thelmasmith

I’ve been quiet lately. I’ve been overwhelmed by life. That is slowly changing.

One of the things I’ve been up to is reading. Articles from the New York Times are taking some of my time.

The one linked above is good reading. It is about the issues of climate change and the touting of green everything from cars to light bulbs.  This article discusses all sorts of legal, political, bureaucratic, and individual actions.  I find it disconcerting.

I’m one of those people who grew up on a farm.  Self sufficiency seems to be in my genes.  I can build a fire or build a house.  I can read and think and look at all sorts of ideas from an analytical and critical thinking perspective.  This article, while covering all the bases, neglects the idea that most people are of good intent while being frantically busy.

One quite simple solution to all of this is to spend an afternoon – only one afternoon – and plant a tree.  You have contributed to photosynthesis.  You spent a lovely day in the spring.  You do not have to pull weeds.  Granted, you have done nothing directly to feed yourself.  But is that true?  You have planted a tree that will return oxygen to you!

Regardless of the part of the world, the culture, the economy, or the bureaucrats there are plenty of places that can benefit from the gentle gift of oxygen and shade.  Public places, private places, it matters not.  It’s something to think about.  That said as someone who has lived in both the tropics and the desert.  The lack of shade is the true poverty in these areas.

Reprinted from Women’s eNews as an educational service under the fair use doctrine of the U. S. Copyright Law.   Subscribe here.

As an aside, personally I subjected myself to a tubal ligation so that I would never face the emotional and psychological consequences of possibly having to make this sort of decision.  However, I will to my dying day stand tall for all women to retain the right to make their own choices.

“Abortion” as a search term had been blocked in POPLINE, the largest reproductive health database, according to an April 2 post by Women’s Health News blogger Rachel Walden. The research database is funded by the federal government as a project of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The result is that a person who types abortion in to the database for a keyword search will retrieve no articles on the topic.

Database officials advised a librarian who queried about the omission that the term “unwanted pregnancy” should be substituted instead. A more difficult search through the database’s index can still be used to retrieve abortion-related articles, but most average library users will not know the workaround, Walden, who is a librarian, points out in her post.

The database is funded through the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is prohibited from distributing foreign aid to international groups that provide abortions, make abortion referrals or lobby for change in their nation’s abortion laws, under the so-called global gag rule policy of the Bush administration.

On April 4, apparently in response to bloggers, Michael J. Klag, dean of the Bloomberg School, reversed the decision to remove “abortion” as a search term and said he would launch an inquiry into the change. In a statement published on the school’s Web site, Klag said that USAID had found two items in the database that did not meet POPLINE’s criteria for “evidence-based information” and administrators decided to remove the search term.

It’s time to get Published. J. Mercury & Maxed Art present: The Plume Zine: [bicycle] Conversations. The new theme is: anything relating to Bicycles or Conversations. All submissions must touch on this theme. Submit written work (poems, prose, micro fiction). Must be under two pages, double spaced. All written work is subject to a selection process. Submit images (drawing, collage, photography) no larger than 8×10. If emailing your image, it must be saved at 300dpi. Artwork will be proportionally formatted to fit the ‘zine. Submit all work by April 3. The Plume Zine is: art for people. Our debut zine, God & Love, a hand-bound, double pamphlet stitch, in an edition of 50, was distributed at select locations in Tucson and just about flew off the shelves. God & Love had 11 contributors and debuted with a reading at Dinnerware Artspace gallery. [bicycle] Conversations will have a special debut party TBA — don’t miss out! (view blog for images) Email submissions to MaxedArt@gmail.com or call 245-2681. The future awaits you at maxedart.blogspot.com

I was at the University of Arizona Museum of Art today. This is from a new installation by
El Anatsui.

These works are copyright of the artist and are shown here under the doctrine of fair use for educational purposes. The work above uses the rims of screw on caps of cheap liquor that the anglo world has exported to Africa for the last several centuries. It references that societal problem, the problem of garbage, and also the West African textile tradition.

Not to mention that it is lusciously gorgeous and cries out to be carressed.

More societal commentary. Aluminum printing plates used in their most maleable form to comment on waste and waste paper in particular.

If you are traveling or happen to be around Tucson, Arizona, do yourself a favor and go to the University of Arizona. There is the Museum, two galleries, the Center for Creative Photography, the Flanrau Observatory, the Arizona Historical museum and much more.

My dear, Scots friend, Marion, has tagged me with these instructions:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

So, seven facts about myself.

• Frank Herbert lived in Port Townsend.
  As he aged he worked with a colleague. They picked my maiden name,
  Scudi, out of the phone book. The character, Scudi Wang, in the novel
  The Lazurus Effect so spooked me for years (1983). Many years later I
  went and got the autographed copy he had left at the local bookstore
  for me.
• I was born in Indiana and grew up on a farm.
• I came from a very non standard family.
• I love to drive. I use “doing miles” to air out my mind and my spirit.
• I love the surf of the Pacific Ocean; I miss it very much. Like “doing miles” I miss that help.
• One spring when I was a child we had nineteen kittens; five of them were pure white.

• I’m much more restrained now. I have only six cats.

Now, who shall I tag?

1. lauralyn sciretta
2. rayna gillman
3. pam rubert
4. susie monday
5. sabrina zarco
6. natalia aikens
7. denise aumick

Whew! That was an unexpected amount of work. All those tagged are artists who’s work and thoughts I admire.

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.

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.

Pictured above are Sonji Hunt and Rhonda Blasingame. Do go to Sonji Says for a much more complete description of the class. Rhonda, please contact me; I’m unable to find how to email you.

Among the things I firmly believe is the idea that textile art is not well served by being kept to itself. We use the words art quilt and wonder why no other artists are interested in our work.

I went to the Tougaloo Art Colony in Jackson, Mississippi, last week because the words said art colony. I have never spent a week so joyously.

Ceramicists, painters, enamelers, textile workers, all noted and acclaimed instructors, most who were professors at other institutions came together for a week of very intense study. Very intense study was combined with very intense discussions, meals, trips out here and there.

Adding to the mix of intelligent conversation and hard work was the multi cultural aspect of Tougaloo. Above are Debbie, Sonji half hidden, and Annie from Chicago. Sonji will have much better pictures and more details.

I think this was about the point when we had all painted yards and yards of fabric and were beginning the next step in Sonji’s process.

It was quite interesting; each of us immediately had a recognizable painting style. We were creating layer after layer of painted fabric. Each layer from the big stack related to the painting before it.

Rosalind, our teaching assistant, is backed by Rhonda’s rust dyed works just behind Rosalind and on the left. The bright multi colors to the right are all Sonji’s brought to give us some idea of what and how the process goes along.

Do not be fooled by Rosalind’s seemingly plain pink fabric; when done it was a gorgeous blue fabric with pink underlays.

I’ll be more on my game tomorrow and the next few days. In the last eight weeks I have made fourteen separate flights. The airlines are fourteen for fourteen. Every flight was either delayed, double booked, canceled, delayed for mechanical problems, delayed for lack of crew, or delayed by weather. In spite of the cost of fuel I think next time I will drive.

That means I plan to go back to Tougaloo next Art Colony. It will be an entirely different group of professors. I have no idea what I will sign up for. I do know that I wanted to get my hands in to every medium that was taught next week. I’m hoping they will extend the Art Colony beyond one week

Several things today. Do go and see this YouTube video.

This one called Elektro.

This image is compliments of Google.

The following is a request from the National Museum for Women in the Arts. Please take time, make time, to continue each day by voting for this project with the American Express Member’s Project.
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Please go to www.membersproject.com for complete details and clear, simple instructions on how to REGISTER and RATE our project (it takes less than ten minutes).

Please register ASAP and give a FIVE STAR RATING to:

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The DEADLINE is June 17th, but please REGISTER and RATE us with 5 STARS TODAY, so we stay high on the list, have a greater chance to become known by more people, attract their support and rank in the top 50 project finalists. The Top 50 Projects will be announced July 3rd, the VOTING begins then, and the winning project will be announced August 7th. Please forward this to your friends! Thank you.

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