Thinking about "My America"

My America: Big Boy, Fat Boy, Q. Cassetti, 2013,  Trumansburg, NY

I am working on a collection of images...freeflowing images of   "My America" as you know. I find that symbols and corporate logos are coming to the fore along with those personifications of brand (Mayor McCheese, Big Boy, Uncle Ben, Aunt Jemima, Betty Crocker, the Android, etc.) and find them flowing into images of war and weaponry. It is wild when I let my brain relax to see which avenues it travels in...to scare me or amuse me...but to result in images. Yes, the symbols of power and position, of money and greed, of the ordinary and extraordinary, of rockets and robots, of artificial intelligence and artificial insemination all are fluid.

Today's insanity around women's issues from health, reproduction, ability to vote and those rights we hold dear--coming under question from the likes of Governor Ultrasound and the Cooch....really are disturbing and are beginning to filter into this unsavory illustration brew. As much as we hold ourselves as so superior, I find being an American these days pretty thin soup given the low level the national conversation decended. It is appalling that the silent majority is allowing a vocal group of radical conservatives make decisions for their wives, daughters, sisters and friends. And, that those women, the wives, daughters, sisters and friends have by their silence and inaction, have condoned the eradication of rights they do not value and will not value until they too have  a reproductive issue or a voice to be heard...and have given away that right without any knowledge of what they  have surrendered.

Off the soapbox, for today.

"We live in a place people go on vacation."

The Zipper at Ulysses Fair, Q. Cassetti, Trumansburg NY, 2013

I quote Rob Cassetti. He is so right. As usual, he is always right. But we do, we live in a place people go on vacation. It is this time of the year that points to that truth...so I wanted just to reiterate it.

It is the end of summer. The end of platters of corn, bowls of peaches and big lovely thick slices of tomatoes to share with a tableful of family as next week is packing and preparing for the next semester--the distance from here to Christmas. It is the end of big breakfasts, long sunsets on the porch with ideas, laughs and questions. It is the end of deep, bone resting sleep--of fan-driven dreams and the sound of screech owls in the middle of the night. It is the end of late day Fridays on the deck at Two Goats, meeting new people, laughing at the crazy brides enjoying their last hurrah before "tying the knot". It is our vacation stay cation from May until next weekend.  It is the end of my waking my sleeping ones, to get to work five minutes late but with conversations of music, the gleam on the corn stalks, looking for hawks, orioles, goldfinches and counting the days that the hay has dried. The summer is a seemingly golden ribbon of days and nights--all one hundred days of it--and as it is transitioning to another season....it seems to short, too sweet and too extraordinary.

Next weekend begins the rush from now to Christmas. We drop our students off at Hofstra and Hampshire with tasks surrounding that and a business meeting for Rob in NYC.  The home team are both ready to get back to college and all that it entails. Kitty spent the last week on Martha's Vineyard with friends. Alex and I had some quality time---some of it very sad, some happy. We had a photo "shoot" together at the Ulysses Fair with his new lens and my new camera. Rob recommended I look at the Canon EOS-M when Amazon was running an amazing promotion ($299. for the body and pancake lens ( fixed 22mm). I jumped as the price was great and I was tired of getting fuzzy pictures from my collection of point and shoots that I have. I have been delighted as this is a small, mirrorless camera with all the features of the big, grown up SLR cameras without the size or gravitas they have. So, I can carrry it in my pocket and get great shots.

Here are some shots from our weekend at Sagamore (with said camera)>> 

Here are some shots from Alex and my visit to the Ulsses Fair>> 

The Ulysses Fair was fabulous. The color, the lights, the sheer small townieness was just what the doctor ordered. There was a free animal show with a brassy, confident lady in red with sparkles making her poodles and ponies do little crazy things while running around a ring. I loved it. And there were harnesses that were like big kid Jolly Jumpers that you could wear and jump on a big trampoline--and get flung up in the air. I loved watching these limber kids flip and jump--often doing tricks as their parents shouted out their favorites for the kid to try. Wonderful. The graphics and hand lettering was sublime.

The Wednesday of the first week of September,  I have an unexpected treat. I am flying out to Cedar City Utah to speak to art/design/illustration students at Southern Utah University. I will fly out Wednesday and be picked up in Las Vegas (!) and we will drive through the desert. WOW! and then have a day with the students etc. Thursday. I will talk in the evening. I will be giving them a run through of many of the bodies of work  I do and talk about how I get my work "out there". Its an hour...so not much time...but I am crunching on what to show, what to save. I want to make it a bit more personal than the presentations we had in graduate school as I always wanted to know a bit more about the person, his/her life/ their studio/ what they do for fun etc. I will have a day to rubberneck in Las Vegas--and take pictures (woot!), and then back home. I got a room in Las Vegas via Hotwire (shopping for five stars and above)--and ended up with a room at the Aria (near Bellagio) for a bit over $100 a night. I figure if I am going to be in Las Vegas I should try to go towards the high end versus the middle to cheap....just to see more of the reality TV version of this town.

I have to go visit the big client in the middle of September, so I will need to really get my travel game on.

Gotta go. There is apple/peach sauce to process to keep it fresh and keep the fruit flies away. Rob is busy cutting the hedges--with his cuban hat on and long sleeves. 

more sooner versus....later. 

Lush.

My America: American Boy, Q. Cassetti, 2013

It did it. That is, the weather decided that the peak of the heat was Grassroots, and since the middle of July, it has gone down to pre-autumn chilliness, blanket on the bed sleeping with regular rain, and lush greens everywhere. This is the time of the year we all shake our heads and proclaim the drought has never been worse with the signals being our lawns are hay colored and brittle. No way this year. No way indeed.

Our farmers are delighted with their crops coming on twofold...and our apple growers had to nip little fruitlings in the springtime to weed down the plethora of fruit to a manageable level for the trees--but the crop is going to be absolutely bumper this year. What with the last few years of low rain/high heat, this is such a lush treat, I cannot resist talking about it, about the heavy storm clouds we have every day, and the glories at the market from the fields.

Lots has happened. We just came back from a really magical weekend at Great Camp Sagamore--for the benefit weekend. (pictures posted here>>). So many lovely people, a sublime location, and a wedding style party with a great silent auction so you could take home a treat and help raise money for the rennovations that need to occur (helping the amazing state matching grant that was provided). Kitty and Alex accompanied us--and were charming, cute and approachable--making friends, drinking in the scene, smoking cigars, and sweetening the time for me. I am so happy they are such social creatures and have no problem with age and can mix at all points. The weekend was interesting as those who stayed in Camp versus those attending the dinner had two separate experiences that, now that I have been there, I have some ideas around offerings, pushing more community and conversation from Friday night on. I am very high on Sagamore these days and feel that there may be some branding efforts happening in the next few months to overhaul the look and feel along with perhaps a more in-depth look at what it is we do, how we do it and where we want to go. But, we will see. 

Speaking of branding, we are turning the corner on packaging label designs for the Piggery. It has been an interesting process to have all of us agreeing on a direction and for me to loosen up a bit and not to be so corporate. I am reveling a bit in display fonts, mixing classics with something a bit showier for the type of meat/sausage/lunchmeat offered along with a lockup of NYPastured Pork, The Piggery and the Piggery Pig. We are narrowing the palette--so its clean, snappy and will pop in the meat case. 

I am helping Matt La Roux, a wonderful entrepreneur from the Cornell Cooperative Extension. Matt has been given a grant to buy two meat lockers (one for Ithaca and one for Corning (because, surprisingly, Corning is a "food desert"). The cool hook for these lockers is that one rents space ($3-$5 a month p/p) in the locker for the side of beef, the half pig etc that you can buy via Matt's website (simple, great tool): www.meatsuite.com. Meatsuite.com allows you to plug in your zipcode, identify the type of meat you are interested in buying and connects you with a farmer in your neighborhood. Now, you can buy the meat, and have a place for the meat to be delivered and stored conveniently. GREAT idea. It's been fun getting to know Matt--and helping him get the word out. He is quite good at this --on the radio, in all the local press and (how great is this?) on the NPR food blog , The Salt. Kudos to Matt for all the work he has done. I think he has a runaway success on his hands.

Work is work. I am working away on a few American pictures...and they keep coming. Big Boy was dying to happen, so he did. I think now that I have a good boy, he may be doing some things other than holding burgers on plates. We will see. More pix coming your way. 

A Pattern of Patterns

My America: All Seeing Eye Ribbon Study, Q. Cassetti, 2013 Trumansburg, NY, Adobe Illustrator CC

You all know I love patterns. Lots and lots of patterns. Patterns on top of patterns and yes, let's turn that pattern into another pattern, pattern. I love the craziness of color, texture and the whole "look over here...no, over here...hey, don't forget me" aspect of patterns.  Where did this come from? I cannot imagine as I come from a pretty pattern free environment...and only create this world in my mind and on my paper digitally or otherwise (known as analog). I love the way Japanese patterns are so skillfully used--cut into art, folded, overlaid in their culture. Of course, I love Indian patterns in the fabrics, the saris, the absolute non-westernized approach in their visual arts...mimicing the happy music and theatre we only see a glimpse of. This love of pattern is what is keeping me ticking these days creating medals and ribbons, rondelles and patterned backgrounds that are red, white, blue, dark blue, cream, antique gold and a little brown. I am making brushes that resemble aspects of the flag. I am using the new and remarkable pattern feature in Adobe Illustrator's Creative Cloud application to create patterns in a wink and a blink that formerly I would have toiled over to find out that it did not tile right...and there were gaps between the tiles etc. etc. to finally either use the crappy pattern or throw my hands up and resort to stripes and checks which my small mind could accomodate.

This pattern possession has led me to new elements for My America, my project around all things about and of America and being American. I am possessed by medals and ribbons--honorifics that we give out at momentous times and then never come back and celebrate. I love the puffy ribbons--the sheer victoriana of them...with layer upon layer of loopy ribbon held together with a massive button or finding that is the center of this very floral thing. Why don't we, in a steampunky moment, give medals and medaillons for special service at the companies we work for versus the traditional "deal block"--a cast acrylic block that is either screen printed or has a printed acetate floated in the middle to customize the moment?  With medals and medallions, you could wear them to lunch--a visible version of "I was awarded the special parking spot this month" that is linked to the person directly? We could congratulate our friend on the stupendous job of writing code for a website, or for managing the corporate meeting so well. The big medallion would prompt us to recognize the work and value of the selected person far more than the $50. American Express Gift Card. But for me, independent of my desires for people to recognize each other, to show pleasure in other's accomplishments and work--the pleasure of making these fantasy awards has been a quiet, happy moment. Maybe a bit more today though I must admit, I do have a Minnie Mouse in the works along with a Barbie. Too much going on.

Another blissful cool one today. TJ was being a racing cat at 5 this a.m.--running blindly (and deafly) thumping into walls and springing off of doors. All the other furry friends are sleeping on their feet (to keep them warm) including Alex who I have to go rouse.  

A domani. 

Blue Ribbon Summer

My America: Blue Ribbon Rondelle, Q. Cassetti, 2013, Trumansburg, NY, Adobe Illustrator CC

Just as I thought... the minute Grassroots is done, we are on the downside of the midpoint of summer and things change. Case in point, it is sweater weather today. Last week's heat inspired a reinactment of Saint Bartholomew's martyrdom  ( he is shown in paintings and sculpture, holding his skin--most noted imagery is from the Sistine Chapel where  the face of the skin was that of the artist, Michelangelo). If only. Problem with summer is there are only so many layers and that is it. Then you are stuck just being hot and relying on cold water and false breezes to get you to a place of quiet. It is good having a break--not only because change keeps us lively but also for the folks that do the hard work after the festival to break down all the stages, the stores, the kitchens, the tents and pack them all away in storage facilities and trucks for the next festival in the Grassroots or Big Splash line up. This is serious business--with all sorts of logistics I cannot even begin to fathom.

Alex and I had a nice bunny route drive yesterday with me driving. However, this morning he drove and I was delighted. We are going to have a little time looking at photography programs today to figure out where he might want to apply. 

I am musing over America. How can I make messages without being over the top or tacky. Tacky seems to be an easy route...and tasteful is harder as it has to be a bit smarter. So, in the thinking, I am making "parts"--medallions, medals, brushes and textures. I am jumping into making some different bullets, some semi automatic rifles (what a world that is all about), and birth control pills. I want this work to be as approachable as the Ulysses Fair, but with messages beyond. This should take some time. 

second half

My America: Loaded Quilt, Q. Cassetti 2013, Trumansburg, NY

It's over for this year. The great Tburg blowout, Grassroots...with lots of celebration, music and happy people all thrilled to be together, all thrilled to be experiencing great music and food, all thrilled to share the shifting elements--weathering storms and heat for four days a summer. And then, as quickly as it arrives on our doorstep, it is gone. Today is the day that the tents are collapsed and the mop up begins.  I spent a little time at the festival, but the majority of it was working or just being quiet and by myself. I am very introspective these days...surfacing stuff that has been quiet, trying to make sense or if not sense, trying to see patterns, trying to get to why I am the way I am. There is a reason this is called work...and this is the front end of this progression. I hope this can be positive for me.

I have been taking great pleasure in the local "bunny routes" between Trumansburg and the lake.  A "bunny route" is the route one takes that might be a single or two lane road. It is the indirect route that takes you into the countryside...through farms, by horses cows, and fields. It is the route that features the sky...and not the journey. It is the bird route where I can slow down to see the hawks on wires or smile at the orioles and goldfinches bouncing in front of the car. It is the route of Amish horsepower--teams of caramel massive strength harnessed to work. This is the route that lets you roll down the windows and smell the hay. It is haying season for at least the second time during this lush summer of rain and heat. Hay, I just found out, takes three days.  One day to cut. One day to dry.  And one day to bail. Those three days cannot have rain...or it changes up the length of time. Then, the golden grass is cut to the same height, creating these singularly beautiful undulating, gold/green fields peppered with either blocks of hay or rolls.   I stop to take pictures but they never are as nice as what I see. This is a sweet time of the summer...where the gold and green twinkle and the verdant scent reminds me to keep going.

Kitty's friends have departed. Alex is still asleep. Rob is busy in his projects with his last day of holiday before the second push of the summer happens. It feels as if we are sitting on the downside of the summer's midpoint--with the produce beginning to kick in, the weeds in full bore, and the collection of singing birds that I forget about in the middle of the frosty winter. I am sitting in front of my big fan, saving files, researching images and making lists of things present and future that will need to be accomplished this week. Paying the college bill lurks like a stinky big dog on the horizon. I know it's there...I can smell it...ow.

Sun Dee

My America: He approves of the Enterprise, Q. Cassetti, 2013, Trumansburg, NY, Adobe Illustrator CC

It has been a blazing time for Grassroots--with my little family immersed in the music, the friends, the dance, the drink and the food. It has been the traditional hot week (often the hottest of the summer)-- complemented by tropical downpours and electrical shows in the sky. They have been all reveling in this cloud of heat, of sensory overload and of the floating time of community, of people all knit together by music, time and continuum.  I ,however, have not been in the same state as my near and dear. I cannot deal with the crush, the people, the expectations and work around being at a festival that could be fun..but for some there is always another project, another agenda that takes the festive out of the festival. So, I had a small dose yesterday--but am cooling it today for a personal retreat.  I am quite topsy turvey and need quiet to think, and try to quiet all that is popping through my brain. I have started "some work" on understanding my fury, my anger, my sadness, and my fears that have been plaguing me--and has driven me deep into personal sorrow, and fear about aspects of my life. Thursdays are my can opener days--the day that the professional in his calm and seemingly light way shines light into rooms and corners that have been cobwebbed and dusty- making me tell him about them...and why they are there. I think this is all good for my life and living though I am feeling a bit raw even week two. Please be patient  with me--as I pursue this pursuit to make me a healthier person.

I have started my "My America" illustration project. This is a very deep vein...and should be frightening as well as amusing as I pursuit it. So much iconography, latin, and odd images that can be juxtaposed. Mickey came off the pen mid last week....and there is more on the horizon. A bullet "loaded" quilt,  A nuclear Uncle Sam. Something speaking to the requisite ultra sound in Virginia....George Washington...and so on.

Have a peaceful Sun filled Sun Dee. 

Pardon My Dust by Adriel de la Torre

I needed to share with you all: 

Designer Peter Han (he rejects being called an artist) has worked as a conceptual designer for a number of different video games and films, but has also become known for a drawing class he teaches called Dynamic Sketching. Using only chalk, Han works with his students to let go of their preconceived notions about art and design by working in a fast, impermanent medium that always ends up being erased. The hope is to eventually free them from the idea of permanence and allow their ideas to grow through making mistakes.

In this short film titled Pardon My Dust directed by Adriel de la Torre, we catch a quick glimpse of Han at work as he works with his students and draws some impressive illustrations that of course meet a fateful end under a felt eraser. (via colossal submissions)

Grassroots Eve.

Well, I am starting the American journey. Just started making my "kit of parts", my mis en place to get the ball rolling from brushes with stripes and stars to the all seeing eye that protects us on our dollar bill. It is the beginning and I am stunned by the opportunity for images here--the juxtapostion of imagery--of icons, and color. The mash up of popular culture, masonic imagery, religious imagery and suggested ideas (such as the Tea Party) spurs me on.  The possible use of text to compliment and confuse....what with phrases out there speaking to how God legitimizes and approves of all things American--its pretty irresistible to me. I am pretty pissed off at a lot of things American these days...and this will be the spur to make the fury into something tangible. More as we go.

I have a new camera. Rob admonished me when I bought my last point and shoot, that I should check in with him as the world of point and shoots were getting more interesting...and that I could upgrade when the time was right. Seeing that I loaned Alex my big Canon EOS camera (which, unfortunately took a bath during a rainstorm this summer at a music venue that Alex was shooting), and seeing that Rob brought this camera up, I bought a Canon EOS-M--a tiny, mirrorless camera that can take all of the Canon EOS lens and has a limited number of EOS-M specific lens. I bought it with a fixed "Pancake" lens and have been really enjoying shooting in the RAW file format (another first)--and all that that entails with Photoshop and Lightroom.  I took a handful of photos at the community build (at GrassRoots) of our new Trumansburg Farmers' Market stage (see here)-- and was pleased with the sharpness, less parallax ( I think this is the term)-- and the work that I could get this camera to do. We will see. I am in love.

So, tonight it all begins.  It is the eve of the Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival. The tents are all up. The ticket booths have been put in place. The community build  (our little stage for the Farmers' Market, and an adorable prep kitchen for the Ithaca's Childrens' Garden ) has happened. The massive kitchen is built. The stages are in place. The towers of beer and fruity alcoholic drinks are stacked to the ceilings at the dairy and grocery store.  The festival go-ers are beginning to trickle in--to take their places on Rabbit Run (yes, there is a place in Tburg with this sort of adorable, Beatrix Potter-y name) to wait patiently in line for well over a day to get dibs on a camping spot in the infield. We hope to capture some of these folks to invite them to come to the Farmers' Market tonight for music (Rockwood Ferry and Home Remedy) and for circus yoga ( a demonstration) and of course the general conviviality of food to eat, food to buy, crafts and products to buy. My back up team will be walking brochures down Rabbit Run tonight to get fliers out to promote the gig.

Rob and Mary are doing a round trip to NYC today to pick up Alex from his NYC/FIT foray this summer. I am pleased to have him home--and know that this time in the city has been a great adventure and good learning experience for him. We should see him by early evening. I am glad Rob and Mary are taking my car with good tires and functioning air conditioning given the sweltering day that is promised.

Honeybees and Ham

Waiting. No biggie. But waiting for the car. Yes, I am finally getting the snow tires off my car and it has been not the single hour that I was promised but it is going on two. I was going to go back to the office between my two Ithaca appointments today...and now It feels as is the two are going to blur. Ah, well. Thank goodness there are no crazy deadlines today other than the great meeting of the Farmers' Market. And thank goodness I have discovered and changed to Google Mail, Google Drive and Google Calendar and I can use a dumb p.c. here at the car dealership and actually get work done. I like how simple and portable things are getting. Nice change, that.

We are on the verge of Grassroots. The cherries have been picked. The raspberries and strawberries are going full bore. Garlic Scapes are on the outs--and bunches of delightful dill, cilantro and basil are in the future. It is the season of produce and fruit, and we can plot the course of the summer by their  appearance at the CSA and at the Farmers' Market. It has gone from mild to hot very quickly with many fans and cold showers before sleep marking the change in the season. We have been in the lake to start our summer drifting under the high cloud bowl.

 How is it that the sky over the lake is so vast, so high, so much part of the moment, when, even on our plateau, it doesn't seem to loom above us? The water must change that relationship as it is a constant--and mirrors the dome above it. The cloud bowl has been particularly dramatic in the last week with massive cumulus clouds--changing from puffy, angels sit on them, clouds to towering castles changing from white, to pearl, to grey. It has been the sky of full on Summer--giving us cloud bursts and within a half hour, scrubbed skies.  It is the mid point of the year...and such a sweet spot that we are all trying to hang on to the quiet moments together before being spun into our respective other lives.

My America. I have been worrying about another body of work- stressing that nothing was clicking. Well it did. Rob asked my why I couldn't do something like the Advent Calendar annually and it forced me to think about the triggers around the Advent work. I guess what I love about it are all the "knowns" like palettes, distinct traditions and expectations, the iconography, the ideas and the global aspects of the holiday. I have been mulling over all of that and somehow it just pinged, American things... my America. It has symbols and colors. It has traditions and  expectations. Plus, there is more...things that have been bothering me that I think is time to surface. There are womens health issues. There is Uncle Sam. There is the religious right. There are the Masons and Mormons. There are honeybees, and hams. There are guns and grain. And so it begins. The research, the prep, the sketches...and then we are going to load the cannon and start firing to see where we go. It will be a fun ride, with I hope good results and interesting learning. I am ready for another journey--and you will be coming with me. It has been 6 months since the last big push...so I am ready (as is my portfolio).

More on this later.

Agri-Sheeler

I see  Charles Sheeler inspired images as I drive through our countryside from the gleaming grain storage bins, to the grids of stacked hay, to the stark red barns against the changeable sky. Rob pulled off the road for this one the other day...and as a nod to the full bloom of summer upon us, here is a hi and hello for you.

Calendar Cover for 2014

Sugar Skull, Q. Cassetti, 2013

look for this for holiday shopping! 

Ranting and raving.

I told Kitty that I would try to be more regular with my blog conversations than in the recent past. And so, to humor her, I am climbing back into the routine of  posts that will hopefully amuse both of us. As it stands right now, I am in a windowless room with three Dell computers with a cup of coffee with whitener (powdered creamer) waiting for my car to have it's constitutional 30,000 mi. check up. I am flashing back in this windowless space, illuminated by green light and hunkered down over a keyboard--to the hours and days I have spent doing exactly the same things during press checks for my clients or for my employers. The marvelous, stress laden press checks where I would wait in the "client room" for the color to come up to speed and a succession of press sheets to review, approve and or "move the color". These press checks were during the process of days (and often nights), weeks with many nights spent restlessly dozing on a less than savory brown corduroy couch (they were always brown or beige and covered in some miracle fabric that "wiped clean). If the print salesman said it was a day pressrun, bags were packed for a few days. When he suggested it was  a "quick one" which often evolves to a not so quick one as inevitably there were issues with fit, with ghosting, with registration, with a plate being "bad", with creep, with imposition, with the miserable compromises one must make in starving one image to benefit another. Time was not a measure or standard at all. Time was measured in dinner bells--in the windowless client room which was "furnished" as a cheap man cave (as so few of us who do this are girls) with chips, and ESPN on television. 

 My favorite issue was with paper. The sheet that was specified has the top of the sheet delaminate from the body of the paper pulling the sheet in half as it printed. Can you say DISASTER...and the fun we had with the paper rep claiming they would have to "look into it" before providing replacements and allowing me to meet my deadline with the client. The plate remakes. The tough designer that the press guys actually liked (and hugged) would make them make it right...which they were often not held to my standard...and it often took a day or so for them to realize that what they could get away with with others, they could not do so with me. I am not often on press checks these days. I am not sure people do that anymore. What with the high quality digital work, the price of the job often is less than the price of a designer on press for an hour, that perfection in printing is going the way of the typesetter. Ah. change.... More times for tattoos, illustrations and gifts to my farmers.

I am working on a new bag design for Farmer Ground Flour. Who and What is Farmer Ground? Well, Farmer Ground Flour is a local mill owned by Greg Mol, miller and Cornell graduate who buys his grain from Thor (local farmer) and sells it to Stefan (and the world) for Stefan's bakery, Wide Awake Bakery. Farmer Ground is going into Whole Foods--to all of our excitement, and we are developing a generic sack for the nine types of flour that they mill regularly. Very exciting. Very real and quite a kick in Farmer Ground's business.

This type of business is an example of solid, sustainable enterprises that are squarely landing left foot, right foot in the right direction. This type of business is the version 2 of the small farming community--and is the next (combined) big business that is developing in the Finger Lakes. Farmer Ground, The Piggery, Wide Awake, Forge,  Redbyrd Orchard Cidery to name a few are all excellently run companies that have roots here in the Tburg area--founded by mid career people who want to be viable in this local foodshed. However, though there is help here for farms, there is no help for farmers. There is no grange. There is no cooperative health insurance. There are no buying groups. There is no infrastructure. if someone cuts their hand or god forbid, gets pregnant....they are SOL. No help. No shoulder. No guideposts. They must, each and everyone of them, find a path and direction without collaboration or help from an entity (read my mind, Cornell Cooperative Extention?) who have the back office to help them keep farming without losing their shirts, and having resources we all take for granted.

Open season: Plans for Pies

View from Dalrymple Farms, Ball Diamond Road, Hector, NY. 07.01.2013

This morning was the season opener for Cherries! Yes, you know the scene with opening day for Fishing Season. Cars parked all along the side of the street--solid-- with mommies and grandmommies (predomininately) scurrying around with buckets and baskets, gleaning red and golden fruit from all the heavily laden boughs. We were laughing and delightedly telling each other what we were going to make, how we were going to make it and coming up with new ideas. Pies were on the short list as were cobblers and preserves. My interest lies in the creation of infusions which we talked about at lengths. What to use as the base? how to treat the fruit? Different bases for different uses. Of course there are cherries for granita and ice. For conserve (for hams and salty meats), and of course there is the fun mix of fruit and savory.

Our friends ate quite a bit--tasting each tree and offering commentary on which was the best and why. They ate and ate...smiling and talking and at the end, patting their very skinny tummies and talking about the repercussions of too many cherries on a body. They were planning their assault of their pile of red fruit...what to make and when. How to parse the cherries into the now and future delight.  Kitty had a friend who sang quite loudly (tunefully!) and leapt into the tree like he was engineered to do so, pulling down fruit hanging from one arm. The Grandmommies had never seen anything quite like that. As it was a damp and humid morning with the hint of rain--and little spits of drizzle, it kept many of the less than hard core home--planning for the break in the weather.  No Amish at 7:30 a.m. ( I think the rain had them waiting)...and there wasnt a heavy duty use of ladders (quite yet).  We went up the hill to weigh our prize-- and we picked 45 pounds of cherries between three groups of us to work with. Could just be a starter...we will see. So, if we have a chance and need more cherries for the projects, another trip might not be for naught.

I guess a year off, for these trees (due to the cold snap in 2012 that killed most of the cherry and apple crops in the Finger Lakes), all the stored energy pushed out blooms to beat the band making the branches tip downwards with the amazing growth of big berries.

A second after the Solstice

Can you believe it? The 4th of July is in sight! The enormous moon we had this week which illuminated the evening from sundown at close to 10 p.m. to dawn was extraordinary. The gorgeous wet days, and dry evenings overlooking the lake are a treasure--each and every one of them.  What  a year of change, of transition, of growth, of query, of note. I am stunned each day. Stunned, I tell you. Not surprised, not charmed, not enchanted, not puzzled, nor intrigued. Stunned and shocked. More often negatively than positively. But then again, I should back out the time to see if this is a seven year thing.

I am the queen of mumbo jumbo. I believe in ghosts and past lives, of tarot cards and the unexpected. I do not seek these things out, but I believe. I believe that there are points in your life that are significant "change moments" which, formerly, I thought were on (for me ) a seven year cycle. But now, I just believe there are "change moments" or "change years" that happen to pull your head up from looking at your feet or looking at the clouds to say, "Yo, pay attention, knucklehead (meaning me)!" Regardless of time, we are in a definite change cycle.

Adirondack face, Q. Cassetti, 2010

I have been quiet as I have been hurting. Hurting enough to pick up the phone and see if I could start talking and focusing on my hurt--allowing me to box it up, package it, and see if I could put a topic sentence around all of it to allow me to get on with my life without the noose or divers' weight around my neck.  This drag has driven me from talking to you, to talking at all. This drag has stopped me from my public self as I want to protect the soft, squishy me from the rest of the world as I have been hurt, hurt badly, hurt daily, hurt by clueless people who don't even know they are doing this. I do not resent, but are puzzled by why I am the focus of identity theft-- hearing my words, ideas, thoughts and hypothesis come from another person without the grounding of my thinking, experience and understanding.  But, I need to put this all to rest. Let things happen and settle out....and try to rise above it (as I was taught) and be "better than that" which, quite candidly, is a crock. Better than what?

Better than losing all your data and computer in one "electronic moment"?

Since the electronic melt-down, much has changed in my office. I have a brand new computer. I have newly recovered data. I have a wonderful new cloud back up. I have Dropbox and now I have the new Adobe Creative Cloud (which I was prepared to be puzzled by, but am DELIGHTED).  We are selling cards, pins and yes, little sets of nice little things at Sundrees and Etsy. We have just gotten a signed agreement with Cornell to be a certified vendor (a full year in the making). We are throwing work out the door in a passionate, volumetric way for our big client. Our distillery is rolling with the whiskey versions of their labels (and are happy). I am busy with a kraft bag design for our local flour mill soon to be in Whole Foods. My Bee Goddess is on a label for candles in Denver. A new copper bake oven pizza place has my illo on their teeshirts. And there is more in the hopper.

Tomorrow is day one of Cherry Season. Kitty and her friend Walker and I will be picking at seven a.m. to try to beat out the hoards that strip the trees in one day. I like to think of it as the opening day of fishing season for mommies....fresh cherries for pies, preserves,granita and more. We will see what will happen.  I love how gorgeous it is, and the moment in the early morning as the dew is drying and the sun begins to heat up, as the overcast clouds rise up up up over the lake--until at 8 a.m. the ground is dry, the sun is shining and the light is such that each sour cherry glows like a christmas light in the trees. There is quiet in the orchards as we are all focused down on each pick, each cherry, each moment of sorting and picking, gleaning the ripe fruit--a seasonal gift to each one of us. It is more like a holiday this year as last year the cherries and apples were ruined due to a late cold snap that killed every blossom. Not the problem this year...which makes it a bit more like Christmas, or your birthday eve....waiting the delight ahead.

Big moon

Cut paper owl, Q. Cassetti, 2013

It was a big moon, a  huge moon actually....a blue moon, some say. But none the less it was significant. Maybe it was nature but maybe, just maybe it was to recognize a marriage of two beautiful and remarkable women. It was light out until around 9:30 and then the moonlight took over, keeping the sky radiant for the rest of the time until dawn woke us up...shining sun and overcast skies. 

It is fully spring, and emerging summer with garlic scapes and strawberries, fresh spinach and  kale, teensie japanese radishes, and spring peas ready to pick. The farmers market has been open for well on a month, with a good crowd each week --with each participant anxious with ideas to make it better and add to the positive experiences for each person attending. I had a nice time seeing people I haven't seen in well over a decade, and enjoying them as new friends with a great common base.

It's been a bit of a haul in the last few weeks with my computer crashing as well as two 2 TB hard drives. So, I shipped the hard drives off to Kroll Online and to the tune of $2M each had the data recovered (much of my illustration work). The computer was 9 years old (with two hard drives (of extra illo work) that just plain died. My friends at Baka Computing thought it might have had " an electrical moment" but with the age of the computer, they were not ready to confirm that. So, prior to all of this monkey shines, I started backing up to a cloud service, CrashPlan, so this will be part of the new scene with the new computer winging its way over from Hong Kong. It is a kick in the pocketbook, so I am feeling a bit shocked and saddened by all of this, but after a week working on a coworkers setup (on vacation), I realized how my productivity has been compromised, so though it is expensive, and though it is an uplanned change, I think it will be welcome and add to the stuff I can crank out. And, I now have CrashPlan, Dropbox, Evernote, Apple Cloud and yes, Adobe Creative Cloud-- the cloud has been embraced and maybe will be a bit less frightening in the future. Kitty, funny girl that she is, refers to my cloud use as the "Thunder Cloud". See, another reason why I love her.

I need to wrap this up now as we need to get Kitty down to her job--but as I have promised Kitty that I will attempt to get back into the blogisphere a bit more....despite my recent quiet. 

3x3 Professional Show Merit Winners.

This collection of five guys are from my annual (2012) Advent Calendar project, "Gingerbread Advent". They were, just today, accepted into the annual, juried competition that 3x3 Magazine has to celebrate illustration. They were accepted as a group. Hurray and Thank you to 3x3. It is wonderful to know that the freakish stuff that flows out of this brain onto digital paper has some bounce in the real world beyond the happy high (when I get the cogs and gears rolling) that this December project can give me. Double the holiday gifting for this girl. To see who else got in>>

Five Advent Guys from 2012 Advent Calendar project, "Gingerbread Advent", Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator CS%

Summertime

Cut paper owl,  Q. Cassetti, 2013, Trumansburg, NY

It really feels like summer. I am here in my princess tower...a hardwired princess tower, listening to the birds, and feeling the breeze on my feet from the window anticipating the need to blow warm air around with my turbo fan which currently is tucked in my closet.​

Spring has been such a gift this year with the long cool, wet coming on....allowing all of our trees to develop, flower and grow. With this natural prosperity comes a thick coating of bright green pollen that lays on the porches, windowsills, and any surface (even a car sitting for an hour or so) this is shocking in its abundance.​

As you can see, I am cutting paper these days. For real paper...not the digital kind with real live scissors and then scanning them in to digitize them. I am making a little collection of thises and thats...and as they are all cut from full sized, half sized or quarter sized pieces of paper, they are all in the same zone building blocks sized.​ I am getting the paper from this great teacher store called Hygloss who have a thinnish, origami weight matte black paper that really does the trick. I am just feeling so creatively out of it, at least this gets me making stuff that I can use now/ later. With these big black shapes, I can strip textures/color etc. into them and I have translated them all to vectors, so they are scalable as well. I just feel like a creative flat tire these days. The whole Jack is a dull boy thing. Lots of projects sailing through the office...very much beach volleyball with a lob to our side and then back, and back again....all in one day. Not much breathing...lots of moving.

Alex is in NYC taking photography courses. His new work is quite good...and though I am a proud momma--you can see for yourself.​ He is truly taking in the city and enjoying every minute of it. So exciting to see this little flower begin to bloom. Kitty is with us--working on trying to corral ideas, impressions and direction for her Division 3 project next year. I am coaxing her along though I think Rob is probably a better coach for her at this point in her development. I tend to shut things down too quickly. My harshness works with Alex...matter of fact, he actually likes my directness and was humored last weekend when I sat in the car with him and critiqued the Sunoco logo at the gas station. He was stunned that I thought that way. We also had an amusing conversation about symbols and what things mean in imagery. It was cracking open a door he didnt even know existed...and was surprised by the results. I can work with Alex on ideas and thinking and with Kitty on process, editing and expanding beyond the ordinary. What a few months of talk we will have.

​I sold 5 dozen brooches last week (sushi and banana splits) at wholesale to a family friend. This is the way to really do the business with pins versus the onesies twosies. The bill actually looked like something. Funny though I thought the pins would really rock, it turns out that my cards are far and away the more profitable and more requested around here. Maybe I should climb out of the creative hole and just design some cards. Simple, elegant, commercial cards. That seems doable? Right?

Later.​

Snip

I have been cutting lots of paper. I am surrounded by little clips of white with black insides, and little clips of matte black with white show. I am trying to be discrete and cut into a box lid--prior to snipping all over my wacom pad and the pile of notebooks and pencils I fear I will somehow run out of. But paper has been an issue. Not too stiff, not to flimsy.

First, I used a rather stiff black through and through paper made by Strathmore. Then, I attempted to cut matte black tissue paper. Wayyy too delicate. Then, I discovered that there was this lovely, origami weight black paper made for school teachers to cut silhouettes of their students. It is flat  flat, matte matte and almost seems as if the black side is screenprinted due to the texture, matteness, and purity of the cover. So, I ordered it from Hygloss (a very inspiring teacher's supply catalog  and now snip snap snip....I am at it. Why? Well,  1. I need to get on the inspiration train. Something, anything...and it seemed like a good place to start. 2. I can make a ton of like images and make some patterns and little designs that might be good for cards etc...again, priming the inspiration pump. 3. Its me/black and white....it can be manipulated or cleaned up digitallly (if I choose to)...​ it can be intentionally crude, but can by scanning in as a bitmap, turn it into a workpath and then, into vectors for illustrator where I can have my daily illustrator party with my fun tools..

So, a series of patterns, little buildings and a village is in the works. Little buildings and snowflakes with pine trees for a possible holiday card...who knows. All I know is my cards are selling well, and I should push it a bit to see if more money can be made from this dream spinning I call illustration.​

I am churning away on a project I need you to remind me I do not enjoy doing. That's right, theatre work. I used to just not like it, but now I know why. Good thing too. What the deal is with theatre illustrations is that they are not really illustrations but an icon developed of the show that somehow has to capture the vision of the director (which may not be formed as it is so early in the game) the vision of the season, the need to tell the whole compelling talk and talk to all the angst and play between the characters PLUS, it needs to attract an audience, an "aw yes" feeling PLUS it needs to work really small (1" square) to banner size. Point of the spear of any theatrical season. So, it has to do everyting and has to be considered and approved by a panel of people. Spells nightmare for Little Miss Impatience. Plus, if that isn't enough, the pay is substandard (what is new for illustration?). One amendment was to create a head of parts and it was suggested that this head be vomiting. What? Let's try that again? And the very thin line art that I should do detailing each and every character in the play, and then have a huge shadow of another character superimposed on all of this (can you say "has to work in 1"" square)? No, don't think so. And an ole favorite of your friend..."we loved the two ideas...could you just put them together?" I do not do Chinese menu artwork...and if I did, we would have to do a photoshoot with a photographer who will want a chunk of change to make your desire a reality. I love the person I am working for, and love her energy and ideas...but just remind me Q. does not equal Happy when it comes to those things on a stage. Please poke me with a sharp stick if I start nattering on about how maybe this time will be the fun one....​ But to refer to my ever optimistic and smart husband, you are getting paid...and it is illustration--so be happy. I need better rose colored lens. Maybe he can lend me his.

Speaking of Dystopic--man, am I digging into a pile of YA Distopic books. Love em. Just am digging through a great one starting with Gregor The Overlander by Suzanne Collins (the same author as the great books and not so great movie, The Hunger Games)​. One cannot miss with a fun hero (Gregor) and his crazy funny little sister, Boots who has been crowned the Queen of the Cockroaches. Gregor and Boots fall through a grate in  the laundry room and end in Underland. The characters are wonderful, dimensional and endearing. The adventures are fun, not too frightening. They are a treat and a great way to leave this plain for flying on the backs of large talking bats, strategic rats, chittering mice, and plodding/kind cockroaches. If you wish to hasten spring along, Gregor and Boots might be the pair to help you on your way.

The Sagamore invitation is done and looks good. Farmers Market is opening this week with an amazing lineup of events and music to complement the food and produce and artwork/crafts with more folks stepping up to volunteer to teach drumming, yoga, or play music. How lucky are we?! Asparaganza was gorgeous! with Melissa's beautiful groomed farm, happy apple trees, nice farm friends demonstrating and having great things to buy to eat! What a gift Good Life Farms brings to all of us beyond the gorgeous Russian Kale and spinach, a dairy share and of course, asparagus!

Pfft

Doodle, Q.Cassetti, 2013

Rain...or at least that is what is planned. The pollen is thick. The trees brilliant...and spring is full bore. Nigel suggested that his grandmother hinted that a frost could happen...but we are all pretending that this cannot nor will not be an option.

I took Dave up to the lake today for the spring shakedown of bug debris, winter detritus, cobwebs and the layer of dust that builds up just by sheer disuse. The house is so much nicer after last year's battle with mildew which would welcome you upon entry...and hang in the air. No olfactory memory there.​ However, I think that Jimmy the groundhog may have a guest, a skunk, under the porch with him. I love the spring and skunks as they give you a little pffft, or a little spritz to say..."Hey there" whether it is when you are out there walking the dog in the nighttime, or enter the kitchen from being away for a while.

Pfffft...a tiny little hi and hello. I hope this stinker is not rabid (as many skunks are around here)...and will just "sashay away" when we start taking up residence at the lake soon. Somehow having poor Shady sprayed by our porch guest or Eesah...our other dog friend get the treatment just isn't right...particularly as they are not angling for trouble. Eesah has a thing for Jimmy though, and maybe we will be lucky for Jimmy to tangle with our other canine friend.