Monday

Cold out. A real winter. Its s two quilt night for us. The inn is all filled up. So, all bathrooms and kitchen are pressed to produce.

We are having a birthday cake tonight for a friend of ours and the elder Cassettis. I made a carrot cake (new recipe from  The Joy of Cooking with a modified recipe for the icing which really rocked (1 block cream cheese, 1.5 sticks of butter and 1.5 lb of confectionery sugar with a dose of vanilla....and beat it until it yelps). I think I may pull some xmas cookies out of the freezeer for an added caloric boost and to get rid of them. I am mapping the food plan for the home team this week. Staying in front of the bread, milk, eggs consumption might take a bit more planning than usual.

This week we have Kitty and Alex's teeth reviewed. I have financial aid forms to complete in addition to the day to day. I need to get my entries together for 3x3 as well as Print Regional. That's another add to the week. You know, I ned to think about Alex Cassetti's summer plans as well as passports for summer travel (possible).

Great excitement areound here. Trumansburg has been granted a big sum of money to build a  structure for our Farmers Maket. From the memo to the Trumansburg  Farmer's Market supporters:

"We've planned a Trumansburg Farmers Market meeting for January 13th, at 7pm in the village hall. NYS Ag and Markets has awarded the village  $25,000 to build pavilion structures in the village park. This is a matching grant that will be matched with mostly with volunteer labor and additional funds that need to be raised.

The pavilion committee has formed two sub-committees - the design build committee and the fund raiser committee - all three groups have been working hard on their various projects and feel that it's time to share ideas with the market vendors and supporters.  At the Jan. 13th meeting, pavilion models and drawings will be available for you to see and express any opinions or ideas that you may have. The designers will be there to present.

Also the fund raiser committee is having a fund raiser on March 13th, 4pm - 8pm at the American Legion on Rt. 96, just north of the village...food, music, live and silent auctions, etc....we need an additional $12,000 to raise the roofs!!

So. We need to get ready for this one. I think I will send art and volunteer some graphics. Maybe even something as outrageous as a checque. Isn't this exciting? It sure is!

There are some name change/identity issues on the table for the big customer. And of course, there are the farm logotypes and getting thte Hangar work approved. Will be meeitng with the museum to resolve the continual adds to the format of the calenar. Perhaps instead of amending the layout and grids so much, maybe we just need to revise the format to accomodate the rnew requirements (totally understandable as publications change and evolve with its changing content and editiorial expectations.Need to get cards to another.

More later>>

Countdown to Monday

I am surrounded by lonely, yipping dogs who have been watered and fed-- so their agita is a bit beyond me. I have dinner in the oven awaiting the arrival of our younger set post ski bus and the fearsome hunger that goes with a day in the cold air. Our additional guests are going to stagger in all evening. The day was all about cooking and provisioning for the week ahead.

Saturday in the New Year

Holiday decor is down and packed away. While we were at it, I measured my santon figures (Provencal Nativity characters) to find out they are #2 size. Marcel Carbonel have six different scales of figures from the average figure being 15 cm down to the smallest being on average 2.5 cm. I bought these figures when the wonderful knitting shop in Corning went out of business. Then, I bought more when we visited Nantucket the following summer.

I am thinking of starting collections for Kitty and Alex (and my nieces)--giving them a figure each year...so by the time they are out of college, they will have lovely sets for their own mantlepieces.

So what to start with? An angel? or the big masterblaster, Jesus Mary Joseph--and then add so they have the core figures to start with. I should buy for price and see if ebay is a resource worth supporting.

Holiday Shopping Resources:

Erzgebirge Palace>>The Wooden Wagon>>
German Imports>>
Christkindl-Markt>>
Ecrater>>
Santons Marcel Carbonel>>
Santons de France USA>>
My Growing Traditions>>

I've learned a lot his holiday season about holiday traditions, holiday decor and the things that make me thrilled. Krampus, Pere Fouchette, Piet Zwarte, and others....the traditions of the Erzgebirge Mountains with nutcrackers, angels, smokers, arched candle holders, and more. I have also realized that despite my dislike of Christmas, I love the traditions and the imagery....intellectually. I think there is work here for next year to pursue and possibly license (?). Hangar work has changed out and is close to done. See here>>

Am working with King Arthur Bread flour using the dough hook on my mixer versus a bread machine to find out what type of results I can get. I made two types of pizza dough yesterday...one with traditional King Arthur (as I did over Christmas with a different yeast) and then with King Arthur bread flour. Same new yeast. One was a pancake the other was perfect. I made two thick foccaccia type loaves which I cut in half and made a type of deep dish pizza for dinner last night with all the leftovers on top. Every slice was consumed. Nary a crumb was left. We will see what happens today. This is a low effort and fun activity which can yield something to eat ( even a flop).

I am starting the Eustace Tilley illustrations this weekend. Here's what Wikipedia says about Eustace Tilley under their New Yorker entry:

The magazine's first cover illustration, of a dandy peering at a butterfly through a monocle, was drawn by Rea Irvin, the magazine's first art editor. The gentleman on the original cover is referred to as "Eustace Tilley," a character created for The New Yorker by Corey Ford. Eustace Tilley was the hero of a series entitled "The Making of a Magazine," which began on the inside front cover of the August 8 issue that first summer. He was a younger man than the figure of the original cover. His top hat was of a newer style, without the curved brim. He wore a morning coat and striped trousers. Ford borrowed Eustace Tilley's last name from an aunt—he had always found it vaguely humorous. "Eustace" was selected for euphony, although Ford may have borrowed the name from Eustace Taylor, his fraternity brother from Delta Kappa Epsilon at Columbia College of Columbia University.

Tilley was always busy, and in illustrations by Johann Bull, always poised. He might be in Mexico, supervising the vast farms that grew the cactus for binding the magazine's pages together. The Punctuation Farm, where commas were grown in profusion, because Ross had developed a love of them, was naturally in a more fertile region. Tilley might be inspecting the Initial Department, where letters were sent to be capitalized. Or he might be superintending the Emphasis Department, where letters were placed in a vise and forced sideways, for the creation of italics. He would jump to the Sargasso Sea, where by insulting squids he got ink for the printing presses, which were powered by a horse turning a pole. It was told how in the great paper shortage of 1882 he had saved the magazine by getting society matrons to contribute their finery. Thereafter dresses were made at a special factory and girls employed to wear them out, after which the cloth was used for manufacturing paper. Raoul Fleischmann, who had moved into the offices to protect his venture with Ross, gathered the Tilley series into a promotion booklet. Later, Ross took a listing for Eustace Tilley in the Manhattan telephone directory.

The character has become a kind of mascot for The New Yorker, frequently appearing in its pages and on promotional materials. Traditionally, Rea Irvin's original Tilley cover illustration is reused every year on the issue closest to the anniversary date of February 21, though on several occasions a newly drawn variation has been substituted.

Cute, eh? Lots of ideas here... More later.

 

wintery day

Snowing a bit right now. Big flakes. The trees look like holiday cards. The roads to school this morning were "greasy" and a bit slick. So making me stay at home with my pens, my bags of bread flour and the woodstove is a delight beyond belief. So, I am snuggling in with my projects and enjoying every moment.

This weekend includes dinner with friends, Kitty and Alex skiing, Alex has a full day of Indoor Track (Meet at Cornell's Barton Hall),two more guests coming for the week, cooking and making a birthday cake. The holiday decorations are going to be rewrapped up (I will miss the Santons) for next Christmas. I need to find a resource to expand my little group of figures... And so it goes.

I gave away all of the wool wreaths I made.  These wreaths were made from felt balls I had ordered from Nepal. Short story goes that Kitty was making jewelry from felt balls I had gotten her from magiccabin.com. Kitty's work looked wonderful but I didnt want to have to pay a ton for these special craft felt balls. So. I googled away and found felt and crafts.com. I ordered a ton of stuff (from pocketbooks and purses, scarves and  bags along with the balls. They came and surprisingly, the balls were significantly bigger than I had anticipated. So what to do? I took a bag of them to Vermont for Thanksgiving and figured that I would entertain all the girls with some make and do thing for Christmas. We made and did...from garlands for the trees to dog necklaces etc. We came home from Vermont and I had wreath-itis. I  don't know what it is, but I want to make wreaths at the holidays. Sometimes I clip boxwood and greens from the backyard and make green wreaths...but this year, I was going to make them out of these felt balls. I got a  few wire frames from the craft shop and sewed the balls directly on the frame. Six wreaths later...I am still into it. Each one is different and changes with the selection of bigger and smaller balls, gluing a layer on etc. They look great.

A new order of mirrored felt balls (from feltandcrafts.com) came this week, so more wreaths are in order for the new year. Surprisingly, the colorway for the mirrored balls are lighter, paler and more pastel...so maybe Easter wreaths? I will let you know, but I think I may sell them through Esty and have a quicky series of directions for friends to make the wreaths themselves. Maybe wreaths will have it's own page. Perhaps before I do that, I should copyright the design along with the illustration work from the last half of 2009. Enough of the wreaths.

Plugging away on the Hangar. You can see where it's going under The Atelier section of this site. Need to tune them a bit. I have the farm logotypes next along with some big identity change parts from my bigger client. I am fiddling around with stuff like the tree (above) just for fun. Genesis lurks.

What a big first week of 2010. I am looking forward to the weekend.

 

See the progression on the Hangar Posters>>--

Work in progress. I think I may assign new colors to them as a way to show variation. I like what is happening with the 39 Steps sketches. And, I like what is happening with the Squarespace gallery function. Its great that you can have an overview of the illustrations and then get the close up with the slideshow feature. Nice...and so easy you don't even need to think about it. Next group of images will be for the farm. Am psyched about it--and feel good that I can knock down this work. I may be helping a friend with another logotype (illustration) of a cat and am looking forward to it.

I finally got the Network Blogs app in Facebook to pull my blog through. I had it figured out with the former location, but somehow missed the details on this one. Let's see if this will work this time. Yesterday's nutcracker assembly illustration surprisingly feels very Alexander Girard. Rob was so cute and said all I needed was some gnarly slab serif Egyptian font to really get it in the zone...and he (as usual) is always right. Will keep going here. Like what's happening. I have a couple of pictures on the top of my pile I plan on finishing today...and then, of course, you will see them. I am also getting ready to get back into the Genesis work. Fired up...

Another thing to get excited about is The New Yorker Contest, The 2010 Eustace Tilley Contest. . Here are some examples of last year's winners. The prize is that you are posted on The New Yorker website...and get your work judged and curated by Françoise Mouly, art director of this esteemed publication. All art must be uploaded by January 18th/midnight. I think I might try my hand at this one. Could be fun and I have the weekend on the horizon. Wouldnt that be fun to get into that little show? I think so. I hope so.

I entered this interesting Canadian show--The Applied Arts 2010 Photography and Illustration Awards, which has a very broad series of categories for illustration beyond the few that the US shows offer. It was the easiest online entry ever (only took a half an hour). And now we wait and see. Print Regional's Show is due at the end of the month--so that is on the horizon too.

Just got back from having a dreamy time at the Shure Save. Bought some real live bread flour from King Arthur in anticipation of the weekend and warm woodstoves this evening. Pizza, I think. Also bought some gluten to help the heavy stuff (Farmers Ground Flour from Greenstar). No more brick bread unless I am planning on building an environmentally friendly house that doubles as birdfood. There's a thought.

Just to start your day off with something good. I will post soon.

Wednesday morning

I am moving the columns around as my Blackberry Tester (Rob) said that the Blackberry was not happy with the content on the right. Thus the shift of the content to the left. We will see how that goes. If you have any input, please let me know.

Am still working on the Hangar pieces. Seems so slow. But at least its left foot/right foot and we are making some progress.

We got a bunch of pieces in from the Mexico and India markets for my client and the work is very hodge podge lodge...so we are gearing up to redesign the work to more accurately say, "now this, is what is acceptable". It's often a problem, when put in an oversight role, to know how critical and pointed one gets with other people's work. But, with the broad horizon of "does this suit the entire company?", "does this represent the company appropriately?", or "does this say Fortune 100?" --then the gloves can come off. Only big problem comes from most of this graphic work is done by inhouse designers in these countries--so combined with a defined skill set and vision, and our lack of market understanding and cultural context, communications can suffer. So we redo entire programs just to show that simplicity is possible, encourage a cleaner, less junked up piece (deleting bad color fields, tacky fonts, cheesy stock art, and the omnipresent proliferation of the tagline of the day. And so it goes.

Ordered my two prints for Picture Salon yesterday. Love how simple the process is, and how nice the work looks on canvas--without glass or acrylic deadening the color. Plus, easier to ship etc. I should have them in two weeks.

Going a bit deeper yesterday in the land of folk art around religious themes, I learned that this Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) area of Germany that bounds the Czech Republic is responsible for more than Christmas Pyramids, Smokers, Nutcrackers, Angels, and Easter bunnies in wood. There is another decoration that exclusively comes from this area called Schwibbogen. Schwibbogen are decorative candle holders that were originally made in black metal and have grown to being made of wood depicting historical or religious themes. Since WW2, they have grown in popularity--and now incorporate all sorts of imagery from landscpes, skylines even to advertising. Interestingly, the first ones incorporated the Erzgebirge angel and miner (Bergmann) which the candlestick holder also depict in wooden figurines. Seems like a miner and an angel are in the mix for later this week or so. Am looking at these metal shapes of trees and loving them.

Wikipedia takes this one step further>>

"The most famous design was created by Paula Jordan in 1937 for a show in Schwarzenberg. It depicted the 3 main sources of income of the people in the region in the 18th and 19th century. Thus the Schwibbogen showed apart from some traditional symbols; 2 miners, 1 wood carver, a bobbin lace maker, a Christmas Tree, 2 miner's hammers, 2 crossed swords, and an angel. It holds 7 candles. Contrary to popular belief the candle holder was always associated with Christmas. The light symbolizes the longing of the miners who didn't see the daylight in winter for weeks sometimes due to their long working hours below the surface. Over time the designs changed. Especially in the last few decades after the World War II the Schwibbogen has reached not only a new popularity, but has changed a lot in its looks. Now it is typically made out of wood which depicts historical or religious scenes. But there are even landscapes, skylines, advertisements ... there is almost no limit to the possibilities. What remains is the link to Christmas traditions. Especially in the Ore Mountains the windows of the houses in villages and towns feature a lit candle arc - usually with the traditional designs or at least local scenes. The town of Seiffen is particularly noted for its production of Schwibbogen in its craft shops, usually wooden arcs now."

Long John and the Tights play at the Pourhouse tonight. I think we will take a break and go to listen to them. Should be fun. Snow is falling and the work continues.

Winter morning

The Wooden wagon.com site had a Erzegebirge folk toy (a type of a vertical yoyo) that was a little lady in a skirt. Charmed, I did my little flower spinner picture in response to that object. A little it of springtime in the early January morning. I am charmed with this whole German folk toy discovery as it addresses the type of imagery I saw in the Pennyslvania Fraktur illustrations, along with the heavy duty decorative (no holds barred) influences as well as the simple, primitive style that I love in folks like Edward Hicks, Morris Hirschfield, Leger and others inspired by the same roots. And so it goes.

I am girding myself to get back into the Garden of Eden work what with a feeling for figures and the boost that ths SOILA Silver gave to me. I think I will be looking more at Hirshfield and Hicks for their treatment of animals along with these German folk toys.

Seems that the wooden Noah's arks that I have adored since consciousness, stem from this German tradition. Here's one from Wooden Wagon (again) Oh my, look at that, they have a Garden of Eden themselves!>>. Plus, if we go back to the German roots of this progression, the Fraktur artists also addressed Adam and Eve (and the Crucifixion as the other story) in their illustrated documents and books. Here>>,Here>>, Here>>, Here>>--just for instance. Right? This is where my head is dwelling now.

Mandy is making a fire in the cold, cold kitchen. Its fun having her and Sonata visiting. We will have a full house next week with more visitors that we might have all the beds slept in this big house. Guess the hams need to be pulled out of the freezer for this entertainment. I have committed to have a dinner for 16 or so prior to the High School Snow Ball--so I need to put my mind on that.

Working away at the Hangar work (note below). I am steadily making progress...and my hope is today/tomorrow I will be back at center on that. I need to order a print for both shows I will be in in the next few months. Print Regional posted their Design Regional Show (March 1 deadline)--which I think I will fire a few pieces to. Might have a chance with Juri and the valentines.

More later. Maybe more pix.

Snowy Monday

Its a snowy Monday  in January. 2010 to be exact. Kids are back in school. The schedule of doctors appointments, work and efforts towards moving forward is back in full swing with the slow days of our holidays sadly behind us.

I will be working on catching up with the Hangar posters (Penelope rehash is below, and I am pleased with where it has gone). Also have the farm work for the artisan bakery as well. So, though our clients will be updating their emails and scheduling their work, we will have a bit more luxury to roll slowly into the new year.

I was tooling around the internet, researching whatever lamebrain stuff that floats through and lands in my interest box and came across something that ties some thinking together. I learned that nutcrackers and angel candle holders along with the holiday "pyramids" are grouped together as Erzgebirge folk art. Erzgebirge is a location in Germany on the border of Germany and the Czech Republic. There is a lot of mining there (silver etc) and the miners made these wooden objects as a way of earning more money on the side. A tribute to this work are the miner (bergmann) candlesticks (shown here on the wonderful Woodentoy.com site. The miners candlesticks are often seen with the guardian angels much like the illustration I did last week as a bow to the Erzgebirge angel I bought without knowing the full story/context of the piece. I am delighted in learning the context of these german objects I love--and finding out that all of the types of objects are related insofar as culture, who makes them and the thinking around them. Some notes on nutcrackers: the pure ones are often soldiers, kings or Knights--known to be collected from the Erzgebirge or Ore Mountains in Germany. Thus, the king. These guys are perfect for the symmetrical stuff I have been cranking out...and they make tremendous patterns too. There are more for this week as Epiphany gives me a bit more Christmas time for illustration.... And seeing that the Garden of Eden got recognized, maybe its time to do a little more on the Garden of Eden work?

Q. Cassetti, I Love Fu, 2009 Digital and Pen and Ink,Surprises abound. I noticed that Jackie Decker, the tremendous future Beatrix Potter illustrator from Hartford got into the Society of Illustrators LA show (via Facebook, of course). I got twitchy (as usual) and started scanning my email to see if there was a little note for me. I was twitchy because of course, I hadn't gotten in (after submitting an absolute carload of pieces)...and kept at it. There it was! The SILA "You got something in" email. Phew! Twitchiness aside, I got SIX pieces in-- they are the Hartford SF Geisha (which I couldnt show this summer as we could only show one),the Jiri piece that got into SI NYC , I love Fu, Finch Valentine, Bee Mine Valentine, Sweetness Valentine.

We also got the recent copy of Creative Quarterly 17 in the mail and was thrilled to be among some outstanding work in photography, fine arts, graphic design and illustration. Charles Hively's Creative Quarterly publication is well structured, diverse and very interesting from the work shown to the advertising and book reviews that parallel the body of the piece. A portrait, one of my "portrait an hour" done in fear and trepidation of the Gary Kelley/ CF Payne class on portraits along with the Jean Tuttle/ Nancy Stahl digital class (also focusing on portraits). I shouldnt have gotten so worked up, but that is what I do--and interesting things often come out of the fear. Back to Creative Quarterly. There is a magazine which the select of the select are placed (I have one) and then the additional pieces go onto a website that shows those "runner ups" There are five runners up along with the portrait that got in here>>

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Stepping lightly

Plans are afoot to go into town. They have shoveled /plowed the streets so the journey may not be so bad.Winter is really here with enoguht snow (and some to spare) for skiing and other cold fun.

Alex has Lady Gaga on the other computer, so we are getting our energy up to face the cold dry cold. Now, we are tuned into Biggie (who I have discovered I like).

We have Green Star on our list as well as hair cuts for the boys. Maybe a quick tour of Target?

Neti Pots, bulk olive oil, bulk dish soap, the fab new Farmer Ground Flour (local, and from what my friend Stefan says, it takes bread to another place), King Arthur Bread Flour and yeast is on the list for Green Star, ourl ocal Co-op. If you havent gathered whats been going on, Bread, succinctly sums it up. For the past few days, I have been using up leftovers as pizza and foccacia with the help of our new Christmas bread stone and my bread machine--and it works! Combined with the little place next to the woodstove to aid in the rising, well, its a habit I am getting used to doing...and the leftorvers are consumed. So, I am working it. Only downside was with the lovely little rolls had set out by the woodstove to rise were just too tempting for Shady Grove. Before you could say "hot buns", she had scarfed down all but 8 raw dough balls! Thankfully, I had more dough in the kitchen.. Shady was very remorseful (and bloated to my thinking). Lesson Learned.

Kitty and I love the bulk department particularly the rich dark green olive oil they stock as well as the soaps which we noticed the last time we were there. Should be fun.

We are laying low as the teeth still hurt. Quiet and rest is the best thing for all of us.

More later

Adieu for now Blogger

 

Today is a momentous day. Yes, its 2010 and the first day of it. But even better. Even better than the snow blanketing our streets. Even better than Shady Grove eating half the rolls I had rising in the kitchen. Even better than the promises and opportunities a new year presents. Well, all of this is better for me...and for you, you may have to change a bookmark or a pulldown.

Today, January 1, 2010 is the first day of a new decade, a first day for the Rongovian Academy of Fine Arts to move to more sumptuous quarters. After one thousand, seven hundred and sixty one posts thanks to the graciousness of the Google Nation, we have sucked all the content for the Academy and for the Traditional Rongovian Cuisine to a new place at Squarespace.

Squarespace gives me more flexibilty including a lovely gallery feature that gives me quick and easy posting of whats doing in the sketch book. Squarespace also gives me better data on who is visiting, who is downloading, who is looking and where. And, with all the mobility that Squarespace offers, this new home for The Rongovian Academy of Fine Arts can grow and develop and change while giving me more content management and a bit more flexibility without having to learn code. It would be right to praise Blogger now...as it has been a reliable friend and advocate for many years .

Blogger or Blogspot is a tremendous tool. It has taught me the power of blogging, the power and pride I should take in my ramblings, and has taught me many lessons on content, audience, advertising and promotion and what I really need to have an effective online presence. Blogger was the absolute perfect place to start as it gave me an easy forum to post with no nonsense tools. I cannot recommend it enough to a person interested in content only. But, for those of us who have aesthetics as part of our DNA, Blogger can be happily plain--but for 1700 entries, plain is somehow not growing with us.

Nothing is forever--and Blogger is near and dear for new projects.

However, I would like to invite you to visit us now at our new address:

http://qcassetti.squarespace.com

I look forward to continuing our journey together in 2010.

Eve Song

Today is the day before the future. Tomorrow, a new year filled with change, new opportunities, a new spring, a new summer, a new autumn and then the winter, just like today--begins again. It is snowing this morning in a steady stream of the white stuff that sticks. Somehow it seems right--a quiet day with the beautiful pearly grey sky, muted warm grey trees and the thread of snow building up around us. Of course, my mommy head is filled with "is there enough milk in the house?" and "what to eat if we are stuck"--but the girl inside me thrills to the cuddly day with pictures and tea, lazy reading and the radiant, hot wood stove.

This angel suggests the hope and light in the New Year for all of us. She is the brightness in the dark. The warm center that I hope for all of you. May your new Year radiate with love, friends, new ideas and opportunities in health, happiness and joy.

I am crazily obsessed with wooden nutcrackers and angels. I had forgotten the angels I bought a few years back--and the nutcrackers were something we bought one of each year to add to the collection which a very young, old fashioned boy, Alexander, thought was just fine. In getting back to all the holiday tchotchkes, I am humored to find a thread of love...those wooden, German holiday decorations that I have not until now, realized has a place in my heart. They are so stiff and frightening that I am charmed by their unfriendliness and have started drawing them. I am also possessed by rocking horses, tin soldiers etc. these days and feel that I may let this thread go a bit before I bang into something else. It seems a bit after the fact, but as in my musings above, they are just around the corner for 2010.

Work on amending the Hangar work continues. I am working on perking up the Man of LaMancha (adding more eye detail and a windmill). Completed the Spelling Bee changes and helped Penelope. I added her love interest (Odysseus in army gear)...and added a texture of army camo to the background which surprisingly looks like peeling paint. As an aside, I had the best time researching the Army Uniform to find out the pros and cons of the new uniforms along with something tremendous, a whole deep dive on camo patterns. More on that later. Time is wasting...so more later...Hopefully before the New Year!