thelmasmith

I still have not printed my linoleum cut. I’ve another to cut and I want to add some lines to it before I do. The class moves on. I’m being dragged along without enough hours in the day or energy in my body.

I do come home from the end of class with my enthusiasm renewed. We have begun working on collagraph. I had ordered Collagraphs (Printmaking Handbook) by Hartill & Clarke. Their shipping policies are more kind than those of US companies.

Yesterday I got a look at Collagraph Printmaking by Mary Anne Wenniger. Looking at other people’s books always costs me money.

Anyway, here’s a look at the plates I’m working on.

Bamboo underlaid with tissue paper and gauze. The sidebar is heated tyvek, ironed to flatten. All these plates need more acrylic medium and a lot more sticking down. My husband brought in the shrink pack of generic super glue.

The cats jumped into the fishtail palm that is recovering from last winter’s hard freeze. I decided since this was already broken that it was fair game for a collagraph plate.

This one is dry bok choy. I had to reconstitute it partially to unfold it. I think it will make a good looking print. One of my classmates grew up in Hong Kong. The scent of the soaking bok choy drew her to my table. The remainder of the package, reminding her of home, went home with her to make soup.

From food for the soul to food that feeds both the soul and the body:

Fresh waterchestnuts!

If you have never had the opportunity to eat fresh waterchestnuts do keep watch in the oriental markets. They are a pain to peel. I simply sautéed them with a little peanut oil, garlic, ginger, and green onion. Food fit for the gods. You will never buy a tin can again.

I’ve always been a Macintosh person. Smalldog is a macintosh merchant in Vermont. They are an interesting business. They set out to intentionally change all the negative concepts about corporate business. I have no affiliation with them. I do have permission from Don Meyer, the CEO, to reprint his editorial; the hotlinks added are my own and not attributable to Don Meyer.

Climbing out of the Money Pit
By Don, don@smalldog.com

The Pentagon has come to congress with yet another request for an extra $142 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is really time to think about our priorities again. The president is vetoing legislation that would provide health care to poor children, which would cost the taxpayers about $7 billion a year and provide health care to another 3 million children who do not have it now. In addition, our bridges and infrastructure are badly in need of repair and we cannot afford to make the necessary expenditures.

What is really important to us? Is maintaining a presence in the middle of a civil war in a region where the people don’t really like us more important than making sure our children have access to quality health care? Is this really all about the oil, as Allen Greenspan indicated in his new book? Wouldn’t it be smarter to spend the $177 million A DAY that we spend on being in the middle of a civil war on things like energy conservation and renewable energy sources so that we do not have to send our sons and daughters to fight a war?

As the candidates for President squabble about how long it would take to withdraw our troops from Iraq, the situation just keeps getting worse. No one doubts that if we just panic and withdraw that it would cause some problems, but I think that the jury is out as to whether those problems would be more severe than the problems that are caused by our presence in Iraq. Withdrawal is not enough, however– we also need to reach out to others in the area to help us provide stability for the innocent Iraqis as we take our nose out of their business. Instead of watching silently as Israel bombs a site in Syria and rattling swords against Iran, perhaps we should be relying upon diplomacy, humanitarian aid and our dwindling supply of goodwill to re-establish ourselves as part of the solution, and not the problem.

George Bush has made a mess of our foreign policy and he is leaving a very difficult mess for whomever follows him as President next year. It is a mess that has cost us nearly 4,000 American soldiers, countless civilians and put in place another mercenary army (read: Blackwater) that is beyond the law. We are exacerbating a very difficult situation by remaining in Iraq; we’re not solving any problems and creating a huge new army of terrorists. We are putting our tax money to work against our own interests!

The time for withdrawal from Iraq is now. The time to pay attention to our own priorities of health care, education, transportation and energy is also now. Oil is just going to become a more scarce resource with more demand from more places and it is the country that prepares itself through conservation and development of renewable energy that will have the most prosperous economy and the most secure citizens. We cannot be tentative about this– it is time to admit that we have made a grievous error and bring our troops and mercenaries home now.

Share your opinions at Barkings, the Small Dog Blog: http://blog.smalldog.com.

End Soapbox

Don Mayer
CEO

1673 Main Street                                100 Dorset Street
Waitsfield, VT 05673 USA                   S. Burlington, VT 05403
don@smalldog.com

802-496-7171 ext. 611
802-496-6257 Fax

The good news is that I have finished the Defensive Driving Program on the net. I still need to go in to the NTSI office and take the test.

The better news is that the structure of the net teaching is designed to force you not only to pay attention but to hone your peripheral vision. Verification questions can pop up in red, small print; answer in thirty seconds or less.

The strange news is that this is the only image in the entire course that is completely out of context. The stockings and the shoe are at least fifty years old. I wonder where they found this? I also wonder where they found a car with powdered coral rock on the floor.

I’ve been here and not here. I signed up with Pima College for a Printmaking class and a Museum and Galleries Practices class. So I’m running to town three times a week and trying to shoehorn grocery shopping and errand running into that fuel usage. It’s interesting but fatiguing.

The first printmaking assignment was not intimidating. Thank goodness. I’m rather pleased with myself as I had never done carving before. This is the scan of the proof sheet for Lady Alice. The print block is 4″ x 2″; I was using up someone’s purple ink. Click to enlarge.

The second printmaking assignment was alter ego. I finally asked Karen, my table mate, what she had done about the topic. “I know who I am and I’m happy with my life; I don’t need Wonder Woman. I just did what I wanted to.” This after I had been through four iterations that neither fit the assignment nor was anything boldly graphic. I could not figure out how to carve the things I had drawn.

I had been through my image files on the external hard drive and even dug out the snapshot files from before I owned a digital camera. Nothing made any sense. Finally at one in the morning, after tossing and disturbing every cat in the house I just gave up and got out of bed. I went and pulled a snapshot of a tree I have always loved. The hell with the assignment; I know I can make a good positive/negative out of this one.

This is the unproofed plate. Click to enlarge. I painted the grey battleship linoleum with gesso so that I could see my cuts. My fingers and fingernails tell me that there is some clean up to be done once I see a proof. I can feel the chumbles that will give me trouble.

The textbook prices will make one cringe. However, when I saw the amount of technical detail in this one: A Printshop Handbook: A Technical Manual For Basic Intaglio, Relief, And Lithographic Processes. I did not hesitate. One good text book is worth a dozen, popular press, quilter focused, technique and process books. This one is authored by Beth Grabowski. I wonder if there is any kinship with Kerr Grabowski.

The other textbook, The Complete Printmaker is both historical data and technical information. I think one could work a lifetime with these two books.

So, though I am more than usually silent, I am here and I am working. I have four days a week at home. Day by day I have been working my way through deadlines; real ones and ones I have imposed on myself.

The other fly in the ointment is a speeding ticket. How humiliating to drive a roadster and get caught in a speed trap going so fast: 46mph.

Do click on the thumbnail.  This image is much better larger.

I went down to the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory last week. I had not been to theVisitor’s Center in a long time. It was gratifying to walk in and after all these years look up and say, “Oh, those really aren’t too bad.” It’s part of never particularly liking any work when it’s first finished. It’s pleasing to see that the pieces, each specifically dyed for it’s place in each quilt, are still gracefully doing their jobs.

They are getting some morning sun. What I thought was north was in fact east. But driving up the winding mountain road over the foothills into the base camp at 4200 feet leaves one with no known landmark and no way to assess direction. From indoors in the Visitor’s Center one has not sufficient light to designate direction of light even knowing the time of day.

It’s pretty cool, after so many years to revisit work. Yes, they are losing some color due to the light. No, there is absolutely not one thing that can be done about it. Textiles are ephemeral; it’s easier to accept that truth. The subtleties of change are more apparent when one has years between visits.

In the meantime, a lot of quilters come and enjoy. Even the gentleman who runs the gamma ray experimental program has commented on them. They are not accurate astronomy; just an artist’s interpretation.

Or is this just shameless boasting of a grandmother?

You may be able to see my DIL’s note that my grand daughter, Ava, had her bookmark design selected for the library’s bookmarks. Pretty neat for such a beautiful young lady.

Here are more dragons. I had sent Ava books from the Jackson Museum of Art. The big hit are the tiny ones. Smaller than a playing card they are magical movie books from the zoo.

The other week I took some glycerin and diluted it well with water. The porcelain, butcher’s tray, doesn’t show you the water. What you do see is the dry lotus leaf beginning to rehydrate.

What is imagined as a flat circular leaf floating on top of the water is, in fact, a shallow cone shape when dried. There is no way to open it fully.

The beautiful drops of water happen because of a natural film on the leaf.

It eventually, over a few days, softened enough to either make a print or to make joan, a chinese tamale, that one can still find in big city dim sum lunch rooms. I have eaten them. I do eat the lotus root.

I chose to make a print so that I could carve a linoleum block.

The one picture of all the lotus root was out of focus. You can see here, one uncut segment and some slices that were used to print.

I went looking for the lotus symbolism. I decided it was going to be a week long research job. Not today.  There is something about the lotus there for me.

I had to get the print work done as I was going to lose the lotus root; it survives a long time in my refrigerator but not forever.

Since I working on another project and trying to get it finished up, I laid the linoleum blocks away to be carved another day.

A request from an old friend sent me to the old slide master files. She remembered a commission I had done in 2002. One of the things it proves is the foolhardiness of keeping backup on Cds. If they aren’t clearly marked you will never find what you are looking for.

Since I keep images in my picture files on an external hard drive to keep the speed of my machine and I’ve changed machines since then it was a challenge. However the artist’s statements were still in the 2004 business files. TMI, I know, you didn’t need to know all that.

These images are commissions that were made in 2002 and before.  They are in private collections.  This is probably the only chance you will get to get a glimpse of them.

Preliminary sketch.

One of the images, backed by textiles that was sent to the gentleman who was handling arrangements for the commission.

The cliffs along the highway, byway, along Patagonia Creek. This is the road from Nogales, through Patagoia to Sonoita. You can see the image in the snapshot and the detail.

The far mountains were too bright; they advanced too far in the picture plain. They were covered with a printed sheer. The lines were then couched to reinforce the shaping while retaining the distance.

This is, by far, my most favorite detail of the whole work. Click the image to enlarge. There is a coatamundi in the lower left corner. The tall agave blossom tell that that particular agave has reached it’s life’s end.

The whole image, All is Right With the World. It is five feet high and eight feet long.

See all those folds in the mountains? Every one of them is a passageway for a traveler who is looking for a way to feed his family. For every traveler who gets through safely and finds a job a village of forty people stay at home, retain their own culture, and survive from the wages that one poor man sends home.

Other things to remember about the Sonoran Desert, it is the wettest, greenest desert on earth. You will see the Patagonia Creek Ford at the lower right. In reality that ford is three miles down the road. It is fed by an artesian spring up in the hills above Sonoita. It has fed this land for eons.

Water in the desert is rarely seen; it is like the force that runs the universe. Seldom seen, yet it’s effects are seen everywhere.

Now, I’ll show you an earlier commission, Desert Icons, that led to the one above.

This is the mountain range I see from my workroom windows. The mountain on the left is Mount Hopkins. It is home to the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory. To the right is Elephant Head. If you look closely you will see his ear and his tusks. These mountains are all volcanic remains.

My favorite detail from Desert Icons, the Harris Hawk. He is about the size of my fist and I have small hands. There are twenty one different pieces of fabric giving him life. His stick nest is appropriate as the sahuaro is the place the hawks nest. It was made by destroying a child’s toy witches broom.

The last, Painted Desert, now in a private collection in France. This piece was the original piecework of the far, rolling, valley in AIRWTW; it was much too bright. It landed in the dustbin. I finally thought, no, it’s much too beautiful to throw away. I cut it and added the brilliant red orange, turned pieces this way and that. The backing was turned in instead of binding the work.

Marion Barnett has tagged me as a gardener who might have something to say about living and growing things in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. Hum. Once upon a time, long ago, and far away, I had both a gardener and a housekeeper. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

My back has had a snake like shape to it all my life; it does not appreciate stoop labor. I began to use flower pots thinking that would help. Even they are not high enough that I can keep them tidy comfortably. So, rather than seven things you don’t know about my gardening I’m just going to give you some images.

Claret Cup Cactus in bloom.

Santa Rita Prickly Pear in bloom.

The Texas Mountain Laurel takes a long time to grow large enough to flower. However the spring rains push it into bloom.

The end of the first, early spring flush of roses. Once we get to June and the 106º F weather the roses have to be deadheaded. Then with the first of the monsoon I cut them back less severely than in January and fertilize them. By September we will have roses again; they will continue blooming until late December.

One of the flower pots in bloom outside my workroom door last spring.

And last, but not least, a baby pomegranite that has not yet shed it’s flower. Now, in mid August, they are the size of softballs.

As to tagging anyone as a gardener; consider yourself tagged if you wish to play. The gardeners I know are June and Jer Underwood in Portland, Oregon, and Barbara Littlefield in Deming, New Mexico. I’m mentioning them; not tagging them.

Twenty Second Street is one of the arterial boulevards that runs east/west across Tucson. I saw this sign the other day. The next day I circled back, stopped, put the four way blinkers on the little red roadster. I got a decent image. What’s more is that I got it without being mowed down by dump trucks and semi tractors.

What is wrong with a society that kills off it’s children generation after generation? ? ? It’s nothing new; look at history. Am I stupid or something? I just don’t “get” it.

The bumper sticker on the Toyota says “Amy Goodman for President.” She’s the anchor for Democracy Now. Here’s the link for information on the Karl Rove resignation.

We wonder why the whole teenaged society has adopted the “don’t snitch” policy that was mentioned on 60 Minutes last night. In my opinion, CBS got one thing wrong. This distrust of authority has been fostered by our society. It is not just a phenomenon of the poor or the immigrant societies. The biggest contributor to this fear was summed up in a bumper sticker I saw weeks ago. It addresses the political tripe of “family values.”

Family Values Is Having Your Brother Steal the Election for You.

Uh, huh. Take a look at the Virtual Iraq War Protest. Gerrie, lift these images to add to your collection there.