Finally, a normal day

OK, we're back in business. I'm almost finished with mocking up Calypso, should be able to cut paper tomorrow. Started putting together the postcard for the Print Arts show (another one of those things that should've been finished by now).

The movie tonight was Pan's Labyrinth. It does not disappoint, although it did feel a wee bit on the long side.

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.

More up than down

Definitely on the mend. Met with Roberta for a bit today and tried to pick up my pieces from Rake, but didn't manage to connect with them. Ran some errands, but now I'm exhausted at 9pm, and still somewhat queasy. Haven't done any work in 4 days. Couldn't sleep last night either; all I could think about was all the work I wasn't doing! I think I did work out a few kinks in the shadow book though, while tossing & turning in bed.

Up and down and around

Better today. Had a few small meals and managed to get to the play tonight (season tix and too late to change dates), although now I'm feeling queasy again.

No apple cheeked, I

In fact, I'd say I'm quite the color of cement.

Woman on the verge of throwing up

Sick. In bed all day. Feeling somewhat better now, but still pretty achy.

Calypso

I learned two things today --

No. 1 -- Get in the studio, and you shall be rewarded.
No. 2 -- Look things up, and you shall be rewarded.

I was really dragging my feet getting into the studio today. Partly because I was just tired, but also because when I left the shadow book, I was kind of stuck. After much hemming and hawing and doing all kinds of non-essential chores, I finally got into the studio at 3:30pm.

For lack of better things to do, I read over the text that people had sent along with their eye shadows, and saw that one of the shades Giao had sent was called Calypso. Now there's a word I've been meaning to look up for ages, not knowing the origin of it (I thought it was a Greek island). So I did just that, and I was rewarded for my efforts.

Calypso, a sea nymph and daughter of Atlas, falls in love with Odysseus, who is of course already married (to Penelope)! On top of that, the Latin and Greek meanings of the words (Calypso, Kalupsō) mean to hide, to conceal. To make secret!

How perfect is that! So now I have a title for the book (Calypso), a cover design, and something that unifies the 2 parallel story lines.

Also, I'm thinking that I'd use the eye shadows just as they are, ie, not mixing in the egg medium, thus allowing the colors to smudge over time. At least some of it. Also, I think I'll do graphite drawings on the back; I'll smudge and smear those too. I'll use graphite paper to trace each of the drawings so they're more or less the same for the entire edition.

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.

My new guillotine cutter

I cleaned the studio, found a place for the cutter (aka stack cutter, but I still prefer guillotine cutter), and started assembling it. I can't say I'm impressed with the assembling instructions. I'm also wondering about a couple of things -- there are no manufacturer's marks on there, nor did it come with a warranty card (it's brand new). It's a COME SG-3988 cutter, and I bought it off ebay. The seller seems to have a lot of happy customers who have bought the same cutter, so I guess I'll finish assembling it and at least try it out. I hope I don't have to ship it back, that would be a real pain, and I'd be $85+ in the hole.

Went to see the 18 Painters show at Mount Hood Comm College with Alex. It was a fun morning, and it was a good chance to get to know Alex a little bit. Got hear a little bit about the frustrations of teaching art (not about the teaching part, but about the insecure nature of the job, and no benefits, etc). Illuminating.

Stopped in at the Powells that just opened up in Cedar Hills (they moved it from down by us to up there, phooey). It's definitely nice and big, but I still prefer that it's closer to us instead.

Constant Reaching

There it is, all strung up. And it's final title is Constant Reaching. I like the overall shape, rather like an ice cream cone, the rounded looping top tapering down to a narrow and flat bottom. The ring is made from the foil wrapper of a Dove Chocolate Square. I re-read the call for entry again and it's All Day Snacking and not Constant Snacking. Memory is funny sometimes, I could've sworn!

I still have to solder the loops closed, but otherwise, it's finished. Here's a close-up of a cookie.