Whoops.

• February 5th, 2008 • 0 Comments • food, fun stuff, meandering •

So, uh, I’ve been busy! Well, not entirely; I was sick most of January which put a damper on projects. (LIKE EPICYCLOID-A-DAY. I SWEAR THAT BLOG IS DOOMED TO FAIL.)

Lacking any other photos of current plots, I present you with a photo of a delicious King Cake I made today with the help of a dear friend. The only sweet part is the icing; everything else is fairly easy on the sugar and cinnamon. Still, my first King Cake turned out pretty good I’d say!

Also, for those interested, I will be sharing a table with pinkfairywand at ConDFW in Richardson, TX this year. We will be hocking a number of hand-made items to those interested in buying! The SciFi/Fantasy event is from February 22-24.

Hey, I know that guy.

• September 21st, 2007 • 0 Comments • cleaning, meandering, printmaking •

I read Makezine’s blog every morning with my breakfast. Imagine my surprise to see my former printmaking prof Justin Quinn’s work featured! His work is looking great since the last time I saw it (when it was also looking great.).

I admit though, seeing that article stare back at me made me feel immensely guilty. I haven’t touched an etching press since I was in Glasgow in 2004. Don’t get me wrong, the itch has hit me many, many times. I’ve tried to fill it with other activities; it’s kind of similar to when you want some really good ice cream, but only pre-mixed soft-serve is available. Yeah, the substitution is ok but dammit, you really wanted that ice cream.

Justin was a big inspiration for me, and putting my favorite body of work on the backburner almost seems like I’m letting him down. He was so encouraging and genuinely seemed to enjoy what I produced. It’s bad enough I’m full of frustration at not being able to print; feeling like the eyes of a mentor are upon you is worse.

That relates to the ol’ “Man, I miss college,” statement. I do miss college, not because of the memories of youth, freedom, and so forth, rather for the community. Genuine critiques of colleagues helped to mold and strengthen my body of work. Producing alone lacks that influx of encouragement. My college town also had a good art community which my current hometown lacks, a topic I’ve whined about before.

I’m not ready for grad school. Not yet. Some of the more interesting grad students I met in printmaking were in their 40s and up. They had an entire well of life experiences from which to make things. Some started out as art students in their 20s, lived an entirely different life, and came back to art afterwards.

Meandering in thought and feelings of guilt aside, today’s the day I clean my office and papers out. Once that is done, production on this, that and the other can begin without the “Aw damn, where is my ________ packed?!”

Crank it back up.

• April 1st, 2007 • 0 Comments • food, meandering •

*Whew!* I think I have worked out all the kinks in the new blog design. Obviously, it’s on the front page now, along with all sorts of other goodies! I was worried that the new location would break links people have to popular instructionals, such as the “How to Clean Ink Pens” and whatnot. Again, I think everything is up-to-snuff.

Currently I’m working to figure out how to silmulpost pictures from other blogs I write to this one, since there is often overlap in the subject matter department. Until then, here’s a shot of a cute little bento I made for my husband’s lunch tomorrow.

Delicious!

Dreams

• July 26th, 2006 • 0 Comments • meandering •

I had the best dream last night.

I was visiting my old printmaking prof Justin in some bizarre art school somewhere. (Justin had managed to grow some odd sprout of hair where his hairline should’ve been.) I was watching a critique some new litho students were doing. My husband waited with me for Justin to finish the class. After the critique, Justin was all “Hey! How’re you doing?” He then proceeded to lead me upstairs to the printmaking area, so I could make some new prints. I was so happy! Finally! Getting to make prints after such a long hiatus…

And then my phone rang.

Some people feel letdown after sex dreams. Me, I was outright ROBBED of making some new art.

Pain and Anguish!

• July 2nd, 2006 • 0 Comments • meandering, studio 4A •

The studio is almost cleared out, save items which I am going to store in the garage of a generous friend. I am dragging my feet getting the whole thing over with: 1) this whole ordeal is depressing me more than it should and 2) I have a mysterious back injury which prevents me from picking things up.

Figuring I’m only in my mid-20s, this back problem thing falls into the very “not good” category. It surfaced the morning before I had an enormous face-painting job at a convention in Dallas. A slew of doctors’ visits and drugs have followed, seriously putting me in the mood for doing nothing but lying down on the couch feeling sorry for myself.

I did, however make a spiffy-cool stencil and put it on a t-shirt, which has inspired a number of tutorials and write-ups I hope to do. The guest bathroom has been reformatted into a tiny studio I work out of much to the discomfort of my husband’s friends! No doubt an obituary for Studio 4A complete with photos will be posted as soon as I find some persons to help me bulldoze out the remainder of the garage, as the August deadline grows uncomfortably close.

I could really do without the inconvenience of a painful mystery injury right now.

Oh $#!+

• March 7th, 2006 • 0 Comments • computers, meandering •

Ug, ug, ug and UG.

As previously mentioned, the new computer is great. Little Pearl happily pulls her weight and everything goes so smoothly.

BUT. (Note the big, huge BUT.) For some bizarre reason Dreamweaver MX 2004 will not run on my operating system, Tiger 4.5. I install everything ok, it sits there and hangs when I try to start the program. Macromedia/Adobe has offered up a few “patches;” sadly one of the patches I installed locked up while it was installing. (Even worse, this is an issue with the newest version of the program, DW8.)

In both the DW forums and Apple forums, people are well aware of this problem. The best advice several had to offer was, “You have to decide which is more important: DW or Tiger.” Another stated that he called up Macromedia/Adobe’s tech support and was given the ol’ song and dance of “We are currently working to resolve these issues.” Well, good thing I didn’t waste any money calling them up.

There are two reasons this made me beyond angry last night: 1) I cannot do work for a small company I was going to revamp a website for. This is after me convincing them they needed a make-over badly. 2) Gallery work for the Epicycloids has come to a grinding halt. I’ve considered completely forgetting about DW, and trying to do the site in iWeb, Blogger or MSWord. Sadly, I like the way my website looks and functions much too much for that. (And I just figured out how to make .ASP headers and footers! Gimmie a break!)

I’ve mused that this is some divine sign telling me to get the hell out of the house and do a big, messy painting and take a break from neat and tidy watercolored ink drawings. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. What frustrates me is I am still not sure what to do about the situation. The Internet has really become my own personal gallery, and right now it’s as if there has been some metal dome clapped over my means of sharing art (albiet in sporadic upgrades).

The Old Lady Factor

• September 5th, 2005 • 0 Comments • meandering, studio 4A, supplies •

Ohboyohboy! My parents decided that they no longer needed their old Xerox machine, and you know what that means! Yes! Printmaking with toner and acetone! Huzzah! I’ve avoided copy-machine prints for a while now simply because I can’t afford the many trips to the store. Now there is convenience inside my house, at my fingertips even.

Only problem is I’m completely overwhelmed with ideas. Where to start?!

I know where: CLEANING THE STUDIO. In addition to being overwhelmed with ideas, I’m overwhelmed with a complete mess. Frankly, the entire garage needs to be rearranged. The weather has cooled off a bit, but not enough for such an all-day project. Looking back in the almanac, the average daily temperature for this month last summer was 89 degrees, whereas this year is 95 degrees. Either I’m in for a mild winter or an ironically cold one, preventing me from wanting to even leave my bed, much less the apartment for the studio.

Problem number one cluttering up the studio is, well, art. I am in desperate need of a show. Desperate.. Admittedly I have been out of college for an entire year and have had plenty of time to find a nice local art association to join. My problem? “The Old Lady Factor.” What might that be, you ask. See, I’ve noticed that several of the local (by local, I mean metroplex) art organizations suffer from an influx of older women and men producing hotel art. There’s nothing wrong with hotel art, it’s just, kinda dry and not what I do. While browsing the websites, 95% of the art showcased is of puppies ‘n’ kittens, peaceful country meadows and fruit in bowls. I can clearly recall entering a piece into a local art organization: I saw at least 5 people walk in with gold-leafed art from the 80s. You know what I mean. Needless to say, I did not even make it into the show.

By no means do I make the claim that my art is so fantastically different that I am having a hard time finding an organization in which I can find peers. But I do think that when looking for an art organization, one looks for similar interests. For instance, another local organization told me on its web-page that it doesn’t allow: anything not entirely two-dimensional, photography, digital works or nudes. Er, really. That limits me a bit.

This leaves two possibilities: shut up and join, or follow suit of my high-school self and start my own organization!

Thinking Out Loud

• August 25th, 2005 • 2 Comments • meandering, supplies, texas •

It’s too hot out! The temperatures the last few weeks have been unbearable in the studio. Last week was so humid, I could turn on the faucet and water would just hang there in the saturated air. This week there have been triple digits all week long. Sadly this means no working in the studio. I’ve brought items to work on up in my apartment but there are too many distractions; television and my computer being the main culprits. In addition, my computer desk is no place to do art! I am one of those people that needs for all items I am using to be spread out so I can see them; there is absolutely no room for this kind of nonsense in our office. The evening brings no relief from the heat or the humidity for that matter.

Lousy heat, why can’t you be cooler? The poor studio is such a mess. My parents recently moved and I acquired several new items, including a table saw and an air compressor. But with this heat I cannot re-arrange the studio to accommodate, or use for that matter, my new toys. How frustrating!

It always seems that the “To-Do” list piles up when one is unable to “Do.” Thus far the agenda includes:

1. organizing sketches from 2004 into some sort of cohesive notebook.
2. case several naked book blocks!
3. paint large painting on new canvas, er, first build frame
4. build structure to house: paper, boards, completed artwork, prints
5. re-arrange studio for actual use

I’d like to spend some time on item #4. Storage is fast becoming a big problem. It’s probably one of the bigger ones I’m facing. What is the best way for me to store accumulated paper, mat boards, illustration boards, finished prints, et cetera? My best plan so far involves constructing a 4′x4′x4′ rolling cube with shelves. If I built it to my ideal specifications, it has the potential to skyrocket to roughly $200. Outch. That’s similar to the price that keeps me from buying pre-made shelves. After some more calculatin’, I discovered that I could shave it down to $130 if I didn’t put my box on wheels. My father suggested creating a sort of “skeleton” of the box, using 1″x2″ boards. This bodes well for the money, but I fear it’s impractical for actual storage. (There’s no protection from flying paint or dust.)

This opens the option for vertical storage, which I loathe: it leaves my boards all bent and warped. I want the cube, as it not only will provide nice flat storage, but also a super-duper-rolling work surface. The only major disadvantage to the cube is it’s weight. I don’t plan on being in the apartment garage forever; lifting that mother into a U-Haul would probably kill me. The cube’s weight quickly increases with the thickness of the board I want to use, another drawback. What’s a girl to do? I have NO idea.

Production

• August 2nd, 2005 • 0 Comments • meandering, painting •

There haven’t been any new posts or updates to the site recently. I came to the very happy realization that it is because I am producing work! Not busy, not distracted, producing!

It has also been noted that I have a large and growing amount of drawings and watercolors on office paper samples. I am considering putting together some sort of collection, and am partially curious as to whether or not I could get a show of them somewhere. Their cohesiveness is pretty strong, and they look good together. However, I’m not entirely sure about the local artists’ associations. I had considered joining; upon further investigation most of the art is not abstract, nor is it conceptual; thus I am not sure about the camraderie available. Watch though, I’ll go to one of their meetings and everything will be fine. Maybe they need an abstract/conceptual artist about?

Flipping through the Tamarind book I found has put a bee in my bonnet: I want to print! Sadly, it’s been over a year since I have run something through a press. (Last time was my trip to Glasgow; I still haven’t printed an edition of the damn lovely plate I made over there.) Money has been tight, so I have been unable to purchase new screen material for those old screen frames I found: no serigraphy either. This needs to be rectified…

In the meantime, watercolor is proving to be a good substitute—plus I found a new adding machine! Well, “new” being the operative word. It’s a 1980s model Canon printing calculator. Makes delightful tapes of numbers and the current roll of paper takes watercolor and ink well. Perhaps I’ll put up a digital gallery of the tape paintings, I’m pleased with how they’re turning out.

Mixed Bag

• July 11th, 2005 • 0 Comments • experiments, meandering, photo, supplies •

Several items to cover, in random order.

1) I don’t recall whether or not I talked about my new sink! No, the studio doesn’t have running water…from an outside source! My father gave me a bunch of left-over plumbing bits, so I crafted a new sink with a 3 gallon or so reserve. My technologically-advanced sink has the following features: an actual faucet with an on/off valve; a flexible hose drain which snakes around the outside of the garage door into some bushes; a method for plugging the drain which involves looping the end of the drain hose and slipping it over a curl of iron the shelf the sink is sitting on. Huzzah!

2) Grass paper update: Arrrg, I just realized that I deleted all of the photos I took off of my camera before uploading them! Why did I do that? Well, there IS news, but I’ll put that in another post with some nice close-ups of the paper. Grrr.

3) Remember Michael’s Mother’s Studio? Well, I got to root around in the mountains of art supplies again last weekend. It’s so much fun to discover the treasures this woman left behind. From clippings of poetry and quotes she found to be important, on to sketchbooks and journals, it’s all very interesting. Unfortunately, the summer heat and lack of room to move items (this place has no A/C; it’s a converted garage) kept me from looking too long. However, I did manage to find the following treasures this time:

1 - a complete X-Acto Knife kit. They don’t sell kits this complete anymore! Wow!
2 - a nigh-complete compass set. It even came with a compass lead sharpener. I didn’t know those existed!
3 - a carbonite marking pen. Cool! Another etching tool!
4 - a variety of french curves and floorplan stencils
5 - a home-made light table. I might have to replace the light on it, but hey! It’s well-made!
6 - two home-made clay sculptures. I like having artwork from my future-past mother-in-law.
7 - a jewelry vise with magnifying glass
8 - computer punch cards. HOT DAMN!!! Need I say MORE??

The coolest thing I found was a portable screen-printing setup. Yeehaw! Whotta deal. It appears to be homemade, as best I can tell. There’s a large portable board with different hinge layouts for the various screens I found. I have to replace all of the silk, as it’s somewhat rotted and filled with holes. Other than that, they’re all in great condition, and I can’t wait to try them out when I get the chance to order some new screen! Yippie!