More shoes, Pantone art, The Crown

Yesterday I discovered this wonderful native American archaeologist, on YouTube, showing how to make sandals from broad leaf yucca, with laces from narrow leaf yucca. 

See her video for the whole process which you can definitely do if you have access to yucca, which I don't. 

It's very thoughtful and takes the foot, size, pressures in different parts of the sole, need for protection from sharp rocks, all that, into account. Shoes for dry country.

And she makes the cordage for the laces more simply than the Sally Pointer neolithic approach. Instead of twisting then bending one group over the other, she starts with the u shape but rolls the two sides in parallel, then lets them curl up together 

I had to try this, looked so labor saving. Forgetting that she's a lifelong expert, with literally thousands of years of family experience.

So I tried with daylily leaves

Best I could do. Then I tried the paleolithic way

This worked better. It occurs to me that I can make shoelaces like this for sneakers. Hm.

I haven't made it to the thriftie yet, driving not quite ready, but there will be leather slippers in my future, maybe with daylily thongs to fasten them.

This weekend, though, the library is in range, and today I'm picking up The Crown, season four. I seem to remember giving up on season three after the Aberfan episode, too much like voyeurism. But we'll see about season four. 

And today's art is the ever changing display of accordion books, this one the Pantone collection

Happy day everyone, I guess it's the weekend though my days don't vary that much. 

Discernment, ascertainment, moths, mushroom soup and a thank you

Discernment is one of those great words that people in the religious life or thinking about it use to describe the careful process of understanding their path. Most of us do some form of it. 

My own recent path, looking for a spiritual life that fitted, led me, via a year long attendance at a weekly online centering prayer group, silent meditation in company, which, nice as the people were, didn't fit, to the adjacent outreach work for homeless and addicted people. 

That's the Sock Ministry hq, where I found I was needed by their knitting group as the only sock knitter. That fitted. Discernment done for now, but ready to revisit if it becomes physically unwise.

Unlike Ascertainment which was an unintentionally comic aspect of the years when I worked in public television, exciting stuff, first person in the country to have the job of working with higher ed and broadcasters in presenting adult instruction, via public airwaves. Another time I'll tell you. That had its comic side too.

Anyway, one of the legal requirements on the public broadcast license was for representative execs of the network, in this case a four-transmitter statewide setup, to troop annually to the transmitter locations. There we would be open to questioning on anything at open public meetings. 

Which sounds very good, and appropriate, taxpayers asking what we were doing with their money. What it usually came down to was having more execs than public, being grilled about things that didn't even involve the network.

A lot of people would challenge us on things that commercial tv did, or that public broadcasters that weren't us, did or didn't. Quite dismayed to find they were banging on the wrong door.  

Those who were better informed challenged us to do more programming for various groups, usually stuff we were already doing anyway. 

We'd politely refer them to the day and time to watch programming made by and for the  Hispanic population, or for seniors, in cooperation with senior organizations. Etc. Etc. 

We'd troop home again, long drive at night since our offices and Master Control were central, so we tended to live around there, and the transmitters were at the four corners of the state, for best coverage and reception. 

Not sure anything other than bragging rights ever came out of Ascertainment.  That and the ability to point out to complaining state legislators that we did,  too, offer the public the chance to meet face to face. Happy days!

On more interesting subjects, yesterday the butterfly bush was mobbed with clearwing hummingbird moths, never seen so many. Like this, not my pic

I noticed that no monarchs showed up until they departed. Then two or three did. I've never seen monarchs and clearwings at the same time. I wonder if there's a territorial thing going on? Anyone who knows, please say.

Now, admittedly, one person drinking tea and observing one butterfly bush, is not statistically significant, except don't dismiss the findings of a lone observer. 

I mean, look at Len Howard, who made all kinds of avian discoveries alone in the woods. If you don't know about her, check her out, she's amazing. Anyway if you have any info about the relations of monarchs and clearwings, please let us know.

Misfits arrived yesterday, yes, different day, I ordered early before they put up the minimum order price. Supply chain issues, shipping issues, they're raising the minimum to order rather than individual item prices.

But I got in for one last minimum at the old rate.

And went on to make cream of mushroom soup. Using chicken bones and collard greens water (Ellen saying yeah, mighta guessed!) for broth. I also peeled and added in the last few white potatoes. 

It could have been cream of chicken soup, really good, but I was committed to the mushrooms I'd cooked down.

And it was just fine.

One sad note today, one of my best art teachers, at Mercer County College,  from whom I learned all I know about life drawing and paper making, has gone. 

Look her up, renowned paper maker. Also had six children.  One husband. Really happy and such a life. I'm glad I knew her.

And on Ukraine, my state legislator, who has gone to bat for me more than once when the state bureaucracy was determined not to honor their legal obligation to seniors and taxes 

So that's where we are today. Happy day!

Textiles and Tea, Donna Leon, tomato harvest

Yesterday's Textiles and Tea was a celebration of Nigerian cotton textiles and indigo. It's used for dyeing and medicine in Nigeria where it grows in abundance.

Here's several different dyeing techniques. Adire, a tapioca method, dyes one side only .

There are traditional motifs, such as the gecko, significant to daily experience, and the spiral and other shapes.

Here he's using a sponge to apply motifs to the design

The guest now lives in the US but travels a lot teaching dyeing techniques and a respect for indigo, the magic dye. He loves the community of textile dyers and workers and the mutual respect of dyer and material.

He's a joyful man and a happy artist!

From simple magic to high tech magic

And in the garden this morning, see that lone ripe tomato? 

Yesterday it was a ripening cluster. I see I have to keep ahead of the squirrels here.

Meanwhile I'm reading a Donna Leon

She does great titles. This is not the latest, for which I'm in line.

Happy day everyone, a couple of good election results in, Dems won a special House election in NY,  straw in the wind maybe for the midterms. 

The Sock Ministry rises again , and other exploits

 Here's what went off today to Sock HQ

This is probably pairs 17 and 18,  but who's counting.

About the corporate exhibit Mary wanted to know more about, it predates today's digital pix, also was not up for pictures at all, proprietary information and concern about industrial espionage, very exciting. So you'll have to take my word for it.

Anyway I was invited to solo in rather a large corporate gallery, my choice of subject, medium, all that.

So I put on a display of fifty, yes, really, prints, half state of the art at the time, computer assisted, half the other end of the spectrum, hand pulled and inked monotypes. The idea being Prints, Ancient and Modern.

Since they couldn't permit the general public into their facility, which was their ghq also their research facility, they arranged for my opening to take place when the max employees could be there. And did an eblast to make it happen.

The place was mobbed, many questions, loads of interest. This was the only group, many techies, I didn't have to explain the computer work to! 

This was before using the computer in any art environment was ever heard of. Full credit to the art faculty, Rivera and colleagues,  of Mercer County College in the 80s for setting up the lab and coursework so artists could increase their repertoire of art making tools. It changed my life at that time.  

Back to the people at the opening: they got exactly how challenging this was, and how getting the work from the disk into a tangible form for framing was quite a trip. You really needed a nimble mind to navigate all these new ideas and options at once, while creating art.

But they were totally excited about the monotypes, art made so simply by hand with ink, a glass plate, a baren (rubbing block), hands, and burnishers. 

I remember people making rapid notes as I explained reductive and additive methods, high risk art when the ink would only be workable for a couple of minutes. Definitely my cup of tea, just total focus, go for it. Many times.  

At the end of the exhibit, the usual month long, management picked four pieces to buy for their corporate collection. Great caper! 

So that was an interesting side effect of the petcare biz. Clients took an interest and were supportive. 

It did take high energy to run a busy business and all that takes, and a busy art life, and pay proper attention to both, so I'm glad I did it when I could. 

The thing is that art can't happen in a vacuum. A busy life outside the studio  feeds what you make when you're working.  So when you need to provide yourself with a living, it isn't such a bad deal.  It's a full life

Speaking of which, here's my local school district getting parents up to date.

I thought the Bible was fixed, but evidently you can add in amendments and updates. Who knew?

And Ukrainian Independence is on the 24th, so here's the great mouser cat who lives at 10 Downing Street posing with the display.

Photo credits Justin Ng

Happy day everyone! Cleaners here today so I'm out doing errands and staying out of the way. Home soon to a clean house, joy.

Enjoy your day.

.

Green tomatoes, pet care and more perceptions

Yesterday I did the promised interesting thing with the green tomatoes. Roasted them in a long slow oven, 325° for two hours. Not much seasoning, salt, basil, olive oil.

Aren't they beautiful? I pick the cutting board with color in mind and here the greens worked.

Tomato paste, then bits of dried seaweed, roasted tomatoes, blue cheese crumbles, grana padano, hot pepper flakes

 Two lunches, another plate like this tomorrow

And here's Butternut Boy, with a slice of canteloupe rind from the latest one 

He already took care of the seeds.

And here's today's art, some of Edith Holden's botanical watercolors in her diary, facsimile reproduction.

Very much in the English botanical watercolor tradition seen in Jill Barklem and Beatrix Potter, except that Holden is interested in exact observation rather than stories built on it.

UK blogistas, and others, will instantly recognize her subjects.

Today the weather's taking care of the dry plants. We've had a long dryish period, not exactly drought turning the grass to shredded wheat, but we can use this today

Every day that we get rain I don't have to water outside, yay.  

Yesterday was an interesting discussion in here, thank you, about perceptions and actions in art and pet care .

As you know, I've never expected to have a reliable income from my art. A life rather than a living, is the idea. In the fine arts, it's pretty much the norm.

So the balance of making a living and making a life is the thing. The pet care business was a good one, though strenuous. Nobody said it would be easy.

But it gave me chunks of time in daylight where I could be in the studio, endless physical activity which triggered a lot of art ideas, and didn't compete, as teaching art does, for my art attention. And it opened up so many new friendships, with animals and people .

I never told new clients I made art, because of the common perception among non -artists that you can't rely on an artist to show up, to be meticulous, to really be reliable.  My clients were largely business people, lawyers and researchers, liked and collected art, but didn't know any serious artists. They thought.

It was only after they'd got to know me and come to depend on my showing up and taking lovely care of their animals that they'd wonder why I did what looked to them like hard and humble work. 

More than one blurted out "But you're so reliable and knowledgeable! I'd never have hired you if I'd known you were an artist! So glad I didn't know!". 

Which led to their finding that a real artist is totally on it, doesn't cut corners, nor fail to show, and is just who you want around your animals in your absence.  And seeing animals, officially standoffish, literally climbing on me,  didn't hoit, as they say.

It's often what divides the wannabes from the serious in the arts. Once they were in the picture, pet care clients , realizing they'd been confusing poseur art "students" with real ones, were very interested. 

One saw my work and arranged for her management to offer me my first corporate solo show, big deal. This led to some nice corporate sales. Unexpected side effect.

Others were more interested in becoming self employed, seeing how happy I was. A discussion of actual conditions and income tended to diminish their interest, like hearing the hours, how nothing could be delegated in a sole proprietorship, no sick days, brief time off needing a minimum of three months' notice to clients so they could arrange alternate coverage. That bit!

There were some poignant times, like when the teenage son of a client, a boy with multiple pets, and with a lifelong heart problem, died during a pickup basketball game in the park near his home.  

His mother continued to keep his pets, ranging from a giant spider to a hamster, a ferret, Suzy, fish and lizards, in addition to the family cats and dogs.  

She also planted a little garden at the edge of the park near where he'd died, as a memorial place. No water supply, so she walked over,  carrying buckets. Would I mind adding that run to my visits, and she'd pay me? 

I agreed to add in the water carrying but refused payment. Her culture being different from mine, she didn't know about the Works of Mercy. I explained that this care was one of them, and I couldn't accept money, but I'd be honored to do it for R. 

It took her a bit to feel okay about it, but she did, and as long as I had them as clients I checked in on the garden. 

Then there were clients who handed me their key all labeled with name and address! Which I promptly tore off and replaced with a code, noting it in my client notes. Innocent people not realizing they might as well say burglars welcome! 

I also learned to check the key before leaving, since clients rarely used front door keys if they came in through the garage. 

One gentleman was a bit incensed about this, and insisted we lock him outside and he'd prove it was the right key.  Wife and I indoors listened to scrabbling at the lock, then muttering and finally a roar of annoyance. Wrong key. 

Frantic searching in kitchen drawers until the right one was located and handed over. Whereupon Mr Client said "Good thing I thought of checking!" Wife and I exchanged a knowing look.

And the nice man, a friend, who confidently handed over his spare key from his wallet, usual test. Bafflement. Then remembered he'd exchanged keys with his boyfriend. Ah. We did end up with a working key, and met the friend in the process. Whose first name was the same. A bit confusing. 

I had set up side by side businesses with Handsome Partner, who was very experienced with animals, hopeless at business, so that we could share liability and bonding coverage. But we ran the enterprises totally separately, didn't know each other's clients, once he'd got launched.

It was all word of mouth after we got under way, once people realized we never ever talked about them, even to each other,  their security codes and family lives were safely respected, so they could go away and not worry.  

I also dealt now and then with events like sudden plumbing floods, whoa, quick action needed there, more than once. This is why you need grown-ups doing this kind of work in your absence!  People who understand that in the flurry of leaving you might have left the iron, coffee maker and other items plugged in and hot.

All in all, more than playing with animals all day. Lovely though.

I particularly liked Christmas, though our home celebrations had to be moved every year. Because what could be better on Christmas morning than to go from house to house, starting before dawn, to hugs and excited greetings at every stop? How many people other than Santa, can claim that?

Couldn't round up that energy now, though.

Happy day everyone, enjoy whatever's on your schedule today. I'm loafing about, personally, quite tired remembering my youthful  fiftyish self 

Which logic will work, and other passing thoughts

Yesterday I opened a canteloupe, wonderful scent, and wondered what seasoning to use. Ginger's a popular choice but though I love ginger , the combination with canteloupe tastes exactly like soap, so I looked further.

Three candidates, amchur, which is dried mango powder, citrusy but not for people allergic to mango rind, sumac, a different kind of citrusy, given to me by a terrific cook who was amazed I didn't have any, and za'atar, a freebie with my last tea order, warm mixture, cinnamon, nutmeg, other good things. Went in the end with amchur.

You will instantly note that the alphabetic organizing of my spices, I have quite a few, doesn't serve me well here. A and S and Z, three different shelves, fumbling, knocking bottles off the lazy susans.

I wondered, briefly, let's not get carried away here, if I could organize by function instead. 

Then realized that, if the permutations of the drops before and after eye surgery nearly defeated me, I'd need a spreadsheet to organize the spices in families by food affinities. Maybe I'll just take up quadratic equations as a hobby for my declining years, instead.

Which reminds me of the joke about the artist and the brain surgeon. Artists on the whole, who know what it takes to make and exhibit art, the focus, persistence, sheer energy required to create even apparently "simple" work, do get a bit tired of people saying ooh, an easy life really. I fancy taking it up in retirement.

So the brain surgeon at a party says this to the artist, could have been me, not saying, and the artist says "Funny you should mention it. I'm ready to retire to an easier life. I've been thinking of taking up brain surgery."  Bitter but accurate.

Other people's work does tend to look easy to onlookers,  such as the nice people, during my pet care business years who said, "I'd love to have your job, playing with animals all day long". 

Well, if you don't count the coping with the humans, the pets were easier, and the seven day a week out before dawn on early dog walking rounds, all weathers, at least 15 miles daily walking, three rounds, much driving, busy times ending after 10pm, and that's only the start.  I did love it, and was happy though tired, but I wouldn't confuse it with playing all day!

This is true of practically any work, not seeking the moral high ground here.  Except for those "artists" known to a lot of us actual artists, who do our own work stem to stern, the people who sketch out what they want done, then hire (poorly paid, and uncredited) artisans to execute the artworks.

Ellen pointed this out elsewhere, spot on. I know a few, usually male sculptors, who put their name on a piece with no acknowledgement of the actual artists who created it from, in one case I know of, stick figure drawings. 

One person I know personally actually bragged that he only spoke the concept then looked in now and then to see its progress.  

Now I understand about collaboration, I've done it, where artists work together, put their names to finished work, and that's perfectly fine. What l don't appreciate is the suppression of the credit and sale share to people who actually did the work. 

I've known of gifted local modelers at a metal foundry, a wealthy local man's property, working up the shapes for his bronze casting, at $9 , that is not a typo, per hour.  

It's where a rich man buys a reputation as an artist. Not so good.  I know a woman famous for her art quilts, where the execution was an important part of the success of the concepts.  

I was talking with her, unaware of this, admired how her execution worked flawlessly. She looked a bit flustered then said, well I have an assistant for that. 

I asked what her name was, couldn't see it anywhere, and she  got angry and pretty much flounced away. 

I'd blundered into this, never thinking that there could be any joy in pretending to make art that you just jobbed out like a contractor. The "I have people for that" approach.

So do look out to see that makers of large pieces credit the skilled team behind them. Good ones will. 

That's one of the traditions I love in old edition prints. On every one they credit the artist who drew the original work, and the engraver who transferred it to the plate, sometimes the artist was also the engraver, and the printmaker who pulled the prints. All skilled work, a team, to create great prints. Rembrandt never pretended he'd done it all. I do like artists who make like Rembrandt.  Credit to the team if there is one.

It follows in other parts of life, too. Important to credit the people who keep our personal little red wagon trundling along. The spouse, the child carer, the cleaning crew at home if you have them, and work, the lunchroom ladies, the deli worker, the chambermaid in your motel, hotel. There's an army in a lot of our lives, often invisible. Heck, do we think to care about the nurses in our doctor's office as people. Yeah, we do if we're nice. That's all the readers in here.

End of unexpected sermon, preaching to the choir,  hopping down from the Sunday soapbox now. 

Happy day everyone! Enjoy your day, play, work, breathe. That last part is good. I should remember that one when I get all hot under the collar about Wrong Things Happening.

Image AC