six layouts, one color


Due Friday. I had all of mine thrown out. Entirely...so I am on the hook. So my mood and view is pretty neurotic and nuts...as I feel that I am just this side of the "special ed" room. My lines dont seem to work to match my brain. I am tumbling and rolling...in a very uncomfortable spot. As dear Ron Mazellen told me frankly, " you should feel that way...if you didn't nothing would be happening" and coming from that superstar painter illustrator...maybe I should just be patient with my pain and wait. Let it all percolate. Channel the happy vibes and beauty from Aubrey Beardsley and Jean Tuttle, Ludwig Hohlwein, Wanda Ga'g, Virginia Lee Burton and the newest members of the happiness parade, Alice and Martin Provensen's Animal Fair ( the first book Murray Tinkelman bought after his military service which, to me, is the cutest thing in the universe). Deep breath. Murray has been wonderful talking me off the ledge. He has said its okay for me to make spot illustrations, but we need to do the other thing...address the top three: horizon, reference and light source-- and make a real picture with a context, a placement, a horizon line.


We had a nice day of work--albeit mine was complicated and pretty unproductive. Tomorrow, its headset on--Ms. NonCommunication, Ms Leavemealone. Gotta buckle down, machine mode--and blast through this. I have my first thesis meeting with Doug Andersen which I am going to surface as an exploration of decorative illustration>> going deep. I plan on writing about Jean Tuttle and her work and look forward to Murray's talks next week on Decorative Illustration  as a second hook to get me going. I need to seek and develop. 

We had the Texas crit with our posh Residence Inn making us hamburgers and hot dogs. The work from the Texas Trip was unbelievable with my favorite, absolute favorite coming from Dan "the Man" ( was totally charmed by his witty tumbling cowboy and psycho cow) , with close seconds from the amazing painters in the group. Lori Ann Levi Holms knocked herself out with another tour de force 3-D interpretation of Texas. Unbelievable. She made cows and cowboys out of clay (glazed and fired) about 4" tall which she mounted in a foosball format (and they moved) with a painted background that absolutely rocked. Everyone laughed when the idea was floated that this was "art" and you know, I totally agree. This foosball Texas piece would sit in Miami at Art Basel Miami, NO PROBLEM. It was beautifully rendered...perfect.. She then brought down her children's book--another amazing 3D, working model. ROCKS. She is an amazing energy. Speaking of amazing energy, Jackie Becker did it again with a Cowgirl Armadillo--even better that the perfect Pasadena Garden Party Bear. The personification of charm. Mardi's  pastel and gouache longhorn was unexpected and amazing. Chuck Primeau's Bacon/Action photo kinetic inspired cowboy being thrown from a bull was startling and another testament to his skills. The whole experience was a rich slice that I was delighted to partake of. The crowd liked both the Buffalo head and also the armadillo (which was a nice/nice but not a true picture for that assignment). Very positive...given the garbage I am generating by day.

Dennis Nolan gave us a lovely presentation of where he started, where he went, were the work goes and so on. His work is exquisite-- and meaningful. I loved his books, particularly the Once and Future King project which is quite beautiful and rich. Dennis lives in the detail...but his layouts are exquisite. He works in a limited palette--and builds it up in color from yellow, with red on top and finishing with blue--layering the color, building up the detail. It blows my mind. Makes me think about a limited palette beyond black white and a color. Hmmmm.

Its late once again. I am yawning so wide it hurts my jaw. Pray for productivity.
Peace.

50 Thumbnails


Have to make this quick--inbetween shower and putting my shoes on. I am tumbled, shaken--or another way of looking at it--learning by fear--We showed our 50 thumbnails to each other--seeing how others dealt with the nighttime exercise. It was very interesting and I have a page of notes that I should transcribe right here so it doesnt go anywhere. Bunny and Dennis, which turning the projects around, adding, subtracting,-in the most part moving most people out of their zone of comfort and into a sinking mire that muscle (work) will affect. Murray has been coaching me--telling me he isn't giving me any space for my antics and that I will be listening to him to move from a creator of spots for a full fledged illustrator. He is kicking me out of my nest and seeing when, just when will I start beating my wings. We'll see what happens today. We can work today and Thursday--6 finished designs with one in color.

Jean Tuttle was our speaker yesterday--a balm in this time of turmoil. She is amazing. Jean was a student of Murray's in the mid/late seventies. She is truly a decorative illustrator who delights in her work and her clients. Jean'ss work is beautifully rendered --with an original impression of simple on first glance, but as it's peeled back, has multiple layers of color and pattern. She is a queen of promotion including all sorts of cards (Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Valentines Day) that she uses to try new techniques and showcase them. Her Halloween cards using scratchboard as an example--became a new look that stemmed from her sample. She offered us cards, hot pink pens and a wonderful cat head button (note, buttons for Ithaca Art Trail would be great). I plan on writing about her as it will give me an opportunity to dig into her work and look at it as I want to better understand her look.

(note to self: try out making a palette from bringing an image into illustrator, breaking it into flat colors using Live Trace (you can sample with an eye dropper too--in both illustrator and Photoshop. Jean brought Grant Wood's palette into a project this way. Very inspiring. Another "don't forget"--my classmates if they dont have a scanner use their cameras (or phones) to shoot their work to show. Very simple idea...but a good bail out).

My class is opening up as a group--as all of us are in suspension--and it is remarkable to see the growth that is happening albeit in two days. What about the end of this week. Compared to a week of figure painting-- this is the right way to jump start a degree program. Another signature of Murray's genius and the team of Dennis and Bunny's way to bump each student off center to start the change of work and headset. Remarkable.

>>More later.

Day Two: Week One



Long first day. Nice discussion about thesis--the expectations, the schedule, the citations and writing style, what is central and what is secondary. It was significantly better than the other institution as it is so focused on content, process and and clarity. No messiness at Hartford. There was a nice selection of papers to read and absorb from last year for us to look at. A good range of work, a good consistency of papers and strong, strong work. I am freaked out..but under control...I just need to focus on the work. We had a long day with Dennis Nolan and Bunny Carter who opened their conversation with their illustration lineage back to Howard Pyle, with Dennis showing off and going further back (as Bunny joked, that Dennis could trace his lineage back to the cave painters--and you know, he might be able to do that!). We all showed our six images with a great selection of projects with solid work all around. Everyone worked very hard to have stuff to show. I showed my pix and though the content and idea is good, and the general pictures are okay--the frames all need to go and I need to open up my head and see where it goes to...which, is fine by me. More work to me means better work. It took the better part of the morning and afternoon to go through all 20 student's work. Bunny and Dennis gave tremendous input with an ability to push each one of us...some more than others to improve. Tonight we need to pick one of the images and produce 50 thumbnails investigating composition and point of view. Scanned in for first thing tomorrow. I need to move on this.

Jim Carson was as usual interesting and fresh with the Business of Illustration. Nancy Stahl was inspiring in her work, her clear methodology and her breadth of projects. Don't have much time to chat now...the fifty await. Our day starts at 7:45 a.m. and that isnt far away.

Day One: Hartford Art School: Introduction





We all gathered in the coffee room at the posh Residence Inn that we are staying in...and the room kept getting fuller and fuller with old and new people getting to know each other, updating each other on the last few months with the new people beginning to meet each other. There was a lot of loud buzz and happiness that really we could all just go home from there. Carol handed out folders with schedules, and the facebooks that she compiled from each of the classes. And then we all paired off to go over to the campus.

We met in the art building (with a brand new addition that hints at Frank Gehry) and went to the multimedia classroom for briefing. We were given locker keys and hartford email addresses. We talked about financial aid, loans the the process of transferring money, taking money and keeping it for later etc. We looked at my show which was shown twice. We talked about the thesis--the expectations and process and show. Murray and Anne Catharine Blake talked about an editing service they had discovered and recommended it to us. Then it was downstairs to lunch in the pretty open Koopman Commons with a champagne toast from Dean Power Boothe. All the soon to graduates were given embroidered baseball caps which they all sported proudly.

We newbies were given a tour of the facilities which are remarkable. There is a series of impressive printmaking studios with everything from letterpress to intaglio, woodcut, lithography with plenty of light and room to move. The spaces were used but maintained nicely, and it was clean. We saw their media suites which really had the basics for students to pursue multimedia and film with the right tools to begin learning the technology, techniques and thinking for film and film production. They have wet and dry photography rooms, with plenty of gathering spaces, and classrooms. We went to our building with an eating club and another gallery and were shown our spaces, our lockers and the computer room (with the big epson scanner and 2 big epson printers we can use. (note to self: must provide computer paper>bring next year>>Amazon this year). The University is running a football camp, arts programs for small people, a pre-coll program in art so the campus will prove to be quite busy. I was struck at the diversity of architecture, sculpture and many nice small spaces for congregating that were designed into the campus. Though it is in the country, the campus has a density I hadn't expected at all. It looks as if we are about to be spoiled what with the nice studios, air conditioning, choices for eating, all sorts of exciting stuff to go into our brains--that the two weeks will fly by and all we will have are assignments to do, and our lives to catch up with.

Top two images from the New art building, Middle: Paul Zdepski at lunch; Bottom: Chad Grohman (left) and Jay Lincoln (right) in our studio.

OMG

Well. The thing to do when Apple releases a product is to go to an Apple Store. My gripe from yesterday has been assuaged as the scene with the big white apple is so polar opposite to the monkeys at the death star company as night is to day. We showed up at the Syracuse Apple store. They had a bouncer at the front directing who got in, who didn't--keeping the level of nuttiness in the store to a minimum. I got a really cool sales person, Heather, with great hair, cool glasses and great eyebrows to walk me through my new acquisition, a 16GB iPhone, which, I must admit am in the process of falling totally and uncontrollably in love with. The whole Apple thing was great from the cleanly designed turquoise tee shirts with tiny little iphones under the person's chin, to the whole matter of fact way of selling...making even the most inept feel not so handicapped with just thumbs. Everything was on the level, and I am on my way to picking through what I need, making my email work etc. And on the way to Hartford we went!

After 4 hrs from the Carousel Mall in Syracuse we arrived via a lovely drive from the Mass Pike to a verdant Avon with a beautiful Residence Inn (no dormitory here!) filled with some of my most favorite people in the world. We are wiped and walking in the door, and there is Mike Wimmer looking handsome and fresh, ready to take on the world. I go into the lobby and there are Carol and Murray. It's okay....we can go home now. Then, unloading the minivan of a zillion black bags, and there is our newly wed, Catharine Anne Blake, looking ten years younger, happy and relaxed--amazed that July was here and her thesis was done. We settle into our room, trying to figure out how to make the internet work--and R figures it out. A. is laughing at me--teasing me about my close in or long glasses which is cute. As an aside, A. acted as a dj our entire trip--and we listened to old Beatles, Boston, The Police, Pet Sounds (the Beach Boys) and Tommy. It was really great. Our boy has great taste. I even liked the Paul McCartney stuff which, I must admit, I hated in the past. And, to be on the up and up, I loved.

As an aside. I was taken to the corner of the coffee room by Murray and Carol where they presented me with an unbelievable gift: an original woodcut from Evaline Ness and a finished drawing from Lorraine Fox. The Ness piece is striking-- particularly so as it has all the glitches and white out to make it perfect for the press. It is in her Girl and the Goatherd hand--which as you know, I think totally rocks. The other piece by Lorraine Fox is a heraldic picture with rearing lions and a steaming pudding/pie. I am assuming it has to do with "sing a song of six pence" but I could be off my rocker....it is elegant in it's simplicity and use of a single grey tone. Note--try this. I am so, so touched. Now all I need is for Mr. Tinkelman to tell us some stories about these ladies (ladies who did not do pictures of babies or puppies to make their mark) and the world will be complete.

We all ended up having dinner--an enormous table of people: Carol and Murray, Ron Mazellen, Jim O'Brien, Mike Wimmer, Yong Chen, Randy Elliot (a member of the incoming class , a friend of the wonderful Richard Williams), Ron Spears, Paul Zdepski, David LaBrozzi,--with A, R and me. Very jolly. Lots of loud talk, good ideas... It points up what was so sorely misssing for me at SU--the entire community of souls. We were a lean community....more of a chat group. What with this robustness...there isn't anything we can't do.

tomorrow starts early.

New generation customer service


I just got back from the AT+T store--a twenty minute drive each way. Walked in with credit card and social security number in hand to buy an iPhone. Out. Only 60 were shipped. And, if I wanted to give them my money now, I might, just might have it by next Wednesday. So, I decided that we would hazard getting it at an Apple Store. So, I call Syracuse and ask if it would be worth it for me to make a 2 hour drive to come and get a phone. They couldn't tell me either way. I asked why they couldn't tell me, it was just that they couldn't? Would they have more tomorrow, I asked? They couldn't tell me. What sort of BS is this? I am ready to plunk down hundreds of dollars and they have no answers? I give up.

Ohio Connection: Birth

from http://www.ohiocenterforthebook.org on Evaline Ness (the best bio):

Ness, Evaline Union City
Born: Monday, April 24, 1911

Ohio connection: Birth

Evaline Ness was born Evaline Michelow, daughter of Albert and Myrtle Woods (Carter) Michelow, in 1911 in Union City, Ohio. In her childhood, she developed a great love for art. She attended Ball State Teachers College, 1931-32; Chicago Art Institute, 1933-35; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1943-45; and Accademia de Belle Arti, Rome, 1951-52. She taught children`s art classes at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1943-45, and at Parsons School of Design, New York City, 1959-60. She was a fashion illustrator at Saks Fifth Avenue, New York City, 1946-49, and also a magazine and advertising illustrator during the same years. Her first marriage was to a commercial artist simply known as Mac. Dates of the marriage are unknown, and it ended in divorce. She was married to public safety director and former treasury agent Eliot Ness, from 1938 until their divorce in 1946. She married Arnold Bayard in 1959. Evaline Ness was a talented author and illustrator. She specialized in children`s books, illustrating many of her own titles, as well as the works of others. Some of her self-illustrated books are Josefina February; Exactly Alike; Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine; Do You Have Time, Lydia?; Yeck Eck; and Fierce the Lion. She won the Caldecott Medal in 1967 for Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine. She did the illustrations for books by many different children`s authors, including Helen E. Buckley, Virginia Haviland, Lucille Clifton, Margaret Wise Brown, and Lloyd Alexander. Evaline Ness died of a heart attack Tuesday, August 12, 1986 in Kingston, New York.

Awards:
First prize for painting, Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, DC; American Library Association (ALA) Notable Book, 1958, for The Sherwood Ring; ALA Notable Book and Horn Book honor list citation, both 1962, for Thistle and Thyme: Tales from Scotland; Horn Book honor list citation, 1963, for The Princess and the Lion; Caldecott Honor Book and Horn Book honor list citation, both 1963, for All in the Morning Early; Caldecott Honor Book and Horn Book honor list citation, both 1964, for A Pocketful of Cricket; Caldecott Honor Book and ALA Notable Book, both 1965, for Tom Tit Tot: An English Folk Tale; Horn Book honor list citation, 1966, for Sam, Bangs and Moonshine; Horn Book honor list citation, 1967, for Mr. Miacca: An English Folk Tale; Caldecott Medal, 1967, for Sam, Bangs and Moonshine; Hans Christian Andersen award nomination, 1972; ALA Notable Book and Horn Book honor list citation, both 1972, both for Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog.

Whirlwind



The morning officially started when R. pulled out a new shirt out of his suitcase from his recent trip to Seattle (and Nordstroms) and I flipped. It is a shirt by Robert Graham, with embroidery, embroidered ribbon, and a strong stripe that is smartly considered when it comes to detail...often truncating in a 90 degree angle to create these interesting corners in the design. The insanity of yesterday with it's rollercoaster of projects, information and getting about was smoothed over in the aura of this wonderful shirt. So, of course I am googling away as we speak to learn more, see where the deals are and what else the divine Mr. Graham has for my boy's wardrobe.

Our neighbors here at the lake had some unwelcome visitors over the winter--a combination of squirrels (probably the most obscene, the red squirrel) and racoons. And they are capable of a lot of destruction particularly as they can't open doors...so they try to chew their way out (we had a squirrel who gnawed an entire windowsill trying to get through to open the window). They make holes in the walls and really party. So, I feel for these folks who spend a large part of the year in England to come home to their country bower to be shocked by the mayhem.

The plates still continue to spin. I am getting things done...amending work that needs to be done and trying to set things up for Erich to be in charge while I worry about illustration for the next week. I hope the illustration thing is not so much a worry as a plunge into a deep pool that I can swim in. I always get nervous despite the recent recognition in 3x3, CA, SOI, SILA and Ill46.That should be some reinforcement that I am not shitty all the time. I really would like to see where this line work could go...or even just a drawn approach. To that, Mentor Murray sent me to an entry on Today's Inspiration , a wonderful blog written and researched by a Canadian illustrator, Leif Peng--on Art Seiden, a decorative illustrator who was central to the development of the Storybook style of illustration in the 50's/60's. For me, Seiden's work recalls all sorts of illustrators I love like Mary Blair (designer illustrator of the famed Small World exhibition/ride, Golden Books illustrator and advertising illustrator);Garth Williams, Richard Scarry--they all seem to peek out of this style.

However, as I was googling away, I ran into the work of Evaline Ness, former wife of Elliot Ness, who at around the age of 50 decided to be a children's book writer and illustrator. Yes, she worked in a storybook style...but took it to this strong, two color work that introduced found textures to produce some pretty sophisticated, strong imagery. I will post some other images later today as I really want to save them out, share them with you and also have them in one place so that I can stare at them for reference. I really am quite taken with them...the line work, the use of color and texture. She can do the sweeter stuff, but this is the stuff that resonates with me.

As I mentioned before, Today IS the National Day for iPhones. So, instead of spending the night in front of the At&T store, I will take a spin down there this a.m. around 10:30 to see if they have any left. If not, then I am coming back and we will do this tomorrow/Sunday. I am psyched. However, I jinxed myself with the iDvd thing. I keep trying to burn a CD from the Keynote file translated for iDVD and it keeps printing the thing backwards...and I have spent hours trying to make it work to no avail. I could Scream. Maybe I need to get some reading on this despite the chat rooms and valuable online help that's out there.

The big boy A is downstairs in his new pants looking handsome. He really had a good time in Miami and described every thing in every store, every bite and sip devoured, the marvel of the world of spanish speaking people, the different pace and way people look and live. It was a very inspiring couple of days for him. Hopefully, some time on the golf course today.

Gotta go>>the day, packing, and working>> awaits.

DooDa!



It's Logo Design Wednesday. I've got a freebie for the local fashion designer. I've piddled around with it...and now I need to focus. She makes cool coats and her new collection is asian inspired using vintage japanese materials and pre-existing coats. Her vision is twinkly and inspired...and the logotype needs to be a bit more grounded as the clothing is not the straight and narrow. Another is a fix with some fairly detailed criteria with an old client. I hope I can bring something to this beyond the tight parameters.

We Tburgers are getting the wheels in motion for another GrassRoots Festival starting next Wednesday. The DooDa Truck will be out, the art for the ArtBarn will be recieved, the tents are going up. R and A are volunteering with the carpenters next week. The carpenters build the stages, build the dance floors and build things for kids that have, in the last two years become part of our little Tburg in front of the laundromat. Little Tburg is a mini park with plants, a sod sofa (totally cute) complete with grass pillows, and two magnificent, beautifully made playhouses--one a library and the other a school with furniture, wooden books, staircases and multiple floors. The buildings are dedicated to community people who have given of themselves and touched the world despite they are not with us anymore. If I were a small person, it would have been heaven.

Today I burn dvds and hopefully out to Murray and Carol as a surprise prevention program. Plus, it will take the pain out of the computer monkey business for the Sunday intro session at Hartford. I am stupid about this stuff, and the last thing I want to do is be stupid for my new best friends at Hartford...on day one! It would be so out of character to not be a total bonehead...at least I can try!

R and A have another day in Miami. A bought $100 "sexy" jeans which flips me out...but he is a glamourpuss...and truly looks great in this stuff. I think its a bit spoiled but he will wear them until they fall off his bony butt. They are eating all sorts of fish and cuban food. They are swimming in the ocean and in the most fab stainless steel pool at the hotel. As an aside, since a friend of ours came back from spending the summer in Germany swimming in stainless steel pools, this has been a high lust for me. I love pools--summer and winter--and the idea of a sleek, streamlined, smooth surfaced pool works. So do black infinity pools too. I know, too predictable, but I love them. I have a lake with fish( that threaten to bite me) and rocks...but total beauty--the pools will just have to wait!

I need to round up the cats, prop open the porch door on the second floor, place a pieplate heaped with yummie bits outside and get Miss Grove in the wonderbus as I need to rally.

More later, I hope>>

editing


Limbs came down last night. More rain expected tonight. The plants are loving it. My 5' monarda (second year) is beginning to blow out...and the astilbe is blissing in the ground. The girls are still engaged in the guarding of the groundhog hole. Its hot here...steamy..and I think a trip to the lake for this evening is in line as I have work for Hartford (tuning some pacing of the slide show) and some graphic work for other clients.

Round two with the Cornell job. Moving forward. There may be a hand drawn holiday card featuring a horse...(I think jumping over a star. Horse may be a swedish horse). So, good progress and closure. The day after I come home from HAS, I have a 2 day pressrun for this book--as its chock a block on one press versus multiples. So, I need to get myself organized for that.

Just got out of the lake all by my lonesome. It was quite extrodinary to be in the water, looking up the lake with no one around. No boats, no sailboats, no people, no kayaks--just me and the girls (Shady Grove and Mei Mei) taking in the quiet, the beautiful monochromatic color and the being one with the water. I have this hypothesis that being in the water does something chemical to you. As we are 90+% water, and being in non treated water without salt...allows the water to go cellular--and that at a moment, I can become one with the water. That is what adds to the lake effect. The only thing I am not with are the fish....and the zebra mussels.

I have (I think) conquered the dragon. I have, step by step--not winging it, brought the Keynote slides (created in powerpoint) into iDVD with all the bells and whistles mac offers, and made it so that I can burn the Hartford show with music...and then have it as a pop and go...and nothing that is dependent on the software, the hardware....all the crap that drives me crazy when all you want to do is be cool, be one with whoever you are talking to, and make the whole conversation be seamless versus the electronic burps and farts that random software/hardware and the humidity, the day of the week, your middle name, when the solstice falls. But, I speak out of turn. I do not want to jinx this...but I did follow the recipe exactly, added the baking powder, and it feels like it might work. I am impressed that you can send slideshows from keynote directly to YouTube...which opens up the possibility of portfolios>? or reference? I might make one up of all the historic Marie Antoinette stuff...and see if it works...could be a cool reference tool... who knows.

Phone rang today from someone I spoke to a couple of weeks ago who does very high end work and subcontacts high end art for huge interiors projects. Elegant, splashy spaces. Art deco was mentioned. We will talk soon. This could be very cool. Illustration/art that is not for the editorial world, the book world, even the design world...another planet...an entirely different world than we normally talk about. We'll see. First glass illustration and work for CDs and now this. Certainly projects I would have NEVER been considered for prior to the illustration mojo. And, a ton more fun!

I am in the 3x3 Showcase which seems (as it is done by a polyglot person--illustrator, designer, manager...what else did I read he has done> photographer, creative director, agency founder....Charles Hively (AIGA has a nice interview with Steve Heller>> and am blowing my annual budget on a spread...and then some...but I think the magazine has merit, reach and the quality that is worth it. Still waiting to hear what got into the show. You will know as soon as I do.

there is a lot of stuff out there, that if it hits, I might have to give up sleep. Might be worth it.

Gotta wrap up this incessant editing of the slides...I am worked up on making it good and more perfect than thrown together--and that take time. Six minutes of grey hair. But, as my brave and valiant husband, the man who the Myers-Briggs has identified as a mystic, a person who can see into the future said..."you need to learn these tools and use them"--and though I fight...he is always, ALWAYS right ( I was right one or two times...but nothing given his batting average).

Gotta sleep. The thing is done.

(picture is Kay Nielsen--a honey--love the texture and the treatment of the ground)

work on a show logotype for CMoG



Click for detail. This baby is going to enlarge to 8' tall. Need to tweak and add type..may even look at color for kicks a la Philip Burke!

We are having thunder and as the local serious gardeners say, "a soaking rain". I am trying to figure out when to take Miss Grove out for her walk. She is still in attendance on the Groundhogs. Maybe leave a calling card?

moving forward


R and A jetted off to Miami for a few days of business (with A tagging along). A. just called from the rented Saturn saying they had just landed and they were off to Hollywood Beach for a dip and I am sure a snack or two to fill out that skinny frame. Very exciting. R was sporting his cuban hat. A was in full skater rig with white flip flops. R has an event with Celebrity Cruise Lines (because of the glass shops that are being built on the next generation of ships, The Solstice Class, will be staffed by CMoG glassmakers). First boat launches in November (R mused that maybe I could spend the week for Hartford sleeping on the ship! How princessy and wrong!--but I love it). So, I am free to work until midnight every night in prep for Hartford. Yay. Total exhaustion!

The boys went to Watkins Glen to see the Indy races yesterday. Lots of boy excitement hanging out with friends, watching the television and the race at the same time. Lots of chest thumping, beer drinking and fun in general. To A. it almost is as much fun as golf.

Lucy and Shady are guarding the front steps (there is a clan of groundhogs that live under the front steps) and somehow they feel that if they both bark at them, they will manage the groundhog crisis at hand. Little that they know is that we probably have around 60 of them on the property and also, if one gave them a run for their money--only one of them would know what to do. Shady is too much of a "lover, not a fighter". Lucy would rip it's head off. Bets are on...and if someone bags a few, there might be a steak in it for them. I have hired endless exterminators and mountain men to no avail...so maybe the dogs will do it. Its wild to watch Shady be so interested in the prey. She is really trying to be a dog these days! Chasing rabbits, chasing groundhogs, rolling in dead fish, eating disgusting things (particularly deercicles) and stealing sticks of butter from the counter.

I got the first sketches for Hartford done. May keep slugging on it as there are some ideas I started blue lining. Client called with a 16 pp pub due by the end of the week. Slugging away on the AR for Cornell with hopes to get this out by end of the week to the printer.

Tim and Amanda are pressure washing the roof of the carriage house. Tons of flakes of silver paint litter the ground. More later.

it's almost 9


TJ the cat is carrying a dead bird around in his mouth with great pride. MeiMei, the cat and Shady Grove stood guard as we swam. The water was perfect. Not bone chilling.. No thoughts of death by freezing. None of that. It was the gravitational swim that aligns everything and sends your head into another part of the universe. It is still light out with a pink sunsut and the water pearly to match the sky. Dinner is around the corner...

update


I took some pictures of bugs and bees in amongst the sweet peas that grown with the day lilies. It was great. The wild flax has popped as has our yucca plant which is mainly yucka until the week it holds forth in showy bridal finery. It has been a clear day with mild temperatures and low humidity. We had to buy a brand new pair of scare eyes for the dock. The plastic owl has worked thus far, keeping the pooping by the seagulls to a minimum. But one of the gulls has gotten smart..so the pooping begins again. They hate, really hate the scare eyes..So we are golden. Bought five big astilbes for the Camp House as the deer hate these along with the robust patch of monarda we have going that will need to be split and moved around next year. All good.

Am mulling the children's book. I was doing a ton of research yesterday (have a grid going of the things that could be represented for each color along with quotes, proverbs etc.) and surprisingly, the more I did of the search, the more this idea needed ia twist. It also needed a name. It was hard to name it as it was so bland...It was going stale before I even started to draw. What was it? Hmmm. Then I remembered that Rossetti poem and the whole thing popped into place.I am going the merge the Christina Rosetti poem "What is Pink?" with spreads representing the color she introduces (essentially her poem references pink and is the first spread --then the next spread references a la specimen box, tons of other stuff she missed about pink). Pink, red, yellow, green, red, purple, blue. Then, I am going to render the layouts 3-4 ways--first one vector a la portfolio, second is vector reduced palette a la Chokers, third is Memento mori line/ink technique, and final is no holds barred line work..lots of detail. The layouts will change the various sizes of the designs, will push me with these techniques which I feel I need and work within a format that will be interesting to see what happens. Maybe this could be blown into the thesis. Now I am pumped as it is a tangible project that I get to push myself with technique while designing for the technique in the appropriate shape/size. I think we are to have layouts for the Lewin's to review next July, but maybe I can have one iteration by November? Its worth the shot. I think I can get some traction on this.

I discovered in my research, something that would help to gel the "Dancing Queen" Marie Antoinette picture. I remembered the painting of the young (8 yrs old or so) MA dancing stiffly with her little brother and thought that might be a nice inspiration...or a silhouette or something. So, I googled Marie Antoinette Dancing and up came something better--Dance notation on dance sets of the time. Combine that with some learning from Harry Clarke could be cool. Fun.

morning in Sheldrake on Cayuga




Gotta go. Errands to run. People to see. Just wanted to say good morning...and I will get with you a bit later. Had some good breakthroughs on up and coming projects that I am thrilled about and want to share. Children's book has gone from good to possibly publishable and this is from a nonbiased source! (me).
later> the wonderbus is idling.

IF: Sour


Nothing goes sour more easily than the life of pleasure.

 Mason Cooley (b. 1927),
U.S. aphorist. City Aphorisms, Fourth Selection, New York (1987).<

So, as you pick up your July 4th cupcake and bite in, remember the queen known for her pleasures, and also remembered for phrases she never spoke and think. Think hard of today's pleasures and all that it takes for us to savor them--

Enjoy your american feasts of hot dogs and frothy drinks on this beautiful day.