Friday, October 16, 2015

janos desirous adenosineky

Comparison is the thief of joy.  Angela Waters


Kinda looks like chocolate, doesn't it?

Another weekend bites the dust.  I had great plans to do a little art smoozing this weed to make up for not being at the Fuller Craft Museum right this minute for the opening of the show I'm in.  But *things* keep interfering with my big ideas and instead I am being held hostage here.  Yesterday I spent THREE HOURS at the house-  I hauled a sand chair over so I had a place to sit down while waiting.  I also had my knitting and watched a David Chang video on my phone that was more then 30 minutes long-  about eggs, wish I would have saved my battery.  ANYway, the two fountains finally arrived, I pointed to the ground where they were going, and off I went.  
An aside here-  I kinda love saying we are having fountains (plural) installed and try to say it with a lock jaw but the truth is that we have two little ceramic urns that recycle a bit of water to fall down the sides.  One smaller one for the front entry, and the larger one is for the long-view window down a hall-  big window, nothing there so the urn fixes that.  I'm afraid they will make me want to pee whenever I walk by them.  Anyway, that's the real scoop- there are not giant lions spewing forth into a surrounding pool, they are not hooked up to a light display.  They are, what they call in New England, BUBBLERS.  

After that I ran to the grocery and then settled into an afternoon of cooking for TY's cousins who are in town for a few days.  It was good to see them, but they are winging their way back to Boston as I sit here.  And that is the last of my entertaining (ha!) until I am living somewhere else.  Officially.

Today I am dealing with a dropped stitch in my knitting about 3" back-  this will be a real bore, but maybe there is a good murder story on ID-  I do not want any more football, an empty wish since the Patriots are on tonight.  





Time for the Ahhht of the Day!



Cardboard Masks, a little Halloween prep is in order:  UK-based designer Steve Wintercroft has made the designs for his wonderful 3-dimensional polygonal masks available for purchase through his website and his Etsy store. Each mask can be easily crafted out of cardboard to be decorated in any way.
We supply the templates and instructions that enable you to turn unwanted card into beautiful 3D masks that you can build and decorate yourself. The instructions are easy to follow so that the masks can be assembled by anyone, using local materials and removing the need for mass manufacturing or shipping.

I have a massive rubber band ball I have been growing for years and just found this, and thought it the same, then decided it was yarn and read the description.  Nope, it's WAX, and it's a candle.
From Missoni Home candles:  $381.65, down from $449.00 for the each candle-ball.  $557.60 for the set of three, down from $656.  Yes you are reading this right.
None of my friends will be getting these any time soon.  Around here folks are always giving each other candles instead of bottles of wine when you go visiting.  If anybody brings me one, believe me I will get a glass case and put it up high so nobody will touch it.  And next I will let you all know so we can laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and set up a day to come light it.  OK?



This says John Lennon but it's a pretty direct link to Picasso's own quote:


"Every child is an artist. 
The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."     

And another ASIDE comment from moi.  As a teacher of adults the most frustrating thought process I continually faced was the 'I'm not an artist-  I can't draw a straight line!' student.  And the problem was that they each believed it because someone at sometime made fun of their drawing or tried to correct their art work, or told them they didn't stay in the lines.  They were discouraged and humiliated and just stopped drawing.  My retort was it was good they couldn’t draw a straight line because there aren’t any in nature.  Eyes glassed over, they went back to their tables to do a little more.  I taught them TRICKS like drawing upside down which wasn’t to frustrate them, it was to show them that if they LOOKED, they could draw and the upside down part was to take away the familiarity with whatever it was they were drawing so they could SEE it for the first time-  see where lines converged, see which direction things were leaning in, see where the light source hit.  And they did, and they giggled at their upside down drawings a bit, but they had to admit these were the really great drawings!  So I sent them all out to buy any one of Betty Edwards great books starting with 'Drawing on the Artist Within'.

And since I was teaching how to access creativity through quilt making we upped the ante by free hand cutting scraps and passing them on to the right.  We would work on composition of shapes, pass it on to the right, work on negative space, pass it on to the right, work on color relationships and dynamics, pass it on again.  We would then cut the composition in 4 parts so everybody at the table had some part of the whole.  At that point they each had to integrate the four sections into a whole any way they wanted-  and I announced I didn’t give grades, it was just an exercise!  They were still giving their own grades to themselves, so I would walk around and find great things about each piece, hold them up for all to see, and watch them glow with newfound pride.  And I would send them out to buy 'The Artist's Way' by Julia Cameron.

OK, I admit I got a whole lot more out of teaching than I was due-  there was a sudden light in a student’s eyes or a shriek from the back of the room or a quiet stop at my desk to admit she loved thinking maybe she WAS an artist.  Years have gone by since I was teaching regularly and I miss the classes so much.  But there ins’t a place any more for an old art teacher-  the conferences are full of technique teachers, people who tell you a formula with what thread to buy and what fabric company is the blackest black and the ‘rules’ according to her.  This is the stuff an artist has to deal with herself by trial and error-  Or should.  It’s only through figuring out how to deal with mistakes to make them work that you attain growth!  And they went out to buy 'Steal Like and Artist' by Austin Kleon

There, I said it.  I’m leaving now to go get away from this fortieth football game of the day.  There must me a good murder on some channel…

                                                        Sandy

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