Blistering hot here. "They" have been promising us rain...darn it...and nary a drop. It seems to sail north of us to drench all towns above the NYS thruway...but not us. So, more watering of the big bushy purple baskets and my hot pink and magenta geraniums. The hardy perenials somehow enjoy the hardship, but our annuals wilt and cry. The nicotiana is gorgous. I forgot how much I love that plant. There is hope there will be a trip to Agway for all sorts of goodies today so I can touch the plants and dream. Remember, dream is the watch word.
Sheldrake is at least 5 degrees cooler.Due to the lack of rain, the grass has slowed its growing...and the breezes are welcome. The water is too cold but I threw pinecones in for Shady and she stealthily went in and got her legs wet. She stopped panting for about an hour as it lowered her core temperature a bit.
Speaking of Dreams, I think I have the dream project in hand. After a fun two hours or so of looking about the web at stuff and trolling the recesses of my small brain, I think I have settled on a historic person, someone that will not surprise you...but maybe the manifestation of the pictures might amuse...Marie Antoinette is my person...and the 6 pictures will be done in different approaches--but very decorative. The six are: Marie Antoinette/her hair, the hands and the rose (loose and tight--vector style), Marie Antoinette/ Party Girl (her shoes--decorative/tons of patterns, The royal barnyard (Petit Trianon, raising sheep and cows...the whole fiddle dee dee, Wheeeee, I am so back to basics) featuring either a cow or sheep, "Let them eat Cake" --you can guess what that is about (inspired by the wonderful pictures of Wayne Thiebault), and the last picture which will be the last girl at the dance...or the end shot...wig on wigstand, little death references... I plan on using roses and fleur de lis in all of the images. Palette will be a candy coated selection inspired by the colors at court..(lemon yellow, peach, pink, salmon, a dirty light blue, lilac, grey, beige..saaaaaaweeeeeeeeet). We have bows and fabric..lots of luscious stuff. We have the 1700s version of Paris Hilton, equally bright, equally ill directed, equally up front and center. Only, she had more money, and I think, maybe a better fantasy life. After all, Paris Hilton may have a TV show about her "new best friend" but MA had dictated friends (her personal court), had factories and designers devoted to making anything she would desire (like Sevres milk buckets for her fantasy country life and farm at Le Petit Trianon). Interestingly, this might be a better comparison that I originally thought as both girlies had the eye of the press on them and the eye of the "people" on them sickly fascinated and repelled by their antics at the same time. Hmm. I need to think about the juxtapostion of these ladies as there might be some hooks or at least personal amusement there.
Approach is light and fun. Lots of patterns and detail. Whimsy? This will be a progression into a group of images unlike Memento Mori or the strong vector work from syracuse. Funny, as it comes off my hand, it will resemble those images...its more futzing with other aspects of illustration (like color and pattern) that will be hard but good to dive into. I could blow this into a thesis...or just stop at this...and do something else. Even the children's book could be a thesis...I am mulling over the color book idea and am still pretty excited about it. I even sketched out the idea with Erich and he thought it held together. We'll see.