Ping Ping

Bird Bundle (sketch), Q. Cassetti, 2010, digitalRaining like crazy yesterday. Tree debris everywhere from the big blows we had last night. It was remarkable. Alex was busy with music and friends. Kitty packed. Rob was busy planning rennovations, demolition and the finalizing the woodstove wall in the kitchen. The team is demoing the downstairs old bathroom and the back walkway. So the ping ping ping of hammers and the great heaving into dumpsters is the topline sound  today.

Its cold out. Wool undershirts are being worn happily by yours truly. Scarves are appealing again.

Seems the the man from Countywide Appliances needs to be chez Luckystone this afternoon to install the new compressor for the fridge. Finally. Its been a summer of planning around the status of the bags of ice in the ice chest at the lake…with our planning, more often than not, not being highly successful. Will take my sketchbook and see what comes off the pencils. I am enjoying these graphic illustrations and the pencil drawings in advance make the vector work so quick and clean…and gives me the time to work on the curves being better and honestly, with pencil on paper, allows me to plan the work to make it go more smoothly. Liking the process. Liking the results. Like the fluidity. Now, I need to continue to work like Mr. Girard in strips. And, I need to work on some more figures like him. Maybe work on the hands too.

Publications and illustrations await for this week. We will see what happens.

Rain and then some

Sheep study, Q. Cassetti. 2010, digital.Luckystone is being swamped with rain. The cats are circling, looking for a warm spot to twist themselves into to ride out this Noah inspired deluge.There are branches on the roads, willows bent over and the water, coming down in sheets, also is rough and tumble—and high, in the lake.  Chet, the Lawnmower man would refer to this sort of rain as a “soaker” which, to someone who loves and works with grass is imperative to the greening of the ground…and keeping it green versus the tan straw that often happens by August.

The temperatures, as they often do mid August onward, keep getting incrementally cooler that multiple layers are not out of the question, and the anticipation of thick sweaters and heavy socks do not seem too much of a stretch. But cool and wet are Chet’s friends, so the grass will be green as we roll into September, the change of seasons, the start of schools and the shoulder to winter. In this spirit of autumn, I made up a big pot of Restoration Soup, otherwise known as Recycled Soup (comprising of left over corn, tomatoes, sausage, noodles, beans with seasonings) to prepare for the hoards that are going to descend on us this week with the deconstruction of the back walkway and the finalizing of the backwall behind our woodfired range. From no action to action immediately. So my group of 6 for lunch is now jumping to 9-10 and I need to recalibrate to accomodate.

We spent the morning talking with a friend and making plans for an interesting and very important project on the horizon. Soon, you will hear about the content, but not until I have it better in my sights and understanding…and how to grapple with it creatively to package it beautifully, compellingly and memorably to galvanize support, awareness and better understanding among all of us who now (moi aussi) are naively waiting for “it” to happen…and it already has. So, get ready to buckle down with me… More on that front later.

I was the shuttle bus yesterday for Alex…picking up and delivering. I got the raspberries in the freeze and did a quick shot at the Shur Save (Savior) and loaded up a cooler with the goods. Kitty and Rob and I went to Target and did some college shopping (with the rest of the world) and was stunned by the stacks of $29. microwaves, bookshelves, towering stacks of plastic totes. All the cheap stuff was wiped out with all the new apartments and dorm rooms being furnished that I was really glad we had done a bit of this earlier—and only had the health and beauty stuff to buy. Absolute insanity. The televisions were amazingly priced ( I guess one needs a personal tv to go with your microwave for college…note to self: you should pay extra to go to Hampshire as in room tvs are forbidden). And the shelves to the tvs were scoured as well. New world for this mom. Jeez.

I am reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel Amazon’s Editorial Reviews capture this:

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, July 2010: David Mitchell reinvents himself with each book, and it’s thrilling to watch. His novels like Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas spill over with narrators and language, collecting storylines connected more in spirit than in fact. In The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, he harnesses that plenitude into a more traditional form, a historical novel set in Japan at the turn into the 19th century, when the island nation was almost entirely cut off from the West except for a tiny, quarantined Dutch outpost. Jacob is a pious but not unappealing prig from Zeeland, whose self-driven duty to blurt the truth in a corrupt and deceitful trading culture, along with his headlong love for a local midwife, provides the early engine for the story, which is confined at first to the Dutch enclave but crosses before long to the mainland. Every page is overfull with language, events, and characters, exuberantly saturated in the details of the time and the place but told from a knowing and undeniably modern perspective. It’s a story that seems to contain a thousand worlds in one. —Tom Nissley

I agree with Mr. Nissley. Its a gem. Maybe its an Audible book too. Could be good as a listen to.

birds

Pattern, Alexander GirardThis is Alexander Girard. Love this pattern. Feels Matisse-y, but cut papery, and also the sixties/ pop/ Herman Miller rules the universe as well. Love the way the counters work with the forms, where the pattern of one is overlaid on the other and vice versa. The palette is not totally corporate crayon box, but the greyed out greens, blues and warm greys really make it along with the ballet pink which sort of quiets the magenta down. Hot and brights against greyed and quiet. Really works in a nice way. I need to learn about this. And, it is not blocked out in squares, but more free range/ organic grid versus the crap I have been doing that is all gridded out. Forget that. Need to work on this…maybe in the tradition of CF Payne, just see what they are doing by beginning to copy this to really understand what is going on.

I got up early this morning to take Alexander to his running practice. We all had an early night of it at the Luckystone after a late dinner thanks to you know who not getting her stuff in gear. Albeit, I made a really great tomato tart (from M Stewarts little pocket cooking magazine) and we had corn from the stand which was extrordinary. The produce, as an aside has been amazing this summer. Plump, sweet and robust. And with this thinking, I took myself to SilverQueen (you pick) after dropping A. off in the middle of the Hector National Forest to pick something (I was hoping peaches). Instead, I picked raspberries. Yellow gold ones and red ones. They were as big as wild strawberries…and in the cool morning with the bumblebees working diligently at their tasks, the quiet drone of the work and getting lost in my thoughts really was quite meditative and wonderful along with picking a big bucket of berries to mascerate and freeze for colder times. What a gift. And what a time to think and collect my thoughts. There is so much going on, it was good to let the ideas mascerate themselves, and see what could bubble up that was interesting and actionable from not focusing but randomly letting the ideas float and flitter like the buzzing bees.

Was back on the Fraktur and Conrad Beissel reading last night. Was re-reading about the identification of David Kulp, the Brown Leaf Artist, a known (and newly identified Fratktur artist and itinerant schoolteacher and scribe). I adore Kulp as I love his use of color, his calligraphic vines and florals, his confident use of the brush/pen, and his naive angels and figures that charm me to no end. Kulp was finally identified by a book he penned that was found in the bottom of some ordinary German texts. This book Kulp wrote/illustrated has his teaching book, his tools to illustrate concepts to his students, along with tables, notes, lists all in his handwriting which matched the script of the Brown Leaf Artist. The Mennonite Heritage Center speaks about this type of teacher/scrivener this way:

Bookplate (Bücherzeichen) for Barbara Meyer, David Kulp, 1805, Philadelphia Free LibraryThe colonial schoolmaster, Christopher Dock, introduced to the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite community a folk art form known today as fraktur.  Earlier known as fraktur schriften (literally broken, or fractured writing), this was a type of decorated or illuminated religious writing which has origins in the monasteries of medieval Europe.  Dock taught at the meetinghouse schools of the Skippack and Salford Mennonites during the 18th century. 

Other schoolmasters who followed Christopher Dock and continued the fraktur tradition in Mennonite schools in Montgomery County include Huppert and Christian Cassel, Henrich Brachtheiser, Andreas Kolb, Jacob Gottschall, Jacob Hummel, Isaac Z. Hunsicker, Martin & Samuel Gottschall, and Henry G. Johnson.  Bucks County schoolmasters whose work has been identified include Johannes Meyer, John Adam Eyer, Samuel Meyer, David Kulp, Rudolph Landes, Jacob Oberholtzer, and Jacob Gross.

The use of fraktur schriften played a significant role in the educational process.  A writing example, called a vorschrift, was used to teach the students to write the alphabet and numbers, and to learn hymns and scriptures.  The texts on the vorschriften encouraged and admonished the children to fear God, lead pious and obedient lives.

The schoolmaster also drew colorful birds and exquisite flowers on small slips of paper, which he gave to industrious children. He decorated bookplates for handmade hymn-tune notebooks.  Later, in the first half of the nineteenth century, schoolmasters created many delicate bookplates for printed hymnals, Testaments and other devotional books.

Fraktur writing flourished in this community from approximately 1750 to 1845.  The reluctant acceptance by the German-speaking Townships of the state sponsored public school system in the 1840s brought the decline of fraktur writing in the schools.  These vibrant treasures were cherished by the children, safeguarded in family Bibles, and passed from one generation to the next.

Isn’t it remarkable that futher I get away from Fraktur and Folk art, the closer I am to getting back to it again? I marvel at the work of Alexander Girard and David Kulp. Same sensibility, same vision just different eras, different times. Am I throwback too? or a continuation of the same song, just a different place and time. Or, is this somehow a creative wormhole? Love that idea. A creative wormhole where something that happens in one place can be happening in another place in another time.

The Internet Encylopedia of Science tells us (dumbed down for artists!):

A hypothetical “tunnel” connecting two different points in spacetime in such a way that a trip through the wormhole could take much less time than a journey between the same starting and ending points in normal space. The ends of a wormhole could, in theory, be intra-universe (i.e. both exist in the same universe) or inter-universe (exist in different universes, and thus serve as a connecting passage between the two).

Must go. Hometeam is here.

Thinking sideways

Love Dove, Q. Cassetti, 2010, digitalJust had a great meeting with a knitter, designer and amazing woman, Laura Nelkin. Laura lives in a greek revival house (with a mini version of our handrail that she exclaimed over!) here in scenic Tburg and runs a very cool business with knitting patterns and  an amazing knitting network and engaging in the national/international knitting scene. She is a real shot in the arm. Laura was full of all sorts of cool information along with referencing Knitty (an old favorite of mine) and now Ravelry (an amazing new website filled with tools, patterns, and community). I hope we will have a chance to work together. She is someone I can learn from and help.  I am enchanted.

Last night was filled with music after a bit of driving around to take Bruce to drop off his car at Shadetree and pick up AllieBob at a friends place. Then it was Jim Reidy/Dee Specker/ Silas Reidy at the Rongo and then the Grady Girls at the Pourhouse. We had a wonderful dinner (!) with a chance to visit with all sorts of people. It was a fun night out. Kitty met us at the Pourhouse after an afternoon with friends and swimming along with new clothes (cast offs from a friend) and a sparkle in her eye. She settled in for the last part of our visit along with Alex showing up after expiditing at the Rongo. Alex is working like a nut these days along with playing the base, reading books and trying to do a little training too.

As an aside, I ran into Alex’s music teacher who was so positive about Alex’s work and involvement in his music composition class he took last year. She was talking about his skills, his music, and his ability. She also spoke about his quiet leadership and how he is there for his peers and they look ahead to him. It was wonderful to see him through her eyes. Confirms my thinking…which is always tentative, but having it repeated to me was illuminating and comforting.

As you can see, I am still fiddling with Girard inspired work. I am working in hardline in my notebook and am scanning them into my computer and using them as an underlay on illustrator. Simple is elegant…and I am striving to strip stuff out to work within the solids and shapes that Girard worked in. Who knows if its a look/ or approach, but with a body of work,we will see. Need to continue with critters with wing— which includes bees!

Goodness knows where this will go

forward

Angel 2, Q. Cassetti, 2010, digitalIt’s soft pencil city here. Normally, you can see me with a pen in my hand. No questions, no changes…that is, after I work the original idea in blue pencil. Today, its  Caran D’ache Pablo pencil in black. Sharpened within an inch of its life…to make hard line drawings to make my “red headed stepchild” pictures…trying to the exemplary Alexander Girard.  Interestingly, looking at the Girard work, I have been surprised that his body of illustration work is not too deep/broad so it leaves a lot of space for me to continue with his spirit and fuse it with Q.

I did just find a bunch of stuff that Girard did..applied to bicycles. He did a fun butterfly/butterfly pattern that maybe could be applied to bees…Also, he did a tree of life that was on a bicycle here>So, I am not really too off point with content. Maybe I need to do a tree of life in this spirit. The folk spirit, the whimsey are in these pieces. I am going to go with this for a while and see where it goes. I am finding my advent calendar work to be a good starting place for this new Girard inspired grouping of work.

I am planning to drive down to Ithaca this a.m to get my new specs. Just slightly blinder…but looking forward to a bit more sharpness in my life. I will keep my short glasses for the computer, but migrate to split lenses for the long vision. I also have my new toy glasses on order and coming this way (striped frames and a pair of metal frames). Argyle frames in the sights (zennioptical.com).

Holiday cards await as does a publication. Worked on some work for a very politically inspired friend yesterday. I am liking where it is going…and hope that I can be of help to him, his message and agenda.

more later.

Three's the charm

Angel, Q. Cassetti, 2010, digitalI wrote two entries yesterday. I lost two entries yesterday…so I am trying again and hoping that this entry will not get lost or go down the digital black hole that yesterday’s efforts so happily did. Sorry for the grousing.

Sunday’s trip to Cheryl Shaefer’s yarn sale was better than I could have even anticipated. It was totally in the Central New York experience of fruit stands and vegetable tables in the front yard. The garage and a side bay of the garage were open on Cheryl’s property, with a little “canning room” sized niche starting the grand tour of skeins upon skeins of colored, hand dyed fibers suspended from nails, and often 6-8 skeins deep. There was every gleaming color—some brights, some drabs—painted in gradients and blends, some complementary colors, some not—all the promise of scarves and jackets, socks and baby sweaters. There were two bays of all these fibers, all this future. Kitty and I frolicked in the wool, in the color, in the wonderful hand of the silk mixes, the mohair, the lovely washable superwash merino—trying to pick the skeins we wanted to do projects with. Kitty quickly settled on a bright bundle which when knit (as its almost halfway done) becomes a red fabric with colored flecks. I picked a range of sock wools (which is a wonderful thing I love) and a hank of “Elaine” in olive and khaki for a scarf that I may stripe with another, cooler green. When we went to check out, Cheryl, her husband and her design director were there with happy patter and editorial on the colors and skeins we had selected. There was a little basket filled with little folded pieces of paper. We were instructed to take one…which we did, unveiling our discount (55%) which made the shopping even more exciting. A younger member of the Schaefer clan was selling lemonade and brownies which the boys happily bought and devoured while we girls frittered away the time.

There is a possibility of doing a little branding work with Schaefer (which is something I have been thinking about for quite some time) as a trade, which could be very cool. I am meeting with them Thursday to see what happens. Interesting how things just sort of happen.

The hosta here at the lake are huge and full and fragrant. We have the front of the house planted (original plantings) solid with these yellow green plants which around this time of the year, pop open these enormous flowers, white easter lily sized blooms, which emit the most glorious, waxy scent in the spirit of lilies and gardenias. At dinner, in the cool humidity of the day, we are gifted this lovely smell, which only comes at this time, in this place for which I am always delighted and amazed. It is that time of the season.

Alex has started Cross Country training. He is all over it and able, this year, to articulate why it is he loves this. It is the running against oneself, but also it is the comraderie of his teammates…the spirit of individual by himself and individual as part of the larger group. Kitty is winding down. We get her to Hampshire by the first of September. She just got her classes and dorm assignments—so we will call with questions today to see if we are missing anything. Kitty is interestingly putting a lot of her people issues to rest in anticipation of the new future. I do not know if this is conscious, but it is fascinating to see her preparing for the next chapter in such a mature way. She is resolving old conflicts, talking to folks that have made her nuts, and setting her old relationships on new paths for the future. Now, (this is her mother speaking) if only she could focus on packing. But she will…just not much in advance of the move.

I am working as Alexander Girard these days. I made an angel yesterday in the spirit of the Nativity poster—but it became mine as I gave it a fraktur face and changed the hands/body a bit. I am fascinated with his approach and how he is very decorative but deliberate in his placement of frivolity. He lives in the world of negative and positive which is comfortable for me too…so I really need to let that go a bit. Girard also worked in a “making icons” way of work where each image was more of a single “potato” and not so much a storytelling process. It is more “here’s an angel, here’s a series of sunfaces, here’s aheart” driven by his love of type and folk art. Interestingly, his three dimensional work (his people, his nativity) is more narrative, but personally, I think he treated each figure the same iconic way—but allowing for the viewer/owner of these figures to make narratives by the placement and use of these forms. Girard got down to the basic design elements of color, type, form. He revelled in them that the simplest use was often his final resolution (ie the colored planes for Braniff). And in that pure use of these design elements, the sheer confidence in saying that it was okay for a plane to be lavender, it was an entirely appropriate and successful solution. So Girard’s charge to me today, is to go forth, be simple and bold, and love what you do and what you depict.  And so it goes.

Today is clean up and make plans. Alex works. Kitty doesnt. Radio the Ape, a band comprised of Kitty and Alex’s friends play at the Rongo as a farewell concert. Rob has a village board meeting. And I have time for me….I think Alexander Girard and I have a date.

Pearlie

Yarn Swatches from Schaefer Yarn CompanyThe lake is the same color as the pearly oyster grey that the shimmering, rainy sky is. A darker form, blueish, shows us the other shore where Aurora is…No boats, no swimmers, no jetskis…just quiet with the barn swallows and gulls dipping and diving for their lunches.

Today is a quiet one with the hope of a score at Cheryl Schaefer’s yarn seconds sale. I love her fiber, particularly the washable merino wool for socks. The best. I like to knit the socks and let the color bloom and surprise me with the random patterns, juxtapositions, and relationships that just happen as the knit, perl, knit, perl helps the fiber to develop. And, she is right here in our little neighborhood. Another treasure. Cheryl used to run an amazing iris sale. The iris were all fully in bloom, massive mature plants that you could walk by—and pick and choose which plants you liked. Then an assistant would dig up the plant, place it neatly in a plastic shopping bag and charge you (regardless of size, shape, color) $5. per dig. It was a marvel. Just as her fiber, her vision and her house nestled among the Amish farms outside of Interlaken, NY.

I  ordered a slew of buttons from Busy Beaver Buttons as my stash was almost depleted with the Grassroots sale. This time, I ordered black and white buttons on the naked silver metallic button. I ordered squares and new Ovals with beeladies and fraktur guardian angels. I have a 2011 tattoo to create soon along with getting my valentine to Mr. Seppi at Pioneer Press for letterpressing.

I am musing over what the ad for 3x3’s directory might be. I am seriously thinking that one of the Home Sweet Home images might be nice. I have been doing the vector thing…but I do like this group of images and feel that it represents what type of stuff I am doing these days (except for the vector thing I posted for Illustration Friday this week).  Soon, the shows will be banging the gong for entries. I am going to need to think about which shows and what work. I am reluctant to curtail this activity as having national recognition gives me a nice boost when it comes to the local audiences.

After all the junk reading I have been consuming, I am now reading an Adobe Illustrator manual. Surprisingly, its good stuff to read when the sweat is not beading up on my brow and I do not have an illustrator emergency to respond to…but the leisure to just take it in. Today its all about Smart Guides (which I have feared). Who knows what else I might actually learn.

Need to do a bit of research on movies if its going to rain today.

Saturday wind down.

Hopi Doll from Gary Hsu, Rumble Seat Music, Ithaca, NYThere is a community build at the playground at the Elementary School today. We drove by and left Rob and Bruce off…to see the community had turned out for this, and it was miraculous. Looks like the littles will have a wonderful place to spend their free time without the prospect of splinters and other worries the old playground provided. However, Team Cassetti mourned the old playground and the marvels of a game they played called “no touch gravel tag”. Made the teens very wistful.

Rob got his lenses fixed in his glasses.  While he waited, Alex and I trolled the commons looking at the fancy card shop and then spending time at this totally over the top bong store with the bongs and smoking paraphenelia treated as it it was high art. I guess that is where the “Heads Together” aesthetic has gone 30 years later. “Heads Together” was this wild (and to me, slightly scary) store in Squirrel HIll (in Pittsburgh) that was in the bottom of a more mainstream retailler that sold bongs, smoking stuff, they did tattoos, they had records and tee shirts and the like. They may have sold jeans too. It was not the place a girl from a girls school would normally wander…but it was new and so I would go there and “check it out”. Now, this stuff is in the mainstream…how funny the world is. We bought some cool stuff for a friend who has just been diagnosed with mono from the cool toy store (we got a few books, some stickers, a make a bracelet kit and a little ugly doll to make her feel better. Made sense to me. I mean, what 18 yr old really wants flowers when they can have cool stuff? right?

We then visited Rumble Seat Music, which, I must admit, blew my mind. From the outside, its pretty nondescript…but when you enter the store, Rumble Seat accurately depicts themselves this way:

“Rumble Seat Music stands for authenticity in the origination of design. It’s seen in our inventory that we only stock the highest quality instruments that we have offered to our customers. In our pursuit of excellence we have expanded our mission to include premium Native American Art, Jewelry, Textiles and Vintage Cowboy boots. Also Check Out our New Line of the Highest Quality Leather products from Haus Leather.”

Custom Made Rodeo Style. 12” Long. 4 1/8” Wide. 13 3/8” Tall. $295 Rumble Seat Music 607-277-9236They are absolutely accurate. Upon walking through a fairly nondescript foyer, you enter a double story space that graciously welcomes you (like high end retail) causing me to reflect on the old Paul Smith stores, Ralph Lauren’s showroom in NYC or Bergdorf Goodman. Everything is lovely, beautifully displayed and the guitars are curated on the walls and in these grand display cases where groupings according to type or color are shown together. It is a treasurebox of musical instruments (with side rooms for amps, and a humidity controlled room for acoustic guitars), nestled in with native american rugs, jewelry, and lyrical Hopic Kachina dolls. There is a group of western or western inspired chairs and sofa in the center of the space, adorned with Native American Rugs, and Native American/Western patterns. Boots, such as the one to the right, are neatly lined up on shelves interspersed among the guitars. There is a competency among the people that staff the place that exceeds the normal money taking and showing folks around the store, but showcases the excellence that the owner prides him/herself in.

Who would know such a treasure existed here in our little hamlet? Well worth the visit.

121 W. State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

340 Read St, Santa Fe, NM 87501

sales@rumbleseatmusic.com
P: 607-277-9236
F: 607-277-4593

As an aside, Rob Cassetti has been appointed to the Village Board of Trustees. He is to complete a term of a member who is leaving his seat. He has been additionally appointed Fire Commissioner. We are very proud of Mr. Boy and feel that this adventure will be positive for him and hopefully for the village at large. Congratulations Rob!

Must go soon. More later.

Through the Looking Glass

Amy Brill by Sheryl Sinkow from www.totallybrill.comI had a lovely, inspired afternoon yesterday with Amy Brill. Do you know her? If you don’t, you should. And because of that, being the mom I am, I am going to introduce you to her and do all the talking. If you want to hear Amy, you can hear her at her lovely blog: Totally Brill, Amy Brill’s Blog.

Amy is cute, smart, funny, amazing, talented, creative (with an exclamation point) and an inspiration to me. She lives in Jacksonville (just down the road from Trumansburg) in an amazing big house on an impressive property with lily pads and lovely trees. She has two beautiful black Briard boys who keep her company along with the zillions of cool things she surrounds herself with from blue willow china, to stacks of boxes  buttons from the last pearl button factory in the U.S. to the sample cards from a button factory with the instructions on how to blend the dyes to get that exact blueberry grey color perfectly. She has posters of clowns (her mentors in a former life as a clown) along with photos of herself as a clown. She’s been a mime, a puppeteer and I am sure she held those audiences in her hands as deftly as she did me. She has boxes upon boxes of fiber she has designed and had spun in North Carolina which then is hand loomed (or machine knit) into these lovely, creative, versatile sweaters that can work one way for one look, and then in the world of flip up dolls, you turn it counterclockwise, button a neck and turn a collar and you have something else. The jacket becomes the pants, the pants become a hat and so on…and it really truly works. She is actively engaged in her sweaters and vests and throws and fibers as she puts them on, adding a button, putting a chopstick through the texture of the stitch and making another fastening…trying a new look. She loves her fashions, she loves the process, she loves the people who make her fashions and those that wear her fashions the to make themselves look the best they can regardless of shape and size.Wiggletto Vest by Amy Brill, photographed by Sheryl Sinkow

I am helping Amy get a new look to her company going. I am hoping that this, and perhaps a push with the social media and maybe some local trunk sales might build some awareness in this local treasure and the work she does. Who would know? Right? She needs to have the support to then drive more to the cash register to allow Amy to be as creative and prolific as she is able to be. I hope this is the beginning of my getting to know Amy, her work, her ideas and her influences. She has def. gotten me (and Kitty too) to sit up and take notice. Plus, I gotta get some of those great things she designs. So cool.

To learn more about Amy, here is her website>

Here is Amy’s fan page on Facebook>

Viva Swag on “NY Stylist Sandy Cohen’s Top 5 Underground Designers” citing Amy Brill>

“Okay, we know it’s Summer, but take a look at these and gear up for Fall or for those cold air conditioned offices.  Brill spins, twists, and dyes her own, mostly cotton yarns.  The sweaters are then knit using a knitting machine.   Nine ounces of yarn are spun at a time, a very time consuming process, but one that allows Amy Brill yarns to be unique.

Further, in addition to the incredible sweaters, she also does these cool “Be The Change” necklaces.

Looking for rain.

Looking at Roosters sketch, Q. Cassetti, 2010, digitalClient Holiday card still on the revision point. Worked on finalizing the tweaks to get completed by the end of the week. In that spirit, I created the Luckystone card and got it out to the insty-printer last night. Picked out some nice riblaid khaki colored envelopes that I need to order. Could be tan or a dirty green? Prices seem good. Maybe will get them imprinted with our address to make it seem a bit more pro. Next step, get the cranes cards to Interlaken to get the valentines day card done so we can stuff and finalize at the same time as Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, ordered three presents today for my nieces. Yay! I love working against the November 11th date to have all the holiday stuff done, wrapped and finalized (to be put in the mail) so that the month of December I have to make ancillary fun stuff, and to have the time to dig into whatever whimsey takes my fancy.

Working on revisions of the special project for a friend. Am working away on the logotypes and feel like there is a bit of breeze in this work.

Lots of local stuff. Need to layout the Tburg Farmers Market Thank you teeshirt and a totebag. Also, need to get my wits together for yearbook in advance. I have the Rick Smolen “Day in the Life” books from Alibris in hand as well as a few cameras I bought from Bargain Cell for the team. I will need to get a battery charger and some cards to let these little cameras go…I should try one out to know what sort of gift (?) I am extending to the group. This weekend definitely.

I hopefully will be working on the companion animal graphic work (two annual reports). Not huge projects nor huge budgets, but work is work— and we welcome it. Also have some work with Amy Brill>> a local fashion designer and creative person all round. I was doing a little branding for her…and now she needs a hangtag and something to wrap her fibers in for sale. Kitty did a little modelling for her…and the pictures are great.

Just finished the trilogy: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked Hornet’s Nests. I throughly enjoyed them…it was a mad trip, a wonderful ride from the first page of Dragon to the last page of Nest….an engrossing story in the spirit of the Hannibal Lechter stories…that is very scandinavian in style and spirit. So clean and bright with a really deep, dark slice. Summer reading extrordinaire. Recommended.

Wednesday

Summertime, Q. Cassetti, 2010, pen and ink, digitalJust took Alex over to help a friend. It was a spectacular drive going up and down these asphalt ribbons that would present these glorious views of farms and fields, grass and hay, green and golden tan, embellished by the roadside wildflowers that framed the views. He and I both exclaimed with happiness as we saw what was in front of us and treasured it.

Percival B. White, our new white cat, presented us with two rabbits upon our arrival back to the Luckystone. One was delicately placed near where I park—pristine and perfect. The other was beheaded in a dark part of our hallway such that R. did not see the gift and kicked the head across the room while walking through. Shades of Madame Guillitine during the French Revolution. Horrifying but none the less, Mr. White has clearly chosen to be the hunter/ killer of our cat empire making poor Mei Mei seem like a rank amateur.

I made a two page list of all the stuff we need to do. Personal/work/family….and christmas shopping hasnt even made the list (though I know it should be there). Goodness. Too much to accomplish. Might try to pick up the phone and start knocking them down.

Farmer’s Market is today in Trumansburg. Might try to get over there before 7 to see what needs to be seen, and to buy what needs to be bought. Maybe some basswood honey? Maybe a huge bunch of basil.Also need to move on the teeshirts (and maybe market bags>?)

We have tickets to the Hangar for Friday night. Did a bunch of little things for the Hangar yesterday (2 banners and a rack card). I cannot wait to better understand the entire promotional program to really begin to make some of this stuff templates so it isnt a big deal to get in front of the publications work.  Was amusing myself on Veer.com (a fun font site). This is unusal because I normally do not shop for fun fonts, but  the Hangar is forcing me out of my comfort zone as things need to be a bit more promotional, and fun…and a font can suggest something about the show that the illustration might not be able to accomplish.

More later.

Take Off

Pair of birds, Q. Cassetti, 2010, pen and inkBack to summer after the rain and cool last night. We spent the evening in Tburg with Kitty running late and Rob having an evening meeting. I have been rolling about, like Shady Grove, in Alexander Calder and Marimekko design work…and hoping…as Shady, that the more I roll in this work, the more I will become one with it. Thankfully, this lovely illustration vein is not as stinky as dead deer parts. What I am learning is that the actual illustration needs to be designed before the ink goes down…this approach is far from random. Also, simpler is much much better unless the pattern becomes secondary or subtle. I also think that the pattern making or that of fabric design should be designed in a full yard’s size (that would be the repeat: 42” x 36”). Adding more color often does not help the work. It takes away from the design. Sure it will be colorful, but if you look at Marimekko fabrics, the simpler, the better from a palette and design standpoint.

Here are some designer illustrators from Marimekko that are currently inspiring me to move the needle a bit:

Maija Louekari
Sanna Annukka 
Pia Holm 
Maija and Kristina Isola 
Erja Hirvi 

Some of its blocky. Some linear. Some linear married to blocky/simple color. Basic palette. Simple palette. I need to dip into the IKEA offerings as well to see where their design team is pointing pattern and graphic illustration.

Just got the holiday comps done. There are quicky projects for the Hangar Theatre to do. After the Mainstage Season ends, the Hangar will be presenting a series of short time, smaller productions grouped under the Cabaretc. heading. So, need to get jumping on the design/illustration for next season.

Monday revisions

Sunshiny pattern, Q, Cassetti, 2010, digitalSausage fest was good. The shirts were a hit. Pink tees were declared as “awesome”. The gang loved the lake, loved the water, loved the “chilling”, There was a lot of eating by all. It was fun and civilized at the same time. Even the parking worked out. All the leftover corn was devoured today for lunch. Sausage will be devoured tomorrow.

Speaking of corn, Shady Grove, stellar dog and my lady in waiting, has discovered corncobs. They are equal to her favorite toy and chewie (pinecones…the more sap the better). Its a little undoing to see her wandering around with a corncob sticking out of her black mouth…When will this stop?

Ordered a pair of white glasses from VenniOptical.com, a California based concern that sells prescription glasses from $8.00 to $35.00.  Some hilarious frames (argyle anyone?). It will be good to have some glasses for fun…and maybe an extra pair of long glasses for fun and entertainment. There are jewels, patterned side bars and lots of color in the frames and of course, in the glass…perhaps some yellow glasses with purple lenses? Lime green frames, pink lenses? Or super round, Philip Johnson memorial glasses? At these prices,fun seems to be an option in eyewear. Wait wait…there are stripes and leopard skin ones? Wow.

Met with my friend on his special project. We are trying to nail this brand down for his new project. Went through the sketch process and we will see where it goes. Still wiggly. I wish I could psych this one out…it just seems to be a moving point. This should be easier… though, I must admit, the stuff that has been generated has legs beyond this project. There should be an easier path to this. Need to keep going.

It looks like a downpour. Rob has a meeting. I have petfood to buy. Kitty is out and about. Alex is on deck with me. We need to get ice as the damned fridge is down for the count again. Urg.

the good old days of corporate design

Altar Dresden Foil Scrap from Martin Meyer.comOkay. More Dresden Scrap for your eyes and fun. I discovered this cool site that will wholesale this stuff to me…and I am sorely tempted. Just need a project beyond the drooling and salivating I  have being around this paper ephemera. It’s Martin Meyer Imports. Love the stuff. Take a looksee when you have time. They have altars (like this), wings, and all sorts of other great stuff like suns, moons, stars, comets. Combined with a few wonderful retablos, and one could create your own mixed culture folk art.

Today is the Sausage Fest. The pink teeshirts are rolled in a pile. Sausage is cool in the fridge which decided to work today. I bought corn and a melon from Rick along with a request for salsa tomatoes which he happily sold me for less in abundance. So, the trip for the tomato jackpot was just up the hill and not 15 minutes away in the Amish Wonderland. So, the salsa has been cut and prepped for the gang. May the fest begin. There is talk about a holiday Sausage Fest for fun—perhaps with a santa pig?

I have been musing over what I like about Alexander Girard. I guess its the limited palette, simple color treatment, simple imagery more like icons and less like stories. His work almost seem like logos for life, or symbols for living versus a snapshot from a story. Those images can be grouped together to tell a story in pictograms—evoking traditional images from folk art, folk stories, and toys. His work is altogether very happy as I am sure Girard was a joyous man who let his light shine through his work. Upon a bit a of research on his work, I came across this wonderful site on Braniff Airlines and the work/effort+ thinking that went behind the first big change of image that transformed that airline. The Braniff Pages.com shows the predecessor to Jet Blue. Braniff went from a so so airline in Texas (I think) to a look out operation which was thrilling to ride. The airplanes were different colors (whoa!) with new type by Alexander Girard (now available through House Industires):

In 1965, noted New Mexico architect and graphic designer, Alexander Girard, was hired by Jack Tinker to redesign “every aspect” of Braniff. He created the idea to use bright color schemes and ethnic art for Braniff. This was officially called “The End Of The Plain Plane,” and was applied to aircraft, lounges, ticket counters, ground equipment and everything else the “flying public” would view. 

Girard originally wanted each Braniff aircraft painted all one color, with a tiny “BI” logo and name. Braniff advertising and engineering wanted a bigger logo and bigger type, so they modified the designs and colours (adding white wings and tail) based on the Vega scheme Paul R. Braniff had created in the 1930s.

Braniff Introduced Seven Colors: Powder Blue, Medium Blue,Orange, Ochre, Turquoise, Lemon Yellow and beige. (Lavender was also introduced as shown above, but dropped)The colors were proposed by herman miller designer, Alexander Girard, and modified by Braniff In-house departments.”\

The stewardesses were trained to be hospitable at a College developed for them. Combined with the training came a overhaul of food, service and luxury with an infusion (where my relationship with Jet Blue comes in) of fun from color and design, posters and then the actual floor show during the trip. My father would take Braniff during some of his travel during this time and would come back to talk about how the stewardesses would change their uniforms during the trip going from mini to maxi to raindomed bubbleheads in Pucci designer duds.. A real live trip into a Stanley Kubrick universe from his description to an imaginative under ten year old at home. I am still intrigued. This was the time that contract furnishings via Herman Miller and the whole corporate design machine at Corning/IBM/ Cummings Engine was in full swing and fully functional. It was wild, and crazy. It was the sixties when anything was possible. And thanks to Alexander Girard, it became realized.   I am inspired.

 

 

Saturday review

Christmas Horses, Q. Cassetti, 2010, digitalWe had a lovely day today and yesterday due to cooler temperatures and lower humidity. I am on the Christas card warpath, and think, thanks to the great direction of y clients that we may be pretty close to one for this year. Alarmingly postitive and I only want to hope for a smooth resolution on a normally prickly topic. I might post a few sketches as soon as we know where we are going on this one. I did enjoy pawing through the Matisse work— and plan to continue to do so in the near future as it really charges the batteries for me.

We had eye exams this morning followed by a little shopping at Wegments to create the food event for the scheduled  “Sausage Fest” planned for tomorrow. Alex and 20 of his neares tnad dearrest will be eating sausage, playing Kubb, swimming and eating more along with wearing their pink tee shirts (Alex’s spec) that make them bros together. All for one and one for all. I may be having a Hartford friend come to visit for this hoedown, But the weather promises to be great and the friends continue to RSVP, so I figure36 Italian sausages might be good along with a big bowl of salsa, a few dozen ears of corn, cantaloupe cut up into a big pile…and maybe something green from Rick’s fruit stand right off of 96. I plan to let whimsey and wit direct the rest of the planning. The local bounty makes it pretty easy to be flexiable and random in choosing what to do for things like this.

In a month, school will be back in session. Kitty will be at Hampshire. Alex will be full bore into cross country and the challenges of being a junior stuck with the cranky parents. The hosta will be in bloom (the hugely fragrant, big easter lily sized ones we have at the lake). The pumphouse pavillion will be completed and maybe painted by then. The hundred days of summer is more than two thirds done…and its barely started. Rob has completed his big to dos this month, so maybe a more regular schedule will emerge. But, maybe not. The only ones not bothered by much of anything are the cats except for TJ who was shaved with the horse clippers by Amanda yesterday as the skanky, cranky cat was covered in dreaddy clumps all over the back of his body. He really is quite a mess, particularly for a cat. The picture of Amanda taking the clipper to this sour old man makes me a bit nervous as he is so uncooperative with even a brushing…imagine the shaver and the cheery buzz and tickle they produce. Oy.

We are excited by the prospect of the Town of Ulysses Annual Fair towards the end of the month. Yes, they have the carny stuff, but they also have miraculous and fun stuff like cake judging, flower judging, animals and so much more. I think this is a place I want to lean into next year and go competitive for the prizes. You know, work on building that local public relations. What sort of crafts? Scrapbooking would be a cinch. Knitting could be good ( I one year knit little easter baskets with knitted Nicky Epstein style flowers all over them)—and high humor value. Then there is the food arts…Granola  might work. This year its doing diligence on the research. I am sure you will hear more.

Bruce was reading the Trumansburg Free Press and was enchanted (as were we all) by the Tburg Commissioner for Youth Activities planning movies in the park with prizes. One of the prizes was an order of toast at the Falls Restaurant. Another was one piece of Chocolate from Life’s so Sweet Chocolates. And another, more functional prize, a half pound of nails from Millspaugh Lumber. Imagine the delight of the children. Its positively Krampian.  Brilliant and hysterical.

The lake beckons. I am “not feeling it” re swimming, but am being prodded by the management. More later.

IF: [ Love is not] Caged

Lubok Omphalos, Q. Cassetti, 2010, pen and inkLove’s a fire that needs renewal    
Of fresh beauty for its fuel:    
Love’s wing moults when caged and captured,    
Only free, he soars enraptured.         
 
Can you keep the bee from ranging,    
Or the ringdove’s neck from changing?    
No! nor fetter’d Love from dying    
In the knot there’s no untying.

J. Campbell from Bartleby.com

Painting with scissors

Hemlock Grove, Q. Cassetti, 2010, pen and ink“painting with scissors.” Matisse said, “Only what I created after the illness constitutes my real self: free, liberated.” 

Nice, fun search on Matisse yesterday. Taschen (Henri Matisse: Cut-Outs - Drawing with Scissors (2 Volumes Splip case) ) has a lovely new book just on the cutouts that looks wonderful. Its too new to get used, and its $125. a casebound set, so I will wait. It was fun to pull images and immerse myself in the bright palette and free expression Matisse used. An old high school friend mentioned Matisse’s methodology with his cut outs (gouaches decoupes). And yes, as he aged this was his process (from henri-matisse.net:

“With the aid of his assistants, Matisse invented a systematic approach to the technique of his cut outs.. First, his studio assistants brushed Linel gouaches on sheets of white paper.

Once dry a stockpile  of colored paper were available to Matisse at any given time. He often quite spontaneously cut out elements and placed them into compositions. As the play between consciously sought-for and the fortuitously-arrived at effects worked into their balances the projects moved toward completion. In the meantime many of them were posted about the studio walls.

The Linel gouaches were employed because they “directly corresponded to commercial printers ink colors” (Cowart 17) and would reproduce perfectly. The cut-outs pulsate with energy. The bright, vibrant Linel colors, deep and Light Japanese Green, vert Emeraude (Imitation veridian), Deep Cadmium Yellow, Deep Cadmium Red, Deep Persian Red, Persian Violet, and Yellow Ochre (Cowart 274), keep leaping in front of our eyes.”

The holiday card project is benefitting from the search. Additionally, I am pressing the new proposed color palette into use to see if it works or needs a bit of amendment. I need to go find human body engravings for the next image. I am hoping the NYPL (New York Public Library) Digital Library might have something to work with. If not, maybe a trip to Cornell’s Mann Library? First the simple desktop stuff…we’ll see. Its coming on nicely.

Eli and John are cranking on the rebuilding/ restoration of our pumphouse in the side quadrangle. Nigel is attacking a new swathe of grass to liberate the property further. I have pizza dough in the cold fridge for our lunch (its now between 8 and 10 folks daily—so creativity is a bit more necessary). Though it will be hot, I think I will make a pizza rustica for the crowd tonight…and tomorrow’s lunch.

I am deep into the second book of the trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo—The Girl that Played with Fire.This heat has to stop…but reading this fun book keep the synapses jumping.  And the fans are helping too. The weekend and the promised break in the heat is welcome. More later.

Remote me

Finnish Chicken, Q. Cassetti, 2010, digitalI am waiting for the Sears repairman to come chez Luckystone. We have been doing the cha cha with the local appliance guy re: our refrigerator, and with two fruitless and expensive visits, we decided to throw in the towel and call in the big guns— Sears. The compressor seems to conk out and allow the fridge to heat up after two days. We have been nursing it with ancillary ice chests at the ready.

I worked on the happy brand yesterday. I have a bit more to do, but will break today to work on holiday card illustration/ design. Hopefully, i can wrap some Girard inspiration and wit to this work. I am intrigued in the way Girard cut his work, his patterns into rectangular shapes that he either worked within or cut out of. He developed iconic forms of birds, flowers, leaves, seed pods, berries on branches that fit together like a joyous jigsaw puzzle, humming happily together in vibrant colorways. His work is very derivative of the sublime work of Matisse’s old age, and a body of work I have held dearly, his cut paper compositions. There is also a dose of Mary Blair in his figures when Girard creates them—

The Hangar Theatre’s posters for next summer awaits. I have been given a sneak peek at the offerings which is very broad and ranging from serious to silly. Need to put a pencil to these as I would love to get these done by the end of November so as to get them on a schedule that is not so last minute as it has been in the past.
I also raised my hand to volunteer for next year’s Ithaca Triathlon. Another waterfall coming up! I think Girard may take a hand in this one.

Alex is moving up the corporate ladder at the Rongovian Embassy, from dishwasher to expiditer to his pleasure. Kitty is busy at Silk Naturals, our Main Street makeup business in the Masonic building.

My phone battery is almost gone. Must wrap this up— William Walton’s coronation march is playing on the radio reminding me of my wedding— as Mr. Whitman played Walton for the processional and recessional— shaking the pipes and pulling out all the stops on the massive organ at Shadyside Presbyterian Church to my delight. A good way to start today.