Not too fascinating

Hairhopper, Q. Cassetti, 2012, pen and inkRaining today. Our little piles of snow are melting to Alex’s chagrin and sadness. We are both praying for another freeze and flakes to help the ski club investment make sense. Just as soon as we think we are good to go, then the rain starts and away we go. Oy.

However, the rain is better to travel in than snow and wind sheers…so we will have Rob home safely (we hope) from Florida via NYC tonight. He is going to be whipped. It will be good to have him home in the frozen north. Next trip is in two weeks to interview at  Landmark College and Hampshire College. Rob is identifying some cool places to stay (one has a salt water lap pool, an outdoor heated (winter) pool and other cool treats like that.

I am having to write a bio for myself which is puzzling. I have been reading the existing bios and getting a feeling for what works, what doesn’ t, but my story is a bit different, and I do not want to  be odd. I think I need to call my contact and suss out better what they are looking for (character count) and in the case of the portrait (urg) file type etc.

Onward.

I have my valentine coming via mail (just checked this a.m)—complete with spot uv. and full color on what is promised to be an interesting board stock. We will see! Also ordered a bunch of tattoo-ey ink drawings as stickers on vinyl from The Sticker Guy—my source where I can pretend I am a radical extreme illustrator/designer and be able to make cool stuff for a low price. I am planning on making sticker sets to sell (Etsy and Grassroots) as well as to send to a select group just to say hi and hello. Coasters will be next on the roster.

I got all my entries submitted to American Illustration (AI) yesterday. Goodness, that takes quite a bit of time—but it is a good show and I am always surprised when I get something in…and those things selected are always the least predictable of the shows I enter. I find that AI can point the way towards work that others may not have paid attention to…and they do. Interesting. I may enter the next Creative Quarterly just for kicks. You never know until you enter!

This is the time of the year for taxes and accounting, contracts and paperwork, files and all things paper. I find myself throwing all sorts of that stuff off. Time consuming and not overly fascinating. I guess the fascinating is in February.

two sweaters looking for three

Hairhopper, Q. Cassetti, 2012 pen and inkQuiet day yesterday. Hopefully the same at the office today. I cooked a bit yesterday and did a few more pictures to add to this group of hairhoppers. Its fun…and its going someplace, so I need to keep in this linear trance to see where the lines lead me. I made a  big pot of turkey stock and cooked some tofu to begin the process of beginning to understand how to cook and work with it. I made up a small batch of pizza dough. Its sitting in the fridge developing flavor.

We all are looking for some heat. Bit freezy here…so maybe a lap blanket on my shoulders to keep things a bit more cuddly wuddly for me.

Time for coffee.

Hairhoppers

Hairhopper four, Q. Cassetti, 2012, pen and ink.To Marina (excerpt)

by Kenneth Koch

Let’s take a walk
Into the world
Where if our shoes get white
With snow, is it snow, Marina,
Is it snow or light?
Let’s take a walk

Every detail is everything in its place (Aristotle). Literature is a cup 
And we are the malted. The time is a glass. A June bug comes
And a carpenter spits on a plane, the flowers ruffle ear rings.
I am so dumb-looking. And you are so beautiful.

from “To Marina” by Kenneth Koch, from The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch. © Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. from the Writers Almanac (01.12.2012)

Isnt that lovely? I was stunned this morning listening and actually hearing the poem versus Garrison Keillor’s delivery and voice. I am thinking of snow, of course, with many schools in the “2 hr. delay” area of the state, kicking into full 2 hour delays. They are talking snow for us tonight, and tomorrow though for Rob’s sake and his travels, I hope it isnt too horrendous as he has many miles to go. I am ready for the white stuff.

I am ready to settle in with my pens and focus on my new body of work (yes, I have a direction for another 30 or so pix…), “Hairhopper”. Its about hair. Its about line. Its about hair becoming other stuff. Its about hair assuming other roles. Its about hair engaging in environments. its all about line, line and line. Its quick and inspired by the Madhubani work last year around this time. I am not limiting it to be just scans but I can monkey in photoshop/illustrator to work reverses into the mix (like the piece that got into Society of Illustrators LA) but to keep the work in general linear. Rob was very insightful in suggesting I work with this a bit more as this is a technique that is made for children’s books, their stories and it is quick enough that I could really have a run at that. I used to love linear books…black and white, maybe a single color (Lorraine Fox was the queen of that approach)— and settle in to lok at the detail of the images presented.  Maybe the fast pace of the little electronokids today is different…but when you are dealing in the imaginary, time is a different thing.

The holiday break student staffing is winding down. Gotta get a few things done with them tomorrow to make sure we use up the time. Tucker did something interesting. He decided he wanted to scare off the deer and did some research to do things that are nonevasive and are without a shotgun. What he discovered is if you put Milorganite on deer pathes, they will not come back as they hate the scent of the stuff. Milorganite is a fertilizer so its not going to hurt anything…and if it works, between this stuff and the little buzzers he discovered, we might be able to keep the deer on their side of the property and not in my hosta and peonies next summer. Wouldn’t that be a gift? They were staying away today. We will see tomorrow. If the winter team could lick the deer varmit problem…how remarkable that would be.

Need to go. Night is on us.

Springlike

Braids 2, Q. Cassetti, 2011, Parker refillable pen with Itoya gel pen refill.Feels like a day in early early spring. The light is low and golden, casting shadows through the trees. As we got the buckets and barrels of recycling down to the curb, the cold air felt great, invigorating, and what with the lovely light filled sky, nothing seems impossible today.

Rob is coming back from NYC after a nice dinner with some old friends from the first renovation of the Museum project. His emails were sunny and chatty. They had a really nice time.

Good news for the Museum of Glass adding more work on Rob. It has been announced the the Museum will be undergoing a $64 million for a new wing at the Museum. They will be working with architect, Thomas Pfifer and Partners NYC. Excerpts from the Evening Tribune article:

”..the project will include a new Contemporary Glass Gallery and a new Hot Glass Stage, the amphitheater-style space where glass artists give demonstrations to tourists and also during events such as 2300 Degrees.”

“…the expansion and renovation will blend with the rest of the CMoG campus and will keep much of the historic Steuben Glass plant’s footprint intact. For example, the plant’s iconic Robertson Ventilator – the strange black structure that towers above the roof – will become part of the future Hot Glass Stage.

Also as part of the project, the area just north of Steuben Glass will add green space and a promenade. The parking lot for CMoG tour buses will be moved to the main lot just off Interstate 86, and a new drop-off area will bring tour buses right to the main entrance.

From there, new circulation flows on the museum floor will bring visitors into the new wing.”

So, you can see, there is plenty to do around these plans…and Rob is one of the players in this scenario. I am very proud of my hubby who has been dogging this for the past six years and finallly got great results and an opportunity to really boost the offering of this amazing museum for all of us who love museums and all they offer. More on this…as the world finds out.

Jacob and E. leave us today. Alex C. has another evening being a star. Alex is to be Prince Dauntless in “Once Upon a Mattress”.  He is as happy as can be. We are delighted for him. We listened to his songs last night on youTube. He has some nice pieces,with nice solos that will push his singing and push his beginning physical comedy.

I got word that I got work into the winner category of Creative Quarterly 26! When I went to the website to see where I fit in, etc. I was stunned (and excited) to see that I also got work into the winner categories for both graphic design and illustration. Feeling much better. The no show this year with the Society (NYC) was disappointing, but these other shows are affirming to keep swinging, and trying for base hits. Fellow Hartfordian, Amy DeVoogd also is in the winner illustration category (Yay!) and Fello Syracuse alum, Mark Bender, amazing Pittsburgh illustrator is in the runners-up category. Congratulations to all. I need to find out which images get in (and I will post) along with getting  a portrait shot. Ey yi yi.