To Dude

As someone's mom, to be "dude-ed" has been rather unsettling. First off,I am no dude--I am someone's mom. Second, in the informal --dropping dude into sentences much the way "uh" is--slurred into whatever content being communicated--what does that mean? Or the ecstatic, cheery opener to a conversation that sings "Dude!!" (in a LOL spirit) with a musicality...that can be translated as perhaps "Hey! You!". I have not liked being a dude until I have put it into the italian context which it is the furthest from. I think that dude pretty much morphs into use the way the italians use Regazzi.

Regazzo is a boy. Regazza is a girl. More than one boy is Regazzi. More than one girl is Regazze. Mixed group, Regazzi--informally, kids--Ciao Regazzi (guys, gang?). So, the word Regazzi is used often, fast and furiously. To that, I can dig dude. Dude is sexless and really ageless. It can be used as a place holder like "uh"--but you can draw it out to make yourself sound pretty dumb/stoned without much trying. Dude is also a good swap for "guy" which also is pretty generic.

Okay, dudes?

Cool day today due to the rain and front that came through last night. Am working away on urns, swirls and thinking about hourglasses. Have thumbnailed the lulu pub...and am on track. Planning on 32 pp +4 cover. Black and white throughout.
Need to check on that. Might have to be 48 to get it bound. No problem on that. If I make Oct.1. my cut off for the images, there will be plenty of time to do the final layout, copywriting etc. for a November 5 delivery. The Lulu folks said it takes 2-3 days to do the printing. And, if I send one out just as a dummy...and then do a mini production after that...I will still hve the time. Maybe a little virtual chat online tomorrow...to get some guidance.

Just made a blueberry cake and a keylime mango pie for guests tomorrow along with a denudification of the veggie stand a block away. If the clouds move a little, it will be perfection.

Gravestone imagery from Wiki


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravestone

"Gravestones may be simple upright slabs with semi-circular, rounded, gabled, pointed-arched, pedimental, square or other shaped tops. During the 18th century, they were often decorated with memento mori (symbolic reminders of death) such as skulls or winged skulls (called "death's heads"), winged cherub heads, heavenly crowns, urns or the picks and shovels of the grave digger. Somewhat unusual were more elaborate allegorical figures, such as Old Father Time, or emblems of trade or status, or even some event from the life of the deceased (particularly how they died). Later in the same century, large tomb chests or smaller coped chests were commonly used by the gentry as a means of commemorating a number of members of the same family. In the 19th century, headstone styles became very diverse, ranging from plain to highly decorated. They might be replaced by more elaborately carved markers, such as crosses or angels. Simple curb surrounds, sometimes filled with glass chippings, were popular during the mid-20th century.

Some form of simple decoration is once more popular. Special emblems on tombstones indicate several familiar themes in the Christian faith. Some examples are:

* Anchor - Steadfast hope
* Arch - Rejoined with partner in Heaven
* Birds - The soul
* Cherub - Divine wisdom or justice
* Column - Noble life
* Broken column - Early death
* Conch shell - Wisdom
* Cross, anchor and Bible - Trials, victory and reward
* Crown - Reward and glory
* Dolphin - Salvation, bearer of souls to Heaven
* Dove - Purity, love and Holy Spirit
* Garland - Victory over death
* Gourds - Deliverance from grief
* Heart - Devotion
* Horseshoe - Protection against evil
* Hourglass - Time and its swift flight
* Ivy - Faithfulness, memory, and undying friendship
* Lamb - Innocence
* Laurel - Victory
* Lily - Purity and resurrection
* Mermaid - Dualism of Christ - fully God, fully man
* Oak - Strength
* Olive branch - Forgiveness, and peace
* Palms - Martyrdom, or victory over death
* Peacock - Eternal life
* Poppy - Eternal sleep
* Rooster - Awakening, courage and vigilance
* Shell - Birth and resurrection
* Six pointed star - The God
* Skeleton - Life's brevity
* Snake in a circle - Everlasting life in Heaven
* Swallow - Motherhood
* Broken sword - Life cut short
* Crossed swords - Life lost in battle
* Torch - Eternal life if upturned, death if extinguished
* Tree trunk - The beauty of life
* Triangle - Truth, equality and the trinity
* Shattered urn - Old age, mourning if draped
* Weeping willow - Mourning, grief

Greek letters might also be used:

* αω (alpha and omega) - The beginning and the end
* χρ (chi rho) - The first letters spelling the name of Christ
* IHS - Stylised version of iota-eta-sigma, a Greek abbreviation of Jesus"

Elaborately carved grave slab at Shebbear (Devon, England) showing a skull sprouting flowering shoots, as a symbol of resurrection

High Summer


One of those hotter than blazes summer days. I was musing that it would have been sad for the summer to end without a few little firecrackers to remind us that it is and has been summer. We all are trying to do stuff and are dragging around with the heat. The breeze is blowing however, which makes it slightly more bearable. Back to the spa water in about 20 minutes to lower the core temperature. The hosta we have in front of the house are beginning to bloom--big 6" long white trumpets that exude the most amazing fragrance. I have tried to identify the species...and they never get into the nuances that are needed so as to match what we have. These plants are beasts--always giving more when I chop away in the spring (quite nastily) to cleve the plants "for their health"--and more like in greed to have more of these lovelies. Beautiful beasts none the less. The hosta I threw in lakeside adore being there...so the hosta snacks that are being consumed by Bambi et al (quick...the gun!)are making a 15 minute trip north and will, next summer be residents of the lake.

The water was crystal clear, brisk and heavenly this morning. We all tread water and threw sticks for the dog. The only really scary thing about being in the clear water is seeing the big, floppy carp that like to swim along with us. Mother duck and ducklings were making the rounds along with a duck Kitty proclaims is a common merganser.

I am chipping away at all the little places that collect crap, litter, old ikea parts etc along with the random crayon, bead, rubberband, snippets of this and that. Out, out out. Musty yarn> good bye! Broken pots, rusty dull shears. See ya! Old magazines that reinforce my Rip Van Winkleness. Paperbacks that have been read...and will not see the light of day. Books given to us that none of us will read. Old pads of paper with 2 sheets of paper in it. And of course, my favorite, the thousands of used double and triple A batteries that haven't grown legs to walk to the trash can.It is a good week of stuff clearing, but it is cathartic to begin this process.

Going to make a lemon bagna calda with blanched green beans, and a Mango/Key Lime Pie along with steamed and cold local produce and some grilled chicken for friends tomorrow. Need to see the vegetable man at the top of the hill to see what else he has to offer. Blueberries? Peaches? Tomatoes? Kitty and I are eyeballing a curried pea soup (cold) in the July Gourmet...maybe that for later this week? And there is a blueberry "pudding" that looks delightful as well. A's birthday is next Saturday--so thinking about food for that is inline...however, stuff with anchovies, capers or anything wierd is off the list.

More later>>

photo: Common Merganser

Old Burial Hill, Marblehead, Massachusetts: Mrs. Susanna Jayne (1776)



"The Susanna Jayne headstone was carved by Henry Christian Geyer. The top part, known as the crown or tympanum, has an unusual shape, although it is obscured by the protective granite now encasing the original stone."

Inscription:

Deposited
Beneath this Stone the Mortal Part
of Mrs. Susanna Jayne, the amiable Wife of
Mr. Peter Jayne, who lived Beloved
and Died Universally Lamented, on
August 8th 1776 in the 45th
Year of her Age.

“Precious in the Sight of the Lord is the Death of his Saints.”

Here Sleeps the precious Dust — She Shines above,
Whose Form was harmony, whose soul was Love.
What were her Virtues? all that Heaven could Spare
What were her Graces? all Divinity Fair.
Mingling with Angels, they admire a Guest,
As spotless Good, and lovely as the Rest.

Gravestone Symbolism
"The Jayne stone features an unusual abundance of symbols. A skeleton, representing Death, is the central figure. It wears a crown of laurels, indicative of victory. In its hands are celestial objects: the moon in one hand and the sun in the other. Behind Death is the scythe it uses to reap its harvest. Encircling Death is a snake, with its tail in its mouth, possibly indicating the neverending nature of eternity. In the upper two corners are winged cherubs, or angels of heaven. In the lower corners are bats of the underworld. The upper panel has an hourglass flanked by bones: Death moves in when time runs out."

from Old Burial Hill

Sensational reference. The whole site is from imagery to wonderfully wierd ligatures etc.

Struggle


I have been thinking a lot about how to make type bump up against my illustrations better. My mentor and teacher, Professor Arnold Bank, known for his singular and definite opinions on things had a dictate. You make your letters with the same tool you do the illustration with. So, pencil drawing, pencil lettering. Music pen lettering>>music pen drawing and so on. How this parlays to type is another thing...unless the illlustrations are like chapbook illustrations or even silhouettes --black and blocky--then black and blocky be the type. If the type is elegant and refined, inspired by the romans, drawn by the angels, elegant line drawings suffice.

However, the type just looks "stuck there". I do admire the way Ludwig Hohlwein integrates and designs the type or in some cases a wonderful hand-drawn script with his work. It seems to flow better with the illustration--incorporating the two versus the whole heres the image and here's the type. This is where the men and boys are distinguished. This takes skill. Bernhart isnt shy either. Nor is Julian Klinger, another poster designer in the early part of the 1900s. Maybe it's because the illustration is more graphic, more amenable to being married to type.

Poster by Ludwig Hohlwein.

Another thought I had the other day was the typographer/designer that is in me needs to take a break. I was randomly drawing some letters for the Happy Healthy Holiday card in a kind of wack job, highly illegible way--think lines broken up with dots and curves etc and all smashed together using a single line pen (a la Steinberg)--having it come out in a Book of Kells-y on crack look. I scanned it into photoshop and randomly began to color it. Interesting process. The result was relatively cool and not in any way pure typography. Maybe the way to crack this typography nut is to forget (or put the pause button on) and try to be more in the world of "automatic drawing" and see what evolves. The less planning, the better.

Illustration Friday entry next...?

Wellspring


It's funny how we all seem to go back to the well, the same well we have been going to since we picked up a pencil and started to draw or think about drawing. In this well are the personal favorite things...topics, images, techniques that are always there whenever a roadblock is there to start the cycle of thinking and wondering. This memento mori thing has been in my well...and never really been tapped the way I am beginning to wail on it. I have always been fascinated with the whole end of chapter thing..death, the death industry, architecture and art, history of traditions and expectations--almost exclusively western culture. I have read books on the subject --and devoured them. I learned to drive in a cemetery near my house as I feared the streets and figured the only people I could really kill were already dead in the Homewood Cemetery. My father was proudly on the board of the oldest cemetery in Pittsburgh, The Allegheny Cemetery, where we would regularly go a visit the family plots and marvel as the bizarre ways that people wanted to memorialize their lives and accomplishments. I love the monuments--particularly the high victorian ones and the family mausoleums. In the Allegheny Cemetery, there are miniature greek and roman temples, Richardson Romanesque bunkers and some beautifully rendered, high camp Egyptian pyramids with gilded and polychrome sandstone columns. There are urns on columns, of course the plethora of angels, even a stone tree with it's limbs sawn off (all sandstone) with the bark all carved with care, the the names in ovals where the limbs used to be saying "Mother", "Father", "Brother"...you get the idea. I love the lettering of any time, the older and odder the better. I love the shapes of the stones (again, the older the better).

Trips to Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Philadelphia and Civil War Battlefields always promised a visit to the cemetery so see the illustrations, the shapes, the lettering the sites. It gave context to the antique. When I was in Italy for 4 months in college, I was taken to numerous cemetetaries--surprised by the above ground graves, the non-parklike settings we are so used to. I reveled in reliquaries and the bones in the cathedrals and churches. Bones in gilded boxes. Bones with fuffly, serious bows and ribbons. Carved stone bones as part of the decor of the spaces. This was a sensibility I couldn't wrap my mid-western head around...but loved. I don't know if I love it as much now...but the sheer oddity is appealing.

This is odd that this is what has leapt up out of the well for me. Maybe it's the contemplation I have been doing about being fifty (soon), maybe its spurred by the work the Avian Flu series promised, or maybe is a direct reaction to the work I have been focused on for my thesis...or at least maybe that reaction is the spur to try some new stuff and get it out. Having this lulu project has been the incentive. Whatever. You poor devils are going to see a bunch on this stuff (so much so, I have made a label for this sort of chat for the blog..so it's not going anywhere fast).

Enough musing.

Off to Cornell this morning to talk with writers and lunch (a treat) with a very interesting scientist who is changing the world by his research and projects he has started that stemmed from his research and travels. The Trumansburg Fair continues. More rides for the teens...more hanging out in adolescent clusters. This is all very important to do.

Will update later.

Put wings on it.


Live from the sketch book. Holiday cards...gone (for now!). Inspiration from the gravestones below. More inspiration..more images.

Missed the Demolition Derby last night. It was just plain too cold, too grey and too humid to really soak it in. All sorts of trashed cars are in the parking lots waiting for the weekend dem derby and possibly the figure eight. I love this stuff. The scene is essentially this: most of trumansburg congregates in the grandstands of the fair ground. Bursting with people. The various sports teams represented by players in uniforms are working the crowd selling candy and cookies to glean as much money before the school year happens. Between the grandstand and the stage is a dirt track that they race horses on etc. On the stage side facing the crowd is the entire fire department in total fire gear with hoses etc. ready to jump on any problem. There are 3-4 tow trucks in tow--at the ready. There are a ton of very important people on the stage who comment, dedicate and recognize. I love it that our local car dealership stands as the sponsor of the event. Perfection.

Within this space are fifty (or so) cars, parked nose to nose. The cars are total art. All the windows are out. All the interiors are stripped out to being a seat and a steering wheel. Some of the roofs have been chopped, some have been lowered to close to the ground etc. Then, the paint jobs are either a spray collage with names/words/ phrases/ the names of the cars...or my favorite kinds (very Mad Max-y) that are matte black with a really primative single letter on the side (lettering beyond great...) with the chopped squished roof. Inside are the drivers who range from young women and men to all sizes and shapes of middle aged men. So, on to the sport. When the sign is given, the drivers pull forward, and go backward...for a long time until someone is too bashed up to move any more. The driver jumps up and out of the front window, climbing to the top and jumping off the car and running off the field of automotive centaurians. Smoke and steam. It is a bit scary thinking of the "what ifs"..but I looooove it.

Horse pull tonight.

Colonial wonderfulness




Holiday illustrations today during this cold, grey day. The big hosta lilies are all opening up to give us a fragrant weekend as soon as this grey week is done.

Am doing a little research on colonial grave markers/ tombstones--something I have loved from way way back. Now, another reason to go there with this Memento Mori project. I love the way the wings are drawn, the crazy and beautiful typographic affects, and the simplicity of the skulls. I am going to go down this road a little in my notebooks. The ever wonderful Edward Gorey is very derivative of this work...and so to go to the source gives me permission to ramp it up a little beyond the limited stuff for the Day of the Dead. Gravematters.com is a tremendous resource.

Am outputting images for the SPCA show. Possibilities to show dogs/pets at the SPCA proper. Could be another opportunity to get the work out there.

More later...(dreaming of willow trees and urns and skulls)>>

textures and patterns from the moleskine snippets






These are a selection of patterns created from 4 sharpie illustrations in my moleskine done this a.m. with coffee after the blog entry. This speedo pattern approach was spurred by Roger DeMuth's offhanded comment that he could create 700 differerent backgrounds in a week...which got me puzzling about how he could could so optimistically declare such a thing with such confidence. If he can, I can...and you know in less than an hour on the computer, I did 24 of them. So, with a few more tries at this, I might take him mano a mano on this one. It is fun...and the small tile I have shown is one of the isolated graphics that were used in this progression. More tomorrow.

Memento Mori


Memento mori is a Latin phrase that may be freely translated as "Remember that you are mortal," "Remember you will die," or "Remember your death". It names a genre of artistic creations that vary widely from one another, but which all share the same purpose, which is to remind people of their own mortality.

A showstopper, eh?

Memento Mori embraces art from the classical times to today...with some of the highlights for me being the wonderful woodcuts of skeletons and skulls engaged in all sorts of high jinx that their former selves engaged in. Others include the high victorian use of skulls, winged skeletons, the hourglass to suggest that "time's a wasting.." Wiki refers to public clocks as a venue to suggest that death is to be remembered:

Timepieces were formerly an apt reminder that your time on earth grows shorter with each passing minute. Public clocks would be decorated with mottos such as ultima forsan ("perhaps the last" [hour]) or vulnerant omnes, ultima necat ("they all wound, and the last kills"). Even today, clocks often carry the motto tempus fugit, "time flies." Old striking clocks often sported automata who would appear and strike the hour; some of the celebrated automaton clocks from Augsburg, Germany had Death striking the hour. The several computerized "death clocks" revive this old idea. Private people carried smaller reminders of their own mortality. Mary Queen of Scots owned a large watch carved in the form of a silver skull, embellished with the lines of Horace.

We are talking day of the dead, puritan paintings and gravestones,Holbein and victoriana...even the Masons and secret societies use this hook as part of their art or activities. It feels right for the now of our failing country, our dying and wounded soldiers, the crisis of man in emergencies, the daily reminders of cancer and AIDS--giving it a tongue, a language somehow makes sense to me.

I think this may be the hook for the skull book--it has real legs.

Tried to figure out the whole Lulu book deliverable with their website and still feel a bit fuzzy about the bleeds and gutters, spreads in the books or single pages>> Today I think a phone call is merited.

Need to work on holiday cards today. Count down to fabulousness.

Pondering the Lulu Book


I have been thinking about this assignment I don't have to do...but plan on doing. I want to do a valentine book--cause it's a good idea, works as a mini promotional thing..and its saleable. It may take a little time...but worthy of having for a February goal. So, there is one. Another, is to take the existing dog pictures, create some spot illustrations..and layout the dog biscuit cookbook I wanted to do. Again, good promotional piece, art is mainly done, and it's saleable to individuals...and if I can make it...to possible bigger audience that may want to distribute it under their logotype. So, could represent a tiny bit of cash to the bottomline...not the nickle and dime stuff.

Then, there is the automatic writing--which right now is manifested in wildly decorated letters and numbers and skulls. In the last week I did about 5 skulls in the time creases of the day between jobs, during phone calls, while dinner is cooking. They just seem to spring up...So, there may be a book of these skulls--perhaps entitled "momentus mori"---Take them into the computer...see how I can tweak them...or are they just strong enough to be by themselves--some negative,some positive? Instead of limiting myself, I should let this thing run its course and see what happens. I am thinking that regardless of what happens, this idea of working toward a book completes a body of work in a nice way. Maybe not a final use thing...but an interesting use of both my abilities as a designer and the output of work as an illustrator. I could see a portfolio of these books. I could also see partnering with a printer once one of these was done, to co-promote our wares...much in the way of the good old days and the expensive and rich printed little publications on things from tin toys to walks in nature. Lusciously printed, precious designs. And partnerships with entities that could benefit from producing these things could be good. All seems attainable...

Live from SU on the subject of transcripts and diplomas:

"I have all of the orange folders, but haven't had a chance to go through them yet. If all of the paperwork is in order, I should be able to certify your degree within a couple of weeks. The actual diploma takes six weeks or so to arrive, but you can get a copy of your degree bearing transcript anytime after the certification by contacting the registrars office. Go here: http://registrar.syr.edu/students/transcripts.html for instructions.

I plan on waiting until Sept 10 to check with the registrar on the transcript. Need to do that to get further in my file with Hartford. I do not want to be tweaked by this group and plan to be very pointed in my verbal and written communications with them as there are former students that still are awaiting their diplomas. We did pay for this service...now all SU has to do is DO IT.

I am knotted up about being a speaker at the "Seminar" the graphic design, advertising and illustration students are required to attend. I am speaking in late November...and feel that once I just get rolling on putting a deck together and some words around the deck, it should be fine. I was told my story is about being a graphic designer in a small town...I think that story may morph into not about technology, the use of pdfs and fed ex--but the path of work, the type of work and thinking and how more is possible today than ever before. Another point is about always asking and learning. That is the key to growth, happiness and bettering the work. Andrew Carnegie's motto, "My Heart is in the Work" may surface. I just need to start the project and see what happens. The illustration segment from Whitney Sherman's request to see work should help as a starting point.

More illustration today. The pumpkin needs to be finalized and have type added in. The holiday card has resurfaced. The holly is still in the running. The eight other finalized illustrations are out (reason to get a stock thing happening with the ispot), and the client has put forth 4 directions they want to see developed by the end of the week. The Myers Weinberg (see last week's post) logotype is moving forward...add type/take other things away...but the illustration is going out there...

Small moves. More later

weekend antics

We attended a lovely 50th birthday yesterday. In one corner were the neighbors, another, all the beautiful, unselfconscious 15 year olders (I wish that was my world) and the other schamart, smart people tasting elegant wines and talking about recent an not so recent history like young geezers. We met the most amazing people from a known expert on "Bubble theory" and his engaging, interesting and smart wife who lives in the world of philosophy and semiotics (all way behind this low end IQ Q), a lovely man who makes his living with the buying and selling of fabulous vintage trailers/campers, to those who can really throw and target the right dart. The snapshot I carry in my head is peeking into a window and seeing my rather young, 6'.5" son wearing a post-it-note on his head declaring he is Britney Spears--and that he needs to figure that out according to no end to high school pulchritude....With this crowd, youth is not entirely wasted.

We saw "Becoming Jane"--those in the clan that have P&P memorized, we were crying. Those who didn't were asking their mom to see her indiglo watch to calibrate the time. That is the review. We LOVE jane.

Made a mess of food from the bank of leftovers here. Am feeling like the queen of creativity to empty dishes to make things people want to eat. Depression aesthetics..which, to be honest, I think is a tremendous thing. We shouldn't lose sight of the bounty we live in and on. It is appalling we take so much for granted.

R. goes to hot and fun Miami tomorrow. We are a tiny bit jealous...but high 90s with humidity goes WAAAAAAAAAAAAAy beyond the call of duty. Deceber beckons with Art Basel Miami. And, I am not being the "wife" and staying home. K+A can handle the grandparents...plus, they now have CELL phones.

Did anyone register the fabulousity of the offerings from the Penultimate Apple?? The wonder of Iphoto and how it will change your world? I am frothing from the mouth. Iphone can wait until they figure out the more memory, less other stuff... We changed to AT+T with the express reason that we could change....

when we...

wanted to...

what a world we live in?!!

More tomorrow.

more pumpkins


2 color job...pms 130 and black with screentints of the black and the goldenrod. Still working on it...but its almost cooked for now.

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion. I would rather ride on earth in an ox cart, with a free circulation, than go to heaven in the fancy car of an excursion train and breathe a malaria all the way.

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862),
in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 2, p. 41, Houghton Mifflin (1906).