The Joy of You-Know-What

For the images of the couples, I referenced More Joy of You-Know-What (I don't want people looking for you-know-what to come here), and here's one of the 2 pages I printed today.



Finished laying out the colophon, the watching eyes, and the image for the Acquire/Acquiesce page, but probably won't get to print them until next Monday at this point. I need to clean the guest bedroom for a visitor this weekend, and will be in a class both Sat & Sun, all day.

Discard/Discard

This is the text that follows the Allure/Desire page:



And here's the Discard/Discard page:



I also made some additions to 2 previously printed pages based on feedback from the critique group. See the goccoing on page for that.

The hairball

When the critique group last met, I picked up 'the hairball' as my part of the round robin that was already in progress. I knew within a week or so exactly what I wanted to do with it, but then I completely forgot to actually do it! While I was washing up, I suddenly realized that we were meeting tonight, and it was time for show and tell. So the afternoon was spent working on the hairball.

The piece was very soft and fuzzy, very tactile -- the original knitted ball was stuffed with something very soft (Anne did that), in addition to the soft yarn; Diane then added the hairs to the surface of the ball, which gave it even more of a soft, fuzzy glow. So I wanted to add a contrast. Here's the result:



I had the rose thorns left from another project, and the red silk. I made little roundels of the red silk and attached the thorns to them, and sewed the roundels on the surface. I really quite like the result. I'm thinking that I'd make up more of the little roundels, although I don't have a particular project in mind.

The meeting tonight was fruitful -- got good feedback on the shadow book, especially about the texts that I have yet to finish. We talked about the collaborative project some more (the current round robin is the warm up session) and decided to meet at Helen's next month to work in her paper studio and see where it leads us. I recorded the evening's meeting on the ipod as part of the documentation process.

Allure/Desire

Starting from this page on, the words and their shadows are physically closer together but the words themselves diverge, but expressing sentiments along parallel trajectories. So here's Allure/Desire and Acquire/Acquiesce.



Here are the 3 screens used so far. I love how the used screens look. I've photographed some screens in the past as I cleaned them. I put them on the lightbox and photograph them at different stages of being cleaned. Especially if I use vegetable oil for cleaning, they look so beautiful on the lightbox.



There're more photos on the goccoing on page of my web site.

The Chinese cooking class took up almost 5 hours this evening. This was Mike's idea -- signing up for a whole bunch of classes. Tonight was Chinese appetizers, next week will be Chinese stirfry. The week after is rice and noodles (although I'm not taking this one). We also start tennis lessons next week, for 4 weeks, then we have taichi! And this Sunday, we're going on a field trip -- snow-shoeing!

Sexy, Sexy

Bad news first -- I just got the news today that I got rejected from the All Day Snacking show. They sent out the list of the 31 accepted artists to everyone (I assume), with everyone's email addresses on the To: line, so we can all see who got rejected! Sigh. There were 150 submissions (not sure how many artists, as I'm sure some submitted multiple pieces). The good news is that I recognize several on the accepted list and really like their work, so it should be a good show.

Little by little, progress is being made on Calypso. This was the page I was laying out when Mike walked up and saw it. He's been calling this 'the sexy sexy book' ever since. Not a bad nickname for the book.



This is one of the (probably) 7 screens that will be necessary to complete this project. I cram stuff together pretty tightly.



This page will have another layer on top before it's finished. Tomorrow. I'm getting pretty good at retouching flaws on these prints. The fake Estee Lauder logo at the top was missing some bits which I had to manually fill in, same with the circles, and most of them came out ok. A couple were smudged, mostly because I was resting my hand at the wrong place.



Here's the sequence from the top. Each sheet of paper represents 3 pages in the completed book.

Promises & Seductions

Between dealing with Portland Open Studios and the Print Arts Northwest March show, once again, I didn't get as much printing done as I hoped. I finished 2 more pages, 2a & 2c.





The words are supposed to sort of look like they're casting shadows. The colors are slightly more intense than the photos (I used the flash on the camera at a fairly close range), although they are pretty soft colors.

The power of suggestion

I've been listening to A Dead Man in Istanbul on my iPod at the gym, and while I was on the elliptical yesterday, the protagonist '...walked into a cafe...', and I thought, 'wow, that sounds soooo gooood'. From then on, I couldn't stop thinking about coffee. Finally I got my cup at Papa Hayden's last night. And today, the effect still hadn't quite worn off (the suggestion, not the coffee, the effect of that was long gone), so we went to Peet's this afternoon.

Mike's taking the weekend off again (2 weekends in a row without working, yay), so we went for a long walk, coffee, and a pizza. And I still managed to get 7 hours in the studio.

I had more of the BFK than I thought, so I ended up cutting enough paper for 29 books. They're all trimmed, marked, and ready for print. It took probably 11, 12 hours to do that, even with the guillotine cutter, which worked quite well, so I'm happy. Now we're off to see The Painted Veil.

A couple of shots of the mock-up, printed on the laser printer and taped together:

If it's not one thing, it's another

Finally did the postcard for the Print Arts March show. The book is Karen Kunc's Evocation. (Isn't it gorgeous?)



Finished laying out Calypso and put together a mock-up. Even took a couple of pictures, but the media reader is refusing to read the camera's card. So here's a spread from photoshop instead. Got about half of the paper cut. I was hoping to get them all cut tonight then I can just start printing tomorrow, but it's not to be.

What's going on? ?? ???

Get up. Feel fine. Eat. Feel bad. Go to the library anyhow. Librarian sent me home because I looked like I was '...about to fall over.' Come home. Eat again. Sleep again. Wake up again. Feel fine again. Pick up my pieces from Rake. Come home again. Feel bad again. Almost went back to bed again. But decided I must, must, get some work done.

Started to lay out the pages in Photoshop. Now that always seems to put me in some kind of a trance and it's almost as good as napping! I have the cover, opening page, and the next 2 spreads almost completely done in Photoshop. Which means I only have about 5 spreads to lay out, and probably another 2 to write. Then I'll still have to gocco, do the back side, and actually put the books together. Oy! I only have 2 more weeks. (Actually, 3, since I'm the Exchangeanator, I really have a bit more time, but still.)

Here's the cover page. In real life, the text will be almost invisible. The definition of Calypso will be printed in gel medium, which is clear, and the word Calypso will be printed in white on plexi, over white paper. You will only be able to read it by moving it relative to a light source to create shadows and reflections.



Here's the opening page (little round pans of eye shadows). This will be gocco'ed. And of course, in real life, neither of these pages will look as neat and clean as they do here. There's always that human touch to make it a bit more, eh, 'lively', shall we say?



And I just realized that this last Sunday came and went without the making of a to-do list. I'll blame it on being sick. I will blame it on being sick. I guess I'll skip it for the week.

Voila

There it is, on the table. Finished assembling it and tried it out (actually did this last night after I already updated my entry from yesterday), and it worked well enough. We'll see how long it lasts and how well it cuts a really big stack of paper. Filed away all sorts of copies, magazine cutouts, etc, that I've been saving and now feel a bit more organized. Cleaned up the detritus of making Constant Reaching, got out all the experiments and mockups of the shadow book, and now I'm back in business.

The movie tonight was Notes on a Scandal, a most excellent movie. We were actually going to see Pan's Labyrinth at Cinema 21, but boy oh boy, the line wrapped around the block! I hadn't seen Cinema 21 this popular in a long, long, long, long time.

Sometimes Plan B is just better

Inspired by what Shumei said about k. d. lang's song Constant Craving, the hand is now covered in texts that say 'Constant Reaching', 'Constant Desire', 'Constant Snacking', & 'Constant Craving'. The palm is similarly covered. I tried using a few of the test strips right on the finger tips, and also just 1 strip on 1 finger, but in the end, decided I like it like this the best.

The ring is made from the foil wrapper of a Dove Square.

I started to hang the cookies up on the wires from takeout boxes, but I think those are just too short to have much swing, and I really want the movement to make it seem like the hand is reaching. So now I'm trying regular wires. I'll need to get more crimping beads before I can finish hanging and see how it works.

But I'm also really liking how it looks on the drying rack...

Good enough to eat

Check out these 'cookies'!

The hand, however, will require Plan B. Plan A was simply to glue the test strips on the hand. Not only did the gel medium not hold well, it was difficult to do it without making a big mess on the strips' surfaces. It dawned on me while I was out shopping for wires that I should use the wires from takeout boxes as hangers.

Made a few small changes on what I've already done for the shadow book, but no real progress. The exciting news today was Laura's new gallery on Sandy, to feature photography and artist's books, opening in April!

Snowhenge

There's just too much snow to not have some fun with it.

And I even made good progress with the shadow book today. Here's one of the pages mocked up. The eye will be under the cut out; there will be a sheet of mylar in the cut out, and the eyeshadow and eyeliner will be printed on the mylar. The text for this page is not yet decided.

ATC for Portland Open Studios

I left it to the very last minute, of course. I completely forgot that I'd said I'd make an artist trading card for Portland Open Studios thank you notes, and they're due tomorrow. So I did that this afternoon. I used trimmings from a painting (the moth) and a rejected screenprint (the gold swirlies) collaged on the back of a playing card.



Worked on the Constant Snacking piece a bit more; two more days of drying then I can gesso and paint. Stared at the magnolia drawing some more and I think I know how I'll trim it.

It's Sunday night again, a review of the to-do list from last Sunday --

1) Deal with insurance for skylights. (Done, although I've yet to receive the difference.)
2) Finish magnolia drawing. (On going, I did make progress.)
3) And most importantly, start laying out and mocking up the shadows book. (Got started, but I also got distracted by Constant Snacking.)

This week's calendar does not look quite as full --

1) Oil change, oil change, oil change!
2) Finish the Constant Snacking piece (slides/CD due on Jan 25th).
3) Try gocco'ing the gel medium on the plexi.
4) I have to get a pretty good idea of how the shadow book will look, at least know how many pages, as I'd need to order the paper if I don't have enough on hand.

The First Emperor

The bulk of the day was taken up with Chinese breakfast with 60 people and then attending The First Emperor simulcast with hundreds! The Met opera got a scathing review in both the NYT and The New Yorker, but it seems like everyone at the theater audience enjoyed it. I certainly liked it quite a bit. Domingo really didn't have that big of a role, considering how Tan Dun was making a big deal out of writing an opera for him.

On Constant Snacking -- the molding paste was not yet dry on the hand so I couldn't do the other side. I did do the 7 cookies and they should dry over night.

On the magnolia drawing -- I added a bird (Sally, your observer!).



And I think I'll crop it down a bit. I'll sleep on it. This is starting to feel like stumbling upon an abandoned home site that has been taken over by plants and wild life.

It's gonna be a mobile!

It's a hand constantly reaching for the chocolate chip cookies! Right now they're are just museum boards cut and glued together to form a slightly 3D substrate. I'll build them up with molding paste and paint them with some appropriate base colors. The hand will still be covered with the test strips, and the cookies will be collaged with pictures of chocolate chip cookies printed on Nepal light. I really like the mobile idea, I should make a book mobile.

Spent a whole lot of time shopping for a stack cutter today. I've wanted one for a long time, and the shadow book will absolutely need one, so I finally did the deed today. Here's the one I'm buying, except it will be gray instead. Well, I've bid on it at least. I think I'll get it, they all seem to have just gone for the base price.

Studio visit day

Visited Sarah and Diane's studio to pick out work for the March show. I definitely have a favorite piece for putting in the window so I hope Roberta and Barbara will agree. Got home in the middle of the afternoon and tried to go out for a walk, but it was cold and the roads were slick. I came back after 15 minutes and took a nap instead! Really, the walk was no competition.

Played with some ideas for the Constant Snacking piece:



Those are test strips and lancets for the blood sugar meter. I save them. Why do you ask? The blue things are unused lancets. Used lancets go into the hazardous materials container and I can't get them out again.

From left to right -- a hand built from test strips (I'm thinking a hand reaching for a cookie on a white plate), a clock built with a dinner plate (I actually do need a clock anyhow) and test strips, and just something geometric. The geometric one looks pretty boring. I'm liking the hand reaching for a cookie idea, I'll have to figure out how to make a cookie with femo or something. The clock would be very practical. Or maybe the cookie can be a drawing, with the hand built up a little bit with the molding paste, and it would be on paper rather than a plate.

No, it's not finished

And no, I haven't a clue what I'm trying to do.

OK, Sunday night, time to deal with the to-do list. Last week's list:

1) Take the violin to the shop.
2) Try the Lenox with the plexi.
3) Finish the magnolia drawing.
4) Finish Byzantium, Faith & Power.

Did everything except 3) finish the magnolia drawing. I did also do a lot of stuff not on the list though, mostly leg work for the book arts show in March, and now possibly helping to put together the Abu Ghraib prisoners prints/wc show. Started a new book (German Expressionism), and did the Jan gallery walk (well, haven't seen Froelick and Augen, which I will see this week).

This week looks super busy, my calendar is full of writing. So here's a not too difficult list for the week:

1) Deal with insurance for skylights.
2) Finish magnolia drawing.
3) And most importantly, start laying out and mocking up the shadows book. I have some of the text done, but still have more text to incorporate.