noodgy

Peach, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator CS5Winter is back with us…after the faux spring forced our forsythia, all our daffodils and the big fat magnolia blossoms to pop. Now we have window shaking winds with wool tee shirts and extra sweaters which would have been ridiculous last week at the same time.

I met with a bunch of local foods people yesterday—our market manager at the Tburg Market, and wonderful Melissa from Good Life Farm. I also had a interesting meeting with members of the Chamber of Commerce—to figure out how the Tburg Farmers Market could figure into the Community Yard Sale (05.12). Thankfully, we got a little thinking about it earlier in the morning so I could be a bit more responsive than my normal dead wood between the ears self. I also had a nice chat with Mary Ellen Salmon, Salmon Pottery about her work, her marketing etc. Mary Ellen does beautifully textured work on simple and elegant forms….with all sorts of texture on texture/ color on color things.  The image below is a detail of a piece she did using buttons to press into the ceramics and then highlighting them with glaze. Pretty! Like little gems, little candies, little magical dreams. So I am charged up.

Detail of a pot from Mary Ellen Salmon, Trumansburg, NYDon’t mind me. I am just feeling a little cranky given all the noodgy people I have given information and direction to more than once who today, requested the same information and duplication of all the stuff I gave em before. I am not chilling on this and frankly wish sometimes, people could hold on, and be a bit more mature than what I am seeing. I am bored with redoing others work and nipping at others heels to get the stuff done I asked for once twice, three times. Tedium times ten. Okay. That’s off my chest. Sorry for that station break.

Today’s illustration breaks some of my rules…and am using gradients for my peach illustration, part of the Farmers market illustrations. There are more in the hopper…some beets, and a fennel illo.

mired in words

Halloween Warmup, Q. Cassetti, 2011, Adobe Illustrator CS5Rob coming back today. Its a dreary, rainy day with golden leaves sparkling in the grey. I am cold….freezing to be exact. I should kick the hearter on…Alex and I had a nice chat about this and that…about funny things at school and the conflict of school play and a XC race. Alarm didnt go off this a.m….so we were rushing around a bit.

I am enjoying drilling into some Halloween imagery—done quickly (new one to the left)— with a crow today…all in one color. Not the most creative, but fun and at least I am doing stuff. I think the creative jangle, the emotional push is somehow related interestingly (for me) with the seasons…and those shoulder seasons can stymie me. I need to pay better attention to this, and have some strategies (maybe working in this vector mode) around how to keep going…and not fall off the illustration train…I must keep learning and doing…so an approach is key.

I just read a wonderful young adult fiction book, Chime by Franny Billingsley. It is a very graphic book both from the storytelling, but also very visual and suggestive. Really good. A new friend is interested in my taking on making some image from this story…which I am stewing on.

I also just finished listening to a really good, really inviting book Inside Scientology by Janet Reitman. I heard a very good interview on a podcast with Janet Reitman. She was so engaging and smart, I downloaded the book from Audible and have been fascinated with all the detail and explanation of this community/ cult/ religion (?)/ tax dodge. The whole world of Scientology from cradle to grave— from their schools, to their hotels and cruise ships, their own military based organization, to Golden Era Productions, their production/film/ design operation is a contained community—with some very odd rules, lifestyle etc. that is based on the writings and thoughts of a science fiction writer. Kooky…but the book is well worth the time as it is so informative and illuminating.  It feels somehow apropos with Scientology in the news these days.

Gloria update: Leaving Lexington KY and getting to Georgetown KY for tonight.

Need to get rolling. Tons of thises and thats piling up.

Together

09.24.2011, Baldwinsville, New York: TBXC Varsity (left to right) Ben Maracle, Alex Cassetti, Cal Randle, Tyler Sutherland, Alex Kenny, Steven Dunn, Kevin VanDeldenWe went up to Baldwinsville yesterday for the annual Bee Ville XC meet. Always a favorite for the team but also as a parent as the course is so beautiful and the anniversary quality that this meet evokes. We have been going to BeeVille since Alex was in seventh grade with the little modified runners, so this being his senior year, we have been able to compare from year to year to measure his growth as an athlete, as an individual and as our boy. How wonderful and bittersweet. Tyler Sutherland was, to use Alex’s phrase “killing it”—bringing home a very good time and finish being the first of the group of varsity runners. The shorter guys in the middle of the shot were the lead dogs in this race. Double excellent as they are sophomores and juniors—so the team has some terrific horsepower for a couple more seasons!  They all seemed to have a jolly time with good results and great comraderie amongst themselves. So, the season is on, the season of brotherly love and friendship, hard races but good times. Sweetness on the edge of frost. The dualities are remarkable.

I guess I was wiped out. We got home and I decided to take a nap as I was winking out on the drive home. And so I did. I napped and then read a junky book. It got darker and darker until it was time to get out of my nest to see if there was another place to plop down. And so I did. Alex came home from a movie date. Rob went to a funeral and was back late…and then it was time to sleep again. I am still wiped out. I am gauging it my my impatience for stuff that normally doesnt drive me crazy, but I can push to the side of my perifery and disengage. I am all loose ends and frazzled. So, instead of attending Porch Fest all day, I think I will catch up with some email, do a bit of reading and maybe close my eyes again. I am just feeling so strung out. I need to get myself back to the point where I do not have to leave the room to prevent a rude outburst on my part or some sort of physical nastiness.

I just finished the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot and enjoyed it immensely despite the sadness of the story and the end result to the family of Mrs. Lacks. I was stunned to read about scientific experiments performed on the poor in recent history—mad scientists gone wild that rivelled some of the antics of the German scientists during WWII. We should be teaching this stuff to our kids…that this sort of inconvievable behavior and treatment of others happened right here in our happy little big island…and not just “over there”. Additionally, it pointed up the import of HIPAA and the rights and privacies we are guaranteed with our medical information and data. However, how are our personal cells and tissue material tracked. Do we have the right to that material and how it is used? or once blood is drawn, or a specimen taken, or birth is given—all of those byproducts we no longer have a right to? Though we are much further ahead than the mid-fifties—there are miles to go to better understand our rights to our own cells and the information they hold about us. One of the big take aways from the HeLa cell book was the gift Mrs Lacks gave (unknown to her, her family) to better mankind— through the truly immortal HeLa cells—was an singular one. Why her family was never notified, were treated badly and stupidly by doctors (all horrible communicators and frankly thoughtless people), and were unable to be treated or helped medically as they could not even afford health insurance while big Pharma made money (millions) due to the work they had done with their mother’s cell. This is just wrong all around.

I loved The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks so much, that I am now on a path for more of that sort of reading. I have The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. This book started as a blog or diary of a young doctor and his fellowship focusing on oncology. From that pretext, Dr. Mukherjee begins to simply tell the story of cancer to laymen. I have just started but am engaged and intrigued by the elegant way the writer is peeling away the complexity of the ideas—and making them pristine and memorable. He presents cancer as a character—the hero and villain—a character of great stealth, dimension and scope. I am looking foward to diving into this.

I am beginning to get more than stupid right now. I hear the siren song of my pillow.

Joyful Journey

From the British Museum, Q. Cassetti, 2009Raining and cold here. Loving it. Its that lovely rain that makes your skin feel fabulous….light and misty. The plants love it too. More great grass growing mist.

I have a happy elephant for you today…gleefully carrying his riders bedecked in bells, tassels and decorations. I think he is a good reason to get out of bed and think good thoughts today. If only we all could bring such happiness to our journey everyday. May this fellow inspire and encourage us all!

Today is “John Hancock” day at the  High School. John Hancock refers to one’s signature (as in Yearbook)— so the day is celebrated with Yearbooks, special lunches, music and fun. This is the day long funday before the tests begin. Oy. The end is near. I am hoping Alex can get some focus and hit his stride in the next week or so. Never compare. Each child is different and the puzzle I find, is getting into each child’s motivations and strengths to push and shove to get the best, get the happiness for each person. This is the true work…beyond potty training but part of the process with these gifts we are presented with. I know Alex struggles with me too, but recently we have had some very nice, very soft and meaningful times together. I would love to have more of that. He is such a sweet and tender person.

I am revelling in my Behance Prosite. I do not think its a stand alone, but is a nice extra to all the other visual networking out there, and is easy to link to all the other network “fingers” I have out there (Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Blog, portfolio). The smooth thing is that the projects that I post to Behance then streams over to the Prosite, where they are organized along with other pages you can post, links etc.that takes the work out further, looking more like a portfolio. Plus, with the easy to use tools, its a snap to put up with customizable features (posting headers, adding spaces and rules) along with the ease of posting visual work makes the $99. a year an easy choice to make. Take a look if you are website free…as this is a simple and inexpensive way to get a web presence that is immediately linked not only to a big audience through Behance but also  to your personal online communities.

Meeting starting in 12 minutes. Need to get my act in gear.

Spring Bouquet

Weekend flowers, Q. Cassetti, 2011Nice weekend. We started the time with  our inaugural fun at Sweet Land CSA’s first pick up. It was so fun, so much more than I expected…from the lovely food you could pick from to the amazing farmers with wit, wisdom and insight…to the offerings from luscious yellow beets, to leeks, to mint and basil along with all you can pick batchlor buttons and 2 pink peonies. There were tons of different greens, mint, oregano and basil by the long stalk. I have seen the summer and I am delighted. Today made pesto, mint lemon syrup, a leek and carrot soup, sauteed kale and prepped the lettuce for salad tomorrow. I will post pictures to inspire you of the CSA barn, with friendly chalk board instructions, clean blue totes holding all he produce offerings, from the limited selections to the “have at it”. There is an egg share (which we are doing) as well as Stefan Senders Wide Awake Bakery share too.

There were all sorts of my favorite Tburgers there with children milling about or in the sandbox/playground. It is the best. I am so psyched.

Friday night and Saturday night Kitty danced. We had friends of Kitty and Alex at the lake—with all sorts of hanging out. Fun and very restful. I read a trashy book and “chilled” with Alex and Kitty. Saturday afternoon after dropping Alex and friend off to practice music, Kitty and I went to Trader K’s to have her try on evening dresses for a formal event. It was tons of fun with Kitty finally picking a bubblegum pink, barbie number complete with a boned corset style bodice. She looks remarkable (pictures to come). Lotsa laughs along with visiting Petrune for glamour and inspiration.

Alex is off singing tonight with the Community Chorus. We had some pretty enlightening conversation about music, jazz, his enjoyment of the singing lessons he is taking, chord progression and the things he is discovering and loving. He is an adorable guy that I cherish spending time with. I am so lucky. His insights and solid grasp on those things he loves never ceases to inspire and please me.

Need to log off. Drawing ahead.

Midweek fun

Lubok Cat from Sketchbook 2 2010, Q. Cassetti, sharpies.Making a slide show and decided during the image search to just start “riffing” like an illustrator and put things together that go together that communicate speed, internet, movement, connection, biology, micro biology, data, words….and its beginning to flow a bit better. The minute I stopped focusing on this and actually thinking versus feeling, this show starting moving and happening. Its just hard to let your brain go limp and go with the gut…but when it does, Wow. Am up to 80 slides and counting. I am at least feeling like I am not swimming in cement. So I have a flow, color, images, shapes. The next question is sound…Alex recommended LCD Soundsystem’s Beat Connection. I have a few alternatives (including the old Art of Noise Daft Album).

Nice meeting with the cuties in Yearbook. I am always surprised to see who is going to do something interesting, say something engaging or have an original idea. Our foreign exchange student from the Czech Republic is a sleeper as his mom is a  book designer and he already knows how to thumbnail a publication. Imagine!

Tomorrow, the boys have off. Rob may look for another dishwasher (ours cleans but everything is chalky and cakey when done…leaving the plates etc all kind of gross). Alex needs to do some planning around SATs and his tutorials. There is Christmas for me to finalize. And beds to make…and all that domestic stuff that is piling up. I feel so inadequate. So a little time this weekend to tape and tuck, box and bag, list and respond would be great. I am missing help on the house side of things along with my backstop here in the office. I need to do something as I am getting into a tailspin on all that is falling behind….

I need to get half of Thanksgiving in the freezer soon. This weekend, I think I will do some baking and buying. I am not going to be super proud but will rely on some frozen veggies and pre-prepping in advance…so Thursday doesn’t become horrific.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Pourhouse here in Tburg. As you know, we are great supporters and are so sad that this valuable institution will close but management needs to get her life at home in order (and as a mom, it’s really a non-returnable serve). The Pourhouse has provided us numerous wonderful evenings as the town center to meet friends, make new friends and connections, hear some wonderful music and be able to walk to and from home. How great is that? We will see the Pourhouse Team after the physical place has gone, but the conviviality of the moment will be gone…a sparkling moment in time and an inspiration to us all. A gift of community, a place for us to share, connect and meet up. The generosity of the owner and all that she has given us cannot be fully appreciated…the gift of time, people and a place where magic happens.