After spending days with my nose in the computer working on the Portland Open Studios web site, I got a break from that this weekend and taught the beginning gocco class at Rake Art today. But of course, it's a whole day to get ready — cleaning all the gocco's, making sure everyone is in working order; cut & trim all the paper; making sure there's a good selection of inks; print all the notes; pack, etc, etc. So it did take the whole weekend.
As it turns out, there was an Obama rally here in town at the same time! I was picturing there being no parking space available in all of Portland, but it wasn't bad at all. I was sorry to have missed the talk, and I thought I might lose a couple of students to Obama, but nope, everyone came. And they came early! This was the first time that a class actually got started early because everyone was already there.
The Good Prince just now reported that while I drew 9 people to my class, Obama drew 75,000; and if it wasn't for the class, Obama would've had 75,009! Well, at least I held my own.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
MiT, 1st senior, day 15, 4th senior meet & greet
After days and days of Portland Open Studios web site work (and I keep finding more stuff buried deep in there that needs to be ported over), I had a break from that and met with my seniors at rsm.
Don't know if you all remember this, but I had a rather rocky start with my 1st senior way back when (she thought I was trying to sell her something and did not like me at all). Today, she told me that her grandson, her cleaning lady, and me are 3 of her very good friends! How about that!? We've come a long ways.
And she's come a long ways with her painting. She added animal forms on her watercolor today. There was a bird, and a mysterious shape which she later decided was a crouching cat and added a tail. We've not quite left behind the pink and blue sunsets though, she still has that going on this piece.
Met my 4th senior. Her daughter volunteers at rsm, doing beading with the residents, so I'm hoping that she'll be very involved with senior #4. I think that really helps, when they have support from their families, when the kids encourage them, they seem to do much better. Not too surprising, I suppose.
Don't know if you all remember this, but I had a rather rocky start with my 1st senior way back when (she thought I was trying to sell her something and did not like me at all). Today, she told me that her grandson, her cleaning lady, and me are 3 of her very good friends! How about that!? We've come a long ways.
And she's come a long ways with her painting. She added animal forms on her watercolor today. There was a bird, and a mysterious shape which she later decided was a crouching cat and added a tail. We've not quite left behind the pink and blue sunsets though, she still has that going on this piece.
Met my 4th senior. Her daughter volunteers at rsm, doing beading with the residents, so I'm hoping that she'll be very involved with senior #4. I think that really helps, when they have support from their families, when the kids encourage them, they seem to do much better. Not too surprising, I suppose.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The end is in sight!
I'm getting close with the Portland Open Studios new web site. That's all that I've done for the last two days (including the first workshop meeting tonight). All the artist images are up. Most of the main pages are up. A few of the secondary pages still need work. A sneak preview here.
The Sort Of Random Movie tonight (picked by the time, it was the only movie we could still see by the time I got home from my meeting) — Redbelt. I have no idea what transpired in the movie, except that it was a con from the very beginning. But it has Chiwetel Ejiofor in it, so it was good.
The Sort Of Random Movie tonight (picked by the time, it was the only movie we could still see by the time I got home from my meeting) — Redbelt. I have no idea what transpired in the movie, except that it was a con from the very beginning. But it has Chiwetel Ejiofor in it, so it was good.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Photo day
I went over the mountain and through the woods to spend Mother's Day with my mom this weekend. No work in the studio to report, but it's a good day to catch up on some photos.
First, in the Play With Your Food category:
I'm taking guesses as to what the food items are. I'll even give one of them away: lemon. You just have to guess the other one. (Another hint: this was part way through my dinner at Koji Osakaya tonight.)
In the Garden. This is the corner of our yard; the dogwood, irises, and azalea are blooming:
The tulips by the front steps:
The Things-Are-Falling-Apart-Here spot:
Dogwood and bachelor's buttons, I think. It came up by itself:
The crabapple:
And a bleeding heart tucked away between things:
First, in the Play With Your Food category:
I'm taking guesses as to what the food items are. I'll even give one of them away: lemon. You just have to guess the other one. (Another hint: this was part way through my dinner at Koji Osakaya tonight.)
In the Garden. This is the corner of our yard; the dogwood, irises, and azalea are blooming:
The tulips by the front steps:
The Things-Are-Falling-Apart-Here spot:
Dogwood and bachelor's buttons, I think. It came up by itself:
The crabapple:
And a bleeding heart tucked away between things:
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Isn't that romantic?!
The other day, after my senior #3 decided to pull out of the project, I was moping around all evening. I put my hand to my forehead and declared, "my life is over." The Good Prince said, "well, if your life is over, I guess my life is over too."
Isn't that just the most romantic!? And there I thought he was going to say,"well, then all the rest of the chocolate is mine."
Speaking of romance, the Non-Random movie of the night was Made of Honor, which was really not a very good movie, but I'm a sucker for movies where the girl gets to marry her best friend and live happily ever after. Someday, they're going to make a movie about the Good Prince and me, and the whole time, he'll be going, "what a dumb movie."
Seems like after we got the AAA discount movie tickets, we've been going to more movies (not much money saving there). We've seen Ironman (Non-Random, and it was ok) and My Blueberry Nights. My Blueberry Nights was a bit disappointing; I think it could've been much better had Norah Jones been a better actress. But the movie also lacked the painterly beauty of In the Mood for Love, my favorite Wong Kar-wai movie (although admittedly, I have not seen them all).
Picked up some Nepal Heavyweight, which will make a much better spine than the Rives Lightweight. I did have to buy more of it than I needed for this project in order to get it wholesale, but I think I'll eventually use it all.
Isn't that just the most romantic!? And there I thought he was going to say,"well, then all the rest of the chocolate is mine."
Speaking of romance, the Non-Random movie of the night was Made of Honor, which was really not a very good movie, but I'm a sucker for movies where the girl gets to marry her best friend and live happily ever after. Someday, they're going to make a movie about the Good Prince and me, and the whole time, he'll be going, "what a dumb movie."
Seems like after we got the AAA discount movie tickets, we've been going to more movies (not much money saving there). We've seen Ironman (Non-Random, and it was ok) and My Blueberry Nights. My Blueberry Nights was a bit disappointing; I think it could've been much better had Norah Jones been a better actress. But the movie also lacked the painterly beauty of In the Mood for Love, my favorite Wong Kar-wai movie (although admittedly, I have not seen them all).
Picked up some Nepal Heavyweight, which will make a much better spine than the Rives Lightweight. I did have to buy more of it than I needed for this project in order to get it wholesale, but I think I'll eventually use it all.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
MiT, 1st senior, day 14
My first senior continues to gain confidence. She's using bolder colors, creating marks purposefully with her brush strokes, and experimenting more. I think I will continue to meet with her once a week, or maybe every 10 days, just on a fairly low key, relaxed way. She's usually only good for about an hour for each session, and it's pretty relaxing for me. We're not exactly working at a manic pace.
I'm hoping that my 3rd senior will change her mind still, but if not, the coordinator has someone else that she thinks would be suitable, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I'm hoping that my 3rd senior will change her mind still, but if not, the coordinator has someone else that she thinks would be suitable, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Life is easier with Photoshop
First, a couple of garden photos. I couldn't do anything with these until I had Photoshop up and running again. See what I mean about life and Photoshop?
This is the view as I get out of my car. Shot at the height as I'm sitting but trying to get up enough oomph to eject myself out of my seat. From front to back: barberry, tulips, spirea, pieris. I love the combinations of reds, oranges, and pinks here.
This is a very fragrant viburnum (yet another one) that blooms April-May, pretty much picks up when the other fragrant viburnum finishes.
OK, I've got my Photoshop CS3 trial version up and running, and life is definitely easier, or at least work is progressing. Made a lot of progress on the Portland Open Studios web site today.
I got to look at one of Mare Blocker's earlier books that used the piano hinge binding. I went into the library for my volunteer gig yesterday, but Jim didn't need me. But since I was there, and I've been meaning to look at some examples, that was a good time to do it. Turns out, it was the only example of the piano hinge binding there. But anyhow, got some different ideas for how the hinges and the cover boards can come together. Mocked up some samples when I got home. I was originally thinking I'd use Rives Lightweight for the accordion part, but now think maybe a slightly thicker (but not as thick as the BFK) and more textured paper would be better. So I'm still looking.
This is the view as I get out of my car. Shot at the height as I'm sitting but trying to get up enough oomph to eject myself out of my seat. From front to back: barberry, tulips, spirea, pieris. I love the combinations of reds, oranges, and pinks here.
This is a very fragrant viburnum (yet another one) that blooms April-May, pretty much picks up when the other fragrant viburnum finishes.
OK, I've got my Photoshop CS3 trial version up and running, and life is definitely easier, or at least work is progressing. Made a lot of progress on the Portland Open Studios web site today.
I got to look at one of Mare Blocker's earlier books that used the piano hinge binding. I went into the library for my volunteer gig yesterday, but Jim didn't need me. But since I was there, and I've been meaning to look at some examples, that was a good time to do it. Turns out, it was the only example of the piano hinge binding there. But anyhow, got some different ideas for how the hinges and the cover boards can come together. Mocked up some samples when I got home. I was originally thinking I'd use Rives Lightweight for the accordion part, but now think maybe a slightly thicker (but not as thick as the BFK) and more textured paper would be better. So I'm still looking.
Monday, May 05, 2008
Leopard and Photoshop don't get along
A few weeks back, I decided to make a big effort to spend less time on the computer, and also to make sure to put the computer to sleep mode when I'm not using it. Computer use is probably one of our remaining 'biggies' in terms of our use of resources. We already bus or bike a lot, produce relatively little garbage (more about that later), reuse, recycle, compost, ripped up the grass, and planted a gazillion trees. Most of these things I've done all my life, or at least all of my adult life, so it's not a passing phase. Although I have to say that most of these things also don't seem to take a lot of trying either, but maybe that's just because I'm used to them.
When I started looking around to see what else we can do to reduce further, computer use was the first candidate. We run several computers at home; we both use them a lot; and they stay on all the time. Certainly for me, there's no professional reason why I need to be on the computer a lot, it's just a leftover habit from before. When I have a free minute or two, I check my mail, and then I get distracted by other things, and before you know it, I've been on the computer for half an hour doing nothing.
So I've been trying to limit my computer use to just twice a day (unless I'm doing real work that requires computer use) — once in the morning to check mail and to read news/blogs, and to respond to anything that requires immediate attention; and once in the evening to finish doing what I didn't finish in the morning, and write my diary. And in between, I put my computer to sleep and turn off the monitor.
Well, this has worked out well enough EXCEPT that the automatic backup no longer backs up my computer, because that runs in the middle of the night when the computer is asleep and can't be backed up. This lead the Good Prince to set up the backups to happen another way, which required upgrading my OS to leopard. And of course you already know the rest of this story.
Photoshop puts it quite delicately though. It says something like "I will now exit," instead of crash-n-burn and taking the rest of the computer with it.
This of course means I will have to upgrade to Photoshop CS3 for $200. I don't know how much electricity we'll be saving when my new less-computer-use routine, but I bet it's not $200 worth!
Anyhow, this was the long way of saying that I tried to work on the Portland Open Studios web site today, and discovered that I couldn't because I could no longer run Photoshop. I did finish trimming all the paper for senior #2's book though. (Oh yeah, and on the days that I'm doing real computer work, or at least trying, I also allow myself some fun time on the computer too.)
When I started looking around to see what else we can do to reduce further, computer use was the first candidate. We run several computers at home; we both use them a lot; and they stay on all the time. Certainly for me, there's no professional reason why I need to be on the computer a lot, it's just a leftover habit from before. When I have a free minute or two, I check my mail, and then I get distracted by other things, and before you know it, I've been on the computer for half an hour doing nothing.
So I've been trying to limit my computer use to just twice a day (unless I'm doing real work that requires computer use) — once in the morning to check mail and to read news/blogs, and to respond to anything that requires immediate attention; and once in the evening to finish doing what I didn't finish in the morning, and write my diary. And in between, I put my computer to sleep and turn off the monitor.
Well, this has worked out well enough EXCEPT that the automatic backup no longer backs up my computer, because that runs in the middle of the night when the computer is asleep and can't be backed up. This lead the Good Prince to set up the backups to happen another way, which required upgrading my OS to leopard. And of course you already know the rest of this story.
Photoshop puts it quite delicately though. It says something like "I will now exit," instead of crash-n-burn and taking the rest of the computer with it.
This of course means I will have to upgrade to Photoshop CS3 for $200. I don't know how much electricity we'll be saving when my new less-computer-use routine, but I bet it's not $200 worth!
Anyhow, this was the long way of saying that I tried to work on the Portland Open Studios web site today, and discovered that I couldn't because I could no longer run Photoshop. I did finish trimming all the paper for senior #2's book though. (Oh yeah, and on the days that I'm doing real computer work, or at least trying, I also allow myself some fun time on the computer too.)
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Two steps forward, one step back
I've been trimming paper for days. This is for senior #2's book. I finally chose a paper (Nepal Light). I chose it because it's fairly lightweight, and it's neutral in color and I know I can gocco print on it pretty well. Lightweight is necessary because the folding required to make the pages look like envelopes creates a fairly thick page, so I want to start with a really light paper.
The disadvantage is that the paper is handmade and has very irregular edges and most are not even really rectangular. The advantage is that I know the person who's the importer and so I was able to buy 100 sheets wholesale! And 100 sheets was just about exactly what I need (with enough extras to cover for mistakes).
Of course, the paper being very irregular and very thin mean that I can not stack them up and cut several sheets at once. So I've been spending days trimming 100 sheets of 30"x20" Nepal Light down to 200 sheets of 10"x17 and 200 sheets of 6"x7". The corners have to be squared, and there's just no shortcut for this step. And I'm still not done.
Consulted with the cabinet maker who's making the folding screens. I wanted to make some changes, and he said no problem. Yay!
That was the 2 steps forward part.
The one step back — my 3rd senior has decided to not participate in the project. She says she's not sure she wants to have her images be in books that go into library collections. Valid enough, but I'm hugely disappointed. Especially since her prints have come out so beautifully. Which is another thing — she said she's been showing her prints around...and then her sentence kind of trailed off there, leading me to think that she's not getting very encouraging feedback from her peers or family? I can't imagine why, because all the people that work there who have seen the prints just think they're super.
So now I'm down in the dumps.
The disadvantage is that the paper is handmade and has very irregular edges and most are not even really rectangular. The advantage is that I know the person who's the importer and so I was able to buy 100 sheets wholesale! And 100 sheets was just about exactly what I need (with enough extras to cover for mistakes).
Of course, the paper being very irregular and very thin mean that I can not stack them up and cut several sheets at once. So I've been spending days trimming 100 sheets of 30"x20" Nepal Light down to 200 sheets of 10"x17 and 200 sheets of 6"x7". The corners have to be squared, and there's just no shortcut for this step. And I'm still not done.
Consulted with the cabinet maker who's making the folding screens. I wanted to make some changes, and he said no problem. Yay!
That was the 2 steps forward part.
The one step back — my 3rd senior has decided to not participate in the project. She says she's not sure she wants to have her images be in books that go into library collections. Valid enough, but I'm hugely disappointed. Especially since her prints have come out so beautifully. Which is another thing — she said she's been showing her prints around...and then her sentence kind of trailed off there, leading me to think that she's not getting very encouraging feedback from her peers or family? I can't imagine why, because all the people that work there who have seen the prints just think they're super.
So now I'm down in the dumps.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
MiT, 3rd senior, day 2, 1st senior, day 13
OK, I have a nickname for my 3rd senior — my Magical Senior. We made a 2 screen print today. She paired 2 images that I wouldn't have paired together myself; chose the colors she wanted (and was pretty firm on that, even though I wasn't so sure), and worked on varying the printing pressure until she got what she had in mind. And it is a fabulous print. She called it dreamy, but I call it magical.
The last time we printed, we pulled a few extra prints to give to some of the folks at RSM, people that work there that I've met and interacted with. Today, there were people asking us for prints!
The afternoon was spent with senior #1, and she's getting more confident. This new image is starting to differ from the others that she has worked on. She's adding flowers (something she had pooh-poohed before), and she's more willing to just put some paint down and go with it, rather than going back and forth and being indecisive. I think I need to work with her more, even though we've met so many times already, I feel that she's just now coming into her own. For example, I think today was the first time since we started the watercolor sessions where she did NOT point to the watercolor hanging on the wall and say she wanted to do something like THAT.
I'm still experimenting with paper choices and folding options for the book for my 2nd senior. Checked some prices, and am hoping to be able to purchase wholesale, since I'll be buying so much of it.
I didn't quite make it to the museum yesterday, as I had promised senior #1 that I would. But she had forgotten all about it, the topic never came up today.
The last time we printed, we pulled a few extra prints to give to some of the folks at RSM, people that work there that I've met and interacted with. Today, there were people asking us for prints!
The afternoon was spent with senior #1, and she's getting more confident. This new image is starting to differ from the others that she has worked on. She's adding flowers (something she had pooh-poohed before), and she's more willing to just put some paint down and go with it, rather than going back and forth and being indecisive. I think I need to work with her more, even though we've met so many times already, I feel that she's just now coming into her own. For example, I think today was the first time since we started the watercolor sessions where she did NOT point to the watercolor hanging on the wall and say she wanted to do something like THAT.
I'm still experimenting with paper choices and folding options for the book for my 2nd senior. Checked some prices, and am hoping to be able to purchase wholesale, since I'll be buying so much of it.
I didn't quite make it to the museum yesterday, as I had promised senior #1 that I would. But she had forgotten all about it, the topic never came up today.
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