Some of the pictures of the local fungi right on our property. There were puffballs and little strandy things that I think would evolve into the frilly mushroom shown first. The tall mushroom my friend, Steve claims is some sort of shaggy mushroom one can eat. The yellow mushroom was electric yellow...brilliant color, the kind that shouts. Steve recommends definitely not even think of eating that! No kidding! It was cool and humid going to warm and damp..the kind of weather that makes your skin feel good...and helps the mushrooms to grow and grow until the lawnmower finds them. More antics with buckeyes and pinecones with brave Shady. Pumpkin pictures for CMoG for their 2300 degrees even. You will get a dose. Will look about tomorrow for more.
To come up with a good idea, you need a lot of ideas.
I just discovered this cool new online product that looks like a toy we might have to try out. Go to Visual Thesaurus. It is a crazy cool way to wordmap your way into new names (for products, companies etc.) plus (they don't say this) have a pretty entertaining time of it. Kind of "Six Degrees of Separation". Was working on my bird paper and learned a lot about the symbology of eagles, ravens, chickens and doves. I was thinking of playing it out further in the paper, but just with eagles alone, I hit a veritable jackpot--and could actually write the paper just on that topic. Phew! Eagles are all over the place with Garuda, the Hindu/Buddist God, with John the Evangelist represented by an eagle to the Greeks using an eagle linking with Jupiter--representing the god of moral law and order, protector of suppliants and punisher of the guilty. The eagle was the symbol of their Supreme Being. Okay. Now we have the big God involved, do we need to go any further?
I do like this stuff:
For the Central Asian Turks, the eagle was regarded as a holy bird, a protective spirit and the guardian of heaven. It was a symbol of potency and fertility. Eagles on tombstones reflected the Shamanistic belief that the souls of the dead rose up to Heaven in the form of birds or were accompanied and protected by the eagle while traveling in the underworld and the sky. Eagle also was believed to be a carrier of prayers to the sky.
Carriers of prayers, guides to heaven. Love it.
Then we have all the American power and glory stuff. Learned this:
Since June 20, 1782 The Bald Eagle was adopted as the national emblem of the United States.
Pretty new on the scene for a symbol, that is. But on everything from pudding mixes to our money...with tanks and federal buildings and lunar landers, eagles are american personified.
I surfed around and learned a lot about Ravens. Yep, they are pals with Saint Benedict and the Norse myths have quite a few, but to my delight, the Inuit have the raven as a big god--a trickster god--who has all sorts of amusing, almost fable type stories about him.
So, I did run into some inuit art...
Attached is:
Curious Owl
Mikkigak, Oqutaq
Cape Dorset, 2003
Stonecut/ Stencil
The quote/entry headline is from Linus Pauling, Nobel Prize Winner, Chemistry.
keep 'em coming
Too much liberal talk radio will make a girl act out...even if it's in the privacy of her own blog. As to speaking out, even though speaking discreetly bespeaks a lack of patriotism...so be it. This is a work in progress. Will keep you abreast of the doings...as you are well aware.
more fall
Michael Bergt show at the Arnot Art Museum is a beauty. I recommend you go...see the work, the paintings, the drawings,and the sculpture. John O'Hearn and Michael started the exhibit in 1979 with Michael's watercolors through to the current work...showing threads of ideas, techniques and thinking. Michael works in egg tempera--and seeing his sure hand at work up close is quite extrodinary--so tight and so beautifully rendered...almost like looking at engravings. He has recently done a poster for the Santa fe (I think) opera that he strongly reference Islamic manuscripts (and Sienese painting) in it's layout, color, design and construction that is a new direction both John O'Hearn and I are anxious to see go somewhere. Michael is the genuine thing...and someone we should expect to see more and wonderful things in the second half of his career.
You can see more of Michael's work at the John Pence Gallery.
The Arnot restaged a lot of work in the other galleries to make room for Michael's show. The curating of the work is wonderful, inspiring and the juxtaposition of the work has humor and charm. Worth visiting to get a new perspective of portraits, realism and landscapes.
Grey stuff here. Twinkles of red in the trees. Am working on another eagle... we'll see!
they're here!
As you all know, it has been dreary, grey, humid and coolish recently. Do you know that weather is rolling out that meteological red carpet for mushrooms. Camp Street is a wooded street with lots of dead trees and branches which also is a beacon for these wonderful fungi. It is all misty and cool but warm/humid...filled with opportunity for things like spores and sprouts, mosses and mushrooms. Kind of fairyland in a not cute way.
Lots of seventh grade excitement with A. possibly being moved into the uppergrade jazz chorus and the "mens" acapella group (they are tres cool!). K. is anxiously anticipating the homecoming football game with her marching with the sit down band playing and carrying her big bass clarinet. Big dance afterwards. Its a whirl until about midnight. Who knows what the weekend will bring.
Buckeyes
The Ispot volunteered to look at my listing and give me a critique on what was working and what wasn't. I got this great document yesterday with all sorts of good input relative to changing keywords, changing out images etc. It was very helpful...let's see if anything comes of it. You can check it out at the ispot. Need to jump on the holidays...am feeling rather lax..and need to whale on a bunch of extras. Went to the Ispot and downloaded a bunch of stock holiday images as options to my stuff. I don't know if any of this will make them happy. Rather grey day. In the sixties. Was listening to Devo this morning just like it was yesterday. Wasn't it?
FreeRange dudes full of beans and plans. Talking to a bunch of "state store" type states about carrying them. Pennsylvania's inital order shipping. Possibly pressplay in Boston soon (television) which should help recognition at the store--and drive more demand from the end consumer and hopefully the liquor, wine stores into carrying it.
Shadow dog is reacting to the buckeyes falling out of the tree as if God was sending her something as wonderful as squirrels to chase--only the buckeyes give her a chance. Small joys in her life.
Study Hall Day
Made some soup this morning. It is terribly grey and rainy...promises to be this way for two days. I have a quiet stretch of time to snuggle down with coffee and all of my friends on podcasts to entertain me--to work on more holiday stuff, packaging for medical tests and take a break with the birds...either a paper or another go round with eagles. I think there is quite a body of work with just eagles. Matter of fact, I think that there are a bunch of bodies of work that will jump off of this main one for the thesis. I was wandering through the land of pictures and found a bunch of pretty hysterical pictures of ostriches...Man. Are they wierd and great. Big pink beaks, and magenta purple eyelids...with a real Sesame Street wackiness. Need to find a reason to do one or ten. Need to find out what they "mean". Later.
holiday thinking
This paperwhite is in process for the December holiday cards. More coming. Some of the trees are turning red here. The air is laden with all sorts of allergens--making my throat scratchy and sniffly. Am mentally working around the aesthetics ideas--forming things up, firming things up, writing notes at 2 a.m. No sleep must mean that I am making some sort of progress. Big opening this week for Michael Bergt at the Arnot Art Museum. Michael's work is beautiful. He works in egg tempera--with big and simply designed fields...working realistically and boldly. Is he an artist or an illustrator? (http://www.mbergt.com/). Check him out.
ongoing blind freedom
blind freedom seeing
work in progress. lost it once today. cheers.
Pomona, the goddess of apples
The cultivated apple tree was first introduced into this country by the earliest settlers, and is thought to do as well or better here than anywhere else. Probably some of the varieties which are now cultivated were first introduced into Britain by the Romans. Pliny, adopting the distinction of Theophrastus, says, “Of trees there are some which are altogether wild (sylvestres), some more civilized (urbaniores).” Theophrastus includes the apple among the last; and, indeed, it is in this sense the most civilized of all trees. It is as harmless as a dove, as beautiful as a rose, and as valuable as flocks and herds. It has been longer cultivated than any other, and so is more humanized; and who knows but, like the dog, it will at length be no longer traceable to its wild original? It migrates with man, like the dog and horse and cow: first, perchance, from Greece to Italy, thence to England, thence to America; and our Western emigrant is still marching steadily toward the setting sun with the seeds of the apple in his pocket, or perhaps a few young trees strapped to his load.... For when man migrates, he carries with him not only his birds, quadrupeds, insects, vegetables, and his very sward, but his orchard also.
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. “Wild Apples” (1862), in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 5, pp. 292-293, Houghton Mifflin (1906). Thoreau here draws on the contemporary belief in a historical translatio imperii (”transfer of empire”) and translatio studii (”transfer of the arts”) from the Old World to the New.
Its that season here in the Tburg. I have a wonderful present every week with Jackie Merwin's Black Diamond Incredapple program. We subscribe and then pick up a bag filled with all sorts of heirloom apples with other treats like plums or basil or whatever Jackie has and wants to downsize. We had some delicious crabapples this week along with an apple called Ginger Gold (a good name for a golden lab or retriever)--that were sensational. Our farmstand friend claims he is at the end of cantaloupes and seedless watermelons...and is fearful the demand to put out pumpkins and corn stalks are in the near offing. Yipes!
Here is Shadow doodle-dog with a semi rotting osage orange clenched between her teeth. She is wagging away and leaning on me as a way to get me to get the idea she is anxious to chase this mooshy, lime green fruit. Yuck!
back from Corning
Extremely positive reactions to my birds. Big confusion insofar as what they are? Oil paintings? Paintings? The concept that they are "all originals" is beyond conception. Or are they? Is a giclee a print? an original? If the file is a series of bits and bytes...then is output an original that can be original/or art according to the date and time it is output? Help me!! Will be entering the Chautaugua National and the Cooperstown National shows in March thanks to the business plan that was placed in the MAIL today. Bye Bye!
More work on this eagle.Beak is in the process of being resolved. Ditto on the fading dark feathers in the shadow. I am creeping along.
09.07.06
Eagle on boards. Working out how many feathers, how simple the feathers, what we can get rid of--then going to bind the bird up. Got a couple more in the head. Had to take a break from the business plan, but today--day of days-- I am going to wrap that mutha up. Done-zo. Done! Then I can start working on the other tortured papers so I can get back to pictures faster.
School was not the roaring, exciting day back that the crew had planned on. No one fell in love at first sight with Kitty...and no one told Alex he was cool. But, they like their teachers, lunch was good (but need more to eat, please), and maybe they will sign up for some sports and drama stuff (albeit, we have plenty of drama!). Lots of talk at dinner about how we must behave as the rules have gotten stricter. Lots of shock with the inmates on that one.
The business of a small business is giving me a little ache these days. Hopefully, we can get thinking about ways to make it all work... and we can move forward. I just need a little help. Who can I call......lemme think!
on the drawing board?
day one, season of learning 2006-07
The ducks went off the school today--with a little trepidation and a little more excitement. As usual, it is an anniversary thing they don't even know they are doing, and I get a little sad and happy for them as time moves on. I hope it's the beginning of a fun year that sparks some interests and passions for them beyond the usual fun of friends, and lunch, and recess.
Spent the better part of yesterday suffering through the business plan we need to write for Jim Carson. It's better than counselling as I am finding out stuff that is "in there" that just needed a little painful prodding to see that I really do have ideas on how to grow and dimensionalize this little business. Hopefully, by the end of the week I will have this off my plate. It was good to hear I wasn't the only one stumped with this plan...after a nice chat with Mr. Richard Williams. Richard is also finding out there is a lot in there with this paper...but OUCH.
I would like to do a little research on birds etc. for the fluffier of the aesthetics papers...which I might endulge myself with later today. Endulge away. I might even drink a little coffee while I dive deep.At least the searching will have some pleasure associated with it. I also should get a handle on what the MLA Style and Conventions are before I need to know it.
The Corning Commuhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifnity College Show is opening on Friday with a few pieces of my work(the Rooster Head, the Black Capped Night Heron eating the Transamerica Building and a Pacific Loon). I enlarged the images to 24" x 36" with white borders around the actual image and they look quite nice. I used Nielsen Bainbridge big poster frames (with nice wooden/black frames) that I got from Dick Blick (and not a bank breaker). Mike Massengale (SU ISDP MA Illustration 2006) did a wonderful job of outputting them...and I think this is the beginning of how the thesis work will be presented. If you need big output, Mike is the MAN. I have these three, and 3 smaller framed avian flu pieces as a start. Looks pretty real. Am planning on doing a couple of eagles (editorial...not just pretty), a dove, a raven, a dodo bird, a goose, Pale Male the NYC falcon, a pileated woodpecker and maybe the wierdly pink spoonbill to complete the mix.
Just got a great book recommended by Steve Ellis, a fantasy illustrator and instructor at Syracuse (here's another one from Steve,too). Steve did a great demonstration for us--showing how he uses photoshop and painter to create the art he does for Magic Cards etc. and recommended we get Digital Character Design and Painting by Don Seegmiller (Charles River Media ©2004)(I got the Photoshop CS Edition) for reference.
Looks pretty key. I got it through Alibris (used and discounted to my delight).
Looks like rain.
The goose is from the Genesee Country Museum, Mumford, NY. He was a very pissed off bird, actively "zipping up" all of his feathers (editorial by Kitty) who really did not like us looking at him and taking his picture. He will just have to get over it.
Fish Hatchery
I had totally forgotten the fish hatchery we visited on Saturday. First off, Rob seems to think that this fish hatchery is the first in NY State. It's in this little victorian town called Caledonia (that looks like some sort of Disney fantasy of what a little victorian town looks like--from a round-about in the middle of the town with a gleaming white Civil War Monument, a dressed stone hotel and restaurant with a big front porch on the circle, manicured lawns in front of perfectly painted clapboard houses with tons of detail and ornament--). You get the idea. The hatchery is a series of long pools that have fish all about the same age from teensy one inch fish all the way up to big silver monsters that are then trucked to the Finger Lakes and set free. It is in a lovely setting with a quickly running stream that has this abrupt turn in it...It is both a bird and fish sanctuary. There were field swallows dive bombing the water, all sorts of wild grasses, sedum and yarrow...and to our amazement, this blue heron resting in a tree above us. There were apples on the trees. It all smelled green and woody. What a fairyland we happened on.
On the eve of a new year!
We had a terrific weekend. We had around 20 thirteen or so year olds for a sports/birthday gathering. It was pouring rain which didn't seem to deter their high spirits and even higher energy. Wet kids. Sopping wet, oh my god your parents are going to be really unhappy you have pneumonia kids. And eating kids. But we were ready for that. We also bought a stack of card decks, a couple of big boxes of poker chips...and when they were'nt wet outside, they were wet inside playing poker and drinking soda. Our party was a big hit...and hopefully the beginning of a chain of parties.
Sunday we went to the Genesee Country Museum (Mumford. NY) and Rose Hill Mansion(Geneva, NY) for R. to take pictures of building details he wants to integrate into our rennovation projects. We think that Rose Hill was designed by the same architect that designed our house (Thomas Judd)--so the details and architectural "hand" might give us clues to how certain aspects of the building could be amended/ or revised. That was great. Kitty and A. and I took pictures of all the animals and laughed at each other. The gardens are in full bloom and beautiful. It was nice just being surrounded by so much thought and work. Our hope was to see the old fashioned baseball being played (the crew had seen it before and loved it--without me--and wanted to get a dose of it again). Unfortunately, rain out.
Labor Day was a trip to see the Syracuse Skychiefs beat the Pawtucket Red Sox. Great game. Cute park. Great sausage. Eight $ per ticket (that is the killer expensive seats). Def very hometown and simple. A. loved it. K loved it....and was trolling for "cute" guys (they were'nt there). We looked at the stats and everyone understood what they meant. We bought baseball caps (we had the skychiefs hat so we needed Boston and the Blue Jays hats). On the way back, we went to see Falcon Park, single A (also for the Blue Jays) baseball in Auburn NY. Totally cute little field...kind of grown up high school. Everyone was so enthusiastic about baseball, I have a feeling we are going to start going to other people's games in April (in addition to those we participate in ) to get a full season in.
Today promises more rain...and the opportunity to line up all of our pencils, lay out the clothes that are clean and fit, scrounge for the gym clothes that we will need all year long and get the rest into the laundry because tomorrow is day one of the 2006-2007 learning season at the Trumansburg Central School District. And we must be ready.
I'm not.
Cabin is from the Genesee Country Museum, Mumford, NY. The silly sheep is also from the Genesee Country Museum. Can you imagine? I guess this sheep was a little tired or just plain wanted to get closer to the good eats. The white building is a side view of RoseHill looking towards Seneca Lake.
We're Live!
FreeRange is now available for sale! This picture was taken at Kappy's Fine Wines and Spirits, Everett, MA of an end of aisle display. Looks pretty good. Definitely looks very real. It is great to see that the real thing really looks like the comps (it always surprises me that the sketch is sometimes as good or better than the final, so it is always a treat to see when they match up!). The shipper box is distinct in this marketplace as it has a pulltab/ zip strip waistband (disguised by the red bar on the box). The zip strip allows the shop to easily open the box without using a knife (which is hazardous when the boxes are cardboard and the bags are mylar versus glass) and controls where the box is opened to allow a consistent look and feel every time you open the case. New in this wine world. Very exciting! Tom and Jonathan are working their heads off to get it in more stores with more distributors on the east coast. With their effort and the combination of good wine and good graphics, I think we have a chance to get some traction in the near future. Check FreeRange for pix of Tom and Jenny's funny chickens, pix of Tom, Jonathan and the team, detail on the wine and the current distributors. More in the future.
Shroomking
Okay guys. New site to go to:
Copro Nason Gallery
2525 Michigan Ave
Space T5, Bergamot Station
Santa Monica, CA
www.copronason.com
Cool gallery. Really nice creepy work. Check out Naoto Hattori, "Another World Living"--extra creepy please! Alex and I cruised this work and the other artists being shown now... and were able to keep his t.v. head focused on the images. No, they don't have anything this "out there" on television. I love the way Hattori brings the ole Peter Bruegel/ Escher headset to an eastern content-set. Eyeballs set in hands with the fingers having stretched out heads on their tips. Hair on a head twisting into a wrist out of which blooms a hand that has a rose blooming out of it's palm with another eyeball in the center of it. A labyrintine floating city in the shape of a heart, above a plain with mushroom trees.
Shoomking
Naoto Hattori
Copro Nason Gallery
Leviathan of Art
“The big, big thing I’m always looking for in my work is a sort of attraction-repulsion thing, where the stuff is beautiful to begin with until you notice that some sort of horrible violence is about to happen or is in the middle of happening. Or that it’s some sort of interior monologue.”
Walton Ford from the Paul Kasmin website
"Blue whales are a drag. They're big but boring," the artist says dismissively. "What do they eat, krill? I cannot paint a krill eater. The thing doesn't have any fucking teeth. I like things that bite. A sperm whale, Moby-Dick, that's my kind of subject. A bad-ass."
Walton Ford
New York Magazine, October 21, 2002
Mr. Ford is an extrodinary artist, visionary and all round smart guy. Robbie clued me into him and his work. His bio (via pbs) is succinct...and references J.J. Audubon with a twist of concept and ideas
He said in NY Magazine about Audubon:
"He was a mean-spirited liar. He made enemies wherever he went. He was repulsed by Native Americans. He shot more birds than he ever painted . . . a total dick and not even that good an artist. Yet his work became the standard for how nature is shown. I try to address this dialectic."
Knocked right off of pedestal...
I love this guy. Love his attitude. Adore his work.
Read a little about him on the PBS site. Check out his work at the Paul Kasmin Gallery.
“Madagascar”
2002
Watercolor, gouache, ink and pencil on paper, 120 x 60 inches
Private collection, San Francisco
Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York