country haiku


I picked up my apples this morning from the refrigerator at the Black Diamond Farm and was entertained by the little note clipped to the handle of the paper bag that held this weeks cache.

"What's in the bag?

Liberty
Sansa
McIntosh
Zabergau Reinette
Cox's Orange Pippin
Gala
Honeycrisp"

Just the list sounds biteable? Right? Kind of country haiku. It is creeping towards fall...with temperatures in the mid seventies and forties in the night. Everything is holding on to it's greenery as long as it can with the rain that we have had. Mandy and I have seen the two piliated woodpeckers next door. Man, those birds are huge and very primordial in their sharp red heads and the odd way they cling to the tree vertically...getting ready to hammer on its bark. We should see the return of the stamping, meat headed turkey vultures and of course, the flocks of turkeys are quite visable these days.

Everything seems to be on slippery rails these days. A. was caught cheating on his homework paper yesterday, so we are dealing with that here...along with managing it on the school side. He was shocked...and it has been a major learning thing for him..that maybe his pushing the envelope has landed him squarely back in the zone again. It seems that this is the month for him and his friends to push the bounderies from school work to smoking just to see what they can get away with. Makes me want to scream...but hey, I am a minor player on this stage. K is forgetting a bunch of things that really need to happen and I am afraid that my patience has become impatient with her slacking off. I really am worried and nothing seems to trickle into that head of hers. When she is on, she is on...and when she shuts down...she stubbornly doesnt budge. Lots to do on the work front, the Art Trail Front, the house and and parties thrown in. I need to finish up the invitations today and get them in the mail.

The world is also getting on my nerves. The repurposing of this financial "crisis" which has been brewing for well over a year now into something that is politicized--having the candidates sit with the president to work out a plan (who is the financial expert in this group? the MBA President?) is ridiculous and frankly, tragic, given the fact that many americans actually believe that these shills, in their daddy roles, can put a financial band aid on the boo boo and the poof! it goes away. Lets say it once and have it done with...there is no Poof! to this program. More like Ouch! or Thud! It also points up that the dems have absolutely no strategy or tactical saavy relative to all of this. If McCain decides he has to skip the debate, then why isn't the Homecoming Queen, a heartbeat from the President allowed to debate Obama. Or to make it fair, Biden. Have you been listening to her responses she has been permitted to make to softball questioners like Katy Couric? How can anyone take her seriously for Governor let alone Vice President? The dems have got to stop being defensive and grab the reins and start driving the messaging, image and impression of themselves and their opponents. It blows my mind that with the pathetic ratings the president has, the republicans even have a chance. And they do...So someone better snap out of it and get on with it. We are talking less than 8 weeks.

spinning off the axis


Clocking em down. Peacock not quite refined..but on its way. Need to work the spokes back in color (quiet them down so the head pops), equalize the thinness of the legs...refine..Got the Deadman's Mile volunteer school graphics done. Got the initial pops on the holiday card done and in FedEx. Feeling like anything is possible.

Was working with the vectorization of drawings yesterday and I feel that this could happen. I am sure with more crunching on it, it could become more automatic. Am going to redraw the Vin piece for the slick cover of Eden...and see what I can do. Its a draw half, flip it, correct and erase it and then turn into workpaths all in photoshop. Then its save the workpaths to illustrator and see what happens. Then, its resaving the illustrator file and importing those paths back into photoshop to add highlights and burn and dodge areas to see what sort of magic I can get. And, the last thing is to have it look like I did the whole thing on my art table and not with the wacom.

Just got some beautiful frames with thick and generous mats (Nielson Bainbridge) with plexi (not glass) from Dick Blick today. Plan on filling them up for the Art Trail. Will need to get an image down to the State of the Art Gallery this Sunday for the preshow for the Trail. I think the buffalo is going to be the "one" to be framed. I love the Nielson Bainbridge frames. Look really good and have all the stuff in one place (and if you shop the sales you are not bankrupt framing your work). I think Christmas may have some framed pieces given to family members and friends.

Speaking of Christmas, I don't know about you, but the world has become a pretty scary place and I worry about December as god knows what is going to be happening with wars, the economy, the state of the state. I hate all this paternalistic crap that is dished out about how the "American Public doesn't have to worry or be responsible for the bad debt and and foreclosures" going down. This is a real problem. We all must be responsible for our mortgages...not big brother or the government. If you sign on the line, you are responsible. If you cannot make the payment, you move on. Yes, the banks were going to town giving people ideas about what they could afford. But don't you, as an individual have the responsibility for understanding your min/max and not exceeding what you can afford? The growth of the plastic sided mcMansions did not grow in accordance with people's incomes skyrocketing in the double digits. And, with people plugging so much of their own wealth into these "homes", with the market and the projected resale taking a downward turn, so do many people's retirement income et cetera. Additionally, even these overpriced mcMansions were stupidly built (ie we saw thousands of houses (abandoned and not even sided) outside of San Diego, built on these dirt hillsides that looked like one false move and the entire group would slide down the hill. They were crummy construction and were scheduled to sell in the MILLIONS), stupidly sited and badly detailed with cheap materials. So, in the quick break to make a huge buck--quality, design and location were all severely compromised.We all are responsible for this home craze...the growth of the pretend market of pretend houses that the owners cannot even afford. Its is the Walmart headset of everything we as an american populace expect-- more is better than good. Cheap is better than quality and well made. Leveraging everything for image transcends the reasonable-ness of paying off the credit cards and being liquid. Television reinforces this...but it has rooted in the American consciousness....How can we change this lack of thought, this disrespect of liquidity, this inability to say No or "we cannot afford it". We need to honor responsibility before image.

And the banks-- the bonuses must stop. The outrageous salaries must stop. Investment banking must align with the rest of world--and if the US is going to own these institutions...business cannot continue in this fricking dreamworld they live in. Lets just remember, bankers do not make ANYTHING. There is nothing tangible that a banker makes and can hold in their hands and say "facit" (latin for I made it). The layer cake of deals leveraged on deals on top of deals that teetered on selling debt etc. was irrational and stupid--as stupid as the deregulation that happened. People need controls as greed and passion can override intelligence and forward thinking--and need a governor to keep them in line. I do not see either party responding to this nightmare that we now have to shoulder along with debt from this war, and no end to debt from Katrina and 9/11 and other national needs...nor does it seem there is an easy way out. So regardless of how we vote, schools will continue to be underfunded, we will not be able to send our kids to college affordably, healthcare will go unresolved etc. Imagine rolling $700,000 Billion into healthcare? or to split hairs healthcare, education and innovation?

What a waste.

daily note


....turns out that Queen Juana would travel around the countryside with the corpse of Philip the (not so) Handsome in a lead lined box...with her opening the coffin and kissing him publicly. Prior to being put in the coffin, Philip was made to sit upright with jewelry and crown and Juana would sit at his feet and talk to him. Now, we are getting the low down on how how the English King decided that yes, though Juana was certifiable, at least she was fertile and brought a large part of Spain with her. Juana made up her own version of a nun's habit, with a cowl hood that she would shrink back into. She stopped eating and shrunk down to nothing... So, nutty and hungry which is almost a cyclical thing. All of this is driving us to the negotiated deal allowing Henry VIII to marry Katherine of Aragon, Queen Juana's more sober and sadder sister. Katherine really wasnt given many breaks in her relatives, her parents, her husbands and her sad life after she couldn't present Henry a son. Sad all around. Katherine's symbol/ cipher was a pomegranate. Love that.

On the hook for the holiday cards going out tomorrow so the peacock may be close, but still needing a little tweaking prior to final. Working on a bunch of stuff for the Corning Museum of Glass..getting closer, I hope.

Chet the Lawnman has just come for his money. He is off to the adirondacks to take in some fishing and hunting(?) and camp. Next time, he promises there will be leaves galore.

I ordered a ton of bulbs from Van Engelen. A naturalizing mix of narcissus (350 bulbs), 15 Frittilaria Imperialis (red) and 50 Fritillaria Persica (in deep purple). This will give A. and his pal Chris a busy day to make a little cash. It all seems so silly to do every fall, and I forget by spring and we have these wonderful surprises of color and scent. If we just keep plugging away on the planting, it will begin to take on a momentum that we are just beginning to see every year. Van Engelen is wonderful. Their bulb quality is great, prices excellent--the only downside is that you have to buy fairly large quantities as that is their focus. You can buy the same material at smaller quantites at John Scheepers. No time like the present to think of handfuls of flowers in April and May.

Visited with some of R's family last night. We had at the table a retired architect, a retired pathologist and a retired NASA engineer/scientist (he plotted the trajectory of one of the early missions (all with a slide rule!)). The conversation ranged from the political to grandchildren and ancestors, to the Civil War and the improvements made at the Gettysburg National Battlefield. It was pretty much full bore and exciting until it got to Obama or McCain. At that point, both kids stood up, said their goodbyes and am-scrayed as fast as their little feet would carry them. I should have taken their clue.

A. runs in Watkins Glen tonight. It's a perfect day (high mid 70s) with a blue sky and trees trying to think about changing color. Crisp and brilliant. I hope he does well.

Gotta go. Work awaits.

La Loca, ME.


Rushing around like a nut. Got back to the House of Health today--and am climbing the eternal mountain at a set speed. Listening to a biography on Katherine of Aragon and her crazy sister Queen Juana of Spain. I am feeling a bit like Queen Juana, who was wierdly obsessive...and was going to be shut away by her husband, Philip the Fair (a Hapsburg..read that key-razy chin) until Philip dropped dead. I feel more like the wild and obsessive Queen Juana...no need to imprison, quite yet. It was great looking out the window over the inlet, with the still green trees, mounding into shapes I am trying to press into my brain, looking at the color variation and how tree next to tree renders itself different and distinct from its neighbor.

Philip the Handsome (left), Juana La Loca (right)

Got more work to do on the posted Peacock. Murray and Paul Z. weighed in on the big feet/leg thing. Murray wants the tail to connect to the bird. Can do. Also have a few Museum projects on deck and some identity work for other clients. Need to nail down some of the Christmas cards. Also, need to get the company card done and printed (simple cards) so we can generate lists/output labels and get them done and ready for November 1.

Slow Sunday.

Baldwinsville is a for real little Upstate Canal town with a vital main street and nice residences. The Central School is beautiful, huge and well maintained (making me a bit jealous)with a nice cross country trail. The day was perfect--blue skies, low humidity, sun with green grass, and lots of all different teams, runners and individuals in multicolored uniforms eating apples and stretching. We had a chance to see A. run...very well to our thinking as part of the Junior Varsity team. He was pleased with his time. Being part of the pack, the team was equally pleasant as they all took naps together waiting for their race. The Tburg team in general, given their small size as a group, but their big heart did quite well. I cannot say enough of the camaraderie and spirit this group has...and how it has so wonderfully swept Alex into its wake. An absolute highlight of his new freshmanhood.

K, R and I went to the Home Despot to buy fixures and sinks for the emerging two bathrooms. Turns out, the sale bins really paid out. Our favorite sink we put into the Luckystone was well over half off and we found some european fixures which were simple and elegant, not a gorped up interpretation of vintage hardware--that were cheap...(also on a sale shelf). It was a haul, but a good one.

Then it was home to drawing, reading, and of course, making dinner. It was an early night and a slightly later morning with pancakes and invitations to address.

I hope to put some time into drawing for my holiday pictures. Additionally, I have Art Trail coming up and need to put some thought around how to configure the house, what to sell etc.

More later.

getting ready for Baldwinsville


Hand drawn peacock. Tail was flipped. Modified neck in the computer to correct the drawing. Did the Chad> res it up bigtime, select the image, save as workpath> export to illustrator> open in illustrator and then, where the hang up is--anything that knocks out of the single shape, needs to be reknocked out as paths as the counter/ or the white space within the shape will fill if you change the colors around. Another thought is that in photoshop, you can make a bunch of different selections either with color range (the big blunt tool) or by drawing paths, for different colorways etc. and save each one of those out (a la different screens for each color in screenprinting) as a workpath and bring into photoshop. My little brain is ticking away on this technique...it opens up new possibilities with hand drawn images while getting them in a scaleable place.

I am starting to look at oriental carpets and china design as well as Indian paintings. I started paginating the book...really not a problem in the beginning as God did some big stuff for the first 7 days. Then, when Adam and the Troublesome one, Eve, come on the scene, the sense of time melts away. However, in the Book of Jubilee, everything is essentially, time, date, length of time...Whoever put this gem in place Looooved numbers.

"These four great works God created on the third day. And on the fourth day He created the sun and the moon and the stars, and set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon all the earth, and to rule over the day and the night, and divide the light from the darkness."

"And in the first week of the first jubilee, [1-7 A.M.] Adam and his wife were in the garden of Eden for seven years tilling and keeping it, and we gave him work and we instructed him to do everything that is suitable for tillage. And he tilled (the garden), and was naked and knew it not, and was not ashamed, and he protected the garden from the birds and beasts and cattle, and gathered its fruit, and eat, and put aside the residue for himself and for his wife [and put aside that which was being kept].And after the completion of the seven years, which he had completed there, seven years exactly, [8 A.M.] and in the second month, on the seventeenth day (of the month), the serpent came and approached the woman, and the serpent said to the woman, 'Hath God commanded you, saying, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'"


This stuff is so specific, I have to believe law was written from this book. To see more on the books of the Pseudepigrapha and the Apocrypha of the Old Testament>> I have always loved the odd extras that the Apocrypha put out there, and now to think there is more extra odd stuff with the Pseudepigrapha,  I am thrilled. Not exactly the trite, night night reading I really want to do, but boy howdy, perfect for sitting in the doctor's office or the airport for that little bit of focus before you have to unfocus again. I think there is plenty to work with (and edit, to my thinking) for this thesis project.

I was having illustration fun on ebay, typing in illustrators names and seeing what popped up. Mary Blair, I discovered, not only has a ton of books that are real movers on the site, also designed and illustrated printed hankerchiefs. The Provensens are there in force --books and prints. Jan Balet has prints. And our very own mentor mio, Mr. Tinkelman has a books up for sale>> Punky the Mouse, Aesops Fables and the Rodeo book to name a few. So, for amusement, type in an illustrator you know or want to see work of, and see what happens. Its very fun.

Off to Baldwinsville (north of Syracuse) for the Cross Country Invitational. A is grumpy these days, shrugged into his new royal blue sweats like a monk with attitude. I hope a bit of running with help him to snap out of it. K. has a little infection and needs to take some pills to bring her around. We have an invitation guest list to generate today for the big party we are throwing dovetailing with the second weekend of the Ithaca Art Trail. Need to do some thinking around what we are going to offer to eat and drink. I'm thinking something totally old fashioned and totally do aheadable and delicious>:> Chex mix! or maybe Cheesy Ranch Chex Mix! I def know I will be buying some tubs of stuff from the Regional, making salsa and cutting crudites. Baby Gloria and Cousin Lisa (might) will be here from SoCal, and Bruce will be here from Maryland. I need to think about who they would like to meet. Members of the band, Toivo, sweetly came up to us at the Pourhouse and told us how pleased they were to do the gig. We are blessed to live in such a wonderful place. Should be fun.

Need to think holiday card for the office. Cannot let this become the shoemakers children. I do have quite a few holiday trees floating around....and if Simple cards can do a 4 panel/ 4 color, we can fill it up with illustration to beat the band. Now, I am getting some wind on this one. Next Week, or else!

Gotta go. Time progresses.

Mums



The day is almost done, and I feel horrible that I havent put up a post yet. However, now is the time. Spent a bit of time with Chad Grohman on IM with him giving me a teensy tutorial on how to take my inked drawings into illustrator as vectors without having to use the magic instant tracing tool that gives the images a ton of chatter etc. This method isnt perfect, but as you use huge files to create work paths from and then exporting those work paths to illustrator--gives you more points and more of chance for the image to be slightly smoother. This is very cool, and Chad was/is a prince to have spent the time patiently getting me to better understand this interesting process. Its great to spend a little typing time with Chad as his energy and sharp mind are inspiring..nothing gets past him. Plus, he has this wider life view that seems to open up the windows and let the cool air in. He has a good sense about what is important, and what isn't. He is another reason I am happy I am doing the Hartford MFA right now. And, there are about another solid 50 reasons why as well...but today,Chad gets the gold ring.



I am enjoying making these patterns (above) just for the sake of making more patterns inspired by Indian painting styles for their vegetation. There are a few more techniques that they use that I need to get comfortable with too, as they take me places beyond the illustrations at hand. To be honest, these sketch processes spin pictures (soon to be more real, more environmental than before) and patterns that could be applied to a lot of things. These vegetative patterns would be great on high end papergoods (like Caspari) --plates, napkins, towels etc. Perhaps the merchandising trip would work. Maybe I should just chase down Caspari and Cranes and see how one can submit designs for consideration. I also really want to begin to internalize an Indian inspired palette beyond curry and orange...but dirty light blues, pinks, mauves, tans etc.Its not a mainstream palette that I find beautiful and very sophisticated. As an aside, we had dinner last night at friends of my in laws, both language professors from Cornell. One of the professors' expertise is in Sri Lankan languages..and their lovely house was laden with books, hindu carvings and magical persian miniatures. Amazing what those miniaturists could pack into a tight two inch square. Makes my eyes hurt.



Working on peacocks like I had mentioned in previous post. The Baha'i use a peacock as their symbol and have spoken of the broad symbolic appeal. They say on their website:



The peacock is an ancient symbol found in many cultures throughout the world. The richness of meanings attributed to it matches the ornate beauty of its plumage. The peacock is often depicted in Hindu mythology as a steed of the gods and is considered sacred. It is associated with Japanese and Chinese goddesses of mercy. In the Buddhist tradition, the peacock’s ability to eat poisonous snakes can be understood as a symbol of the transmutation of evil into good. In some Islamic traditions, it has been portrayed as the greeter at the gates of paradise. In ancient Persian texts the peacock represented eternal life. The early Christians praised the many “eyes” in its feathers as signs of the all-seeing God. Though for later Christians the peacock came to be regarded as a symbol of vanity, they found its usefulness in the idea that just as the beautiful peacock considers its own feet ugly humans should take note and lament their own imperfections no matter how great their worldly glory.



Later depictions of the peacock continued to attribute to it spiritual significance. In his poem, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, the mystic poet William Blake wrote: “The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.” Given its enduring symbolism, the peacock was seen as an appropriate decoration by Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, who used it as a motif at various Bahá’í settings.



In his Spiritual Couplets, the famous Sufi poet Maulana Jalalu-'D-Din Muhammad Rumi tells the following tale:



A sage went out to till his field, and saw a peacock busily engaged in destroying his own plumage with his beak. At seeing this insane self-destruction the sage could not refrain himself, but cried out to the peacock to forbear from mutilating himself and spoiling his beauty in so wanton a manner. The peacock then explained to him that the bright plumage which he admired so much was a fruitful source of danger to its unfortunate owner, as it led to his being constantly pursued by hunters, whom he had no strength to contend against; and he had accordingly decided on ridding himself of it with his own beak, and making himself so ugly that no hunter would in future care to molest him. The poet proceeds to point out that worldly cleverness and accomplishments and wealth endanger man's spiritual life, like the peacock's plumage; but, nevertheless, they are appointed for our probation, and without such trials there can be no virtue.



Masnavi e Ma’navi, Book V, Story III (E. H. Whinfield, tr.)



so get ready. They are coming. Plus, they will maybe be figures in our Genesis story.I was musing over the possible spreads and am getting excited over the entire project as I will have to work at a bunch of images I have little confidence in doing. Nothing a few zillion gallons of Noodler's Heart of Darkness"> won't hurt.



Speaking of paper goods....I am going to have a party with a big guest list in the next month or so. I was taken, at the wedding in the field last month, that the caterer had paper plates, plastic flatware and cups that was all going into the compost pile. I loved it...and still do. So, in my Mrs. Party Planner mode, I googled away for compostable, affordable paper, plastic and cups and this is what I found>> The plates are all made of a biocompostable fiber from Bagasse, a form of sugar cane. The flatware is made from 80% non GMO corn starch resin and 20%"biodegradable fillers". The cups and glasses are polylactic acid (PLA), which is derived from corn grown in the USA. So, we can have paper and compost it versus dumping it to have it act as more landfill. I am thrilled about this source and hope you are too!



I am still reeling from the sheer energy of these High School runners. If they could bottle the vibrancy, the focused power, the zone these guys get into, it would the the fountain of youth. Plus, the way they look, young Davids, oblivious of how they look, their look, their passion, dumbfounds me. No folks, no one is in middle school any more. If only they weren't so clueless (forgetting my dinner! what me, holding on to this one?,forgetting whats in their lockers etc.)--they would be the final level of cheribim on earth. But, they are flawed angels.



The exterminator came to check out the bees in between the walls in the kitchen. They have been entering and exiting a hole under the windowsill...and we really do need to solve it because if you don't, they end up somewhere else (perhaps swarming over you while you sleep) and can be very unpleasant. We will wait to see what happens.



The cat is lying on my wacom. Holy territory. I think this cat wants to fly a bit. What do you think?

smell the flowers

New News! Modern Postcard has a new option called Simple Card.
Simple card is in place to print small volume, inexpensive postcards and greeting cards from Modern Postcard, the granddaddy of the instie postcards at the best quality. (29 dollars for 25 cards and envelopes up to 500 cards max.). After that, its the bigger quantities that Modern Postcard offers. Essentially, this allows Modern Postcard to go after the short short run work that PSPrint and others offer. So, nice option.

Tburg mens track was amazing. I was ready for another Middle School event but it wasn't. These high school guys are monsters--all brawn and fresh energy that is restorative even from the sidelines. I posted some pictures here>>

Just got a rush rush rush over the internet for me to do. More later. I will post yesterday's quicky ink drawings later. I will be doing some pictures of peacocks in the near future (not for the thesis but good practice)--but for the holidays! Yeay!

More later, I apologize.

reworkin', oh girl!


Changed the lips and nose of the above Eve image per great input from Murray. We went through all of the current sketches on the garden of eden with Murray giving me very valuable insights, amendments and ideas. I have my work cut out for me just in the amendments...but its all great and I am feeling that I am beginning to get into a bit more of a groove. Murray was talking about illustration conventions--and I wish I knew them... Is there a book out there. I need to not kick myself as I am, at this time, a 28 year graphic designer and a 3 year old illustrator which would make me a college junior on a good day. We talked about sources of inspiration: Barry Zeid, Rousseau, Matisse, Arnold Blanch, the Pushpin geniuses with highlights around Milton Glaser, Seymour Cwast, John Alcorn. Murray got into Roussseau's influence on Paul Davis, well known for his Three Penny Opera poster. A prompt again to look at Paul Davis' work and look at what I found on Detour, the Moleskine City Notebook Experience>>

One of Paul Davis' sketchbooks. Wow. I can mimic that....I may already do that but maybe not to this level. Wow. Need to start painting in my notebook. I need to get messier. As usual, it was wonderful with Murray and I look forward to more input from him. Also sent links to my thesis advisor, Doug Andersen, who had some great insights and prods to get a storyboard going...and to work with some figures. Murray said the same. Okay. I will get some of the amendments going, finish the Vin assignment and then get going on that.

Cornell card to complete today. Lots for the medical company. Lots of phone calls. I wish SOI would post their application for the annual show (still not on the web)--am itchy to get that done and out. Got Family Knife (band that is a subset from Plastic Nebraska without Gabe) to do. Finished the Five at Two party invitation out and to PSPrinting. Thinking about Art Trail a lot.

A. has a cross country event this p.m. I should get their tee shirt designed to take with me. Hope it doesnt rain. It looks like rain now...urg.

Gotta go.

darkening skies



Yesterday was hot. In the nineties hot. So swimming was in order, twice...at the lake. It was glorious. And when we weren't swimmning, we sat on the end of the dock and watched the big, black striped perch hide in the grasses--silent. Or the micro patterns that evolved on the breathing water. It was great. The whole day was swimming, drawing, and making a nice lunch and dinner. The wind whipped up and moved the warm weather out of here giving us an overcast day with lots of of big branches and twigs on the ground. Over on Washington Street, a seemingly healthy tree snapped in half to find out it was hollow and on it's last legs, in the road. The temperature dropped another 20˚--so to put it simply, the weather is changeable and getting colder.

I got my illustration to Vin Di Fate with a lovely note back encouraging me to look at the illustrator, Joseph Mugnaini who was an influence on Edward Gorey. Vin sites the Halloween Tree book jacket cover...which is a jewel. Mugnaini's line work has a whole different look and feel. I love the Halloween tree (above) with the intertwining fields, the layers of information, the mushrooms at the bottom with checkered skirt and a series of characters that make up the front of the skull. Beautiful. Now I need to redraw my picture. Recolor and rego.

Have a call with Murray today to see where to go next. Checked on the work from Barry Zaid, another illustrator from the Pushpin Studios that Murray recommended. From a thesis standpoint, I need to break out the story for the book on Creation and figure out what the pictures should be and thumbnail the book. Then I have have a little 8 month illustration party on these images and see where it goes. I am beginning to get into the outer reaches of the zone...and the sooner I get there, the sooner I will become obsessed which is a delightful place to be.

twirly



They forgot. They all forgot. No one from the cross country team showed up. Two pans of lasagne, fruit, cut veggies, fresh salsa and two pound cakes all sitting there ready to go. The plates were up, everything arranged and ready. No one. So. K got on the horn and invited some friends over. A. had some of the eighth grade pals come over to listen to vinyl so instead of the projected 15 runners, we had 12 random folks who consumed a great portion of what was there. Lesson: Create handouts.

Working more on the style/look for the thesis work. Fiddling with pomegranates and trees. Hope to paginate the story today...just to move the needle a bit further with very tactical work. Want to work on some other images for the thesis...even if its down to the thumbnail level just to take a look. Also want to pull some palettes to see what goes. Also, hope to send some emails to get the ball rollling insofar as future projects that may loll unless prompted.

imagine that!

I have been talking a lot about Christmas and holiday graphics. As they are forming and some of them actually approved it is amazing to see how sometimes the things that are the most fun to do become the ones that get the go. Case in point. I was doing a series of card proposals using the word Peace in all sorts of languages. We had done something like that the previous year and had some success as no one could be offended. To make it even more innocuous, I used oranges, tans, greens, blues as colors...not the traditional green and red or yellow and blue. So, bland but acceptable. The client said, lets try this again, so I moved the parts around, make some patterns with the words et cetera...but it all still looked like a slightly better designed version of Unicef cards. And, the client thought so too. However, as a whimsical moment took me in the mix, I threw in one of my tree of life illustrations and put the word peace below it...quiet, but there. I figured, hey, if this thing is as universal a concept...across the spectrum of religions and it has to do with life (which my customer is in the business of), how could this offend unless of course, it is my illustration ability. And, surprisingly, this was the card that appealed to them. May not be that exact illustration, but the concept they dug. So, hey. Imagine that.

Color sketches to Vin here ready for the one/two/three.

Got cakes to make. Olive Oil Lemon to be specific>> The tribe of runners arrive at 4. Fresh salsa and chips. Loads of veggies and fruit. Lasagne and hot bread and cake. Carbs for big big boys. We should get Cranium out. And if it doesnt rain, they will be out on the back forty getting muddy and having fun.

more later>

(from my sketchbook, unedited--messing around with pomegranates and their flowers.)

Pomegranate is it.


Working away. Baker card is in refinement...but we have a direction. Am trying to get into a sync for the picture due Monday...and though I dont know if we are "there" yet, but I prefer yesterday's coloration...taking it a bit further than the ink drawing. I am anxious to get this further refined while doing a pagination of the book (32 pps. of the Creation story--working title, "In the Beginning"). I have posted a group of these trees in facebook here>>I am musing over spreads of all the animals, the creatures under the sea, the birds of the sky...the separating of water and land. The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was never named, as I mentioned before, and I think that fruit will be a pomegranate in this body of work. Wiki confirms this might be a nice thing to do as there is symbolism in Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions:

Judaism
Exodus 28:33–34 directed that images of pomegranates be woven onto the hem of the me'il ("robe of the ephod"), a robe worn by the Hebrew High Priest. 1 Kings 7:13–22 describes pomegranates depicted on the capitals of the two pilars (Jachin and Boaz) which stood in front of the temple King Solomon built in Jerusalem. It is said that Solomon designed his coronet based on the pomegranate's "crown" (calyx).[30] Jewish tradition teaches that the pomegranate is a symbol for righteousness, because it is said to have 613 seeds which corresponds with the 613 mitzvot or commandments of the Torah. However, the actual number of seeds varies with individual fruits.[31] For this reason and others, many Jews eat pomegranates on Rosh Hashanah. It is also a symbol of fruitfulness.[32] The pomegranate is one of the few images which appear on ancient coins of Judea as a holy symbol, and today many Torah scrolls are stored while not in use with a pair of decorative hollow silver "pomegranates" (rimmonim) placed over the two upper scroll handles. Some Jewish scholars believe that it was the pomegranate, not the apple, that was the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden.[32] Pomegranate is one of the Seven Species (Hebrew: שבעת המינים, Shiv'at Ha-Minim), the types of fruits and grains enumerated in the Hebrew Bible (Deuteronomy 8:8) as being special products of the Land of Israel.

Christianity
For the same reasons, pomegranates are a motif found in Christian religious decoration. They are often woven into the fabric of vestments and liturgical hangings or wrought in metalwork. Pomegranates figure in many religious paintings by the likes of Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, often in the hands of the Virgin Mary or the infant Jesus. The fruit, broken or bursting open, is a symbol of the fullness of his suffering and resurrection.[32] In the Eastern Orthodox Church, pomegranate seeds may be used in kolyva, a dish prepared for memorial services, as a symbol of the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom.

Islam
According to the Qur'an, pomegranates grow in the gardens of paradise (55:068). According to Islamic tradition, every seed of a pomegranate must be eaten, because one can't be sure which aril came from paradise. The Prophet Mohammed is said to have encouraged his followers to eat pomegranates to ward off envy and hatred.[32] The Qur'an also mentions (6:99, 6:141) pomegranates twice as examples of good things God creates.

The Tburg Farmers market was gorgeous last night. We got containers of red and yellow raspberries, lemon basil, red basil, tomatillos, cilantro, and enormous organic tomatoes bursting with flavor. Rob bought a honeycomb of honey,and basswood honey, as pale as pale can be. I bought Fall flower honey, almost as dark as Buckwheat honey. There were peaches, apples, and all sorts of freerange meat (pork and chicken). It was a cool, bluesky evening. Perfect.

I am thrilled to have made a new friend through Facebook, the fabulous and madly talented Brian Dudla, CObP Design. He invited me to be his friend, and then we did a bit of chatting. He has asked me to help with a brand for the new Ithaca band, Family Knife. I am totally flattered and excited to be working together. The Knife is a reconfiguration of Plastic Nebraska without Gabe Tavares--and it shares some band members with the Horseflies. Amazing energy, amazing sound..."darker" as Brian says. Something to look forward to.

Speaking of musicians, The Chicken Chokers had a great showing at Wheatland--hooking up with other Festival people with more festivals in the future. It's great they are getting some traction--and that it is all positive in the future.

Work awaits...I feel right up against it...and its a bit uncomfortable.