Hive in My Heart, Q. Cassetti, 2010, mixed mediaLast night we had a rocking thunderstorm. I am happy for it as everything was beginning to dry up…the thick thatches of grass, my little apple trees, the monster monarda that has taken over a part of the yard (thrilled about that). In that vein, I treated myself to a few more tree peonies to plant this fall—as this plant is so much of a thrill when they flower in an outrageous way, a better than Disney explosion and then settle down and become a pretty leafy bush for the other 51 weeks of the year. Our herbaceous peonies are starting to open…and the deer have not devoured them unlike half the hosta I have. Urg.
I have recolored some of the bee work and found that a bit of image editing (in this case adding, in yesterdays case, subracting) have helped the pictures. I am on the Zydeco piece and am redrawing it (having rediscovered my love for the Pitt Pen…particularly the jumbo one). Am musing about a style I was beginning to work with during the week of Ted and Betsy Lewin at Hartford and may do a small body of work using this to gain a bit more confidence and familiarity before coming back to the bees. I used it once on a job for a client…and they loved it…so an alternative (can you do a portrait, an animal, a type combo, a this a that ) might be nice to have. I find that these sidebar explorations are deriving somewhat from the discipline instilled in me from high school and college training with Arnold Bank, a mentor and extraordinary teacher and calligrapher. He taught visual people to think, but to develop their hand skills and eye with those skills through a prescribed series of requirements when one was learning a particular “hand” or hand lettering style. In order to master these hands. one had to do a small, medium and large flat piece working in text, headline and caption sizes using the plain letters and some embellished. Additionally, one had to do a small book (hand lettering at least four pages of text). I find that sort of slop over…(can I do a portrait? can I do an animal? Can I do something with type) that same approach to forge confidence in that particular “hand” or style of illustration. The more I tune what I do within the context of a body of work (at least 6 pieces), I can move to the next project or idea. This training from Hartford for the final thesis was such a valuable experience.
Ithaca Festival is today as is the Senior Dessert (no dinner so I am Providing) Dance. Alex is going with one of Kittys friends. Kitty is taking an old friend, Thea. And another couple makes up our party. Must go.