Marzipan

I made these tiny little cookies at Mom's house over the break. They got lots of oohs and ahs, but unfortunately, if you eat one they're not so good. I'm making a new batch tonight. I've got some plans to try to make them taste better, and to keep them from flattening out during baking. Also, I'm going to make them a little bigger. The turkey was Tara's idea. It doesn't look as good as some of the others, but it cracks me up.

FreeStyle Crochet

Okay, I stole this from Chara. In art, I love when boundaries get blurred. And one blurry boundary I especially love is that of what used to be called high art and low art. High art (in modernist times) was supposedly higher, because it had theory and good design and skill. Low art lacked the theory. But really, art is really good when it comes out of life, out of experience. Sometimes that means it's rough around the edges. So perhaps "low art" has theory too, it's just the philosophy of the common people.

The inequity of that distinction is accepted today. A couple of years ago, the Whitney Museum in New York featured the quilts made by common black women from Gee's Bend , Alabama. I absolutely love these. Check it out.

Look at me, I'm posting!

This is John, that's right, not Laura. So this is that blogger-ma-jig that you kids talk so much about. Well, it's pretty nice, I guess, but it can't beat a good old fashioned letter followed by a modest two week wait for reply. In my day we had to sit around imagining our friend's and loved one's lives and the often-fuzzy images that accompanied them. We didn't go snooping around in their personal effects, or, as you kids say, "googling them" to find out their secrets.

Ok, so that's enough of that. So this is a picture of the latest "I heart" series of bumper stickers for our friend Warren and his truck. We put in on yesterday, but I was a big goober and didn't take an actual picture of the bumper because I could just tell he was going to catch me.


Warren, you see, doesn't like being in his office.

Good things

I am looking forward to the Thanksgiving break - to getting caught up on some reading (not just rough drafts of research papers, things I like to read), painting, sewing, cooking, hanging out with John. All of the things I really like to do. Also, seeing family, eating, and sleeping.

Sam and Daisy

I heart Windows XP

Warren has been really busy lately (because he has a show this weekend in columbia), but we made sure he was alive and well before we applied this next sticker. Also, notice, the Thomas Kinkade has been removed. Still not sure how wal-mart is.

Lomography

These are cheaply made little cameras that have multiple lenses (four) that snap shots and slightly different angles a half second apart. So in effect you get little motion stills. When you develop the film, the four shots come out in one frame. There's also one with 8 lenses. And you can get some with fish eye lenses, or colored flashes. Because they are cheaply made, they are highly succeptible to light (so that have fast shutter speeds and do okay indoors) and they tend to supersaturate color. They are made cheaply also so they can be available to everyone. You can see this and other things I want at my amazon wishlist.

Patience

I've been knitting for about 16 years, but in all that time, I've only done small projects: scarves, hats, purses, headbands, or, uh, art. But I've never completed what I will call a large project. Years ago, I started a sweater; I did the front and began to back, but that's where i stopped. I still have it in its sad unfinished state. A couple of years ago at thanksgiving when Aunt Beth and Reba came to Tennessee, I started my very first afghan, which I think does qualify as a large project - I just still haven't finished it yet. The difference in these small and large projects has nothing to do with complexity, it's all about time. And as my mom and John will account for, I like to get things done quickly. So... I've started a new knitting project. I am making a jacket from this really great pattern out of good yarn. I am equating my ability to finish this project with my ability to grow and develop this fruit of the Spirit: patience. So I guess we'll all see how well I do.
I guess I shouldn't mention that I also think of growing my hair out as this sort of metaphysical exercise in patience. I guess that says how many times I've come close and failed.

Landscaping

You may remember some landscapes I did some years ago. I took a summer class of landscape painting, where we went out and painted landscapes (obviously). I really enjoyed several aspects of it - mostly the purity of painting what is in front of you (rather than photographs or even staged still lifes), but also I enjoyed the historical significance of the landscape - it's ability to be both timeless and time specific and the relationship of the figure (or people) to the landscape.


Anyway, after that class I got away from that purity part of it and started abstracting it (moving away from "pure" translation of the landscape to landscape as metaphor. These metaphors in the beginning were about me and nostalgia for a certain place).
So as I continued this metaphor of the landscape, and the incorporation of the figure with the landscape it became more about the relationship of the physical person to the physical place instead of about a specific place. This of course, begs the question (at least in my mind), what about the physical person in a spiritual place - in other words this physical spiritual divide (for which the horizon line makes a nice metaphor). This was a natural connection to me, since I have always had certain spiritual themes in my art.

So the physical/spiritual divide brings up issues of death, prayer, Christ's incarnation, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and other similar intersections of the physical and spiritual. So then of course, the work got all, you know, college-abstracty, for lack of better words. Not that i think this was unproductive, I just think this 10 ft fabric drapery served as a step to help me realize this idea of the landscape as a metaphor for the spiritual and physical intersections. And that this new understanding should be taken back to the paintings i'm doing now, rather than continuing in this abstract way. Of course, i didn't really plan these changes, and I sort of figured them out as I went or even sometimes after the fact. Nevertheless - this is a quick summary of the process i went through to reach my view of landscapes today.


Recently, I returned to figural and representational art - because of a need for real connection with real people. I guess at this time in my life, abstract art wasn't fulfilling that need which suddenly became so important to me. So now i'm painting real things again - things i really connect and interact with in my life, which means still lifes, interiors, and (what else?) landscapes. But even though i am leaving behind abstract art (at least for now), i am bringing all that i learned from it with me, and still thinking of this metaphor.

So when they get presentable, i will present them.

"Four!" "Three!"

check this out: In this Greek archaic black-figure vase painting by Exekias of Achilles and Ajax playing dice (with spears in hand in case they are called to battle), they not only labelled the figures, they also put the words coming from their mouths saying, "Tesare" and "Tria." Another way of capturing the moment in Greek Art. (click the image to see a larger view.)