Weekend opener


Paris in Paris. From 7:30 a.m- 8:30 a.m. Paris was a request from Alex. I like asking for assignments from the home team for this portrait exercise. I like this fast work. Makes me think. Not that I think too much, but think to weed and edit. Its funny, despite the fact that Ms. Hilton is a bit of a dope (when we were in NYC, Paris and her sister had a PR rep to position them at the right parties etc. prior to Paris' propulsion into the tabloids)--she is quite pretty and delicate which this picture really shows...You would hardly know she is a bit of flaky, shakey, flooze. Working on finalizing the thesis. Am going to retweak the coloration of Double Happiness. Its getting a bit more elegant with the color refinement. It works blue on blue, but seems to be given another life with the new color/ palette. Need to take a look at the quantity of paper I ordered from Staples to get enough for 10 copies. I think Harford needs 4 or 5. I want 2-3 and then one for my mother and one for the portfolio.

Worked until midnight last night. Up at 5. So, this pace is keeping me in my chair...working. When not working, I am driving kids around, cooling a lot of one off lunches and dinners. Tonight we have the Hangar Theatre and maybe sushi. We may be moving for our summer to the lake this weekend...when the deadlines and life gets a bit easier...turning the evenings and down time to being on vacation.

Need to get rolling. Its nine...and the clock is on. More later .

a jewel


This is a likeness of Boston based artist,Eilen Jewell, a wonderful musician who we in Trumansburg love as she comes regularly to the Rongo and Grassroots Festival. I started with the highlights...cutting them out of a form for the head and found as I started layering more tone on top of the original-that I was losing the monumental aspect of this person. So, I figured in my less than 2 hour requirement, that this would be the way to go with this image. I may take it further to see what happens. Maybe.

We have gotten a ton of rain today. Everything has gone from crispy to green...and lush. Kitty and Alex are not having exams today, so maybe a movie in the afternoon. R. is working late--so correcting the thesis will be in order. I am a bit anxious about the output getting here...and making sure it looks right. Want to get this thesis work out of the way--and done. These shortie portraits are a goad to keep moving. Also,looking forward to my work with Jean and Nancy. Would like a minute to get that sketched and figured out. Maybe this weekend.

Gotta go.

You might catch flies!


Not a homerun, but a picture a day I committed to--so a picture a day you get. This is from a shot I took of Chad C. singing with the Chokers at Felicias. Not a great shot..and anyone with their mouth open like this may look silly. But...moving forward. Start with a good image.

Am running the shuttlebus for K and A. Exams and parties is what is doing here. I am wishing for rain. Am looking forward to an evening open (tomorrow) to finalize my thesis. Then on to the work for Jean and Nancy due later this week...

Got a pair of my shoes in from Keds. Kay Yute. Totally. The black looks more like indigo (which isnt too bad as indigo is a remarkable color). Am forging ahead with finality. Need to get Doug Andersen some type for the show....

need to work now...whoa. Its piling up....I may not be able to breathe.

royalty


Portrait a day. The guy is Jeb Puryear, musical royalty in the Ithaca/Tburg area.Jeb is one of the moving forces behind the Trumansburg Grassroots Festival and one of the leads for the band, Donna the Buffalo. Rob and I were talking this morning about who he would like to see me work on as this portrait a day(if I can keep up with it) project progresses. Liza from last night needs some tweaks (Rob had opinions I do not disagree with--to move that illo further). This is an interesting process as it takes 2 hrs. to do versus the fancier, more in depth portraits that take around 25 hrs. to do (far more detail, far more granular). Faster, more shorthand in these images may be the trick to learn. Faster I need to work, the quicker I can get to the final.

Hartford schedules and information came last night to my delight. Wow. Too soon. I will need to spend some time in the next few days on the printed thesis. Peter Hoover did a magnificent job of editing. I am so lucky.

Kitty is taking exams. Alex is prepping. Rob has 8 at the lake for an offsite that Barbara Bold catered. I have work and a pot of stock on the stove. My shoes are coming this week as are the biggie outputs!.

More later when I have time.

promises...of rain.


Little Richard for you today. Instead of buying baby music for my children, I bought them tapes of Little Richard....and they loved it. So, I guess this picture could be a bow to a childhood delight! I really enjoyed the doing of this...editing the shadows to do different things, taking the cues from Little Richard's eyes and making them little sharp suns. I was going to do more on the mouth/teeth/tongue but you know, with his hair and signature pencil moustache, thats all you need to identify him. So...lesson, Get the signature stuff and be selective about the other details. Focus on that. The squiggles of color was fun...need to be more deliberate about that.

Yesterday was a quiet day with many of the hometeam catching up on sleep and syncing with the rest of the world. I potted up some annuals, bought a hanging basket from Brownies and made some lunch/dinner. Chatted with R. about my octopus picture which I just dont seem to be getting much energy to finish. He has given me permission (I guess I needed it) to move forward with the knowledge that I can redo it...but that my heart is somewhere else...(read these quicky portraits I am doing). Peter Hoover got me my paper finalized...So, I need to tweak and print this week.

Chet the lawnmower man is here getting the lawn taken care of before our next downpour. We need the rain as everything was verging on brown/burn out...so a big dose of rain to plump everything up before July would be great. It has been unseasonably cool (down comforters in the night)--so the spring has lasted a bit longer with the peonies and iris being weeks instead of the days in the hot weather.

Put a face on it.

Well. I have totally gone of the tracks. The train is still moving, god knows where, how and when--but I am in a portrait automatic writing moment. And, with Rob gone, I have an hour or two to knock these babies out. Quick is the theme...not over articulating things (like the portrait of Kitty or the black and whites of the glass artists I have done)--but quick, deliberate and yet not abstracted. Yet. That's the next step. I need to eat and drink portraits--which is what the two weeks at The Hartford Art School promises with one week on a digital project with Jean Tuttle and Nancy Stahl, the other with Gary Kelley and CF Payne. My teachers from the web, from books and from the current world of illustration include the wonderful and inspiring Pablo Lopado from Argentina; Philip Burke--neighborly from Buffalo; The remarkable portraits of Holbein; the same from Hirschfield and Steve Brodner. This is just the front of the work. I want to start stretching the drawing...the color, the simplicity. Who knows where this path will take me. I am hoping to do one portrait a day to push the speed, the brevity, and making it a more natural experience. Somehow I am loving glamourpus gals...Diana Ross, Twiggy...maybe Jean Shrimpton and Sophia Loren. They are all eyes and teeth. And, lets not forget about the hair.
Moving.

Kitty and I had a time in the Trader K basement getting some sundresses...amazingly pretty things for pocket change. Alex and she are going to a party tonight..."come dressed as someone from Fiction. Kitty is going as the Great Gatsby's Daisy. We bought Alex a remarkable double breasted suit that fits him to the tee...cuffs, length--whole shot from Petrune, a vintage store on the Ithaca Commons that Dominica Brockman and her totally smart and stylish husband run, buy for, inspire. Dominica liked Kitty's ripped tee (with a heart ripped on the back)--and was interested in carrying Kitty's work. She also loved Kitty's necklace. I don't know how to kick K in the behind...cause its fashion, its creative and her work. I would be SO charged. She is pretty nonplussed. Oy.

Alex is set. He is going as Gatsby. We saw new Cole Haan loafers (his size, NEW, and black) at Trader Ks ($18.), they fit...and he POOHpoohed them. Bring on the flip flops or the ripped converse sneakers.

We sat outside and had a very grown up sushi lunch (which K and A adored) after picking Kitty up from the ACT test. This was very positive for K after two shots at the SATS. We will see.

Rob is busy being a leader of the Glass conference in Corning. Too bad the weather is not cooperating (rainy now).

More later.

Thursday!


Geisha coming on. Almost done. Working on a Diana Ross distill for Jean and Nancy Stahl...with the distill to see where I can take this image. Tracing on the computer pretty fast...and its beginning to look like the first step. Its fun though. I think the summer of portraits is really great. It will be a good idea to see where this can go.

I was googling Pablo Lopato and ran into a Communications Arts Magazine brief interview with him. He cited his inspirations, which for me, has become a primary interest as it gives me a window on the work...what did the illustrator see/glean/gain from his inspiration's work. Lopato referenced this interesting Argentinian cubist, Emilio PettorutiWiki says:



"Emilio Pettoruti was an Argentine painter, who caused a scandal with his avant-garde cubist exhibition in 1924 in Buenos Aires. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Buenos Aires was a city full of artistic development. Pettoruti's career was thriving during the 1920s when "Argentina witnessed a decade of dynamic artistic activity; it was an era of euphoria, a time when the definition of modernity was developed."[1] Previously, he had been awarded, in 1912, a traveling scholarship to Italy, where he met the Futurist artists, and also exhibited at Herwarth Walden's "Der Sturm Gallery" in Berlin. In Paris, he met Juan Gris, who influenced him to paint in a cubist style. While Pettoruti was influenced by cubism, futurism, constructivism, and abstraction, he did not claim to paint in any of those styles in particular. Exhibiting all over Europe and Argentina, Emilio Pettoruti is remembered as one of the most influential artists in Argentina in the 20th century for his unique style and vision."


I love this.  Mr. Lopato lives in a world I know nothing about...Nothing. There are a rich vein of illustrators and artists from South America that we know nothing of. I want to chase down his other influences and see what there is so see. I love the color and the more obvious cubism that Pettoruci shows...breaking the image down to basics but keeping it a bit more decorative than Juan Gris and Braque (poor, drab Braque). Picasso keeps his humor in his cubist work...using shape and line in a way that I would like to better understand. Hmmm.

Gotta go. There are 17 packages of postcards going to my Hartford class for promotional cards for our show and 3 boxes to go filled with programs and pencils. Wrapping this up. Now, I wonder where my output is? Peter H. is almost done with the lovely editing he is doing to the masterwork paper (not)...and very sweet about how fun it has been to do!  And, need to get on fixing the octopus. Have put a bit of time into it...but have been lured by the siren of our geisha girl and now Diana Ross. Bad Girls!

cool day


Continuing work on the Utamaro inspired illustrator in SF. Like what's happening. Sent a note off to CF Payne about the portrait project to get some guidance and thought. It dawned on me that the Jean Tuttle/ Nancy Stahl project was boring me to death...not jazzy enough so maybe I will do a portrait of Diana Ross (from Connecticut) and push it a bit a la Risko/ and the South American Pablo Lobato. Feeling better about this. Boredom really sticks you in neutral.

I am fiddling with our little dharma pal. funnzies. Not much to look at yet.

Cooked down a mess of chicken bones from my new favorite from the grocery store, antibiotic free, natural chickens (rotisserie style) without the terrible quicky mart seasoning and stink. Its quite delicious and it is prime for making this great new thai chicken salad that the home team have been loving (even demanding!) in this month's Martha Stewart Good Eats magazine (the small magazine at the grocery store). One of my favorite magazines cause the recipes are dumb, quick and delicious... Back to the bones, I made wonderful stock from these bones before (the best this year), so I am def. in the recycling mode with these small chickens. This robust stock may come from a robust quantity of bones. So, remind me, but next winter I am for certain going to buy the box of backs and bones they sell for $10. at the Regional Access.

The Van Engelen catalog came yesterday. With this cool humid weather, it is obvious to think about piles of bulbs--affordable piles of bulbs, more more and more. They had 250 daffodils for $74, all excellent quality, with a ton of choices from iris, peonies, frittilaria, allium. You hear me talking about these things...This is the place to buy them. Paired with teen labor...1000 daffs are going in this fall. More frittilaria maximus and allium gigantium. Do you see a trend? Maximus and Gigantium.

Its been very cool here. Maybe teen girl squad (my Wednesday teen employees) will fold things for Hartford and then outside to prune more twigs and sticks, and kill all privet. More later

picture above is work in progress...(click to see bigger)

Tuesday late night


Am all tumbled and jumbled. I figured I would just make some SF pictures to maybe right myself. These portraits are getting me all worried and confused.So as a bit of medicine, I figured I would research lovely asian ideas and art. Utamaro is a long time favorite--so the incomplete image above is a bow and wave to him. The stick in her hand will either become a brush or a pencil...perhaps a SF skyline hair ornament...And A golden gate bridge pattern in her dress. I am editing the crap out of this thing...reducing line and color which I think looks pretty good. The hair has been fun..so I am charged despite my personal confusion.

I also ran across the idea of the Hariko and the daruma doll. Daruma or Dharma Dolls are:

Daruma dolls (達磨 daruma?), also known as dharma dolls, are hollow and round Japanese wish dolls with no arms or legs, modeled after Bodhidharma, the founder and first patriarch of Zen.[1] Typical colors are red (most common), yellow, green, and white. The doll has a face with a mustache and beard, but its eyes only contain the color white. Using black ink, one fills in a single circular eye while thinking of a wish. Should the wish later come true, the second eye is filled in. It is traditional to fill in the right eye first; the left eye is left blank until the wish is fulfilled.

Many of the Daruma dolls are male but there is a female daruma doll. It is called hime daruma or "princess daruma."

The Canon Creative Park page said about Dharma dolls: (they also have cool pdf files of Dharma dolls you can print out and assemble in a range of color!)

"The first Dharma dolls are said to have been made some 300 years ago at the Sorensen Dharma Temple in Takasaki City in Gunma Prefecture, modeled after the Zen monk, Bodhidharma. The eyebrows and beard represent the crane and the turtle, long considered symbols of longevity in Japan, and the dolls are popular as good luck charms. It is traditional to paint in the left pupil (the right one facing you) when you make a wish, and then paint in the right pupil when the wish comes true. Also, it is said to be most lucky to place the doll so that it faces south. In Japan, red and white are considered lucky and these are the usual colors for a Dharma doll. There are other dolls with different colors, based on oriental astrology, so you can select the color of the doll based on the nature of your wish and your lucky color, increasing the fun and perhaps the efficacy of the charm. "

Chad mentioned that part of the Daruma doll concept was to hold the pure idea of the Daruma and draw it without looking. He said: "I really like the darumas. They represent Bohodidarma who founded Zen Buddhism and is credited with creating martial arts. When you do it, try and detach yourself from it and create it with a pure mind free from opinion of self. It is an amazing exercise. Really, try it." "so express from your heart and let the pen do the work. Its all about sincerity and intention." So, I am fascinated with a mini sketch process of these little wonders that promise action, a journey, a wish. There is something truly wonderful in these personal commitments, reminders of promises. I seem to be fascinated by asian good luck symbols--from the Daruma and the Happy or Lucky Cat and the various Hariko figures. Maybe some simple fun illos of these guys before I get with the portraits...?

This google article from the illustrated encylopedia of Zen Buddhism gets into the story, the symbols and imagery...why no arms and legs, and why they are early weebles...that wobble... take a look>>

Back to work. R. should be home in an hour or so.

slow Monday


Messing around. Need to do some publication design today. Am thinking portraits re Hartford and need to finalize one more drawing for the thesis. Shouldnt be a biggie. Rob is out for a series of evenings this week...so I will have a window to finish that up. Also, need to get the show publications completed for the thesis exhibition. I have teenagers coming this week to fold and collate the program and notes. Postcard should be on its way too.

Rob is taking his parents to NYC today (a down and back) for some medical consultation. Poor guy...he is having an amazing work week..But, we had lots of nature with tree pruning galore yesterday. Rob took on the privet hedges while i clipped the wisteria and box hedge. Next shot, we are attacking more of the invasive shubbery that seem to take over. We have woodpeckers loving our new bird seed mix...Lovely red heads with way pointy beaks. I love woodpeckers--I dont love what they are doing to our fringe tree (now proclaimed by visitors as a jasmine).

I had two bags accepted on Bagstab . Take a look and cast a vote for my Wood Duck or Willow Skull. Bagstab is a site that you can upload art for tote bags, messenger bags or backpacks. Voting determines which products go further (with royalties to the illustrator). So, help me out and vote for one or both! Its nice to see my work in the context of what is being shown. Big stuff.

At the lake, wrapping it up to get Rob on the road for his manager on duty stint today. Alex is working on a portrait project. Kitty has a friend over and they are hard at work looking for fossils on the beach. They found me a perfect luckystone for my big award in July. The smaller prize doesnt get them. And, the prizes look great. I hope they are well received. Its the thought that counts.

Here is my thinking. Everyone in the program comes in as an individual and leaves as an individual. Each journey is personal and the path(s) chosen aid in what each student receives. There is no wrong journey or path. And, if the journey changes, so be it...but its important that the effort put in poses questions, prompts answers and results. What draws these individuals together is the desire to change, the ability to communicate visually, and the interest in seeing, learning, growing. The ability to draw, to tell a visual tale or to evoke a feeling, a response from another person is key. To that, we are all moving forward--those of us graduating--forward, changed, changing,with a misnamed degree. There should be nothing about terminus in this terminus degree. It should all about opening the doors for change, evolution, self enlightenment. Those who were new last year are moving and transitioning from the firsties to graduates. The firsties are experiencing all that we firsties have been through: insecurity, lack of confidence, a challenge to all you know, believe in. The cards have been thrown in the air...and goodness knows if you can ever get them back in the box the same way ever again (read,this is why you are paying the money). Hopefully by the time you graduate, you will realize the cards aren't necessary, there is no order and is it really important?

Need to get the stuff ordered prior to departure. The little tree peony I planted by the back door is blooming (a beautiful clear yellow) as are the iris. When our big tree came crashing down two years ago, it cleared the way for some amazing little saplings to grow and have the light they wer deprived of. We have a very spiky/thorny tree with these heavenly clusters of flowers that smell almost like jasmine. The flowers are white with red necks and a blaze of an acid yellow in the middle. As it is cool and humid, the scent projects and has wrapped us in an otherworldly place. The bird feeders are filled to the brim with "Ithaca Blend" from Agway. We have a few pilated woodpeckers who think this new mix worth the trip.

The wonderbus awaits packing.
Later>>

Quiet before the Maelstrom


Early up this morning to get Kitty to round two, SATS. Urg. Next weekend, ACT and the following week or so tests, regents, APs. She will be a testing machine. We dropped by the farmers market on the way home (Ithaca) to admire the pink and warm red poppies, the fluffy iris and the new plants beginning to blow out. We will pick her up around noon and rush off to WinLee (our local asian grocery store) for rice noodles and Pad Thai fixins. I am on an asian cooking jag because I have never done it and found this week that its quite simple, quite plentiful yielding leftovers for those who work here and for gigantic 15 year old golf playing, track running guys. There is never enough food for them. I stocked up at the Regional Access with a case of Pesto (another 15 yr. old staple...forget peanut butter! We only eat Pesto and cheese!). They have a little broken case section at the Regional they refer to as the "bodega." I bought some lovely olive oil and some cans of curry as this is another crowd pleaser with the youth--particularly when we eat at Thai restaurants which is a new love with the home team. So, Winlee to flesh out the mis en place for asian cooking.

I took some pictures of poppies and iris along with greenery for another vector valentine I want to do using really tight, self shot reference...Sweetsy with flowers and birds and butterflies. I think this has legs and I think it might be fun to do. Am getting some headshots for my CF Payne/Gary Kelley portrait(s) done in a very distilled, graphic character manner. Flat color, some detail...proportions stretched. Thoreau is number one guy. Poe and Twain...need 3 more. Library of Congress has a digital library (specifically portraits) as does the New York Public Library which has an impressive volume of digitized images. With the NYPL, there is a bit of a trick in the downloading and saving.

Finished the tortured waterfall project. Kitty proclaims it better than last year. I proclaim it done. Done! So more time for portraits, heads, Olivia Langdon and the like (even more asian pictures like the promised sleeping pig!). It is a bit over a month before Camp at Hartford, so getting the ship in order is appropriate.

Rob has the Glass Arts Society Annual Conference (GAS) in Corning this next week. He will be working long days (with music and festivities, demonstrations and lectures). GAS comes to Corning every 10 years--so it has in our lives become a milestone. Last time, Kitty and Alex were 5 and 7. Now look. Its always fun and if you are around here, worth the less than $300. conference fee to get the full bore. Many of the glass biggies are there (along with students and the biggies in the making). Often there will be shows of work, work created on site, huge neon and kinetic glass on the Brisco Bridge. The Horseflies will be playing the closing party along with a new Jim Reidy band.

I need to make my asian food list before we jump in the car to get into Ithaca.