thelmasmith

When a dear friend was in the process of moving the inevitable down sizing occurred.  Things were going up on Craig’s list.  I got a note saying, oh, I think the overhead projector is priced too low. I’m also worrying about the space for the easel.

So, last Monday I trucked on up to the edge of Oro Valley.  Or maybe it’s technically in the town of Marana.  I don’t know.

Anyway, look what came home with me.  I’ve learned something about manifesting abundance.  I have always known that first you notify the universe and then you get to work.  That has now been technologically enhanced.

I use Firefox  as a web browser.  It gives me the ability to open innumerable tabs and my macbook remembers them from one day to the next.

I had been researching easels.  I must have had every style and every manufacturer and every retailer of easels in my tabs.  At the end of getting my web work done I would browse through all the easel tabs.  Finally I deleted them.  That’s when I got the note from my good friend.

Yes, the universe does work in interesting ways.

a national women’s art exhibition – deadline August 1
Sponsored by the Oakland Community College Womencenter, Farmington Hills, Mi., From Our Perspective is accepting digital entries, with a deadline of August 1st. This juried exhibit will feature women artists and will include two- and three-dimensional works of art.  The Juror, Susan Goethel Cambell, lives and works in Detroit, Mi. and has work in many public and private collections, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, The New York Public Library, The Detroit Institute of Arts, The Toledo Museum of Art and The University of Michigan Special Collections Library. Fee: $25 for up to 3 works. Awards: Best of Show $800.00, President’s Award $250.00 and a Purchase Prize of $250.00 (for smaller pieces).  To view full prospectus, and to upload images online, go to www.oaklandcc.edu/womencenter/artshow.htm.  Exhibit runs Sept. 18-Oct. 10 2008.  Please contact Arlene Frank with any questions at womenart@oaklandcc.edu

There is still time to turn in a letter of inquiry to be considered for National Native Creative Development Program for individual artists and the National Native Master Artist Initiative grant programs. Qualifying artists will be asked to complete a full application but only if you submit the letter of inquiry outlining your project first. These programs are open to all US Native people who are enrolled members of a federally recognized tribe, village, or state recognized tribe or village as well as to Native Hawaiian artists.
For more information visit: www.evergreen.edu

The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has issued an RFP for this substantial grants program. Grants of $200,000 to $600,000 will support programs that “utilize the arts to engage civil society - particularly youth and diverse and underserved populations - and that foster linkages and build partnerships between U.S. and overseas nonprofit arts and cultural organizations and local communities.” Project themes are limited to: 1) Mixed Visual Artistic Mediums: Cultural Exchange between American Indigenous and Minority Artists and Indigenous and Afro-Latino Artists from Latin and Central America; and 2) Mixed Visual Artistic Mediums: Cultural Exchange between American Women Artists and Women Artists from Africa and/or the Middle East. Applications, due May 22, must be made through nonprofit organizations or institutions of higher education. www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2008/04/grants_for_arts.php

Kate Lenkowsky and I met at the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2003. Lots of star power quilters to interview. The result is stunning.

This arrived by courier this afternoon. I have not had time to study more than the Table of Contents. The last quarter of the book, A Guide for Buyers & Collectors, is information that has never, to my knowledge, been put in one place. The information is extensive. Lenkowsky covers care, insuring and appraising as well as a long list of other topics in the guide.

Contemporary Quilt Art, An Introduction and Guide, by Kate Lenkowsky is published by
Indiana University Press. Extensive author’s commentary accompanies the large color photographs. The quality of the printing and binding are lovely. IBSN 978-0-253-35124-1

Register now for the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture Workshops, hosted by the Tucson Pima Arts Council, April 24, 25, and 26, at the Hotel Arizona in downtown Tucson. NALAC’s Regional Arts Training Workshops are convened throughout the nation to assist in strengthening local networks of Latino artists and arts and cultural organizations. All are welcome! Workshops will provide professional development opportunities and foster theoretical and aesthetic discussion. For more info contact Reuben Tomas Roqueni at 624-0595 x18 or reuben@tucsonpimaartscouncil.org   To register, visit the NALAC website at: www.nalac.org To view the just released NALAC Conference Agenda visit: www.tucsonpimaartscouncil.org/about/AboutWordDocs/NALACAgenda.pdf

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

Gamblin was the color man when the Smithsonian set out to recreate the renaissance, earth, colors of the old masters. He gives a twenty minute tutorial on thinking about color.

I received this DVD as a gift at a recent art’s materials exposition. Check with your supplier of art supplies and see if you can obtain a copy of this.  OOPS,  go to the Gamblin website, linked above.  You can view it online.   It addresses color in several ways including the historic time frame and the colors produced and used.

This is one of the first semi-successful prints from one of the linoleum blocks I’ve carved. My husband stole the print of the cat laying in front of the full moon. The old cedar tree taught me that it is much more sensible to carve the object. Carving away the background even when you leave a border to support the brayer requires much more skill than I have right now. I’ll have to actually get my printing done on good paper instead of just testing on typing sheet sorts of samples.

Last Wednesday I struggled with intaglio wiping the large, multi color, chard collagraph. I failed miserably. Then printed it again after more wiping. It was only a minor failure.

I cleaned the plate. Printed a blind emboss from it Wednesday and it is only a minor failure. The blind emboss, done Thursday, from the bamboo was good with only minor creasing. These are a couple of details from the blind emboss from that plate.

However, the real success on Thursday is a bunch of small square and rectangular offcuts from the big bamboo plate. I did one and then rearranged the modules.

I did five consecutively with increasing pressure. The last one was two half inch foam blankets and then thin, thick, and medium regular blankets. The blind emboss combined with the half sheet (smaller) of paper meant that I could put on gonzo pressure and still not break the paper.

Pretty rewarding to see the progression of the five. I forgot to take the camera with me on Thursday. Now I’ve got my confidence up just a bit I think I will ink each module with a different color, wipe, and print. I’ve also taxed my body mightily even though the gearing on the big press is pretty good. My shoulders and my back are telling me I ran a LOT through that press last week.

I have fallen way behind the pace of the work and the assignments. I don’t know how the kids who are taking twelve to sixteen credits are handling the volume of work.

The big plates are beautiful but a real headache. The press is thirty years old and has experienced all that teen aged students can imagine in it’s life. The bed will take a fifty inch long piece of paper; the roller is about thirty inches long.

I guess I should spend the weekend reading the text books. However, the two women, with great experience, who come in and work on lab days are very kind and teach me a lot. I’ve been delivering pomegranites for rewards.

I like the multi cultural and multi generational aspects of the class a lot. I guess it is time for me to become a bit more social person again.

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.