I can’t describe the perverse joy I feel every time I see Cartman’s boggled eyes spinning around in my microwave. It almost compensates for having to wake up. The best part is that it’s a tall, over-sized mug, so it holds a lot of tea.
Month: January 2007
Frozen
It rained so much the past week that the low lying section of the field behind my apartment flooded. Last night, it finally got cold enough for ice to form.
The Cynic’s Apprentice
The Cynic’s Apprentice (in progress)
20 x 16 inches
collage (child’s dress pattern, glass, nails, knife blade, and bone), oil pastel, and litho crayon on canvas
Comet? What Comet?
Oh, and you don’t even want to know how thoroughly pissed off I am about Indiana’s eternal winter monsoons keeping me from seeing Comet McNaught. It was visible during daylight yesterday, forcryingthefuckoutloud, and I missed it. Argh!
Doodle
I said I was going to dig out the gel pens, and so I did. While watching another episode of Rome, I did some mindless doodling. For those who are familiar with both shows, don’t Atia and Octavia bear a striking resemblance to Eddie and Saffy from Absolutely Fabulous? I kept expecting Atia to call Octavia “sweetie darling.”
gel pen on 90lb Stonehenge paper
5 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches
Endings and Beginnings
Hemp Bound Journal, finished (finally!). I started it in July of 2005 and quickly got sidetracked. I picked it up a couple of times, but didn’t get serious about finishing it until a couple of weeks ago. I still have to do a table of contents, and will post that when I’ve completed it, but for all intents and purposes, it’s done, done, done.
This, of course, means I am in need of a new journal. I’ve been trying to decide what paper I want to use. I’ve got some really nice 140lb Cartiera Magnani hot press left (God, I love that stuff!), but I decided to go with the black 90lb Stonehenge for now. I may regret that decision, though. It doesn’t take kindly to water. Not at all. But it’ll be fun to play with gel pens again. (Oooh! Shiny!)
Stonehenge Journal
7 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches, 11 signatures of 4 pages each (44 pages total)
Coptic stitch with linen thread, 90lb black Stonehenge paper
If you aren’t familiar with exposed spine bindings, and would like to try making your own books for writing or art, there’s an illustrated tutorial for how to do this binding on my website. It’s really not complicated. Tearing down and folding the paper to the size I wanted took about 30 minutes. The binding itself, including setting grommets into the holes on the front and back covers, took about an hour. I did the entire thing while watching television.
Speaking of television, I’m in the middle of watching the first season of Rome. Oh my. If you enjoyed I, Claudius (or I, CLAVDIVS, as I like to call it), then you’ll like Rome. It’s set during Julius Caesar’s reign, so it directly precedes I, Claudius. In fact, I’m going to rewatch I, Claudius as soon as I’m finished with Rome. I could use a good dose of Derek Jacobi.
Side note: While Googling for links for the above shows, I came across the Wikipedia entry for the Robert Graves book that I, Claudius was based on. And it contained a spoiler warning. Honestly, does a book about Roman history–even if it’s heavily novelized–really need a spoiler warning? The mind wobbles!
Arting and Dogblogging
I spent the afternoon cleaning and putting away the mess I made last week. There were scraps of paper and junk everywhere. Thankfully, I can shut the door on it when I’m fed up with it and don’t want to look at it any longer. But, since I’ve finished the Hemp Bound Journal (yay!), I really had to clear away the debris before I could start on a new project. This may be the cleanest this room ever gets, so I thought I’d take pictures before I went to work dirtying it up again.
I didn’t get much else accomplished today. I’m not quite sure where the day went. I did manage to slap a coat of gesso on a crappy old painting I found at a yard sale. I think I paid $2 for it, which, considering I don’t have to stretch or prime it, was a damned good deal. A coat of black gesso slapped on with a credit card (no brush to clean!) covered the hideous Madonna (under)painting. After that dried, I layered some dress pattern pieces, gluing them down with acrylic medium. I don’t have a specific plan for it yet (paint or oil pastels will be involved), but at this point, it kind of looks like a road atlas.
I haven’t decided what I’m going to do, journal-wise, now that I’ve finally finished the Hemp Bound Journal. I’m thinking I might tear down some black Stonehenge paper I’ve got. The surface is a little hard and slick for my taste, and I don’t like how much it buckles with wet media, but it might make a fun change from the earth tones I’ve been stuck in lately. Something more colorful would be nice, and black paper would lend itself well to gel pens. Hmmm. I think I will do that. Maybe tomorrow, even.
And now, gratuitous dogblogging:
This is an older picture that I’ve Photoshopped. It was taken last April, in the country. Harriet liked to stick her head through the holes in the livestock fence, and graze on the grass on the other side. She also would stand like that and call to the bunnies. I think she was trying to convince one to hop in her mouth. Not one of her more brilliant plans, as it turns out. Rabbits are surprisingly unreceptive to that sort of mind control.
One Desert Crossed
One Desert Crossed
collage (altered Polaroid photo, sandpaper, newsprint, magazine clipping, filmstrip, leaf, fragment of old lace curtain) and oil pastel
8 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches
The title comes from an Emily Dickinson poem, I did not reach thee.
I did not reach thee,
But my feet slip nearer every day;
Three Rivers and a Hill to cross,
One Desert and a Sea—
I shall not count the journey one
When I am telling thee.
Two deserts—but the year is cold
So that will help the sand—
One desert crossed, the second one
Will feel as cool as land.
Sahara is too little price
To pay for thy Right hand!
The sea comes last. Step merry, feet!
So short have we to go
To play together we are prone,
But we must labor now,
The last shall be the lightest load
That we have had to draw.
The Sun goes crooked—that is night—
Before he makes the bend
We must have passed the middle sea,
Almost we wish the end
Were further off—too great it seems
So near the Whole to stand.
We step like plush, we stand like snow—
The waters murmur now,
Three rivers and the hill are passed,
Two deserts and the sea!
Now Death usurps my premium
And gets the look at Thee.
My Favorite Birthday Book
My Favorite Birthday Book. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1945. Illustrated with Persian Miniatures by Mahmoud Sayah, 7 1/8 x 7 1/8 inches.
I found this little book at a yard sale several years ago. I bought it for the illustrations, thinking I’d use them for collage. I don’t think I will, though, because I can’t imagine destroying the information inside.
January
Problematic Monsters
Problematic Monsters
collage (altered Polaroid photo, photocopy, child’s clothing pattern, fragment from algebra text, scientific illustrations, and unbleached waxed paper)
8 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches
red paper boat 