Today was my big day at Rose Schnitzer Manor. I met with the volunteer coordinator in the morning, although arriving a whole 24 hours EARLY for my scheduled appointment. But she was able to meet with me and do the volunteer orientation, and get the information she needed for the background check. I was so groggy and not myself, I'm sure I didn't sound like I was all there.
In the afternoon I met with the activities coordinator, hopefully sounding more like myself, having rushed home from my morning meeting to consume some coffee, and then some tea, just to be sure. I should be meeting with my first partner this coming Thursday. Yay!
Continuing on the cleaning and reorganizing kick, I went looking for some shelves today. Had a hard time deciding what would best meet my needs, I ended up not getting anything. I did make a few different piles of things in the closet, the biggest being old belly dance costumes. I'm ready to part with them.
Showing posts with label memory loss project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label memory loss project. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Thank god for Free Geek
It finally got to me, all those half-functioning monitors, broken UPS's, ancient computers/laptops, all sitting around in the 'family room'. And when I got the new printer a couple weeks ago, it became a crisis...where oh where would I put the HP Laserjet 4M Plus if I want to keep it around still?
So off they went to Free Geek, a most fabulous resource here in Portland. They take in old computer equipment, refurbish it (or recycle it, cannibalize it), and for x amount of volunteer hours, you get to take home a piece of refurbished equipment.
So I met with Josephine today for the Asian Reporter article. We've met several times before and have chatted for various projects or other, so it was an easy couple of hours. We talked about my recently finished pieces and also the memory loss project that I'm starting. Showed her the experiments that I'm working on with the tulle for the Tennessee show next year. Which, btw, is turning out to be a bit of trouble -- the cut edges of the tulle want to stick to each other, and when you lift up one 'page', the next page comes up with it. I'll need to finish the edges somehow so that they don't stick, maybe coating it with a light coat of gel medium or something. Or maybe finish the edges with bias tape...ooooh, that might work -- make the bias tape with old fabric. I'm liking this idea. I'm just thinking about this as I type, obviously. That would also make it much easier to register; and to bind the pages together, I can bind the fabric edges together at the spine, I can even use a traditional book binding stitch to do that! Oooh...
This is a good idea on another front -- my iron is saved from further abuse. I was using the iron to try to fuse the raw edges this afternoon, and that was not working out so well.
Went to the Portland Taiko concert tonight. My favorite piece, by far, was a piece done using paper as percussion. This is not paper mounted on drums, but just the sounds paper makes when folded, unfolded, slapped against itself, slapped against your hands and other surfaces, and waved around in the air. Very interesting piece.
So off they went to Free Geek, a most fabulous resource here in Portland. They take in old computer equipment, refurbish it (or recycle it, cannibalize it), and for x amount of volunteer hours, you get to take home a piece of refurbished equipment.
So I met with Josephine today for the Asian Reporter article. We've met several times before and have chatted for various projects or other, so it was an easy couple of hours. We talked about my recently finished pieces and also the memory loss project that I'm starting. Showed her the experiments that I'm working on with the tulle for the Tennessee show next year. Which, btw, is turning out to be a bit of trouble -- the cut edges of the tulle want to stick to each other, and when you lift up one 'page', the next page comes up with it. I'll need to finish the edges somehow so that they don't stick, maybe coating it with a light coat of gel medium or something. Or maybe finish the edges with bias tape...ooooh, that might work -- make the bias tape with old fabric. I'm liking this idea. I'm just thinking about this as I type, obviously. That would also make it much easier to register; and to bind the pages together, I can bind the fabric edges together at the spine, I can even use a traditional book binding stitch to do that! Oooh...
This is a good idea on another front -- my iron is saved from further abuse. I was using the iron to try to fuse the raw edges this afternoon, and that was not working out so well.
Went to the Portland Taiko concert tonight. My favorite piece, by far, was a piece done using paper as percussion. This is not paper mounted on drums, but just the sounds paper makes when folded, unfolded, slapped against itself, slapped against your hands and other surfaces, and waved around in the air. Very interesting piece.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Final project summary
So I've been talking about this 'memory project' for months now. It really has a name, Moment in Time, and here's the project summary which I turned in back in the middle of August for my grant application (it's exactly 1092 characters long, their maximum):
"I will create 6 artist books in collaboration with 6 people with early-stage progressive memory loss. Each book will be a work of art, a keepsake, and a recorded moment in time. Together, they will comprise a series that documents the urgency of communication and preservation of self in the face of increasing cognitive dysfunction, a testimonial to 6 lives lived on the precipice of identity loss. My collaborators will choose vignettes from their lives to record in text and image in screen prints. Using a silkscreen Gocco printer, calligraphy, photography, and other techniques, we will print and decide upon the sequence of prints in each book as a team of 2. Working alone, I will then complete the design of the 6 books, which will incorporate my own artwork based on my interactions with my partners. I will bind and edition each book in 20 copies, 7 of which will go to each collaborator. I will reserve the prints from 2 editions to incorporate into 2 custom-made folding screens that will both serve as a metaphor for memory loss and make the books accessible to larger audiences."
It's pretty terse, and I got a lot of help from a grant writer to get all the information in there in a clear and concise paragraph. I'm actually still waiting for a confirmation from Kathy for some dates, and I'll send that in as supplemental materials. Then I'm truly done. Well, actually, not quite -- I do need to be looking at other grant opportunities too.
But anyhow, went to another Alzheimer's talk today -- part of my preparations for this project. Then it's more work on the silk road flowers site. It's coming along, although there are things I'd do differently if it were my site, but it's not.
I'm also trying to instigate a gocco project on the gocco-printers group -- Everybody Gocco Prints! For the next 2 weeks, I'm hoping as many of the gocco-printers will make a print and upload their prints on the group's photo section. This all started when another member and I were printing and doing very similar things at almost the identical time. As it turns out, she had seen my blog and got inspired by what I was doing and started experimenting too, so maybe it wasn't so much of a coincidence, but I still thought it was pretty cool, and thought it'd be great if lots more people could be gocco printing at the same time in the next 2 weeks. Here's a link to what she was doing. To see what I was doing, start with the August archives and look for the entries labeled 'Experimental gocco print', days 1-5; then day 6 is in September.
"I will create 6 artist books in collaboration with 6 people with early-stage progressive memory loss. Each book will be a work of art, a keepsake, and a recorded moment in time. Together, they will comprise a series that documents the urgency of communication and preservation of self in the face of increasing cognitive dysfunction, a testimonial to 6 lives lived on the precipice of identity loss. My collaborators will choose vignettes from their lives to record in text and image in screen prints. Using a silkscreen Gocco printer, calligraphy, photography, and other techniques, we will print and decide upon the sequence of prints in each book as a team of 2. Working alone, I will then complete the design of the 6 books, which will incorporate my own artwork based on my interactions with my partners. I will bind and edition each book in 20 copies, 7 of which will go to each collaborator. I will reserve the prints from 2 editions to incorporate into 2 custom-made folding screens that will both serve as a metaphor for memory loss and make the books accessible to larger audiences."
It's pretty terse, and I got a lot of help from a grant writer to get all the information in there in a clear and concise paragraph. I'm actually still waiting for a confirmation from Kathy for some dates, and I'll send that in as supplemental materials. Then I'm truly done. Well, actually, not quite -- I do need to be looking at other grant opportunities too.
But anyhow, went to another Alzheimer's talk today -- part of my preparations for this project. Then it's more work on the silk road flowers site. It's coming along, although there are things I'd do differently if it were my site, but it's not.
I'm also trying to instigate a gocco project on the gocco-printers group -- Everybody Gocco Prints! For the next 2 weeks, I'm hoping as many of the gocco-printers will make a print and upload their prints on the group's photo section. This all started when another member and I were printing and doing very similar things at almost the identical time. As it turns out, she had seen my blog and got inspired by what I was doing and started experimenting too, so maybe it wasn't so much of a coincidence, but I still thought it was pretty cool, and thought it'd be great if lots more people could be gocco printing at the same time in the next 2 weeks. Here's a link to what she was doing. To see what I was doing, start with the August archives and look for the entries labeled 'Experimental gocco print', days 1-5; then day 6 is in September.
Memory project
I've talked about this project on and and off, but never really detailed it here. And well, I'm still not going to detail it today, because it's pretty late and I need to get to bed so I can get to a 10am class tomorrow (also related to the memory project). But soon I'll dig out my project summary and add it here.
Anyhow, today's activities were related to that. Went to Citizen's to pick up the old 120 and 127 film that I dropped off to be processed. These were shot in the late 60's and early 70's and never processed. I was hoping that there would be ghostly images on there that I can use for something...a 'something' that I hope to show at the Tennessee show next Jan. It looks like quite a few of the images were still clearly visible, but I'll have to scan them and see.
In the afternoon, there was the 'Getting Started' talk at the Alzheimer's Association. It's an introductory class for people who work with people with Alzheimer. I'm taking these classes to prepare for the memory project next year. It was very, very informative and everyone seemed excited about the project (the people in the class and the people teaching the class).
Dropped off my print for the Middle East Print Exchange at Print Arts; worked on the silk road flowers site; didn't get to play with my new camera. So sad, but it was a pretty full day as it was.
Anyhow, today's activities were related to that. Went to Citizen's to pick up the old 120 and 127 film that I dropped off to be processed. These were shot in the late 60's and early 70's and never processed. I was hoping that there would be ghostly images on there that I can use for something...a 'something' that I hope to show at the Tennessee show next Jan. It looks like quite a few of the images were still clearly visible, but I'll have to scan them and see.
In the afternoon, there was the 'Getting Started' talk at the Alzheimer's Association. It's an introductory class for people who work with people with Alzheimer. I'm taking these classes to prepare for the memory project next year. It was very, very informative and everyone seemed excited about the project (the people in the class and the people teaching the class).
Dropped off my print for the Middle East Print Exchange at Print Arts; worked on the silk road flowers site; didn't get to play with my new camera. So sad, but it was a pretty full day as it was.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
More fun with the coil binder
Wow, seems like the coil binder is really hitting a chord with everyone! Even Mike -- who's typically not impressed with anything too cutesy, or anything gocco'ed (yes, that's right!) -- thought the notebooks were pretty good. I tried to sell him one for $10, but I guess he didn't think they were $10-good; I gave it to him instead. What a tough customer. Carolyn came by and saw the binder, and exclaimed, "I want one!"
Instant gratification in bookmaking, or maybe just in office supplies, seems to be deeply satisfying for many people. I wonder if it's just from school days, or if it goes further back? Did our cavemen and cavewomen ancestors like office supplies? Are there evolutionary advantages to liking office supplies, and thus leaving many of us with that trait?
I finished my gocco sampler books today. There are 11 copies, and they're all slightly different, but each has 15 pages (plus gocco printed cover). Coil bound, of course:
Spent the rest of the day -- no, not wrestling with the printer -- researching merchant accounts (for taking credit cards). They make things pretty complicated alright.
Just realized this morning that I better start working on whatever it is that I'll be exhibiting in Tennessee next January with my critique group. Since I've been thinking about the memory loss project for next year, my mind is still on that track, and I remembered those rolls of undeveloped film my dad gave me. They were from the late 60's and early 70's. I did have 4 rolls processed already last year, and there's definitely something there, although I can't tell how much. I took the rest of them (10 more rolls) in to Citizens today. We'll see what's all on there. But I'm thinking of using whatever ghostly images that might remain for something. Either gocco printed onto gray organza or tulle, and making a 3D piece. Something like a large quilt, but with lots of folds, like the brain. OK, just my first thoughts. I'm sure whatever I do, it will be a lot different than what I just said.
(My spell checker just complained about 'cavewomen', but not 'cavemen'. In fact, it's "correction" for 'cavewomen' was 'cavemen'. Huh?)
Instant gratification in bookmaking, or maybe just in office supplies, seems to be deeply satisfying for many people. I wonder if it's just from school days, or if it goes further back? Did our cavemen and cavewomen ancestors like office supplies? Are there evolutionary advantages to liking office supplies, and thus leaving many of us with that trait?
I finished my gocco sampler books today. There are 11 copies, and they're all slightly different, but each has 15 pages (plus gocco printed cover). Coil bound, of course:
Spent the rest of the day -- no, not wrestling with the printer -- researching merchant accounts (for taking credit cards). They make things pretty complicated alright.
Just realized this morning that I better start working on whatever it is that I'll be exhibiting in Tennessee next January with my critique group. Since I've been thinking about the memory loss project for next year, my mind is still on that track, and I remembered those rolls of undeveloped film my dad gave me. They were from the late 60's and early 70's. I did have 4 rolls processed already last year, and there's definitely something there, although I can't tell how much. I took the rest of them (10 more rolls) in to Citizens today. We'll see what's all on there. But I'm thinking of using whatever ghostly images that might remain for something. Either gocco printed onto gray organza or tulle, and making a 3D piece. Something like a large quilt, but with lots of folds, like the brain. OK, just my first thoughts. I'm sure whatever I do, it will be a lot different than what I just said.
(My spell checker just complained about 'cavewomen', but not 'cavemen'. In fact, it's "correction" for 'cavewomen' was 'cavemen'. Huh?)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
