Up up and away


Well, she is off! We woke K up this morning with the packing still randomized...with polka dot piles all over her floor. I must admit, this is not my style and it makes me nuts--but it works for K. She blissfully tended to this and that, surrounded by dust and yesterday's laundry, neatly packing her bags. After two bowls of scotch oatmeal (the fine stuff), we hurried over to Palmer Pharmacy to greet her fellow travellers and teacher (and husband) who were attired in black with berets. OOOOOLa La! Then, en masse, we caravaned up to Syracuse to get them all checked in and through security with tears from our girl--and great hand waving from all of us. I am looking at the clock and thinking about her as we talk. I know she will have a great time...its the settling down and getting there that can be the trauma. We all have been there...we become deadened to the green saplings our younger selves were...and the mix of fear, excitement and the unknown which can be a frightening cocktail. Once she gets to Chicago and has settled in a bit, maybe the fun will begin. If not then, then when she gets an eyeful of the cute french guys in the aeroport! Mais Oui!

More news. One of the Memento Mori illustrations and the chokers poster got into American Illustration 27. So, that is good news. I did not, however, get into the Schweinfurth Show in Auburn New York. Declined, Declined. But CA and SOI isn't a bad second to that! I am sickly gloating over all of that. Next, I am planning other rejections--like the Made in NY Show at the Everson in Syracuse so I can feel like a loser again. (Don't tell anyone, I AM a loser).

Tomorrow is basically unscheduled! Maybe I will treat myself to a trip to Agway for grass seed along with the nascent publications I have on deck. I hope I can do a bit of illustration work tonight. Maybe a yellow rose?

Back to the Hartford Blog. Back to squint as a name. Squint and squinty are taken for URLS---however, 2squint.com is available. Maybe we will have a little call for illustration to see if people can send me pix for squint for the masthead (which could refresh on a regular basis. I think it would be fun to have little amongst ourselves virtual shows on the holidays, on politics, on ideas. I wonder if that would make sense? or if the students and alumni would be game. Need to reach out to the head of illustration alumni to see what her wish list might be...maybe even query the crowd to see if they have ideas, wants, needs? I dont need permission to ask? do I (at SU I would).

Gotta go.

Whaaaaaaaaaat!!!!!

ohmygoodness! OHMYGOODNESS! What is happening? Why all of these wonderful things? Why me? I am shocked and surprised in a lovely way. I got a call from Carol Tinkleman seconds before a scheduled phone call about branding with the big Green company. She was very guarded in her chat--asking if I had gotten the emails...had I gotten them? I looked and was shocked to see that Carol and Murray had nominated me for a Graduate Presidential Fellowship from The University of Hartford. And....they had accepted me. There were eleven nominations and eight awards. This is huge! There is some money to offset some of the tuition which is tremendous, but even better is that I was competing with other graduate students (more than the world of illustration and illustrators) for this honor. And even we weak minded art types could be recognized in this manner. I am thrilled. Thrilled. This is almost as good as winning two gold medals for the Mellon Bank Christmas illustration competition I won in fourth grade. (that was 50 silver dollars and a box, a flat black box of Prang crayons). Am a bit confused as it was cited that my experience, an MA and the schools I attended were important despite a weak UG GPA (which I need to understand as I graduated from CMU with University Honors and the SU gpa thing was good too>). Unless its linked to my bad housekeeping skills, inability to organize etc. I will need to understand that. But hey.Good news all around!

Back to the blog. Need to get with Jim Reidy to take the design further. Also, have veered away from Squint...but am back to it. I like the edgy, unbalanced, bloggy quality of the name...so I am going to chase it. Now, its a question of the URL. HASSquint.com, SquintHAS, thesquint, squinty....need to go to register.com to seek out a direction.

More later.

Patience


I work with a different schedule than my daughter. I have been on her to pack, and plan, to make lists and to work her lists. She lies on the floor and hugs the cat. She reads her book. She laughs and tries on clothes. She says funny things. She does almost everything other than the stuff I want her to do. Her reply to my pushing is that she can exist with whatever is in her suitcase. My retort is that ten days without underwear is a stretch. She had to concede that I was right on that front. And so, it continues. She is off to France tomorrow for ten days. It will be great for her (hopefully with a few undergarments and fewer costumes than I know she has stuffed into her little orange bag).

It is warm out. The plants cannot dawdle. The willows are turning that wonderful brownish, green--promising leaves. The little sedum nubbins are bigger each day. The hosta shoots are poking their heads up. Our guest gave me three, glorious asian lilies that can grow upwards to five feet (' you know, you will have to stake them!")--so I am pondering where to plant them so those vermin, the deer, do not think it's candy time.

Big doings at School tonight. Review with the middle school on eighth grade--the shadowing day, the trip to Washington DC, and the scheduling for HIGH SCHOOL on the horizon. Then the bag check (camera? passport? euros?) for Kitty and Tax review with R.

Work continues apace on the two bathrooms/laundry room/closet project. Lots of detailing and making everything fit. The wonderful electrician is here along with the carpentry team. It is closing in...and we should be operational shortly. Its all this back and forth and then you buy all the fixtures and floor>>and badabing>> it's done.

I am busy with my ink pens doing goofy drawings of rattlesnakes. I don't know where they are going, but it's fun and maybe one of my pictures for Texas can be a resolved version of one of these. I did around 5 of them yesterday--and have one in the works on top of my pile of real work. So, we will see.

More later

New week


Ron and Virginia here until mid morning. It was great seeing them--talking about the state of programming, of public television, of the thinking around media and communications. They gave us a wonderfully perfect present of a very fragrant, asian lily (4 bulbs) that grow to 5 feet tall (as tall as me!). Now all I have to do is worry about where to plant them that the damn big rodents, deer, not discovering their yummy, snackiness. What a perfect present for early spring---when the promise of 600 daffodils lurks, and the honesty of our delicate clusters of snowdrops boldly proclaim the snow and ice is done. It was shocking to pick up A from his first golf game of the season, to see the destroyed willows in the fields split in half as if a giant snapped these elegant, tall trees in half. The highlight of my trip was a large, loping, teardrop shaped, wobbling, gobbling turkey--leisurely strutting across the highway and then upon getting across the street, he opened up his stride and started scooting into the pale field across the way.

A three part illustration job came in from Steuben. I had a lovely time talking with my client about the "ismus of was", cool retail ideas, the fantasies of what could happen should the stars align. I love this sort of fantasy talk because sometimes, just sometimes an aspect of this thinking can happen. They need ideas in two weeks---which is cool-- but the concept they have is pretty abstract---and I will need to make it pretty, decorative and yet representative of the idea that it all falls off of.

Our wonderful electrician was here running wires--an art experience--neat and tidy-- using old chases, dropping lines from existing lines etc. We are two steps closer to the cluster of 2 bathrooms, a laundry room and closet to reality. Mandy painted. David C. coming later to manage the high dust level.

K is busy worrying about clothes for France. We worked through all the combinations-- adding and changing one piece for another. We have talked about the various phases of the "little matchgirl" personna and whether it plays in Paris. So, we got into the details, and K was very patient and attentive. I think we are close. She wants to be noticed, but my fear is that she doesn't want to be noticed as the silly little clown-- but more the elegant and stylish girl. She understands the delineation. K. also got into the NYSSSA (Summer Arts program through the NYState Dept of Education). This year the visual arts program is at SUNY Fredonia versus Brockport (last year). I think as K is doing photography/psychology next year at school versus visual art--it might be great for her to keep her hand in by participating this year.

R is late at CMoG with a crisis. He is deftly handling it with his intrepid staff and the ever responsive, Steve. What a bore. But, the moment they open the doors tomorrow, it will not even be an issue. So, we will eat, take the poochita out and shut down early. I have an interesting CPSE/ CPE meeting first thing tomorrow at school. Big, scary project on the table. I hope we can find the student and her family some help and attention.

More later>>

moo.


They came. They ate. They threw pinecones for Shady. There were stories and notes, issues and nonissues, a general catching up and going someplace. We are lucky to have the cousins from truly afar stay with us for two nights so we get a dose. It is great to see them, to hear about their issues, their aging, their lives and living, and what concerns surround them. It is confirming and affirming.

Another perfect cloudless day with temperatures in the mid to high fifties. A. is playing golf at the Hillendale Golf course with his friend Ben (on the eighth grade golf team...so maybe A can pick up some pointers). K will be back from a sleepover with our needing to find current translators and getting her packed for her 10 days in France with the French Club.

I am researching yellow roses...roses in general to design around the portrait of a buffalo for one of my Texas pictures. I have decided to work with the Chicken Choker reduction technique (one or two color only for heads) to see where to go. I will, however, give myself permission to do the roses in yellow and black and white as the key is the yellow. Plus, with as stylized as roses can go, maybe I will use my drawn approach and try to merge it with the more formalized thesis style. There will be a few images in this group.

Gotta go.

gotta go


Rushing about to the store and back to get ready for a gathering of the clan chez Camp today. There will be food (cornell chicken not withstanding), there will be a limitation of dust, and there will be the great pushing of dirty clothes into closets and under beds. There will great chewing and talking. There will be the smaller members of the clan that the buckets of legos, and boxes of long haired ponies will be presesnted to. There will be more eating, and talking (and maybe wine drinking) and there hopefully, will be some fun!. But, we need to gird our loins.

Had a great chat with Jim Reidy, musician extrodinaire, about Drupal and what it can do. My engines are revving and there will be a Drupal blog for Hartford Art School that I think may be called "Squint"--which is Murray Tinkleman saying that if you just squint (I know he will correct me on exactly how he says it..and I will give you a ps) you can essentially earn a MFA (and forget about the three summers). We will have RSS streams of anyone who talks about Hartford's Illos program, a list of students and alumni (offering a small portfolio page for the students), an open forum page for students to share sketches, A blog, a place where the Carol Tinkleman epistles are posted, Alumni news and so on. As Drupal is very flexible, if we find we do not like some thing or we want some other type of content, we essentially change the frame or the"theme" and away we go. So, next week the sketch to Jim and we move forward.

Gotta go.

IF: Save


"I have no connections here; only gusty collisions,
rootless seedlings forced into bloom, that collapse.
...
I am the Visiting Poet: a real unicorn,
a wind-up plush dodo, a wax museum of the Movement.
People want to push the buttons and see me glow."

Marge Piercy
(b. 1936),
U.S. poet, novelist, and political activist.
“Three Weeks in a State of Loneliness,”

a little horn tooting!


Another mystery note from info@commarts.com. The message read:

This message is intended for Q Cassetti at Luckystone Partners.

Congratulations! One (or more) of your entries has been selected by the 2008 jury to appear in Illustration Annual 49, the July 2008 issue of Communication Arts.

YAYYYYYYY! And, to think its of our little girl, Shady Grove!

kickin'


I love how decorative boots are (with spurs too) and so I am fiddling around with the Memento Mori tools and approach which I have gotten positive feedback to continue to develop. Who knows what will come out of this little foray into western related stuff, but I am sure something.

Just back from a butterfly draw after being poked a few times in search for a vein. At least there wasn't editorial on veins etc. Good news, I do not have TB...so the Hartfordians can breathe a sigh of relief.

Must go now as I need to be in Ithaca soon. Team Water, the plumbing kings, told me just a half an hour ago that we will be without water. So there are gigantic pots, and pans, and bottles and kettles all filled up around the kitchen. And, a big red bucket in the bathroom. How fun is that?

April showers


Nice and warm here. Saw tops of the daffodil greens poking up through the dirt. I am thinking of lots of grassseed and fun this weekend. The snowdrops are up and I have seen a crocus or two. Lots of dead wood needing to be corralled...and a basic clean up prior t I am feeling a bit more myself--cough dying down, energy level higher which will mean back to the House of Health next week for beginning the treadmill fun.

Am slugging away on a format for a quarterly calendar publication. Designing, redoing, fitting images and logos, redoing the type, fitting the photos, redoing the type, and so on. Images are a bit bland/and not contrasty enough, so need to push E. to give em all more juice as everything reading 50% grey in the highlights doesnt go anywhere. Also, this document review process is heavy lifting--lots of work at one shot, and then dying out. Another truckload with ticklish issues that each deserve a phone call, and then a wasteland. I guess I will get used to it...but it is pretty much drop everything, do it and then back to the old work right now. I spent the better part of yesterday trying to get stuff other than reviewing.

Meeting tomorrow with an architect and the Baker client about the illustration for their waiting room. I hope that will be smooth and something I can engage in. There is not a lot of money in this...and I really do not want the pain level to take it to another place emotionally. More later>>

585 out of 11,440


So, what does that random group of numbers mean? I got a note saying that this blog was reviewed by blogged.com and was ranked as an "8"in the Entertainment category. The ranking is based on"Editor reviews are provided by professional editors who evaluate a blog based on the following criteria: Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style."
What does that get us? me?
Probably Niente, nada, nothing. But we'll take any kudos coming over the wall.


Its nice that we can extend this look for the Chicken Chokers for another year. I think we will be messing with the backgrounds for this year--with Amazing Things being being the kick off. I got an email from the folks at the Ispot about an article they are doing online and requested a jpg of the Chokers Poster in the Society of Illustrators Show (#50) to post online with the piece. That was really nice.

Spoke to Carol Elizabeth Jones. We may take her artwork back for another looksee. No pressure as yet. She, poor, poor, thing--has to re-record all of her vocals as the original recording was unsatisfactory--She is putting a brave face on it. But, as we all know, the second time around, you have a better handle on where things are going--but you lose the inspired/ free thing that happens with the first try.

keeping afloat


Back from my physical. Have a subdermal tracer for TB (for Hartford) and they will be taking blood to see if there are antibodies for Mumps,Measles or Rubella. If not, then I will have to get a shot for Hartford too. Really, we might as well be going to India or some other place than Connecticut considering the medical hoops they are insistent we have. But, worth it....just seems a bit over the top. Hello blood tests and all sorts of other screening. But hey, good to get it done.

There are doors being cut through 150 year old lathe and plaster upstairs...lots of banging and dust. This should open up the various bathrooms to other rooms and give us the laundry upstairs versus in the kitchen. By freeing up the laundry, we can then move to the back (old kitchen area) for the new kitchen and morph the old kitchen/ and historically, the servants dining room, to a back entry hall versus what we have now that is an explosion with laundry, kids backpacks, thousands of shoes and the kitchen stuff...not to put too fine a point on it. So, by beginning to move the parts, we free up new areas to get to the endpoint.

Spent the better part of Sunday working on a waterfall image for a teeshirt for the Cayuga Triathlon. I was working from reference I took earlier this year--and the water had a lacy/frothy quality that manifested itself in an almost hairy looking waterfall...more like the back of a teenaged girl and not the iconic waterfall. R. remembered an old, antique (1865) photo we had of the same image at the lake. So we rescued that, and as it was an image taken with the lens totally open, the water did not have the lacy thing, but really felt vertical etc. So, R. saved the day as the refernence took it to another place. I have finished the image and am waiting to hear from the Raceteam as I think we have in in hand.

New poster for the Chicken Chokers (they are playing at Amazing Things--the Amazing Firehouse in June).

Possibly a new winelabel in the near offing. More as it becomes known. Also, working on a document approval process for Quest which is hard but interesting as it is totally not creative. As I was talking to my client, she encouraged me to see their new "guerrilla" campaign for colon cancer>> which is interesting as they link to a guy (in the mummenschantz mode) being a healthy colon (youtube footage) and the point up the reasons to get the screening as colon cancer is treatable if caught early. But why swish with a brush when you can get the full monty like I am going to get.

K is off to France in 10 days. Very exciting and just around the corner. Track training is good...A is very impressed with how K is no powderpuff with her training (would she be anything else?). Lots of hard sleepers.

Most go as the morning is gettting away from me.

more on the same


I believe with great conviction that Barack Obama should be the next President. I have been paying close attention to him since the Democratic convention in 2004. I feel that he is more a statesman than a politician. He was against the war when it was an unpopular position (and Hillary was for the war at that time), Obama is for energy and environmental conservation. He is for healthcare reform. Check him out for yourself: barackobama.com. Proceeds from this print go to produce prints for a larger statewide poster campaign.” Shepard Fairey

Red, white and blue


It's interesting to me that just in the matter of style, the Obama camp is sending out entirely different messages than that of the Clinton group. When I say style, I don't mean rhetoric or talking points, I mean the look and feel of the respective candidates--the visual messages that are being sent out to establish the viability and the memorable aspects of the individual candidates. In consultant speak, which I find highly tedious, its branding. To my thinking, it's personality. Now, some of this image building may be grassroots--but as it is additive, is it built on a foundation established by the respective candididate's spin meisters? Or is it just a vibe individuals have picked up on, responded to and because the candidate independent of spin, projects an image that is easy to understand and package. To that point, we have Jim O'Brien working on images of the candidates (as seen earlier this week) and we have Shepard Fairey (Obey Giant) creating a poster for Obama.

Shepard Fairey, who you all have heard me rave about, is an entrepeneurial illustrator/graphic designer with many feathers in his cap from his commercial work (best known in the worlds of skateboards and movies "Walk the LIne" poster), his urban art and installations to his fine art print business and his Obey line of clothing. He has recently opened a gallery and is now marketing this Obama poster under a new dba known as "Subliminal Projects". I had assumed that he had been contracted by the Obama camp to create this poster (sold as an offset poster, different than his signature screenprints, $30. a pop, 24"x 36")--but there is no mention on his site. I googled the same--to no result. It is perfect Shepard Fairey without the textures and layers of imagery that often takes his simple likenesses to another place (the Peace women for example). However, if you take this out of the Shepard Fairey context and look at it in the wide swathe of image building amongst the candidates--there really hasn't been a representation of a candidate on a poster for decades. We just don't need to do it with the internet, news media, television, youtube. .. You get the idea. We are barraged by this stuff. To think, though, that this illustration of Obama wouldnt seem special, but it is because it is a new media--for most--and the interpretation of this likeness into a simple, memorable signature for the candidate is striking. The type is simple and elegant...and the most impresive thing is that his name isn't even on the piece. The word HOPE is emblazoned simply at the bottom of the page, picking up the obama O with the striped horizon as the clue insofar as who this person is. Fairey is assuming you know who this is. And to that, he appeals to those of us in the know--that the message is Hope and this is the person who will bring it. Now, I am pretty bored with all this democratic stuff...and feel that the candidates are a whiskers difference so style is the thing that may make the difference here.

There is a parody of the Obama poster floating around--for Hillary. That camp needs to get moving on this..or maybe its too late. The pictures of the Hope posters in PA--lining a room, hanging off chairs, people holding them up have taking this illustration to another place. It has now integrated with the imagery of the candidate. A bit flat footed that the Clinton folks didn't immediately respond. This sort of thinking, old traditions made new--a fresh approach from a messaging and delivery standpoint, will hold Obama in good stead. As illustrators, we should all get off our haunches and engage. There are strong pictures to be made, to get out there and to fuse to the bigger picture (world issues, local issues, personal issues) and we can make a difference. Shepard Fairey has.

Note: The Clinton Camp's response was to get Marc Jacobs to do a teeshirt>>

My response is that maybe, just maybe, each camp needs a visual strategist in the future. Hands down, the Clintons missed the boat. I mean, I am a girl and I wouldnt wear a damned shirt with a lady with pearls with her mouth open as a billboard or as fashion. How dumb. And men?

Jim O'Brien's Barack Obama


Jim O'Brien is doing some beautiful work for his thesis: likenesses of the candidates which he is screenprinting. I was taken with how wonderful they are--His theis blog gets into the detail--and was thrilled to see them up close and personal last week in Fort Worth. If you would like to own one, he has posted them to etsy, to illogator,or ebayHis Hillary is in the works and looks promising. Also, Jim's Obama buttons (I only saw 2) are a real find. Be the only one on your block to show your support with such style (and great illustration,too!).

finally vertical

Well, after that cheery post from yesterday and a sharp prod from my homegirl client to get my self horizontal-- I did...until now ( 7 p.m.). It was shake,rattle and roll..but now visions of illustrations (not feverish nightmares of odd people juxtaposed in scenes they would never be in) singing in my head. I just need to shake this blistering headache and I will be right as rain. Now, coca cola looks delicious. I cannot say the same for last night. So, def back in the saddle tomorrow. Make a note to get a flu shot this coming fall. This is not a welcome pause.

A and K are training like crazy for track and field-- working on their "core". A is very excited and chatty (!) that it's spring, that its light out late and that he has a good chance to succeed with Track. He is overall a happy boy which is great to see as he doesn't show his hand very often and makes us worry a tiny bit.

I am musing over Texas illustrations, where the grass seeding needs to happen soon, what to have Chet, the lawnmower man accomplish with his proposed "spring cleanup", and content for my "dream project" at HAS.

The "dream project" is the first week at Hartford with Dennis Nolan and Bunny Carter (from San Jose State, and author extrodinaire---her book on the Red Rose Girls is an interesting slice of illustration history for many reasons and the way she tells the story is engrossing and believable so its a joy to read). Essentially, its a project you really want to do. As my world of Death is out of the picture right now, I proposed to Murray and Doug that I work on imagery that might be applicable to the world of Old Time music (you know, Chokers, Carol Elizabeth Jones etc)--and work from ( thanks to M's thinking) the content and roots (Americana, lyrics etc). Its hands off (no drawing allowed) but research and reference is okay. I would like to work both hand drawn and using the reductive approach and keep the color secondary--really striving for big, bold images. Its cool as I could work in square and tatami sizes ( 1x2). I like this approach as Americana is a big area...fused or not fused with music is cool--and it allows me to do a bit of a deep dive to see what's there. I just cannot make any marks or sketches. But, Texas pix may keep me from that.

Have to go and poke dinner.
tomorrow.