The Great Hamster of Alsace

I'm not kidding, there is an article in the NY Times today about this. It is about a very large wild hamster (10 inches) that is losing habitat in the Alsace region of France. France has been ordered by the courts to do more to protect this hamster.

It's a classic summer Friday where I work. Most everyone participates in the summer hours program, where you work an extra hour every night, but then get a half day on Friday. The nature of my job requires that someone be available in the department at all times, so my workmate and I take turns having Summer hours. It is her turn today, but I've had a whopping 5 e-mails so far today, so I'm just chillin' over here. This is why I have time to blog.

This morning I took Kate to the College of New Jersey so that she could compete in the Special Olympic Summer games. She's been doing this since she is 13. (She will be 28 this year.) I've given myself the Saturday of Summer Olympics off for years now. I'll go back on Sunday morning to watch her play her last matches and then hang for the awards before we all go out for lunch afterward.

My extremely social husband has already lined us up to go to dinner with a couple we know. I personally would rather just hang around, maybe make some art, but, whatever.We don't get a lot of Kate-free time. I would like to finish up an art journal I have been working on. My method is to prepare a number of sheets for the journal, and then work on filling both sides of those sheets. When they are done, that's a journal, and I bind it together. I have finished one other. I generally don't enter contests or try out for juried shows; it usually is a lot of work and I get hopeful but it ends in rejection. I did send my first journal to "Journal Arts" Magazine. Maybe they can use a couple of pages. We'll see. The thing is, I bent one of their many submission rules. I was supposed to send a check sto cover the cost to return the journal if they didn't want it, but instead I sent a pre-paid UPS envelope. Is that acceptable? Will they now throw it into the trash with no comment?

At any rate, I hope to take pictures of the journal I am working on now, this weekend. I've been meaning to do that for weeks. How does time pass so quickly? Why do I feel so busy all of the time? I haven't been bored in 20 years.

Joe went riding too fast on his motorcycle, a couple of weekends ago, so Kate and I went to NYC. There isn't a lot of Joe-free time, either. We went to the Museum of Folk art and saw a great quilt show. They also have a lot of other stuff in their collection, such as some of the coolest weather vanes you are likely to ever see.  One thing we do every time we go into the city is go to a store called "Conway's." Conway's has the cheapest clothes I have ever seen. It is a giant guilt trip, because you know slave labor made these throw-away clothes, and, like I need anything? One thing that helps me not buy nearly as much as I might is that they have no dressing rooms. You are flying in the dark there. I did manage to buy a Indian style skirt in bright orange. I was really struck by the color. And the fact that it was $7. Now I spend my spare time looking for shirts to go with it. Dumb, dumb, dumb. After that we went to China town, just because we had not been there in so long.  Kate and I both bought $3 sandals out of a bucket there. I bought soap just for the wrappers. (The soap always smells terrible, but the graphics on the wrappers are so cool.) I bought the plastic for shrinky dinks. I always wanted to mess around with that stuff. (I haven't done it yet) Maybe I can do that this weekend?

Well, when I start writing stream-of-consciousness-style, I know it is time to give it a rest.

Art and Fear

Art and Fear is a book I read a long time ago that talks about the realities of being an artist. I highly recommend this book to anyone who makes art. One thing they bring up is how it is possible for you think your art doesn't look like art. It doesn't look like other people's art, therefore, it isn't right. I suffer this a lot. I have been working on an art journal. I'm not sure what I want it to be exactly, since I have never made one before. I've been all over the internet looking at examples of Art Journals and have come across videos on techniques. I made 2 pages and I liked them very much. But, now, a few days later, I'm not sure. The problem, I believe, is my handwriting. First of all I'm not even sure I have anything to say. Also, how much do I want to reveal? It's hard to envision any piece of art I could make that would not be seen by anyone. I could not imagine what kind of art I would make with the idea that no one would ever see it but me! But, I digress. My handwriting looks like my handwriting. Not what one commonly sees on this type of work. Sometimes it is old handwriting from some piece of ephemera. Sometimes it is rubber stamped or printed. So, when I see my own handwriting on the page it doesn't look right. It doesn't look like art. I'm resisting the urge to not use my own writing. Of course, it is unique to me, and where else can you get that?

Joe was away all weekend skiing, so I spent a lot of time art-making and some time watching TV. Joe and I never watch TV. When he is not around, and I am doing hand-work, I like something on the TV that I can listen to while I work, like a documentary. At any given time, there really is almost nothing I am interested in. Often times I will land on Discovery Health. On Sunday I caught this show about some clinic in NYC for morbidly obese people. Generally what finally gets these people into the clinic is some other disorder that no surgeon will operate on until they weigh 400 pounds or under. That gives you the idea of how big these people are, typically 500 or 600 pounds. One guy had some kind of tumor on his leg that was absolutely huge, like, it took over his whole leg. They kept showing close ups of it and him trying to move around with this thing. It was so disgusting, yet you could not look away, know what I mean? He had been in the clinic for 2 years and had gained 36 pounds! I'm watching this and thinking that it was almost like porn, it was so strangely titillating (Not in a sexual way for me, but I understand there are people out there like this) that it really was exploiting the people on the show. There are so many overweight people in this country, I'm thinking part of an appeal of this show is so that you can say, "At least I'm not like that!" and feel pretty good about yourself. On top of all this is the commercials that repeat over and over again. If you don't watch TV you aren't used to this and it drives you crazy in a hurry. I probably won't watch TV again until Joe goes away for a weekend again.

Back to art, I found a web sight that lets you download images for free. I believe it is called The Graphics Fairy or something like that. Then I found another connected to Art e-zine, which is out of the UK. I downloaded some stuff, but I'm kind of unsure about all of it. I want images that no one else has. That means going into an antique store and finding you own ephemera and photographs. Maybe this weekend? My art journal will have 8 boards, which means 16 pages. I need Joe to drill them for me. I have a seashell on one of the pages, and I should have waited until he drilled first, but I was too impatient. I wish he would do this tonight, but we already have a date to go food shopping after work. We are in code white as far as food goes. Code white is when you open the fridge and your eyes are blinded by the whiteness--- emptiness of the thing. We'll probably spend $250 minimum.

Ideas

I started messing around with ideas for the diversity art project. I was kind of sketching in photoshop. Now, I need you to understand that I was drawing with a mouse, which is not unlike drawing with a bar of soap. Awkward, to say the least. But, it's ok, I am just messing with ideas. I rarely sketch before I make a piece of art, I figure it out as I go. I did need to take a picture of myself and get it ready to print on fabric. As you can see from the sketch, I want to put my face in the middle of a flower or sun-type form. I want to have the rays or petals in different colors, patterns, or embellished in different ways to represent diversity. The working title is, "Self Portrait Showing the Effects of Diversity on Me." I posterized my face in photoshop, and I kind of like that effect. The problem with the photo I used is that I had a lot of hair around my face. I don't want that in the picture. I think I will take a different picture, or something, with my hair pulled back off my face.

This reminds me that I went to the salon last night for my usual hair thing. I was able to read junky magazines instead of a text book. This article caught my eye:

"LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT TRYING; Your weight loss grocery list: Yes, chocolate's on it!"

Hey, kiss my ass! Chocolate is not on it! I lost a lot of weight this year, (Last year?) and now I am in the danger zone. By that I mean, it's time to gain it all back, and I HAVE gained some of it back, sorry to say. About 6 pounds. And, when I eat chocolate, or ice cream, or something like that, I see an almost immediate upward trend in the scale. It's just terrible, and I really resent these people who print this crap. This is simply designed to catch your eye and get you to buy the magazine, with the hopeless hope that somehow you can eat chocolate and lose weight. I've been around long enough to know that it just ain't happening.

I have a couple of more vacation days left, and I took tomorrow off. Yay! I will work on my diversity art quilt thing. It will be really crazy, and will stand out like a sore thumb from anything else anyone does. But, I really like the idea.

Creativity, Continued: "Art Critics"

Once again, I find that I want to make a post about comments I have recently received. We have a lively conversation going, I like that.

Here is part of a comment by Idaho Beauty: "Sometimes having people not commenting on your art can be a blessing. Recently an enthusiastic friend who does not make art herself but fancies herself well educated on it blatently told me what she would change about several of my pieces. Her comments made it very clear she did not understand the work."

Yes, I have been there. As if you did not do it exactly the way you wanted to do it. Another favorite is when people try to decipher the MEANING of your work, and no one asked them to try! I once drew a picture of my X-husband lying in bed. That's it. It was pretty straight forward. I had someone "guess" that he was sick, and was lying on ice cubes to take his fever down.

WTF???

Who has giant ice cubes in their bed?  Pink ones? Maybe she mistook it as an exercise in surrealism.

Sam Quilts want to see the cake. Well, that was years ago!  I can't find a picture of it anywhere. I drew it for you:

So there you have it. The Zenith of my artistic output. It's been down hill ever since. Actually, this might be the best drawing I have ever done. At work, with highlighters!

Finally, I know someone suggested a name for my doiley quilt. I liked it, but I can't find it in the comments. Marty, was that you? Maybe you just sent a separate e-mail? When I find it, I'm using it.

Flower Cake, My finest Moment

Once I made this cake that looked like a flower. It was just a regular cake, but I made a frosting flower at the top; the single flower covered the whole top of the cake.

I could not believe the way my family raved about this cake. I took the idea from some woman's magazine, but I am pretty sure that, in their minds, this is my best work to date. I have never gotten a better reaction to anything else.

This post is for Kim, who just left a comment with a sort of similar story.

People understand cakes.

Looking At Art

Yesterday I could not take being stuck inside anymore, so Joe and I went to the Michener Museum.  It is in Doylestown, PA, which is a reasonable distance and has some great work in it. We especially enjoyed seeing paintings by Paul Matthews. He lives in Lambertville, NJ, in a big victorian house. Joe used to live in an apartment in that house. Joe was admiring one of Paul's paintings and Paul gave him a print of that painting. It's in our living room. None of the paintings here are that one. I am disappointed at the images I am able to find on the web. Paul's best paintings are his portraits, and my favorite one is of two people looking at something in the landscape. You can't see what it is that they are looking at, but clearly the people are devastated. The pain they are feeling is almost alarming. The painting is riveting. I was told it was Paul and his wife looking at their son's grave. I can't find anything about it so I can only show you a different portrait. I'm being driven insane because blogger won't upload the image I really want to show.

I also saw a documentary over the weekend called Art City. It was kind of a loosely put together group of interviews with contemporary artists. One of the most intriguing artists was Richard Tuttle. The first image of his art I am showing you is of a wire strung around a few nails in the wall of a gallery. The next one is a peice of rope nailed to the wall. I'm not going to get into a big thing about what is and isn't art, but when I see this kind of thing I feel as if I can do anything I want!