Happy Creepy Friday

Paul and I spent the day in NY yesterday, professional conference day for him, total day of fun for me. Beautiful sunny day, smell of leaves, soft light and the Gerhard Richter show at the Drawing Center. Had to go to NY Central Art Supply and buy paper immediately following. Today we're finishing up some photos for Mole Hollow, I'm drawing, then finishing my grandson's little gory Halloween costume. He decided to be zombie this year. Couldn't talk him out of it. I asked him a few questions about how he envisioned the costume. Could he be a cute zombie? "No" A Ronald MacDonald zombie? "Absolutely no". Let's work on the back story, then. How did you become a zombie? How did the zombies turn you into one? "Mippy all this talk about zombies is scaring me. Just make the costume, ok"? I'll finish the costume tomorrow and then hide the mirrors.

I love going to cemeteries. They are always so life affirming and make you stop and remember you're alive. Try it when you're sad or not pausing enough in life. Turns things around pretty quickly. Here are a few pics of my favorite cemetery in Paris, Pere Lachaise. Some lucky folks who nap there? Sarah Bernhardt, Gertrude Stein, Balzac, Maria Callas, Issadora Duncan, Jim Morrison but Oscar Wild wins for most kisses. Beautiful images are from Chris Turner's photo essay-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Pan Would Love These

Light Bulb by Melissa Borrel

Rippled Table by Stephen Holl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shadow Chair by Chris Duffy

Art Best Performed in the Dark

I was a little afraid of the dark (okay a lot) when I was a girl. Actually, mostly the hidden aliens. Watching ten minutes of Invasion of the Pod People convinced me they were there. Under my bed. My strategy was to always face the wall letting the hall light catch any invaders in shadow as they pounced. While I waited to be eaten alive I would make shadow animals, to calm myself. Because I'm an actor always waiting for my light and had a few decades of Pod People patrol, I'm pretty good at it. Shadowgraphy, or the art of Ombromi, made famous by french entertainer, Felicien Trewey, reached it's peek around the end of the 19th century. The cause of it's demise? Mostly the household light bulb. And movies made it a lot less exciting, too. It seems like a miracle to all of us in this century. To distract yourself from the goblins this weekend you can go here and learn a few moves. This is a link to the You Tube video of unusualist, Aussie Raymond Crowe performing It's A Wonderful World.

Slice of Baby Boo, Wee-Be-Little, or Red Warty Pie

Paul and I got to produce and shoot a video recently for an ad agency in Providence, Duffy and Shanley. The asked us to create a fall feast in a 100 year old structure, Smith Barn in Peabody, MA. 50 paper lanterns hung above a thirty foot long table. For me it was one long blank canvas and I had a ball. Pumpkin and ghord shopping was at the top of my list. I visited my friends at Walker Farm stand in Tiverton and Andrew Orr in Westport. The colors, warts, grooves, bumps, and roly poly bums of these funny veggies made me grin. Here are a few examples of the beauties I brought home.

Thank you Haunted Bay for the great pumpkin and ghord education.

From the top left- Jarrahdale, We Be Little, Howden, Long Island Cheese,

Baby Boo, Cinderella, Cross-Polinated, One Too Many, Pump Ke Mon

Zucca Rotondo, Red Hubbard, and Grey Hubbard.

Poem for Monday

 A Noiseless Patient Spider

A noiseless, patient spider,
I mark'd, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;
Mark'd how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;
Ever unreeling them--ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you, O my Soul, where you stand,
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,--seeking the spheres, to
connect them;
Till the bridge you will need, be form'd--till the ductile anchor
hold;
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.

-Walt Whitman

Lovely Victorian style silhouette on etsy by Mad Barking Arts

Fun Friday Chalkboard Paint

I found some nice pics of chalkboard paint being used in a fresh way.
Have a great weekend. From flickr- bedroom think cloud from sarah here,
spice rack from rhapsody here, from Martha Stewart, baby night table
from babyblogspot here, and from jkenning here.

Opening the Kimono a Bit More

A few more beauties from Jenna Goldberg.

New Site for Smoke and Pickles

New Smoke and Pickles website design to be launched soon.

"I never eaten them but I know I won't like 'em"

-Levi Parker

"How will you know you don't like them unless you try them?"

-Alyn Carlson

A couple of weeks ago I posted some of the photos from the 5 month shoot Paul and I have been doing for our friends at Smoke and Pickles. We had a great time this past rainy weekend shooting the last 4 shots on Dan's front porch. One of them had to describe how roll your eyes delicious the S+P ribs are. With a little help from our diva in training talent, Levi, we were able to capture it. As most incredibly busy 6 year olds, he gave us a small window of opportunity to record his delight in devouring the famous ribs. He came on set announcing he'd never actually eaten the ribs but knew he wouldn't like 'em. After a few test shots, wardrobe primping, extra sauce styling on his fingers, Dan handed him a rib and we waited. It was the classic advertising moment of "Will he like it?" He looked it over carefully, sniffed it, took a huge bite and didn't stop eating till it was gone. Paul and I got the the left overs and reenacted the scene at home.

Some of the feathers I've collected through the years. I might try some quill making this winter.

“World peace through better color”

-Alyn Carlson

That’s one of the things I put on my business cards and most people seem to get it. I’ve watched so many of my clients and friends walk into my studio or home and break out in a grin. They lovingly run their fingertips over colored pencils, hold a paint tube in an achy palm, and with their eyes caress swatches of color aid paper. They usually give me a happy glazed look and say something like “You must be so happy working with all this color.” Actually I am.

It was a rumble in my stomach for years. I took a 20 year break from making personal work and craved color so much it just started bubbling up in all my design. I found when I started a project the first thing I did was open the pantone swatch book and listen for direction. When the damm broke and I started making personal work again about 8 years ago, I floated around with an expression on my face similar to the Dalai Lama’s. So why do we walk around starving ourselves? Pick the softest palest taupe and avoid the sexy tomatoe bisque? Afraid? Of what?

One of my favorite rants on that subject is by David Batchelor in his slim little hot pink book, Chromophobia. The more western our thinking is, the more urban we get, the farther away from intense color we find ourselves. Is color vulgar, dirty, primitive? Why should we bother to even consider this right now with all this economic malaise? Shouldn’t we lay low and keep our heads down, no changes, stay as beige as possible, and make ourselves as quiet and small as we can?

Because color = joy. What I love and am moved by every day, abstract expressionist Charles Seliger’s Ways of Nature, my little spring green Roseberry Winn vase, and even my carved bakelite bangles, feed me. I know responsible austerity is wise right now but so is smiling every day.

Hey my demi god, Milton Glaser puts it so well “If you like Mozart and I like Mozart we really have something in common. So the likelihood of us killing each other has been diminished.”

Don’t you just love the color yellow?

As an actor, I find it helpful to do a little color study of the character I'm working on to help articulate who they are. My dear friend, director, and mentor, Pat Hegnauer got me started on this practice 10 years ago. We've collaborated often with these images, paired with her poetry. Here are a few I've created through the years- Stephanie from Tom Kepinski's Duet for One, Flora from Tennessee Williams 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Lady Ninjo from Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, Dull Gret from Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, Mrs. Malaprop from Sheridan's The Rivals, Pope Joan from Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, Constance from Shakespeare's King John, Sister Angelita from Ethan Phillips' Penguin Blues, and the fabulous Molly Bloom from James Joyce and Sheila Walshes' Molly and James.