Flowers site

OK, so here's a mock-up of the front page. After Rebecca remotely adjusted the color of the banner text (by tell me) "a little pinker", "a little bluer", "now it's too blue", "now it's too warm"...for the last 3 days. Yes, I've explained over and over again, and she understands, that nobody else will see THAT exact same color on their monitor. And after all that fine tuning, I personally think it's a little flat (no dynamic range). I still prefer this one, which was my color choice for the banner. [Edit -- this link has now changed...moving on to other versions of the mock-ups.]

So another day of answering questions and emails about why things work the way they do, why you don't have absolute control over things on your web site. But we're at least moving forward, and I'm no longer making things "just a little" pinker or bluer. Sigh.

Oops, I'm complaining...

My treasures

My neighbor stood at my front door, holding a bag of mat boards in one hand. Son left for another state, left behind the mat boards. Do I want them? Well, mat boards of unknown provenance...I declined.

Then he said, holding out a small object in the other hand, "I found this dead, desiccated mouse in my driveway; would you like to have it?"

Well, now, I don't believe I've ever said or done anything to this neighbor that would lead him to believe that I'd want a small desiccated dead mouse. But whatd'ya know!? I did want the small, desiccated dead mouse, of unknown provenance. Except I wasn't going to touch it with my hand.

The neighbor said, "should I just leave it here on the sawhorse with all your other 'treasures'?"

Yes, I'm sure he said "treasures" in quotes.

So now I have a very dead, very desiccated and pretty cool looking, mouse on my sawhorse.

I bet your day wasn't better than THIS!

Shipped off Fatherland to Topeka, updated Alice's web site (I hope these are the final changes for the time being), and had more back and forth with Rebecca about the flowers site.

Didn't finish trimming the papers yesterday, but now I'm feeling tired enough that I don't want to do it tonight -- that's one of those things that, if you get it wrong, there's no undoing.

Step 1

...is cutting paper.

I'm finally getting started with my new prints, and of course I haven't a clue yet what I'll be printing. Step 1 is always trimming the paper. Some people hate this part, but I find it quiet and meditative, and gets me in the mood for making prints. I'm hoping to make a couple of new prints to enter into the Middle East exchange that Print Arts Northwest has set up, and that has a particular paper size specified, which is why I'm cutting paper without knowing what I'll be printing. In either case, I'm hoping to do a lot of experimentation anyhow, so there will be lots of unknowns, even after I start printing.

Worked on Rebecca's web site some more, here's an updated mockup of the graphics.

Surprise!

Got invited to a Greek bbq tonight, only to arrive and find out that it was a wedding! The 'perps' were actually married already, but due to some screw-up in the paperwork, their first wedding wasn't actually legal...so yes, they've been living in sin this whole time. So tonight, the problem was rectified. A fun time was had by all, and the food was delicious.

So that was the big excitement. Not a whole lot of work got done today. A little on the web site, and a little on the grant project, and that was it.

Progress

Making bits of progress on all kinds of projects -- the grant application, the silk road flowers web site, and also a potential class for the Q Center in September. Here's one mockup for the silk road flowers site.

A day of art, just not my own

Gallery sat for Laura for 3 hours this afternoon. Visited Mary Wells's studio & Ming Wei's studio for the Portland Open Studios blog; will write them up next week and the week after, respectively. That was the whole day.

The movie tonight was Sicko. Michael Moore is his usual self -- it's informative, but you can't help but wonder what he's not telling you on the other side. The bit about Cuba is great. Although watching Moore in France, Canada, England, and then with the whole gang in Cuba, you can't help but notice that Moore and the other Americans are really big, and some are really overweight, compared to everyone else.

Recovery

It's been a few weeks since my last garden entry, and during that time, both my vegetable bed and strawberry patch had recovered from their various creature attacks. Although a few nights ago, I noticed the bok choys were getting little round holes in the leaves again, and this time, it's slugs.

So anyhow, in between working on my grant, lothlorien web site, and my library volunteer duties, I harvested my first batch of chard, and also some strawberries:



I also cut some bok choy, but they didn't make it in the photo. So here are 2 shots of the raised bed...



Look at the corn! I can feel the baby corn already:



...and here's what it looked like on June 11.

Got the sniffles

I think my whirlwind weekend has done me in, now I have a terrible sore throat and a bad case of the sniffles.

Filed my Intent to Apply for the RACC project grant today. Looking for an exhibition space has not gone so smoothly -- PAN said they're not quite looking at 2009 yet, and in either case, they're wanting to do more exhibits that sell better. 23 Sandy is only going to do 2 book shows a year, and they'll both be juried group shows. Gay (from Reed) doesn't make the decisions about the case exhibits, but has passed my information on to the person who does. Jim hasn't gotten back to me, but I'll see him tomorrow, if I'm up and moving about.

Delivered the small violin piece back to the gallery, along with some PR stuff. I should make some good copies of the Asian Reporter piece at Kinko's sometime. The copy I made at home didn't look that great.

Went to Laura's talk tonight about marketing artist's books...some stuff I already knew, some I didn't. But mostly, I think I came away thinking, boy, I should really contact Vamp & Tramp (and other dealers) and see if they'd be interested in my books, because marketing my own books just doesn't sound like something I'd be organized enough to do.

Possibly more red letters...

Hey, sounds like I might be selling both of the violin pieces. Not a done deal yet, but I'm sure you'll hear about it when/if it becomes a reality. Both of the violin pieces can be seen here, one is labeled Fiddlehead and the other Violin.

So here are some photos from the Maryhill Gadzooks show. This is the first gallery as you walk in, and my books are in the case in the middle:



Here's another shot:



And here's my favorite of the petroglyphs at the petroglyph park (real name -- Columbia Hills State Park, Horsethief Lake area):



All photos by Eliza.

Worked on my grant application today, and tried out the online application process. They don't give you much space to summarize and describe your projects, but I think I'll have a few characters to spare.

Whirlwind weekend

This was the weekend of the Maryhill book arts exhibit opening. Eliza came down and we drove out to Maryhill Museum for the opening program and reception. My books were in the case in the middle of the room, right as you walk into the exhibit (!). And they put Fatherland on the cover of the exhibit program/catalog too! I was thrilled. I got a big stack of them. Many of the artists were there and there were lots of visitors.

Spent the night at the Lyle Hotel in Lyle. A very cute little 'railroad hotel', which I thought was a historical reference...but nooooo! Several trains went by in the middle of the night, right outside our window. I was able to go right back to sleep after each, but sounds like Eliza was not so lucky. The beds were comfortable though. Then this morning, we stopped at the petroglyph park and an orchard fruit stand before heading back to Portland, in time to go to the big celebration at the Park blocks for the opening of the old Daisy Kingdom building now turned into an art complex -- homes to Contemporary Crafts Museum, Blue Sky Gallery, Augen Gallery, Froelick Gallery, and Hartman (? I think, they're from Seattle).

Pictures tomorrow, or maybe Tuesday.