perfect morning

It was a beautiful, warm and perfect wedding. The rain didn't happen, but the landscape of dramatic clouds only enhanced the day...floating as large ships in the brilliant blue sky. The bride was beaming and absolutely stunning. The groom exuded happiness. The best man read poetry, particularly one about New York State and marriage which was a life travelogue combined with the best writing onf the region I've ever heard. There was reading and poetry, singing and the processional/ recessional duet of violin and guitar.

After sniffling and tearing up, we had the afternoon to gather. There were lots of babies and little children who behaved --and were a source of amusement and added to the happy environment. There was a tent with tables/tablecloths and lovely arrangements of farmers market fresh flowers with bright pink napkins embracing a pair of white cookies for a favor. Friends brought salads, and there was barbeque and hot sides too. Long John and the Tights played. Later in the afternoon, a game called cube (quebe?) was brought out and 4-5 games were started where people toss 2"x2"9" pieces of wood to try and knock stakes down. There were lots of grand people in their finery with their shoes off...heavily engaged in this.

I took a zillion pictures and loved talking to the tribe. It was great.

We came back and monkey-itis happened. About an hour on that and it was time to sleep.

I just got up (late!) to see our friend Peter has arrived as his herreshoff boat is tied to our dock.

Gotta go

patchwork


We attended the big cd release party for Toivo at Felicia's. The music was great and the sales, hopefully, better. We had nice drinks (a mojito for one, and a Trumansburg Lemonade for the other, kids had cokes) and were struck with the crazy offerings Felicia's has...a beet martini, a ginger margarita and much more. It was a brief stay with a chance to say hi to all the band members and survey the some of the old time music nobility in place to launch this nice new collection of songs. Take a listen>>

We had a nice dinner at Bluestone--with it feeling like vacation with everyone diving on their food as if they had never seen it.
There was lots of fun as the tabletops have been painted with chalkboard paint..so K and A went at it and I drew a monkey that inspired me to think about Alexander Calder and his wonderful bent wire animals. I am doing to do a wire drawing of a monkey this weekend with the computer screen up and pointed at some Calder animals for clues.

Today is the wedding at the farm in the afternoon. I am hoping that the tradition of a big rain may not happen today to give these sweet people a chance to start their marriage with sunshine. If not, they both have enough sunshine inside to tide us through. Its going to be a traditional Tburg dish to pass event...which should be fun and enlightening. Prior to Tburg, I used to hate dish to pass...but this has changed in a town of good cooks who all seem to pull their weight in excellence and contribution. Now its fun. My guess is that as the groom is plugged into the local music scene, we are going to have some amazing music this afternoon too.

The unplugging happened. My brother, an IT/MBA executive type, sent me an extensive list of first you do this, then you do that...to explain how to stump these pirating monkeys with a password protected wireless set up. Now this person (yours truly) has to just do it...so unplugging will be unnecessary.

Need to start on holiday cards and the illustration for our party "5 at 2" (five years at 2 Camp Street) along with squaring away guest list, food thoughts and of course, the music (maybe Toivo?). The house will be significantly changed since 5 years ago, we will be prime set up for the Art Trail, and why not. It may verge on a huge guest list...as we love everyone. So, the pen needs to think about the Provensens and their horses for the card...and a maybe a bow to Saul Steinberg for the other. Who knows. I just need to get going. Yesterday was a great day of closing out jobs, cleaning up the small stuff and prep for the Tsunami which I get the impression is going to happen.

More later>>

IF: Detach

The ingenuity of man has always been dedicated to the solution of one problem,—how to detach the sensual sweet, the sensual strong, the sensual bright, &c., from the moral sweet, the moral deep, the moral fair; that is, again, to contrive to cut clean off this upper surface so thin as to leave it bottomless; to get a one end, without an other end.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882),

flipping


May the unplugging begin. We were winding up dinner as the moon was rising last night(is it just me, or is it getting darker much sooner already?), and there arose a glow, a lcd glow from across the driveway on the edge of the property line. Yes. She was at it again. Pirating internet signals...just as bold as paint. So, today the great unplugging happens until I can find the IP address of the router and work the magic online. As you can gather...this is really riling me up. It could be funny, really funny in the ridiculousness of all of this...with our white haired neighbor scampering to not be noticed, computer in hand, searching for signals and mumbling about the former signal they used, the Linksys, gone. "No more Linksys" a mantra, chanted over and over again as she patrols for a connection with us...Monty Pythonesque in it's silliness...but still enraging me none the less.

More kid work with AP papers due next week with slow progress on the reading. No action on the grammer tutoring that needs to happen and planning to meet with our college coach who is going to lead a workshop on geometry as many of her students do not understand it..and as I found yesterday, the PSAT is riddled with geometry. So, I am reeling with the stress of all of this (note the time) and have a slightly unwilling party that this is getting "done to". I am so not enjoying this...I have my own deadlines and papers and projects. It would be nice just to be able to do my own work versus dragging the horse to water and shoving it's head in, opening it's mouth and scooping the water into the mouth. If I could swallow for the horse, I sure would try. Need to be able to manage this better.

On a happier note, classmate Chad Grohman posted his entry for the Obama show in Denver (due date I think is 08/18) that is quite lovely and a departure from his vector work. His strong design skills and color palette peeks out, but this piece is delicate and considered in his approach to his subject, and the political topic in general. It emotes a feeling that he captures in the title, "Hope". Here is some of his preliminary work>>

Paul Zdepski, also a classmate and fellow blogger, shared a wonderful Czech story book about a farm, some livestock etc. The story is great I am sure, but the sheer explosion of decorative borders, title pages and the illustrations within said borders is enough to blow your mind. He has got a connection at a library when the books are cycled out..and this absolute gem came his way. Very bold, shocking...I am going to need to monkey some of this...and see if I can own a bit, learn a bit from it. Beyond the decorative borders, the blocking and tackling of the images are great and the line/stipple effect with these simple blue clouds is worth borrowing for the Monkey King(if he ends up with clouds). (Note picture posted, Sun Wukong actually has clouds built into his shoes.I wonder if Sierra Trading Post has these built in cloud shoes? take a look>>

Finished up the pub for the Museum. Tweaked it yesterday and we are good. Started the slides that I was dreading. It was important just to start messing around with it to see what happened. Had the multi masthead newsletter meeting which resulted in a chinese menu approach to changes (we like this from that, and the color from here and oh, add this here, etc) which I have turned into a new resolution to go out today. I was checking my email on this newsletter and we started talking about it the first week of July. My, how we like to talk about things.

Nothing on the rising Tsunami project. I will need to contact my clients to see if this is a go/no go and the status. If its a go...I will no longer have time to toss in my sleep over teenagery,as I will not be sleeping. We'll see.

Toivo has it's CD release party tonight at Felicias. I worked with Toivo on their cd production with Rich Koski, champion accordian player and leader of this group, and artist, Annie Campbell (Rich is in the center, Annie is on the drums)--doing the layout and graphic designery things to bring all the components of the imagery that Rich and Annie wanted together. The CD is great, as testified by Jonathan Cook of the Finding Ulysses blog:
I got my hands on a copy of Toivo’s new CD, Laughing Shoe, the other day and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it since. So have my kids. Whenever I play the CD, all three get up and started stomping and tapping in orbits around each other on the floor.

My children’s decision to dance isn’t a reflection of a deep understanding of music theory, but it is nonetheless a good sign of music that’s constructed well. They won’t dance to the wandering classical music that plays most of the time on WSKG, and even the hypersurrealist immature electronica of Yo Gabba Gabba fails to inspire them.

Toivo, on the other hand, combines solid folk traditions that have withstood the cultural selection of audiences for hundreds of years. It’s not trendy. It just works. The Laughing Shoe also celebrates our local landscape, with songs like Swamp College Schottische, the Podunk Two-Step and Waterburg Swing.

And, with names that reference our little plateau (Swamp College, Podunk, and Waterburg), combined with the energy and happiness this music communicates,Toivo should have us up and moving this evening.

Where are the mice?

Finished up the first go on a small publication we do for the Museum and got the pdf out late yesterday. There are small pleasures in making all the pieces fit wheither it be a story too long or too short that have too many images or not enough. The redesigned grid works like a charm and is urban cool without it being unapproachable. So, that is on it's way. Need to work on a thankyou card for a client and some pretty scary charts/informational graphics that need to communicate some fairly "inside" information in a way inspired by three flipchart pages that sit atop my pile. Deep breath. I am probably making more of this project and just need to step into the mire and start swinging. Always feel better with action. I keep hoping the mice will do it when I am sleeping like the Tailor of Glouster. Nothing this morning!

Got out to Sheldrake to find our very important neighbor perched feet from our door with a computer picking up our wireless connection. There were complaints that the other signals they were pirating no longer existed so of course they were going to get ours. There was an air of absolute entitlement which, for this gal, really lit my fire. I don't know why this really ticks me off, but it is an invasion of privacy and the fact that the neighbor acknowledged we "caught her" versus just asking permission feeds my feelings. I have never really considered putting a password on our wireless connection, but now is the time. Or just unplug the wireless equipment before we leave the house. I have a real problem with privacy and entitlement. Big time.

Later that evening, we were eating leftovers disguised as pasta (which our boy A was shovelling in , platefuls) and a german lady came up on the porch and asked if we were renting rooms. No, sez us (thinking all the while that maybe we could get $80 for a night in our guest room, old sheets, clean towels) but let us help you find a place--which R did happily, drawing maps, calling our friends in Tburg for a late reservation. That was fun running the Sheldrake Triple A.

No new monkeys. I did one yesterday that I will scan and drop in later. More monkeys today. Kinglike monkeys...Monkeys in clouds. More farting around...but monkeys galore. I am enjoying this decorative world. Fun. Permission not to know how to draw....I guess.

More later>

Syracuse Poster Project


Syracuse Poster Project:
Out of the blue came this request...and this is the result:
"...selected two of yours to include in the supplemental aspect of the 2009 poster series: the catcher image and the homeboy image. The images should appear on our web site, www.posterproject.org, by Friday. Poets will go there to view them."

..."Thanks again for supporting the project's efforts. You were one of two artists who ended up participating in this aspect of the project. The other is Donald Kilpatrick from Detroit."

They create posters with ISDP SU artwork as a way of promoting local poets and images. This group has used ISDP students in the past. Lets see what happens.

Pink Sky

It's early. The pink tinged sky hangs over the silver lake...too cold to swim, but a confection to admire and think about.

Today is Wednesday. Middle of the week...but miles to go before the next Wednesday. More on the work front. Whaled on some newsletter mastheads that need to be produced three ways and elegant enough to carry the entire pub as it will be cut and paste layout by a marketing person...and not a designer. Will need to write some specs around copy, color and type size/weight, application. At least if we write and submit the controls, all they will need to do is distribute and hope all follow them. This sort of rogue publication "design" is a bit frightening, but it seems no one cares about something actually functioning and communicating, it is more tactical-- just getting it out regardless of content, message, and how that is portrayed. Man, am I sounding like an old fogey.

On the fun front, I have a picture to do for Ornamentapalooza, a November event at the Museum of Glass centered around..yes, holiday ornaments. Linear illustration, using their two color approach: black and chrome yellow (the 2300 degrees signature colors)which I have used for years. There is another card to do having to do with the inaugural cruise with Celebrity but the focus is unclear. I am not sure they want a Cassandra knock off...but hey. We'll see.

I am waiting for the tsunami book. I am also waiting to see if I have priced myself out of a job...but it's got to be soon as their deadline is the first week of September for a 300 pp. pub.And then a week or two of revisions and done. I quake in fear...either way. It's too much, too fast, schedule free( they dont believe in schedules or thumbnailing the entire pub.). How can we keep our arms around what we have and what we don't?

Here's something nice: blogs!

Some of my new best friends and classmates at the University of Hartford are now bloggers. Paul Z. who I admire tremendously from his work to this salient observations and understanding. He bursts with animation and laughs as does his work which always has a wonderful twist that makes one bellow aloud in it's expression. He is a big personality with big work to match. His Dogbabies project captures this spirit and promises to really be something quite significant. I love his painting and the wit he brings to that. It should be a fun year to see what happens with Paul and his work. I cannot wait! Paul is doing a lovely blog>> /">zillustration studio news. Paul gives us an entry every day and has surprised me with his MFA Student Profiles...where he highlights students from the Hartford program. First he did Chad Grohman and then me!I was thinking of doing a similar thing, but you know, his are so nice I think Paul has got the baton on this one.

Speaking of Chad Grohman, Chad started a blog remarking:
"I was inspired by my classmates in the Harford MFA program to start this blog. Ill be posting mostly images rather than writing. Some photos, but mostly images that I wouldn't put on my portfolio site that are off-style. I should say, not illustrator created, because its the same style mostly. Photoshop images, paintings, collateral, etc. Much of this will be about my time at Hartford and around the country."
And, he is...>> Check out the totally sweet picture of Obama (I think for the Obama Call for Entries). Man.

Linda Tajirian is a fellow graphic designer who has joined the Hartford program. Linda is also a graduate of the Hartford Art School, so she knows her way around professionally and when we all need help in Avon/Farmington/ West Hartford. Linda is fearless and created some really imaginative and quite interesting drawings around the topic of knitting during our July encampment at HAS. She too, was moved by this time we all had together and started her blog: Life's Journey Part 5 " The MFA She is giving us a sneak peak into her reference for the Vin Di Fate project. Should be a good one!

Jime Grabowski writes in her Nightlanding blog about her experiences, her work and thinking around the MFA experience. Her MFA Encounters page links to people and places she admires, has been taught by or has visited. Great list.

I am not sure if that is it...but it's all I could unearth for the moment.Take a look at all these interesting illustrators are showing and telling us. I am learning a lot. Plus, its a nice amusement during coffee breaks, if you have them.

More later.

Monkeying around


Need to get stuff out to 3x3. Corrections for the Museum's calendar. Newsletter layouts for a marketing group. Still working with the monkeys. Was looking at some reference and had a little epiphany...the pix are getting more interesting. I figure if I give myself until Labor Day, I will be on to something for Vin. I know that this is not real world for jobs...but, this graduate stuff is not real world anyway and I should wallow in it. Wallow away!

R is out for a conference. More painting here. More moving of old materials. Big dump run. A. at friends. K. having PSAT training and then history book stuff. Need to get in front of the school year before the end of the summer. Will need to find a geometry tutor. Lots beginning to mount up prior to September 1.

Was swimming in the book The Animal Farm. Cute as pie with some strong references: Grandma Moses most particularly. That Alice and Martin...writers and illustrators! The little bit on Hibernation makes you want to lie down and sleep along with the bear.

More later.


Cold again today. Rain. More rain. Quite an electrical storm over on Seneca Lake last night providing entertainment during our nice dinner at the Stonecat Cafe. It was amusing as we ran into friends who are full of fun and had the cutest, blonde corgi waiting for them in the car. Corgis are quite compelling. Shady Grove could have a new friend who is a corgi? or a pug? Better corgi I think. They have big dog spirit in a smaller package without the social stigma that pugs have. Although pugs are compelling too? No reason to rush.

Had a little drawing vacation yesterday afternoon. The wind was blowing and it was promising rain in the low 70s. But we were chided and hastened by R to swim before we cannot do so any more. It was darned cold--sending my core temperament into the freeze mode, but did that water trick of stunning us into sleep. Am rolling on the monkeys. I figure if I whale on them for around two weeks, I will begin to get a little decorative mojo going. I will post some sketches as I go. I've got some linear ones, and some blocky ones inspired by Animal Farm, by Alice and Martin Provensen.

Itchy

Cold again today. Rained hard last night. Thunder, the whole shebang. We did have a nice swim in between the bouts of heavy clouds and breezes. The swim aligned everything including our brains...so onward!

Did a bit of driving yesterday shuttling the teen girl squad downtown, and then getting back. R was hoe-ing out the garage and making straight the lines...making piles disappear, defining good wood from bad wood...and the like. Bought the fab donut peaches from the fruit stand up the street along with corn, more tomatoes and cukes. Started a big tabouli for us and the working team (I feed lunch to everyone who works for me wheither it is designers or workers--sometimes its two, sometimes its ten)--and we are tipping more towards ten. So big salads are consumed in 1-2 days and my homemade stuff is better and significantly cheaper than the grocery store's deli case.

Stopped by the new used bookstore, Green Horse Used Books, on my walk home from getting my hair cut. Great store with all sorts of books I want to read, good art selection, and kids picturebooks too. I was nosing through them and found another Evaline Ness book on Italian tales. Fab. I plan on scanning them in and starting a flickr site of these children's books images to share with others and as offsite storage for me. Back to Ness, these are very designed images and spreads. Heavy black woodcut style linework with hot pink, orange and gold as accents. She uses geometric shapes under the linework to take it to another place. You'll see.

Need more time to get into my pictures. I am afraid that my stuff all looks like logotypes, so being surrounded by the Provensens for today..is good coaching to get off it..and combine it with line. If they do look like logos, that maybe isnt bad...it just means that I am not pushing it. It is all a pleasure--it is just that with this pleasure goes itchniness that often results in trying new things, and possibly evolving. Your bones hurt when you grow...why can't you be itchy when you grow and evolve with your brains and hands?

Present Memories


Cool/cold here. Low 70s with the wind blowing. Heavy,"Big River" clouds always threatening rain. It has rained everyday so the tomatoes are not ready. The grapes will be juicy but not filled with flavor so wine will be plentiful but not wildly noteworthy. We have a bread pudding in for a late breakfast. Haircuts at 11:30. A. is on the phone arranging time and golf games with his buddies. R is cutting the hedges as its a bit shaggy. He is quite a sculptor with the electric cutter. We have birthday presents to create, guests to feed, and straightening to happen. Maybe it will warm up enough swim. I really want August to be August.

Papers are done. Lots of interesting discoveries as I wrote them. I am intrigued by the passage illustrators go through to become decorative illustrators. Many of them come directly to it, but others through more commercial means such as fashion illustration, graphic design, photography, and advertising. They get the illustration bug, and tack it on to what they are doing...evolving to becoming real live illustrators. The aspect of style is key--perhaps that being the link--where style and stylishness factors heavily into the message. Fashion does that. Logos and type do that. Painting like NC Wyeth, Howard Pyle or Norman Rockwell are essentially classic expressions of an idea. However, paintings by Austin Briggs, Joe DeMar or the ever unbelievable Al Parker do communicate a style, a period, an emotion that swings in the context it was created. And, they swing today too. So, maybe that isn't just with decorative illustration alone. But the immediacy of decorative illustration in somehow takes it further. Hmm.

One more thing. I think it is important to say a little something In Memorium for the Syracuse ISDP Illlustration Program. If it hasn't finished this week, it will finish next....and it was something that meant something to me and many more. I cannot let this slip away.

The Syracuse ISDP program was singular in it's twenty eight years of developing and training many of the leaders in the illustration education world along with many practicing illustrators whose careers were enriched and deepened by the experience. It is thanks to the amazing personal effort, talent, muscle and reach that Murray and Carol Tinkelman brought to this program inspiring students, teachers and alumni to achieve and think beyond what they thought was possible. It was the magic that the Tinkelmans brought, building collegiality, professionalism and hope that changed lives, built careers, created lifelong friendships and memories amongst the hundreds that went through this program.

The ISDP MA in Illustration was a low impact program for Syracuse University. It was a cash cow that had a low burden on the University who did not promote it, respect it nor understand the impression this program had on the world of illustration and design or the impact and reputation it brought to it's undergraduate program. The University was unaware of how this ISDP program and it's graduates burnished the image of the school, it's graduates and the excellence provided by it's program. So, while the muscle, belief and will of Murray and Carol drove this rich program, the program flourished and grew.

However, as the world changed and a MA did not suffice for teaching--only a MFA would do. And this is where it got sticky. Syracuse would not go there as it would conflict with their existing MFA program in illustration. MA was fine. The F was not possible. This along with much much more (which Murray will need to detail for us)caused the program to falter. The classes did not fill up, the excellent teaching teams dwindled to teams of one. The Tinkelmans left to create a newer, fresher and more relevant program with the University of Hartford, providing a MFA in the same timeframe, just a bit more work and the same project driven thesis. The Tinkelmans have bridged over to establish this new amazing program at Hartford while we mourn the last class of four students closing out this former powerhouse of a program.

But the seedling at the University of Hartford grows strong in the brilliant sun of new students, excited faculty, beautiful facilities, and an administration that values and supports this new program. The flowering is in the two years of alumni...artists who have grown personally, professionally and passionately thanks to the efforts of their fellow students, faculty and mentors, Carol and Murray Tinkelman. And with the amazing support and care of the University of Hartford, this program, essentially a new phoenix, will rise and inspire more generations of illustrators, designers and teachers for years to come.

ongoing


Bought six feet of italian subs for boys and boys and boys working on moving wood, organizing all the antiquities in the barn. So all of that, a bucket of potato salad, a huge bag of cookies (by the pound Voortmans), grapes and "the big ones" cans of Red Bull and "the purple drink". Fueled em up. Lots of laughs. The work got done.

Got the book in front of the Johnson people. They were pleased with the layouts and how they fit. We talked schedules, paper, printing, high res/ lo res images. It is going to be wild between now and mid September. Greased Wheels. Need to get the papers for Hartford done...and the sketch for Vin so I can run these all at one time. Yikes!

The poor powerbook is gasping for space. Am backing this baby up to the terrabit hard drive...and hoping to dump a bunch of files and stuff to give this little computer a bit of air.

Gotta go. Going to make dinner...featuring this lovely rice from Mark Bittman's Quick Recipes. I add artichoke hearts and double the recipe. It's really good...and with fresh tomatoes on the side and something on the grill and a great bread thing from Ithaca Bakery. We will be ready to roll.

Cheers. Tomorrow is Friday!

a bright moment


Just got the used, sensibly covered version of Alice and Martin Provensen's The Golden Book of Myths and Legends. I had found some images on the web on the Alice and Martin Provensen blog and got very itchy wanting the whole thing to see the images in context. I have not been disappointed. What spurred me on was their blocky strong design, the unclassical colors like brown and pink (how very Bergdorf Goodman of them)and chartreuse and light blue, and their love of classic red and black figured vases. They use line and shape--sometimes fusing them, sometimes having the line and shape overlap-creating an interesting dynamic with the design. Their people are simple with lots of energy with hand and arm shapes (no outlines whatsoever)often reversing out of the clothes or where it overlaps. Some of their figures remind me of aspects of Picasso's Guernica in their overlap, relationship to other figures, the shape it fills. Very bold and raging with energy.

Murray was right on about these two. Whoa.
More in the mail from Alibris!

More plate spinning today. Had a good chat in the early a.m. with R about the next museum show and the possible approaches the graphics could have to sync up with the architecture of the project. I think I have enough to render some ideas and get that rolling way before we need to roll. I am really hoping to move things along in the next month so that the inclement tsunami of work will not wipe me out. Will post the final illustration of the studio glass artist that will get married with type today.

We are finally redoing theluckystone.com. Not ready for prime time...but we are skyhooking off the look and feel of qcassetti.com as it is so simple and easy to get about. Yes, I will walk away from the "look at these clients, look at the depth and scope of the work we do for them" story as I think people look at things they are interested in and or are familiar with. The big ponderous "preach" might be just that, big, ponderous and maybe, boring? While we were at it, I have put some new images up on the illustration page, mooshed the Memento Mori sections into one button and started a new button as a bow to the future called Decorative Illustration. By next year this time there might be a few things to put under that heading!

3x3 is putting out a directory (syncing with their Pro Show) and I am going to take a few pages to see if it yields anything. Charles Hively recommends an animal or two, and a figurative piece (I guess a Burka?). This will need to be resolved today as the deadline is soon and this is something easy to forget.

Meeting with the Johnson today. Will talk to my new curator friend whose expertise is on Asian art to see what she knows about my new pal, the Monkey King.

More later, have to wake up K and hang up the sheets that are done.