Archive for the ‘Today’s Log’ Category

Lost long weekend

Monday, February 20th, 2006

Mainly i read and took very long baths this weekend. However, a few puttery creative things happened. We got the wreath out of the living room and “hung” the two paintings. They need to be hung more properly, and the wall washed, but this is nice for right now. I also need to get the bottom of the yellow painting touched up.

Finished off CR2006.04 — the burp cloth or whatever — and restarted the blanket. It does not seem possible to keep the thing SQUARE. Now i see why granny squares are so popular. Since an error gets magnified as one works in the round, a small square is more manageable than a large one.

Some photos of flowers. (Flickr) Some photos of “Found Composition.” (Flickr) Scans of pasta and herbs for the photocopychunky call.

Surfing

Embossing paper with a simple mark or printer’s chop. I’ll need to track down some heavy weight board — which i did. For a “first draft” i’m trying a (yawn) cat’s head.

Email notice for www.babasbeeswax.com. No pysanky this year, though.

Today’s work

Friday, February 10th, 2006

Paint2006.02-060210-16

Originally uploaded by Elaine with Grey Cats.

A fairly large stretched canvas
Diarylide Yellow, Zinc White (for the “sky”)
Diarylide Yellow, Carbon Black
Naphthol Red Light

Sea sponge for the black & red
The “hills” with a great deal of soft gel media, a large filbert brush.

Moonday, Monday

Tuesday, February 7th, 2006

Photography

Christine took Roll2006.02 to Wolf for developing & had a CD made. This seems a happy solution to scanning issues. The photos i took of the crescent moon were quite blurry and could stand a remote shutter trigger. Christine took photos of the half moon in daylight that were quite beautiful. Of the bird photos I took on Saturday, many of the ones i was most excited about (a kite and a buteo) have the small distant bird surrounded by the huge frame of the image. I suspect i could get a fairly reasonable image of the bird from scanning the negative at a high resolution. The shots of the Green Winged Teal, taken with the tripod in the side bag of my bike, turned out quite well from one point of view — the bird wasn’t really in a good profile.

Again, i find myself less than pleased with the results.

Painting

Christine and i had a discussion about whether my style was surreal or not. I was tempted by a Surrealist group on Flickr, but she cited Breton and said she was confident i was an Expressionist. I find it interesting Klee is Experessionist and Miro Surrealist. (Is there a Mediterranean vs European culture distinction in that?)

Surfing … well Mail

The Artistamp mail list was very active today, distressingly so, in some ways. After several days, weeks of lovely chat of aesthetics and philosophy, there’s been a bit of a rant about the Artistamp Album. It’s a little hard to read someone trying to defend my thoughts as an artist when I don’t need defense. And then there’s the issue of the erotic art which distressed the organizer of the album. It’s kind of playful erotic art, but it’s definitely “male gaze” erotic art. I can appreciate being an organizer and worried about the ages of the participants in the swap and whether there’d be an issue with angry parents. And, while i don’t think i’d be needing to cover it up, i can understand why some folks might. Yes, that might be prudish, but when a work calls itself erotic art i think there’s some recognition that it’s in an area that’s past the bounds of some folks.

The tone got a bit heated. I’m not sure why i find it so hard to let go.

Other posts included a comment on some techniques for embossing paper by Jenny Groat:

One of the things we did was to cut a pattern out of mat board, then use a good paper (such as Arches 90# or 180# HP), sometimes dampened slightly, to press onto our matboard design with some kind of small but not sharp tool. We could “deemboss” this way, too. Some excellent results could come out of this.

Finally a call to participate in a se-tenant sheet, $45. I think my participation in the omnibus will have to forestall my participation here.

I need to remind myself that participating in big collective things isn’t nearly as rewarding as reaching out to individual artists without a “swap.”

February vacation 1

Monday, February 6th, 2006

This week has been uninteresting on the creative front, because i’ve been in some discomfort. I took Friday off for some reflection, but mainly continued in the grumpies. The weekend itself turned out lovely, with much bike riding.

Crochet

⊗ CR2006.02: I’m now past the I got past the hard part of the scarf — the diamond inset pattern — and i’m back to dc stitches. This bit weighs 0.5 oz out of a 50g spool.

⊗ CR2006.04: I’m decided to share the Friday morning progress scan with Laura, as she’ll visit in March and see it then, anyhow. No holding out on a completed surprise. She promply posted it in her new baby blog.

Photography

⊗ Finished Roll2006.01 out at salt pond A2W. We biked out carrying the tripod in my bike bag, stopping once to try and shoot a green winged teal. I didn’t identify it, but asked birders further down the creek. I should recognize them by now; we keep seeing them at the Crittendon bridge and down stream. Christine took the last few shots on the roll, including the moon shot.

Painting

On the 14th of FirstMonth i put acrylic to my first canvas. Christine had “bought” them for me for my birthday in 2005, but i didn’t go pick them out at Flax until last fall. The under-painting was done with a roller and bubble wrap sometime with a simple palette of black & white, with dabs of red, green, and stainless steel. (I suppose i should document which pigments i have on hand so i know WHICH red it was.)

Saturday evening I was going to do another layer, but i may have finished it. I added yellow to this palette, not Hansa but another. The green shoots remind me of a meditation/vision i had about joy a couple of years ago, so i’m calling the painting Joy. (Or Paint2006.01) I need to paint the edges of the canvas, and i ponder painting some of the forms again so the color is more opaque.

While Christine likes the textures of the bubble wrap and the stainless steel thick media, i think i’d choose to do that last next time. there are places the texture ended up where i wish it was flat.

I’l post photos of the paintings from Flickr.

Surfing

⊗ A Craftster forum reference to my ATC
⊗ Craftster Magazine Bowls. Cool.
⊗ Silicon Valley Arts Site, reminding me it might be about time to look into more tickets for a performance at The Pear. The Merc also reports on South First Fridays:

The monthly event, dubbed South First Fridays, kicks off tonight. Three venues — Anno Domini//the second coming of Art & Design; MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana; and the Museum of Quilts and Textiles — have agreed to stay open until midnight in hopes of drawing art lovers to the strip. The fourth, The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, will remain open until 10 p.m.

What a fun Monday — totally by accident….

Monday, January 30th, 2006

Photography

Picked up Roll2005.06 at Wolf. 37 shots of B&W goodness to scan in.
Inspired, and sighting the delicate new moon, ushering in the Year of the Dawg, i loaded Roll2006.01 (OLD film, “07/2002 3715804″, Kodak Select Royal Gold, 24 exp, ISO 200/24° C-41 RB135-24, CAT 129 8041).

I shot three shots: the first two were some thing like 30 second exposures, the third was 1/2 s. I forgotten how to use the timer as well. Ah well.

060201: Spaceweather.com has a photo like the one i was trying to shoot at swpod2006/31jan06/joye1.jpg. Their write up links to an explanation of earthshine or the “Da Vinci Glow”. It will be a while before i get mine developed….

Mail art — from the Mail Box

Received the Altered Photos ATC swap (LMAO2005.08) from nervousness. Ironic, because Christine (aka greycat) hasn’t received hers, but hers arrived at the swap first — even though they were mailed together. Last out, first in?


Top row L-R: “Shine” from Supersunshine , “neon” from Iowa-art-teacher , “Evolution” ATC #73 . Bottom row L-R: “The Barrens, Co. Clare, Ireland” from Penny Miles, “Wisconsin Trees” by Carl.

Crochet

Working on the Nord/ette’s blanket (CR2006.04)– have a 3″ square worked “in the round” of mainly hdc with the 2.55mm hook. It’s something like 7 rows. Sometimes i doe the hdc in the back loop and sometimes i don’t creating this occasional ridge. I figured that out this evening and have only done both-loop hdc. It’s not exactly square by stitch count, but i think i have time to straighten that out. If every row adds two stitches at the end (i’ve been doing dc there in contrast to the hdc), i’ll say the next loop should have 18. Sides A & B add two, C adds one, and D none.
        A: 16 st
B: 16 st     D: 18 st
        C: 17 st

Surfing

⊗ Signing textile creations: A Grumperina tutorial. Requires iron on printer transfer stock and satin ribbon.
⊗ Hundreds of types of Crochet! Noticed in a Crochet Me forum and thought of the collection of stitch references that i began … and which seem to have been a victim of the site move. How odd. (Also, it seems many of the topics and author identities went away.)

Mailbag!

Tuesday, January 24th, 2006

Yesterday i was a bit exhausted from the previous late night with a server outage at work. I did receive some fun stuff in the mail:

* Yarn from Earth Friendly Yarns: two cottons, a bamboo, and a soy. We’re leaning towards the bamboo for the blanket for Nord/ette. Now to choose a color scheme!

* A postcard and form from Pippoboro

Ooops!

Sunday, January 22nd, 2006

I migrated the site a little too quickly to my new hosting provider and new blogging software.

The previous RSS feed is now obsolete. I hope to have a clear notice up in the next few days.

A quiet weekend

Sunday, January 22nd, 2006

18-SunolWaterTemple

Originally uploaded by Elaine with Grey Cats.

* Affixed a block of lemon proof stamps to an envelope of seeds for Ruth & Lise.

* Worked on scanning images from Roll 2005.04. Have 13 negatives left to scan.

* Worked on my bio (i think that should count as creative) and much blog stuff.

* The first crochet project — the crochet tote — looks like a tote now. Two of three narrow sides attached to one large side, the other large side will be attached last. About five inches of the handle done, too.

* Figured out how to set up a temporary rig for hanging a backdrop in the living room, where i can catch the afternoon light for photography. Worked on a second MCM photo that can also be a reference photo for painting that is languishing unfinished.

* Started crocheting the silver curling ribbon.

Crafting ideas — making a pair of shoes with crafted uppers from a purchased pair of shoes:
these boots were made for knitting from If the shoe knits. Now, i’d been imagining buying a shoe insert — because the arch support is my concern, making a sole from layers of hempen twine crochet (the final layer sealed with golden gel medium, perhaps).

PseudoMonday … runs into a lost week

Friday, January 20th, 2006

Ended up sick most of the week

* Cool jewelry findings called “screen findings” on which one can bead. See a href=”http://www.ornamentea.com/ornShop/screens.html”>the vendor Ornamentea. I can imagine Christine doing cross stitch on these!

* picked up Roll2005.04 from Wolf camera and dropped off Roll2005.06.

* Received the Artistamp Album from renmeleon (LMAO2005.07)

* Started Christine’s scarf in the viscose. (CR2006.02)

* Did some crochet at Friday’s debriefing coffee

Rainy rainy Saturday, then Sunny (Sunday, Monday)

Monday, January 16th, 2006

* Printed up a “proof” sheet of the MS2006.OAP.Jan stamps and used the rotary perf blade on them. I was inspired by some artistamps at Flickr; but it’s not as nice as the stamp scissors. It is a way that i can distribute them to others…..

* Attached the metal crochet round (Crochet060106wire) to a photo to make a MA2006.CBTI page (MA2006.CBTI.Mar.01 ? I don’t think i’ll do February….)

* Responded to email from Bubble and Squeek (finally)

* Purchased more yarn, Y6 & Y7, spools of multicolored viscose

* Worked up a swatch of the Fiesta viscose [060206: this informs CR2006.02]

* Updated some of my galleries

* Worked on the the migration of this blog and all the grey-cat.com universe to a new host, first time changing in five years or so. Ooof.

Interesting art websites:
* Red Letters: somewhat like PostSecret
* Tokyo Mars’ Teeny Theaters — Gurdonark praised her work today (Saturday)
* Crocheted fiberglass: Fabulous!