Friday, August 31, 2007

What a Place!

Possibly the highlight of our day in Salem (besides the seafood fettuccini and the "Far Side" loving waiter at the perfect restaurant) was the book store on the Salem Mall. Books stacked from floor to ceiling, piles and piles with narrow alleys winding through the shop - and everything at half-price.



Realizing that if we let ourselves really look we would leave with an entire library, we began to search for the cashier. With the sound of his voice he directed us to the counter - a narrow slit between piles, big enough to slide a few dollars through.



I commented to the shopkeeper on his abundance and he said I should have seen it before they started liquidating.

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Thursday, August 30, 2007

Obsessive?

A question for you...

The first, the original. A drawing I did recently, quenching an (obsessive?) impulse for minute pattern-ing.



The second, after scanning and Illustrator re-imaging.



I can't decide which I like more. What do you think?

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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

going for a walk


going for a walk
Originally uploaded by littleloopy.

A weekend trip to Salem and Boston marked the end of the real summer for us (classes began yesterday - I feel so liberated to not be a part of that anymore, but also kind of sad).

I am fascinated by statues. This one is really neat because he has so much movement... how do the artists make these? it is a mystery to me...

His thumb is golden from the many hands of visitors who have grabbed ahold. Another neat part of these statues, the unobtrusive mark of the passersby.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Ewetopia!



I designed this logo for my darling friend Kathryn who has opened her very own fiber shop in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Ewetopia Fiber Shop looks just gorgeous from the pictures - I have not had a chance to visit in person yet. I have, however, been the beneficiary of some bags of wool and a set of needle-felting needles and I am now spending my evenings stabbing and forming wool into the most wonderful little dolls. Its a bit addictive, I tell you.

Kathryn is all about shipping supplies to far off people, and has actually discovered that her prices are a lot lower than elsewhere. So I highly suggest you have a look at her website, and get some ideas, and then call her up and tell her what projects you have in mind. She is a fabulous artist herself and will help you figure out just what you need!

One word of advice - if you do take up needlefelting, I recommend not doing it anywhere in public. The stabbing may not feel ferocious, but to the uninitiated it looks very much like voodoo. And stay away from children, they might not understand why you are poking the poor doll in the eyes.

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Saturday, August 25, 2007

An awesome find



I possibly got a little too excited with this dust imprint on the porch windowsill. But isn't it unusually awesome?

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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Bread and Puppet


We took a Sunday trip to the Bread and Puppet Theatre in Glover VT recently. I had been last summer, and had been wanting to return ever since, mainly because the huge puppets, the basic materials, and the overall genius of the place are so inspiring. It seems to me they just have it figured out. I am sure everyone puts insane amounts of work into the production and the puppets and all, but they make it look so effortless and fun. I leave thinking how complicated I make things, how I put things off because I don't have exactly the right paintbrush, or wire, or plain white cotton cloth. At Bread and Puppet, re-used cardboard boxes seem to be the most common base. Black and white paints are the most common materials. And they create absolute magic.





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Friday, August 10, 2007

How NOT to sell...

I am brainstorming and conniving on how to put my artwork to good use, which at this point mainly translates into financial use. Personal evolvement uses, and connecting with others uses, and keeping in touch with myself uses are all very well and good, but I like to eat and I appreciate being warm in the winter and having cool drinks in the summer and I really like to travel. All those combined make the financial uses sort of float to the top of the uses pile of most things I do, although I have to say, in my favor (?), that they don't usually manage to block out any of the other uses, for which reason I am avoiding all bills (:

With these thoughts in mind, I came across this article, which I find incredibly enlightening...

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Thursday, August 9, 2007

As seen on Flickr...


Onion River
Originally uploaded by littleloopy.

Another of my photographs recently uploaded to flickr. This one was taken in Winooski, VT, just below the dam. That day, the dam was closed, so the rocks along the bank were visible. When the dam is open, the water floods through and covers them.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Parkway Diner


Parkway Diner
Originally uploaded by littleloopy.

I uploaded oodles of photographs to flickr this evening - older film pictures that I had had scanned. It is neat seeing them all together on a page, i had become used to the actual developed enlargements. Have a look by clicking on the photo here, or my flickr badge over on the side --->

Seeing the pictures also makes me itch to get back into the darkroom...

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Wrapped yarn

By far the most popular activity in my Belize art class was making God's Eyes. The first class I tried to teach had around 35 or so kids, and it seemed disastrous. The only way they seemed to understand what to do is if I went around to each, individually, and showed them on their own two sticks. I had perhaps made it to two thirds of the kids by the time the class was over.

But then I think they must have begun teaching each other, because it seemed that the next day, everyone not only knew how to do it, but were completely into it.



I had God's Eyes of all sizes and colors, all I seemed to hear was "Miss, more yarn, Miss" "I want red, Miss" "Miss I need more yarn".

This fellow took it all very seriously - he would not let me take his photograph until the large piece was finished.



To make a God's Eye:
  • two sticks (we used wooden skewer sticks with the points chopped off, and later we made mini versions on toothpicks)
  • yarn of various colors


Cross the sticks and tie together in the middle with one end of a longish piece of yarn.







Begin by wrapping the yarn entirely around one stick - over, under, and back over.

Move to the next point, in the direction the yarn is going, and wrap the yarn over, under, and back over.




I told the kids to repeat "over two, under one" as they worked. It also works well to rotate the cross as you go, so the point being wrapped is always pointing the same direction. Then the mantra is "over two, under one, turn, over two, under one, turn..."





To join colors, just tie the new yarn to the end of the old and keep going.

To finish, I just wrapped the yarn around the last stick a couple times and tied it off.




The second day we made these, I had the students string them together into hanging mobiles. They turned out really pretty, although it was difficult to get the kids to make crosses for the mobile structure, since they just wanted to use all the sticks to make more God's eyes.

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Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Yikes, its bigger than me!

I have learned that the strange bad-thing-ness has been running rampant - its bigger than myself! (yes, I am aware how self centered that sounds, oh well).

Last night the guy I work with had a tumble from his bicycle and scratched himself up like no other. Ouch.

And the local Chinese restaurant burnt out the motor on their blender - too bad for them, but too bad for us as well since that means smoothies are on hold for a week.

Aya!

Enough with the self-pity.

Good things that happened are that my garden not only exists after hree months absence, but has grown and is bearing fruit! Once I extracted the plants from the weeds it was just beautiful!

And my fish are still alive and healthy - hurray for automatic feeders!

I love to travel, but it does feel good to be home.

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Amanda and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - oops, make that plural

It's actually become so ridiculous all I can do is laugh, but really - can it be the moon? is mercury in retrograde? did I bother some spirits at the Mayan ruins? What happened in the last couple days?

The plan was to finish the last part of getting home - a drive from Virginia to Vermont. Not exactly the nicest way to spend an entire day, but once things get going it can be pleasant enough. Except when the car breaks down an hour out. Four hours and a tow truck later we were back where we started, me with a lovely new sunburn by which to remember the occasion.

In the interests of getting back to work a.s.a.p., I went online to purchase a last minute plane ticket, and somehow managed to buy a round-trip ticket for my one-way travel. Naturally unrefundable and non-transferable. The lady at the "help" center was very clear about that in the seconds following my unfortunate purchase.

Then I stepped in gum.

Day 2. Barely made the plane, due to misunderstanding, lack of communication, and a large truck that drove right down the middle of the two-lane highway. Had to carry on all my luggage and throw out lotions, makeup, toothpaste (honestly, toothpaste? How far are we going to go in the name of "security"? - or perhaps I'd better not get started on that strain, it leads to ranting and raving and dark depressions).

Bumpy plane ride, crowded bus home, thought my troubles were over...

But no. My refrigerator had died sometime - I would say sometime in the early days of my being gone. I won't pain you with a description of what greeted me upon opening the freezer door, but lets just say it wasn't pretty. Bad enough that a new refrigerator had to be obtained.

I think that that is the end of the no-good very-badness of my last couple days. So good to be home. Ha.

Really, its not that bad. I try to think of money as inconsequential anyway, and that's really all that's lost. Now, I just have a chuckle at the absurd timing of it all. And write about it here, when it has nothing whatsoever to do with the point - aka art - but oh well.

I made a wallet this evening. May be my new crafty venture...

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