Advent Calendar 2014
Holiday Leap
Q. Cassetti, 2014
Adobe Illustrator 2014
Christmas will always
be as long as we stand
heart to heart and
hand in hand.
--Dr. Seuss
Delighted that these deer have been accepted by the judges and jury of Illustration West 54, the annual show/competition sponsored by the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles. Thank you to the judges, board and staff of SOILA for their giving me the opportunity to share my work.
On the First Day
Q. Cassetti, 2014, Adobe Illustrator CC 2014
Trumansburg, NY.
This collection of five guys are from my annual (2012) Advent Calendar project, "Gingerbread Advent". They were, just today, accepted into the annual, juried competition that 3x3 Magazine has to celebrate illustration. They were accepted as a group. Hurray and Thank you to 3x3. It is wonderful to know that the freakish stuff that flows out of this brain onto digital paper has some bounce in the real world beyond the happy high (when I get the cogs and gears rolling) that this December project can give me. Double the holiday gifting for this girl. To see who else got in>>
Five Advent Guys from 2012 Advent Calendar project, "Gingerbread Advent", Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator CS%
I have been cutting lots of paper. I am surrounded by little clips of white with black insides, and little clips of matte black with white show. I am trying to be discrete and cut into a box lid--prior to snipping all over my wacom pad and the pile of notebooks and pencils I fear I will somehow run out of. But paper has been an issue. Not too stiff, not to flimsy.
First, I used a rather stiff black through and through paper made by Strathmore. Then, I attempted to cut matte black tissue paper. Wayyy too delicate. Then, I discovered that there was this lovely, origami weight black paper made for school teachers to cut silhouettes of their students. It is flat flat, matte matte and almost seems as if the black side is screenprinted due to the texture, matteness, and purity of the cover. So, I ordered it from Hygloss (a very inspiring teacher's supply catalog and now snip snap snip....I am at it. Why? Well, 1. I need to get on the inspiration train. Something, anything...and it seemed like a good place to start. 2. I can make a ton of like images and make some patterns and little designs that might be good for cards etc...again, priming the inspiration pump. 3. Its me/black and white....it can be manipulated or cleaned up digitallly (if I choose to)... it can be intentionally crude, but can by scanning in as a bitmap, turn it into a workpath and then, into vectors for illustrator where I can have my daily illustrator party with my fun tools..
So, a series of patterns, little buildings and a village is in the works. Little buildings and snowflakes with pine trees for a possible holiday card...who knows. All I know is my cards are selling well, and I should push it a bit to see if more money can be made from this dream spinning I call illustration.
I am churning away on a project I need you to remind me I do not enjoy doing. That's right, theatre work. I used to just not like it, but now I know why. Good thing too. What the deal is with theatre illustrations is that they are not really illustrations but an icon developed of the show that somehow has to capture the vision of the director (which may not be formed as it is so early in the game) the vision of the season, the need to tell the whole compelling talk and talk to all the angst and play between the characters PLUS, it needs to attract an audience, an "aw yes" feeling PLUS it needs to work really small (1" square) to banner size. Point of the spear of any theatrical season. So, it has to do everyting and has to be considered and approved by a panel of people. Spells nightmare for Little Miss Impatience. Plus, if that isn't enough, the pay is substandard (what is new for illustration?). One amendment was to create a head of parts and it was suggested that this head be vomiting. What? Let's try that again? And the very thin line art that I should do detailing each and every character in the play, and then have a huge shadow of another character superimposed on all of this (can you say "has to work in 1"" square)? No, don't think so. And an ole favorite of your friend..."we loved the two ideas...could you just put them together?" I do not do Chinese menu artwork...and if I did, we would have to do a photoshoot with a photographer who will want a chunk of change to make your desire a reality. I love the person I am working for, and love her energy and ideas...but just remind me Q. does not equal Happy when it comes to those things on a stage. Please poke me with a sharp stick if I start nattering on about how maybe this time will be the fun one.... But to refer to my ever optimistic and smart husband, you are getting paid...and it is illustration--so be happy. I need better rose colored lens. Maybe he can lend me his.
Speaking of Dystopic--man, am I digging into a pile of YA Distopic books. Love em. Just am digging through a great one starting with Gregor The Overlander by Suzanne Collins (the same author as the great books and not so great movie, The Hunger Games). One cannot miss with a fun hero (Gregor) and his crazy funny little sister, Boots who has been crowned the Queen of the Cockroaches. Gregor and Boots fall through a grate in the laundry room and end in Underland. The characters are wonderful, dimensional and endearing. The adventures are fun, not too frightening. They are a treat and a great way to leave this plain for flying on the backs of large talking bats, strategic rats, chittering mice, and plodding/kind cockroaches. If you wish to hasten spring along, Gregor and Boots might be the pair to help you on your way.
The Sagamore invitation is done and looks good. Farmers Market is opening this week with an amazing lineup of events and music to complement the food and produce and artwork/crafts with more folks stepping up to volunteer to teach drumming, yoga, or play music. How lucky are we?! Asparaganza was gorgeous! with Melissa's beautiful groomed farm, happy apple trees, nice farm friends demonstrating and having great things to buy to eat! What a gift Good Life Farms brings to all of us beyond the gorgeous Russian Kale and spinach, a dairy share and of course, asparagus!
Jawbreaker
Did you or do you love jawbreakers? I used to. I would walk to and from school and was given a little allowance for making my bed and trying to be nice, and so once a week I would go to the Reynolds Street Market and buy a treat on the way home from school. The Reynolds Street Market was half way home on the longer but more neighborhoody walk home. It was one of those small, dark, neighborhood grocers that popped up next to a beauty salon or a dress shop in the middle of a residential area, offering the full range of food from bunny bread to milk, canned goods, and a butcher case. These grocers all worked on cash at the register and or handwritten bills which allowed a family to charge to their account. Very exotic to my thinking.
Reynolds Street also had a wonderful assortment of candy, penny candy, and promotional candy that whimsically appealed to me (and surprisingly, though I dont like to eat it, to me today for the sheer glory of its decorative quality, its design and packaging, for its humor and promised fun). Whoever was picking out the candy knew their audience--and had us in their thrall with candy cigarettes and pink gum cigars, lollipops and licorice, caramel bulllseyes with a chalky sugar center and turkish taffy which was advertised on teevee --encouraging kids to "smack it" before eating it. How indulgent to have a little change and a load of choices all chocked with sugar, color and artificial flavor. One week it would be fireballs, another would be wax bottles with really gross and artificial syrupy brilliant liquid. Some weeks (around Halloween generally) wax teeth, wax lips and even wax fingernails. At one point, I was crazy into these packs of collectible cards with buttons that had Mad Magazine style illustrations of popular culture things or prepackaged food with a twist. I thought these buttons and cards were the hottest thing...and I, by having them, also was the hottest thing. Did I mention, no one else knew how cool I was? No...because I never shared this with anyone until today, with you.
Now, when it came to jawbreakers, Reynolds Street Market had the small ones in the mode of Fireballs (hot cinnamon jawbreakers), but they also had my favorite, the giant Jawbreaker. This baby was a bit less than 2" in diameter, like a golf ball--and one would hold it and lick it until it got big enough to fit in your mouth. The cool thing beyond it just being a big hunk of sugar was that it was layered in color, so as you ate it...or salivated on it or whatever, the temptation was great to pull it out of your mouth and observe the glory of the color change. Plus, if you are the talent I am, you would either drop it, roll it on your sweater, or gum it up in some way that it would be covered in dirt, hair or sweater wool before popping it back in your mouth. Oh, so lovely.
Now why all this talk about candy? Am I nostalgic for a time gone by? No. Another thing entirely. I subscribe to this wonderful email alert which is the Visual Thesaurus.
The Visual Thesaurus is a remarkable site which introduces new words (never can have enough words, right?) and displays them in a very interesting, visual, diagramatic way... which is inspiring to me from a design standpoint, but also is an interesting place to brainstorm ideas and words (when I am helping someone name a product or service). Love this tool. Great timewaster. However, today was a glorious jawbreaker of a word:
A U T O C H T H O N O U S
Take that! Glorious Autochthonous (ah talk then oos). As the Visual Thesaurus neatly describes:
"No Place Like Home Word of the Day:The adjective native serves many different purposes. Today's adjective autochthonous provides an opportunity to give one meaning of native a rest so you can employ a fifty dollar word in its place. Autochthonous is used to characterize rocks or organisms (including people) that are found in the place where they originated."
Don't you love it. LOVE autochthonous. And, Dictionary.com had a sensational quote that captured it...that somehow prompts me to love folkloric art even more.
"Folk Art grew from below. It was a spontaneous, autochthonous expression of the people, shaped by themselves, pretty much without the benefit of High Culture, to suit their own needs. Mass Culture is imposed from above. It is fabricated by technicians hired by businessmen; its audiences are passive consumers, their participation limited to the choice between buying and not buying.... Folk Art was the people's own institution, their private little garden walled off from the great formal park of their masters' High Culture. But Mass Culture breaks down the wall, integrating the masses into a debased form of High Culture and thus becoming an instrument of political domination. "
Dwight MacDonald (1906–1982), U.S. journalist, critic. "A Theory of Mass Culture," Mass Culture: The Popular Arts in America, eds. B. Rosenberg and D.M. White, Free Press (1959).So there you have it. Whimsy. Candy and a brand new word that means local....native, vernacular. So you can have your local candy and sound smart saying it....Well, you know what I mean.
Off to the salt mines. Lets see if we have something to talk about tomorrow. I hope so.
Glamour Girl, Q. Cassetti 2013, Adobe IllustratorIt was a mild spring day yesterday, but this morning snaps us back into winter on the first of February. All of our mounds of velvety moss had seized up into bright green patches by the side of the house. Shady romped while Mr. White wriggled on the pavement with feline delight. Today we will be running for the radiators and prime spots under the stove. Its frosty and white.
Love Leif Peng. Love Leif Peng’s “Today’s Inspiration” illustration history blog which surfaces people, time, projects, trends of illustration. Leif recently interviewed my mentor, Murray about Herb Lubalin and more broadly, on the ’70s. Take a look. Murray and Leif surface some lovely things and trends highlighting the amazing PushPin Studios along with the work of John Alcorn (wooooooweeee!!)
More pictures of percieved glamour… Here is a vintage Barbie with the half frisbee eyelash shelves, pouty lips and the tiniest pre-surgical nose in the universe. Freakolicious! Isnt she horrifying? Not surprising, even in her updates, she continues to be horrifying though her nose gets a scootch bigger, and her body a bit less atomic…its still pretty unreal. Good thing Barbie never gets old, gets pregnant or has gall bladder surgery. Middle age Barbie goes to the PTA meeting? Colonoscopy Barbie? And its also good that Barbie is independently wealthy, so Barbie working at the Grocery Store or Walmart is out of the question. If she does work, she is a Vet or owner of a candy store…but never a window clerk at the DMV…though I am sure she has some rocking denim studded number that would really make folks sit up and take notice.
Just a little peek at some of the jewelry I am assembling to sell around here. Isnt the cameo sublime?
Scherenschnitte 6, Advent Day One, Q. Cassetti, 2011, pen and ink on watercolor paper “Life is a constant Advent season: we are continually waiting to become, to discover, to complete, to fulfill. Hope, struggle, fear, expectation and fulfillment are all part of our Advent experience.”
—Connections, 11-28-93
Green Man 19, Q. Cassetti 2011, pen and inkKitty got the pleasure of travelling to NYC with Rob today. They will have 2 days and an overnight which is very exciting for both of them. She was all decked in her new look complete with her new “vintage” Dooney and Burke black and brown bag, her new oxfords and black pants, and stripes to complement the whole thing.
I got Alex to his running this a.m. and then back for Jacob. I managed to send the cooked down tomatoes through the food mill and am allowing it to set up and settle before I put it in plastic bags for the freeze. The chicken for Saturday is thawing so I can marinate in advance. Tonight blueberry cakes to be baked. Tomorrow a.m.—flower picking and great bowls of cherry tomatoes for a salad to be made for the crew. I need to buy corn from Rick up the hill as well as cantaloupe and other melons. Thank goodness for the bounty of the wonderful produce we have right now. Makes the entertaining so much more pleasant.
So the prep begins. Alex and I are going to buy nuts and chips, dips and dots, cream cheese and butter, vinegar and dishwashing powder. Bagels will need to be purchased closer to Sunday. I can do a mess of cutting and prepping in advance.
It was a big light show last night waking me up before the thunderboomers rolled down the lake. Weather.com projected the storm to hit Sheldrake at exactly 3:24 a.m. and dang, it did. A bit torrential at times, but leaving us with a damp day. It’s a bit drizzly, so poor Alex may be running in the rain. He was so thoughtful about running in the rain, talking about how he settles into getting used to it and finding pleasure as you warm up in the cool rain. I love how Alex thinks—in a poetic, kind and very centered way. He and I had a nice chat together—and I must admit, I am looking forward to being a pair again with Kitty going back to school. I like us together when he doesn’t have to compete with the high jinx we gals get up to.
Today, I need to wrap up a few sketch projects, do a bit of image research and send some emails. The little Greek Owl to the left is some of the reference I am going to for my little Philomathic owl poster. I have always loved these little guys—their vacant look and all the tremendous detail in the wings and head. Yesterday’s image was the beginning of this little process—so you should see a few of these images before I settle on one. At least 8 of em just to get the look nailed…and giving me the lovely time of drawing with ink on my gorgeous new watercolor book.
I need to get going on making my virtual roladex to share at Sagamore and some writing (I was asked to help write as the requestor likes my “voice”). I cannot imagine anyone liking this shrill voice…but surprisingly, I am getting a handle on what I want to say—so it might not be as hard as I thought initially.
Green Man 13, Q. Cassetti, 2011, pen and ink, colored in Adobe Photoshop CS5He swells with the season, bursting leaves, budding flowers.
May your new year be filled with opportunities, happiness and joy.
May you be one
with your family, friends and environment, allowing each day to pass in a way counts for you.
Peace be with you.
