BAM

that is the sound of me hitting the wall. last week went a little haywire to say the least. sleep deprivation + almost anything out of the ordinary = a bad cocktail.

event one :: i think it started when the power went out last week. i was trapped upstairs holding cc w/ no way to even find a flashlight [which we do have upstairs, and which i would normally hunt down in the dark, but when you are carrying a baby - all bets are off]. we don't usually loose power as we're on the same grid as a hospital so it was a bit startling. candles out. camping lantern on... little LED reading light - suddenly indispensable.

event two :: i won't go into gory details, but lets just say i even lost my saliva swallowing skills. i kid you not. [a pill stuck in your esophagus will do this]. i had no idea how much spit one would generate over an hour until i emptied it out of a cup i had to spit it all into.

event three :: and then there was the biblical moment. a whooshing sound and pitter patters a plenty - what the heck? i open the kitchen door to bouncing little black objects scattering as if they had been set free from a long confinement. the floor normally white a sea of black dots. what the heck? bugs? no. where did these things come from... what are they? black beans. yes. from the pantry cabinet. over turned and spilling..... i swear all i could think of was that scene in magnolia where the frogs fall from the sky.

where are the photos for this post you ask?


on the flip side - fantastic news... my studio passed final inspection. it's "ok to occupy".... which means



let the packing commence. do i need to mention yet again how much i hate packing? unpacking is more my speed. when you unpack you can re-organize. [oh ikea here i come], but packing? nightmare. moving? nightmare. and with a baby strapped to you, you can't quite lift and shove like you're used to. my former student anna has come to my rescue. offering to help she's been a guardian angel. seriously.

and... my mom comes tomorrow for a long weekend. cc and i are super excited about this. i don't even have the vocabulary [or the brain cells to use such vocabulary] to describe how ecstatic i am about this.

and soooo... i am going on an internet break. i'm not comprehending anything i'm reading anyway - and pretty pictures just make my head spin. i'll be back soon - hopefully after a long nap....

two bits:

i'm in this week's design for mankind dialogue on self discipline.

and oh! here's me goccoing with the little [note to self must finish those prints!]

nocturna

so this is it.
the 7 foot drawing i sent off to the sun valley art center for the domestic life show.

i think if i had to do it all over i wouldn't recommend starting a 7 foot long drawing when you are 6-7 months pregnant. it took me so much longer than it would have in a non-pregnant state as i could only sit on the floor for so long, or stand for so long, or hold the drawing away from the wall to sew for so long. i actually finished the piece right before i ended up in the hospital giving birth to cc early.

info on the piece:
bed drawing :: nocturna [we'll soon be three]
2009
colored pencil, watercolor, acrylic, ink, embroidery/thread, felt, crochet doilies, glasshead pins on drafting film
48" x 86"



but then it's not often i have a curator tell me - oh yes - we can accommodate a 7 foot piece and yes you can have it unframed and yes you can make it installational. we'd LOVE that.

so... how could i resist? of course being pregnant - the piece is all about that really. can you tell that now that i tell you? [bottom right is basically about conception, you could say i'm represented by green, hubby by brown/gray and cc by pink. she's the bed w/out the bedspread because she's still an unknown. the doilies stand in for sperm, seed, heart... now i've probably told you too much?]



i really wanted to add 3-d aspects to this drawing. something i started doing more with the pigmentary portraits. i started with just doilies par usual. but then after my crit group came i wanted to do something counter to all the "girly" aspects of the drawing. hence the felt squares - which are in the same size ratios as the doily i was drawing. and once i pinned them started to be like pillows or beds themselves. all the better!



since i couldn't fly to ketchem to install the piece myself i had to devise a way to instruct them how to do it. basically i typed out detailed instructions with illustrations, but then also had to point out where the holes where to pin stuff....



so the piece arrived like this.... and then they had to put it together step by step.

happy friday everyone! have a good weekend

p/s - goccing with the little actually worked! sophia wanted a picture - but i didn't take one. i am going to print again soon, so i'll snap a shot that time, K?

snippets

bug and grub brought the sweetest treats when they stopped by [tasted as good as they look]. haven't made it to miette yet - but i think it will be a must stop next time i head to SF.

they return next week for a bit more of a visit.

one of the things i love about gwen is that she color coordinates and plans her travel outfits. cutest charts ever! because i knew what colors she'd be wearing i wanted to make her a necklace



i really really like making these. if anyone is interested i might be coaxed into making some to sell? you could give me some color palette options and then i could give it a whirl. just a thought....

i'm about to try and gocco with cc strapped to me... we'll see how it goes. i'm working on some prints for a show. hopefully they'll come out. but i wanted to leave you with some eye candy. a former student sent me this image:



it's work by Maurizio Anzeri . yum. besides the above piece, i really love the photos that have embroidery on them. why didn't i think of that? i've embroidered images from old photographs but never though to embroider on top. duh.

oh! and go check out abby's resurrection of 5 senses friday

have a good weekend. i'll be back next week with images of the 7 foot drawing. finally.

on this day

anniversary ::

1. The annually recurring date of a past event, especially one of historical, national, or personal importance: a wedding anniversary; the anniversary of the founding of Rome.
2. A celebration commemorating such a date.

i'm not even sure how many years this would have marked for my grandparents. but they would have celebrated their wedding anniversary today.

[above: their passport photos that sit on my desk]

i think about how different my role as wife/mother is from my grandmothers... very different indeed. i will most likely not be a permanent stay at home mom. i am not the homemaker that she was by any means. [husband cooks more than i do]...

i come from a long line of long lived relationships [knock on wood]. my parents have been married for almost 40 years. my husband and i have been married for 6 years, but together for 17....

my grandfather was not overly or overtly affectionate with my grandmother. i think in her heart of hearts she wished he was. she would have relished constant romantic attention. he was also not always the world's most easy man to live with. he could be demanding, had a sharp tongue and quick wit which could cut sharply, it was usually his way or no way... i often feel as if i had a really exceptional relationship with my grandpa. as the first grandkid - and the first little girl in his life [he had 3 sons] - i got very special treatment indeed.

but for their 50th wedding anniversary there was a big party. and i will never ever forget how my grandfather stood up in front of a room full of people and spoke about what his wife meant to him. it was so moving. and there were small tears... he spoke of seeing her across a room, of dancing... of what kind of mother she was. it was beautiful.

sometimes it's not how often you express something, but how truthfully and deeply you do when you do it.

tomorrow erin at design for mankind launches a new project of which i am a participant. let's just say i'm attempting to overcome my camera shyness....

and shari has launched everyone needs a rock . so true. go see lots of artists, friends, and bloggers show off their favorite rocks....

be well

making

my friend rori from paper monkey press had a bracelet that she wouldn't wear. i told her i'd take it apart and make her a necklace from it that she might don. above is what i came up with.

i'm totally copying the style of a jewelry designer that i ADORE [and whose stuff i can't afford right now] ronni kappos . i think she's brilliant. in fact so brilliant that i made another necklace channeling her



this one is going across the ocean to another continent. i hope the recipient likes it... fingers crossed.



my mom knit this for cc. she used a japanese craft book [sorry i don't know the title or ISBN, but maybe next visit i can ask her]. she made a matching blanket too. they are so beautiful... it's nice to think about cc as an adult and having these handmade items to hold and have. the thing is my mom can actually read the directions - lucky lady. i can decipher the crochet instructions, but knitting charts in japanese are still jibberish to me. knitting charts in general are jibberish to me. they look cool, but i have not a clue how to follow them. amisha and i were talking about this. if she lived closer maybe she could help me figure out knitting and i could show her how to make an amiguri. i'm positive the amiguri is a much easier task than cables.

a bug is coming to CA soon. if we have time i can show her how to crochet an elephant if she wants. her partner grub is the one who designed my studio so he gets to see it. it's finally been sunny the last couple of days so they are making progress. the siding is going up!!!! if just *might* be almost done by the time they get here.

have a great friday and weekend!

a domestic life {04} + happy girls day

it's girls day today. a japanese holiday. [you can read more here ]. when i was a kid we set up dolls every year. my japanese grandma made them. i loved the fact that there was a day for girls [there's one for boys too]. and i loved setting the dolls up. they were too precious to play with, but i was in awe of their clothes. there's always an emperor and empress and if you have an extended set then their servants and food. little sculptures of pink and white mochi - perfect instruments - lanterns, etc. my mom says she will be giving me the set i grew up with for our little girl. she brought the above dolls to start us out for today.



i made the elephant ! i made his ears stick out a bit more. this one we're keeping. a little present for girls day. hopefully cc will like it....




installment 4 of a domestic life...
gotta give credit where credit is due. the dots totally remind me of laurie reid . click on her colored pieces/dots portfolio.

i think this one is my favorite page so far [ha! of all 4 pages]

it is pouring rain here. i think it's supposed to be raining all week. time to bundle and hole up....