A new day, a new love

Yesterday, the orange tabby; today, the castrato! Well, ok, the countertenor, but I bet 'castrato' got your attention.

Listen to Andreas Scholl sing Stabat Mater in D Minor here, written specifically for him. And he looks to be a real cutie patootie too. Actually, he looks somewhat like Joshua Bell, if slightly bulkier and not quite as boyish looking. I got my 'Best of...' CD yesterday and have been listening to it all night as I worked. I'm going to have to get a real stereo. And more of his CD's. (Yes, I'm belatedly discovering Scholl, not being a big fan of Baroque music, but I'm coming around!) Kathleen Battle, Deborah Voight, and Andreas Scholl!

[Speaking of Kathleen Battle (the Divine KB), anecdote time: the Good Prince and I got married almost exactly 17 years ago, on our way into work. The next day, we both went off on business trips, on different flights. Although we were going to the same conference, and we did end up staying at the same hotel. We had no plans for a 'honeymoon,' a concept that always struck me as a little silly. Anyhow, people at work gave us so much trouble over that that, a few months later, when I saw that KB was having her debut at Carnegie Hall, we decided to go. So after dinner at Carnegie Deli, we walked over to Carnegie Hall. And as always, I was walking in one direction and looking in another. I looked back in time, just as I was about to bump into someone. I did a double take, because that someone was the Divine KB herself! I let out a surprised 'oh!' She was just as surprised, and let out a giggle. That was my brush with greatness.]

Work wise, finally got Pudding #23 finished, stuffed in the envelopes, stamped and ready to go. Evidence:



It is a miracle!

On other fronts—prepared for my day at rsm tomorrow, and more Portland Open Studios stuff.

The neighborhood Lothario

...is an orange tabby.

When he was younger, he used to come running if he saw me a block away. It always made me feel like one half of those romantic scenes where the lovers run towards each other in slow motion; I could almost hear the music play in the air.

In the last couple of years, he's been less lovey dovey. Once, he turned, saw me, swished his tail, and then continued on his way to do whatever orange tabbies do. But tonight, just like old times, we had a good visit. He makes me smile, even though I'm worried that he's still out this late at night.

But so much for kitty talk. Today was a full day of Portland Open Studios business. The old web site needs to be updated while the new site is still in the works. All the various acceptance letters need to be updated (accepted, accepted as alternates, scholarship winners, accepted but no scholarship). That was the bulk of the day and I didn't make it to Kinko's to wrap up the notes for Pudding #23. Which gave me another opportunity to look over what I wrote for the technical data and evaluations, and I ended up re-writing much of it too. So it worked out ok. Should be able to copy that, and stuff the envelopes tomorrow.

Pudding issue #23, day 3...and I'm a redhead!

OK, finished printing the cover page for Pudding #23. They should be dry and in the mail by Saturday! At last.

And the topic of women & facial hair (and no hair) seems to have struck up some interest (see comments in this entry). And gl—I don't just think I have a funny shaped head, I know I have a funny shaped head! But in either case, having just had my hair turned red today, I'm not going to shave it off any time soon

Especially since it took forever: I went in for my once every 6 months hair cut today. Unfortunately, the guy who cuts my hair, who's actually a neighbor and was doing it out of his house (and I could just walk there), had moved to a salon across town. And since I went all the way out there, I figured I might as well go all the way and have my hair tinted Scarlet (that was the official color name).

I thought this was something you shampooed into your hair and washed off. But noooooo. You paint it on with a brush, hair by hair by hair. Well, it seemed like that anyhow. Anyhow, THAT, took all afternoon.

So where my hair had turned white, it's now a coppery red; where it was still black...it's still black. I think in the sunlight, you can probably see a red cast. The Good Prince, being color-blind, can't see anything different. I think you can see the copper in this shot:

Pudding issue #23, day 2

Two days ago, I printed the StencilPro HiRes part of this issue and today was the gocco screen part. I used the identical test artwork, except for the label. The ink I'm using (the light blue) does not seem to be the fastest drying, so I'll probably wait until tomorrow night or Sunday afternoon to print the cover.

Picked up the yardage that I ordered to make pillows for the guest bedroom...if I ever get around to it, that is. As it happened, our guests brought us a nice wool blanket from Ireland, and the colors go really well with the futon cover, and the yardage I picked up for the pillows!

The day seems to have gone by without getting a WHOLE lot accomplished. I did spend some time looking for a dresser for the guest bedroom, and also picked up a pink girl's bike off freecycle, for when my niece comes to visit this summer. It looks so small!

Pudding issue #23

For a change, we had a sunny morning and early afternoon, and I was not already involved with another project, so I took advantage of the sun and exposed the StencilPro screens. And of course, I forgot to take pictures, until I was already all done. This is the StencilPro HiRes (SPHR from now on) screen (the red thing) mounted onto a previously used gocco screen. I cut out just enough of the gocco screen so that I can use double sticky tape to tape on the SPHR screen. The light blue part is the exposed area (I'm using light blue ink):



I exposed 2 screens, one using a transparency and a 2nd using 20lb weight white paper. I followed the exposure times on their web site. The screen exposed using the transparency exposed properly. The one exposed using the 20lb paper did not expose properly (I did the full 3 minutes, as instructed) and during the wash phase, all of the light sensitive material washed off.

So a quick comparison between the Gocco and the SPHR:

1. The 200 mesh Gocco screen is way, WAY, higher resolution than the SPHR. You can see the SPHR mesh very clearly, and those are some big holes in there. And because of the large/loose mesh of the SPHR, straight lines and edges end up jagged, if the line/edge is not parallel to the lines of the mesh. So my squares and lines came out with kinks in them.

2. Print Gocco is much easier to expose than the SPHR; but of course, most people need those disposable lamps to expose the Gocco screens, where as you use sunlight to expose the SPHR.

3. If you buy the smallest sheet of SPHR, it's actually more expensive than the Print Gocco (including both bulbs and screen); if you buy the largest sheet of SPHR (17"x11", on special at $18.99), than SPHR is cheaper.

Overall, I'm not happy with the SPHR print results. If you need to print small text or fine lines, Print Gocco definitely has it beat.

I still need to print the same image with the gocco, so the issue is not ready to go out, and probably won't be ready until after this weekend.

And, the Random Movie tonight was Penelope, which I thought was a very sweet movie, but the Good Prince thought it was ultra dumb. But maybe I'm just inclined to like it because James McAvoy is in it. He does look good with stubbles, which got me wondering...what would I look like with stubbles?

Back when my hair was shorter:



And take 2, back when my hair was WAY shorter:



He wears it better:



When I just now looked for images of him that I could photoshop, every single photo I found had him in stubbles. I guess that's just his look.

More bits & pieces

Well, I have the artwork for the next issue of pudding printed out, one on transparency, one on vellum, and a 3rd one on 20lb paper. Those are the different media that the stencilpro instructions say you can use to expose the stencil. Although I think I'll only do the transparency and 20lb paper, they are much more easily available than vellum.

Lots of admin/business stuff during the day. Had to write a fresh artist's statement for the open studios application. Since I'm focusing on artist's books this year with my projects with the seniors, my 'regular' statement didn't quite work; so I edited it to talk more about my books. In the evening, went to the GBW meet at Muddy Waters. Showed the mockup of the book around and got some good feedback.

Now that I have my car back, I hope to get back to meeting with my seniors again soon.

Bit of this and bits of that

The big news, the new futon sofa bed arrived!



And the kitty has given her stamp of approval.



So now my guests will not have to sleep on the floor. However, looks like the window shades will not arrive until after they're gone, so we'll need to do something about that.

Otherwise, a scattered day. Wrapped up Alice's web site update. Filled out my Portland Open Studios application. And perhaps most importantly, started to work on the next issue of Pudding! This is 6 months late already. I keep thinking that I'll do a double issue, but I never got a good idea for the 2nd one. So I'm moving ahead with this next issue, which is testing the StencilPro HiRes product.

Already, the instructions are not that great. For exposure time, there's a table with different light sources and different opacity/transparency levels of the paper the artwork is on. But there are 2 times given for each, and no explanation as to what is what. I look on their web site, and there's a corresponding table, and with on 1 time given for each (an improvement), but it's different than either of the times given in the printed material. I've decided to go with the information on the web site.

I need to finish making an exposure frame, and rig up a washing tray (I don't want to use any food containers, naturally). So it might be Thursday before I actually do the printing.

Pillow book III, day n+4

I got lazy yesterday and didn't document, but, I didn't do a whole lot in the studio and we got home really late from the movie and I just wanted to get something to eat and get to bed. So a quick note about yesterday — I was invited to submit a piece for the Lake Oswego Chronicles exhibit for 2008 and had to submit a proposal for what I was going to show, which of course I have yet to make. Anyhow, this all happened back in early December. My deadline for sending in an image is mid Feb, even though the exhibit won't be until June, so I figure I better get cracking on that. So yesterday was looking for materials for the piece I've promised. But mainly, I worked on putting the house back together after Portland Open Studios. Yes, that was months ago; and yes, it always takes me months to put all the furniture & artwork back to where they all belong.

So, today. Well, I'm now 2 issues behind on Pudding. The last two issues of Pudding, in fact. People have asked about PhotoEZ and StencilPro as potential replacement materials, should the unfortunate day arrive when we can't get Riso screens anymore. The two products seem extremely similar and it took me a little while to find where they talk about the differences. (I should note that their data on the Riso screens are NOT correct on the page!) Anyhow, ordered myself two different grades of the StencilPro to try for one of the two remaining issues of Pudding. Not sure what I'll do for the other issue yet. But the two will probably go out together as a double issue.

Anyhow, back to pillow book III in the afternoon. Decided on the text/captions for the pages, and printed them on Rives Lightweight on the inkjet printer. And here they are, sewn onto the tulle pages. There's a dreamy quality to this picture...I think it's the weird light combination (camera flash + full spectrum light directly overhead), and the way the pillow was just kind of sitting on a chair piled high with stuff.



See this entry for the previous day on this book.

Random Movies! We saw 2 in a row (2 nights in a row that is). So yesterday was National Treasure, the Book of Secrets. It was VERY BAD. The night before was I'm Not There, which was really interesting for about an hour and half, and then really boring for another 45 minutes — after I got over the ingenuity factor, there wasn't much else there. Not for me, anyhow.

Focus Conference Day 0

As in the day before the Focus Conference. Spent most of the afternoon packing up materials for the class -- cleaning all the goccos, wrapping the paper, sorting inks, source materials, etc, etc. Right, I just remembered that I forgot the hair dryer...ok, now it's packed; that's actually very, very important.

Shipped off the latest issue of Pudding. Spent the morning weeding and pruning, now the south side of the house looks a little more presentable. The main path down the side of the house had become impassable, full of weeds and overgrown junipers.

Oops, I just realized that I didn't make copies of the actual flashing instructions. So I guess I better go write something up and print it out. [Just checked, that was already included in the basic instructions, so never mind.]

Done with Pudding, for the quarter

Updated the Portland Open Studios blog with the Mary Wells exhibit. She does very neat work -- little tiny paper mosaics.

Here's a photo from a few days ago. I planted these Japanese irises several years ago, and this is the first time that they've really bloomed. I think last year I had 1 flower, and before that, I had none.



Finally packaged up this issue of Pudding. The oil paints are still not dry (it's been about, what, 5 days?). I guess that's expected. I could touch them without smearing them, so I went ahead and packed them up. They'll go in the mail tomorrow.

There are 3 pages in each booklet; 4 oil paints were tried.



And since bug squishing seems to be an entertaining topic, at least to my neighbors, this is how I've been dealing with my vegetable garden problem -- I go out in the middle of the night with my flashlight, and any bug seen on a vegetable enjoying a meal is squished. In addition, any earwig, even while not on a vegetable, is squished. I wear a glove.

Overpriced CD, slightly, maybe?

Thanks to Mr. Michael5000 for point out that that Simon Shaheen CD is now priced at over $100! How weird. I thought those Amazon prices were fixed prices (and not like an auction). I guess I better take good care of mine. I read the reviews, and yes, it's a wonderful recording, although it's probably not my favorite at the moment. But over $100?

Spent the day doing the last bit of shopping for class supplies -- graph paper, weatherstripping (yes, weatherstripping), packaging tape, etc; copied class handouts; copied Pudding Notes.

And speaking of Pudding, I decided last night that there will be just 2 more issues of Pudding, which will take the publication to the end of 2007, and I will be done with it. By then, I will have put out 24 issues; I'm starting to run out of ideas for what to test with each issue, and I think people are losing interest as well -- I've gone from about 80 subscribers to 45 (as of this issue). I will now only take new subscriptions starting with issue #20. And at the end of the year, anyone left with a subscription will start to receive a new publication -- small artist's books published every 4 months. The new publication will be finished artist's books, unlike Pudding, which was meant as tests, and each issue goes out warts and all. Whatever happens during the print run, it goes out to subscribers as is, with Pudding Notes detailing what happened, what went wrong, what went right. I'm thinking the new publication will be more in line with something like the french fries book (official title More Than Plenty, photo below), which surprisingly, has been a hugely popular book, and I'm about to sell out of my edition of 50 (just 2 more left). It's going to be in the Maryhill show next.

Somethings are just not meant to be

Finished printing Pudding issue 22 today. As always, it didn't go as I planned. Like I said yesterday, I was going to reprint what I did yesterday, and reprint I did. I made a new screen, checked the consistencies of the oil paints (no separated oils), inked up, and started printing. And WOW! It was so much better!

...for the first 10 copies or so. After that, the results were comparable to the first set, except oil didn't seep underneath the ink blocks and greased up everything.

Printed the cover with regular gocco ink. Tried to take a picture of everything drying on the racks, on the bed, but wouldn't you know, the camera decided to stop working, all together. It's been having problems for a while now, and it was certainly having some problems earlier today. Then tonight, it just decided it had had enough.

Ok, I said, I'd just use the handy dandy camera phone. And wouldn't you know, it had enough juice to take 1 picture, and then the battery went kaput. (I never remember to keep it charged up.). So it's charging now, and I have no picture of today's gocco progress. Somethings are just not meant to be.

This issue will take a few days to dry (oil paints and all), so they probably won't get in the mail until next Monday or Tuesday.

This (mis)adventure was followed by more photo-retouching. There were a couple of tough ones today. Both had bright spots on the lower left corners that took a little doing.

This one has wrinkles top and right, and the wrinkles on the right has a shadow going through it. Preserved the shadow, removed the wrinkles. Although I now see that the shadow is not as diffused as the original.



Similar problem with this one -- bright spot on the lower left. I left in that slight ripple on the bottom left; I thought it might look fake if I took that out too . Didn't do anything with that glare in the middle of the top box though.

Pudding issue 22, day 1

Started working on the next issue of Pudding today. I'm trying 4 different brands of oil paints -- Van Gogh, Williamsburg, Gamblin, and Winton, and I'm making a big mess! Here's a shot taken with the camera on the mac. Notice how splotchy it is.



And here they are, on the drying rack:



I will need to reprint tomorrow. I noticed when I opened the paints that there was quite a bit of oil sitting at the top. I squeezed that out as much as I could and inked up. Once I started printing, and had to refill a few times, I noticed that the paints became much creamer and less oily. Anyhow, once I finished printing (120 at one printing pressure, another 120 at a different pressure), I decided to ink up a fresh screen with one of the paints (now without all the oily stuff), and voila, it printed SO MUCH BETTER!

So I've decided to reprint tomorrow. I will send out both sets though -- the icky results along with whatever results I get tomorrow.

Easy pickin' when they're bloomin'

Spent the afternoon digging up dandelions. They're easy to spot when they're blooming, and it's wet enough that those tap roots come up pretty easily. I filled up half of my 3'x3'x4' compost bin. That's a lot of dandelions. I shouldn't put the flowers in the compost, since my composts never seem to get hot enough to kill the seeds (and even when pulled out of the ground, some of those flowers will still develop into seed heads). But I just couldn't dump all those green leaves into yard debris can (not to mention that the can is all full of branches anyhow).

I'm wrapping up my Pudding Notes for issue #21, and they'll go into the mail tomorrow, along with the exchange books for Lisa.

Disappointing results

I tried the Van Gogh + pigment + baby oil again today, on a separate print run all by itself. I had high hopes that it would work out great, and it did, for about 3 prints. Then the screen started to clog up, and by the 20th print, all I was getting was a halo. I scraped the ink off, cleaned the screen, reinked. Then I got 3 more good prints, followed by halos only.

Each time I scraped off the ink and cleaned the screen, I got 3 more good prints. This was obviously not working as I anticipated. What might've gone wrong --

1) That I mixed the dry pigment with the white ink, and the powder may not have been fine enough to go through the screen(seems likely)?
2) Somehow using the baby oil made the ink dry faster (I don't think so).
3) Something else all together?

The next thing to do is to try the straight Van Gogh and see how it does.

The movie tonight was The Namesake. It was just ok. Other than Mississippi Masala and Salaam Bombay, I really haven't particularly cared for Mira Nair's movies all that much, those that I've seen (Monsoon Wedding, Vanity Fair, and now The Namesake).

Oils, acrylics, eye shadows, oh my!

Got started working on Pudding issue 21 today.

I decided to have a little fun with this issue. People are always asking about alternative inks and such, so here I'm trying a few different things. There are 6 rows of graphics+text, and from the top:

- Van Gogh oil paint mixed with dry pigment
- Same as above, but with baby oil mixed in
- Golden acrylic paint, straight from the tube
- Same as above, but with retardant mixed in
- Gocco white ink mixed with purple eye shadow
- Same as above, but with baby oil mixed in

The acrylic made a giant mess, of course. It's very runny, and dries pretty quickly, even in our current weather condition -- in the mid 40's and raining, and I had the windows open while I was printing. However, it did not dry as quickly as I figured, even the straight acrylic.

Mostly, the 2 biggest problems:

1) I kept on running out of the acrylic and would have to refill.
2) Because the acrylic is so loose and the oils so stiff, they really require different pressures and hold times to print well, but since I've got them on the same screen, they're all printed with the same minimum amount of pressure and hold time to accommodate the acrylic.

In this test, the Van Gogh oil paint did not print very well, but I suspect that it will do much better given the right pressure and hold time. The gocco ink + eye shadow + baby oil printed very well, except when I started to run out of the ink mixture.

Below, the one on the left was the 3rd print; the right was about the 40th print.



And this, the one on the left was about the 90th print; the right was about the 140th.