9

...Just in case you were wondering, that's how many garlic prints I ended up with. Seven numbered prints, plus two good artist proofs. That's not many, but it could be worse.

 

Here's another number: 150.  That's how many minutes it took me to get to work this morning. Usually it takes 15. However, a little snow and no salt on the roads leads to some pretty slow driving. This was the worst driving I've seen in a long time. Cars on Hurstbourne were at a standstill (I suppose because of an accident farther ahead) so I ended up creeping slowly in a more circuitous path to work. Thank goodness I now have a car stereo system.
 

 

Here I am, awake way too late again. I'll post this and get to bed ASAP.

I was up late last night working on a drawing of a street in Snitzelburg and watching the movie "Encounters at the End of the World." The movie was pretty good. It's a Werner Herzog documentary about Antartica and some of the people who end up working there. More than anything else, it's a meditation on eccentricities, extremes, and human limitations.

I also started reading a book that Kim surprised me with: Last Train from Hiroshima, by Charles Pelligrino. It's an in-depth account of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, mostly told from the survivors' points-of-view, but also mixing in lots of science. I'm not very far into it, but I'm finding it riveting.

The author mentions that one of his reasons for writing is the faint hope that such books will decrease the chance of a nuclear weapon ever being used again. I was struck by the pessimism, but I guess there's a lot of truth in that; one of the only thing that keeps humanity's future from seeming practically infinite is our ability and possible willingness to destroy ourselves, but with this hypothetically huge expanse of time before us, it seems likely that at some point there will be another nuke in another city.

Eh, I wrote more but I just deleted it. I don't think it made sense or really had a point.

Mystery Photo

Ten points to the first person who can correctly state what this is a photo of.

 

Or have I already put this photo on my blog?

 

 

 

Polymer clay cane

For a few years now I've been wanting to get out our small stockpile of polymer clay and mess around with it. Kim really got interested in it seven or eight years ago and bought some good supplies, but neither of us has done anything with it in about five years.

There had been a few things holding me back. One was its lack of importance on my list of artistic priorities. At times that I could get out the clay I instead decided to paint or draw.

A second was its inanity--I very rarely see anthing done with polymer clay that doesn't look like a cheap little decoration. Things I've seen that don't look like cheap little decorations have been jewelry. I've seen some really cool stuff, beautifully done and finely crafted. However, I don't have much interest in jewelry. Therefore, I really didn't have any good ideas for what I would try to create with the clay. I really like the finely detailed millefiore patters and other designs, and I like the manner in which they are created. But I had no goal.

I still don't, but last week I got out the clay just to horse around with it anyway. I decided to make a cane, a process in which one creates a 2D design but makes it looooong- imagine a loaf of bread that has a pattern on the "heel" which runs all the way through to the "heel" on the opposite side. Then the loaf is stretched out, making it long and thin. Then it's sliced, giving one discs with the design.

Here are the results. The red clay in the eyes was harder, so it didn't stretch as well, resulting in the skulls at the ends of the ropes lacking red.

This was mostly an experiment, using clay scraps. I was anxious to see the end results so I didn't build up the outside as well as I should have. There's also not as much contrast in the design as I'd like. However, I think it came out pretty well for a first try.

Now, what to do with these? string them into a necklace? Use them for checkers? I suppose they'd make fun game counters or chips. They'll probably just sit around.

 

My hair seems to have reached some kind of social situation commentary critical mass. It grows and grows at the same rate for a few months, then suddenly it's long enough that people I work with start commenting on it (about eight comments this week).  For example: "Your hair's getting pretty long, there," and "Looks like it's about time for a haircut, Mark," and "Your hair's really growing out—it looks good, I like it that length."

 

"Garlic Lovers" again

I bought some oil based black ink for finishing these prints, and I'm finding it much easier to work with than the water based ink. I'm still having problems, but I'm getting a little better at finessing the printmaking. So far, with the oil, I've finished five good ones and ruined another four or five. That's bad, but I'm learning and I strive to take it all with equanimity. The ones that came out all right, I like.

Winter fun

We spent a little time ice skating today. This was the girls' first time. I don't have much skill on skates, barely able to stay on my feet, but I went out to try to help them around. I didn't know what to expect from them, but I didn't want to take one out and leave one behind, so I took them both. Fortunately, Dad hurried off to get some skates and he soon joined us. (Thanks, Dad!)

Here we are yesterday enjoying the snow:

Acrylic painting

My first painting of 2010! This is also my first painting in acrylics in a loooong time. With the exception of the mural/paintings in my daughter’s bedrooms, this is the first real acrylic painting in perhaps 20 years.

I started this in early November, I think. I wanted to mess around with acrylics because I wanted to have a medium that I could use on my lunch breaks with a relatively short (compared to oil paint) set-up/take down time, and no messy solvents, on days that I wanted to work outside.

This painting is 13 x 19 inches on primed paper. I think it’s moderately successful. I like the colors and the paint application; I’m not as happy with the composition. It would be better if it were a scene with more dark areas or contrasts. As it is, there is a certain “busy-ness” that runs top to bottom that doesn’t allow the eye to rest, and the values are monotonous (there are darks and lights, but they’re all sort of stippled together.) However, I like the shapes and the colors.

Happy *hic* New Year!

We spent New Year's Eve with some friends; it was a great visit and we all had a good time. Perhaps some more than others...

Rhetorical question: How cool is my wife?!?

Kim called me at about 1:45 this morning and said, "I just delivered a baby. I just ****ing delivered a baby. In a recliner."
 

 

buffalo

Here the first buffalo nickel I've found with my detector! Dad found one first, then I found one about five minutes later.

 

 

 

 

 I walked into my living room a few days ago to find this. I thought it was pretty comical.

 

ink trouble

I tried to run a few more of the garlic prints tonight, but discovered that 39% humidity presents a real challenge when using waterbased inks without anything to slow the drying time. The black ink I was using really was drying out faster than I could use it.

Normally it dries annoyingly fast. I often have to add a little water after each print, and it never lasts through two prints. Tonight, though, I really didn't have enough time to roll it out once. Pretty weird.

I think that if I had worked really quickly, I could have done it, but I think I'd be better off either getting some oil based black (slower drying) to finish out the prints, or buying a medium to add to the ink to slow drying.

Frustrating!

Latest house drawing

This one is 8 x 10 inches, in black and white. It's the first b & w house drawing I've done.

I'm somewhat annoyed with my camera skills. The photos are dimmer than I had thought. I really just need to experiment with the settings, and stop being lazy and get out the clunky old tripod I have instead of holding the camera in my hands. I got a little bit of a headache trying to use photo editing software on these.

The customer picked up the drawing today and seemed very happy.

dream art

 

I had a vivid dream last night that I had painted a somewhat large, detailed painting of the central area of Fourth Street Live; the scene included desks and tables for the Waterfront Development Commission and a bunch of store display mannequins in coats.

 

That's not something I would normally choose to depict in real life, but in my dream it was a pretty impressive painting. I was getting a lot of praise for it and was considering producing and selling giclèe prints of it.

 

My alarm woke me from this dream, and I was disappointed to find that my accomplishment was imaginary.

 

This morning at breakfast, while discussing putting out cookies for Santa:

Kim: "You know, some people put out carrot sticks for the reindeer."
J: "My Amelie [the girls' imaginary playmate in various capacities] leaves out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and also puts out twelve marshmallows for the reindeer."
E, sounding a little annoyed: "OK, now you're just making stuff up."

It doesn't look as good in writing. The delivery was great.

finally done

I finally finished my second reduction cut linoleum block print, except for the actual printing process of the remaining 15 or so to which I still need to apply the black.

 

This is done with water based Speedball inks, three colors, on white paper. 6 x 9 inches.

 

I'm happy with the results.
 

 

St. Nicholas Day

On the fifth, we all polished our shoes. Before bed, we sat them outside our front door.

Sometime during the night, somebody --St. Nick, presumably -- moved the shoes to the inside of the door and filled them with treats. I wonder why he moved them inside? Perhaps the thought crossed his mind that a raccoon or possum might just loooooooove a few chocolate oranges.