Mad Men

My favorite television series is Mad Men. If you haven't bee watching - watch. It is brillantly written and filmed. The visuals are somewhere between eye candy and Hitchcock. There is art, fashion, cleavage, cheak bones and swinging hips. What I love most about the stories is that they show the complicated nature of each and every character... the episode (#9) that aired on Sunday night portrayed the old boys network as being about chauvanism and out of control ego but also about kindness and compainonship. In this episode Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Roger Sterling (John Slattery) have to fire Freddy Rumsen (Joel Murray). It turns out Freddy worked for the first Sterling (Roger's Father) and you get this peek into these men's relationships, thier successes and failures and the ties that bond. What is amazing is how the writers give you just a peek and you get consumed by wanting to know more.
Don Draper (Jon Hamm)
Betty Draper (January Jones) Click on the pic to see it larger - check out that gorgeous choker!
The girls stories are even better. You see their very many layers, strengths and needs.
Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss)Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks)

one less weekend

The weekend did not go as well as I had hoped. I did get some painting accomplished. I mixed some wonderful colors and gave a first coat to about 6 pieces of paper. The painting above (that I can't find any info about just now) was my inspiration for the color pallette. I also used some greys and blues, which I think were inspired by t he rainy weather.
A friend gave me the nicest compliment last Sunday at Artists Row. She said my work reminded her of Loiuse Bourgeois' work - I don't think I am any where near to that level of emotional energy and raw instinctual imagary, but it made me feel good and I may pursue that ideal in my work more because of it. I love the rich blacks of this piece (Connecticutiana, by Louise Bourgeois 1944/45). I especially love the negative/positive shapes/spaces.
I don't think I will ever be fully aware on a Friday of the fact that I cannot make a painting in a weekend. I get myself all psyched up with ideas and images and then my hand hurts after about an hour of painting and I realize I have to work more slowly. So maybe by Christmas I will have some new work to show off...

I also completed a dozen recycled bottle glass earrings and when I gave them the patina and washed them the text and images on the glass washed off too. That has not hapened before. I cannot figure out what I did differently, but now I have twelve pairs of boring brown glass earrings. In an attempt to make lemonade out of lemons, I started to collage the backs, but my heart was not in it.

Cool Shop

manos

Yeah! Its Friday!

Here is a new painting by Michelle Maul that I just love - I really really want to paint this weekend. I have a plan. I will let you all know if it works or not on Monday.

And here are some amazing earrings that I love.
Business Man earrings
pussy willow earrings
I make so much jewelry and I own so much jewelry and I almost never wear any of it. Oh, well...

Safe Living

This is from a really interesting site - The Future of Self Knowledge. The curator of the site is currently the blog administrator for a research program called “New Sciences of Protection:Designing Safe Living” at Lancaster University. It involves many experts discussing various subjects under the umbrella heading of safe living with various themed workshops spread out over the next year. I found this while searching images of gas masks. I thought I might use them in some new paintings. But after the search I changed my mind. I am not interested in being so serious right now. From the Library of CongressThis image - Gas Mask is by End of the WorldThis image - The End II is by Richard Roberts and I found at Keep Calm.

• keywords from The New Sciences of Protection
  

  abstraction animals asylum-seeker body call centres care cats change children citizenship closure clothing code code/space conduct control crime critical design DNA dogs energy failure future gender health language life objects open source organisation patients PGD pilgrimage politics precision agriculture problem-solving product products protection robots software development space spirituality surveillance system

sheep shearing

Here are the promised pics from Saturday. The sheep shearing was definitely the highlight of the day - the ducks were there, but the dogs were taking a break just as we sat down to watch them. One of the younger dogs (a 6 month old) scared the sheep so much they wouldn't come away from the fence. They tried to get the more experienced dog (pictured below) to move the sheep, but they wouldn't budge. (I think it is funny that the girl in the picture looks like Little My from the Moomin Tales).

Lost & Found

Found these at Lost Found Art.

Monday Morning

I did have the wonderful weekend I had hoped for. The Fingerlakes Fiber Festival was a blast and it was a beautiful day (I'll hopefully post some pics tomorrow). It was a little bit smaller than last year, but I got some beautiful yarn and saw an antique sock knitting machine demonstration. I want it for its mechanical beauty, but I think I could use it for making fingerless gloves too. Auggh! A quick look at Ebay and it seems they run anywhere from $500 to $1000! I guess I will have to keep using my good ole aluminum needles. I just had a silly idea to re-name knitting needles "kneedles."

And Artist Row at the Public Market was great too! It was a horrible day weather wise, rainy and cold, but people still came out and I sold quite a bit. I am actually most happy about selling two paintings. It is very reassuring when others are willing to not only live with your work but pay cash for it too! I also won "Best in Show" for jewelry. Thank you so much to the Friends of the Market for having such a fabulous event!

Birds

Here are some new paintings with collage of mine. Well, I finished them in August, and was thinking about adding some xerox transfers, but have decided they are complete the way they are.

Travel

Sometimes I think Iwill never travel further than New Jersey ever again. But if I could I would definitley go to the Ice Age! Sledding to work might be fun.

Moomin

"Every children's book should have a path in it where the writer stops and the child goes on."
- Tove Jansson

This child went on. Did anyone else love the Moomin Tales? I read them all in middle school (we called it junior high then), and I revisted them a few years ago trying to get my daughter interested. She didn't fall in love like I did. So now I have decided to read them again. I have been in a definite reading slump since Spring. Haruki Murakami has been the only auther I can read. I can't tell you how many books I have started and put down. I just really want something wonderful, not a fantasy, not an adventure necessarily, but something that makes me smile, that takes me away from this world and gives me joy, somthing that is an amazing metaphor for a world I want to be a part of, something I can get lost in. What could be better than reading about a Comet coming to Moominland. I can't wait to find out what Moomin Mama and Moomin Papa, Little My and Mymble have to go through. I love these stories because they are often based around the seasons and the characters are incredibly sensitve to everything around them, including the changing weather. I also feel very sensitive to seasonal changes and full moons and such. I just wish I could find the original 1974 publications, but luckily they have been reprinted and I can get them on Amazon easy. Here is a lovely blog about all the Moomintrolls.

It is actually Friday!

Not only do all my posts today say that they have been posted on Thursday at 1:55, but now I can't even get my statement of annoyance to post at all. It keeps disapearing. I imagine they are having some technical difficulties and tomorrow I will find 400 of the same post - aughhhh!

red stuffies

Courtesy of Small Magazine. I will probably post every beautiful page by the end of the month!

silhouette masterpiece theater

see more at silhouette masterpiece theater

Elide Endreson

Okay, I am double posting today - as I really want to share Elide's work with the world. She loves textiles, makes beautiful things by painstrakingly hand sewing delicate fabrics. In these she used vintage lace and tulle and silk. She often presents amazing scultpural sewn objetcs too, like this velvet rabbit exhibited at the Michelle O’Connor Gallery, a show entitled “Home Ec.” You can see more and better pics at her flicker site.

Felt Beads

I will also be selling a number of felt necklaces at Artist Row on Sunday. I am really really excited for the weekend. It is making this work week difficult to get through.

Dog & Ducks

I have mentioned already that this weekend will be a wonderful weekend. The Fingerlakes Fiber Festival is Saturday and Sunday - I am so excited to see sheep being sheared, dogs herding ducks and buy beautiful locally produced alpacca yarn to make more fingerless gloves. The fingerless gloves above have been hand knit while I was at the beach! These gloves truly have the essence of the sand and sea! They will be for sale at the the Public Market's Artist Row which is Sunday 10:00 - 4:00! I will have alot of recycled glass earrings (only $10!), gloves, art work, cards and other jewelry.

Pop!

Fully Reconditioned Telephone (1960's) - Orange

A vintage beautypiece, this working circa 1960's Siemens rotary desk phone has been completely restored by hand and is ready for use. Phone has original vintage outer body and components (cleaned and refinished), but has been outfitted with new wiring, microphone and cord to ensure clean reception for use in a modern phone jack. It is available for a mear $195.00, at threepotatofour.Someone else snatched up the lovely letter "a" I reallyhave to check that site more often!