Archive for June, 2004

museology: day five

Monday, June 14th, 2004

I obviously can’t follow directions. I did not make a scroll (much of my creative output got used up yesterday!), but did find myself doing a metahistory in my Book of Inspiration — a list of all the times i’ve provided a history of myself, including resumes and school applications. That was a interesting perspective….

Acrylic grounds & tar gel

Sunday, June 13th, 2004

I painted the back of a pressed board with a number of different undercoats, one for each ruler width.

1, 2: burnt umber *
3: mix of titanium liquid and extra heavy matte gel
4: zinc white
5: stainless steel
6: mars black**
7: light molding paste
8: mix of titanium liquid and extra heavy matte gel
8.5, 9: burnt sienna *
10: clear gloss gel over the green board

** not from Golden
* mixed from the liquid paints — and i must have mixed in a gel. I was aiming for burnt sienna to begin with, but too much green came out in one “drop” — the phthalo green seems much thicker than the other liquid paints. The hansa yellow medium seems absolutely impotent.

I painted over these stripes with the tar gel mixed with magenta (i may have tried mixing it to napthamide maroon). It’s too runny to mix on a palette, so i mixed in a bowl destined to become a cat grass planter. Drooling the paint seemed unrewarding (perhaps because i had not mixed up enough to get a feel for the process), but it did leave solid ridges on the board. It was slighly translucent in puddle form. When painted as a gel glaze it was very translucent. It doesn’t seem to hold brushstrokes the way liquid paint mixed with the glazeing fluid does.

I also mixed up some liquid paints with the glazing liquid: cobalt/cerulean blue (the zinc white, in a heavier body, seems pretty darn opaque), napthamide maroon, and nickle azo yellow (again with the impotent yellow and too much green problem), and then simple mixture of phthalo green and quinacridone magenta with the glazing liquid.

The yellows and the cerulean blue stand out as they cross the dark bands. The purples and greens pop out against the whites. The glazes over the light molding paste are quite pleasant — it’s much more absorbent and the brush strokes disappear.

museology: day four – Clio

Saturday, June 12th, 2004

I can’t seem to get the Tufts’ Perseus digital library to allow me to do full text search — just metadata search. Argh. Google turns up this nifty site that gives the Greek and Latin sources: http://www.theoi.com/Kronos/Kleio.html

museology: day three

Saturday, June 12th, 2004

Got *VERY* involved in my muse*ology assignment for the day [yesterday] — at least, my interpretation of the assignment. I have altered a book now. I have an old blank book from over fifteen years ago, a birthday gift from my sister. I’d started writing notes for a novel in it, and, eight pages in, the text ends abruptly. The fabric cover was quite faded.

I’ve repainted the cover with sap green — it’s in the same color family as the original cover, but brighter and deeper. I used some very cool paper from flax to replace the end paper. I glued in the card my sister made for me (“Jutith” “I hope you hav a nice Birthday.”) and a sketch i did of one of the characters.

I marked where the new book, The Book of Inspiration, began with a ribbon and a sun charm. I created a title page in Word (with decorative fonts and framing), and then i embarked on a brave altering of the book. (This step, with Eliza’s Out of Bounds II at hand.)

I carved out a window and made contoured shapes for a beach and wave in order to insert a shell and small star fish. The shell is *much* thicker than i allowed for. C’est la vie. I’ve been imagining doing that to the CDROM book that i imagine altering — it was good to get a sense of what it’s like. I think that, from an engineering point of view, cutting loose the bulk of the pages and allowing a gap near the spine would then allow a more fluid turn of the page.

I’ve one other page — black cat theme — and two other pages to glue in tomorrow. I’ve included charms that spoke to me….

Gesso & black

Saturday, June 12th, 2004

Bob Ross Gesso, in black and grey, is about half the cost of the Golden Gessos. Liquitex “basics” is even cheaper, but only available in white.

Since i didn’t buy a golden liquid black in my last order, it seems that a liquid black and a tub of white gesso might also provide a satisfactory black gesso.

Liquitex             white 16 oz $7.80
Liquitex "basics" white 16 oz $4.90 Item # 1004850 
Bob Ross           black 16 oz $8.79 Item # 1402258
*
Golden liquid      carbon 4 oz $6.91 Item # 9252010
Golden liquid      bone    1 oz $3.28 Item # 9251794 

I think bone black is blacker, but that carbon black would “go farther”

Bone black: not as opaque (2 on scale of 8), chroma 0.5, gloss 32, tint strength 89, is pantone black.

http://webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/overview/boneblack.html

Carbon black: more opaque (1 on scale of 8), chroma 0.3, gloss 79, tint strength 57.

http://webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/overview/charcoal.html

Chroma – Attribute of color used in the Munsell color system to indicate the degree of departure from a gray of the same value. Correlates with the dimension of saturation.

Slowing the drying of acrylics

Friday, June 11th, 2004

I need a fine mister, i think, although the glazing liquid* looks like it might be useful.

* Misterart.com Item # 9253605 $7 16oz

See the Just Paint article on Acrlyic Glazing Liquid and the technical data.

From the technical note

To slow the drying of paints on glass or plastic palettes, use a small amount of retarder. About three to ten percent of GOLDEN Retarder will keep a mass of paint from forming a skin for up to six hours, depending on the atmosphere. Using excessive quantities of retarder, especially when working in thicker impasto, will leave the paint skin feeling like soft gum, as the glycol may not totally release from the film.

Some people prefer to lightly mist the paint on their palettes. This can be a very effective technique to provide more open time. A simple plant mister, easily obtained at a hardware store, may be filled with water (we recommend distilled or de-ionized) or a 10:1 water/retarder mixture for this purpose. Note again that excessive levels of retarder will result in a weakened paint film that remains sticky. Excessive spraying may cause colors to drip, or to stain the support in an undesirable manner.

museology: day two

Friday, June 11th, 2004

Notes towards a personal Grove of the Muses

From my meditation garden mandala, i’d like to incorporate N/air/wisdom, E/water/grace, S/”fire”/beauty-courage. The W/earth/stability aspect doesn’t seem to need to be so present — except in that fundamental sense that it is only when i am stable and supported that i feel free to create.

And that, right there, is an interesting thing to consider. Should i not create when i am stressed or worried? When there is personal chaos? Shouldn’t i process that chaos through the creative impulse? Can’t i ground myself through the creative process and not require that i be grounded to become creative?

So, i can cross the plowed plain of my western garden, mounting the horse that so often meets me, and reach the mountains on the other side. I release the horse, and climb the path next to the cascading stream. The narrow gorge widens to a mountain side meadow, with southern exposture. The creek has been damed to form a clear pool. I cross on the foot bridge to the circle of nine ponderosa pines and into the grove of aspens. There is a large rustic cabinet, and inside its magic space are all the libraries of the world, any insturment, any paint, ink, paper, canvas, clay, tool….

Small changes

Thursday, June 10th, 2004

I trimmed the blossoms off the hydrangea yesterday. Outside it goes. Probably ought to be repotted.

I sprayed a pyrethian-based insecticide all over the aphid infested pansies. Lots and lots of crawlies. I’m sure part of the problem is the plants are stressed by the irregular watering, wind, and sun. No aphids are apparent on the more sheltered plants.

museology: day one

Thursday, June 10th, 2004

I’m taking Eliza’s museology online course — and i’ll be keeping my daily notes here. She points to an online quiz about the muses, and i took that without really reviewing anything about them. I guessed right that Mnemosyne, the Titan, was mother to the muses. Urania,Terpsichore, Calliope, & Erato were easy guesses because of shared word roots (although what organ music has to do with epic poetry is a mystery to me). Melpomene was a wild guess, although i think one of the characters in Jamie Robertson’s Clan of the Cats gave away the general sense that tragedy was the association.

Completely missed:
Euterpe, inventer of double flute, muse of lyric poetry and instrumental music.
Thalia, tamborine & comic mask, muse of comedy and pastoral life.
Polyhymnia, “matron of mimes”
Clio, muse of history

Average score is 6/10, i got 7/10 — probably because i knew terpsechorian referred to dancing.

Taking the statistically annoying Quizilla quiz, i’m told my muse is Melpomene. An honest tweak easily brings me to Urania.

Melpomene
~Melpomene~
Your muse is Melpomene, the Songstress, the muse of
Tragedy. Her symbol is the tragic mask. There
could be several reasons she is your muse. You
could be simply fascinated by the dark and the
plethora of emotions that accompany any good
tragedy. You could also be depressed yourself,
in which case you might try working on making
Thalia your muse…

Which of the Nine Muses is your muse?
brought to you by Quizilla

m u s e * o l o g y is brought to you by eliza badurina and caravan publishing (http://caravan.moderngypsy.com/) po box 161 * madison, ne 68748 email: “muses” at her domain, moderngypsy.com.

Sproutings & fruitings & buddings

Monday, June 7th, 2004

During a quick watering this morning, I noticed the Moulin Rouge sunflower seeds, planted abbout a week ago, have sprouted. The root end has pushed out and propelled the still shelled seed out of the dirt. The colors are red and black — little green. It looks a bit alien.

The calendula has sprouted quite a bit in the ginger planter, but hardly in the sunflower planter. I’m beginning to suspect that the ginger is in a slightly warmer position that the three other planters — i’ll move them tonight. I’d thought the deck wall was causing shade, but it shades the afternoon sun, not the midday sun. I suspect the current location of the two veggie planters gets less intense light.

The tomato plant has one green tomato on it — amazing!

The lemon tree is about to burst into blossoms — i’ve been watching the buds for over a week.