Sundae on Monday

Sundae Brooch by Q. Cassetti, 2013 available on EtsyIts been a while. A busy while, nonetheless… Let me think about the news, the new ideas, the state of the state. The Federation of Farmers Market meeting was very nice and homespun. I liked meeting and seeing the range of people, their engagement, and the vitality in the room.  It wasn’t a huge group, but lots of interest in all that was said. I had the pleasure of meeting the Executive Director of the Niagara Frontier Growers Market and the President of the Board of the Ithaca Farmers Market. The takeaway from that experience as that we should absolutely embrace the dynamics of a small market and truly own it, build into it…and keep it the personal experience that it is today. Bigger is okay, but not for our little community. What we can do for our community is provide a gathering space around food, eating and locally made objects.. We can provide a platform for local music, local performers, local arts. We can provide a neighborhood approach to “why not” type of entertainment and gathering from dish to pass suppers, to fundraising auctions, to the craziness of my friend Deb’s Soap Box Derby. We can revel in Local, Locavore, and in each other. We can use the farmers market to create new bonds beyond the church, the schools, and the community groups. We can continue to weave those ribbons of connection between people…to build and support each other. This is something we do well here in our little Village…and if we are deliberate about this activity, think of the strength we ill all have in each other.

I was prodded to join the Chamber of Commerce. Kicking and complaining…saying no…no…no…and then, surprisingly, I attended and am enchanted. It was such a bright group of action oriented people that being at the table to represent the Farmers Market was a pleasure. The Chamber and the Market both have literature distribution issues, so we are going to create a job and share the expenses etc. There you go! Reason one to go to the Chamber, share the wealth and get stuff done. So, more on that.

We had a very engaging Farmers Market meeting last week. The librarian at the Middle School attended and spoke about partnering with us to do some programming with him around a Middle School “read” to a community read…The book is SeedFolks…and it is about the power of planting to help draw people and communities together. Of course, we are on it…and interestingly, after an email to a variety of community groups, we have traction with them. So, we are going to meet this week to get this thing rolling. The day one of this activity is April 26 to roll through a month, so there is not a ton of time, but it should be fun to see what can happen. It was very rewarding to make a few calls and write an email or two and see the energy that is being put towards this thing. Not much more than that, but should be very cool to see what happens. I am feeling this.

Off topic entirely, Squarespace (the entity I author this blog with) has a site for visual people to create more visually inspired pages (Squarespace 6) along with a way to post retail pages /create a store which is linked to Stripe (a company that can do the financial transactions). Lets just put it this way, my mind is a whirl on this.

Kitty is home for Spring Break. It is great to have time with her. I taught her how to needlepoint yesterday and gave her a kit which I must admit, given how she is absolutely voracious…it will be done before the week is out. This is a great thing as with all the bus travelling she does, this will keep her hands busy during that down time. She had a group over last night to eat snack food and celebrate the Saint who chased snakes out of Ireland….I wonder if he wore green loafers much like the pope?

Sugar Coated Advent 2012: Day One

Sugar Coated Advent 2012, Day One, Q. Cassetti 2012Well, its that time of year…and as I have been silent and bumbling around all year trying like hell to get a groove on, keeping on trying, keeping on reading, keeping on waiting to no result. However, after stuffing myself with Kawaii, decoden, Japanese Yokai tales, and making these tiny little  pins that have gone from little studies to outright psychodelia that are being sold now in soon to be two retail establishments— I am now ready to plunge back into the world of letting my illustration push me around a bit. I am pleased to say, that I have found my groove and it is in this candy coated advent calendar journey we will be taking together this month.

I must admit that the original intent of this project was to focus strictly on gingerbread houses—but as I have been working with this concept, I am finding it morphing into something else which I am just going to go with. We will keep the candy keep the pattern, keep the holiday themes but I am going to see where it goes.. There will be gingerbread houses and fantasy. There will be gingerbread men and ladies—but why limit it as the palette can become tedious and germanically tedious/ponderous. I hit a patch yesterday that had me silently squealing with delight and am in a race to find more time to whale on it. Lets just say, 25 days to jump start next year! Yippee!

Butterfly

Butterfly Flash, Norman Collins aka Sailor JerryIt has been mega fly time at the lake. When we get to the house in the evening, there they all are, clustered at the windows banging to be let out, or dead in groups on tabletops, corners and the floor. It is weird doings and I cannot fathom why this moment for the flies to gather here, chez moi. It most definitely could be something agricultural—as the Luckystone is near open fields and vineyards. But why now and why in general?

“Good work isn’t cheap. Cheap work isn’t good.” Sailor Jerry

I have been trying to learn about Norman Collins, tattooist going by the moniker, Sailor Jerry. The interweaving of Sailor Jerry’s life, art, local and the rise and legalization of tattooing is taking me on a wild ride from blogs to websites to tattoo shops. The history is intriguing as is the source of the imagery—but to me Norman Collins steady and sure hand, his drawing rocks my world. This untrained guy—a sailor, musician, poet and tattooist, was remarkable when it comes to simplifying an image, making a limited palette work, and then sheer good design skills. A rose is a confident series of lines that is complemented with solid color leaving the highlights white without blend or gradation. However, as in the woman’s head I posted yesterday, look at the deliberate use of gradient/tone around her eyes to really take something simple and really sex it up. The eye gradient makes the tattoo. His interest and relationships with master Japanese tattoo artists peeks through his work. One can see bits of Utimaro and the brevity of line and tone work right there in his flash .

I am also surprised to find out that tattooing became legal in 1997. Look at the mad popularity that expanded after that date. Hmmm.

more musing later.

On to the next

Prom goers, 2012On to the week. Prom, as usual was great. The kids were excited and glamorous—with all of us drab stringers, happily snapping pictures and wishing them well. From our report, it was the best prom ever…loving the dining out, loving the limo ride, loving the picture taking. The girls were beautiful with Kyra in purple and Elly in gold. Kyra had a wonderful hair design with feathers. Elly posed with her hawk who thankfully wasnt grumpy—just confused with who this glittering creature was that came to get him.

Alex and Sevi were gentlemen (with a little reminding)… and all was good. We went to the Rongo to hear Long John and the Tights and mix it up with our friends from around here…old time music afficiandos who turn out for LJ and Tights. A quiet weekend for all of us. Just some shopping, some groceries and a nice chance to just be in the moment.

This week promises all sorts of things from work and project completion to Farmers Market needle moving. There is hope to do a project with the Farmers Market and the community build this summer at Grassroots, so I need to honcho this…or get some help with someone else honchoing it…Perhaps a glorious, eccentric Market Manager office with a bulletin board, a place to hold a Gott cooler for water, a clock, a brochure rack, and a place to sell our bags and do the food stamp/chit exchange. I want it to be really fun and perhaps be a campanile with awnings? a two storied lemonade stand? I want weathervanes and whirlie gigs. You get the idea. Now, I just need to muscle the people to make it happen. Time is awasting.

Had a good chat with Kitty. She is in the throes of final projects— and she is busy signing up for classes for next semester, and putting her plans in place for the summer. She will be with us mid May until the end. And then she has May> August in NYC to study sewing, draping and pattern design at FIT with her weekends working for the Governor’s Island installation of the Hot Glass Show with the Museum of Glass. This will be really electric for her…and then she starts mid August for a few weeks to help catalog costumes at Smith College with her wonderful teacher. All in all, reinforcing her path of costume design…and I think it will be a remarkable time of learning and growing.

As you know, Alex is to be Ike Skidmore in Oklahoma along with piano lessons and working for me doing social networking and brochure distribution for the Farmers Market. It is going to be a fast slide from the end of school to the beginning of college.  And, as I have not mentioned it, Alex has chosen Hofstra as his college. He got into every school he applied to…and with the knowledge of his learning issues combined with his desire to delve into music composition as soon as possible, Hofstra will give him that along with access to the city, access to prime internships, and a supportive learning environment. I think it will be great.

On to the paying work.

Hairhoppers

Hairhopper four, Q. Cassetti, 2012, pen and ink.To Marina (excerpt)

by Kenneth Koch

Let’s take a walk
Into the world
Where if our shoes get white
With snow, is it snow, Marina,
Is it snow or light?
Let’s take a walk

Every detail is everything in its place (Aristotle). Literature is a cup 
And we are the malted. The time is a glass. A June bug comes
And a carpenter spits on a plane, the flowers ruffle ear rings.
I am so dumb-looking. And you are so beautiful.

from “To Marina” by Kenneth Koch, from The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch. © Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. from the Writers Almanac (01.12.2012)

Isnt that lovely? I was stunned this morning listening and actually hearing the poem versus Garrison Keillor’s delivery and voice. I am thinking of snow, of course, with many schools in the “2 hr. delay” area of the state, kicking into full 2 hour delays. They are talking snow for us tonight, and tomorrow though for Rob’s sake and his travels, I hope it isnt too horrendous as he has many miles to go. I am ready for the white stuff.

I am ready to settle in with my pens and focus on my new body of work (yes, I have a direction for another 30 or so pix…), “Hairhopper”. Its about hair. Its about line. Its about hair becoming other stuff. Its about hair assuming other roles. Its about hair engaging in environments. its all about line, line and line. Its quick and inspired by the Madhubani work last year around this time. I am not limiting it to be just scans but I can monkey in photoshop/illustrator to work reverses into the mix (like the piece that got into Society of Illustrators LA) but to keep the work in general linear. Rob was very insightful in suggesting I work with this a bit more as this is a technique that is made for children’s books, their stories and it is quick enough that I could really have a run at that. I used to love linear books…black and white, maybe a single color (Lorraine Fox was the queen of that approach)— and settle in to lok at the detail of the images presented.  Maybe the fast pace of the little electronokids today is different…but when you are dealing in the imaginary, time is a different thing.

The holiday break student staffing is winding down. Gotta get a few things done with them tomorrow to make sure we use up the time. Tucker did something interesting. He decided he wanted to scare off the deer and did some research to do things that are nonevasive and are without a shotgun. What he discovered is if you put Milorganite on deer pathes, they will not come back as they hate the scent of the stuff. Milorganite is a fertilizer so its not going to hurt anything…and if it works, between this stuff and the little buzzers he discovered, we might be able to keep the deer on their side of the property and not in my hosta and peonies next summer. Wouldn’t that be a gift? They were staying away today. We will see tomorrow. If the winter team could lick the deer varmit problem…how remarkable that would be.

Need to go. Night is on us.

Detail galore

Walled City, Q. Cassetti, 2012,pen and inkYesterday was a day of brewing vegetables. Alex went off to ski—and I started chopping. All sorts of bits and stuff from the vegetable drawer from the ends of parsley to peelings of parsnips to a small frozen bag of cherry tomatoes from the summer went into the pot after roasting with carrots, turnips, celery root, ends of leeks, scallions having frozen in the drawer and onions. It smelled great roasting…and then into the pot with tons of water to let it infuse into a lovely and majorly tasty vegetable stock. I did it! The key is in the roasting—per the boneyard, and not overdoing it with water in the infusion. Keep it less…so the broth takes on all the flavor in a more concentrated way. Fabulous.

Also in the spirit of emptying the fridge, I made a double of carrot soup (frozen already),  cooked and peeled 3 gigantic beets (ready for a salad) and a double of the wonderful King Arthur Baking Cookbook’s make now/later pizza crust for dinner. I have a double of split pea soup in the slow cooker…so we are set for soup and soup this week for lunches.

Am reading a very evocative and visual book referred to by one reviewer as a “pop culture cocktail” which it definitively is:

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel (Vintage International) by Haruki Murakami.

I cannot even begin to describe the dreaminess, odd juxtapostions and images that Murakami introduces into this gift which transports me to this alternative space during those quiet moments when I can revv up the IPad to dive in. If you can handle science fiction/ alternative fiction ( I have friends who cannot go there) but if you can…I highly recommend this book and author. It is so exciting to have  new author I can whip through this season. Dreamy.

Okay: Resource idea of the day: Skazkodrom.com

Skazkodrom – is your one stop workshop for unique custom made plush toys. We sew customized soft toys based on your photos, images or prototypes.

For those of you scribblers who have a character or two in your pen, this is an opportunity for you. This is a Russian prototyping company that will take your sketch and develop a stuffed character toy for you to show possible  clients, to show in licensing presentations, or to honor someone for a special birthday. Think about being 7 years old and having your drawing of a favorite pet or invisible friend that you have drawn, turned into something you can hug. What we would have done 20 yrs. ago for this type of prototyping when I was at Estee Lauder. No end to fun. Its not free, but its concievable pricewise ($250.) and takes the better part of 2 weeks to sew.

Gotta get hopping.

Advent Day Twenty Two, 2011

Advent Day Twenty Two, Q. Cassetti, 2011, pen and ink.Kitty is back with us to our happiness. She looks great, acts great and has her wits and act together. She has had the flu, so hopefully the time during her break will get her back to full steam ahead. She is all about costume design and vacillates between talking about the historical accuracy and that of sketchbooks and the work involved to make these dreams reality.

It is curious to me as this aspect of people working really really hard, and no one (meaning teachers) giving the student praise for the work is dumbfounding to Kitty. No one praises the student for doing the work—or not doing the work— Its the end result— right? When the character is on stage, in costume, performing…one doesnt think about the hours, the budget, the planning. One thinks of the reality of the moment, the aspect of time suspended—-the believablity of the story and character. That is true with what we do. It is not the hours of study, residencies and practice that we go to the doctor for, but his excellence, his knowledge base, his expertise, his assurance. When we get a carrot from a farmer, we do not think about the hours of planning, preparing, plowing, sowing and cleaning that goes into his job. We focus on the perfection, the tastiness of the carrot assuming (if we even think about it) that all of that effort and time went into the preparing and growing of this vegetable. I think this whole shock of the value of time and effort is a good part of Kitty’s second education, the one beyond the books, tests and projects. The reality part of her education which it seems she is getting a good dose of. Hard work is only recognized by those working hard…and not those who just see the end of the process. It is the journey that is the hard part…not the final goal. That is the shining part that the world remembers while we focus on the path, the work, the time—and the continual education and skill building along that route.

Speaking of skill building, I am feeling pretty smart as I did some technical problem-solving this morning and have the things that were driving me nuts yesterday solved and moving forward. As one faux techie to another, I do not know what I would do without the web and the amazing resources there to help us solve these maddening issues with bits and bytes, electricity and usb ports. If you just peck away you can really find your answer or ten out the in the wild cyberworld.

The day is racing away. I have grabbed some wonderful details from the Liber Floridus (per my last entry) just to share with you the wonder of this book.

 

More miracles

Portrait in progress, step one, Q. Cassetti, 2011, Adobe Illustrator CS5

I have two portraits to do by the end of September. I got a crack at one of them yesterday and delighted in creating the silhouette and beginning to digitally cut the highlights out of that shape. I hope the mid tones and darks will go in today. I am always, without a doubt, nervous when I square up the paper and start these thing—asking myself if I can do it this time…as I rarely have much confidence in the reference combined with shaky personal confidence. Just picking up the pen, taking a deep breath and then the focused chipping away often checking every decision takes the time. When I have a half dozen highlights in, I know this is going to work or not….and my optimism can rise. Its a nice charge to drive the work forward. Then, I give myself a little permission to go a bit rogue with some manufactured highlights and shadows. I am optimistic I can give my client a pair of portraits that will work complete with working a hand with a smoking pipe into one of them as the pipe was so iconic with this particular artist.

Have you heard about Wacom’s newest offering, the Inkling? I discovered this wonder yesterday and currently I am transfixed and cannot wait until mid September. The Inkling is essentially, a ballpoint pen that records your hand drawing and transfers that work to digital. You use their pen, and your own notebook. I am wondering how it translates your drawing to make it better than a high res scan. Its too cool…but now that I think about it…unless it saves it to vectors or layers or provides me more than a scan, I am trying to figure out whether this is more of a toy than a real work tool. Maybe if there is a chance today, I will do a little reading on this.

From EverythingUSB.com:

“Finally this fantastic pen interface technology has made it to where it belongs, Wacom Inkling Smart Pen. The Inkling Smart Pen is a 2 part device that transfers handwriting strokes to a digital format. The technology is quite clever and extremely energy efficient which is what gives it such great potential. The base unit uses 2 microphones that give it the sound version of stereoscopic ‘vision’, allowing it to hear where the pen is moving.The pen emits a completely inaudible pulse helping the base unit track location and pen pressure. The datagrams on these coordinates are tiny allowing for cheap storage of many pages. The pen is normal sized thanks to only needing to make its silent ping while the base unit listens and records. Other competitors in the space require a hot-dog sized pen to hold all the electronics. Some of those require special paper as well, where none is needed by the Inkling.

The touch of a button on the base tells the device to start using storing the pen strokes in a different ‘page’ and it can store dozens if not hundreds of pages. An internal battery in the base is recharged by USB and the pen only needs inexpensive watch batteries. This technology has been hopping from company to company for some time now, A-open and IOGear to name a few. Both have products based on this technology but no one does pens like Wacom. We’re looking forward to see how much they’ve improved upon it while unfortunately upping the prior incarnation’s MSRP. Wacoms plan to release the Inkling Smart Pen at $199 later this year. Being able to import directly into Illustrator is probably worth double that for any serious artists.”

OH MY. v e c t o r

I wonder if one will be enough!

It was study hall yesterday at the office. It just dawned on Alex that maybe, just maybe he needed to get to work on the paper he has due next week for his environmental science class. This has a lot of research and processing of information which my son thought he could dash off….NOT. So, I made him sit with me all day to work on this paper. Unfortunately, he is busy counting words versus focusing on truly delivering on the paper’s content and requirements. I think I am going to throw the role of the heavy to Rob as I am making him sit and focus. I hope there is more we will learn about Alex from the testing we will be starting in a week or so. He just focuses on the oddest things and doesn’t really understand where he should be tracking. If I can talk him through, sometimes it hits. Sometimes he is there with me. More study hall today.

I have a meeting in a few and need to get the already foley-ed tomato sauce on the stove to simmer for a few hours to get the water out. I am a sauce making machine. I feel like there may be a few more pots out there. Loving it.

Running at it.

Green Man 18, Q. Cassetti, 2011, pen and inkIt is the beginning of week two—without the major computer in full function. So, I am making due with the powerbook and hoping after Baka picks up the tower of power, I can be fully operational by the end of the week. They are taking it off with them—to run diagnostics—but there might be some hard drive issues that the nice guy on the phone alluded to. Jeez. But, in the tradition of trying to make things work better, I am going to get into a quarterly review of our network, the cpus, back ups etc. with a professional (Baka) and see if we can smooth things out so the guano doesnt hit the fan as amazingly as it does when my system goes south. I find this all so tedious and tortured, I hope I can get into thinking more of my network and digital tools when they are happy and healthy, versus just on the verge of death on a regular basis. Why is it that the most obvious things never seem obvious to me?

We had a quiet day yesterday. I made some tomato sauce from scratch and a gigantic pot of Recycled soup. Bruce came over and we talked about the up and coming CMU Fest this coming weekend— trying to figure out who is coming and where we are going to put them to sleep. I put up a FB event just to plumb for engagement—and we will see if we can rouse the troops this way. We will see.

Kitty is off to her job. Alex is hanging out with Ellie. The boys are off the Unitarian Church $.10 sale. I have a publication to layout—and get some files going on some promotional materials. I am revelling in a new sketchbook (Moleskine A4 watercolor/bound on the top). The blacks are so darned luscious, I could lick the page. So so cool It could only be better if the paper was hotpress with no texture whatsoever. But, hey…its bound, and I cannot be that picky.

I really must go.