The Tree with the Lights in it

What do you mean, you don't want to sit under the fan?

2012-02-05T11:05:00.000-05:00

I had another amusing dream last night, this time a classic waitress stress dream. So you know I work a night or two per week at a local pub for cash and socialization, yes? Well, this dream outlined pretty much everything that could go wrong.

It was a slow night, with no customers, I was literally playing hangman with the bartender to pass the time. Then a table of four came in (hurrah, something to do!), and I seated them and quickly realized that there were extra bits of paper to hand out with the menus which took an extra confusing few minutes. When I finished that, I realized that several other tables had filled up with customers seating themselves and then looking extremely impatient when no one had brought them their menus. The other server was all like "you're in charge of seating everyone, you figure it out, which tables are mine?" Then we realized that there were no more menus. Sooooo may as well bring them water while the menu issue is being sorted out, right? Turns out that the faucet and ice machine were waaaaaay back in the suddenly labyrinthine kitchen, and one can only bring one pitcher out at a time and its going to take for-ev-er. But in the kitchen there was someone laying on the table with a massive gross head injury being attended to by all the kitchen staff. Avoid that, realize no food is going to be coming out any time soon. Heading back into the restaurant, I saw that the table of ten with the reservation had arrived and were seated, and the rest of the tables were also full with increasingly-impatient customers. No way I can get to everyone since they all arrived at once. Then the table of ten starts complaining that they want a different table because they don't want to sit under the fan. There are no more tables to move them too because all the other tables are full of people waiting to be served. The manager gives me the stink eye when I say I need some help. THEN....I realize this is a dream and I can wake up and actually not have to deal with any of it...

Things to think about:
1) Remember, tip your servers well, because if nothing else they are getting paid $5 per hour to have dreams like this.
2) How long will I last at this job if this is the kind of dreams it gives me?
3) I wonder if the fumes from priming the bathroom prior to repainting had anything to do with my dreams?
4) I recently listened to a fascinating Radio Lab podcast about lucid dreaming. I'd like to know more about that, since I sometimes have dreams where I can realize I'm dreaming and change them or make them stop.

Florence and Pauline

2012-02-01T13:02:00.000-05:00

There are two hens left in the coop these days, Florence and Pauline. Anyone who thinks that blogs that mentions chickens is dull, please skip ahead. But for anyone who has been jonesing for a livestock update, here they are basking in the sunshine yesterday in their dust bath.

And here are today's eggs. The little one is unusual, and very amusing.

Ghost chickens and blue paint

2012-01-24T12:09:00.000-05:00

No snappy photos for you today, sorry! I thought about posting a shot of the bleak grey and brown world that is my driveway and view from my window, but am choosing not to. If it's not going to be snowy and bright and ski-able, I'm not going to acknowledge winter. Instead I am inside basking in the glow of my gorgeous new Happy Light (to combat SAD...clever name, no?), trolling online for cheap tickets back to Hawaii, and cranking up the wood stove until it's 75 in the living room.

I've had a couple of fun and interesting dreams lately. First, a few nights ago I dreamed that the former garage at my parents' house (now converted to my Dad's country store) was suddenly a chicken coop. And SURPRISE, all my chickens that have gone missing over the years were there! Including the three who were eaten by a phantom fox or abducted by aliens a few weeks ago, and also Harold the rooster had come back to life.

Second, last night I dreamed I was wandering around London, over in the northwest neighborhood where I used to live when I interned at Kew Gardens. I had a bucket of blue paint, and I was painting over all the yellow paint on the curbs. Somehow having this bucket of paint was my disguise to fit in and look purposeful, because I was actually a little lost and trying to find my friends Dave and Ann's house, which in my dream was a few blocks away (rather than in Cumbria) but I didn't quite remember how the streets went because it had been a long time since I lived there. There was also a big football (read: soccer) game happening in the park. Random, but interesting. I do like blue paint.

Painting shoes like a house a'fire

2012-01-10T11:56:00.000-05:00

Or something like that.

Here's yet another pair of bespoke footwear creations (Wingtip is paying the mortgage this month):

Winter is being very coy this year. Temperatures above freezing, no snow in the high hills where I like to go skiing, enough sunshine that I haven't gone completely comatose. I'm considering doing a snow dance out in the back woods, in hopes of a good exciting blizzard and decent ski conditions.

You know you still want a pair, right?

2012-01-05T19:51:00.000-05:00

I've been saying all along that in January I'll really get going again on my Wingtip business. The belts I posted last time, and now these hot-off-the-press Danskos attest to the fact that the year is starting off well. These were another bespoke project, and I think they turned out mighty fine. There are three more pairs of bespoke shoes lined up awaiting attention.

New year, new belts

2012-01-02T14:17:00.000-05:00

Coming out of my slump of slothfulness, and ready to tackle the new year. One of my winter goals is to expand my Wingtip business, so let's start that off right with a couple of new belts. They are both available on my Etsy site.

Bend it like Beckham

2011-12-28T14:49:00.001-05:00

As you know, especially if you read my last post, I am a minor deity in the pantheon of specious gods and goddesses. That's right, I am the rutabaga goddess (I'm lobbying to represent all root vegetables, but am not sure that will work out) in the yearly Ithaca Farmers' Market Rutabaga Curling Championship. Also every year, a gentleman named Jerry Feist takes a lot of great photos of the event. I like this one, where I'm trying to nudge my 'baga by the force of will to be closer to the goal.

Sloth and Indolence

2011-12-26T12:37:00.000-05:00

It's the day after Christmas, and I had all these visions of productivity and cleaning and organizing. However, I sat down in this chair (the Adirondack chair with the sheepskin) in front of the wood stove (the cute little warm efficient Jotul with the big glass front) for a late breakfast (delicious scrambled eggs from my happy hens, with greens and salsa and GF toast and a cuppa tea) with my book (not worth mentioning but readable enough)...and I find that I realllllly don't want to move. I think I'll take the day off, and get back to the rest of life tomorrow. It will still be there waiting.

The day after Christmas is one of my favorite days of the year. December, also known as the month of Dismember, is rife with holiday craft fairs and getting orders in the mail, and running back and forth to the printer, and fielding emails about special orders, and dragging carloads of display structures back and forth, and working in the temporary cooperative store downtown. Throw in some cold market days, being the Rutabaga Goddess at the Rutabaga Curl, several fun houseguests, gift shopping, and all of the festive family-ness that happens around the holidays, and you have a heady cocktail that tastes great, but will leave you dragging the next morning. I'm working around to a metaphor here, something about having a holiday hangover....ANYWAY, it was a great and profitable season, but now I'm taking the day OFF.

Meanwhile, my paintings are still hanging at the Bandwagon Brewpub, here in Ithaca. A couple of them have sold (huzzah!)...including my favorite:

It's called "Migration," and painted with acrylics and gel medium on a lovely walnut board I've been looking at for about a year. It's about 7 feet long. This photo is a little rough what with the glare from the flash on the shiny gel medium. You can also see a small watercolor, called "Solstice," which just happens to be available as a notecard.

I have decided not to travel to the tropics this winter. In one way I'm pleased to be able to just hang out at home and work on my Wingtip business and get some skiing in, but on the other hand I know that around mid-January I will be sad to not be heading out. I'll miss Thailand, but will make a point of getting back there sometime soon before I forgot how to speak Thai.

Time for more tea.

Objects of Art + Spirit

2011-12-08T10:34:00.000-05:00

Just quick, before I head down to the basement and pack up even more cards and calendars. For your shopping pleasure, all you Ithacats, here's a little show I'll be participating in today and tomorrow at the lovely Rasa Spa. Art, clothing, jewelry, herbal care products...all local and handmade. Plus a chance to browse Rasa's gift shop, which is also full of treats.

The first belt!

2011-11-30T12:48:00.001-05:00

I finally have a belt to show you, loyal readers! I've been learning how to make the belt blanks, and have just started the fun process of painting them. This one is posted on my Etsy Wingtip site, and more will be coming along soon.

Although I have a big show to get through this weekend first, before I can enjoy painting. I'll be in Syracuse this weekend at the Plowshares Craftsfair. This is a great show, full of fantastic art and craft and other goodies, plus the Syracuse Cultural Workers great collection of opinionated tshirts, calendars, books, etc. Please stop in.

Across the other pond

2011-11-25T11:41:00.001-05:00

Hmmm...seems to have been a while since I last posted. So I got back from Hawaii in mid-October, worked really really hard for two weeks to get ready for the upcoming holiday season (more on that later, because I have some important business announcements to make in re: the holidays and how to shop for them), and then flew off across the other ocean to England, where I met up with my brother and had a really fantabulous time for two weeks in a preemptive birthday celebration.

He was checking out pubs, and I was generally exploring and having fun. For the bulk of the time we stayed with our friends Dave and Ann from Hardknott Brewery, who were very generous with their time and resources as we romped around Cumbria (aka the Lake District) and Newcastle and Kendal and Manchester and...and... Rather than go into detail verbally, I'm going to give you another photo essay of the things that caught my eye.

Spent a few days in Oxford visiting Erin and Sydney and their adorable kids.

Also took a side trip to Scotland to visit Beth and her family,
and got to explore Bothwell Castle.

Had tea and crumpets, in a wild departure from
my usual gluten and dairy free existence.

Walked by some beautiful trees near Broughton-in-Furness, in Cumbria

Walked miles and miles to find Sunkenkirk stone circle, in a farmer's field in Cumbria.
This was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Really, really old stone walls! Plus, it wouldn't be right if I didn't include
a photo with some sheep in it since we're talking about northern England here.

The view from Netherwasdale up the Wasdale valley, in Cumbria. Possibly
one of the most beautiful places on earth, both in the big picture and the details.

South shore

2011-10-17T03:06:00.000-04:00

The lovely sunset I saw tonight at Po'ipu Beach, south shore of Kauai. This photo turned out almost better than some of the postcards on offer out here. Oh wait, I just gave away my undisclosed location...!

Featuring sand and sun

2011-10-13T01:59:00.000-04:00

Why the long silence? Well, not surprisingly I've taken off for another one of these trips I take at regular intervals. And this time I'm really vacating, not particularly checking in or doing much in the way of work. First because one really can't worry about anything while one is here, and second because I know when I get home again next week the work is going to hit the fan so I'm resting up. Can you guess where I am? Here are a few hints:

In which I sing in the car a lot

2011-09-27T10:59:00.001-04:00

I don't tend to go in for love songs in a big way, but once in a while something catches my ear and won't let go. I recently got Over the Rhine's latest album, The Long Surrender, and have listened to little else all week (well, with the exception of a little side flirtation with some Arabic dance music). Their impeccable musicianship and deep moody sweet poetry knock my socks off.

2012

2011-09-20T08:54:00.000-04:00

Time for a shameless self-promotional commercial plug! My 2012 calendars are done, and will be available very, very soon at markets and on websites near you. There will be two sizes: a small version for the desktop calendar that fits in a cd case stand...

...and a larger version that can hang on the wall and has space for writing.

I used pages from my travel sketchbooks, so there are pencil and pen and watercolor sketches from the Adirondacks, Thailand, Yosemite, Japan, Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, etc, even a page with fall colors from right around here in upstate NY. It was pretty fun to put them together, especially because each page is different, and am looking forward to seeing people's reactions.

Having the calendar done is a huge load off my plate. As I always say, we're entering the season where I lose all touch with reality in the quest for commercial viability, also known as The Christmas Season. Or, in pop culture parlance: "Time to make the donuts."

Get this in your head

2011-09-16T11:30:00.000-04:00

Every now and then I indulge in some good British tv, a favorite being the Jeeves and Wooster series. Brilliant adaptation of the P.G. Wodehouse novels, with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie (yes, the guy who plays House, but in a COMPLETELY different role). I love the opening titles for the 1920's style graphics and the theme song. You'll be singing it all day.

The clear blue sky

2011-09-11T08:07:00.000-04:00

Ten years ago, I was driving across town on an absolutely gorgeous clear September morning. I had left pretty early to get to my graphic design job, I knew there was a lot of work to do on this catalog I was designing. I had NPR on in the car, and news was really boring, to the point that I was literally thinking that they were really looking for material to fill out the hour of Morning Edition. A little later, after all hell broke loose, the catalog didn't seem to matter so much. I took a walk in the sunshine, thinking that you never know what's going to come out the clear blue sky.

Every generation has a few defining events, those things we can all say we remember where we were when we heard it. My mom talks about vacuuming when she heard about JFK, I'm sure I won't forget where I was when I heard about the planes.

Something blue

2011-09-07T10:02:00.000-04:00

My pals Todd and Kristina were married a few weeks ago, and the bride wore a fine pair of Wingtips!

The weird wide web

2011-09-06T10:47:00.001-04:00

You never know what you'll find in the weird wide web these days. I was just trolling around in my Wingtip Etsy stats this morning, to see how people are finding my site and all that good stuff, and I found a link to my shop in someone else's blog. This person was writing restaurant reviews, and apparently I waited on their table...heehee, this makes my day! I will continue to build the spiderweb by linking back to their blog. Plus you can read about the food and drink at my working-for-travel-funds job.

Speaking of my pub job, it's going well. I've stopped having stressful waitressing nightmares, and am settling in to rather enjoying the change of pace a few nights per week. I like being friendly to people and being a little anonymous and getting my tables to laugh. I appreciate the exercise it gives my short-term memory and the zen-like focus of being 100% in the moment. And I love going home and not having to think one little bit about the job until next time I go in...when I am once again 100% there. Remember folks, tip your servers generously!

Otherwise, it's early September and the skies are already grey. Yesterday (Labor Day) was a much-needed rest from my labors...I took the time to cook a lot (GF blueberry muffins, red pepper chipotle hummus, and potato-leek soup), finish a book, overdose on the mind candy of some Jeeves and Wooster episodes, slouch around in pj's, and listen to the big rain and be thankful I didn't have to go outside in it. Today I am beginning to think about the approaching Christmas season, will be mucking about with some website content, and planning the paintings for my 2012 calendar.

The return of the CrossFit Chiang Mai garuda

2011-08-30T10:04:00.000-04:00

Loyal blog followers might recall the project I was working on in Thailand this past winter, drawing a garuda (mythical Thai half-man-half-bird tough guy) to be used for the CrossFit gym t-shirts and other promotional materials. Perhaps you remember my struggles with getting the biceps to be sufficiently X-Men-esque. Anyhoo, it turned out really cool, and I just got a photo of the womens' style t-shirts! I appreciate in general how pink has become an acceptable color for a strong woman to wear.

And for you local folks, tonight from 6:30-7:30 I'll be at Rasa Spa for the closing reception of my art show there. It's been a great run. Stop in if you can!

Made for walking

2011-08-24T10:40:00.000-04:00

Just finished a bespoke Wingtips project, taking a pair of well-loved black cowgirl boots to the next level. I approached this with much trepidation, since the person who owns the boots was very fond of them, but they turned out great and I'm hoping they wear well. Her directions were to use bold colors and to include a butterfly.

In other gossipy news, we had an earthquake yesterday! Not that I noticed, I was either in the car or the shower and completely missed it. Bummer. I have no desire to experience a big LA or Haiti style quake with collapsing bridges and parking garages, but I would really, really like to feel a minor quake to see what it's like. Upstate NY is pretty darned stable, geologically speaking, so thankfully any earthquakes that come our way are pretty mellow. I have been chuckling over this link of damage photos. However, I DID get to experience a thunderstorm of Biblical proportions last week, and swear that lightning almost struck the house.

My show at Rasa Spa is coming down next week. I've been happy to be their artist for almost a year, and love being part of such a lovely place. If you wish to see the show, please be sure to go in the next few days.

Branching out, perhaps

2011-08-22T10:30:00.000-04:00

Hmmmm, maybe just maybe I'll start doing belts. More later.

Magic sungold and tomatillo salsa

2011-08-18T19:47:00.002-04:00

It's peak tomato season here, and in celebration, here's my recipe for delicious salsa:

Step 1:
1 pint tomatillos, husk removed and washed with warm water to get rid of the stickiness, cut in half
4-5 cloves garlic
1 jalepeno, halved and seeds removed
1 sweet red pepper
Roast the above ingredients at 350 for an hour. Yum, roasted garlic!

Step 2:
1 red onion, chopped
1 more sweet red pepper
juice of a lime
Add these ingredients to the roasted ingredients above, and chop up finely in a food processor.

Step 3:
1 pint sungold tomatoes (oh so sweet and good), quartered
1 large Brandywine tomato, chopped small
generous dash of salt
Mix everything together, and EAT. Probably with a spoon, it's good.

Variation: last time I made it, I added some fresh sweet corn. Cilantro would be good too.

A wedding certificate

2011-08-15T11:24:00.001-04:00

It's raining and cloudy in Ithaca today, and for once I'm actually happy about it. You may never hear me saying that again, so take note! Taking the morning to putter around, and the gloomy skies make me glad to be inside with no pressure to go outside and run or mow the lawn or participate in some other energetic activity. I will probably also spend some time with my book today (once again sucked into the GRR Martin series in preparation for reading the 5th book that just came out), before waiting tables tonight.

Busy week last week, buckling down to some freelance work while gorging on Radio Lab podcasts. Remember the photo last week of my cat sitting on the desk while I was trying to work on a Quaker-style wedding certificate? Here's the finished, cat-free, product. I'm pleased with the end results and so was the bride. She's from a family who makes delicious hard cider, and the groom is the son of a winery family. Pen and watercolor on 300 lb hot press paper.

yesterday's haikus

2011-08-08T09:44:00.002-04:00

market is ghost town
selling paper in the rain
where are the tourists?

adorable cat
"half-and-half," he is thinking
I open the fridge

Trying to get some work done around here

2011-08-05T14:08:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday y'all! That means I'm heading into my work week. I'm once again freshly back from a nice time at Forked Lake, the annual trip with great friends. We've been doing that for ohhhh almost 20 years now! We're starting to feel like old timers there.

Today is a good working day. I was up early and threw all the camping laundry in to clean while eating breakfast. This being a somewhat ideal day, the breakfast process involved at least a half hour with my tea and book and cat on the lap before actually starting with the real day. Once the Earl Grey settled into my system, I was off to a running start. Had the car packed up for tomorrow's market by 10:30, and dove into some paperwork and bills and other odds and ends of business administration and mucking about on the internet for the rest of the morning. Working on being able to accept credit cards again. After lunch it was up to the studio to finish the preliminary sketch of a wedding certificate (it involves apples).

Now that it's not as hot out, I'm enjoying being in my studio again (which is waaaay upstairs and gets afternoon sun). Here's a photo of my working space today. I know I've posted a million photos of my various cats in various invasive places, but I still think it's funny.

Patterns

2011-07-28T11:01:00.000-04:00

I just have a couple of shoe photos for you today, in case you aren't also stalking my Wingtips Etsy site. Been playing with patterns and different color palettes than usual.

Weather here has been HOT HOT HOT! I confess I kinda love it, reminds me of Thailand, just without the fresh coconuts. Everything slows down and crawls along, and we all go swimming and blueberry picking and eat fresh tomatoes from the garden. Plus bike rides! If I could live in a perpetual summer, life would be lovely. My current fantasy dream plan is to retire to Hawaii someday.

"the expectation that someday we would find a use for them"

2011-07-17T16:06:00.002-04:00

I have a new research obsession, and a new inspiration of the negative kind. Recently I picked up a copy of E.L. Doctorow's novel Homer and Langley, a fiction version of the story of the Collyer brothers, told from the point of view of Homer (the blind brother). (It's this year's Community Read project with our town's library, by the way.) I was horrified and riveted by the tale of hoarding, especially by how the author was able to show the justification to each step along the way to what can only be a form of madness. I won't re-tell the Collyer brother's story in my blog, since you can read the Wikipedia article here (with photos of their stuff!!!!), but suffice to say that when they found Homer dead, it took the police something like 15 days to find the body of Langley, who had been killed in a booby trap of his own making, buried under piles of stuff just a few feet away.

Here's a quote from the book, from a part of the story where the firemen are called in due to a fire in the backyard (p.161):
"Why can't these people ever mind their own business, Langley muttered as the fire hose, connected now to the hydrant at the curb in the front of the house, pulsed through the labyrinth of baled newspapers and slapped this way and that into folded chairs and bridge tables, knocking down standing lamps, stacks of canvases, as the firemen aimed their nozzle through the back door down to the smoking racks of lumber, the used tires, and odd pieces of furniture, a legless bureau, a bedspring, two Adirondack chairs, and other items stored there in the expectation that someday we would find a use for them."

All this makes me think a lot about the blurry continuum that ranges from clutter to hoard. Where is the line that denotes a problem?

Hmmmm. Now, I am not particularly prone to keeping too much stuff around. My weakness is clothing, but I DO clean out my closet regularly. Otherwise, I have the usual bit of clutter in the basement, but I really like openness in my living space. I also appreciate old-and-interesting things, and understand the pursuit of a collection and the reasons for keeping sentimental and historical items around. However, there's a tendency towards "collecting" in my family, and sometimes that makes me nervous.

Reading up on the Collyer brothers has been a good kick in the pants to do some cleaning around here. I recently helped someone near and dear to me (who said I could publish these photos as long as there is no name attached) clean out a particularly stubborn pocket of "things that might come in useful someday." Wow, did that feel good to cart away the rusty bits and old rugs, and then recycle the cardboard and burn the bits of truly rotten wood and put a bunch of things down free by the road.

I'll leave you with a lesson a learned several years ago. A friend had given me a big stack of Vegetarian Times magazines, no doubt chock-full of great recipes and articles and information that might come in useful (being vegetarian myself at the time, and learning to cook). They sat in a pile on my floor, silently reproaching me for not getting around to reading them. One day, I decided to just recycle the whole stack....and holycrow did I suddenly feel free.

Solo camping

2011-07-11T12:22:00.000-04:00

Oh summer, how I love it. Last week I had three days in a row completely free (which I managed by doing all of my work for the week on Tuesday), and so I tied my canoe on the car and took off for the Adirondacks. Being a woman with a strong sense of self-preservation, I have never tried solo camping before, so this was my chance to break free from that self-imposed restriction. I went to Forked Lake, my usual favorite camping place, and had a completely wonderful and relaxing time. Me and my book and making good food over the fire.

Well, the one not-relaxing part was the thunderstorm that struck just as I was heading out with my fully-loaded little canoe across the lake to my site. I was completely drenched and unhappy, muttering imprecations under my breath as I huddled under a tree in my "raincoat" (which stopped working last year under similar circumstances) and then had to empty and flip the canoe to get the water out. But after that, I had time in the sunshine to even get a little bored....which is a luxury.

Here are a few arty photos.

Thinking about marketing

2011-06-30T11:13:00.000-04:00

Today is perfect. Truly perfect warm breezy weather, which makes up a little bit for what April did to us Ithacans. And I just came off four nights in a row of waiting tables, which was fine and profitable, but exhausting. Looking forward to some time with paint today, also time in the garden and running.

Speaking of painting shoes, I've been thinking about marketing a lot recently. Bear with me while I think aloud. I've been taking my shoes to the Farmers' Market for the last few months, and it has been very, very interesting. I am getting loads of GREAT comments and enthusiasm, seeing some real joy (and avarice) in people's eyes when they see the shoes. Lots of inquiries about bespoke work. A few people are even trying them on, and I actually sold two pairs (to out-of-towners). On the other hand, I'm learning that the weekly market is not necessarily my audience. I am also often getting remarks about my high prices, and I don't like seeing the enthusiasm turn to embarrassment and shock when they see the price tags. I'm also not sure if the splashy shoe display isn't detracting from my cards and art, which frankly is my bread-and-butter. Even though I eat neither bread nor butter...hmm, I guess I should say they are my rice-and-greens.

So here are a few thoughts:

First, I'm going to try taking the shoes on Sundays only, to see if having a full booth of cards and art helps my Saturday sales. I will still leave out a sample pair, and have everything in my car in case someone wants to check them out. Sundays are generally quieter days there, and I maybe having two different-looking displays will be good for the different days.

Second, my prices reflect the work and originality that I put into each pair, as well as the cost of buying the shoes and the supplies. They also are in keeping with similar work by other artists around the country. I won't lower them, but might occasionally run a $25 off sale for market customers.

Third, I will be working towards taking my shoes to their audience. As I've mentioned, I plan to apply for some shows in cities in the spring.

Meanwhile, here's a pretty photo from my trip to Oregon, the river at Green Waters Park in Oakridge on a sunny day.

Featuring zombies, for once

2011-06-20T11:19:00.002-04:00

My eldest niece (the one with the boots in the post below) has a great group of clever and amusing friends, and they make their class assignments into movies under the name Table 008. Occasionally these short films involve zombies or the odd anthropomorphized butternut squash. She's the dark-haired zombie victim in this one. Enjoy!

What's been keeping me busy lately

2011-06-14T17:23:00.000-04:00

I had forgotten how much I love California poppies!

I see from my little blog roll here that I haven't made an entry in about a month. Aren't you all just dying of curiosity just what I've been up to that's more distracting than blogging? Well, to work backwards, I'm currently in Oregon, specifically typing to you from the front room of my brother's pub, the Brewers' Union Local 180. My eldest niece graduated from high school last weekend, and my mom and I decided to come out here and surprise everyone for that! Long story short, the surprise worked beautifully, and we also had a chance to visit my sister, and wander around the Chinese Gardens in Portland, and to make a little expensive stop at the Fluevog store to buy the tall black boots of my dreams. My amazing creative niece graduated with literally flying colors (a purple robe and bright green Doc Martens), and I'm enjoying a bit of time on the west coast.

And before that, I was busy working on my Wingtips business and my garden. I'm also mixing things up by starting some kinda-cool waitressing work a few nights per week. Not gonna tell you where right now, but you local Ithaca folks will find me sooner or later. I find that working a job like that is fun and doesn't have homework, plus my taxes are taken care of. All around a refreshing and profitable break from the less-attractive bits of freelance graphic design which have been burning me out. I've found at various times in my life that working a non-art job actually frees up my creative energy for my own work, and I appreciate this. (Side note: wait staff gets $5 an hour, so that 20% tip for good and cheerful service is very much appreciated. We work hard.)

Wingtip is coming along well...I've sold a few pairs at the market and also one pair on Etsy, which is making me very happy. I'm working out a few glitches in the materials (learning which leathers work best) and working out my policies, and also making some longer-term plans: I'd like to do a few big shows in NYC or Philadelphia next spring.

So that's the scoop right now...and it's an exquisitely sunny day in Oakridge, OR, so I'm off to take a run on the trail by the river. Stop in the pub sometime if you're out here, my bro makes a wicked British mild.

Shedding season

2011-05-17T10:21:00.000-04:00

Anyone who is allergic should just stay away for a few weeks.

Spring photos

2011-05-16T11:44:00.000-04:00

Here are a couple of nice spring-y photos to brighten your day. I got the fiddleheads at market, and steamed them and ate them with Annie's goddess dressing. The dogwood tree is in Valley Forge, I took a little trip down there a week or so ago for a dose of green leaves and sunshine.

Rhymes with fandango

2011-05-02T12:21:00.000-04:00

More shoes! These are my favorites so far (and for sale on Etsy right here), I'm kinda into the fish scale thing this week. One of the other fun things about this shoe business is naming them and writing the descriptions. I named this pair "Rhymes with Fandango" after a google search I was doing while trying to come up with a clever name...

Days in the life

2011-04-27T10:04:00.000-04:00

Just in case anyone thinks that self-employed artists laze around all day eating bonbons and painting in the sunshine, as opposed to actually "working," here's what my last few days have entailed:

Monday:
Errand day. After a few hours in the morning dealing with emails, phone calls and other desky business stuff such as accounting, plus a gigantic pile of weekend dishes and laundry, I headed out for errands. Went to the post office (mailing an order), the bank (deposit from weekend market), and finally put some gas in the tank after finally making a little money on the weekend. Then proceeded to Rasa Spa, where I dropped off some notecards for their gift shop, and also shuffled around a few paintings at my show there. Then off to Greenstar, to do notecard inventory because they are looking to increase my shelf space (hurrah!). Then a stop at the newly re-opened Buffalo St. Books to drop off my latest card catalog (isn't it great they're open again!?), followed by walking to the Commons to drop off a notecard order at Home Green Home. Then a quick stop at Trader K's to troll for shoes for painting, had a few specific sizes to look for, and then dropped off a huge pile of books at the library. Several of those books were about Japanese kimono design, since I've been studying Japanese patterns and motifs as shoe inspiration. Stopped by my favorite trail for a 3.5 mile run on the way home. Then I spent a few hours painting shoes before heading out to my evening capoeira class.

Tuesday:
Spent several hours in the morning painting shoes, then took a little trip over to Gary's for art gossip and to collect some notecard inventory he had picked up for me at a gallery I was in. It was finally a gorgeous day, so then I spent the rest of the afternoon on my porch with my computer, making a wee promotional brochure for Wingtip. I also worked on a new version of my notecard catalog, because I have some new designs and haven't updated it in a while. A big thunderstorm came through, and I took some time to make dinner and enjoy the storm with a beverage on the porch. Then a little more shoe painting before calling it an early night (tired).

Today:
Well, it's just beginning, but here's what's on tap. First a little accounting and desky stuff, a wedding announcement preliminary samples, getting a card order together for Greenstar, an afternoon run, and I have three pairs of shoes in various stages of painting...I hope to finish one special order today, and also finish a pair for my Etsy site.

So I'm going to get back to it. I like this level of busy-ness, full of purpose and all about art.

Bespoke

2011-04-22T10:44:00.000-04:00

Friday morning in Ithaca, still waiting for spring to really wake up around here. One day it's 65 and sunny and I am going for a run in my t-shirt, the next day it snows and I light up the woodstove for what I keep hoping is the last time. It's almost Easter, I expect to be wearing a coat to church this year instead of sandals. My friends (and blog readers) are probably getting tired of me whinging about the weather, but every year my SAD gets a little worse and the Ithaca darkness gets a little harder to bear. If I had insurance I would try out some antidepressants for November-March, but as it is I'm just flirting with a little half-caff coffee some especially dark afternoons. Happily, the chicken pox is mostly a memory now.

Meanwhile, I'm finding great joy in this whole shoe-painting business! I haven't been inspired like this in ages, it's all I want to do. My kitchen island and living room are often covered with work in progress. I find it's best to work on several pairs at once, so I can think about the next steps, and also let the paint really dry between coats. My Etsy site is getting lots of looks and some nice comments. AND I have several bespoke orders, five this week alone. I'm thinking this is going to go somewhere. And if not, at least it's really really fun right now. Although all this shoe research means I keep finding shoes I want too.

Bespoke is one of my favorite words, and I love being able to adopt it to describe part of my business. It's a great old somewhat-British word meaning created specifically for a client. Here are a few photos of bespoke shoes I've painted this week, and them the last pair is just for fun (they're for sale on Etsy).

Above are a pair of Danskos for a friend, and below is my first pair for a guy.

These are called Jitterbug Perfume, with a nod to Tom Robbins. See them on Etsy!

Wingtip

2011-04-09T11:59:00.000-04:00

Let's just get one thing out of the way first: I have chicken pox. You heard me right, apparently I'm not too old for this. It's uncomfortable, and I'm cranky, and staying in quarantine is less fun when you're an adult because it doesn't just mean you can stay home from school for a week and eat ice cream.

BUT, the good news is that my blog silence can be completely contributed to launching a new branch of my art business! Introducing Wingtip, super cool shoes hand-painted by me. So far I have several pairs on my new Etsy site, and getting lots of good comments and looks and some inquiries and a couple of orders from friends. Here's a photo of my first pair for a client. She mailed the boots to me, and specified colors and that she liked the Thai-style spirals from a different pair. You might hear a lot about shoes on my blog in the next few months.

Having a new canvas to work on, and a new business to plan and promote, has been a true pleasure, and has saved me from complete Seasonal Affect Disorder despair. It is also giving me justification to go shoe shopping. I'm going to use some of my quarantine time constructively to see if I can figure out how to build one of those free flash websites for this.

Otherwise, spring is making it's painfully slow way to Ithaca. The little wee bulbs are finally up and cheerfully blooming, it hasn't snowed for a week, and the chickens are starting to range farther in the woods. The missing hen melted out of the snowbank a few weeks ago (probably hawks). The Farmers' Market started up again last weekend! I've started running. Every year we all wonder if spring will really actually come, it always seems like a miracle.

My friends say I'm very koi

2011-03-25T22:10:00.000-04:00

I'm turning another vintage pair of Docs into wearable art.

This is super fun, and I'm hatching a business plan for sure. Name suggestions, anyone? "Art and Sole" is already taken, not surprisingly. I'm toying with some other puns (Sole Proprietor, for example, is my current top choice), and also making a list of just cool words (Citrine, Peradventure).

with a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather

2011-03-21T10:39:00.000-04:00

This is the anthem for all Seasonal Affect Disorder sufferers in the world (including yours truly). Why is Natalie Merchant so perky while she sings this?

I see the signs of spring starting, and the snow is gone except for in the shadows, and we've had a few warmish sunny days so I know it's going somewhere...but these last few weeks have been very, very challenging for my mental and emotional energy. The sky in Ithaca is often a coal grey that sits about 3 feet over your head in a dark smooth blanket. I am literally working from my bed today, with computer and sketchbook and pot of tea and two cats.

You want a pair too, don't you?

2011-03-14T10:56:00.000-04:00

Always on the lookout for different canvases. Leather paints (not pants) on thrift store Doc Martens, painted last night after years of wanting to do this. Thai-style spirals and cherry blossoms. It was very very fun, and I want to do more...think there's a business opportunity in this?

Sulpher and onions

2011-03-12T14:34:00.001-05:00

I have a lasting curiosity and love of tropical fruits, the weirder the better. Some of this comes from all the time I've spent at ECHO in Florida, where I learned that the apple of Adam-and-Eve fame was more likely to have been a rose apple. And even though I draw the line at larvae (see this post), I love trying new foods and am fairly adventurous that way. And tropical fruit, WELL, what more delightful way to explore new flavors?

Imagine a giant spiny fruit that stinks, like sulpher and onions gone wrong. Stinks so badly that it's banned from some hotels and buses in Indonesia. This same fruit tastes like a custardy piece of sweet heaven. A fruit that polarizes the population into two camps, those who passionately love and whose who completely abhor. I had heard about durians for years, and had wanted to get my greedy little hands on one so I could see for myself this dichotomy. My friend Becky (super healthy lovely raw-foods-only) confessed once that she loves durians, and also told me that you can find them in the freezer section at the local Asian grocery store. The first durian I bought became the centerpiece of a potluck soon thereafter. Yes, half of us loved it, half hated it.

Being recently back from the tropics and yearning for any sign of spring and any break from the blandness of Ithaca in early March, I took a durian over the Becky's house a few days ago. Her small daughter also loves them. We cracked it open and gleefully devoured the ice-cream-like deliciousness inside. There are five pods inside, each with a few large seeds. It was frozen, so the smell was minimized. I can imagine it's a whole different thing on a hot day in the sunshine.

Look at this thing. Who was the first person to say "hmmm, this big spiny thing that fell out of the tree and smells weird...let's EAT it!"

Monochrome

2011-03-07T11:17:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning to an unexpected 2 feet of snow. Yesterday started off at about 45 degrees and raining, and it all went slowly downhill from there. But I had to laugh when I went outside this morning and really just couldn't see my car under the drifting. Just in case I was mourning the absence of snow and winter while in Thailand, I've had a good dose in the last week.

Yes, I've been back about a week and a half, no blogging though because I was basically sick and grumpy and jetlagged, which doesn't make for interesting and worthwhile blog topics. Re-entry is always a little rough, coming back from adventures and sunshine makes my life in Ithaca very pale and insipid. I'm doing my best to brighten life up here with the colorful tropical things that came out of my suitcases. Here are my Thai banners on the snowy porch this morning.

I have some interesting work right now for the Montezuma Wetlands Complex and Sunbeam Candles. Good clients, good people. I'm also getting ready to get excited about the start of the farmers' market again. I have a few ideas for new paintings too, based on the colors and shapes of Thailand.

So I have a snow day on my hands. Going to organize my studio, get my tax paperwork together, work on some sketches for a client, hang out with the cats, and figure out how to make sticky rice and mango for dinner.

Cartoon biceps and bargaining in Thai

2011-02-20T23:22:00.001-05:00

Today is my last day in the ISDSI office, and so I thought it might be appropriate to show you the main project I have completed for actual work in my time here. Oh right, I was working....not just running around the city shopping and eating and looking at beautiful temples!

Raise your hand if you've ever heard of a garuda.

I hadn't either until a few weeks ago. A garuda is a mythical creature, half-man-half-bird, very strong and fierce and fights and eats dragons and serpents. It appears on the seal of Thailand. The director here wanted a tough-looking garuda design for their new CrossFit gym. Here's the end result. I spent a long time getting the biceps just right. Apparently all men spend part of their teenage years drawing cartoon biceps and superheros, but ya know I skipped that stage of development and so it took me a long time. He's swinging a kettlebell. Looking forward to wearing this t-shirt! I also worked on some other t-shirt designs for ISDSI, and did a few illustrations for my language teacher.

(By the way, if you follow that last link and scroll way down you might see me teaching a capoeira class.)

I fly out of Chiang Mai tomorrow evening, and begin the long trip home. Of course it will be sad to leave, I really love it here and have enjoyed learning the language and exploring and feeling like I really live here for a few weeks. But on the other hand, I look forward to getting back home and working on what's next.

I had a great moment last night, empowered by language and a wee bit of cultural understanding. I had met up with some girlfriends for a Thai massage, and then had to get way back across town to go to the evening Walking Street market one last time. Armed with my newly-learned Thai and some bargaining skills, I asked a couple of tuk-tuk (motorcycle taxi) drivers how much it would cost to get a ride to the Tha Phae Gate. They conferred and said 100 baht.
"Paeng maag!" I replied (too expensive!)
"Mai paeng!" they came back (not expensive!)
"Hahaha! Mai bpai!" (I'm not going)..and I smiled and walked away and crossed the street to flag down a rot daeng (red bus taxi). I asked the driver...and got a ride for 40 baht. That's more like it.

Glittering

2011-02-16T21:16:00.000-05:00

Walking by the wat with the mirror walls near the north gate of Chiang Mai.

A brief pseudo-ethnography of farmers' markets

2011-02-13T21:29:00.000-05:00

This is an entry for my market friends at home. As most of you know, I'm part of the Ithaca Farmers' Market and therefore have a certain fondness for this genre of food shopping. Thailand is full of markets of various kinds, from the tourist-ridden weirdo Night Bazaar to the local farmers sitting by the side of the road with their basket of papayas. Here in Chiang Mai we tend to get our food for the house primarily at the market down the road (pummelos, cashews, eggs, spices, greens, kilos of passionfruit, fresh orange juice, snacks wrapped in banana leaves, etc etc)....I often walk there in the afternoons after leaving the ISDSI office. I also love strolling the Sunday evening Walking Street market downtown, about a kilometer of road closed to traffic and completely packed with art and craft and food vendors. It's so fun. Even though I come from the other side of the world, I feel a certain solidarity with the vendors at these places, setting up their displays and being nice to customers and answering questions and hoping to make a living...I know what that's like.

There's a mix of people at all of these markets...some seem to be peddling items that were made or grown elsewhere, but some people are definitely there with their own produce or art/craft.

Here's a couple of photos of farmers' markets. The first is the Je-je Market, a small organic market which is open two days per week...we go on Saturday morning and stock up in an attempt to limit exposure to the otherwise ubiquitous chemicals. The second is just a nice shot of a bountiful display of tropical vegetables available at the market that's open every day down on the east side of the old city near the moat (there's also a noodle vendor there, which has been my source for fresh wide rice noodles as I continue the quest to make my own pad see eu).

Here be dragons

2011-02-09T07:05:00.000-05:00

I'm exhausted! One of my best friends from waaaay back had a few days off in the middle of a business trip to visit, and the last few days have been a whirlwind tour of every possible fun thing to do in Chiang Mai. Belynda and I hit the Chinatown shopping area, back sois full of scarves and bags and embroidery, the Sunday Walking Street Market, ate our way through the city (street food and restaurants), massage and manicures, fruit shakes and iced teas, temples, more markets, walking all over the place, and the grand finale of a fun-and-scary bus ride at rush hour. She is on her way to the next leg of her trip, and I'm definitely going to bed early tonight.

I'm feeling rather pleased with my rudimentary Thai language. I might sound like a two-year-old with a bad accent, but I can negotiate market prices, talk to tuk-tuk drivers (and arrive in the right place) and ask where a bathroom can be found. Not that I always understand the answers, however...

But now it's back to work, I have something like three t-shirt designs to work on that are slowly not going anywhere. But they will look fresher in the morning.

Here's my favorite photo from the last week, dragon feet at Wat Buppharam, just outside the east gate of the city.

The other, OTHER white meat

2011-02-08T08:58:00.000-05:00

My life is now complete. I have seen a street vendor at the famous Chiang Mai Flower Festival peddling fried insects. And before you ask, no I didn't.

Color

2011-02-01T21:29:00.002-05:00

I had a great day yesterday. I could understand enough Thai on the bus to know that the people were talking about food (although people often talk about food here, you would too). I walked through the northeast corner of the old city, which is full of small streets and no traffic and flowers and shops. I took a full-day cooking class (oh yes I did). Got a pedicure for about $7. Returned triumphant from the market with cashews, acacia, wide rice noodles, and tiny bananas.

Here's a dose of color for my friends on the east coast being snowed under. I have to confess it's hard not to gloat a little when I read the Ithaca weather report and see phrases like "freezing drizzle" and "windchill of -2."

In which my drawings are useful

2011-01-30T10:29:00.000-05:00

Alright everyone, this right here is one of the best parts of my job. I mentioned a few posts ago that the Echo folks had me illustrating a seed-saving tutorial. I used big markers on heavy canvas, to create sort of a flip chart which can survive being rolled up and taken to villages. Not that these are particularly amazing illustrations or anything, but it's a true pleasure to work on a project that will directly be useful, and possibly helpful. Here it is in action last week at a seed swap meeting in a Palong village. This tribe is seriously displaced, having left their homeland in China and then needing to flee Burma and now trying to find a place to be in Thailand. It's a longer story than that involving land rights and citizenship issues, and far more convoluted, and I don't know most of it so I won't try to tell it.

Of course, the Palong women who are listening to this presentation probably already know more about saving seeds than I ever will.

I realized long ago that I'm not cut out to be an actual agricultural development worker, or an environmental educator, or an ecologist who has the knowledge and equipment to save the world and everything in it...even though that's where my interests and passions lie. However, I can draw, and therefore can offer that skill to the people doing the groundwork.

2011-01-27T21:10:00.000-05:00

Palong woman weaving

Aritifcial with pepper

2011-01-26T08:41:00.000-05:00

I've been in Thailand for a full week now, feeling very settled into my work and play. I'll be spending about 3 days per week at ISDSI, and the other days working on freelance projects (a girl's gotta keep generating income) or exploring the city or taking advantage of any mini-adventure opportunities that come up. I spent yesterday working for the ECHO Asia office on a series of large illustrations on canvas sheets, depicting seed-saving techniques...I will see those sheets in action tomorrow at a seed-swap event in a village populated by displaced hill tribe people. On the other end of the humanitarian spectrum, I'm designing a t-shirt for the ISDSI crossfit gym. More about that later.

And yes, in case you were wondering...the food continues to be amazing. One of my goals this year is to learn how to prepare some of these dishes. To the right here, you'll see the ingredients for som tam (green papaya salad). I learned that food should contain something sour, sweet, salty, and hot to get a good balance. In this case: lime, palm sugar, fish sauce, and chilis. The fish you see over there was awfully good too. My friend Laura referred to the crispy basil/lemongrass/garlic scattered on it as "the magic." I'm not entirely sure that it doesn't also contain crack cocaine, since it's very addictive and I want more (just kidding, Mom).

I started Thai language classes today, and my head feels like it might explode from all the newness I tried to absorb. I hope some of it sticks and doesn't just pass through my brain without stopping to visit for a while. Fortunately today's class was all about food words.

I'll leave you with this menu, from last Sunday's restaurant adventure.

I don't know what it means, but it looks cool

2011-01-23T02:49:00.003-05:00

Yay! I'm in Thailand! It's a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon here, and I'm optimistic that the jetlag is done with a minimum of fuss. My trip over was a fairly uneventful 36 hours, and the first week has been busy getting adjusted and oriented and generally arriving. I feel like I never left, picking right up again where I left off last year. The people I'm mainly working for, ISDSI, sent everyone on a retreat this weekend to a beautiful national park with a waterfall. More photos might make their way onto my blog in the near future, but for right now I'll just show you the amazing Saturniid moth that visited us last night.

soil as soft as summer

2011-01-10T10:34:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite songs, and particularly apropos as I am packing to fly to the other side of the world.

Last year, in Bangkok

2011-01-06T17:23:00.000-05:00

(I'm flying to Thailand in a week or so, and remembered writing the following in the airport last year during the arduous journey home. I had forgotten about the statue of the three-headed elephant.)

_________________________________________________________

I’m in the Bangkok airport in a plastic chair across from the waiting room for monks, midnight Thai time on a Monday night, waiting for an early morning flight which will stop in Japan on the way back to the east coast and winter. I have a stuffed head, no voice above a whisper, and shall we say "female complaints." Am exiled to the outer circle of airport hell because I was given the wrong information about which terminal to go to in Chiang Mai, and therefore missed passport control and cannot check in again until a few hours before my flight. All the comfortable places to hang out are inside the gates.

Let’s go back a few days to when I got locked out of the house. I had finished work at the international studies institute (water buffalo icon was the last thing on the docket) and took off for the afternoon to explore Nimmanheiman, a “high-so” neighborhood in Chiang Mai. I successfully got a pedicure, a delicious smoothie with lots of passionfruit juice, and had trolled through a few galleries, which resulted in procuring a seed pod lined with gold leaf and a nice conversation with a fellow botanical illustrator. Then I walked through some back sois searching for the statue of the three-headed elephant and the weird parking lot which would lead me to my friends’ place with the lovely swimming pool. Success there as well, refreshed and slightly more tanned I went upstairs and got changed and was planning to head home for a few hours of quiet. This is where things took the turn. Laura calls to let me know that the housekeeper probably locked the door to which I do not have a key. Meanwhile, I can feel the sniffle I had turning into a full-blown head cold. My friends are gracious and feed me, I’m picked up a few hours later, finally get home and collapse.

Saturday morning: woke up at 6 AM with lungs at half capacity, knowing I have to run a 5K at 8:00. We barely get there in time because of a child meltdown over a piece of plastic ribbon which was suddenly his pet snake which needed to have its head taped. Actually felt better after the run, but then I was locked out of the car which had my breakfast in it, and I got a headache from a combination of smacking my head getting into the rot dang and sinuses and a run in hot weather and diesel fumes and a winding road. Teaching “art in the park,” not so much. Staggered home and slept all afternoon. Art show that evening at a church event, which was great. But my voice started disappearing, and I could not sleep that night.

Sunday, sabai sabai morning…but no voice at all, not even a peep. Started packing, incredible how much I picked up here. Walking street in the evening, a great time and a few last minute beautiful purchases. Spiral earrings, crazy quilt hill tribe style, Harley shirt in Thai script for my brother. Hard to have a conversation in a busy street market when I can’t speak above a whisper. More packing, another late night.

Monday, also sabai sabai. Skype date with my family (short because still no voice), rode on the outside of the song tau which makes me happy, good lunch, easy final packing, goodbyes all around, a beautiful ride in heavy traffic along three walls of the old city. Sad whispered farewells, a virtual girding of my loins for the 36 hours ahead, and then I went through the wrong gate…

Birds falling from the sky

2011-01-05T15:00:00.000-05:00

Hooray, the first blog entry of a new year! At least I have some new art to show to start things out right.

Ben has been in town for the week, which of course means some art adventures. He was keen to work on some etchings, and I appreciated the kick in the pants to get out the plates and chemicals and work on an idea which has been percolating in my subconscious for a while. I had been watching big fluffy snowflakes fall and thinking they looked a little like birds in a flock...and what if there was some kind of spontaneous generation of avian life from the clouds? But now I read today about three places (Arkansas, Louisiana, Sweden) where actual birds are actually falling out the actual sky...dead in shocking big groups from unknown causes. That's a whole different story from my fanciful, rather pretty vision.

I was just reading up on the recent falling-birds stories, and so far there's no working theory about why this is happening. I don't have the scientific background to make any viable theories, but it has the feel of canaries-in-coal-mines to me. What is going on in the atmosphere and environment that would be killing off birds like that? I become suspicious about human causes, chemicals and other junky by-products we keep off-gassing. Doesn't help that I was recently also reading about the continued clean-up of the Gulf oil spill.

It's good to talk about the larger issues of societal responsibility for trashing the environment (which range from poverty to lobbyists), but it's also good for me to look at what my own responsibilities are on my own little scale. It's time for new year's resolutions....over the last few years I've made and kept two really good ones: never taking plastic bags in stores (3 years ago), and only recycled toilet paper in my house (at least 10 years ago). What's it going to be this year?

Snow day

2010-12-30T09:45:00.000-05:00

Two photos for you this morning, taken after our lake effect snow day earlier this week. I let the ladies out, and they quested out bravely into the new snow which was up their lower feathers.

And then I went skiing, one of the only reasons I can stand the Ithaca winter.

In which I am a tourist attraction

2010-12-27T10:38:00.000-05:00

yawn blink blink...I'm emerging from my holiday-induced cave this morning. If I see my shadow I might hide for another few weeks.

So, December was a busy month. I started throwing things overboard to stay afloat and the first thing to go was my blog. But now Christmas and its attendant craziness is behind us, and my parents' 50th wedding anniversary party too (which was a rousing success! and I'm very proud of them!), and the fun of family visits is coming to a close. Also, market is done for the season, and all I have to do is clean out my display at the Holiday Store. I rejoice that I don't have to be pleasant and professional to customers for a few months...although I dearly love my customers I am ready for a break from the retail aspects of my business and eager to spend some time in the studio instead. Right now, big fluffy snowflakes are falling, my wood stove is cranking out heat, and I'm contemplating shoveling out the driveway in a little while so I can go skiing in the woods.

Our last farmers' market of the year is held on the Saturday before Christmas, and the occasion is marked by the annual Rutabaga Curl. It's a uniquely Ithaca event, sort of a mix of lightly choreographed street theatre and community enthusiasm in the guise of a sport somewhat like bocci ball but with root vegetables. I get to be the Rutabaga Goddess, a title I have rejoiced in for 10 years. Which means more crazy headgear (this year I added lights) and a bedsheet toga, strangers taking my photo (which showed up on the front page of the Ithaca Journal this time around), and athletes asking me to bless their 'bagas before rolling. This year things were enlivened by a band of protesters calling themselves PIECRUST (People in Ithaca Exposing Cruelty to Rutabagas something something) and carrying signs such as "it's all fun and games until a potato loses an eye" and "those who BEET their vegetables will get a RUTAwakening." And I'm proud to say that I took the second place medal through pure blind luck...even though some people were questioning whether some divine intervention was involved. It's fun...follow the links and check it out.

I have a new hat

2010-12-07T12:37:00.000-05:00

One of the best parts of going to these art-and-craft shows is meeting other artist-and-craftspeople. And meeting their art or craft. As you know from my incessant harping, I was at the Plowshares festival last weekend, and came home with a new hat which makes me very, very happy. The business name is Artsy Fartsy Productions, no website or I would pass it along...but keep an eye (or two or four) out for her work at a show near you.

Lake effect snow today, which means big fluffy flakes swirling around like magic. I was supposed to work at one of my graphic design jobs today, but moved it to a later day because I have a cold and was not so interested in shoveling out this morning. It's good to have a snow day, and I might get to that silkscreening project yet.

Old-school etching

2010-11-30T20:51:00.001-05:00

Oh huzzah, I spent some time in my etching studio today! No new plates, but trying to catch up on printing some editions because my print bin is dangerously low for this coming weekend's Plowshares show. The printing process is a bit of a mystery for many people, so I took some photos with the goal of making a little tutorial about old-school etching. I love complicated and obscure and old-fashioned art processes. But it didn't really turn into a fully-functional step-by-step photo essay after all...although I did get a few arty shots to share.

The first step is to ink the plate, squishing the ink down into the etched lines with a plastic mini squeegee thing (sorry, I don't remember the technical term). After the plate is inked, I gently wipe the surface of the plate clean with some stiff cloth, which leaves the ink in the lines to create the image.

This particular piece involves two plates. After they are both inked and wiped, I lay them out on the bed of my beautiful etching press (with a piece of newsprint behind to keep the press bed clean).

I lay a piece of printmaking paper (which has been soaked in water and rolled out with a rolling pin between towels) over the plates, then the blankets go on top for cushioning and better contact. I crank the big flywheel to move the bed between some big rollers, which presses the paper tight to the plates to pick up the ink in the etched lines.

And here is the print being pulled from the plates! Always an exciting moment. Now the prints I pulled this morning are drying between pieces of blotting paper with heavy things on top of them.

2010-11-24T20:36:00.000-05:00

In a brief lull between shows and work, the Thanksgiving gluten-and-sugar free sweet potato pie is out of the oven, and I'm taking a moment to throw a photo up on my blog and let you all know I'm still alive. Thought you might enjoy seeing some of the lovely eggs my flock are producing these days. Please note that there are green eggs, but there's no need to reference Dr. Seuss.

I just uploaded my 2011 Community Supported Art sign-up on my website. More info to follow...

Shows and such

2010-11-17T09:57:00.000-05:00

I had to run into A.C. Moore yesterday as part of my quest for the right color mattboard for some framing, and my ears were assaulted by really, really loud Christmas music. I have a strong dislike for pop music in stores anyway (because then I have songs I don't like stuck in my head for hours), and early season Christmas music is extra rough for me. But ya know, we gotta start getting in the cozy warm buying spirit!

Speaking of, I am madly preparing for two big out-of-town shows. One is this approaching weekend: the Sauquoit Valley Fine Arts and Crafts Show, near Utica, NY. The other is December 4-5 in Syracuse: the awesome Plowshares show, sponsored by the Syracuse Peace Council.

Which means I'm pretty much busy with folding and packing cards, making journals, framing prints and paintings, collating calendars, driving back and forth to the printer, sorting out displays and tables, and generally being pretty boring in my little productive world (not the stuff of riveting blog entries). I have some new limited edition products for the holidays: cool little magnet sets and address books.

Something fun is going on tomorrow night though! Rasa Spa is having their 4th birthday party, and the reception for my show is part of the festivities! Here's a link to the directions and information. I'll be there for the evening, with a wee collection of things for sale. I'm happy to say that I sold a painting from that show this week, amusingly enough the one hanging over the urinal in the mens' room! Probably the one people looked at the most...

Anyway, hope to see you at one of these places.

ta-daaaa!

2010-11-12T22:00:00.001-05:00

At long weary last, the time has come to reveal the calendar. Above is a page from the larger version (8.5 x 11). This one is back from the printer, and I'm excited to take them to market tomorrow, and to the Holiday Store as well. Below is a page from the smaller version, which fits in a CD case and sits on your desk in a perky kind of way. This one will be going to the printer on Monday, and available by the end of the week, Lord willing and the creeks don't rise. They'll be on my website and Etsy in the near future.

Cozy

2010-11-10T18:01:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted any photos of the animals I live with in a while. Here's Nebraska looking sly. He's super cute and loves me, but definitely has a streak of pure badness.

Today was a good day. I woke up ready to work, the sun came out, I painted all day (those of you who have been following the saga of me trying to make these calendar paintings, you will be glad to know that I'm DONE with them and will now stop whinging and procrastinating), the woodstove has been going and therefore I am one more step closer to a fuel-oil-free life, a took a nice run, and now there's a celebratory homemade gluten-and-dairy-free pizza-like delicious creation in the oven about to come out for me to consume.

I love my woodstove.

Flow

2010-11-09T10:10:00.000-05:00

Once in a while, paintings flow. This came out last night, after I got home from a Farmers' Market meeting...the idea was apparently incubating while I was listening to talk of work hours and board elections. Watercolor on illustration board, destined to be Miss January in my calendar. Three more to go, hoping to have them done by the weekend...

Holiday Store opens

2010-11-06T19:24:00.000-04:00

Been packing cards and cutting mats all last week, and here's the end result...my little display at the Holiday Store. We opened last night to a rather enthusiastic crowd. Check it out, we're on the Commons in Ithaca, in the Night and Day building, open every day until Christmas.

The good earth

2010-11-04T18:11:00.000-04:00

It was sunny yesterday, so I got outside and messed around in the garden and yard. "Putting the garden to bed," as they say...pulling out all the dead plants, rolling up the fence, hauling stuff to the compost pile, turning the soil, chucking old green tomatoes and frost-killed squash at tree trunks for the thrill of the smash. I also dug my potatoes. The summer was so busy that I didn't plant the seed potatoes that my housemates left for me when they moved out until (shameful confession) sometime in July. So this is what I got.

From journeys to journals

2010-10-21T16:51:00.002-04:00

Alright, enough of this mooning around looking at photos of big mountains! I'm back in Ithaca, and deep in preparations for the Christmas season. Every day I'm spending a few hours creating or packaging cards, prints, journals, boxes, gift cards...getting orders out to stores, reconfiguring my market displays, planning ahead for big seasonal art-and-craft fairs, updating Etsy, cleaning and painting the space where the Holiday Store will open. These journals were made fresh this morning...and if you like one, email me or come to the market this weekend!

Autumn is really here, with a taste of winter. Saw the S-word in the forecast, and right now my woodstove is glowing in the corner of the living room. I find this season before the snow comes to be very challenging, all the dark mornings and damp, chilly days and early evenings.

Shuksan

2010-10-21T16:46:00.002-04:00

I'm processing some of the photos from my west coast adventures, and you really should see this one! Mt Shuksan, in the North Cascades, reflected in Picture Lake, apparently one of the most photographed spots in the world, and I see why. What a perfect, clear day...I was field-tripping up to Mt Baker with the legendary Doc Sheldon, looking for ptarmigan and mountain goats.

Islands

2010-10-11T21:29:00.002-04:00

I'm home from my reconnaissance trip to Oregon and Washington, and just getting back to my computer and scanner and other tools of modern communication. It was a sleepless red-eye flight home after a fine drive down the Columbia River Gorge to Portland with all the mountain out, and it took a few days of weird nap times and general discombobulation and crankiness to get myself back in line. Not to mention returning to a house which two poorly-behaved but adorable cats had been living in unsupervised for almost three weeks. Not to mention a full market weekend, and preparing to hang another show in a few days. BUT it's great to see my Ithaca friends and the lovely fall weather, and I really love my own comfortable bed.

I particularly loved my time on Whidbey Island, in the sound north of Seattle. Here's a page from my travel sketchbook, looking out to the islands from the beach at Deception Pass. I just finished a larger acrylic painting based on this, which will go up on Wednesday at Rasa Spa as part of my show there.

(Side note: since I've been painting islands and thinking about whether I could manage to live there or something, I have been plagued with having snippets of that classic early '80's duet featuring Dolly P. and Kenny R. in my head for DAYS (which I will not mention here by name lest it return).

I have a great little story to tell too, a sweet moment that really made my week. I was out on Friday evening at Just A Taste, taking in a fantastic meal with a friend who wanted to see my paintings there before they came down. Halfway through our meal, the head waitress came over and told me that the woman over there at the table wanted to buy the painting, that one over there in the corner, right off the wall and was that ok with me? Heck yeah!

Cairns

2010-10-03T22:12:00.001-04:00

Cairns my eldest niece and I built on the Oregon coast.

Looking at Mount Baker all day

2010-09-30T00:34:00.005-04:00

"These mountain–Mount Baker and the Sisters and Shuksan, the Canadian Coastal and the Olympics on the peninsula–are surely the edge of the known and comprehended world. They are high. That they bear their own unimaginable masses and weathers aloft, holding them up in the sky for anyone to see plain, makes them, as Chesterson said of the Eucharist, only the more mysterious by their very visibility and absence of secrecy. They are the western rim of the real, if not considerably beyond it. If the Greeks looked at Mount Baker all day, their large and honest art would have broken, and they would have gone fishing, as these people do..."

(yet another Annie Dillard quote, from Holy the Firm, my favorite book of all time)

Soooo, right. This is where I am right now, exploring the Pacific Northwest, visiting family and friends, doing some reconnaissance for potential sabbatical-ness, and looking at Mount Baker all day. Photos will be coming soon.

Brookton's Market

2010-09-20T09:43:00.002-04:00

Even though we're already nearing the end of September, it's not too late to show you what my botanical show at Brookton's Market looks like. Go check it out, and pick up some coffee and a few groceries while you're there...my paintings will be up until October 3rd. I'm proud of my little town's beautiful market.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my packing for a quick escape to the Pacific Northwest, leaving in a few hours for grand adventures with family and friends. I figured now is the time to go, because when I get back the gloves are off for the early Christmas season. My first job when I get back is to finish my 2011 calendars...but I won't think about that right now.

Tomatillos

2010-09-16T11:32:00.003-04:00

I've been cooking a lot this week, inspired by all the great produce available right now in our fine town (did you know that Ithaca has been named one of the top five foodie towns by Bon Appetit magazine?). I also have a little more time this week it seems, almost caught up on my freelance work in preparation for heading out to the west coast next week. Anyway, I made this amazing salsa twice this week, and you should too:

1 pint tomatillos, husk removed and washed with warm water to get rid of the stickiness, cut in half
4-5 cloves garlic
1 jalepeno, halved and seeds removed
1 sweet red pepper

Roast the above ingredients at 400 for about 45 minutes. Mmmm...roasted garlic!

1 red onion, chopped
1 more sweet red pepper
juice of a lime
cilantro (optional if you are one of those people who think cilantro tastes like soap)

Add these ingredients to the roasted stuff above, and chop up finely in a food processor.

1 pint sungold tomatoes (oh so sweet and good), quartered
1 large regular tomato (I used a Brandywine, also sweet), chopped small
generous dash of salt
magic

Mix everything together, and EAT!

Sky

2010-09-13T09:08:00.002-04:00

Monday morning...early fall has arrived in Ithaca, it's chilly and damp and grey. Some of my crazy friends keep claiming that fall is their favorite season, but that is not an opinion I share...I'm sad to see the sun hide, and also generally dislike being cold. Basically this weather change makes me want to buy plane tickets...which I did, and I'm heading out to make a grand tour of Oregon and Washington a week from today!

I'm working on my calendar paintings, as mentioned a few posts ago. Here's another of them, an August afternoon sky.

Not really a happy ending

2010-09-09T08:23:00.003-04:00

A couple of weekends ago, I got home from market and opened the chicken coop to check for eggs. There's a funny little ledge inside the door, which is hidden when the door is closed, where I often startle mice or see a little stash of mouse-hoarded corn. On that day, I surprised a small mouse with a missing tail, who was hovering over three just-born pink babies. I shut the door quickly, and decided that I should perhaps introduce a nice box for them to hide in from the omnivorous chickens.

In the process of introducing the box, with the best of intentions, I scared off the mother mouse. Hmmm. But I left the babies in the box for the evening. I checked back at night when I locked up the coop, and there was still no sign of the mother. So I decided to just move the babies back to the original ledge, and hope she would come back for them if they were where she had originally left them.

Kind of worried about it that night, since I was starting to feel responsible for messing with this situation, even with good intentions.

The next morning, heading out to Sunday market, there were only two babies left on the ledge. Did that mean she had come back for them? Or had one fallen out and died? When I got home again that afternoon, I ran right over and checked. No sign of any babies on the ledge...oh well, end of story. But then I saw one on the ground, where it had fallen...still shockingly alive 24 hours after my first "intervention." Ok ok, at this point I definitely felt responsible and decided to try to take care of it myself rather than let it die from my neglect.

My internal dialogue by now is going something like this: "Why am I doing this? I mean, I cheer for my cats when they kill mice! I don't WANT mice in my house! This is just an exercise in heartbreak anyway if I get attached, because chances are very slim it will survive. I don't WANT to do this, but I feel responsible and have a choice here. I should try to choose the chance of life over the certainty of death."

So I installed the wee baby in a Chinese takeout container, on some cloth, with a hot water bottle under the container to keep it warm. Got some eyedroppers. Looked up on the internet what to do. Did you know that you have to stroke a baby mouse with a wet q-tip to make it, umm, eliminate? (That mimics the mother mouse's licking, which it needs.) Fed it tiny drop by drop...all I had were half-and-half and eggs, mixed with water to thin it. Took it to a potluck because I needed to feed it. Was amazed every time I checked that it was still alive. This little thing was about the size of my first finger joint, and you could see through its skin....fragile, but surviving. I didn't get attached. Why was I doing this? All this care and work for a baby mouse of all things, this is ridiculous.

Maybe two days later I was out at the coop again, locking up in the evening. I spotted a nice fluffy mouse nest on top of the nesting boxes, and carefully poked it to see if it was occupied. It was!! So I decided, with great relief, to leave the baby I was attempting to care for in the nest and hope for the best. The next morning all seemed well, so I felt I had discharged my duty.

So in one way this is a happy ending. I feel good that I took care of my responsibility and made the choice to try to make a good ending out of a situation I had messed up. But in another way it's not...I got some new hens the next day, and in the process of getting them settled the mouse nest was destroyed. But that was ok, because it wasn't through my intervention or neglect.

Orion and Sycamore

2010-09-06T12:23:00.002-04:00

My friend Brandon (who has very cool tattoos) just emailed some photos to me of my mannequins. I painted these several years ago, salvaged from old store displays...experimenting with using the form as a canvas for landscape.

Phalaenopsis

2010-08-31T21:35:00.002-04:00

I spent most of today painting! Watercolors! Oh hurrah, actually being an artist instead of running the business of being an artist.

See, I thrive on deadlines, although I don't want to admit it. I'm putting up a show of botanical paintings at Brookton's Market on Friday, and of course want some new work to show. I also want to have a collection of 12 new paintings for my 2011 calendars and have set a deadline of getting those done and designed by October because many of the more future-thinking and organized people of my acquaintance have been asking for them already. So I'm buckling down with a couple of botanical subjects which will work for both. Here's a Phalaenopsis orchid, hot off the drawing table. I also worked on some quite perky green pears and started on a collection of hot peppers. This means, of course, that I will be framing these new pieces moments before they are due to go on the wall.

(Technical sidebar: my scanner does not do well with yellows and sap green...I had to adjust a lot in photoshop to make the colors not look hideous. That's why the white space looks all grey in this scan. It might be time for a business investment in a new scanner.)

Speaking of shows, I moved my larger pieces from the Kitschen Sink over to Just a Taste (an absolutely delicious tapas place) yesterday. Just a Taste is my favorite restaurant in Ithaca, hint hint...

2010-08-27T20:13:00.002-04:00

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember the distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

(opening line of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

Snapshot: wednesday afternoon inside my brain

2010-08-25T17:09:00.006-04:00

So here I am with my computer, store-sitting at the new Ithacamade space down here on State St. Have you been in yet? It's right next to the State Diner and kind of tucked in with Mimi's Attic (a secondhand furniture store that always looks like the way you'd like your living room to look). We've only been open two or so weeks, this is my first time working here.

So I haven't blogged much lately, mostly because I've been doing a lot of graphic design work, which
a) means I'm spending far too much time on the computer, and
b) makes for dull blogging (unless you're keen on hearing my inner dialogue about font sizes and color palettes), even though I do really quite good work and have interesting clients.

So here's what else is on my mind right now:

1) I am HUNGRY, and going to go get a giant Super Basic burrito at Viva at 6:00. 35 minutes to go.
2) just ordered some new journals and boxes and such, the New Product ap is ticking away in the back of my mind because...
3) ...the Christmas season is right around the corner, when I lose all touch with reality in the process of getting my cards and other gifty whatnots out to the four corners of the universe during the big shopping frenzy that ironically celebrates one of the most sacred Christian holidays.
4) I would very much like to take a sabbatical next year.
5) Huh, I have two shows to hang next week...more about that later.
6) It's really quiet around my place in the mornings, now that Harold the rooster is gone to greener pastures.
7) I've been posting new things on Etsy every few days, working to make that a more interesting and active storefront.
8) REALLY need to find time to start the paintings for my new calendar!
9) let's get back to that burrito and sabbatical...

In which I am a movie star!

2010-08-22T22:17:00.000-04:00

Looks like a sunset

2010-08-19T16:11:00.002-04:00

Harold the rooster's days at my coop are numbered. I realized that he would be a menace in the winter...visions of him flying out the door at me with spurs extended velociraptor-style during the cold months when the chickens are cooped up all the time have been dancing in my head. Fortunately, Glenwood Farms, market friends who raise bison on the other side of town, actually need a rooster to defend their large hen flock. The exchange hasn't been scheduled, but it will be soon as I'm adopting four new hens next week.

Wee bits of practical art for your house

2010-08-15T21:12:00.003-04:00

Time now for a little shameless self-promotion. I'm happy to present the latest experimental additions to the line of products out there with my artwork on them...ta-daaaaa! Coasters! These are available on my Etsy page and at the Ithacamade store in downtown Ithaca, or call me up and order a set. They are 4x4 inches, ceramic, and backed with cork. Beautifully printed by Loudeac Studio, in Newfield NY.

The top one is my illustration of a Western Meadowlark nest, and the lower is a painting I call September Evening.

Anyone going to New Caledonia, and need a botanical illustrator?

2010-08-14T21:16:00.003-04:00

"Hey," I can hear some of you thinking, "this is supposed to be a blog about ART, right? What's up with all these recipes and photos of camping trips and quotes about peaches?"

In answer to that unspoken question (and to balance out all the graphic design I've been doing this week), here's something from the more traditional side of my repertoire. A dissection plate from a job a few years ago working for a really nice Cornell botanist who studies legumes, specifically from Madagascar. This is kind of an obscure renaissance-like skill I have, botanical dissection plates. With dissecting microscope and wee little tools for pulling the flowers apart, ruler, lots of sketches, transfer paper, and final work done with a crowquill flexible nip pen and bottle of ink. Very old school, very satisfying in a tedious geeky kind of way.

I would like more work like this. Preferably on an old school expedition into the jungle somewhere discovering new species...? Anyone...?

Rat a TWO eeee

2010-08-10T10:25:00.004-04:00

Remember the zucchini from a few entries ago? Well, that was just a harbinger of the bounty to come. August in NY means blueberries, peaches, tomatoes, greens, squash, peppers...in short, more produce at once than the average person can handle. My fridge was full to bursting a few days ago with gorgeous local organic produce (lucky me!). I tried to take a photo of it, but it didn't turn out so well...instead you'll have to look at my salad. Everything in that bowl (with the exception of the sunflower seeds) is from the market, or my garden, including the eggs.

I should be making art, but these days call for some time spent in the kitchen. I have blueberries and peaches in the freezer, plus some tomato sauce and chopped tomatoes for winter chili. I've made vast batches of pesto (just basil, garlic, sea salt, olive oil and walnuts...no dairy). Lunch today will be veggies with baba ganouj (roasted eggplant spread).

One of my favorite easy recipes for this time of year is ratatouille. All of the veggies and herbs that is calls for are ripe and plentiful right now. This recipe is basically from page 179 of the classic Moosewood cookbook.

Ingredients:
olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 onions, chopped
1 big round or 2 long thin eggplants, cubed
salt
basil
oregano
rosemary
thyme (I have a HUGE thyme plant in the garden, yikes!)
2 zucchini (recipe calls for 1, but you gotta use 'em up), cubed
2 bell peppers
black pepper
3 large tomatoes, chopped (or a large can of them)
optional: black olives, parsley

Saute the garlic and onions for 5 minutes, add the eggplants, salt, and herbs and cook, covered, for about 20 minutes, stirring once in a while. Add tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers, and cook for another 10-15 minutes. That's it. Makes a delicious summer stew.

Every time I eat a peach I think...

2010-08-09T20:08:00.002-04:00

Shall I part my hair behind?
Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers,
and walk along the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me...

(T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock")

Ithacamade

2010-08-05T09:48:00.002-04:00

It's exciting to see the lower end of State St (now Martin Luther King Jr St) turn into such a hip and trendy new neighborhood...what with Felicia's, Gimme, Mama Goose, Kitchen Theatre, etc. And now the latest addition will be Ithacamade, a cooperative venture of about 10 local artists and artisans, with a fun array of products and art for your browsing pleasure. Please come to Gallery Night, our big opening, if you're around....and then bring your out-of-town friends back so they can take home a little piece of Ithaca-ness. Members include Alice, Werner, and Natasha.

One exciting thing about this store opportunity is that I can work on some new products that I can't sell at the market. On the drawing board are some new designs for coasters and tiles, which I will keep you updated about.

My graphic design freelance work just picked up again, and combined with getting ready for this store to open and keeping up with market, I have not had two seconds to turn around. I'll be back soon.

The Nutmeg of Consolation

2010-08-01T22:02:00.003-04:00

Here's a short photo essay of my week at Forked Lake. Did I even get out my sketchbook? Oh nooooo...but I had a great time hanging out with some of my dearest friends, cooking over the fire, appreciating some solitude, getting a great tan, and reading a slightly cheesy novel. I spent a lot of time on the dock. All was peaceful except for the short-lived but drenching storm that blew down the lake and directly into our main site...we were clinging to tent poles and watching everything go to wrack and ruin around the picnic table. But the sun came out the next day and everything recovered. This was a good break in the summer, and now August looks busy.

Let me introduce you to my canoe. Her name is the Nutmeg of Consolation, with a nod to my literary hero Patrick O'Brian, and she's a 12 foot Old Town solo canoe. Glides beautifully and responsively through the water, and weighs all of about 33 pounds soaking wet. Easy for me to load on my car and lift out of the water. On this trip I had a pirate flag in the stern, and I enjoyed yelling things like "ahoy mateys" and "avast ye scurvey dogs" at my tolerant friends. I also figured out the mysterious circular stroke where you never lift the paddle out of the water.

The Mysterious Zucchini, and other tales of adventure

2010-07-26T09:44:00.005-04:00

I walked out a few mornings ago to feed the chickens, and there was a zucchini of unusual size and unknown origin outside my door. I love summer.

I'm pretty sure now that some neighbors down the road left it there, since they have a big bucket of them out for free at the end of their driveway. I'm taking it camping, where we will attempt to grill it over the fire. Maybe with a little tamari and sesame oil.

I'm packing up this morning for another Adirondack adventure, so this entry will be short and sweet. Every summer for the last several years I've met up with my best college friends for some extensive camping and vacation time. We go to Forked Lake (see entry from last month), this year we have one of the big island sites. So off I go with the canoe on the car and gourmet camping menu in hand. Plus citronella spray, rain gear, watercolor sketchbook, two novels, pirate flag, bikini, hiking skirt, travel-sized Scrabble, hip flask, and possibly my stuffed plushie marmot. Not to mention the giant zucchini.

See you all next weekend.

Give me an art grant

2010-07-20T11:29:00.003-04:00

I took this photo when I lived in Santa Cruz during grad school. I miss that town sometimes.

Distracted and lazy

2010-07-19T09:52:00.002-04:00

Summer summer summer!

Here are my first sungold tomatoes, sweet and warm in the sunshine. My garden is looking good, especially the tomato plants are making up for last year's blight-induced lost time. Bumper crop of weeds too, been trying to keep them under control but not trying hard enough apparently. I could just eat the dandelion greens, I suppose, and then they wouldn't be weeds anymore. The mother of all thyme plants is popping up baby thyme plants everywhere...yikes! Fencing out the chickens has been a good idea.

I'm behind on blogging, it's been hot and I've been distracted and lazy. I have a few weeks off from crazy freelance deadlines, and am trying to keep up with everything else that needs attending to. That's going to include picking and freezing blueberries, making pesto, getting a handle on the neglected housecleaning, purging the closet, organizing my wedding invitation business, and reading in the sunshine by the creek.

Good morning, sunshine!

2010-07-12T10:25:00.003-04:00

Here's the scene around my yard this morning: Harold the cocky rooster lording it over his flock from the top of the coop. Here he is in mid-crow. It must be such a burden to carry around the need to be so macho all the time.

Some mornings I can hear the chickens in their coop before I let them out, going off in a loud chorus of squawking and clucking that will go on for easily 10-15 minutes, and it makes me laugh.

Another Monday morning, looking at a fairly easy week, hurrah! I have two logos to work on, and also tweaking a t-shirt design for my brother's pub. I never got around to printing those etchings last week that I was talking about, since the heat sapped my energy, so maybe that's on the agenda. Hopefully I can spend a little time this week also enjoying summer, a rare and beautiful season in upstate NY, which specializes in darkness and cold.

Yup, it's hot this week

2010-07-08T21:01:00.005-04:00

(Nebraska's thermoregulating technique)

Like a horde o' Hottentots!

2010-07-07T10:21:00.003-04:00

Hmm, this is probably gonna be too small to read...but trust me, it's hilarious. I love Bloom County, and every now and then pull out the ol' books to leaf through and laugh. This is a classic.

Going in the creek

2010-07-06T11:58:00.002-04:00

I kind of love these few weeks of rare true heat we get here in upstate NY. Sure, a week of days in the humid 90's makes me sleepy and miserable, but it evens out those cold dark winter days which make me even more sleepy and a worse kind of miserable. I really don't like being cold.

One of my secrets for keeping cool is to jump in the nearest creek. Ithaca is blessed with tons of streams and lakes and creeks, and the rocks around here tend to weather and break in such a way to make perfect swimming holes. Here's a photo of my favorite such refuge...which is on private property (I have permission) and wild horses will not drag the location out of me (but if you visit me, I might take you there). Five minutes in this cold running water sets me up for the rest of the day.

I can also stay cool by working in my basement, specifically in my etching studio. That's where I'll be this afternoon, because I am waaaay behind on keeping my bin o' prints stocked for the market and also because it's probably a chilly 68 degrees down there.

Preview of the show

2010-07-02T17:00:00.002-04:00

Hurrah, my show is on the wall at the Kitschen Sink! Here part of it last night, right after hanging. Many thanks to Ben (foreman of the hanging mob), Ryan, and Zooey for sweeping in and dealing with the placement and heavy lifting.

So this is a just a teaser, everyone reading who is in or near Ithaca should stop in tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) between 4 and 6 PM for my little opening soiree. For everyone else, more photos and descriptions will be showing up here on my blog.

What the cool kids are wearing this July

2010-07-01T14:52:00.003-04:00

It's the first of July, and in my universe that means it's time to distribute CSA shares. If you were a member of my CSA (Community Supported Art), you'd be getting one of these super cool t-shirts for your July share. I used discharge paste to make the background, and a silkscreen for the design.

CSA? What, like the hip and trendy locavore vegetable thing? Well, kinda...but it's about art instead of agriculture, although I borrow from that model. You can read up on my CSA here.

Also in my universe it's almost time to put up my Kitschen Sink show...we start hanging at 5:00 tonight, check back for photos. Speaking of shows, Gary is the featured artist at Belle Melange, and his opening is tomorrow evening, Friday the 2nd.

The view from back here

2010-06-27T20:46:00.003-04:00

Sunday evening, feeling wiped out from a hot and humid weekend at the farmer's market. I don't think I'm giving away any trade secrets by saying that every market vendor I know also needs to take a big nap after a busy selling day.

I thought I'd give you a view from behind the scenes. This is how I view the market, from the quiet and safety of my booth. Here you can see the back side of some of my card displays and small framed etchings, a mug of green tea, the toes of my cowgirl boots where they are propped up for relaxation, some absolutely stunning roses from Plenty of Posies, the impressive display of organic vegetables at Sacred Seed Farm across the aisle, and a small swarm of people walking by. It's a very different view from behind the counter than out in the crowd...I would find it hard to survive the crush and furor of the market without my space back here.

I heart Forked Lake

2010-06-23T13:54:00.003-04:00

Just back last night from a few days at Forked Lake in the Adirondacks. You've heard me talk about this place before if you've been reading my blog for any length of time. It's sort of tucked in between the better-known Raquette Lake and Long Lake, only about a 4 hour drive from here, and a little bit of heaven on earth. My friend Jean Elizabeth celebrates her birthday there every year, and it happens to fall right near the summer solstice...and I will take any excuse to load up my wee canoe and head north and spend a few days cooking over a fire and being slothful and indolent in the pseudo-wilderness.

I pride myself a little bit on my campfire cooking skills. For example: cut a head of garlic in half horizontally, drizzle with olive oil, reassemble the halves, wrap securely in tin foil and roast in the coals for about 20 minutes. Mmmm-hmmm. Also for example: steaming asparagus in tin foil (add olive oil, a little water, salt and pepper, and some white wine or lemon juice if you have it). JE is a whiz with a camp stove, and she can make curries and fancy breakfast treats. We really don't rough it.

And now back to my studio, since there is ONE WEEK left before my show goes up!

hee hee hee

2010-06-19T21:25:00.004-04:00

This is still one of the funniest things I've ever seen. C'mon, admit it...I can hear you laughing all the way over here.

(with all due thanks to engrish.com)