Month: February 2007

Photography

Ice Ice Bay-BEE

Shelly

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The weather folks were threatening snow, snow, and more snow, with a possibility of rain and ice. We got a little bit of snow, but it was mostly rain that froze and turned everything pretty and slippy-slidey. Obviously, I’m taking an ice day.

It could be worse. I just got off the phone with my mom, and up north it’s blizzarding. Ball State is actually closed. I can count on two fingers the number of times the university has closed in the past 25 years. On the first, it was just night classes that were cancelled. The second closing occurred during winter break, when the entire city was shut down for a blizzard-related state of emergency. Classes weren’t in session, so it wasn’t like a real school closing.

It sounds like it’s pretty awful up there, so I guess I should be glad we just got the dreaded wintry mix and not a full scale blizzard. Still, it’s bad enough. The temperature is supposed to drop tonight, and we’re supposed to get more snow on top of all the ice. O ick.

Art, Paintings

Untitled Boat

Shelly

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As yet untitled boat (in progress)
acrylic on canvas with collage, buttons, beads, and cotton thread
24 x 24 inches

This is an awful photo, but it was the best I could do with metallic paint after dark. I’m not anywhere near done yet, and haven’t decided exactly how I’m going to handle the sky. If we get the disgusting wintry mix that’s been threatened, I should have plenty of time tomorrow to finish it. Otherwise, it’s probably going to have to wait until the weekend.

One thing I didn’t account for, when I decided to add beads and buttons, was having to sew along the stretcher bars. NOT EASY! The canvas had adhered to the stretcher bar, which is normal, but pulling the two apart caused the canvas to stretch. It should shrink back into shape quickly, and if it doesn’t, spritzing the back with water will do the trick. Still, NOT EASY to sew between a stretched canvas and the stretcher bars. Just sayin’…

Photography

A Confession

Shelly

I was very, very bad. I tried to behave myself, but I suddenly couldn’t stand it anymore, and I ordered a Holga filter set for digital and 35mm cameras, a pinhole camera, and a Holga camera with colored flash. No, I don’t need a fancified Holga, and I could have made my own pinhole camera, but I probably would have never gotten around to it. Altogether, I think I spent about $100, so it’s not like I really lost my mind or anything. Still, I can’t help but feel like I did something I shouldn’t have.

These are a few of my favorite photos taken with various toy cameras.

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Raspberry Canes in Snow, 8 January 2005

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Frost, Autumn 2004

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Autumn 2004

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Sunrise, Autumn 2004

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Trees in Snow, 8 January 2005

Uncategorized

Marginalia

Shelly

Marginalia

Mrs. Taylor, one of my high school English teachers, insisted that a book had not been read unless it contained marginalia. Her point was that books are tools, not sacred things, and that it’s important to use them to their fullest potential. That requires making margin notes and underlining or highlighting passages.

I guess I tend to agree with Mrs. Taylor. The Morford and Lenardon text was a staple of the classics department. Even if it was not required for a class, chances were, you’d end up needing to refer to it at some point. Likewise, the Lattimore translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey. All three books are crammed with notes I took for various classes.

I think the interesting thing about marginalia is not so much the intrinsic information it contains, but the window it opens onto the moment in time when the notes were made.

Marginalia

Art

Underpaint

Shelly

Nina B. used to say, “It’s all underpaint.”

This is the canvas I restretched a few days ago. (Please ignore the flash glare.) I primed it with acrylic matte medium instead of gesso, since the base coats are going to be acrylic, and I wanted the color of the canvas to (hopefully!) show through. I don’t know where this is going, for sure, but earlier today I had an idea for prepping the canvas for a sister painting. More on that later this weekend, hopefully.

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Underpaint Phase 1
24 x 24 inches

And, now, I must go park my ass in front of the television. Survivor started 20 minutes ago, and I’m missing it. Thank the Invisible Pink Unicorn for DVRs!

Art, Crankypantsing, Doodles

Staff Meeting Doodle

Shelly

Staff Meeting Doodle
gel pen in steno notebook

I think that’s about as close to arting as I’m going to get today. I stayed an hour late at work, to make up for leaving early yesterday. When I got home, I did laundry. One of the dryers decided to stop half-way through its cycle, so my jeans and heavy shirts–you know, the stuff you wear when it’s ass cold out!–were wet. Too wet to hang dry before tomorrow, so I had to fork over another $1.25 to finish drying them. Hrmf! So I’m a little cranky about that. And I’ve had a dull, nagging headache all day (which has nothing whatsoever to do with Syndromes of the Head and Neck–Holy Coinky-dinks, Batman!). Between that and The Cranky, I’m not in the mood to do much of anything. Maybe I’ll feel differently after I (finally!) eat something, but I would not recommend holding your breath. That’d be silly.