Beaumont Reciprocate

The Sketchbook Project is in it's envelope today-  It's a story about how
Ginny Saved My Life in 1952, starting with the 'before' picture of me:

and ending with the polished sophisticated me of 1953:

all because she taught me to sew.  OK, so it's far-fetched, but I remember my childhood sitting in my room and making improvised clothes for Ginny because my mom wouldn't buy the full sets that were available.  First I took apart one of the real outfits and discovered it was pretty simple, a square with a hole in the center made a top, and a rectangle gathered along one edge was a skirt.  We are talking 1952 here, remember, and girls wore skirts.  And also remember that my mom made all our clothes so it was the norm for me-  I thought ALL clothes got made at home.  I spent several years building up Ginny's wardrobe before I started working bigger on my own things, so this book is about how Ginny gave me the power to do that, the skill to sew, and the imagination to try new things.  Funny how here we are 60 years later and I am still sewing happily, still unencumbered by how things *should* be done, and a willing experimenter to get what I'm after!

My mother used to say, 'Leopards Don't Change Their Spots', but I always knew that if they tried hard enough they just might be able to and in the meantime I'll just knit them a little sweater. With stripes.. .

Injure Lavabo

LRemember my spider bite?  It finally healed and disappeared from my finger and I forgot about it.  Then weeks later it Reappeared and the bite itself became visible again, formed a lump, then a blister bigger than the first time around.  It got ugly, finally healed up again and now is an actual scar about a quarter inch across-  the bite itself was the side of a pin head.  Except for the fact that this is ON ME, I'm finding the evolution quite fascinating.

Golden Spiders

More spiders, but these guys are productive ones!

Here's a close-up of the cloth they wove from the spider silk

More info HERE.  And that's a wrap with the spiders!

Flirtatious Asinine

The Horror today-  'Leave Everyone Else Alone!'

You may get angry with someone you normally like, but expressing your emotions in a forthright manner is tricky today. You're tempted to find a scapegoat who doesn't really deserve your wrath. Don't inadvertently take your feelings out on the wrong person; this unconscious behavior could sour a sweet situation. Instead, seek ways to vent your negativity without pushing anyone's buttons. Try reducing your stress by engaging in vigorous physical exercise and leaving everyone else alone.

Guess my day will be spent in isolation with duct tape over my mouth in case Mitt calls again- he's making annoyance calls to our phone on a regular basis these days and I am getting all sorts of stuff from the NRA in the mail.  Next thing you know I'll be sent a tea party baseball cap...  But as usual I digress.

Yesterday I finished my book for the 2012 Sketchbood Project and I took my photos since once I mail it, it's gone forever to the Brooklyn Art Library.  The thing is I really didn't devote myself to this one, but I really like the premise and think ti calls for an upgrade to keep for myself-  I'll take some time and really do it right- it's about how GINNY saved my life in 1952, gave me something to do, taught me skills, and showed me my lifelong path-  all with sewing.  First I have to go buy a new set of inks for my crappo printer...  Lots of printing involved here of stolen materials!  I really should simply get the printer I really want and stop futzing around with this one, a mistake from the get-go-  it's OK, perfect for printing letters and stuff on paper not to keep, but I need something archival in the studio.  ANYway I'll load a couple of my pages here to show ya before I mail it out to the nether lands (as opposed to Netherland).

HOLD THE PRESSESSSSS:  there will be no new printer in this squeakies life.  My hard drive took to the woods.  I was downloading my images of the new book and it just went poof.  Never mind I now have to re-take all 30 pictures, and probably lost everything else in the computer anyway.  Spent one day unplugging it and  carrying it to a local repair Mac guy who called and gave me the bad news.  Spent yesterday hauling it back home, will spend today hauling it to the 'maul' amidst all their special sales to the Apple store to see if there is ANYthing that is recoverable.  And perhaps taking the new pictures again and downloading them into the laptop to post a few.  Two years of work, everything I did at the studio,

gone.

And I KNOW, I KNOW, I have a backup external drive but kept unplugging it to access the ports for other things and forgetting to plug it back in.  My fault, entirely.  But that only makes is suck a bit more when there's nobody else to blame.

So, today, instead of Ginny, you get Hazel's Field Guide. These are from my uber-talented 3+ granddaughter.  She is excited about coming to Florida and is obsessed with flamingos:

 And sees and cares for horses daily at her farm pre-school:

As an old art teacher I *think* I can be objective but aren't these amazing drawings for such a young kid? (You don't have to answer, I just like to brag a bit when I get a chance.)  I wonder if MassArt has a legacy program...  

Acquit Gigabit

Down the street from me, tonights sunset.  And people ask what I'm doing down here...

David Waller's installation of 2500 tiny toy cars.

If you don't know how it feels to be OLD, MIT has invented a suit to simulate being 75.  Don't think it will be a big seller because it only works if you're under 75, not if you're over 75 and long to feel 75 again!



Spent yesterday afternoon at the huge convention center slogging through crowds of people ogling at some very interesting contemporary art.  I was with two perfect companions, we all liked looking at different things and we all learned from each other.  There were several things I remembered from last year and it was good to revisit.  Some of the gallery owners were quite outgoing and loved talking about their works, others were sullen and angry.  The overall feeling though was that we were underage visitors to a grown-up show, and the art they were presenting, with much hype, was perhaps from the 'B' list of good artists.  I saw little of cutting edge, when I did it seemed to be a Chinese artist with a western viewpoint.  Kind of previous regurgitation or interpretation.  This was Ahrt, the kind WITH the 'h'.  Frankly I am much more looking forward to the Fine Craft Fair here in a few weeks.  At least the work there doesn't start at about $25,000!  

Dean Djakarta

It's not that you set your goals too high, it's that you set your goals too low and achieve them.  Michelangelo


I've been fishing the internets and found some amazing very large scale photographs that I was taken with for their atmospheric feelings-  I was wondering how he could capture such compelling landscapes.  Aren't you?

Then I found how he does it!  These are carefully lit and photographed set-ups inside a 200 gallon fish tank!  The artist is Kim Keever and there are more on his site.  He adds pigments for the dispersion, he changes lights and sets up his scenes under the water!  Whatever works, and in this case it does quite well!

A Little Retail Therapy to treat myself after a long dry spell.  New Choos:  Found some cool new shoes, SO not me, that have a double strap that can be moved around on the shoe:

The strap can be doubled around through a loop on the sole and buckled on the side, or it can be crossed over the instep and buckled behind the ankle, or it can be crossed in back and brought around as an ankle strap buckled in the front.  Or it can be completely removed and wrapped around your wrist. These have a pewter strap but it's also available in a luggage tan which would be more versatile for work...if one actually had a job where one wore heels!  Super comfortable.  i am wearing them 'double strapped' to a magic show tonight, don't ask...  

Study of Fallen

All That Glitters: The History of Shiny Things from Etsy on Vimeo.

A Martha Stewart GLITTER bones project for whenever you want sparkly bones:  Martha, or more possible her stable of elves, outdid themself on this!  Now to find some bones...

Glittered starfish-

Glittered acorn and squirrel hairpins-

Glitter nails-

Which led me to NEWSPAPER nails-

And the tutorial on how to do them!  

The thing is, I wouldn't ant reversed newsprint, I'd want to read them so I am thinking maybe I could use the laser printer and ...and... and...
I'll let you know what I discover!

______________________________I'm serious now, No more silly glitter____________________

A Brazilian artist, Henrique Oliverira, builds giant armatures that seemingly force through walls and floors of gallery installations.  These are then covered with stripped wood he finds throughout his city.  Check his website for more amazing work, and see his other section of his paintings also.

Chap Gideon Masterful

Geometric Half-Bound Fore-Edge

Big Old Yellow Thing (working title)

(with apologies to those of you who have not liked me calling it that)

Four Turkeys (actual title) aprox. 64" x 64"

Finally got all the chatzkes sewn down enough so I could stick it on the wall and see a border just pinned in place.  Much left to do but we're on the way and it's OFF my table.  Next step is to get it OFF my mind!  I'm very excited to see the end to any of my projects, but this one has been a long one.  

Flirtatious Asinine

Oh Boy and Oh Joy:

Oh Boy! Today I discovered Jessica Wohl who works with threads and photographs and collage and also  installations making 'the invisible visaible'.  I was initially blown away by her stitching on found photographs like this:

Title:  'White Family'

But she tackles other subjects equally well-  go visit her site because it's large and amazing.

 Look carefully for the car that is embroidered in the left foreground.

But then....

There is her installation work too-  here a river of hair running down a stairway in an abandoned hotel.  

Oh Joy!  Joined a book club today- we're in the process of organizing it.  Going to keep it small, take turns hosting, and we are open to suggestions for 'thought provoking' books.  And ideas to add to our pot?

Textural Demotic Dingbat

Got some good ones today, pals! First off, go visit these amazing 'taxidermied' animals by Zoe Williams. Please, go poke around because the deeper you go the better!

Yes, they are felted wool!  Unbelievable detail, and some (ummmm) 'odd' subjects!

If you've spent too long at her site, tha'ts OK because all I have for the rest of this post is from an ad from FredFlare.  I started looking around here for a couple of presents I have that are overdue and decided instead to post some of the weirder choices in the collection.  Go get your credit card so you'll be ready-  some of these things are in short supply!

 A novel writing kit, just in case you don't know where to start.

 A wienie link dog leash, hopefully smells like plastic, not hotdogs or you aren't walking anywhere.

 An inflatable turkey, for the vegans at the table who are also traditionalists.

 Day of the Dead gingerbread cookies-  a lesson that every little fat gingerbread man has a skinny guy inside, or whatever lesson you want to believe.

Below, but Blogger won't let me format the way I want to:  chewed gum magnets-  stick 'em up anywhere you want to leave a message.  Contains no DNA in case you worry about such things.

 Says it all.

 A CAT-LADY action figure, perfect for a few folks I know with litter stuck in their shoes.

 Squirrel Underpants, I guess so they don't poop sunflower hulls on the lawn.

 I used to love Nancy Drew, but it requires some translation now-  things have changed a bit since Nancy got her roadster!

That's tea, not what you're thinking.

Maybe tomorrow I'll have meatier stuff but I've been devoting myself to getting this Largish Yellow Thing together so I can hoist it onto the design wall.  Yesterday I broke THREE needles on the machine trying to sew through my fabulous rusted fabric.  It simply wouldn't work so I had to get my pliers out and sew  the rusty strips down by hand pulling each stitch with the pliers-  tedious.  Today the plan is that I do the mirror image on the opposite side, same pliers drill.  My hands hurt.  But, as soon as it's up and I can step back I get to take pictures, reverse them, change them to B&W, and assess what else needs to be done.  Hopefully not a lot because I am getting way tired of it now.

Mechanically Festooned Scribe

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority 

                                            has made the world better.  Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nicole Dextras has done a set of ice sculptures based on typography.  This is from her statement:

The Ice Typography series consists of three-dimensional words fabricated in ice placed outdoors that speak to how the viewer’s gaze frames and informs the landscape. The installations have varied from 8-foot high ice letters on the Yukon River to 18-inch high letters set in downtown Toronto. When the ice texts are installed on site, the temperature determines how long it will take for them to change state from solid to liquid. This phase of transition becomes symbolic of the interconnectedness of language and culture to the land as they are affected by time and by a constant shifting and transforming nature.

Lots more on her website, linked above, and I had previously linked to her dresses encased in ice and that certainly warrants a re-visit.  I LOVE this work, makes me want to go hmmmmmm...