Desperate. To-Do List

Hmm, you say. (In a rather ego-driven part of my brain that supposes you've noticed at all) she certainly hasn't posted much lately. And thus one of the truisms of blogging. Insidious doubts arise upon not turning up at the page (electronnic or otherwise). The holidays were one good excuse after another. Continuing computer gliches and slow as molasses satellite connection speeds another. But mainly its a matter of momemtum. AND that, my friends, applies to more in life than blogging.

 

  

 

Despite my on-line absence, a few notable accomplishments in the studio this month: Rearranging the studio (see photos before and after), playtime with my sister and cousin making stuff, embellished jean jackets (expect to see them entered into the FASA Runway Show) a lot of thrift store fabric and table linens purchased and ready to use, a good cleaning and mopping, and planning for the next series of El Cielo Studio Workshops:

First -- Artist Journal/Artist Journey, an art journaling retreat that kicks off the studio season next weekend (only one place left if you are interested), then

FEB. 17-18 Fool Moon/Full Moon -- Using lunar energy, lunacy and the power of the feminine to inspire work. Taking chances and stepping into the unknown. Textile techniques will include shaving foam dyeing, "automatic" dyeing, and other improvisational techniques.

MARCH 24-25 Field Guide to Color -- Color theory made fun, with hands-on application of the "rules," and when and how to break them. Using a variety of source material, exercises and media, including dye, watercolor. collage and egg tempera.

APRIL 13-14 Calling All Archetypes -- using your inner crew for work and support. Exploring archetypes,inner voices and their influence. Make an artist's altar  -- fabric and mixed media -- to remind you of a most sacred part of your life.

JUNE -- TBA dates for a 5 day retreat 

JULY 28-29  Burning Woman Workshop -- Using heat, passion and even hot flashes to fuel our work. Sun printing, burning and rusting; rituals and bonfires to keep our inner creativity burning bright. (Probably repeating in August).

Watch the link on the right sidebar  (WORKSHOPS) for details or email me for details or to reserve a space. All of them (except june's) start on Saturday  morning and conclude early afternoon Sunday. Private bedrooms with baths are available on a first-come basis ($15 to $30 per night, with arrival Friday night optional).

And, so I am back in the studio, a no-car day at last, facing the mother of all to-do lists. To keep myself on track, I pledge an entry a day, at least, action that will help my momentum, and give me a little reward in terms of design and writing time as I slog through end-of-year finances (after some glitch in my Quicken files between backups and losing my hard drive seems to have lost ALL of last years entries). Also on the table: preparations for next weeks exhibit at the state capitol building, a benefit of being selected one of the state's "Texas Originals."

More on Color

Trolling around and thinking about color, I found this article (thanks to Serena Fenton's Layers of Meaning ) by Mandy Southan, of the Guild of Silk Painters. She clearly and concisely summarizes information about the use of 6 "foundation" colors for mixing paints -- and dyes. It's instructive to fine-tune one's eyes to analyze the colors seen  in photos, nature and other artist's work. What reds, greens, blues -- where and in what amount do you see the complement of a major color? (Look out the window, at your clothing, at the photos on my previous post.) As Southan writes,

"Some people find it very difficult initially to distinguish between each of the two types of red, yellow and blue. They can see that they are different but cannot see the 'hidden' colour in each. Blues seem to cause most problems, perhaps because the human eye is least sensitive to blue and most sensitive to red. I think that the more you work with colour, the easier it becomes to differentiate the colour bias in each and analyse the constituents of any colour you see and so be able to mix it confidently."

Christmas

Scenes from my holidays off-line. Peace.

 

 

 

Pachyderm

I ought to ask -- does "Pachyderm" arise from the trunk of goodies therein?

Somewhere in my circus performer's tent, lives a secret geek. I love to play with with intuitively designed software -- the programs that feel and act like building blocks and/or collage layers are the best match for my brain. Don't get me wrong, I avoid anything that looks even like html code -- OK maybe a few little sideways bracket triangles (you know you can't make those show up by typing them here ) are sneaking into my tool box -- but I lean toward programs that put everything into WYSIWYG and let you wiggle it all around. I'll never give up the tactile pleasures of cloth, but I find the architectural limitlessness of the digital world quite seductive.

I am at a 3 day users conference for a presentation (think web page and/or powerpoint -- but different) interface that is spreading through the world of museum professionals across the state, thanks to a project funded by the Edward and Betty Marcus Foundation that puts Texas museums into the loop. Pachyderm has been developed with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the New Media Consortium, with support from the  Institute for Museum and Library Services, this software/project/interface  has amazing potential for all manner of  creative artistic play -- not to shortchange its impact on digital education and storytelling for museums.

You can follow the links above to find out more. Be sure to poke around on the pages published as examples and don't miss the SFMOMA "Making Sense of Modern Art" site. If you want to play too you can inquire about trial access to the nmc.org server where the open-source software to do the authoring lives and breathes. For now, its free, though eventually  one will probably need a membership to get into the playpen.

Somewhat like the Squarespace architecture and authoring that underlies this site (and is the reason I pay a small fee monthly rather that using Blogger or one of the other free blog publishers) Pachyderm is a highly flexible set of templates that can be EASILY linked, loaded with ones own pictures, movies, audio and graphic images --then adds some nifty special stuff like sound cues for accessibility.  What you end up with is a Flash presentation that can live on a CD, on  your computer or be uploaded to a hosting web server. Believe me, I know nothing about the tech geekie level of all this -- though you can apparently get involved as a developer if you lean that way -- but as a new convert I can't wait to play. I can see immediate application for a museum/library/family art program that I'm working on for the summer in conjunction with the Botero exhibit that's coming this way.

If you want to play hands-on: 

"Pachyderm 90-day trial authoring accounts are currently available on request for those who wish to take Pachyderm for a test drive. For more information, please see About Pachyderm. To request an account, please send email to info@nmc.org."

Watch this space for further developments.