Oh, I forgot

How did I leave these off the list? The most useful items of all: 3 feng shui compasses!

morning in the studio

This may not look like creative work to you, but trust me: I have to be very creative to figure out what to do with all this stuff - and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I have a couple of those narrow 4 drawer rolling thingies that I keep under my table. That means I have 8 junk drawers. Eight - count 'em!!This is junk-drawer cleaning season and instead of starting in the kitchen, I started here. It would have been easier to start in the kitchen.The art supplies are happily settled back in their respective places. A few things need to go down to the print studio: 2 bags of disposable rubber gloves (why don't I dispose of them?), some household objects that are good for printing, a hair dryer (for drying screens) and a bag full of water-soluble oil paints for printmaking. It is that stuff above that I can't figure out what to do with. Here is a partial list of goodies I found.

2 tjantings that have been missing for months

4 Olfa blades, still in packages - including one for a size I don't own

12 rolls of assorted tapes: duct, packing, foil, masking, double-stick carpet, artist's tape, blue painter's tape. All partially used.

A receipt from J.Jill from 2004 for'sunsplash flip flops.' HUH??

a bottle of liquid paper white-out

3 small calculators

5 assorted metal tips

a packet of disposable ear plugs

a block of wood

a scrub brush for dishes.. and THIS.

Does anybody know what UHU tac is or why I would have bought it???

Well, I have one more empty drawer: I think I'll throw everything I don't know what to do with into that drawer. Then I can get on with my day.

tagged and so forth

I've been tagged, so here's a bunch of information you really need to know. Four Jobs You've Had: French teacher Promotion Director for a computer magazine Image consultant/personal shopper (the most fun!) Executive coach & career transition counselor (for people who have been fired/downsized) Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over: On the Waterfront One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (I already saw it 27 times) Top Hat (anything with Fred Astaire - see below) On the Beach Four Places You've Lived Montclair, NJ Livingston, NJ Boulder, CO West Orange, NJ Four TV Shows you love to Watch: I don't watch tv, so... None None None None Four Places You've Been on Vacation: Paris Venice London San Francisco Four Websites You Visit Every Day: (blogs) my own: http://studio78notes.blogspot.com From the Sketchbook: http://clairefenton.blogspot.com/ Handmaiden: http://gabrielleswain.blogspot.com/ Everyday Matters: http://www.dannygregory.com/ Four Of Your Favorite Foods: chana chat (or anything Indian) New York strip steak-RARE calamata olives (preferably in a martini) taramosalata Four Places You'd Rather Be: Boulder, CO. Paris Palm Beach New York City Four Albums You Can't Live Without: Julliard String Quartet: Dvorak String Quartet #12 & Piano quintet Op 81 Julliard String Quartet: Mendelssohn String Quartet in E-flat Major; String Quartet in A Minor Petersen Quartett: Beethoven String Quartets: Op 18 #6, #2, Op 135 Jerusalem Quartet: Hayden Quartets #5, #2, #1 Four People You'll Pass This On To: Claire Mary Frances Annabel

work in process

This afternoon's output. I am not finished yet. The digital camera enables me to see what I am doing. Especially since every piece is pinned to the wall and can't be moved.

Here it is upside down, or right-side up. Ok. Back to work.

happiness is...

...a pile of Helene Davis' hand-dyed fabrics. What could be more yummy than a pile of her strips to choose from? Like being in a candy store, only better. I dumped a whole bin onto the table yesterday, thinking I would iron them. Instead, I am sewing some of them together and throwing them at the piece I have burgeoning on the wall. (do pieces burgeon?) I will eventually post a few pix of the piece in process. Meantime, here is something else yummy. Full of fiber and anti-oxidants. Seriously. Because it is pure dark chocolate. I got the recipe in an e-mail from the South Beach Diet and made it last night. Of course, I used luxurious, expensive Scharffen Berger chocolate from Whole Foods because I thought it would be more healthful. (yeah, right). But you can (and probably should) make this with plain old bittersweet (or semi-sweet) Bakers chocolate from the regular supermarket. Recipe follows - and it is a no-brainer. Eating the stuff is also a no-brainer.

Melt 12 squares of semi-sweet (or bittersweet) chocolate and add 1 cup of shelled pistachios. (the point is 12 oz. of choc. You could probably use a bag of chocolate chips, but it won't be as good for you as this is). Spread on waxed paper on cookie sheet and put in fridge till it hardens. Break into pieces and eat. I am writing this at 6:am Sunday. It is still pitch dark outside. Finished sleeping at 4 and now that I have spent 2 hours reading my e-mail, other people's blogs, and doing my own, I am going to make a pot of coffee and start the day. Maybe I can actually accomplish something. I will check in again later.

studio day

Finally! I got the thing quilted - it only took me thousands of hours - most of the afternoon and evening of slogging along. The stitching is finished and now I have to decide how to finish the edges. You may be able to see it better if you click on it to enlarge-- I am looking at it on my laptop, which is a bit difficult. I stopped binding my quilts years ago, but this may need something and I have an idea I will experiment with tomorrow. Here is a detail. I did take a walk this afternoon, around 4:00. It was COLD! But I put on the sneakers and two sweatshirts and fleece gloves and got my heart rate up. Good thing, too, because we went out for drinks & dinner tonight. Another studio day tomorrow? I hope so.

was that me at the sewing machine?

Well, I spent more time picking out stitches than putting 'em in. I intensely dislike this part of the work but don't feel I have a choice about doing it. I always put it off as long as possible. This is a whole cloth piece. Last week, my crit group all had suggestions about how I should quilt it. I don't remember what they were, but I'm doing what comes naturally. (should I be singing this?). Here are a few bits. The problem is, I don't know how to make my digital camera get close-ups that are sharp so you can see the stitching. On the other hand, maybe it is better that way. Almost midnight. Tomorrow I have my five year checkup so I had better get a good night's sleep.

week #48 drawing, etc.

I've resolved to get back into the walking routine (although that r-word is one of my least favorite words). So, here is my resolution drawing.

In case you don't recognize it, it is a sneaker. I hate sneakers. I would much rather walk in my Birks or my Arches (sent back two pair to Zappos today because one was too big and one was too small. I need to order one that is just right).

Enough. I am about to go upstairs and sit at the - gasp - sewing machine for a while. I may check in later if I accomplish anything nearly as worthwhile as all of my fellow bloggers seem to do. Oh, the pressure!!!

A postmodern day for the soul

One of my resolutions was to take 2 days in the studio and one for the soul (of course, they could be the same thing, depending). So,today my friend Seema and I went to see an exhibit at Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts Gallery called “How American Women Artists Invented Postmodernism, 1970-1975." It was art from the early '70s by "Revolutionary Feminists" including Judy Chicago, Faith Ringgold, Miriam Schapiro, Joan Snyder, and others. Sculpture, installation, video, painting, lithographs, and some other things that I can't quite remember. Some of it was boring, some was outrageous, and some of it seemed very dated, given the changes in the last 30 years. But interesting. Of course, since I have no idea how you define "postmodernism," I did a little research. Here is a postmodern excerpt from the definition I found: Postmodernism, like modernism, follows most of these same ideas, rejecting boundaries between high and low forms of art, rejecting rigid genre distinctions, emphasizing pastiche, parody, bricolage, irony, and playfulness. Postmodern art (and thought) favors reflexivity and self-consciousness, fragmentation and discontinuity (especially in narrative structures), ambiguity, simultaneity, and an emphasis on the destructured, decentered, dehumanized subject. Ah - I get it. Here is an example of postmodern art, right in my own studio: an installation that certainly rejects rigid genre distinctions. Is it sculpture? Is it fiber?

Fragmented? You bet. Dehumanized. Totally. Lowbrow? For sure. And a definite pastiche. I was going to organize it tomorrow, but I may have to reconsider. It is just too avant garde.

week #48 drawing

"What is THIS?", you may ask. "AHA," I say, "This is a sketch."

But I cheated. I needed to put a drawing up and haven't had time to do one, so I found this one in my sketchbook from probably 1999 and it will have to do. I did this exercise in a free-form quilt design class and it had to do with seeing lines and patterns everywhere you look. I semed to have had a rather whimsical time with this slice from the Paris R.E.R map. You might want to try it yourself: cut out a slice of a visual and extend the lines any way you wish. Then what? Obviously, I have no idea, since I never did anything with it. If you have any ideas, let me know.

Happy 2006

Since lots of people seem to be making their lists of art goals for the coming year, I thought I would join the crowd. Unfortunately, this is as far as I got before I hit a wall. I am deliberately not reading anybody else's list, lest I make one that is derivative. But here are a few items off the top of my head that need to go on that list...

• Draw at least once a week, no matter what.
• Finish you-know-what and get it out by March.
• Tie up loose ends for 2007 and hound those people who haven't sent back contracts.
• Try working more abstractly.
• Finish quilting those 3 pieces sitting in the studio by March.
• Walk 5 mornings a week unless it is raining or snowing or icy.
• Make sure 3 days a week are for you: - 1 day for the soul and 2 in the studio.
• Don't answer the phone on those 3 days, no matter what.
• Enter at least 4 juried exhibits in 2006.
• Order new postcards by February.

Last week was a hectic one. We had plumbing problems, a house full of family staying for several days, 20 people for latkes on Friday night (my house still smells like fried potatoes, 3 days after the fact) and a full weekend of celebrating the new year. We stayed up till 2:am drinking vintage champagne and eating Haagen Dazs and then slept over in NY. Came home yesterday and attended two parties. The most socializing we've done in ages and it was lovely. I walked this morning and spent the rest of the day at my computer, trying to get jpgs onto a CD so they looked decent enough to send off to a juried exhibit. Then spent an hour writing an artist's statement to go with the CD. Pig in a poke. We'll see what happens.

Finally, I drew the view from my studio window. Well, part of the view, anyway. I cropped out the part of the car in the next-door driveway, which somehow came out looking like part of a toy Volkswagon even though it is a normal sized car of some other sort. I am starting to have some fun with this drawing thing and need keep at it - although I think every day is a bit much for me. But again, we'll see.

Hope you are writing down your art goals for the year, too.