Tburg Farmers Markets on Wednesdays!


Tburg Farmers Market opened last night with great festivity with Mayor Marty doing the honors, drawings and give aways, and all the beauty of the food, the friendly farmers, the freerange this, and grassfed that. Locavore Central. I love this new locavore name as it works for the way I want to shop, cook and live. I guess there are a bunch of us as we were swarming. We got there late and missed the baskets of strawberries...but the new garlic with their long green ends draping over all of our arms were snapped up for .75 a robust bundle. We also bought hot italian sausage from a nice smiley lady who has two kids under two, and the organic meat business blossoming. Simply Red was selling pulled pork. A few wineries were doing tastings and the honey man, wellll... you know how I feel about him! We are so lucky with the local farmers, the new CSA farmers who have moved to Tburg (Community Supported Agriculture), the Amish, the individuals in agriculture and food. And we often have little tables become big booths who then leave us for fame. We are blessed. Then there are "the creative sorts" who sell jewels, crazy stuff made out of used teeshirts (the baby clothes are to die for), ceramicists, natural cosmetics folks. No shortage of things to spend your money on. More hometown pride. Its a wonderful thing every Wednesday to know that this sort of communal thing is happening. I need to force myself out of my lair to get with the people. It's always fun.

Peter Hoover is doing the round two on my paper. Commas in the right place--verbs and active words galvanizing the text. And, he will ask "is this necessary" and the answer resoundingly is always "NO!"

work in process


I was messing with Double Happiness--and seeing if color helped/hurt. Dunno. Its pretty rubber. While I was solving the world's problems last night(read, I woke up at 3 and my brain clicked on superdrive)I was thinking about illustration, taxes, business, and getting Kitty through this college gambit.There is just so much personal stuff that time will help to resolve, but having the bones of planning and thinking put in place is necessary so that the home team can get what they need out of the experience. Bones. Hmm.

I created about 10 bodies of work--all but doing it. Was thinking about the CF Payne and Gary Kelley project (week one at Hartford this July) which is sort of open as it can be working on your personal work (thesis or otherwise) or a portrait of a literary figure. I am thinking that I bend it a bit (and check with Chris today) and work either on the body of work (Holbein inspired pictures of local friends/kids) or to take a few heads and work with them wearing my Picasso/Braque/Juan Gris hat....with a nod to this great illustrator I admire, Pablo Lobato. I love his charactures and would love to see if I can do a distill like this with my logo/symbol design background. I think it would work? Do you? I am sort of charged up to pursue a decorative approach to portraits...and I am leaning this way and with Chris Payne who is noted for his ability to stretch a face...it might be great. As I write this and look at Pablo's work fresh...I am definitely going to do this. Now, the literary figure...could be Twain because I have been reading about him and have a nice little pile of images to work with. Could be Ben Franklin? Could think about someone more dramatic though...literary literary literary.... I like Dante. But not photos. Back to Twain...you get a bookish, cuter Einstein. Reading about Twain, I find out that he was well over 10 yrs. older than his wife--meeting her after striking a friendship with her brother Charles who was on the "Quaker City" cruise to Europe to do his "grand tour". Twain is a really wonderful writer with wit, snap and a tremendous amount of edgy "tude" that the sweetness of his public writing doesn't communicate.

Finished the first round of edits to the thesis. Will meet with Peter, my editor within the next day or so for the second comb through soon. New waterfall on board today. Haircut too!

dull Jack


Its been a long few days. I am busy plugging Peter's edits into my paper which is not much of a party. But it is good for me (like spinach). I am learning some new things, and it is all moving towards finish. One more round of edits...redraw of octopus...and I will be done! I am feeling a bit liberated, but not free yet. Still waiting for my imprinted pencils and stretched output (all but the octopus again), and my decorated shoes. It is a bit of the "Jack is a dull boy" for me as its been so focused and heads down.

I am struggling with another illustration of the local tall waterfall...If you don't get the reference right, the waterfall looks like a mass of ugly vertical stripes. So, I changed the reference and tried redrawing from that. Shot more reference this morning and hopefully it will work. Higher point of view and the water was not as frothy/swishy...more linear. The light was relatively flat which worked better to give me obvious highlights and shadows. As an aside, Shady accompanied me on my shoots. She was intrigued by the birds and critters at Taughannock--and with my encouraging her to jump up on a low wall...she jumped (this doggy girl must truly have springs in her back legs) a good six feet up on a much higher wall to begin to trek on something with a furry tail and a fondness for trees (anything for squirrels).

A week more of school. There are concerts, tests, and all sorts of closing out including SATs and ACTs. Wow...And we have to have the "distance team" party I promised to Alex that we would do before everyone separates before summer.
I called Cayuga Nature Center and am signing Kitty and Alex up for 2 full days of volunteering. There are tons of projects to do...and I dont want 5 full unscheduled days of teenagerdom this summer. Unscheduled means me driving the bus to the mall etc. and work not getting done. Yikes. The golf course is not a 9-5 x 5 days a week activity.

Need to go make some dinner. Maybe tonight will be another musical exploration into the diversity of Bob Dylan (Alex's new passion and Rob''s old fondness). You never know.

Prom Mom






Yesterday it was hairdresser, corsages, Bakers Acres (for hanging baskets), drop offs, picture taking, delivery and then some. Kitty (in her $40. beaded dress) and her friend, Sarah (in a big green dress) were off on an adventure...and seemed at 5 a.m. to have had a lovely time filled with dancing, fashion, friends and fun. I was running support the entire time...but how often does one have a high school prom to go to. As you can see, both girls were lovely and we had a perfect day (with prime iris) to take pictures to capture the hairdos, dresses and lip gloss.

Alex, Rob and I had dinner and on the way back noticed filled parking lots around the Cass Park Ice Skating Rink! Roller Derby and the Sufferjets (our Ithaca team) were up against Rochester. We parked, paid our donation and were delighted by the antics, the Sufferjet cheerleaders (our own Ithaca kind in zip up maroon jumpsuits) and the crowned royalty of Trumansburg there in force, sitting in their folding chairs on the sidelines to watch the pulcritude and brawn that these gals exhibited. Everyone was into it...very funny and camp. The skaters had novelty names (Thea Pocalypse, Steel Candi for instance)--with great uniforms and a grit (along with black lipstick and mouth guards) that was remarkable. One false move and you could have a careening gal knocking you down. Legs are regularly broken (according to Amanda --dressed to show off her tattoos in a Sufferjet tank and a very cute utility kilt (maroon corderoy)--. She is threatening to start a team in Oneonta. That's our Mandy. Go to a new college and start a new club! Look out Hartwick...things are about to change!

Am being tortured by an illustration of a waterfall which I should be doing versus talking to you. And, from what my clock says, its time to cook dinner. Whoa. And, there is promise of a freeze tonight...so all the plants and hanging baskets should come in this night!

Saturday fun


Competed the Fu and this piece, Double Happiness late last night. Wanted to post for you. Want to do two more chinatown pieces if I have the chance between now and July. I might have the chance. I just love this stuff..and having a group of 4 or even 6 would be great. More work gets me better. I really futzed with these..and finally after not touching them for a while, got them to where they needed to go. Sleeping pig and waving cat are in the lineup. Maybe a cut paper dragon?

I have a page on Zazzle where I have taken some of my patterns and illos and repurposed them to custom Keds sneakers. Pretty cool. I will have the Double Happiness and Fu shoes for the SF crit in July. New resource for everyone. Its pretty great as you can (trying to figure it out) customize your page, create product (produced on demand), determine price and mark up...and no inventory whatsoever. And, it isn't Cafe Press which has the same sort of thing...only it seems so rote.

Got an out of print book of the love letters between Mark Twain and Olivia Langdon. I am beginning to fall in love with Mark Twain (I guess there are a world of people who are in love with him). Then the drawing for Nancy Stahl and Jean Tuttle. Surprisingly, marinating on this one is good. building some layers into this thinking and image.

This morning is prom hair and corages. Then it's prom prep and prom pics. Onward to promsportation. Then it's PROM Promrepast, promtastic promness. We get to wake up at 5 and pick them up. Between prom and afterprom is a bus promsportation. I guess one would say I am a PromMom.

Gotta run. The hot rollers await!

Green


It's never easy. I spent yesterday foodling around with the new computer and how to efficiently get it going, fonts loaded, life continuing with relatively little fuss. However, small things change--like the type of fire wire that is accomodated and the whole porting of files over wheither it be from Time Capsule or from a hard drive back up which I had as well. But, not to complain, if its not hard--then the sweetness of having a fully operational setup is not as sweet. More to come today--but I feel its with only one hand tied behind my back, not both. And the promise of sweetness is at hand. Can you say FAST. I will be able to get back to full crankage...really throwing the work out...and big files too!

I recolored the fu dog to my delight (ready for Picture Salon). Double Happiness is having some tweaks and the Octopus redraw, this weekend. I hope this afternoon I can do one or both...or sock in Peter Hoover's good edits and have the paper finished. I need to finish something and move on. Then, Livy waits in the wings. I am glad the other work from Chris Payne and Gary Kelley hasn't sailed over the transom yet as I want to have the wits needed for their project. I need to be freed up to think about these projects. Am getting fired up about the portraits.

We had a soaking rain last night (that's what Chet, the Lawnmower man proclaims we need regularly). Its a dark grey morning with lovely humidity and the grass is velvety in its lush green-ness. We are on to herbaceous peonies along with all of the garden's iris are blowing out. The hosta that were given to me as a present from our painter have expanded exponentially as always. I do not know what Timmy fed these things, but he brought me 3 plants originally that I split before spading them in. Last year, I split them again--and quite honestly, I could split them into threes right now and have plants that are plenty big and robust at the end of the season. But, I think I will wait and see how huge they become.

Alex is here glowering at me. Gotta go and pour the orange juice!

Got my postcards from PSPrint. Did something new this time using their uncoated paper and the whole look is better as the color doesnt seem as pushed as it normally does. Now I wait for my pencils (for the table favors for Hartford). I finished the thesis announcement postcard and will get into approval mode today. It was pretty much make a list, and tick things off the list yesterday with more of the same. It has been wild dealing with a tremendous amount of do it, do it, revise it, revise the revision, redesign and then do it, do it. Nothing is touched once and amended....its endless.

I have another illustration for the local triathlon that I think I am going to do something with photoshop and brushes as the entire thing is a horizontal design with some spray (dotty) and blocky walls. Its worth a try. Going to do it all in one color (black and white) to save them some cash..and push me a bit more. On the list. Must get this done and out of the way.

Need to finish up the labels for the Stonecat's sausages. There is this legal "how to handle meats"spot that needs to go on the sausage which to my delight I found that I do not need to use government ugliness...but can design my own as long as the content is there..So we can make the label a bit better (using the fonts established and my kerning and tweaking the text to look a bit better).

I posted my Creative Quarterly note to Facebook and am getting some interest in my work from the portrait of Kitty. Possibly some local wine labels. Maybe do this in trade? Get the work out....Also, there is some interest in my being in a show that a colleague from Syracuse and Hartford is putting together. Pretty exciting as there are a ton of big league hitters included...Nice to be asked and considered.

Rob is in New York for a Museum event they are doing with their curators. Hope he has a nice time as he is not tied down to meetings and should get out and see some things. I think a bit of unstructured look about is good medicine for everyone--particularly Rob who drives so much creative work and is in a pressure cooker all day long.

Kids downstairs. Need to be taken to school and then the list tick off needs to happen.
No gym today.

remarkable


Thousand Hand Guan Yin Performance>>

China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe presents a beautiful performance of the Thousand-Hand Guan Yin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. What’s amazing is the all the performers are deaf, making the choreography to the music even more incredible.

Guan Yin is the bodhisattva of compassion, revered by Buddhists as the Goddess of Mercy. Her name is short for Guan Shi Yin. Guan means to observe, watch, or monitor; Shi means the world; Yin means sounds, specifically sounds of those who suffer. Thus, Guan Yin is a compassionate being who watches for, and responds to, the people in the world who cry out for help.

memorial day antics


We went to the very small Trumansburg Memorial Day parade to see Alex and his peers "march". They were quite tuneful and sprightly--so it was hometown pride to see these bouncy guys speed down the street. Of course there was my favorite, the parade of fire trucks and emergency vehicles... but it was very short indeed. After the parade, there generally is a little gathering of people in front of Word of Mouth catering (as Katie and Tina are so much fun...not to mention they sometimes have some impressive treats to offer!) and we gabbed it up with a wide range of people from a Christmas tree farmer to one of our town elected officials. One of the many highlights was that a family was trying out a Giant hybrid bicycle. Rob and Kitty tried it out with great exultation and happiness. The harder you pedal, the faster it goes! Or, if you pedal slowly, you still get a boost from the battery...and it goes less slow. Apparently when you start on the hills, it pulls you...And, when all of this was going on, we saw 3 other hybrid bike styles go by with an older man and a high school girl. Yesterday morning was hybrid bike day in Tburg!



Nice party last night. I think as Kitty is winding up her high school years, I am beginning to get the hang of this. The subs/chips/iced tea, mess of cut of fruit (on bright plastic trays), salsa and the like was just the ticket. It all went in...and very little leftover. It might have been nice to have a dessert but I worked until the party started. Kitty and Alex were remarkable before,during and after the party--taking my to do list and doing it all. Plus, they were good as a pair of hosts and had a great time themselves. Kudos all around. There was a small issue with that troublesome toilet upstairs that overflowed (second time in a year) and I had to be a remote plumbers assistant with Rob directing from Corning as he had to work late. The guests all chipped in and we were back in action quickly. There was accapella singing by the group with amazing harmonizing. There was piano playing. Board games came out with Battleship and Twister taking our guests attention. We had water pistols and bubbles outside. All the towels,dishes and pots used are now washed and put away. I am happy it went without a hitch. Now for the "distance team" party that Master Cassetti is planning. Sausage and ultimate frisbee...(and we have the back 40 to accomodate this).And Alex is actually driving this. Not me pushing him...so its all good.

My output (36"x48")came! Looks big. Looks GREAT. So. Thesis exhibition as stretched output is back on. 2 of the biggies (the black and white heart and one of the bees) and 8 of the smaller ones at either 12x 16 or 18 x 24. Bigger than original plan..but it really is strong and very exhibitionisty--nothing precious which is exactly the spirit I want. This work is not labored but bold, and pow. The display should do that.

I figured out how to do my "special" add to the thesis yesterday. I am not telling you what this is until I have the end product which I must admit really, really rocks. Trust me. I am getting them done for Hartford as a way of showcasing this online resource; being the first one out of the gate (the Na Na!stuff), and thinking this out before I go live. There is something here...I just need to be a bit strategic about it.

I continue to get charged about the post Hartford body of work I was stressing about. Why was I stressing? Well, its important for me to know what's next--and know that the old stuff isn't necessarily done. Its done for now, but revisiting is in the cards. So, I was worrying it...and decided to flip back to the vectors for a series of portraits of my friends and kids and their friends a la Holbein. If you have been reading this blog for a while, he pops up occasionally--so I should dive onto him and hug him for real.

Am working on finishing up the labels and menus for the rollout of the new StoneCat Cafe logotype. There is some packaging for the line sausages that clever Scott has developed (a juniper maple one, a misto masala one and I cannot remember the other), for the their canned goods, their fresh herbed breadcrumbs, their smoking chips and a line of cocoa and tasting squares I am also doing an illo for (from Scott and Jess's sketch and idea). Its all looking very nice. The went with Saracen as the font ( as sort of decorative face (which, thanks to Mr. Tinkelman--I am wandering into as this decorative thing seems to leak a bit into the corporate Q.). Its great.

This weekend there are haircuts and very little else planned except for the magnificent Memorial Day parade in Tburg which Alex must "march" in with his sax.

Pop!


Just got back from the last LPGA 2300˚ event at the Corning Museum of Glass. They must have had 4000 people there...two bands with the big draw being a fab jazz group "Room Full of Blues". The Voices show was open as was retail with people eating, drinking, dancing and shopping. Ran into some friends who had lost their positions and were interested in talking about the new paths they are on. I know this--that when you are walking in the forest, you need to see the sun occasionally to know that there is a world out there with interested people there to support you. I know that these friends are feeling lonely--so I hope I was helpful and encouraging in their new, unplanned trip.

Kitty and I trolled retail--catching up with some of the folks we know that work there. I bought a green beaded necklace. Kitty bought a bejeweled "Hello Kitty" style bauble. There were loads of temptations the foremost being the shoes with toes that turn up totally covered in beads and sequins. Apple green and magenta, gold and ruby, all opal-ie white or tones of black and brown. This sort of glamor for a pittance, $19.95. But somehow we just couldnt rationalize this wonder.

My tree peony burst it's garlic headed sized blossom...thus the picture. We are getting into lilac and peony season. The iris by the house (clear yellow and some that are purple...more the tailored siberian style versus the frill) are opening with their sharp spikes. The hosta have totally doubled in size...so there may be a bit of moving with them. Monarda, otherwise known as Bee Balm, the source of beramot (the zing that makes Earl Grey tea--Earl Grey), is a plant our dear deer detest. They are flourishing. And our fringe tree keeps living despite the woodpeckers who peck away the paint we seal the wood with. I sent some of the teens outside with clippers to start pruning the brown hanging branches/ dead and not additive. So, things are looking cleaner, and more taken care of.

I have my thesis paper out to be edited with a real live editor. Man, Why didnt I learn about this earlier? Peter Hoover is a new friend and a Trumansburg Rennaissance man. He is at this iteration in his career, a retiring editor (from Big Red). He has asked me wonderful, and insightful questions. He has put his eye on the flow and format--and I know that the time spent with him will take my ramblings to a whole other place. Learn about Peter's interest in music>>--Here's an excerpt from John Hoffman's remarkable writing about Peter's field recordings...

It was the summer of 1959 and a young Peter Hoover, having flunked out of Harvard the summer before, was volunteering at the Library of Congress, transcribing inventory information of aluminum disc recordings made in 1937 of Crockett Ward’s Bog Trotters, from Ballard Branch, Virginia (the original Bog Trotters, consisting of Davey Crockett Ward and his neighbor Alec Dunford on fiddles, Fields Ward, Crockett's son, playing guitar and singing, and Crockett's brother Wade Ward often playing the banjo). . Not bad work if you can get it. It seems the young Mr. Hoover had gotten interested in the traditional music of the southern Appalachian Mountain region over the past couple of years and he was driven to immerse himself in all aspects of this musical genre. In between working as a janitor at a local private school to pay the rent, the 20-year old was hanging around the archive listening to numerous field recordings and engaging in conversations about the music with the director, Rae Korson. Peter was spending the summer developing a list of favorite old-time music performers as he hatched a plan that would take him on a journey throughout the southern Appalachia region in search of these old-time musicians. Not long after, in the fall of ’59, Peter drove out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania having borrowed his parents 1955 Rambler sedan, his Revere recorder in tow, heading straight for Hillsville, Virginia and the homes of Glen Smith, Wade Ward, and Charlie Higgins. Over the course of the next five years, Peter would make these summer journeys an annual affair. During this time, Peter recorded musicians in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. After five years, Peter had recorded more than sixty players and singers, all documented on fifty reel-to-reel recordings, copies of which are now deposited in the Library of Congress and the Archives of Traditional Music at Indiana University in Bloomington.

And this is just the beginning with Peter. I am sure you are going to hear more about him as we go further. He is an inspiration to me...and we have many common interests and old friends (and for me mentors). Lets just say...he has his fingers in many pies...and now he has his big brain, sharp pencil, gentle persona and generous spirit touching my paper. How lucky am I?

Work awaits. We have 50 high schoolers coming for an evening party. Its a purchased party...meaning we are having subs, chips, strawberries, little chocolates and drinks. There will be frisbees and water pistols--music and dancing...and then it will conclude. I have the compostable paper plates and cups and forks/spoons. Alex is making plans for a party for the "distance runners" and others to cook sausages and "hang". Sounds great he is putting this forth because now we can act on it.

Weekend is pretty open. I hope to touch up the thesis drawings. The big output is coming early next week...and I will decide at that point to print them on my printer with 3 centerpiece biggies (and frame them with an off the shelf frame with acrylic from Dick Blick or output stretched in a smaller size). I am looking forward to a bit of peace.

People pictures



Thanks to UC Berkley and the California Digital Library, these are two of the images of Olivia Langdon that surfaced for the Jean Tuttle and Nancy Stahl project for Hartford. I am getting a little steam around this with a choice or two of images (either the one from the entry earlier this week, or the gold framed one above). I like their indirect look, her focus and that she is young...about the time she met Samuel Clemens. I am also getting a bit revved about portraits in general and think (remembering back on a thesis idea which was shelved in the place of letting the pen and ink flow--which were a series of portraits of people Iknow in the village doing them as straight portraits or then taking it further and using my FAVE Holbein as the lead reference (but not as historical characters, more for color/pose/use of type). This could be good...and could speak to the interest Charles Hively has in my portraits. He is encouraging me to talk to publications about these portraits, and honestly I need to put a bit more time in on how to do them before I can go out an confidently say YES, I do portraits.

So, I am going to start by taking the pictures of the students I want to capture. There is an image of three triplet sisters (2 sets--one set very blonde and norwiegan looking, the other very delicate and dark very spanish looking). There is a lovely girl who absolutely changes in front of the camera...There is an outstanding strong featured cross country runner. Of course, there are Alex and Kitty and Mandibelle. I should get Mandy sooner versus later. So two triplet pictures and a bunch of singletons unless I do a brother and sister image too? Need some older people too. Definitely Rob. Maybe our carpenter, David, who has a very rugged and angular face. Lots of shadows. Maybe our 81 yr. old friend, Jim who has startlingly white hair and a twinkle. There are others...I will just need to list and edit.

Maybe this is a nice transition step.

I got the recent Creative Quarterly 15 and found that the portrait of Kitty that I did sat beautifully on a full page--beautifully designed and handled. Charles Hively's publications are 3x3 and Creative Quarterly. It is an honor to be in these pubs as he curates each page and scales/designs the images so skillfully, the publications are jewels in and of themselves.

The day awaits. I meet with the Stonecat owners as we are redoing their logo (a very odd catfish) with packaging and menus. There is an annual report for a client and a laundry list of honey-dos for my big customer.

Chet the Lawnmower man is knocking for his check.

Its a quarter to seven


...and it's still remarkably light and beautiful outside. Frost this a.m. but hope that we will get a bit more heat this week.

A bit lost right now. Need to get some traction on something to think about. I am still musing over valentines...not for this thesis...but 2 to 3 of them done vector using the pix I took at the Cornell Plantations of these blown out peonies and song birds (mooshing them together). I will use very delicate colors and make a confab (a la the Papillon Dog picture I did). Another, inspired by the mighty hands and arms shown in heraldry, holding a bouquet aloft with clouds behind them and a rosy heart with bugs.. Could be beautiful. Nonetheless, I am twisting in the wind as I need a new topic and the gears are not whirring. Should I engage in the pursuit of growing and gardening in prep for the holiday card for one of my clients. If I lean into that, the early September "OMG" might be ameliorated? Or masonic inspired images? or a Floradora doodle yi day? or finishing up the three spreads from the Lewin book? or even just complete the set of portraits I want to do of Alex, the Bialke triplets, the Oros triplets and Laura V. I just need to mop up the changes on this thesis and not do any more work specific to the paper etc.

My buttons came today. Postcards in a few days. New computer delivered...So, I have that to spend a day to boot up...

Contacted Elmira's Twain Center who sent me some images but really referenced UC Berkley's collection of letters, papers and objects surrounding Mark Twain and maybe images. I sent them a note this morning with a nice and prompt note with a link to their images of Twain in the California Digital Library. I have just downloaded a few images so I have a choice. A friend from SU recommended an old friend of his who is a Twain expert at Cornell to contact. I think I have got the images. I ordered a used copy of the "Love Letters of Mark Twain" to read. I really just need to layout this baby and see what goes. Also, need to create some textures for brushes (maybe some drawn ones? and some clips from etchings? or old photos). Need to get rolling before Chris Payne/ Gary Kelley's assignments hit. There will be work there too.

Dentist just called. We need to get Kitty and Alex to the oral surgeons as there might be the great taking out of wisdom teeth this summer. Like everything else, this has changed since my time...where they get the teeth when they are very small and nubby...eliminating all the pain, digging and awfulness that happens as one gets older. I was a bit shocked by the call...but as I settle into it, best to get these things behind us.

dinner on the horizon. Just a question of what..? Any ideas?

potpourri

Cold here at the lake. The picture to the left is of the Luckystone at Sheldrake thanks to the satellite imagery found on the web.The wisteria is robust because I cut it within an inch of it's life (hoping maybe to stall it's persistant accumulation and acquisition of real estate--winding it's stems and tendrils through and about any fence, upright, or object that is within it's grasping reach. The trillium have gone from white to pink. The end of the daffodils are in sight with the floridly fragrant narcissus coming on soon. We have multiheaded narcissus chez Camp (purchased from Van Engelen) from the annual "lets put 400 bulbs in" program. These multiheaded ones are extrodinarily fragrant especially paired with these tiny white "doubles"that we have as well. I picked a bunch of them and pinned them to my jacket the other day for a bonus that it is spring. Def. more narcissus when I order the blockbuster mixes this year for fall.

I think I am going to order pencils for graduation favors this summer. Perhaps six pencils with a quote about illustration with a red and black ribbon for each place setting. My treat...but I think it would be nice. I have the one Luckystone Prize in my office, ready to prep. The other is still in fabrication, but coming along. I have my big experimental piece of output coming (36" x 48") on stretchers coming for review this week. And, Busy Beaver say the buttons are shipping as we speak. Peter H. is getting my paper to edit...and then pending the design changes to the few illustrations (and a few more I might do), I will be done. Or maybe I will be done and do the few later to add.

We do have the Tuttle/Stahl prep which is a portrait of a Connecticut person (historical or otherwise). Initially, Travis, the wine drinking, Xantac taking chimp was my first "go to"--but instead of going rogue on this project--I will keep tight. So, its going to be on Olivia Langdon Clemens, wife of Mark Twain and local figure at Hartford and here in Elmira. Mark Twain said about his beloved Livy:

"I never wrote a serious word until after I married Mrs. Clemens. She is solely responsible - to her should go the credit - for any influence my subsequent work should exert. After my marriage, she edited everything I wrote"

Elmira College has a center for Mark Twain Studies. I plan on calling this week to see if there is any good primary source material to work with. If not, I like the picture to the left as it shows Olivia simply...not all glam that other pictures capture. This is the girl that Samuel Clemens fell in love with. I plan on integrating a profile/silhouette of Clemens into the image (something I have wanted to fiddle with) to say that she lives behind or within this profile despite her being the engine behind Mark Twain's work.

Look what I found, a note from Twain to Thomas Nast, premiere caricaturist and recognized illustrator of the time:

To Th. Nast, in Morristown, N. J.:
Hartford, Nov. 1872.

Nast, you more than any other man have won a prodigious victory for Grant--I mean, rather, for civilization and progress. Those pictures were simply marvelous, and if any man in the land has a right to hold his head up and be honestly proud of his share in this year's vast events that man is unquestionably yourself. We all do sincerely honor you, and are proud of you.
MARK TWAIN.

This note has currency today with the work of Barry Blitt and the witty Mr. Brodner. Nice that people were so courteous in sending notes to each other....recognizing those moments that change people and the world.

More on Livy. Hope to find some elicidating quotes or ideas. My work is going to be a poster about a fictitious play or reading of letters to and from Mark Twain and his wife...to depict their relationship and partnership...and how she is the one who is highlighted, not the larger than life celebrity she was married to.

Rob is measuring. Kitty is doing puzzles and I am going to order pencils and ribbons.
More later!

waiting...and waiting.


We all had a terrific time at the Corning Museum of Glass opening last night. The show, Voices of Contemporary Glass, showcased the new collection that was recently given to the Museum of a life's collecting from Ben and Natalie Heineman. The work is extrodinary as it really is the best hits for some of the most celebrated glass artists since the seventies, but that this work was collected as a series of bodies of work from the jewels to the work before and after that. So, though I thought I knew many of the artists, the context of before and after--the groupings of many pieces really highlighted where the artist found personal traction but the work that sprung at the same time and what was paused or left behind. Interestingly, Rob pointed up that the aspect of design really begins to emerge as a focus in how these artists grew. Yes, in the beginning, they had the chops to actually make stuff. But, the aspect of design entering the work beyond the sheer craft is what took it from a "I can make this" to this is Work-- and it is artful. interesting for me that this plays across many of the arts from being a musician to an illustrator, from a dancer to an opera singer, from a potter to an architect. What is transcendent is that the step beyond craft (or maybe there are many steps) leads to art. If you stop with the craft...(and this is not putting craft down), but if you stop with the I can make it...then the next step which is about refinement, realignment, rethinking, redesign is lost. This second step is what takes the work beyond.

I hope I can stay as engaged in this as i am now with my training. I love these little ah ha epiphanies...that seem to be so obvious, but for me--revelations.

We visited with the architects of the show, Paul and Barbara Haigh, who created an exquisite environment of white and black...sort of a residential world within the white walled gallery space to showcase this collection in a way that it gave a nod to the apartment the Heinemanns live in, and housed their treasures. It was lovely to see them. Old friends from Corning and new artist friends abounded. Kitty and Alex were on fire with the opening. They LOOOVED the glass. They LOOOVED the Haigh design along with catching up with old and new friends (with handshaking, eye looking, funny things to say...) I must say, I felt like I was hanging out with some pretty cool people I never had met (meaning my kids). remarkable. I am so charged (as are Kitty and Alex) that we are planning to go to 2300˚ this Thursday.

We got Alex off on a camping expedition this morning. The HS outdoors club are camping and canoeing at the Delaware Water Gap...with two nights of fun, high jinx, swearing, spitting and italian sausage. How can that be beat? Alex would pipe up and interject that perhaps there could be some cigars and gambling--more teenaged bravado!

We dropped off all of our toxic garbage today at the dump to great excitement. Barrels of lead chips from paint scrapings of the house. Paint. Pesticides from the 40s that we unearthed somewhere. This is a great thing.

R had his eyes checked and got new glasses. I ordered some new sunglasses (the first pair in years...I would say since having kids...17 yrs.(?)). So I am delighted. It is Robs bday so cake and steak are in order. I need to think quickly about a card and card picture.

Must go. Here comes the enormous storm promised. The willow is bending to the ground and the sky is pale green...must shut down