in equally dramatic measures. Many depictions seemed to accept this as part of Mami Wata's inherent power and divinity. Others, (and this is where the polarizing part comes in), see her as a manifestation of the 'devil'. She is often depicted as a mermaid, but just as often as a woman with a snake- a kind of evil dominatrix type. Some paintings in the exhibit focused upon that dark sexuality and presented it as something to be feared. There was one painting of a monk in robes in the water warning people of the mermaid, another where someone was dousing Mami Wata with a fire hose.
Even more interesting was when I got to the pieces from the Americas/Caribbean: one in particular was a video from either Haiti or Santo Domingo where a woman was video taped being possessed by a Mami Wata-like snake goddess: the woman was writhing in a chair and spitting her tongue out. She was videotaped next to her altar of plastic catholic-merging-'primitive' icons and candles.

I wish I had pictures of that exhibit to share, but alas, no photography allowed in Mami Wata. So, though completely different, I want to share 2 unexpected finds, also from the Chazen. Before I got to Mami Wata, I walked a little through the permanent collection and saw these two gems. They're by really famous artists but I'd never seen them before:

Grant Wood! You know, the "American Gothic" guy? I have to admit I never looked much deeper into his other work, but really immediately liked this painting. The woman's expression is hard to read; she's holding a plum and a spring chick.

And then this one. I go back and forth on how I feel about Ms. O'Keefe, but I definitely like this simple still life of turkey feathers. Maybe I just like feathers. Case in point:

I'm trying to dress up my maternity clothes with a little funny applique. A felt blue jay feather.

Meanwhile the snow keeps falling and a new exhibit is slated to go up at the Chazen soon.

baking again

2009-01-06T14:51:00.003-05:00

This is not a baking blog, but I'm going to link to one. Peter Reinhart is a bubbly cauldron baker scientist, and can be fun to read. My sister gave me his Whole Grain Breads book for my birthday last year, and that's where the recipe for this bread comes from.

I kind of went on a baking hiatus after my sourdough starter kicked the bucket in November. But the other day I started feeling wistful and was jonsin' for some cinnamon raisin bread. Cinnamon Raisin bread with toasted walnuts, really. And the reason it became blog worthy because this is the most satisfying loaf of bread that I've made in a long time.

For awhile, weekly bread just became One-Of-Those-Things-That-Needed-To-Be-Done, like doing the laundry or making sure you had an appropriate stash of toilet paper on hand. I certainly still liked making bread, but I'll admit there were parts of it that had become somewhat chore-ish. When I first started baking a few years ago I couldn't wait for the bread too cool: I wanted to open it up and see if it had risen evenly inside, or discover how dense the crumb was, and of course I wanted to taste it. But over time, I started doubling the recipes and freezing a loaf, and even refrained from slicing into it for hours, days. Then it got to where I wouldn't eat much of it. It would disappear into A's PB and J sandwiches, and that was just fine by me. Maybe I'd make toast now and again if there wasn't any yogurt around for breakfast, but I was much less allured.

Then I took a break. And I'm not saying I'm ready to go back to Never-Bringing-Store-Bought-Bread-Into-The-House, but I am really satisfied with this loaf. Best toasted, with butter or cream cheese.
Want the recipe?

update: recipe in the comments :)

sharing busy december

2009-01-02T15:29:00.000-05:00

Still can't post all the makin' (it's not done being given), but here is a a taste:

Top left: satiny bag of sea shell treasures for a certain 5 year old who has been dreaming of Florida this winter
Middle top: gag gift for my high heel/pink/bling obsessed sister, a little watercolor of one of her favorite spikes
Top right: some hand-carved stamp cards: the first features a hasselblad camera and magic wand, the second has high heels and a cocktail glass (for sis again)
Lower left: owl sillouette felt wall hanging for brother, weighted with smudge stick sage I grew a few years ago and had saved (on the left there's a needle point my great grandmother made for me when I was new in the world...)
Middle bottom: date pinwheels for my grandfather from his mom's old recipe
Middle right: gigantic bib made from a towel for one particularly drooly babe
Lower right: more cards, these ones were for my mother: a quilting hoop and needle and thread

Happy 2009!!!

Pre-holiday blather

2008-12-18T12:29:00.005-05:00

We've been back from Maine for about a week now, and I've been busy scurrying around trying to get holiday gifts together. I am happy to say that everyone on my list is receiving something handmade this year. (either the whole gift was handmade, or something handmade got included) These were either made by yours truly, or bought at a local holiday crafty event or ordered from etsy, etc.
Oh Drat, that's almost true. I forgot about the nieces and nephews of reading age. Those gifts were not handmade, but were personalized and stamped! Does it count? No? Well, I still feel good about the overall level of craftiness this year.
But certainly all those little things kept me busy.
So, I can't quite post up a storm about those little things I'm giving, but I can share this:

Major ice storm in Maine! The night before we left, freezing rain. I was walking (read: skating) along the sidewalks downtown in Portland where people were falling (with their loaded shopping bags) left and right. The sun was setting, the ambulances were whining down the streets. I needed ice cramp-ons for my boots, no joke.

I met up with A in the thick of it and we meandered on back to the b and b. We were hoping to stay in, but hunger dictated and so we used each other for balance and braved the few blocks to a wood fired pizza place named Bonobo. We are so glad we did. Let me just say that this place was once of the cutest, tastiest little pizza places I have ever been to. (In fact the only one that compares is the original American Flatbread housed in a barn in VT) Mushroom soup! Specialty pizza! Flourless chocolate cake! A great meal pretty cheap. Be still, my heart.

Another thing I can post with confidence is this:

For I know that my siblings-in-law don't read this blog. Those cute owls (by Big Pink Heart) are being given to the nieces and nephews of non-reading age. (You can also see the cardinals in this pic!)

Alright. We're off to FL soon to visit with my grandparents while madison is expecting 8-12 inches!
Happy holidays!

Maine again

2008-12-10T13:16:00.002-05:00

Here in Maine:

I should have taken a picture on one of the first days we were here; it was all picturesque and heavy with snow on the pine branches. It's just that it's warmer now, raining instead of snowing.
This is the same spot in maine, same exact cabin, in fact, that i stayed in just about 8 months ago when i holed up to write my masters thesis: "Art making: critical thinking and the disposition toward truth-seeking". It actually had a somewhat more put together title, it's just that I can't call it to mind exactly right now. How quickly the memory falters. Thankfully the content is still tucked away in my mind.

Anyway, A's work travel is sometimes good to me cause I get to travel along. Nice especially when we end up in pretty cabin-like settings. This one happens to be on an island that lies at the end of a mile long bridge. When I walk across the bridge later today: lo and behold: a cheese shop and a mug of hot chocolate await me.

I've been working this trip too; but this time it's far less academic: I'm making holiday gifts. It's my habit to blog what's being made as I make it but this time
it will have to wait until after the gifts are given!!

Stamping

2008-12-05T13:41:00.000-05:00

When we moved to Madison, I changed the location of my work space. It used to be in the back bedroom of our house in Rochester, but now that we live in a small apt, it's in the living room. For now, I'm happy that my art table is front and center. I once thought it was better to have the "creative space" sequestered away (for quiet, uninterupted creativity, of course), but I'm actually finding that I'm doing more work now that it's there to stare me in the face.
My mom feels the same about having her work space in the middle of everything. A few years ago I asked her why she wouldn't turn one of the old kid rooms into a sewing room for herself, now that she had the extra space. I thought it would be quiet, she'd never really have to put away projects while she was in the middle of them, and it would be a special space for her. But, no. She said "You know, I like to be where the action is." I guess I can relate to that now.

chilly here; busy being hermits

2008-11-30T18:31:00.000-05:00

We got a letter recently from our friend Roy in Rochester. It was sitting on my art desk and we picked up this magnifying glass (which is actually a piece of an old photographic enlarger, if I'm remembering right) and Adam took this neat picture that I thought I'd share.

Otherwise it's snowing here in Madison. We went on a chilly walk (good for getting cold enough to further enjoy a cup of hot chocolate once you get home). We live on the edge of the isthmus, so if we walk about a 1/2 mile in either direction we come across the 2 big lakes and the river that connects them on the edge of the east side. The Yahara, which I think is a lovely name. Here my glove obession continues...

SNOW

2008-11-24T11:08:00.003-05:00

The First Snow That Stuck!!! Through the kitchen window...

And working on some holiday ornaments. Alyssa (and her son Tenzin) helped me make these cardinals; we'll be making blue jays soon too.

The flock in progress...

Admiring the first real snow :)

The Light this'morning

2008-11-21T09:21:00.001-05:00

at about 7:55 was pretty striking. Was blinding through the window- though the cameras eye is more restrictive than a humans, and so the results are'nt quite the same. But it's worth waking up for.

Birds of a

2008-11-19T14:27:00.004-05:00

Little drawings from my collection of objects. The feather on the bottom is from one of my friends chickens that she used to keep in her backyard. They made tiny, pale brown eggs. They ran around and kicked up dirt til' their feathers got scraggly. They were not all that friendly, but we liked them just the same.

2008-11-15T18:46:00.001-05:00

pigment

2008-11-13T14:35:00.004-05:00

Since I am taking a break from my oil painting attempts in favor of something less toxic, at least for the next year or so, I decided to try acrylic painting. In fact I even signed up for a class, and though we students spend the majority of our class time struggling right next to each other in silence, it's nice to have the imposed discipline to make you paint.
This is a painting in mid-breath:

Since I can't seem to be able to think about color and tone at the same time, I am trying again to just render the whatever-it-is-that's-I'm-painting, and then hope that glazes of various colors with help correct the ghastly greenish or muddy brown that I'd been imposing. In this particular picture, what he's holding will be a piece of bark from one of those birch-like papery trees where every year the outer layers just slowly unravel themselves from the trunk leaving delicate shards in varying puzzle piece shapes. This one lit a glowing red when held up to the sun.

JOY!!! ....and Relief.

2008-11-05T10:59:00.002-05:00

Catherine Ryan

2008-11-03T14:05:00.003-05:00

I do always love images of wild animals interacting with our very own breed of domesticated human animals.
Catherine Ryan explores that place where intuitive nature meets analytical nature: fierce meets tame, fear and worship get together, power struggles happen, and we get to peek in.
I like these.

Long Lapses

2008-10-25T15:07:00.004-05:00

I initially started this blog in the summer of 2006 with the intention that it would solely be for art documentation. I was hopeful that posting regularly would keep me self-motivated to make, and that it could serve, in some way, as a running document of my "artistic process": like an online sketch journal. It's worth mentioning that originally I was resolute to keep this blog "all-about-art-output" (and image-based); I was pretty resistant to it turning into anything that might resemble an online diary.

Mostly I've been posting on no set schedule: the occasional new picture, drawing, or print with little commentary. What I've been learning these last years of doing this is that this isn't necessarily the most authentic expression of my so-called "artistic process". It just isn't this rigid. It's become a little brittle from being solely for the one purpose of documenting my own art doodles.

Part of my rigidity has been seeing myself in light of my (outdated?) concept of what an art-maker is: a constantly creating, easily inspired, will-forget-to-eat-dinner-because-she's-too busy-painting, keeps-oil-paint-in-her-pocket-on-accident kind of person. I developed this concept as a teenager, when I actually was like this. As an adult I'm perhaps less of an "artist", but more of a fully functioning person. My process admittedly takes up less of my life now: there are so many other matters to fill up the space. Now, instead of feeling itchy or displaced when I haven't painted, I'm more likely to feel that way when I do sit down to work (though I hate to admit that). My priorities and desires have shifted, and my old mode of thinking about making has become somewhat outdated. I can't do it in the same way anymore. (and I'm aware that I may just need a back to basics overhaul...to test that I am taking a basic painting mini-course starting this sunday...)

This is simply a long way of saying that I'm going to continue to post things I make, but I'm also relaxing my self-imposed rules about what I can or can't blog about. I want to still document the output (not that there was terribly much of it) but also put some energy into posting about the input: things that I see that are inspiring- and let posts be a little more rambling, too. (You may have noticed this change in the last few posts, they've gotten purposefully more conversational lately). Perhaps this will mean more timely updates...maybe that's wishful thinking :)

I'll start by posting a link to this interesting painter/illustrator I stumbled on recently. The shapes are flat but textural, the gestures simple but dream-like.

Happy weekend***
-m

Mushroom Hunting...

2008-10-04T21:02:00.001-05:00

I sense mushroom drawings coming on soon...

Concord Season in washes

2008-09-29T12:41:00.000-05:00

And we're here

2008-09-20T16:17:00.002-05:00

(not exactly a document of a new artwork, but making, none-the-less)

So today marks surviving the move from New York to Wisconsin, and even settling in a little bit.
It's been one week, and of course we still have boxes lining our floor, but we feel free enough to go Out Into The World: visiting the fabulous Dane County Farmers Market, biking through the streets, catching Neko Case at the opulent Orpheum theater, gathering things that make apt life a little easier (shelving!) and even finding time to bake. I say you're not really in a place until you can start truly cooking again.

Those hefty boxes are being unpacked one by one, or are being kindly chauffeured up to the attic where they will loiter until our next move, presumably into a house.
But for now we are apt dwellers, getting used to neighbors music collections and hours, learning to live in smaller spaces. It suits us just fine.

once upon a perch

2008-08-24T15:02:00.000-05:00

Though this is a highly unsatisfying picture of it (I'm a little ashamed really- such poor light!), I thought I show one of the things I was up to during that month-long posting haitus.
Birds.
Perhaps people are sick of em', but I am still smitten. Also, I recently realized and remembered that my mother used a really similar pattern too; making birds for christmas tree ornaments in the early 80's.
I gave a few of these as love-bird house-warming gifts to dear friends who just bought their first home. Then I made a nursery mobile for Alyssa's new one. (Welcome to the World, Dorjee)

They're fun and fast and use up that great scrap fabric that you have that is too small for most other things. For the mobile I used velcro (soft on the bird side) so that the birds could be taken off to be played with. I imagine that Alyssa will be the one that plays with them the most! :)

Knits

2008-08-22T21:21:00.003-05:00

I want to post about the beautiful bounty that I skipped away with when leaving our farmer's market yesterday.
Karen and I had been meaning to trade; and man o man, I am so so so pleased.
Karen makes all manner of amazing knit things. We ended up trading one of my lithos for the above warm and wintery handbag. (Chilly Madison, cozy bag..)
It was Karen's day to sell at the market's second storie tent, and in addition to the bags she made these whimsical and lovely vegetables. The ones you see above were my choices from her "half bushel" option. I did originally think I was getting them for some new wee ones in my life, but: maybe not, I love them so.

Her shop is over at etsy.

One moon, many changes

2008-08-21T10:57:00.003-05:00

It's been a little over a month since I posted last, and much has changed in that one last cycle.
A month ago, A and I were happily getting along in Rochester, NY. Then, a job transfer opportunity happened, and we've since been whirl-winding: home updates, meeting with relators, putting the home up for sale, relocation arrangements, home sold, contracts written, trips undergone to ensure new places to sleep... all this, plus lots and lots of packing, and more to come.

We're moving to Madison, WI:

and we'll be renters again for a while:

But there are so many good things about Madison, notably this golden badger that acts as a sentinel inside the opulent capital building.

It's a funny thing to move just when you feel like your getting rooted somewhere; we'll have fond memories of Ra-cha-cha, Roc city, R-town, Rochester, the acquired taste. But Madison holds a lot of treasures we're excited to uncover too.

On our visit to secure an apt (which we just returned from), I found myself pretty inspired by the capital building. I usually don't go too ga-ga over ornate old gold and marble structures. Generally all that is too much for me. But this particular building not only has funny little badger guards, but it also has hidden fossils and excellent murals. There is a Goddess of Wisconsin, holding wheat and other bounty, as well as all sorts of virtues personified as Hellenistic-type God/Goddess in mosaics.

Especially I loved this mural on the ceiling of one of the state rooms. Reminds me of Maxfield Parish, and I've always been drawn to those oracle myths. The seeker of knowledge approaching wisdom; the Seeker and the Mystery meeting in a sacred space.

Show-and-Tell

2008-07-10T16:49:00.002-05:00

I wanted to show off my RoCo (Rochester Contemporary Art Center) 6x6 finds!
The first is a gum bichromate print by Milenko Grgar (no website, unfortunately...) It's called Tartarus. When A and I first saw this image, we thought it was so peaceful, the body floating; hovering. When it came home with us and we learned the title...it took on a whole new (darker!) layer of meaning.
The second is from James Rajotte, he's a local teacher (RIT) and artist.
I love them both- images of water can be so satisfying.

I am really excited to have new art in our home. (Art not made by me because there's no other place to put it :)
It makes me really want to get serious about bartering for art with people I admire. It can be tricky, I realize: you have to love each others work, and then there's the nebulous concept of value and fair trade. But really, when it works, it's a simple and quite beautiful way to share and collectively create and pay back someone with your own "sweat equity"; and that feels good.

Little by little

2008-07-07T14:45:00.002-05:00

Though I have been meandering in a lot of different directions (including finally establishing a garden, with the help of seeds and plants from friend and green thumb Sharon), Things with the painting are coming along little by little. I am re-experiencing the mystery of color (and why I always thought it was so tricky to interpret) Still making washes (blue background) and starting to build up color in the face. I still need to develop the skin and work on the background, and no attention what-s0-ever has been paid to the eyes or hair yet.

Here it is before the aforementioned distracting trips, just after the green phase, with a wash of yellows and a made-up, approximately Adam-colored glaze on the right side of the face.

During the course of this painting, I already had the inevitable, early I-Hate-This-I'm-Stopping phase, which luckily turned into the This-Is-A-Challenge-And-I-Kinda-Like-It phase, and now I feel just on the cusp of the This-Is-Almost-Flow-Like phase. That's a lot to go through with a project that I've only sat down a few times with. This must be due to my history of love and loathing with painting. In any case, most of me is glad to be back to it.

New distractions include teaching two photography classes; one an adult intro course, the other is a youth program working with Rochester's city students.

I've been distracted

2008-07-07T12:17:00.001-05:00

I really did plan to get busy on that oil painting. It was the perfect time to delve into that kind of thing (slow, time consuming, measured). I had what was essentially a free month: (post-grad school graduating, pre-back-to-work life) and intended to really dive in, but... I got distracted. First with a business trip to Vermont earlier in June (business for A, and apparently beer drinking and drawing weird little faces in watercolor for me.)

Then I got distracted by another week long trip, this time to Virginia to visit my folks. A mid-process oil painting is not really travel friendly, so instead I spent time doing more fast, funny little watercolors of bottle caps and logs and things lying around.

I do think I'll do my collections next. Little 4 x 5 watercolor and ink odes.

2008-06-12T21:50:00.000-05:00

After the green layer (plus rubbing off highlights...)

Grisaille Painting, again

2008-06-10T19:15:00.003-05:00

Since this is my summer to get back into COLOR, and to re-bond with oil painting, I thought I'd go back the the "old master" layer technique I learned in high school, with an added twist. I'm going to incorporate Grisaille.
I tried this technique about a year ago, with limited success.
But this time I'm going back to oil (as opposed to acrylics), and I have the hazy summer days ahead of me.
I chose a portrait; a close-up of a face I know well to start with as I'm mostly working on technique for this first painting.

First I made the grisalle in light washes of India Ink.
These got progressively darker as I worked them.
(Below you can see the progression.)

After a loose grisaille, I made a wash of a bright, transparent red, (cadmium) thinned out with a lot of turpentine.

Next layer I'll do an opaque dark green (terra verte), thinned out with Turp, but a little less so than the red layer, so that I can work fat over lean.

Illuminated

2008-06-06T12:05:00.000-05:00

Light has a way of sneaking up and surprising you.

Strike that, reverse it.

2008-05-18T10:15:00.003-05:00

New litho, reverse style. First you ink up the whole stone until it's a deep, velvety black. Then you scratch out hard edged whites with a razor, and erase out softer whites with snakeslip. Then your etch uses 27 to 35 drops of nitric acid (as opposed to the 7-9 with a normal litho). It's much harder to print, but I like the darkness and drama that is possible. it's the lithography equivalent to an erased-out soft charcoal drawing.

Flock

2008-04-24T10:18:00.007-05:00

A new lithograph. "Flock".
There's a story that was translated to me a few years ago.
When Adam's old friend Dave moved from the relatively crowded North Fork of Long Island, NY out to the expansive emptiness of southern South Dakota, he and his wife bought a farm.
A 60-acre farm, if my memory serves me. On a hill so that you couldn't see any neighbors, and the vastness was punctuated only by the wild thistle and the leaning out-buildings that came, part-and-parcel, with the house.
The acreage in the front of the plot allows for the kind of privacy where you can feel free to hang your laundry completely naked. A space where you can have bon-fires that no one will see, where you can build intricate found-object sculptures that obstruct all your entrances and no one will shake their head in wonderment. It's that solitary and that vast.
Soon after buying the place, Dave went walking in the fields with his father-in-law. They were surveying the land and taking in the small noises that fill up large spaces. These small noises were the buzzing noises of biting insects, the rustling noises of small mammals burrowing in the grasses, the feathery noises of the occasional barn swallow dividing air with their wings. They were about to head back for dinner when faintly, far off, another noise came. Like a rumbling engine in the distance, the feeling of a storm just beyond the line drawn to indicate the horizon.
And then they were there. At first they were simply scattered dark spots, like a few ants moving on a kitchen floor. Soon, the spots clumped to form dark shapes, their individual bodies became solid masses of dense vibration. Dave felt like he was watching a pointalist painting take shape in front of him, disparate dots converging to make pictures in the sky.
The birds, in dense migration, filled all that new vastness with sound- an undulating black mass, a shock of electric pulse. The mass blotted out the paleness of the late October sky. Someone had taken a bottle of ink and spilled it across the blank page of the evening. The birds flew.

Swarm Litho

2008-04-14T16:31:00.004-05:00

New version of the "Swarm" etching, this version is a lithograph as opposed to a drypoint etching. They are so different- I liked the coarseness of the drypoint, how it seemed more frantic and spontaneous even, but I'm too persnickety to leave it at that. I wanted the face to be tighter,a more controlled drawing.

Salt Water / Fresh Water

2008-04-07T20:03:00.003-05:00

The Wishbone

2008-03-31T20:58:00.003-05:00

I combined these prints to make one final, but I kind of want to redo the lady on the left. It was my first litho, and the marks are less confident than in the one on the right. Also she could be smaller, with a little change in the perspective so she would visually relate to the other figure a little better...

Yes, it's still snowing in Rochester

2008-03-19T09:05:00.003-05:00

2008-03-11T11:56:00.001-05:00

Looking through my travel pictures, something I found and liked. The tones in the floor, the sweeping brown skirt, the texturedness of this.

2008-02-20T20:03:00.003-05:00

So after drypoint I tried a true etching process. Here is the plate being covered with ground, which is essentially a coating that you scratch through to expose metal. The exposed bits get etched in an acid bath, the parts covered with ground don't. The un-etched parts of the plate remain flat- so the ink rubs right off them, the etched, or indented, parts of the plate accept ink for printing. Next is the plate (hand on fire) with the initial scratches on it, before the first acid bath.

2008-02-20T19:59:00.004-05:00

This is my first Dry-Point. It's tricky because, unlike an etching, there is no ground and no acid, so you have to use a sharp needle tool to grind in your values.

2008-02-20T10:33:00.002-05:00

The final print (and detail view) from the lithstone just below. Series of 10, 1/2 on buff, 1/2 white.

2008-02-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

The next litho.....

Hunting

2008-01-28T22:55:00.001-05:00

The continuing saga of the litho process, purely to aid my memory

2008-01-28T21:54:00.001-05:00

After buffing the gum arabic/nitric acid solution, you let it etch overnight. The next step is to use lithotine (or turpentine) and then laquer thinner to wipe off all the ink, effectively erasing the image.

Once it's off, you rub in a bit of asphaltum (Senefelder's). Buff smooth.

You etch your stone a number of times before you print it. The further an image is etched into the stone, the more prints you'll be able to get out of it. If you're looking to do an edition of 10-15 prints, you need to etch 3 times before printing. Continue to re-etch until you have etched in sufficiently for your edition number. To re-etch, at this point you would wipe off asphaltum with a clean sponge, ink stone, dry stone, rosin and talc, mix nitric acid and gum arabic, rub in, buff with cheese cloth, leave overnight for magic to occur, use lithotine and lacquer thinner to erase image, and rub asphaultum on that again... and so it goes, again and again.
The proportion of nitric acid to gum arabic increases with each etch. For example my first coating was just gum arabic, second had 5 drops of nitric acid per 1 oz. gum. Third etch had 7 drops.

When you're ready to print, you rub off the asphaltum with a clean sponge,

Roll out the thick ink,

and keeping the stone wet, ink it up. You'll have to have a partner re-wet the stone between each application of ink.

At some point during all of this, you'll have set up your press by attaching the appropriate "typan bar" onto the top of the press with a screw. The bar is what distributes even pressure (2,000 pounds per square inch) to transfer your print from stone to paper. The bar needs to be bigger than your image, (to press all sections evenly) yet smaller than your stone (so as not to upset the pressure and possibly break the stone.)

You'll set up the press to the right pressure by fiddling with the top turn key and the pressure bar on the side of the press. Create a stack of papers to act as a "blotter" or cushion between tympan bar and stone. There should be a plastic sheet on top to catch grease from tympan bar.

Run your print through the press, never going off the stone (which would again upset pressure and break the stone.) Make tape marks to show yourself where to start and where to end a pull; you won't be able to see the stone as your moving it through the press.

Finished Lithography Print

Chemistry

2008-01-21T16:36:00.000-05:00

Learning a new printmaking process: Lithography.
First you make a drawing with sticks of oil: lithography pencils, onto a block of special Bavarian stone.

Then you rub in a sprinkling of rosin powder, and after rub in a sprinkling of talc power.

When the oily drawing has absorbed the power, making the surface smooth, you mix a solution: a few drops of nitric acid with an ounce of gum arabic. You rub this in for a few minutes.

After that's rubbed in, you wipe off the excess with your hand, and buff the surface with a soft cheese cloth. That's your first "etch" in preparation to print.

2008-01-12T13:15:00.001-05:00

Yak dreams of Yeti.

2008-01-11T14:25:00.001-05:00

Having fox dreams.

Summer Art: no photography...

2007-08-09T10:18:00.000-05:00

2007-08-09T10:17:00.000-05:00

but a lot of other neat processes.
Here is a sampling of what I made:

The first is a jigsaw blockprint...which involves carving an image, then cutting it out into a puzzle, then individually inking each piece different colors, reassembling it, and printing it. This one is 12" by 24", it has 9 colors and 20 pieces.

Then a reduction blockprint, which means you ink the whole plate each printing with a color, then continue carving out, ink a different color, print again, and so on, until the whole plate is totally carved out and the image isn't there anymore.

Then a wood cut. This is the actual plate, before printing it. I like the thick slab of wood, so I may keep it like this, and not print it.

Next is a silk painting, its 48" by 24" (and 2 details of it)

And last, a stamp print of some wishbones...

2007-08-09T09:46:00.000-05:00

plus another woodcut (of a woman and a mandrake root), and a felted wool fox.

Storytelling Show

2007-07-19T09:42:00.000-05:00

A slide show of the Storytelling show after hanging, before opening. Not great pictures, but it gives you the idea of what it looks like up.

Rings We Found

2007-07-08T22:42:00.000-05:00

You said that there was a bulb in the center of the forest that illuminates.
I imagined a round globe, spotted with crusted gnats bodies that flew too close and got stuck to the brightness.
The bulb swinging from a tree limb like a pendulum.

Or did you mean that the secrets in that dark wooded place are leavening, enlightening?
I sit on my bottom in the darkest spot and only get anxious.
But I am learning that this comes in small stages.

Sit down in the parking lot and all of a sudden the fallen leaves will rustle across the concrete,
stir you from your magazine. You were just watching, but suddenly you are rustling too.
Communion, union.
Then it's done. Momentary.

I went walking with you and you were talking about the bulb.
Rings, the qualities of union.
In thin vegetal slices, I find rings and want to show you.
In lens flare, half moon rings; in flowers, trembling petals that ring around the center.
Around your finger, there is a ring,
around this walk, we combine to make one, and sing.
(ring around a rosey, pockets full of posies)

Leave

2007-07-08T22:29:00.000-05:00

An old sled dog.
You can see it in the eye- in the resignied whimper.
There must be some measure of worth playing out here:
something neccesary for survival.
They are going through, marking the diseased trees and
tagging the ones that can stay, that won't spread.
who created these road maps,
who made the end tests?

Escapest

2007-07-08T22:26:00.000-05:00

Two women,
with wanting and eager eyes,
wash their hair outside in the hot sun,
peek through doorways at the tourists in the street,
corral children and stray roosters.

Birds alight on monastery eaves
watching the dance below

-----------------
hum, well???

Fallen / Flight

2007-07-08T22:15:00.000-05:00

10,000 leaves fall from the backyard tree
spotted yellow in the immediacy of new autumn
the leaves are resurrected as: black bird stretched across cerulean sky

it starts as a death, as a spirit let go,
the plainness of an open face in the new day.
resurrection is: a simple thing, an everyday thing
something old passing, and that transition creating something new

This crow flies out of the frame and off to chase the vulture
(who is necessary in this narrative, though no one seems to like him)
That vulture, who picks up the tender ends of what once was
and carries them through into
becoming something new

Who plays the part of the griffin,
asking riddles, manning the way-station
letting in the lost

After Halloween

2007-07-08T21:45:00.000-05:00

The day after Halloween, it rained.
paper ghosts hung from tree limbs, got soggy
and fell into the collected piles of leaves on the ground.

I was walking slowly, fresh paint was collecting into puddles on the concrete.
I am learning to tell this story
so that the twists are my own:
ghosting makes rain; makes these new rituals lose their unfortunate legacies,
rain washes everything back to its origins.

I can take this kind of sadness
and carry it in my pocket until it is shiny and polished,
looking like new silver, looking like something somebody might want.

2007-07-06T15:50:00.000-05:00

2007-07-06T15:48:00.000-05:00

Pictures from a Wedding shoot,
Nearby to Ithaca - June 23

2007-06-26T13:49:00.000-05:00

2007-06-14T12:47:00.001-05:00

Virginia Whiskey (alternate version)

We stopped for a drink at the river.
It was a small river, but powerful -
step inside and you are almost tumbled by the weight of water
rushing around your knees, cooling your skin

We were walking through the old woods of Virginia,
Shenandoah growth of thick moss, curling mushroom, limestone;
full of medicine women, red fox, elapsed time.

You pulled out the flask, which I love only for it's crude nostalgia,
its metallic sheen and dainty embossed floral pattern.
We sat next to the river and watched the water swiftly carry old stories down
oblivious to their place in time, paying no attention to our humanistic linear needs
The river simply told stories
and swept up new ones too,
ours.

Virginia Whiskey

I bought this flask on a trip out west
and let it be said that it's light and travels well,
and made it's way back to a home of sorts.

Because I needed a place to think on when I was away
I played the song about Virginia, its wood fire smoke and trees still scarred from the war.
I can spin tales of its gently rolling Shenandoah;
forests dense with green; dark, full of medicine women, red fox, elapsed time.

But this is an old remembrance, liquid, and before my time.
Distill it, light the lantern, lay down the arms.

2007-06-14T12:46:00.001-05:00

Shaman Says

This is a good teacher;
Machu Picchu's mystery of cut stone: perfect, even
with no record of the tools
maybe they cut it with some kind of acid, an old wisdom combination of root and vine.

Then and still, green life (ever incorrigible) is making it's way through the thin divide.
Melding there: force of man, will of nature.

In not so subtle terms he told me to go:
take off your shoes in sacred places.
The Temple of the Moon wants your contact,
skin to stone, animal to animus, archetype to simple soul.

It's still possible. Let this be a reminder, he said.

2007-06-14T12:40:00.000-05:00

PrayerLight

Light, in a word, energy
fusing.

Butter candles, lit for offering,
the tail end of a silk scarf.

Follow me here, where we can give our thoughts
physical existence, offer ourselves some
solace and make a place for our wantingwishing.

But is it possible
to offer light on the altar, and give respect
to the wealth in the dark

Light and Dark ride opposite sides of the same plane
Embrace both, she said.

2007-06-14T12:29:00.000-05:00

dumb-struck: the Wat Pho, fish market, Thailand.

We came all the way here. This theology is beautiful,
intricate, and unavailable.

The source, behind closed doors,
my western tongue.

Once I even sat openly,
prayer books and beads, people were singing
a private gathering.
I had my camera, I had my willingness, my walls.

2007-06-10T11:20:00.000-05:00

Tinkering with words to go with these pictures for a summer show...

The lake pours into his hand
The seeds of which/
the unhaunting.
This experience is potentized
liquid dream,
seeds fertile with the deepness of the lake.

Your touch makes rain,
fills deep valleys.
The seed of which/
the creation of this,
the native tongue.

2007-06-10T11:16:00.000-05:00

A series of closed doors.
Approach the monastery by hillside and
the gate opens.
From this distance: the Kathmandu Valley, split open like a gutted fish (beautiful bone, fine filigree)
from Manjushri's sword.
Intention and the power of creation.

The mythology here is transferable.
I want flight, that many winged bird,
I need open gates.
Creation is dually an act of violence (thrust, propulsion, intention)
and an act of beauty (beginning, opportunity, birth)

___________________________________________________
Notes: not sure about the gutted fish- graphic because I want that juxtaposition: force/beauty, but? Maybe "the Kathmandu Valley, split open like cracked oyster, like open book, like...."
also, re: bottom line: "Creation is an act of violence" or "Creation is an act of force"?

2007-06-06T11:22:00.000-05:00

Pictures from a recent trip to the Maine coast, and to Vermont. Spring 2007.

2007-06-05T12:07:00.000-05:00

2007-04-29T21:19:00.000-05:00

2007-03-14T18:54:00.000-05:00

Zac's Birthday Card

2007-01-14T15:23:00.000-05:00

A red layer, then a yellow, both all over. Then a more opaque blue layer only on the sky.

2007-01-11T12:20:00.000-05:00

I am going to try a new-to-me painting technique: Grisaille. So I will try and show the stages as I get to them. This is the first bit: a charcoal drawing a top a gesso-ed surface, then you do a series of glaze washes in complementary colors. Here is the first glaze: green.

2007-01-11T11:35:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to make drawings again. Its been many years since I sat down seriously at it, so I am starting off simple with a straight forward portrait. Portrait making is something I used to do as exercise in art school, so it's something I can come back to, revisit. I am in the process of seeing if I can remember how to make lines look like they all communicate. But slowly I am enjoying it again. What I miss about art making in photography is this kind of process: the slow growth of an image. Sitting down with it and making little marks...photography is all about that temporal moment, and in drawing, you just get to explore that aspect longer. So this is nice: sit down in your little back room for awhile, drink tea, get your hands all charcoal-black.

Trip to Deer Park Monastery, WI

2007-01-09T20:22:00.000-05:00

Quiet monastery trip, with the dark coming down and a fullmoonsunset. Both could be seen at the same time, full moon, orange fiery sun. First look one direction, then turn around. This is the advice I once received from Tom, a photo teacher of mine: compose your perfect image, consider line and shape, color, juxtaposition. Now....turn around. Press the shutter.

Backwards logic, I thought. But really only a device to question your intention, or steadfast compositional choices. Here it seems just intuitive, smart advice. Turn around.

2006-12-31T20:51:00.000-05:00

Nazareth Campus, Rochester, Ny: with a Holga camera in the Fall

2006-11-05T12:04:00.000-05:00

Jen, Here are some of the images from a May wedding last year. If you want to see more, I'll have to mail you the disc. These were taken in mid-afternoon, 3 or 4? Lots of natural light but I used a fill-flash too.

2006-07-06T19:46:00.000-05:00

New, small Black and Whites

Working at the Community Darkroom is getting me excited about black & white again. It's a bit of a challenge to take the color out, because in picture making, that's what I've really thrived on. But it's always good to shake things up, re-work them. And Simplify.