the dumbest thing you can say on a blog...

i promise* to update soon! i've been trying (with only a little success) to think of things to write about that aren't merely streams of consciousness or lists of random things. writing a blogpost should take some thought and have some purpose at least some of the time, and i think my posts have been pretty thought-less in recent months. anyhoo, stay tuned, i guess?


*ok, ok. i admit that this may be too strong a word. "would like" might fit better, or (sigh), be more truthful.

just a friendly warning...

CAUTION: these cookies are extremely delicious. why are they so dangerous, you might ask? because they are very simple (only a few, healthy ingredients and one not as healthy ingredient), vegan (extra healthy points, right?), and are quick and easy to make. i would recommend adding a cup or so of chocolate chips to the batter. and then resign yourself to eating them all in one sitting. except, thankfully, that would be a difficult thing to do- while being completely devoid of butter, white sugar, and eggs, they are very decadent and rich; i can't eat more than two in a sitting (but they are so good that part of me reeeeally wants to try!) :) yay cookies!

anyhoo, just thought i'd pass that along...

also, i (more accurately, many of my hand-made books) will be at this event on saturday and sunday! yay! i am a local artist/artisan! come by and see my work...but please don't cringe too painfully at the marked-up prices...it's all for the good of the shop and your friendly local artist/artisan!

pretty

i have been included in a treasury on etsy! it's pretty- i like this one a lot. yay!

charles burchfield, 1893-1967

clockwise from top left:
dandelion field(?)
cottage in the trees, 1955
child's garden, 1917
four seasons (definitely one of my new favorite paintings)

yet another artist whose work makes me wish i could paint with watercolors...or paint at all, really. here is some more info. his wikipedia page isn't really all that interesting.

in other news (except not really news, i was just trying to give you some warning that i am about to change subjects), i haven't been posting about my classes because...well,...i just haven't. but they've been going really well! i just wrote my first quiz ever for my art history students, and now i have the pleasure of grading it. so far there have been only a couple completely b.s.-ed answers, which are quite funny to read, except that i then have to mark them wrong. ;( i now realize that teachers are not fooled by b.s. answers. not fooled at all. for the sake of review i put together a blog, so if you're interested in seeing what exactly we're talking about, it's pretty much all there. yes, the terrible spacing makes me cringe every time i look at or think about it; i am really starting to hate blogger and its terrible dashboard/posting layout, and the way it mysteriously adds spaces or takes them away when you publish a post. *SIGH* woe is me...

pretty!!!

so i was doing some research for next week's art history class (aren't a good, diligent girl?), and came across this website with AMAZING pictures of old churches in italy (but i think there are more pages with similar photos for other countries, too!). yum!

today and stuff

forgive me if it seems like i have a very limited vocabulary in this post. today being a teaching day, i talked more in the span of nearly three hours than i do the other six days of the week, combined. my brain is tired. the little messengers that run from my brain, where thoughts do their thinking and forming of coherent ideas, carrying bundles of words to my mouth, where they toss these words out willy-nilly and hopefully sometimes get them in the right order, are tired. very tired.

but i think the classes went well! i didn't do a practice run beforehand with b, which really helps me get my thoughts in order (so i don't have to do so on the fly during class, which can result in calamity), so i wasn't as clear as i should have been, but i think it was ok. in drawing, we critiqued the weekly sketchbook assignment (drawing #1? "under the kitchen sink"! the same drawing the amazing mrs. sutter always started the year with in the art 1 class in high school- i actually, uh, "borrowed" a lot of the weekly sketchbook assignments she gave us, but only because they were fun!). i love seeing people's drawings- and some of theirs were really good! lots of room for improvement, but that's what the class is for. :) then we worked on 1-, 2-, and 3-point perspective, and i talked about other kinds of perspective (like atmospheric perspective, which we lucky folks in LA can see A LOT of, thanks to the handy smog making far-away things look hazy and dim). that went well, and they got to experiment almost the whole class time with those three different types. homework this week is to draw a crazy imaginary city with lots of interesting buildings, using 2-point perspective. i can't wait to see them :)

then i ran downstairs (these classes take place at church) and quickly set up for art history. we talked about native american pottery, and a couple minutes ago i had the brilliant idea to try blogging about classes a day or two BEFORE i give them, so that i can further process my ideas and the information (brilliant!). anyway, we talked about anasazi pottery, sikyatki pottery, maria montoya martinez, louisa keyser, caesar johnson/gullah basketry, and carl toolak. an amazing collection of native american pottery can be found here, and there's a lot of really cool stuff here, too. careful you don't drool on any nearby electrical devices (i know i almost did on multiple occasions!). we talked a lot about symbolism, decoration, and why the figurative designs were so highly stylized as to be nearly unrecognizable. we also talked about methods for making pottery (i got to make a couple of bowls back in ceramics 1 a la maria martinez, so i could talk about that process fairly in-depth) and baskets, and what these beautifully-made pieces say in general about the cultures they came from. also, we talked about concerns that may have arisen more recently, with commercialism (since many of the artists who make these traditional crafts/arts today do so for money, rather than for the functionality of the object) and how this may affect the integrity of the craft (such as decorative patterns and motifs). and then i gave them an assignment- based on some very unusual anasazi pottery, the function of which is unknown, i am going to have them each draw, actual size, an imaginary container for some personal possession that they value (which will be a secret), in their own style with color, decorations and designs, and then in class next week we'll use our observational skills and knowledge of each person to try to guess what their respective valued possessions are. i think that sounds like fun...

well, that was my afternoon. and now, toodle-pip. i am le tres tired.

ps- for some reason i can't change font in blogger right now. looks like i'm stuck with georgia, or whatever it is, the default font.

update for yesterday...

teaching was fun! and exhausting...i cannot imagine teaching all day, every day. i don't know which would be harder- teaching all subjects to the same class of students (elementary school), or teaching a few subjects all day to different students (high school). all day, every day. eegads!

hmmmm...i'm out of ideas for extending this post. does anyone have a fun fact they would like to share?

first day of school!

in two and a half hours i will begin the first of two classes that i'll be teaching at the wednesday co-op organized and run by the home-schooling moms at church. first is drawing, second is american art history- both for high-schoolers. i am terrified of being in a "leadership" role, and of having to stand in front of people and do a lot of talking, but what better way to learn how to teach than in a once-a-week enrichment program, with a small class of motivated and intelligent youth that i mostly already know? i am so grateful for this opportunity, though i know that anything these kids may learn will not be my doing, but god's working through me (and i pray that he does!).

but one of the many factors that led to my decision to do this is that it will help me to get to know about twenty moms and their kids in a controlled environment where there is a main goal- read: a foundation for relationships. i have had an enormously difficult time forming friendships for the past...hmmm...twelve years or so (and especially the past three years)- "difficult" meaning that it's hard for me to pursue getting to know people who don't pursue me the majority of the time. often, though, having a foundation helps (whether it's a class, or being on a team, or enjoying some sort of activity) - something you can always talk about until the awkward acquaintance stage is over. there so many awesome women at church, but i often feel at a loss as to how to even approach them, much less what to talk about. i hope this can help me get over any hesitation or shyness.

anyhoo- if i am able, i shall report back after classes. :-S

overwhelmed!

by awesomeness! this blog features some majorly neat-o stuff! my brain felt like it was going to explode by the time i got to the bottom of the first page...

http://www.crookedbrains.net/

three haikus...

I have a headache
My head is like a balloon
Filled with angry wasps


What’s up with this place?
Smog, fires, earthquakes- oh my
L.A. will kill me


I want to go walk
But it’s a billion degrees
I hate the desert.

a pointless story (sorry)

I was just browsing the web, feeling reinvigorated by a delicious and much-needed caffeine-saturated goodie (thank you, caffeine!) and hopeful of getting a few more things accomplished this afternoon. I decided to try finding some cool new bookbinding techniques, just trying to spark some ideas/inspire myself. So I searched for ‘creative bookbinding’. One of the search results looked kinda familiar- a post on the creative spirit blog. There’s a gallery in P-dam (back in NY- holla!*) called the creative spirit, which I am quite familiar with. So I clicked on the link. Imagine my surprise when it was actually the blog of a woman in the U.K….to whom I actually sold a journal a year and a half ago, and the post was a review of a book on binding techniques that I already own. Here's a picture- for proof! Three crazy random happenstances all at once! Ok, ok- it just took me by surprise. I probably don’t really need to post this, but hey- I’ve typed this much and I don’t plan on wasting what could be deemed a fairly-acceptable entry. Maybe like, a C+.

In other news...it's pretty quiet around these parts (like you couldn't tell).

* Wow- I don’t think I’ve ever written, or spoken, that, uh, word. This must be a side-effect of the coffee…

an 8-year-old remembers the birth of her brother...

Ok, folks, here it is…my helpful comments appear in the [ ]

Kristin 10-20-92
My brother was born June 15th 1991. I had to stay at the Robrt’s house and they have two kid’s named Joe and Anna. Joe is 7 and Anna is 4. I had to sleep at the Robert’s [not sure why I spontaneously opted for the correct spelling of their name this one time] because I’m not allowed to sleep at home by myself. [Pretty good so far, eh? Makes sense, spelling is good, etc.] I code not wate to see my nuw baby brother. [D’oh!] He was 8 ponds and 4 ancis and my brother’s name was Michael and now he is 16 munths. Now let’s git back to when my brother was born. [Yes, ma’am!] I code not wate to see my brother when I sow my brother I wnetid to pik him up and [get ready…] sqwees him to bits. An hour past and the Robrt’s cam with presents Michael got a botul and pujas [pjs?] and I got a pers with a panda and a whale on it. [a panda and a whale? What kind of ridiculous animal pairing is that? I demand answers!] A little whyol after the Robrt’s left the Sormo’s came with presents Michael got a nuk [which is to say, pacifier*] and a swet sut and I got colering Book and a skech pade. The Sormos stad for a little whyol and woched t.V.
11-3-92
When the Stormos [this is actually the correct spelling] left My Dad drov me back to the Robrt’s house until four then I hade to go. Three Days later.[Alert! Classic sentence about to be read!:] My mom came home with a bondol of Joey [!!!!!!] but there was one problem my brother did’nt have a name we allrety hade a mitol name we thot and thot and then at the same time my mom and I shotid Michael and Michael it was. Mom sed it was Prfect a blond hare blue eys Michael.

- - - - -

THE END!!!!!!! If you feel like you need to take a nap after reading this, I completely understand. *whew!* I’m worn out!

* Some people call them nuks, some people call them pacifiers. At some point, my family began calling them- and I am not making this up- loodle-oos. I'm pretty sure that's what toddler-Michael called them, and like many other items that he renamed as he started talking, it quickly caught on with the rest of the family.

ah, memories!

my mom sent me a box of stuff recently, included in which are several brilliant works of prose and poetry that i composed as a first-grader. here is one delectable morsel of pure, raw creative talent:

"Clouds"

Clouds, Clouds, the wonderful thing, they make me laugh,

they make me sing, but when the clouds all go away,

I have to sit and wait all day.

By:

Kristin

this is exactly how it looks - i think it was a combination typing exercise/writing exercise, printed on acidic printer paper. anyhoo, i do like clouds, but i'm not sure if i can say truthfully that they've ever inspired song, much less laughter...and i never sat still as a child, and definitely not for clouds, so basically it seems that this poem is full of lies. i've repented, though, don't worry.

i also wrote a pretty epic piece about the birth of my brother- my amazingly creative spelling makes for unintended hilarity. i think it's also in a box of stuff. stay tuned!

oh bloggins...

poor, neglected bloggins. let's see about an update, shall we? in list format, of course, for maximal laziness.

1) i have been drawing mostly, lately (as opposed to bookmaking). this is bad news for my etsy shop, since i don't think etsy is necessarily the best place to try to sell drawings, but i'll give it a go anyway, probably. a pseudo-goal of mine is to contact a few local galleries within the next year to see about having a show (!). in the meantime, even if i'm not trying to sell anything, i can always work on building my portfolio.

2) speaking of which. at scripps we were taught that the message of a piece of artwork was just as important as the image/photograph/sculpture/etc. itself. it is not a school that teaches you how to draw still-lifes really, really well (though there was some of that, too)- they care more about educating artist-wannabes how to talk about something important or ask interesting questions in their work. that was an awesome experience for me. but in day to day drawing, especially when i want to work on something bigger and more in-depth than i have in a long time, i often find myself paralyzed by not having anything "great" to say. more importantly, if there is something i'd like to "explore" (as we call it), a major challenge is to "translate" the concept into the kind of style that i like to draw in. for instance- i've been working on an ongoing series of drawings illustrating the attributes of love given in 1 corinthians 13- i have two done so far...but how does one illustrate "love is kind"? i really don't want anything to do with one smiling person handing a loaf of bread to another person who looks sad and poor. (there- kindness! DONE.) so one problem is that i'm probably not thinking hard enough, but....

3) i have also recently decided that art for art's sake is ok, too, thanks to a short thing i read about james mcneill whistler's "peacock room". it's pretty! he's all about art for art's sake and the pursuit of beauty- he didn't feel the need to inject moral messages into his work (though there is a story behind the painting of the two peacocks- whistler's patron decided not to pay him the full amount for this commission, so the peacock on the right is him, being pompous and puffed up, while whistler is the peacock on the left...so i've read). so anyway, this inspired me, and i've just been drawing things with the intent to create something pleasing to look at, with a focus on depth, unity and balance. AND little doodlies.

4) so i wasn't reading about whistler because i am a disciplined individual who takes particular interest in educating herself in her post-college days. no. i am teaching an american art history class once a week starting in september (and, as a side note, i am TERRIFIED). this blurb on whistler is one of many blurbs on many artists and artistic styles prevalent in the US since before the US existed as such, all the way up to the present. and then i will teach this material to a handful or so of high schoolers (in a co-op for home-schooled kids run by our church). also, i'll be teaching a beginning drawing class in the fall (eeeeek!) and a bookbinding class in the spring (wheee!!!).

5) in other news- i have been making excellent use of the pasadena public library system's digital audiobook collection, which allows you to download audiobooks onto your home computer for a period of 7 or 14 days, after which the files mysteriously delete themselves (by magic, naturally). i love this- it's so convenient, and the selection is so much better than what they have in actual cd-format at the library branches. the importance of being earnest, and, the three musketeers are two books i would highly recommend.

6) so. my dear readers, you have inspired me to get thinking creatively (ugh) about how to translate what i want to say into new and exciting and doodly ways of saying it. i mean, after all, it was only out of feelings of guilt toward you that i even began this blogpost. but i must also thank coffee, milk, and trader joe's midnight moo chocolate syrup, for waking up my brain, because otherwise i wouldn't have had the energy to feel guilty. :)

toodles and promises to update more often,
-k.o.

birthday! (belatedly)

BEACH! bart, brother, bistro, (sun)burn...

yay :)

summer heat!

yay! i'm in another treasury!

green things...

introducing the first of a series of books (i hope) featuring what i humbly acknowledge as a rocking beaded design on the front cover. now at and coming soon to ye olde shoppe there on the left. this is my third attempt to find a useful application for these beaded thingies, which i can't stop making (they're shiny! they sparkle! they are great to work on whenever i feel anxious!). they take a long, long time to make, which is why these books are going to be the most expensive things in my shop.

anyhoo, i bought three green t-shirts for $7 (total!) at a thrift store on saturday, and yes, this announcement is just as exciting to me as the one above. no amount of piercing sun or dry desert wasteland-ness can cause my green t-shirts to wither and turn brown, no matter what may happen to the other green things here! so HA.

well, anyway, tomorrow will bring another book (not green- possibly purple, red, or red/blue), and more irresistibly charming anecdotes as well, i'm sure.

toodles.

LOVE this treasury...

and i'm so happy that i get to be in it!
treasury of northern ny-ers!


ps- the woman who made the pretty woven scarf (above my b book) is actually a family friend. ha. ;)

yay for grey

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=66360&show_panel=true

"a moonlit garden", et plus

1) i'm very honored to be in this pretty treasury on etsy, which will be up until saturday:

i really like the blues and sparkly silver/whites :)

2) bart and i found a coffee table on the curb yesterday! it's a fairly simple construction of solid, honey-colored (stained?) wood (i want to sand it and restain it something dark). it's large and sturdy, and the perfect replacement for the cooler that's been doubling as our coffee table for the past four-ish months. i'm very pleased with this acquisition- now we won't have to buy a coffee table when we move.

3) yes, we have to move. when we signed the lease in january, we knew full well that there'd be a possibility that we'd have to move out at some point over the summer, so this came as no real surprise. i will be pretty sad to have to leave this place, since there's pretty much no way we'll ever get a similar set-up. but it has been good while it lasted, and we trust that god will provide. :)

4) to celebrate the arrival of the coffee table, b and i played scrabble on it last night. after a lot of agonizing and taking way too long, i finally put down "animator"- one of my first 7-letter feats (with the timely aid of two blank tiles), for 72 points. not as good as bart's "braziers" across a triple word score last week (101 points), but still. ;)

5) i should get back to work- lots of books to sew! :)

things and stuff!

1) i just baked cookies! my mom used to make acorn cookies - oval-ish butter cookies with a pinched-point opposite a "cap" of chocolate and chopped pecans. not actually made from acorns, though you could try such a thing if you felt like going through all the steps necessary to make acorns less poisonous. :) anyway, i have been craving that almond flavor again, so i found and then heavily altered a recipe. the result is a soft, crumbly, nutty, almondy cookie. i doubt they will make it through the weekend!

here is my reinterpretation of the above recipe:

1/2 cup butter, melted (i figured there was no way around this)

1/2 cup sucanat

1T stevia (equivalent to 3 T sugar)

1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 t almond extract

1/2 cup almond meal

1/4 cup flax meal

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 cup chocolate chips, melted (i used 1 cup, but this makes waaaay too much)

preheat oven to 375. whip butter and sweeteners, add milk and extract. combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl, add to wet ingredients. roll a tablespoonfull or so of dough in your hands, then flatten it slightly and pinch it in one spot along the edge. place on a buttered baking sheet. bake 10-12 minutes. transfer to wrack and let cool completely before dipping in chocolate. then let cool again. yield: 22 cookies (that's how many i got)

they really do look more like acorns with the chopped pecans sprinkled in the chocolate, but i never cared for them and don't have any on-hand anyway. as they are, i think they look more like this. hehehe.

2) bart and i played some frisbee again last night. we moved up a level to throwing it to each other while the other person jogged to the left or right. it was fun! after returning home, we went through several boxes of electronics/computer-related thingamabobs. there's going to be an e-waste collection at a nearby church in a week, and since bart has a lot of that sort of thing, mixed in with perfectly good and useful things, we set aside a half hour and ended up going through all of it. and designated a good 75% as e-waste! yay!

3) i have been doing my daily-drawings on a near-daily basis...sorry for the lack of posts.

4) i just finished listening to "1984" a couple days ago, and am now listening to "cooked". both are good and thought-provoking, but "1984" was a lot more intense than i thought it would be. i'm kind of surprised it's taught in so many high schools. i think i would have been slightly traumatized if we'd been forced to read it.

5) this post is quite long enough, thank you. happy weekend!

je heart...

google maps! i could browse it for hours- our planet is fascinating! i find myself particularly drawn to cold, remote places, for some reason.

le tres random!

1) i have been shirking my daily drawings. saaaad. i think i actually kind of burned myself out. but i've still been pursuing creative things this past week- got some prints made of my work at kinkos, made a few pairs of earrings, and finished a couple other little projects that have been on the back-burner for a while.

2) i just remembered a song from 4-H camp. it started like this: if i were not at 4-h camp, this is what i'd be! if i were not at 4-h caaaaaaaaaamp, a _____ i'd be! and then a little slogan-type thing from that "job", which was, of course, shouted more so than sung. my favorite was: if i were not at 4-h camp, this is what i'd be! if i were not at 4-h caaaaaaaaaamp, a carpenter i'd be! SIX! BY FOUR! YOU NAIL IT TO THE FLOOR! *BANG!* one of the other things "i'd be" was a poultry farmer or something like that (help me out here, marls and kel)- after which we shouted KILL THE CHICKEN! KILL THE CHICKEN! WRING ITS LITTLE NECK! *SQUAWK!* that was back in middle school. i wonder if they still sing that part. i remember some of my friends being a tad nauseated by it. meh! the only other one i can remember was "stewardess" (kinda weird- it was a co-ed camp...): "coffee, tea, or me, sir? here's your little bag. *BLAHGHG*" not very appropriate, now that i think about it...(do you remember any of the others?)

another favorite was SHARK ATTACK! doot-dooo doot-doot doot-doooo! accompanied by screaming and running around :) i often returned home from a week of camp with a raw throat from so much shouting. can you believe that? ;)

3) a new sleep-quote from bart!: "aw man, the quality control was back there! d'oh!"

4) bad idea: white tile floors. they never, ever look or stay clean. i guess the only good thing about white tile is that, unlike nasty white linoleum (hopefully no one out there is particularly attached to their white linoleum floors), it won't scratch or stain over time. my family in NY used to have white linoleum flooring in the kitchen, but this was a notably bad idea because the kitchen is a main thoroughfair (???) and in places like potsdam, which is to say, places where they sand the roads in winter, easily-scuffable flooring has about as much a chance for survival as...well, anyway, the floor looked really bad. when i was in ninth grade, we had it redone (and it looks awesome...wait- am i gushing about linoleum flooring??). shortly before that, though, my mom and my brother michael and i sat on the floor and drew allllll over it in permanent marker. so awesome!

5) bart just told me about this website: runpee.com. it arms you with valuable information for when you can safely "run pee" during a movie at the theater and not miss anything super awesome.

6) happy long weekend!

drawings...

l-r: jellyfish lady beckons lunch. bird lady and clay-colored thrush (not that you can tell ;) - from this website). flower.

1) I didn’t post a drawing yesterday (obviously), but I did do a lot of drawing! It was fun- I did several figure drawings, which is pretty unusual for me, but all of a sudden I had a bunch of ideas, and one idea led to another, and so on. I may post three of my favorites, once they’ve been finished. I’ve wanted to draw some of the characters from “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel” ever since listening to the audio book, and now Bart is reading it (in actual book-form), so it’d be really easy to go back and reference different passages.

2) Bart and I went to a nearby park yesterday evening so he could teach me how to throw a Frisbee. (Interesting tidbit- MS Word automatically capitalizes “Frisbee”.) Throwing a disc, much like kicking a soccer ball, has always been difficult for me. In fact, I was so hilariously awful at first- sending the Frisbee too high, or way to the left or right- that Bart jokingly accused me of having ulterior motives of trying to get him to do strenuous exercise. Heh. But I got better! B gave me some advice to use my wrist more than my whole arm, and that worked well. I also figured out that it helps if I say “pew!” as I wing the Frisbee. :) There was much improvement in the time we were out there, but then it started getting dark. I look forward to more Frisbee. :)

3) There is a teenage boy riding a tiny motorbike up and down and down and up the street. He has been at it for the past …hmmm… three hours. Hasn’t the novelty worn off by now? Why hasn’t he been hit by a car yet? I mean…uh…maybe someone should politely go request that he give the tiny whiny toot-bike a rest. It sounds like he’s riding a weed-whacker. And as it turns out, there is a group of them, taking turns (awww, isn’t that nice?). Gah.

4) Hmmm…other stuff? Oh yeah- I keep forgetting to write about how our water heater refused to work for the past two weeks. It’s fixed now, as of yesterday (yay!) - showers were pretty much unbearable.

Toodles!

PS- this is hilarious. (warning: contains cats) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxLG2wtE7TM&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Ficanhascheezburger%2Ecom%2F&feature=player_embedded

#18

i have been trying to create more leafy-y shapes and patterns. the vines were fun to draw.

2) i am working on getting limited edition art prints made of some of these daily drawings that i think have turned out best. i went to kinkos today to do some test prints, and the guy working behind the counter (he had to print them from a cd) liked them a lot. so that's a good sign, i guess. which reminds me- i've been thinking about this some, and have decided that it's ok for you to download my drawings for use as desktop backgrounds only- anything else is stealing. not that i think anyone would steal :) but i was also wondering if you could tell me if you would let me know which image(s) you download for that one specific purpose listed above. since no one leaves comments anymore, it's hard for me to figure out how to improve my work, so if there's something you see that you like enough to stare at on a daily basis, that's very useful to me. :) though these drawings are experimental for the most part, comments/feedback are welcome...i guess i never really said that before...

3) there is really good ice cream at the 99 cents only store! breyers double-churned peanut butter fudge. for a dollar! i bought two, and will probably make bart go with me tomorrow to get five or six more tubs. :) yum. as bart pointed out, sometimes vons or albertsons has ice cream one sale 2 for $6- but never 6 for $6!

4) the scripps college press was in an article in print magazine last month- it was listed as one of the top 34 design programs in...the world. it shares a page with the university of texas at austin; the institute for book design, academy of visual arts (leipzig, germany); and center for book and paper arts, columbia college chicago. the press' blurb is short, though longer than u-tex and leipzig's. here's what it says ( * added by me): "at scripps, an all-women's liberal arts school*, a strong tradition of printmaking and bookbinding continues with the popular typography and the book arts course**. last semester, the class created 109 limited edition books to be sold through the scripps college press, which started in 1941 as an experimental studio for students. 'right from the beginning, students know someone else is going to see their work,' says kitty maryatt***, professor and director of the press. the students, including men from other claremont colleges, start with binding their own journals. they are required to write and illustrate a text on a topic discussed collectively in class, which are bound together in a book at the end of the semester. in addition to traditional printmaking and letterpress printing, the students learn digital printing. maryatt says, 'students do everything: make their own work, print their own pages , and bind the books. and if there are mistakes, those are their mistakes, and if there are glories, those are their glories.'"
* liberal arts school- not even an art school!
**note: course, singular. one class at a small liberal arts school, rubbing elbows with fancy-schmancy artsy-fartsy institutions from all over the world. goooooooooo scp!
***she is simply amazing.

columbia's blurb is kinda funny. here is a short quote: "...students can earn a master of fine arts in book and paper arts or in interdisciplinary arts and media, which incorporates performance art and installation art. one recent thesis explored gender issues in society by creating an army of blow-up dolls individually encased in translucent paper*. 'i'm confident in saying that our facilities are probably the best in the world,'** says [interdisciplinary arts professor melissa] potter."
* ????
** i shouldn't make fun, but seriously? confident in saying probably? the best in the world??

5) it's over! it's friday!

#17

#16 and some words

here's yesterday's drawing...a tiling, yet again. yay!

1) b and i have been married for three months! and we have been a couple for almost four years...that is kind of crazy (in an extremely awesome way) to think about. :)

2) on tuesday i noticed that the grout between the floor tiles in the kitchen was looking pretty gross. yesterday i scrubbed it, with a toothbrush and vinegar-water.

3) also yesterday, i bought a dress from target for $6.25. even if it falls apart (which it inevitably will- the clothes at target are made with the fabric equivalent of tissue paper), i can use the pieces to make a pattern for a dress of the same style.

4) i am reading (listening to) "a free life" by ha jin. it's about a fictional chinese couple and their son who live in the u.s. and what it's like for them- their relationship with and attitudes toward china and their family/former lives there, their work situation, interacting with their community, and so on. in some ways, it's incredibly boring and mundane- the author goes into sometimes excruciating detail about minor events that seemingly have no relevance and progress the plot in no way. but in a way, that makes the story enjoyable, too. i read another one of jin's novels, "waiting", a few years ago, and it was very much in the same style, so i knew what to expect. both books centered around a male character (who ages considerably during the story) of good integrity and work ethic, and his relationship with two women, his child/ren, his work, and his own thoughts about education, government, and literature (which plays an important role in each book as a place of solace and inspiration). it reminds me a little of "the good earth". but i'm only about half way through it...i really don't know what to expect for the chapters to come.

5) sometimes idiomatic sayings look really weird written/typed out. like...well, hmmm. i can't think of any right now, but usually when i put them in, say, an email, it just starts to look really weird and i end up writing something else instead.

6) for some reason (maybe just curiosity), yesterday i began compiling a list of every videogame i have ever played. it was fun- ah, nostalgia.

#15; word

green leafies :)

also, here're some pictures of the new scripps college press book (the one i was helping finish), entitled "WORD":

#13 and #14

...both in tiled form. i drew each of these over a period of a couple days on the train earlier this week.
13-

14-

updates:

1) the books i've been helping with at scripps are done! students were actually able to start boxing up the dry ones (there's a lot of gluing at the end, and it's supposed to be allowed to dry for three days, minimum) to send to the standing order patrons (people/institutions/booksellers who buy a book every semester sight-unseen). this happens very rarely, but with fourteen students in the class this semester (twice the usual number), things get done pretty fast! i forgot/didn't have time to take pictures...maybe i'll be able to do that on monday.

2) ummm, 2)? no, there is no 2). this entry is finished :) happy friday.

#12!

these are fun. also, i am enjoying this daily drawing regimen.

also: i DID eat (cookies and cream) ice cream and work on the (wall street journal) crossword puzzle on saturday. it was highly enjoyable. and while i filled in wee boxen, b read a book. this simple leisure time felt incredibly luxurious after months upon months of no and/or stolen leisure time. yay!

#11 and some updates...

here is #11, which took me two days to finish due to lack of time and the train being too bumpy to draw on most of the time:i've been having fun with these tile-able images, so i tried to make this one conducive to tiling. i think it worked pretty well:so if you're wondering why i've been attempting to draw on a train, it's because i've been commuting to scripps to do some work (yay work!) these past few days and it is a LONG commute when you take public transportation, no matter how you do it. i take the goldline (light rail) west into LA, and then the metrolink (train) east to claremont. i could do any number of bus/lightrail/train combinations, but they all take the same amount of time: two hours each way (for a grand total of four hours roundtrip. bleh). this is all because i am not an experienced driver- i have driven only two or three times a year for the past three or four years. i just don't like it very much. anyway, the point is i've been taking the train to claremont and use that time as efficiently as possible.

if that was 1), then this is 2)

i discovered that i don't like ice cream. ice cream made with goat's milk, that is! b and i bought some laloo's deep chocolate goat-milk ice cream last week and it was deliciously chocolatey but unpleasantly strong on the goat milk flavor. i've had (and dislike) goat cheese and thought that the strong flavor came about at some point in the cheese-making process, but no. le sigh. it's too bad- their packaging is quite pretty. confession: i clean and keep pint-sized ice cream containers after having consumed its contents. c'mon- it's not that weird - they're useful and pretty storage containers. and, heh, i like to reminisce about delicious ice creams i've had in the past. confession: i do the same with chocolate bar wrappings (though i have yet to figure out something really smart and functional to use them for).

3) returning to 1) for a moment: i'm working at scripps in the art department, specifically for the book arts class, which always needs help finishing its semester-long limited-edition collaborative book project. not that i mind! anyway, this semester's book is beautiful- definitely, i think, within the top ten coolest books made at the press in the past twenty-something years/40+ books (and i have seen them all) . if you have $250 lying around, i would highly recommend it. (that, by the way, is a bargain. don't even argue with me.) i'll describe it later and try to snag a few exclusive pre-publication pictures (i'm pretty sure that's allowed, actually). the title is "word". subjectmatter: words and meaning. visiting artists sam winston and ron king came to provide some initial direction.

4) the scripps senior art exhibit opened on friday. it was fun.

5) i want to eat ice cream (we bought cookies and [cow] cream to make up for the unfortunate goat ice cream incident) and work on the wsj crossword puzzle. maybe i will do so.

#10

today's drawing is pretty boring: (4x6"-ish, pen on paper)

however, with the aid of photoshop, i did this with it:

looks much cooler- i like repeating patterns. just imagine how this would look if continued vertically and horizontally into infinity. i'll give you a hint: pretty. yay.

i am tired. goodnight.

#9

pen on paper, 6x4"

alternate titles: a) can kristin draw on the train?* b) does kristin get trainsick?** c) ugly bug/uggly buggly

* answer: maybe
** answer: no (hooray!)

#8

pen on paper, 4x6"

a couple of the earlier drawings (#5 and #6) are going to be posted in my etsy shop very soon, but please note that they are *sliiiightly* different now from when i posted them a few days ago- turns out i'm not perfect and had to "adjust" these two drawings when i made a (slight) mistake on each. anyhoo, just letting you know and all.

toodlee-doodle.

#7

rapidograph on paper, 4x6"

i've decided to put these up for sale in my etsy shop, if they turn out ok. :)

#6

pen (gold, blue-green) and rapidograph on paper, 4x6"

also: there are 23 rose bushes in our front yard (!) and they are starting to bloom. this one (below) is particularly stunning. the base of the petals turns yellow and transitions to orange before turning to hot pink. a few weeks ago the bushes were plagued by aphids (they completely covered the buds with their semi-shiny, translucent little bodies), which munched on the buds and caused general funkiness to result. so we bought some seriously nasty chemical pesticide to eradicate those suckers.
NOT. actually, we caught several ladybugs and ladybug larvae in a jar (over by this unkempt, over-grown grassy median less than a block away) and relocated them to the leaves and buds of the rose bushes. the aphids were gone within two weeks, and you can still find a ladybug or two standing guard on a few bushes.

so, to summarize:
1) we spent $0 to take care of our garden-pest problem
2) we spent less than one hour gathering and "applying" our "pesticide"
3) we do not have to re-apply
4) we can enjoy, prune and pick the flowers without get chemical grossness on ourselves
5) the roses are happy!
win.

in other news, i retract the statement i have made multiple times in the past about california not having "unpredictable" weather. "unpredictable" must still be pretty loosely defined, but in the past week the temperature shot from the mid-70s up over a hundred (within two days), and then plunged back down into the "bearable" range again four days later. now it's in the low 70s again and cloudy. weird.

that's all. happy friday!

#5

acrylic and rapidograph on paper, 4x6"

#4

acrylic and rapidograph on paper, 4x6"

#3

rapidograph and other inks, gold on paper; 4x6"

pictitude

i got batteries! i took pictures!

for the first photo we have the large, awkward bookshelf-thing that b and i discovered one evening.

next, the solid-wood table that i lugged two blocks.

third, the living room! new and improved!

aaaand the bookshelf i pulled from a dumpster, which looked like this before being painted "serene surrounding":

and, last but not least, the first two installments of my daily drawing regimen:

that's all. just some picamatures that were long over-due. guten nacht.