pillowcase talk

I may be alone in this but I have a particular fondness for old sheets, ones that have been washed so many times that their touch is like an instant return to the security of childhood. In those days sheets were washed, hung out on a line to dry, and often ironed before being put away in a cupboard to air. In fact, I learned to iron by practicing on pillowcases and my father's handkerchiefs. I'm not even sure anyone irons anything anymore, or at least not often and even then, probably not sheets and handkerchiefs. Not even me. But I do have some old sheets that I like a lot. A few days ago when I was making the bed I must have tugged a little too hard on the top sheet as I pulled it into place because, before I knew it, a large part of the top band had separated from the rest. Oh dear. While trying to imagine how I might fix that one I got another set of sheets from the cupboard. All went well until I shook one of the pillows into its case and the pillow bounded across the bed while I was left holding the band. Oops. Dammit. I hate it when that happens.

So it turned out to be time to go to the department store, one of those activities that hasn't been that much fun for me these past few/many years, but occasionally necessary. Happily, sheet buying hasn't become any more complicated than I remember - at least not at a still old-fashioned place like Sears. Of course, I could have purchased my sheets online and had them delivered too, but I'd rather see them first. Speaking of online purchasing, did you ever foresee the day you'd be asked to give the book, dvd, or widget you'd ordered a starred and/or written review? It seems this has become such an entertaining activity for bored (or broke) shoppers that there are number of people who have taken up reviewing as a hobby. Sometimes I wonder if the reason for this is that we like to have some input and, since we're more used to being known as consumers these days rather than citizens, it gives us a place to express our frustrations with the system.

Anyway, it's time I begin training two new sets of sheets. Maybe I'll iron them - if I can remember where I stored the iron.

♡

ps: Some very good news I read yesterday is that the government of France has made it a law that all grocery stores must donate unsold food to charity. It's a start.

back to my work

It looks as though summer festival time is on its way here; one afternoon a couple of days ago it was actually warm enough for us to take our coats off for half an hour while we walked around the park. Yes, things are looking up - at least in these parts, and, hopefully, where you are too. As you can see, Crow is prepared for the local Tattoo. But I did make him take his bagpipes down the road and around the corner to practice. There's only so much a person can take.

Speaking of how much a person can take, a few weeks ago I made up my mind to try out a social network. No, I haven't joined facebook or twitter, what I did instead was to return to Deviant Art - or dA as it's fondly called by members. My first foray there was in 2009 when I signed up, posted a couple of pictures, became overwhelmed by the sheer chaos of the site, then promptly ran away. This time I've managed three weeks and it's still pretty interesting - huge, yes, with 31,000,000 members - but, as you can imagine, there's lots to see. Some of the work I've seen so far is phenomenal - not all, but that's to be expected in an open forum. It's nice to see that so many people are trying.

What's even better for me is that it's participatory rather than being strictly an online place to post things for sale. It's good to be able to have conversations with other artists about their processes and inspiration. While I'm interested in a number of subjects it's not like I can engage in intelligent conversations about physics with physicists, music with musicians, archeology with archeologists, investments (hah) with economists, or the finer points of enlightenment with mystics. What I can do is talk about art with other artists now and then, even when we work in different media.

The other good thing is that I'm discovering some fresh enthusiasm for painting and maybe trying some things I haven't done before. Having only made artwork for the blog these past years my tendency has been to work faster than I used to do. We'll see how that goes - old dogs, new tricks.. you know the rest.
♡
ps: It only took me a year to paint this one :) That's the other thing - drawings I never get around to finishing.

experimental magic

Okay, I'll be first to agree this isn't the most exciting thing ever but once I got the little lantern from Magic Lamp I really wanted to try my hand at making my own version of the turning cylinder that fits inside one.

It was my friend, Marja-Leena, who asked me to show how it might be done and with that in mind I've been happy to take pictures of my first attempts and the result. You can see my 'how to' over here.

Magic turning lamps, or MawariDoro, are very pretty enhancements for any room. Now if only I knew how to make my own 20 second video :) 
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projects new and old

It's funny the things we'll think of when winter's dark seems as though it will go on forever. Some weeks ago, during just such a time, I remembered the little candle chimes my Swedish friend, Inger, used to unpack each Christmas. This time I had a spot on top of a new bookcase that didn't really need a reading light, but did need something interesting. Although I'd liked the angel lights, a candle powered anything didn't seem like the right thing for regular use. After a little searching I found a small company in Vancouver called 'Magic Lamp' that makes what are known in Japan as 'Mawari-Doro'. They had some on sale for a very reasonable price so I ordered the one you see here.

Now I've begun the process of seeing if I can make one of the paper cylinders that spins inside the little rice paper walled box. This is how far I'd got by this afternoon. Since I wasn't able to find any colored cellophane like what's been used in the cut-out windows of the original, I had to order sheets of colored mylar from an art supply company in the US. Getting supplies I'm used to having easily available is a bit frustrating, but not an insurmountable problem. While I expect it's going to be tricky figuring out the right weight and balance for a new spinner, I think the result will be worth spending the time. I'm already getting ideas about carving and gluing balsa wood frames..

I also have a new plant friend, one rescued from the grocery store a few days ago. I thought it was a cactus, but it turns out it's a Euphorbia Trigona, a plant native to South Africa where they're often grown into hedges to keep wild animals out of the gardens. Yes, this is a very small one and I must be prepared for it to grow to six feet or more. We may need a bigger pot and a dolly - eventually.

Lastly, and in case you wondered, I did finally finish Final Fantasy IX, the game I began to play late in January. Just in case you might (possibly, maybe) be interested in seeing what held my attention for so many afternoons the following shows some of the video highlights of the game. Good video games can provide entertainment like no other medium I know. Yes, 50% is fighting and figuring out puzzles, 5% is movie, but the rest is all about traveling around discovering a world and getting to know (and love) the characters who live there.



'You don't need a reason to help people.'
~ Zidane

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the disappearing artist

I wasn't familiar with the work of the artist Liu Bolin until a year or two ago when I ran across his amazing Invisible Man images on the web. What was most intriguing to me was the question about what had precipitated his idea of hiding in plain sight as a camouflaged man in mostly urban settings.

In 2005, the Beijing International Artists Camp, the world's largest community of Asian and Western artists, was ordered to be destroyed by the Chinese government with almost no prior notice. Riot police accompanied by bulldozers stopped the most vibrant art experiment in the history of China by knocking down more than a hundred artist’s studios. Liu Bolin was one of those artists. Prompted by his emotional response to the demolition of this site, Liu decided to use his art as a means of silent protest, calling attention to the lack of protection Chinese artists had received from their own government. Using his body by painting himself into various settings in Beijing, he created a space for the Chinese artist, preserving their social status and highlighting their often troubled relationship with their physical surroundings. That first series is called 'Hiding in the City'. Bolin followed up his Beijing series with two similar series of performances captured in Venice and New York City - Venice for its significance within the Western art tradition and New York City for the potency of the underlying conflicts between humans and the objects they create.

Liu Bolin isn't looking for a way to disappear as a person but encourages us to examine the damages caused by the economic and urban development on individuals. If you're interested in seeing more this site has a large collection of his work. If you're even more interested this video shows how one of the images is made.




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hidden treasures - other people's work part 2

The Etsy site has about 500,000 sellers according to their documentation. There's some nice stuff, there's some nasty stuff and every so often I'll notice something that's very clever.. not just clever in this case but ingenious. That's quite rare. I thought, just for the heck of it, I'd show you some items an actual famous artist has for sale there. Mark Bryan seems to have a similar viewpoint to me and to many of you which shows quite well in this painting called 'Republic of Amnesia'.

Now I'll show you one of the cellulose phones Mark Bryan has for sale on Etsy:

 

Are there monkeys in your head telling you things you don’t need to hear? Let’s face it, we all hear those guys yammering in the background and sometimes it’s just too much. You can “BE HERE NOW”. It’s time to say no to those monkeys. Breath deep and say to them “Shut the f… up!”

In addition to their fine craftsmanship and subversive message, each Lost Horizon Cellulose phone also comes with a generous service plan and user agreement : Lost Horizon agrees to provide free unlimited minutes for you to talk to your phone until you die. Our guaranteed GPS service will always be ready to tell you that you are right here, right now.

Lost Horizon phones are hand crafted (by my own pet monkey) from wood, paper, glue, a brass hinge, varnish, and one eight penny nail. They are approx. 4” tall, 2” wide and 1.25” thick. Included with each phone is a very nice fabric drawstring bag (again, made by my monkey) to store your phone safely. Your user agreement card fits nicely inside. Lost Horizon phones never require charging in order to function. An active imagination is all you will need.

Lost Horizon phones were designed by artist Mark Bryan (he’s famous) and each one features a print from an original oil painting and is hand signed by him. You may see more of his work at artofmarkbryan.com

Tags editgeekery,gadget,art,cell phone


As it's so well expressed on his website:

Humorologist C.W. Metcalf says humor and laughter do not exist in the absence of sorrow and tears, but co-exist as a balance of sanity. Mark Bryan's iconography, loaded as it is with multiple inferences, has the potential to make us laugh and also think about the frivolities and stupidities committed by so-called "enlightened" human beings . "Sometimes while I'm sketching," says Bryan, "I often feel like I'm taking notes at a dark comedy, but the play never ends, and they won't let us go home."
essay by Nicholas Roukes, Artful Jesters

His phones cost just $36 and I can't believe nobody has bought one yet. I think some people have had their senses of humor surgically removed.

I hope you'll have a look at his paintings and other cell phones. We all deserve a good laugh through the tears.

☀

still slacking

If I had a dollar for every time someone has told me they can't draw I'd be a thousandaire by now. In actuality, I can't draw either and that's why it takes so long for me to come up with new bits and pieces that entertain me and occasionally a few others.. like you, I hope. Anyhow, if you'd like to try something fun while you're waiting for the next scandal to break, your muse to speak, or if you have a little downtime at your job you might like to try the Scribbler at zefrank.com. That's where I came up with this interesting rendering of two of my favorite characters yesterday.

If you don't have time for such nonsense you may enjoy a little story about how the panda ended up being black and white in a world of multi-colored animals:


TIJI "COLOUR" HD from AKAMA on Vimeo.


Keep up the good work, whatever it is. Come to think of it, doing nothing at all may be our best bet in the long run. Slackers of the World: Untie!

♡

painting in stages

As I'm sure any of you who write, paint, or work on any self-generated creative endeavor would agree, sometimes the most difficult thing is knowing when the piece is done. Would a change of syntax, a different word, an extra paragraph, another chip with the mallet, or one more brushstroke make or break the object of so much focus? I have no idea but I do know, well, I'm pretty sure I know, that this one is finished.

There were some stages between that I remembered to scan. My scanner will only accept slightly larger than normal documents so I've lost some of the border but I'm sure you get the idea. Here's how it went:

I'm still not used to showing work in progress but now that I'm relatively, reasonably, possibly sure this one is finished you can see how I got to the one at the top in the past 9 days. I'm lazy; so sue me.

Have a wonderful spring weekend (and if you can think of a title please let me know).

♡

beadazzled

Hmpff. I had been planning to write about something topical today once I'd spent a couple of hours working on the new painting. Yes, it's coming along fine and you'll see it soon. Anyway, once the grocery shopping was done I dragged out my scanner and decided to see if it might be possible to scan some jewelry pieces I made a long time ago. My friend Marja-Leena gave me the idea by showing some of her extraordinary scans of both natural and made objects. The beads, silver, and other sparkly bits made my jewelry difficult to photograph so I'd pretty much given up until today. I'd say this one looks pretty okay.

It's kind of stunning when I dig through the few items left of things I used to make and see just how time and determination can manifest truly cool things. Nobody taught me how to bead but about 25 years ago I bought a book of beaded treasures featured at the American Craft Council Museum in New York and I wanted some of them. Unfortunately, I had none of the kind of money they cost and, besides that, none of them were for sale anyway.

The only bead store close to our place in Providence was a Native American shop on the outskirts of Worcester MA. I went there and spent nearly $300. buying hanks, scoops, jars, and individually counted beads in multiple colors as well as a bead loom and beading needles. Then I purchased a small book that showed several techniques. That was only the beginning of my love affair with bead stores. It wasn't long before I got pretty good at designing and making my own stuff - maybe not as good as the best I'd seen but good enough to please me. Would you believe I sold and gave away a number of pieces without even trying to get a picture?

The one shown here was done completely free-hand using peyote stitch for the necklace itself (32" long and very sinuous) and square stitch for the centerpiece made of glass, silver, and carnelian which I based on the idea of a Tibetan prayer wheel. Making it was kind of like climbing the Everest of beading but it's meant to be played with.

Anyway, I hope you like it. I'll probably post a few more one of these days and may even get around to posting that topical piece soon.

ps: Spring has arrived in Halifax and it's beautiful.

oh well, may as well show you one of my bracelets while I'm at it:

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public art

I probably spend far too much time reading news and opinions on the current affairs web sites and find it all too easy to become overwhelmed by information, depressed, or both. When that happens, those times when I don't have a project I'm involved with or a book I can't put down, I have a few places on-line I can retreat to for comfort and solace. One of them is The Wooster Collective, a forum for street culture and graffiti artists from around the world.

Most of us are familiar with Banksy, a character impossible not to love in my opinion, but there are many others who do wonderful work that's focused on topics as diverse as politics, ethics, and culture. In public spaces, street art represents the voice of the community, marginal groups, and young people who strive to be heard, often defying the notion of private property. Graffitis have become a rich medium for the unrestricted expression of ideas and statements about how to make the world a better place without resorting to anything more utopian than being willing to share space and dreams.

“Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal, a city where everybody could draw whatever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall – it’s wet.”

–Banksy, Wall and Piece


Faith47 from The Ginkgo Agency on Vimeo.

There are so many great examples it was hard to choose just one photograph or video but since I limit myself to one of each I thought I'd show you a picture of just how effective something small can be. The artist in the video speaks for herself.

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impossible dreams

Although I'm not much of anything when it comes to religion, I couldn't help but be impressed by a man who has devoted the past 50 years of his life to building a cathedral all by himself. The simple story is that he was unable to continue his life as a monk when he contracted tuberculosis and was ejected from his monastery by those who feared contagion. Another I've read is that he was so devout he fasted himself close to starvation and when he became ill the worried Benedictines decided he'd best not return. He did recover and resolved to build a cathedral on part of his family's farm near Madrid, selling off parcels of land to buy what he could and scavenging at building sites for what he could use. With no architectural training, or any drawn plans, Don Justo simply started to build.

Looking at the galleries of pictures on the website you can see pillars made from cement cylinders that were moulded in plastic buckets, concrete heads of Christ and the Apostles standing on spikes, a staircase built of misshapen bricks, and circular windows whose forms were made from tires. The rickety ladders and scaffolding are enough to make any building inspector cry in frustration but Don Justo has never had an accident.

I loved this quote by him, 'I appreciate the art in many things but all beauty now is ruined by money. There is so much confusion and distraction in the world so I see myself as a martyr. Every man should be a saint.'


El Loco de la Catedral from James Rogan on Vimeo.


It's nice to know there are some who try.
Best wishes to all who do.
♡

offering

This drawing isn't really pink, in fact it's a pencil sketch on a fairly large sheet of white watercolor paper which is too large to sit on the bed of my scanner so I did what I could to make it visible.

It's also not really about anything because, if I could write it down or tell it, what would be the point of the lines?

The flu came and went leaving me just a little lighter, or perhaps it's just that the days are noticeably getting longer.

With luck and time the image may turn into a painting but for now it is what it is and I hope you get the idea.

What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?
I think it is the hope of loving, 
or being loved.

I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey

to find its source, 
and how the moon wept

without her lover’s
 warm gaze.

We weep when light does not reach our hearts. 
We wither 
like fields if someone close

does not rain 
their
 kindness

upon 

us.
 

Meister Eckhardt

♡

dancing in my mind

Here at the almost end of another year I find myself in a strange place. Not Halifax. Yes, still here but the city is anything but strange. In fact it's about as normal as any small city in Canada could be - cold, quiet, and somewhat sleepy now that winter's here. So far there's only a little snow but there are still a few months of potential weather excitement ahead.

What I mean by strange place is the one I find myself in on the inside and the fact I haven't posted much lately because I've been drawing a fair amount but don't seem to be quite in the mood for painting. I'm feeling a bit color shy if the truth be told, tired of painting fantasies yet too tied into the images. Any mythology I envision is strictly personal but always returns to a sense of sacredness I feel about our human experience of the world. Reverence for a spectacular view rises up in us unbidden but there's also a sacred aspect to whatever is in front of us right now and that's what I'm trying to capture in my own limited fashion.

Do you have plans for New Year's? If I could go anywhere for a party I think I'd like to visit Yokohama the night La Machine's 'La Princesse' and a sister arachnid showed up for a stroll around town. I, for one, welcome our new spider overlords.

Imagine how things could be if more people could see all the possibilities and wonders in this life. Oh well, c'est la guerre. Meanwhile, Happy New Year :-)

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baffling solutions

When you live in apartment complexes sometimes you're lucky enough to have windows on two sides but it's rare to have all of them overlooking mountains, rivers, or forests. We spent nearly eight years living in an especially nice townhouse where our bedroom had the mountain/river view. The back room, however, the one that served as our guest room/movie viewing/game playing space looked out on cat walk accesses to other apartments and would presumably allow people to look inside our lighted room. The good news was that window was at the end of a 'U' and faced west.

I don't like blinds and most curtains are boring; stained glass would have been perfect but I didn't have any so what I decided to do that first spring was to make something that would mimic its effect but be light enough to rustle like leaves when the window was opened.

How did I do it? tissue paper, transparent inks, bristol board, polymer varnish, and butcher's string. I spread plastic all over the living room floor and sprayed many dozens of tissue paper with a solution of ink and water. As they dried I stacked them and sprayed more. The process to get enough took weeks. Meanwhile, I cut wide ovals, and long rectangles from the bristol board, hollowing each one to about half an inch. Once there was enough colored tissue I laid the ovals etc. on the plastic, painted the edges with varnish and began layering torn pieces of the thin paper varnishing the whole. Each piece you see here was layered 6 times between front and back. As the groups were finished I trimmed the excess tissue and hole punched for the string.

The target date for finishing the project was midsummer's day when I knew it would light up as the sun moved across the building. This is the photograph I took that afternoon of my little personal installation called 'Summer Gate'. It's gone now but I'm glad of the picture.

This one isn't so pretty, nor was it as complicated to make, but by the time we moved here I was thinking about prayer flags. Every other panel says Om Mane Padme Om in Tibetan script and on a summer day like this one it's nice to imagine blessings on the warm breezes coming through the kitchen window. The extra good news is they blow both ways. I like to imagine every little bit helps.

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