The reveal

And here it is: the commissioned altered notebook! Fret no more, and rejoice, for I have finally gotten off my ass and posted the finished piece.

The client was delighted, and ran her hands over the covers eagerly, flipping them open and looking at it from all angles. I tell you, it felt like I'd given her the bestest birthday gift ever.
The color blending worked out well with the background paper, and the red beads on the side picked up the map's road lines as I'd planned. Kinda looks like colored sugar for cupcakes, but I resisted the temptation to shake some into my mouth and enjoy the crunchiness. You're proud of me for that, I can tell.
I used an inset map of Rome for the back, and ran that 7 Gypsies gaffer tape along the bottom edge of the front and back cover. (I love their products, but man, they really need to make their website more user-friendly. Would it kill them to add a search function?) Then I inked up the edges to take the squeaky-clean feel down a couple notches.
I remembered to ask the client to tell a friend about me, and she said, "oh, I should tell my book club about this!" Which I thought was a fabulous idea, and then she topped herself. "Oh, wait -- I was going to give it [the notebook] to my husband [next] Tuesday, but my book club's this Thursday. I'll bring it to the book club, and then I'll wrap it up and give it to my husband on Tuesday."

Excellent idea! Couldn't have said it better myself.

What the hell is that?!

It's breaking local art news, that's what.

SEATTLE, 9:15pm PST -- Art fueled up at a local gas station tonight, driven by artist Andy Green.
Green said he altered his van for Burning Man 2007. The left side of the van gave a nod to its creator's name, decorated with swooping letters reading "Green Burrito Verde." The word "Kundalini" appeared on the back; a ladder was strapped to the front.
The right side of the vehicle read "Tacos Tantric Tuneup." Another motorist pumping gas asked Green if he actually sold tacos from the van.
Green said he gave them away. It was unclear whether he was joking. The van's interior was crowded with bongo drums and other items, but a food preparation area was not clearly visible under the strings of green and white lights.
Green, a Seattle resident, says he plans to add "a percussion tortilla" around the exterior of the van for Burning Man 2008.

***

Thanks to Andy Green for answering my questions and letting me take pictures. See, this is why you carry a camera with you! (Oh, the irony: Three years after I carried a camera phone for work and never used it, I use my own for a blog post. Damn, I should've used the video function.)

Happy third one

Presents are twice as fun when they're covered in Spider-Man!

The Boy is now officially three years old, and this weekend we had a dual birthday party for him and his day care pal who was born three days after him. Low-key, at least from a party-planning perspective: we went to the indoor play place and had pizza for the kids. Fortunately, Beth and I planned ahead, and we mostly were prepared for the guests, their parents, and the... um... "bonus guests."

Nana flew in for the festivities, sans Peepaw, because Peepaw is an accountant and is just a little busy at this time of the year. She climbed into the ball pit with The Boy (not for long -- she did get back out after the picture was taken) and had a little pizza with everyone too. Nana visits for two reasons: The Boy, and our junk food. See, junk food has no calories if it's eaten outside of your home state.
Note Nana's pitching arm, which is much better than The Boy's swing. No, I take that back. The Boy has a great swing -- down. He approaches the ball Bam-Bam-style.

Don't worry, the bat and the ball are both padded. No grandparents were harmed in the making of this blog post.

First look

You're dying to see more, aren't you? I can tell from here.

But I'm going to wait on posting the full-shot pix until after I deliver it to the client, who will be available next week. I figure she's paying for it -- she ought to be the first to see it in its full glory. I promise, the minute I can get to a computer after delivery, you get to see the whole deal.

Okay, okay! One more peek. I am a total art-tease. Shame on me. Happy Friday, and I'll get the rest of the pix up soonest!

Ret' to go

Everything went swimmingly with the commission client this morning... brought the elements I plan to use, including this paper:Even though the client has seen my work, in person and on my Flickr account, I was still kinda nervous. But as we examined the papers and inks and other elements I plan to use, she oohed and ahh'd and brought up a couple of things I hadn't even thought to highlight.

She mentioned that she'd had no idea what it took to make the notebooks, until she saw the elements and we began talking about what I was going to do with them. I loved hearing that -- I've had my moments when I had to bitch and moan about how no one seems to understand that making things takes time. How it actually takes time to buy (or order online) materials, to decide if this element goes here or there, adhesive drying time, etc.

And when I brought out the artist-client agreement I drew up for the project, she listened carefully and was pretty pleased about signing. Apparently she's constantly wrangling with someone who teaches her son... there's always some sort of misunderstanding. And it's all because the teacher refuses to use a contract to spell out what's expected of her clients and of the teacher.

Whew! I best get to work.

Prime time, take 2

Good news: the commission client and I are back on for tomorrow. So I'll pack up my stuff tonight and be ready to go tomorrow morning. Hope The Boy gets a good night's rest -- we'll have to be up and at 'em early!

My heart goes out to them

Hadn't planned to paint a plastic heart on Valentine's Day, but it's worked out that way. It'll be part of my Artfest piece. Doesn't it look like a real one in miniature? Either that, or a piece of ABC gum.

I believe that God made chocolate because he loves us and wants us to be happy. (Apologies to Ben Franklin for that one.) But news this Valentine's Day reminds me to be picky about where a chocolatier buys their cacao beans. Jesus, I've been to Ghana. Some of the most beautiful children I've ever seen in my life live there. But endangering the health and lives of children is an acceptable cost of doing business for some corporations.

Maybe George Bush doesn't care about black people, but FEMA does. Today I also found out that FEMA loves black people in Louisiana. After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explained that it's bad for humans to live and breathe in formaldehyde-leaching trailers, that is.

Surprise, surprise: I'm not much of a Valentine's Day person. I do buy cards, and I do like receiving flowers. But I'm no longer the type to make valentines for everyone, and I'm more interested in what those little candy hearts say than how many I can fit into my mouth. (Approximately 15.)

Plus, I used to work in TV news. That either cures you of velvet and lace, or it sends you into the deep end of the frilly stuff.

The Husband says he's not a Valentine's Day person either. But he bought me several sci-fi books (they're also for himself; we have very similar tastes) this week, including a sequel that I'm dying to read. And last night, he bought me a pair of avocados [mmm... drool slobber] and a small box of Dilettante chocolates -- the kind he brought me on our first date. He likes how appreciative I am of the just-because gifts he brings home.

It's probably sticking my head in the sand, but these little expressions of love in my life make me feel like there must be enough love in the rest of the world to change the big stuff. The chocolate-from-Third-World-children and formaldehyde-poisoning stuff.

The best Valentine's gift, hands down: The Husband's belief in me as an artist. He even made me an Executive Crafting Kit, which you'll see if you're going to Artfest. It's a briefcase he outfitted with wooden dividers for my supplies, and strips of Velcro and faux red velvet ribbon hold the contents in their respective compartments. Whenever I go arting somewhere, I get ooh's and aaah's and someone invariably says, "Ooh, he's a keeper!"

Yes, he is.

More spelling mysteries resolved

This one's in honor of my TX darlin' Jan, who got a hoot out of my earlier spelling-related bitchiness. Here's hoping it speeds her recovery from that nightmarish illness.

STATIONERY: Letter-writing paper... you know, the stuff you use when you're out of cell phone range and you have no access to email. STATIONARY: Standing still, as in "a stationary object."

And a few bonus corrections:

CEMETERY: Not "cemetary" or "cematery" or "cematery." There is no "a" in that word.

MISCHIEVOUS: Not "mischievious." Two, not three "i's." And the emphasis is on the first syllable (MISS-cheh-vuss), not the second, in the same way you would say "mischief" (MISS-chiff).

That is all. Go forth and continue to vocalize properly.

Not ready for prime time

Through a series of totally avoidable mistakes, I didn't meet with the commission client today. We might be able to reschedule for Friday. Cross your fingers that I get a new, functioning brain between now and the end of the week.

Young, wild, un-moral. And getting worse all the time

A sneak peek (ha!) at the piece I'm working on for Artfest. Think woodsy mythical stuff. Attendees can bring two pieces to display and possibly sell... ooh, I hope someone wants to buy it when it's finished. I only have so many flat surfaces to display my art here. Someone needs to take this home.

I was looking at the work so far all day yesterday, and this part of it just wasn't meshing yet. I'd incorporated a plastic syringe (no needle!), and it looked interesting, but not exactly part of the whole. So I pulled out my Dremel tool (whoo-hoo!) and cut up some smaller syringes (again, no needle) to add to the roots. I'll need to tone down the part of the root that goes over the edge, though.

I twisted the yarn you see dipping into the picture from the top, and attached it. Then it started looking more like something.
The Husband wandered by and said, "Wow." So I waited warily for him to elaborate. He added, "Now it doesn't look like you just stuck a syringe onto it."

Thank you. That's what I was going for.

I'm really starting to get the idea behind securing elements in an assemblage piece. When I took Michael de Meng's class back in October, he explained structure in assemblage. Gluing one element to another is fine, and sometimes all you need. But usually the elements work better together when you make one part of another.

So you could easily use a strong glue like E6000 to hold heavy-ish things together. But the piece has more structural integrity -- and will last longer -- if you drill holes and then bind them together with wire, for example.

Assemblage also forces you to consider weight distribution. If you give an art doll a metal head, but its body is hollow plastic, you could make the elements stick together -- but the doll probably can't stand or even sit upright on its own. So you'll either have to reinforce and weight the body down somehow, or use a heavier material for the body.

And there you go. Boys and girls, remember to wear your safety glasses when handling a rotary tool. And if you drink, don't drill.

Spelling lesson

This is a mini-spelling rant about homophones, words that sound the same but are spelled differently and mean separate things. If you want to avoid impending bitchiness, bail out now.

LIGHTNING: the zig-zaggy stuff in the sky that often accompanies thunderstorms, as in "greased lightning." LIGHTENING: when you make something lighter in color or weight, as in "lightening the load."

PEEK: a stolen glance. Yes, it rhymes with "sneak," but there is no "a" in this word. PEAK: the top of a mountain, or the pointy top of something. As in "snow-capped peaks" or "egg whites whipped into soft peaks."

BEAR: to carry something, as in "to bear weight" or "to bear a grudge against someone"; or to give birth to, as in "child-bearing years." And, of course, the animal (grizzly or teddy). BARE: to expose, as in "bare naked" or "bare your soul."

And no, you can't use the first word to mean the second just because you think the rest of the world is wrong and you're right, or because you want other people to work to figure out what you mean. (That means you, Ivan.) Messing with the language that way means you don't want to communicate what's on your mind, and if that's the case, then just don't say anything.

Now go out there and use your vocabulary properly. End of rant.

Ba-rock the casbah

So The Husband and The Boy went to caucus for Barack Obama today. Here in Extra-Blue State, the Democratic Party is assigning delegates according to which candidate wins the caucus process. We have a primary, but it's pointless -- your primary vote doesn't get counted in the delegate-assigning process. (The state Republican Party assigns half its delegates at caucus, half through the primary.)

But apparently The Husband waited too long to head out to the caucusing place. He says there were cars parked in every side street, every parking lot, for about two miles around. And you reallyreallyreally don't want to walk that far with a toddler. In the rain.

So he gave up, and called me to rant about how he's tempted to sue the state Democratic Party on the grounds that the process is economically biased against anyone who has trouble participating (need to work, need to find a babysitter, etc.). He talks about suing a lot, but this is because he is Lawyer Spawn.

[See, this is the difference between him and me. I would've parked illegally, gotten a button or sticker or some such for The Boy, taken pictures of him and the crammed parking lots, and then grumbled my way home.]

So this sucks, but on the upside, there are so many people caucusing that Extra-Blue State might line up for the Audacity of Hope.

Altered notebook commission

I have a new commission -- sort of.

A new client wants to buy an acid-free version of this notebook I have up on Etsy:
Which would be fairly easy to make, since the original's staring me in the face and I should be able to get the acid-free notebook. (It's like the one I used for this commission, only without ribbons.) But there's a slight problem: I've used up all of the paper I used for the background. Googled it and called the store where I originally purchased it, but it's no longer available. Arrgh.

So I've emailed the client to let her know, and attached photos of some papers I think would work as substitutions. The finished piece will be a gift for an artistic-type guy who also thinks very linearly.
Manly enough? What do you think?

UPDATE: All is well.. it turns out one of the other papers meshed perfectly with the interests of the gift recipient. I'll see the client next week!'

P.S.: Now stressing about whether I'm charging too much. I emailed her an estimate of costs and The Husband said it was too much. So now I'm thinking the client will back out. I won't find out, likely, until Monday or Tuesday. We're supposed to meet at the beginning of the week. [whiny fussing baby sound]

Blog candy on its way

Here's one of the pieces of blog candy Tally and Cheryl will receive:Thinking, a series of two ATCS

The wooden faces had been hanging around for a while in my stash... I got them from a woman who brought them to a class I took in 2004. I stamped the test onto the woman's face, then pasted a matte medium transfer of the baby's face on top.

The denim background is kind of new: it's adhesive-backed denim from the Creation Station, which is an art/recycling place I like to visit from time to time. It's a lot like Scrap in Portland. I distressed the denim with a retractable knife/box-cutter thingy.

Then I painted the denim, hoping for an interesting color combination, but I learned this: Denim is quite absorbent. It likes acrylic paint. I know, I know... all y'all who work with fabric in your art coulda told me this many times over. But I'm learning. Eventually.