Journals – Page 10 – red paper boat

Cooking with Jesus

June 9, 2006January 8, 2016 Shelly

Sacred Heart / Guacamole
Composition book journal, 9 3/4 x 14 1/2 inches, 9 June 2006

I saved the stickers from the last time I made guacamole. At about the same time, I burned the end of one of my favorite Mexican candles. I soaked the candle so I could reuse the label, and placed it on the page opposite the vegetable stickers. Since guacamole is so simple to make and it’s such a healthy food, I thought I’d use this spread to share my easy-peasy recipe.

Guacamole
2 avocados, mashed
2 large tomatoes or 6 romas, diced (I prefer romas, because they aren’t as juicy)
1 lime (lemons will work in a pinch, but given the choice between lime and lemon, I always prefer the flavor of lime)
4 scallions, minced (use both the white and green portions)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
pinch of Kosher or sea salt (iodized salt will react with the citric acid, and will make the guacamole bitter tasting)

Note: All amounts are approximate. I aim for something that is more like diced tomato salad with an avocado-lime-garlic dressing. I like chunky guacamole that, when paired with toasted whole wheat pita, is a meal in itself.

Mash or dice the avocados and add the juice from half the lime. Sprinkle with a little salt. Dice the tomatoes, mince the scallions and garlic, and add to the avocados. Mix everything together, then taste. You may want to add more garlic, salt, or lime. You can also add green chilis, hot chilis, or tabasco sauce, if you like spiciness. If you want a bit of crunch, diced bell peppers are a nice addition.

If you want to serve with chips, be careful not to over salt. I like to serve it with toasted whole wheat pita triangles. They’re whole grain and not as fatty as chips, so they’re healthier, I think. I also really enjoy the warm, nutty flavor against the cool, creamy, freshness of the guacamole.

Art, Bookarts, Journals, Photography

A New Book and a Happy Accident

February 4, 2006October 13, 2015 Shelly

The ink and paper I ordered still haven’t been delivered (they should’ve been here on Friday), so I’m sort of stuck for journalling. I’ve got pens a-plenty, but I’m really preferring working with a dip pen. Hrmph. So, I worked on some backgrounds. The first one is just plain old stamping, using a carved eraser and a wine cork with cheap acrylic craft paint.\r\n\r\n

The second one was less involved, but I think more interesting. I started with diluted blue acrylic paint. After it dried, I sloshed on some super diluted gesso. Because I was working on a slanted surface, the gesso ran all over the place, including onto the carpet. Yikes! So I grabbed my roll of paper towels to blot the mess, and noticed that they left lovely basket-weave lines in the blotted gesso. I like the pattern, and it should provide guidelines for writing. I can’t write level to save my life, so I’m happy. Yay for serendipity!

I also bound another book this morning. It’s small and chunky and terribly cute: 3 x 3 3/4 inches and 48 pages (12 signatures of 4 pages each), Coptic bound with linen thread. The pages are Cartiera Magnani hot press watercolor paper, which is yummy.

The covers are made from denim from an old pair of my jeans, cut twice as wide as the width of the pages and a little taller. I ran them through the wash cycle a couple of times so the edges would fray. I was careful to keep the original seams at the centers of the fabric pieces, so that when I folded them in half around the boards, the seams would be along the spine edges. I then glued them to the boards (actually, two pieces of watercolor paper, because I wanted flexible covers), weighted them, and let them dry overnight.

Art, Journals

Soul Mapping: Chapter 4 Finished

January 31, 2006October 12, 2015 Shelly

Chapter 4 was much shorter and less involved than the previous chapters, so it went really quickly. I finished it this evening, along with the visual exercise. The chapter’s theme was re-creation, in the context of rebirth and synthesis. Most of the exercises dealt with exploring the things that feed the soul and recharge the body and mind.

Many of the exercises seemed to be geared more toward people who have trouble discovering what to do with their free time–something that has never been a problem for me! I don’t know the meaning of the word boredom. I can thank my mom for that. When we were kids, if we complained that we were bored–or even if we just looked at loose ends–she’d find us something to do. Something usually involved cleaning, so we learned at a young age to occupy and entertain ourselves. That sounds like such a simple thing, but I’ve been surprised at the number of adults I’ve known who’ve had no concept of how to make use of and enjoy their free time.

Soul Map, Chapter 4
acrylic, anatomical illustration, dictionary page, ticket stubs, and magazine clippings

The symbolism of the elements in this piece is tenuous. The book suggested perusing a bunch of magazines for imagery related to our responses to the written exercises. I had a hell of a time finding anything useful, and what I did find, I really had to massage to turn it into what I wanted it to be. Because of that, most of the elements are doing double, or even triple, duty.

Now, on to Chapter 5!

Art, Journals, Ladybusiness

Femme de Chambre

January 25, 2006October 12, 2015 Shelly

acrylic, oil pastel, and collage in composition book

I finished another spread in my composition book, this one in the Vessels theme. It started with blue paint that was left over from one of the Soul Mapping exercises. I couldn’t let it go to waste, so I did some finger painting in my composition book. The checkerboard stamp–made from an eraser–came from the same place. The pattern is supposed to represent institutional floor tiles–the sort found in many US schools–but I’m not sure it translates well, given the color scheme. I like it, though, and I think the concept of pattern fits well with the general theme.

The theme and title come from the fragment of dictionary page. I was struck by the juxtaposition of femur with female, and the inclusion of “femme de chambre” (chamber maid). There was certainly a lot to work with there: vessels, chambers, women’s work; the idea that women are empty receptacles, awaiting the indoctrination and training that will allow them to conform to the traditional female role (mother, wife, living loving maid, if you will).

And, just because I can, I thought I’d include a current photo of my work space. It’s actually pretty clean, here. Usually, I leave piles of stuff sitting out, which Pandora sleeps all over and shoves off the edge of the table.

Also, because I can, I scanned and uploaded a real photo postcard I found at a yard sale last summer. It’s not in very good shape (creases, and some pencil marks on the front, and the corners are all bent), but it was really cheap, so I bought it. The back is inscribed in pencil with several names. It also bears the inscription “Norfolk Neb.”

Recto

Verso

Art, Journals

Soul Mapping: Chapter 3 Finished

January 23, 2006October 12, 2015 Shelly

I spent most of yesterday working on the writing portion of Chapter 3 of Soul Mapping. Today, I did the visual part, which involved a bit of finger painting. Appropriate, I think, as this chapter dealt with education, which sent me on a tangent about an experience I had in kindergarten. I remember, during coloring time, getting disgusted that the white crayon didn’t make a very satisfactory mark, so I colored the clouds blue and pink and orange and purple. I thought they looked perfect, but my teacher told me I’d done them wrong. “Clouds are always white,” she said. I remember thinking it was sad that she’d never seen a sunset.

That experience ruined art classes for me throughout grade school and most of high school. No matter how hard I tried, I never seemed to be able to finish my art projects “correctly.” I realize now that the problem was not mine; that it was my teachers who were crappy at the art of education, and not me who was crappy at art. Some people really should not be allowed anywhere near kids.

Soul Mapping, Chapter 3
acrylic, gel pen, oil pastel, and collage in composition book

Art, Journals

Soul Mapping: Chapter 2 Finished

January 20, 2006October 12, 2015 Shelly

I finished Chapter 2 last night, including the visual component. At the rate this is going, I’m going to be filling up several composition books before I’m finished. Whew. But, it’s interesting to see how things sort themselves out, as well as seeing trends and themes emerge. I guess I find it especially impressive, because it seems so chaotic while I’m going through it. To have a moment of clarity at the end of each section is rewarding.

Soul Mapping, Chapter 2
9 3/4 x 15 inches
collage (Gepe mount, brass brads, copper wire, worry dolls, paper towels, hair, dress pattern, knife blade, key, fortune, sandpaper, fragment from algebra book, magazine clipping, cork, and acrylic paint) in composition book journal

Art, Journals

Soul Mapping

January 16, 2006October 12, 2015 Shelly

Soul Map, Chapter 2

Last year, I started working through the book Soul Mapping. I got a few chapters into it, and the going got rough, so I put it aside. I picked it up a few weeks ago, and have been trying to do a little work in it every day. I’m not big on self-help books, but this one is geared toward artists and finding motivation and inspiration, so it’s a little bit different.

One of the goals of the exercise is to develop a visual vocabulary that can be implemented in one’s artwork. So, it’s helpful to artists who feel they have run out of inspiration or who are having trouble finding their voices. The exercises require a lot of of both written and visual journaling. Each chapter culminates in the creation of a small soul map, which together will ultimately form a large soul map.

Unsurprisingly, the beginning exercises deal largely with childhood and formative issues, which can be incredibly difficult for some people to sort through. When I started the book, I was working through it along with a group of people on one of my art lists. We all did really well with the first two chapters. When we hit chapter three, everything fell to pieces. I guess everyone felt it was just too damned hard.

Well, I’ll be damned if I’m going to let it get the better of me. I guess that’s why I picked it back up again. Just based on how large an impact the first couple chapters had on me, I know there is a huge amount to be gleaned from persevering and forcing myself to finish working through the book. Boy, is it ever hard, though!

Soul Map, Chapter 1

And, on a lighter note:

There’s a commercial for a local personal injury attorney that cracks me up. Apparently, the best selling point they can offer up is that they will argue your case in court using Power Point. Oh yeah, that impresses the hell out of me.

Art, Collage, Crankypantsing, Journals, Ladybusiness, Poetry

Hemp Bound Journal

January 6, 2006October 5, 2015 Shelly

PWT

This page was an off-shoot of the discussion about the phrase “poor white trash.” I finally spoke up, and called the original poster on her demeaning comments. After having gone to great lengths to describe what she meant by “poor white trash,” and her qualifying how she is supperior to “them,” she had the nerve to reply that she hadn’t really meant it as a slur, because, hey, it’s all a matter of semantics. Um, no, it’s not semantics, not when you’ve precisely qualified and quantified your position. She made a lame attempt at claiming that there were all sorts of meanings for the word “trash” and that “poor” is a state of mind. Neither of those points, even if they were true in this context, addresses the fact that she’d spent umpty words describing a certain group of people, and how they are inferior to her. I had to laugh at her parting shot, though, that she’d suffered discrimination, too, when she was younger, because she had been called a poor, little rich girl. Now, that takes brass ovaries!

Because I thought the “it’s just semantics” defense was a laughable cop-out, I decided to consult Mr. Roget for alternate suggestions. The column spacing sucks, which is one of those things that unreasonably vexes me. I’ll probably add something else to the far right margin of the left-hand page at a later date, just for visual balance

I’d totally forgotten that the phrenology model was on that page, because the coat of gesso makes it blend into the background. It used to be thought that you could judge a person’s character by the structure of their skull. This theory was used as the basis for racial discrimination, as well as for the theory that you could tell just by looking at some people that they were wrong ‘uns. I guess some prejudices die hard, eh?

Backbone & The Direction of Last Things

Letter from a Muse

Vessels

No matter how much I think it’s wrong to kill another living being–and I do–I cannot get past the fact that we do not legally require one person to save another’s life. It makes no more sense to mandate that a woman must carry a baby to term than it does to force people to give over their kidneys or bone marrow or livers for transplants. I can certainly choose to be an organ donor, but I cannot be forced into it. But, some people think it’s okay to force a woman to carry a child to term against her will.

Art, Journals, Ladybusiness

Let There Be Lips!

December 26, 2005October 5, 2015 Shelly

“A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, God said, let there be lips. And there were, and they were good.”[1]

A Warm Welcome

I spent most of the morning going through a stack of magazines, pulling images for gluebooks. Most of the magazines were of the Women’s Day, Ladies’ Home Journal and O[2] variety, so my stack of cut-outs is full of lips and doe eyes and all manner of ridiculous girly stuff. One disturbing trend I noticed was that many ads featured women’s faces, but only from the lips down.

Big, luscious, red lips, I might add. The rest of the face is apparently of so little importance that it can be omitted.

An American

Speaking of magazines, I also scanned a few more entries from my Dada Journal. Connection willing, I’ll upload them. Most of them are just my whinging about pointless things, but there’s one (still textless) example of how to work with large, dark areas. Erasers are your friends, folks! Depending on the quality of the clay coating on the paper, it may take more or less effort to lighten/remove the dark ink. I’ve made the journal out of pages from Real Simple magazine, which has fairly good quality paper, but the clay coat sticks like nobody’s business. It was a bit of a pain in the arse to erase, but well worth the effort. Erasing would also work relatively well to lighten page text, so that it can be overwritten more legibly. Just be careful not to be get overzealous, or the paper will tear. Don’t ask how I found this out.

Erasing is also a good way to scuff up the surface of a slick page so that it will better accept ink. If you’re having trouble with ink beading up, give erasing a try. Or, try sanding lightly with super fine steel wool. Beware, though, that the sanded paper will suck up more ink, so you may end up with heavy, dark lines.

__________________________________
[1] If you never went to see a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show when you were in high school or college, you missed out on a boat-load of fun.

[2] Oprah makes me bitter. She has a huge cult following, with women the world over hanging on her every proclamation. That’s an enormous amount of power. Sometimes she uses it for good, but often, she abuses it. For example, her magazine, O. While it pays lip service to empowering women, it undermines that message by proffering advice to manipulate men (who, apparently, do not have the brains the deity promised geese), in various and sundry ways. In particular, this advice encompassed shutting your mouth around your man, not talking to him during a ball game, not disagreeing with him, etc.

Perhaps the most mind-boggling of the advice in that particular column involved advising that, if if a woman compliments a man, the man will think she wants to sleep with him. And, that the same is true no matter what the woman says to a man. A simple “Good morning” is an invitation to hop in the sack. WTF?!

The irony is that, by following the Oprah Plan, women are actually being manipulated by men into taking all the responsibility for the success of the relationship. It’s a world in which men have to do none of the work. How on earth anyone could possibly think that’s appropriate or healthy is beyond me.

Art, Crankypantsing, Journals, Ladybusiness

A Public Service Announcement

August 27, 2005October 4, 2015 Shelly

Here’s some friendly advice. When you apply for a job, read the ad carefully. If the ad specifies that the applicant must be detail oriented, read it twice. Because if you don’t, you might miss such subtleties as “for application, e-mail xxxx@yyyyy.zzz.” What that means is, do not call me to ask how to apply. Do not drop by to ask for an application. Basically, do not make my life any more complicated than it already is. An applicant who calls me twice, then drops by, is not going to be very high on my list of People I Just Have to Hire. An applicant who calls me twice, then drops by and proceeds to preemptively flood me with the answer to every conceivable interview question, after being told “Thank you, I’ll be contacting people this afternoon to set up interviews,” is not going to be anywhere on my list of People I Just Have to Hire. I don’t care how qualified you are for the job, you aren’t getting it because you cannot listen and are incapable of following directions. Those are Very Important job skills and their lack makes you ineligible to work for me.

On the other hand (lest you think I’m the world’s meanest jerkface), I don’t care if you’re late for work–or how often you’re late–as long as you make up the time. I’m not going to ask you for a doctor’s note every time you call in sick. You’re welcome to arrange your schedule to suit yourself, and to rearrange it whenever the fancy strikes you. I don’t care how you dress. I don’t care if you listen to music while working, or what sort of music you listen to. As long as you do your work well, I really don’t care what else you do or don’t do. Just don’t make my life difficult.

My journal entry from whence yesterday’s blathering originated:

Speak Up
8 3/4 x 11 3/8 inches

I’d like to invite comments on the following scenario. Suppose Person A calls Person B a slur (choose your own, but in this case, the word cunt has repeatedly been lobbed about). Person B responds that Person A is a misogynist. Person C claims that Person A’s and Person B’s actions are equivalent–in other words, they both called each other names, so they’re even. What, if any, difference is there between Person A’s and Person B’s actions?

Addendum: Furthermore, does calling Person A a misogynist make Person B a cunt, even if she wasn’t before? And, does the sex (or race, if you substitute a racial slur) of Persons A, B, or C make a difference?

Thank you, audience, for playing along at home.