Catchup

Lotus Valentine, Q. Cassetti, 2011, sharpie.Loved my tutorials yesterday on Lynda.com. Learned about the new variable width line tool, the new pathfinder replacement shape —shaper. And the perspective tool. Oy. I dont use perspective this much, but what with this new easy tool, I would consider adding it to my palette of tools to offer. The Lynda.com tutorials are wonderful…and with the files, you can follow along and actually learn the stuff. I need to keep at it as it will make be more of a “proficient” quicker. And quite honestly, I should do the same for photoshop, acrobat and inDesign as it will inevitably save me time with the reeducation.

I need to catch on fire about something. I am in that miasma of not being neither fish nor fowl, not engaged in a topic but working along with the Mudhubari work…but not on fire. The silhouette illos were happening last year this time. Granted, the color work hadn’t happened at this time last year…and the bees hadn’t happened nor had it become a glimmer in my eye. So, there is time….but I am filled with agitation and worry that nothing will happen. But, it will… I know…

Made a pot roast and hung out with Alex last night. Rob was late as he had a dinner with a new consulting group at the Museum. Good things to happen it sounds like.

Today, I frosted a cake I made last night. I was fearful that Shady might have eaten the cake last night as she brought a half eaten sandwich from the bottom of someone’s bookbag and was cuddling with it on her bed last night. But, thankfully, the mouldy sandwich was far more appealing. I made a gigantic pot of spaghetti sauce for this week’s consumption this morning too. We had a visit from our old friends visiting from Montclair, NJ which was a delight….and here we are with the sky dark and the evening in front of us.

IF: Dusty [and smoky]

Suburbia, Q. Cassetti, 2010

Smoky and dusty…this time of the year with all of our fireplaces and woodstoves churning away to keep us warm.

“Every life has its years in which one progresses as on a tedious and dusty street of poplars, without caring to know where he is. “

 Max Muller 

 

 

 

 

Rollercoaster

Works by Ganga Devi (1928 – 1991), found in the book Ganga Devi: Traditions and Expressions in Mithila Painting by Jyotindra Jain.

From A Journey around My Skull: Riding the Roller Coaster with Ganga Devi by Will Schofield
Works by Ganga Devi (1928 – 1991), found in the book Ganga Devi: Traditions and Expressions in Mithila Painting by Jyotindra Jain.
From Wikipedia: “Madhubani painting or Mithila Painting is a style of Indian painting, practiced in the Mithila region of Bihar … and Janakpur in Nepal.”
Jain explains Devi’s non-traditional subject matter:
While she was deeply rooted in the tradition [of Mithila painting], which was a source of inspiration in her work and of courage in her tormented personal life, she was one of the few Mithila artists to respond spontaneously and vigorously to the possibilities offered by the availability of paper in the region [starting in the early 60s]… With the availability of paper, Ganga Devi no longer confined herself to painting the ritual kohbar-ghar and aripan, with their limited vocabulary of symbols and images, but started to investigate the unlimited potential offered by line drawing….
Devi’s position as a preeminent traditional Mithila painter brought her opportunities to travel to Russia, the United States, and Japan…. Moscow Hotel, Festival of American Folk Life, and Ride in a Roller Coaster are examples of how an Indian village artist attempts to mythologize the great contemporary urban symbols of our time. In these paintings Ganga Devi transforms the ordinary commonplace images of hotel facades, motor cars, national flags, ticket-booths, roller-coasters, and people carrying shopping bags into imaginary and ‘fantastic’ objects.

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Ganga Devi, Stories of Rama (II), 1977, detail, Hanuman jumping across the oceanIsn’t this work remarkable, modern and clean. Devi can design like no one’s business.The minimal color, the line work, the use of white space and wild detail is considered, planned and so natural. The work just flows. Look at the lovely Monkey God, Haruman, at peace, running complete with a snake in his hand, and the greenery moving out of his way as she speeds by. And in the Madhubani tradition, there are the fish…always the fish confirming fertility.

I found this book on Alibris (affordable!) and have it coming. There are more images that I know we will share in the future from this exceptional artist. It was interesting that chatting with Marc V. today about folk art traditions, I was musing that we really do not have an American folk art tradition and he cleverly pointed out that we are a new culture (200 yrs) and this sort of tradition takes time. Come to think of it, isn’t graffiti a folk tradition? And there are the odd offshoots like Grandma Moses, the PA Germans, Watts Tower, Hobo art….but like our culture, there isnt a single thread….but a multiplicity of them. How many centuries old do we need to be as a culture before we have a national folk style?

Speaking of folk art, and folk style….check out this amazing Czech book posted by the amazing A Journey Around My Skull ( A Forest Story with illustrations by Rudolph Mate (1929)— Very Successionist inspired with wonderful pattern on pattern with basic color as suggested by the simple printing presses. Inspiring. I should google Mates and see what else he has done. This work is gorgeous. I want to see more.

Must go. The phone is ringing. Things need to get done and changed.

 

Noodlings

Madhubani collectionHere is a collection of Madhubani illustration to cut through the grey day and burn some color into the back of our brains. Don’t you love the line work to the left with the flat hits of red in the background and the smattering of yellow in the detail. The black and tones of grey pulled out of the line work is so lacy and beautiful and can really stand up to the solid hit of red in the background. Totally inspiring. Now, the snakeman to the right, second image! With the floaty happy bubbleheads, the inverted lotus/loti and the waves to suggest either the wind blowing or the water flowing. And the white wiggly pattern juxtaposed against the black and white heavy dot patter that is either a snake or a boat or a mat that the god and goddess are sitting on. Again, more crazy fish and turtles just for fun. These artists should have been paid by the line as they would  become very rich. In my search, I disovered a wonderful blog, A Journey Around My Skull with an entry authored by Will Schofield “Riding the Roller  Coaster with Ganga Devi” (February 22, 2010). Schofield shows us and speaks to work from a remarkable Madhubani painter, Ganga Devi (1928-1991) with her interpretations of the Madhubani tradition which then stretched to be interpreting the world as Devi saw it. She painted rollercoasters, ticket booths and national flags. Take a look. Her work is extrordinary technically and as an eastern vision of our crazy western life. Another nod to Will Schofield who links to an amazing posting of Folk Art Books from india….I am crazy with jealousy over the works he was sent by Tara Books….

Take a look.

Alex is off to sing this evening. Rob is in..but the next few nights will be out with Museum business. I think tonight I will make dinner and some cupcakes for the work team. They have had modest lunches (leftovers) for the past few days and I havent done anything for them that is nice. So cupcakes and some new soup would be good.

There is a ton of publication work to do here. I am catching up slowly. Had a nice chat with Joe Sepi at Pioneer who (angel) is going to test my valentine with a series of foils (I wanted copper…he suggested others) so I can get it done.  He said we would see it early next week. I need to get the photo stuff moving for the 3x3 article.  I need more stuff added to the website to enliven that work too. Seems stale and old.

Its cold here. The cats have all found their hot spots on the floors and have not moved. Shady is odd as she wants to protect me in my office, but hates the plastic surround that is there to keep the dust from moving in the new space. She tentatively steps through the airlocks, painfully looking back at me as if to chide me for forcing her to pursue this uncomfortable and odd labyrith. The new bathroom and room have been defined by uprights today…and there is no abstraction to the new spaces. All seems pretty real and realized. This one is a big change with relatively small moves.

New Week

Indian Heads, Q. Cassetti,2011, pen and inkIcy cold today. Ice on the windshield—such that it was hard to see the road. A bit scary as Alex cajoled me while I drove with my head out of the window trying to triangulate on what I could see, pretend I could see and not see at all. Like driving with a shower door between you and the road.

Got a bunch of work done on some pubs today. And got a lovely opportunity for tomorrow to design some bus graphics! First a tractor trailer for the Museum. Then a container for the Museum. Then an airplane for Corning and my other client. And now a promotional bus!

It was dust lockdown central here. The boys were whaling away on a wall (new bathroom and reconfigured storage) in the new princess office area. All sorts of air breaks with tarps and tape, tarps/tape and tacks. It had it’s moments re noise, but it wasn’t anything the mute button on the phone could muffle. I think tomorrow is the end of the dust raising. Then, its rebuilding time.

I put some images up on the Directory of Illustration site (as I bought a page in the book last year and hadn’t taken advantage of the portfolio pages they make available (along with streaming blog and tweets). I think its a pretty robust offering (more expensive but more reach than the iSpot). We will see if it produces.

Monday rush

Indian illustration.Nice dinner last night. Worked out well. Plenty to eat that we had leftovers for five today. Rob and Alex have today off…with Rob and Mandy squaring off with the rest of the second room of the studio to make straight and orderly the path. And they have had success today! Remarkable.

Got images off to Computer Arts Magazine (UK Publication). They will print images along with put a dozen on a disk/CD for artists/art directors to review. They asked particularly about Folk art inspiration particularly Lubki(!). I am very curious to see what they surface in their article. Maybe there is more perking along in Europe around a folk tradition than what we are seeing here.

Did a few 2300˚ postcard graphics and a poster this p.m. along with a bit of work for the Baker. I am hoping to clock down some more work (finishing entirely) this week. Would be so good.

Gotta go. Late start today…so I need to get down to the kitchen to see what to make for dinner.

Sorry for the rush.

Weekend moment

Cow study, Q. Cassetti, 2010, sharpiesWe saw Alex at Barton Hall for an indoor Track and Field event. He and his team were great…with Alex doing the last lap of a four man relay…and making some personal records (PR). We had lunch at the vietnamese restaurant in Collegetown after his accomplishments and then to Camp Street for down time.

I spent a bunch of time learning new things on my iPad while Rob was busy making magic with the first floor office/gallery (to be) space. Rob is truly making amazing changes. And wastrel me found out new things about design, computers, social media (did you know that a right click on a web page can allow you to tweet it?). Another interesting find was when I found someone had retweeted a tweet I had done from an article on Slate about punctuation. The individual who quoted my link had a really  neat virtual “go to” at about.me.com. About me is a place that you can link all the social media locations you are on…in one place versus the direct to a single location on the web. It has some nice and simple design tools. I need to spend a moment and really pretty it up…but hey. I like the idea that there is a place that is essentially the octopus, the many legged critter that can tie all of one’s disparate locations all together in one spot. Cool.

Tonight is dinner for ten…for Mary’s birthday. I am making a pork roast from the famous cookbook, “Walter’s Swiss Kitchen”, roasted potatoes, a salad and asparagus (I know, its wrong…but it was there and I was weak) along with a chocolate cake I made in two loaf pans and cut the loaves in half (horozontally). So, the cake is a skyscraper with little adornments of japanese food/cake erasers on the top for fun. I am taking a momentary break from chopping just to say hi…but I am back on almost immediately to get the roast going.

Tomorrow is MLK day. Rob is off as is Alex. I have work…along with some treats like looking at the amazing, amazing, tear inducing article Ursula Roma sent me (for 3x3), getting Jason K. scheduled and planning the display for the Tompkins County Library in March with a group of other graphic designers in the area. And then there is the real work too.

Work in Progress, Ragtime, Q. Cassetti, 2011

Looking at the weekend, already!

Indian Garden, Q. Cassetti, 2011, sharpieToday is a brilliant, blue sky day with sun beaming down on the back forty, casting long purple shadows on the walnut trees that I can see from my perch.

Speaking of perch, Rob and Mandy put together the absolutely gorgeous Martha Stewart “Craft Room” flat flies from Home Depot’s Home Decorator site>> I got three, pale warm grey “three drawer flat files” (which are subdivided drawers that you can customize the compartment shape). I know I promoted this last week, but now that we have the real thing in hand, I am even more enthusiastic. The quality is beautiful though its like IKEA times ten to put together….but if you are looking to equip a studio or need flat files (the metal ones will really set you back a pretty penny)…and you can look real, and functional without it looking industrial. Take a look. I now have a real live orderly place to put my things and try to keep my work in some semblance of normalcy. I think, I hope, I am on the edge of knowing that life is going to be more sane with this.

Yearbook was great today. The team has figured out the software and they are absolutely diving into it. I need to work with Victor on the cover as he has some high expectations with gradients and masks and stuff. Will need to see what we can do.

Need to dive into the workload. There are some things to critique. Things to specify. Some calls to make. 

no snow da

 

Inspired by Indian Women, Q. Cassetti, 2011, sharpieAs the sauce is stewing and the water boils for dinner, I will talk to you via my iPad. I am typing away on “pages”— liberated by my ability to stand at the stove and attempt to write and listen to the radio. I started a gigantic pot of spaghetti sauce this morning with meat cooking, mushroom plumping ( porcini..for depth) and a gigantic can of red sauce ( red pack) with veggies. We can be snowed in! And tiny Alex can eat.

Shady was frisking in the dusty, icy snow— her favorite time of the year. Mr. White is yellow white in the clean blue white snow. Both wood stoves are now functioning, so we can hunker down with our hats on and soak in the heat as the chill sets in tonight . Kitty called to say that Hampshire College closed today due to all the snow. We will see here as the Tburgers are pretty puritanical and it really needs to be dire before anything is closed around here.

I designed and ordered a valentine for a friend. I agreed to a chicken illo to be in the next edition of “Edible Finger Lakes”. I recolored the “Ragtime” poster and moved the elements around on the Rocky Horror to make it more PG.

Am living in the warm pool of Madhbari illustration — the gods and goddesses, the happy cows, the pod heads that are space fillers, the flora and snails, and the endless fish that seem to also fill the pages the way the Pennsylvania Germans wedge birds into the nooks and crannies to make sure nothing on their pages can breathe. In my Indian world, these benign cows smile placidly at the fish while the happy pod heads narrate the rich story they are all inhabiting—inviting us in. Lines upon lines with the occasional big white (or black) field to rally force some visual order from the twirly embroidery.

Let’s see what happens!

Tuesday with a great date 1.11.11

Madhubani Garden, Q, Cassetti, 2010, sharpieToday was a big day of showing off. I took the posters down to the Hangar group and showed them the progress we have had in the imagery. I am going to recolor the Ragtime poster( which I am good with) and there was some agitation and sensitivity around the Rocky Horror graphic (a bit too over the top from some)…which I mean, it is Ithaca where people are a bit sensitive about this sort of thing. So, I am good with the input and will work towards making some changes.

Worked on some of the standards for my big client. Interesting to be reviewing from the outside with the lense of someone who will be using these standards. There is good progress. Erich tweaked the grammer and punctuation…and I did the design sweep. It is interesting to anticipate how these standards will be modified, mangled and misunderstood. And, the optimistic side says, think of how wonderful the world will be if one or two of the plethora of agencies out there, if they “get it” and consistency is achieved.

My new furniture (three flat files from Martha Stewart) came late yesterday. Six enormous, heavy boxes are sitting in the hallway. There might be a bit of construction here in the evening.

Need to get Peggy’s valentine done and taxes paid. An evening of parts and pieces to anticipate along with maybe a bit of the snow they are predicting.

Five out of six entries that got into Illustration West 49, Society of Illustrators, Los Angeles, by Q. CassettiMonkey, Q. Cassetti, 2010I was cruising Facebook to find out all sorts of people found out about Society of Illustrators, Los Angeles and what they got into their Illustration West 49 Show. I was combing my email looking for my note and kind of threw my hands up and figured I didn’t get in. But, I tried again late yesterday afternoon, to find out, yes, I did get it….and yes, I got quite a few pieces in! So, here is a posting of those images that got in. Now is the question of money and time…and whether it is worth spending a ton of money to get work framed and out to LA for a week’s show in Gallery Nucleus. Will need to weigh my options.

More talk later today. 

Better understanding the obvious

Collection of images of Evelyn Nesbit

Had a meeting with the new Director of the Baker Institute and new Assistant Director for Development/Public Affairs. They have a change agenda which should be interesting to see how it evolves…and whether I am in the mix or not.

Prior to the meeting, I had a little oasis of time and went to GreenStar. My granola was critiqued by my major eaters and they suggested we get rid of the sunflower seeds. So, minus the sunflower seeds, it changes the ballgame.There I was at the center of the green universe in Ithaca, fully immersed in the bulk grain bins. Adding more nuts is an option (pecan pieces, not walnuts…they are too definitive) but is there anything else?. Turns out, there were all sorts of other rolled grains outside of oats. There was rolled rye, rolled rice and a nice (visually) rolled Kamut (a relative to wheat but apparently nonwheat eaters have no trouble with this). I am a visual person and the Kamut was golden and a bit thicker than the other grains, so I weighed out a bag to see what could happen with it. I liked the thickness, the less bendy quality (than Oatmeal) and maybe it would add some crunch to the mix as it might grab the oil/syrup sauce in a good way. Last night proved I was right. Best batch yet. New add…vanilla to the slurry. Onward.

Also bought some vegetarian “meat” from the “Field Roast” brand. Vegetarian meatloaf and vegetarian chirizo. lets see what these things taste like without the meat titles. Also  bags of basmati and arborio rice. Bring on the snow. We have enough stuff to last the winter. It was so nice and tranquil at GreenStar at 8 a.m. It was refreshing from the normally shopping cart olympics that go on during prime time during the weekend when we normally go. It was sane enough to check out the nooks and crannies to see what else is there. I found peppercorns and the spices quite a treat.

Hangar Theatre posters are wrapping up. One more…and then tweak time. The Triathlon is knocking on my door too. Valentines too. Yikes.

Today was haircuts for the boys and lunch at Thai Express. Back home, and frankly, exhausted as this cold is still holding on like a hungry monkey. I am a bit better…but tired. Tomorrow its the zoned zone.

The Evelyn Nesbit pictures come out of my doing research on ladies in picture hats (1900) on Flickr. There are some really searchable antique picture sets from several national sources. While I was looking, I found these of Evelyn, the wife of Harry Thaw (nut, drug addled idiot and related to me), and lover of Stanford White. I have never really thought about Evelyn and what she was all about. Well, a picture does tell a story. This is a young girl, whose lawyer father died, and whose mother took her to a photographer as a model and away they went. Today, she might be on a reality show such as “America’s Top Model”. But instead, influential tastemakers such as White and Charles Gibson (who word says that Nesbit was one of the reference women for his famous Gibson Girl) took her in hand and hurdled her into the limelight. I mean, I audibly gasped with the flower pictures (above). They are so amazing, fresh, and timeless. Imagine seeing this delicate girl in the broad daylight. Spiritually, she does match up with Gibson’s girl. Her life was formed by tastemakers, supporting her family. She tumbled into a horrific marriage with Harry…experiencing her own addiction to drugs and alcohol without the fortune that these men made from her.

Must go scan and think about this lovely girl.

quiet day

Rocky Horror Poster, Q. Cassetti, collage, 2011Fruits of my labor for today/yesterday. Have been setting them up and beginning to knock them down. I have four out of 5 posters for the Hangar done with three approved. They are all due on Tuesday, so I still have to put my head down and run at it. I am panicking over the Ragtime thing, and may instead of drawing it, work it up in photoshop and then decide on drawing or a photo composition. There is just too much niddly-ness needed in the image. Once we get the images done— I will be relaying out their brochure (based on the model from last year), doing all the covers of the programs, two different sized posters and  a huge banner layout for the building. Then, we will only have to worry about the Ithaca Running Club graphic illustration they are interested in.

Still not 100%. More like70% but better than the 15% I felt on Monday. So, the needle is moving in the right direction — just not fast enough for me.

Wonderful Ursula Roma is working on the writing for the 3x3 article coming up for me. Poor Ursula tried to interview me as I gasped and choked and sent her my thesis. I think we got a scrambled bit of something and I will be interested in seeing what she makes with the magic lunchbasket of wigglies I gave her. Jason Koski will do the pix (hopefully after I get this mop cut) and then we will be good). I really should have Erich add images to the website to build that out.

Out of the blue, I was contacted by Garrick Webster from Computer Arts Magazine in the UK about my folk inspired work (particularly that of Lubki). He wanted images and me talking about why folk art? who requests it? what does it mean? How does it work/not work? I am not sure whether it is an ink on paper magazine or that of the web. Either way, I am flattered and who knows what will happen. I sent him a little whitman’s sampler of folk related images and lots of bla bla blab and we will see how he chops it all up and makes sense of it.

I got an interesting phone call from my new ad agency friend, Chris, who wanted to know if we could meet up with Dwight and Charlene (these amazing egg producers) who were down at the Regional Access checking on an order (hundreds of thousands of their eggs had frozen). I will be doing portraits of them in the future and having them here for me to take a picture of them was a real (albeit quick ) opportunity. Dean came along so as I forced salami sandwiches on them, Dean regaled us with farming tales, his invitation to attend the next TED conference in NYC in a few weeks and the whole food movement he is involved with which, from my experience with Thor and Stefan here with the grain, has a real overlap. So, though unplanned, there was some work related fun and new people in my life. And, I got some good pictures, too. Dwight and Charlene are adorable.

Rob is here. Time to go.

 

heads down

Original Poster for Ever So Humble, Q. Cassetti, 2011, digitalWorking on the Hangar. Finished this up along with the Gem of the Ocean and Rocky Horror. Rocky took a turn(wonderful) while I was tooling around in photoshop. I will share tomorrow and see what you all think!

Second Workday: 2011

Raggedy Ann and Andy, Q. Cassetti, 2010, sharpieI am feel a whisker better. I couldnt really breathe yesterday…and was choking and coughing like a nut. But I slept a little bit better and took some over the counter pharmaceuticals which seemed to open my head up a bit. Alex is home feeling bad as is Rob. Its in the water…or at least the air.

However, got a bunch of stuff off my desk so I could do the same today to get ready for the onslaught. I got a nice email from the new team of folks at the Baker Institute for Animal Health to talk projects/process etc. which is nice as you never know when the people change and whether the work I have done has any lasting value than the last administration. Good news. We will see.

Did a bit of research on Madhubani art. Interesting note here:

“The origins of Madhubani painting or Mithila painting are shrouded in antiquity, and a tradition states that this style of painting originated at the time of the Ramayana, when King Janak commissioned artists to do paintings at the time of marriage of his daughter, Sita, to Hindu god Lord Ram. Madhubani painting has been done traditionally by the women of villages around the present town of Madhubani (the literal meaning of which is forests of honey) and other areas of Mithila. The painting was traditionally done on freshly plastered mud wall of huts, but now it is also done on cloth, hand-made paper and canvas.”

Note the honey is part of this program too! I think this interesting image to the left, the amazing tight crop, the happy eye floating amongst polka dots, flowers and stripes with a total abandon and happiness. Look at the wiggily eye, the solids and line…no shading, no mystery added.

Gloria has left us after a few weeks here in TBurg—back to Southern California, her horse and friends. Seemed like a quick visit, but good for her to connect back up with friends and family and parents. The team is nudging a new tub into Kitty’s soon to be finished bathroom (Yay!). It is amazing that the house is beginning to be a bit more wrapped up than ever…with projects finshing, the exterior touched in every spot…without any reference to the slummy aspects of the house. The new projects are moving the needle significantly—but in the tuning of the life in this historical house versus function or no function. More later. I leave youwith pattern!