Kidlets coming

Brennan and Hayden (12 and 10 respectively) arrive from KC this afternoon. That is if Northwest doesn't cancel their flight.
It's a big adventure for all of us. The kids have never flown by themselves before and haven't been away from home for 3 nights. Their mom is off on her own to see a friend in Florida and my brother will have a day with their younger sister before she goes to stay with her other grandparents. And I've never had these two with me for any extended time.
It's been so much fun preparing for them and talking with them by phone about the little things. Yesterday their mom took them shopping for "travel size" personal items like toothpaste and shampoo. (Of course, I have all of that, but that's not the point!) I have a "welcome" bag for each of them: a book of puzzles, disposable camera, notebook, silly pen, a Nut Goodie...Minnesota's favorite candy bar and a silly flower lei to wear.
When I stopped working I decided I would be frugal but not penurious. Penland was one splurge (and, um, the accompanying art supplies I bought) and this trip is the other. They are such nice kids...and funny!...I really can't wait to see them.

Non-toxic transfers

In a short, but very satisfying, class at MCBA yesterday, Lin Lacy took us through three kinds of non-toxic transfer techniques. All can be done at home with minimal equipment although one demands a run out to a copy shop at some point.
Packing Tape Transfers
These are similar to using gel medium, but they're much quicker! Simply lay down a strip of packing tape on a magazine image, burnish it with your bone folder and soak it in water. After a bit you can rub the paper off the back of the tape and you've got a shiny strip of image. Here's the before and after of a magazine photo of the Minneapolis stone arch bridge and skyline.
And a helpful hint for getting rid of the sludgy water: run it through a used coffee filter and you won't clog up your drain.


Ink Jet Transfer
This one is also easy-peasy! Run some images through your ink jet printer onto very cheap photo paper. Wet the paper you want to transfer the image to (you might have to experiment here, depending on the paper), and lay the ink jet image onto the paper (image side down). Simply rub the back with a paper towel and peel up. Here's an Indian textile I copied and transferred (the transfer is on the left). You can see where I missed a spot, but otherwise it's very cool!

Heat Transfer
This was the big finale and the technique that Lin uses all the time. The fun part is that you can transfer a black/white or color image (including text) to anything: metal, glass, wood, leather, unglazed tile, fabric and of course, paper. Plus you don't use any solvent! The images are as gorgeous as your original! You'll need to take your images to a copy shop that has a Canon laser copier (in Minneapolis you can go to a Rapit Print shop). This won't work with a Xerox or other copier. As Lin said, "ask them to bump up all of the colors and mirror image your sheet of images." Take your copy and cut out the image you want to use. Simply put your image face down and iron it with a very hot, dry iron using a lot of pressure. Peel your image back while you're still ironing (it sticks when it cools) and your transfer is done. If it sticks, just reheat it. You can see examples here of a photo on paper, an insect collage on silk and some experiments we did with scratching and hole punching on a piece with black toner. One of the things I'd like to try is transferring images onto silk and then coating it with polyurethane and letting it dry. The silk becomes "crisp" enough to be a book page but still has a luminescent quality.

Lin has done some original collages and copied them into a fabric Abecedarium book. All of these images are transfers of her original collages onto silk which are then sewn onto the fabric pages.


I had to ask Lin how this technique was discovered and it's a good story: A textile artist friend got a call from another friend who had been ironing and somehow ironed the text from her dissertation onto her husband's cotton shirt. (Was she using the paper instead of an ironing board? I have no idea.) She rushed right over...not to save the shirt...but to see how she had done it! The paper had been copied on a Canon copier and that, as they say, made all the difference.

Missed Opportunity

I'll be posting on my book arts classes this week, but I need to share a little disappointment with the Symposium that MCBA ran this week. MCBA is located at Open Book, one of the most amazing buildings I've ever visited for people who love books and the word. (Full disclosure: I was on the board for MCBA in the late 90's and a finalist for the MCBA Ex. Dir position 4 years ago.) The facility was brilliantly designed from three early 20th century brick buildings and traces of its history can be found in stairs that lead nowhere and panels of old wallpaper located throughout the 3 story builidng. To link its current use to its past, there is a symbolic alphabet burned into the wood floor in various places and a lovely staircase with a handrail made of luminous book "pages" designed by book artist Karen Wirth. The building is home to MCBA, Milkweed Editions and The Loft (a literary center) with a wonderful coffee shop (of course!), several galleries and a rental space for readings and other events. I walk into Open Book and even after 7 or 8 years, am delighted by the space and its use.
MCBA is the visual anchor to the building and has 2 1/2 floors of print, papermaking and binding studios...truly the loveliest facility I've ever worked in. (Now here's the "but) But despite the wonderful teachers they brought to Minneapolis this week and the students who came from out of town, there was a real lack of energy outside of the classes themselves. So because I spend a lot of time paying attention to how to bring people together, let me offer some simple ideas for next time:
* Come say hello! The staff was around through the whole symposium but never came into classes to say welcome or introduce themselves.
* Add city and classes to nametags. The nametags were a great idea, but include our home cities and registered classes as well. They're great conversation starters.
* Welcome signage. I spotted one 8 1/2 x 11 sign that simply said "2007 MCBA Symposium." Nothing feels as good as being welcomed and big signs that say "we're thrilled you're here" can go a long way. It also lets others know that something fun is going on and they're missing out.
* Strong communication. I heard so many complaints about this and sadly, a lot of "not my job" responses. The letter in advance of the symposium did not include all of the classes I'd registered for and again, was dry and non-welcoming. I heard that some students never were informed of what materials they needed for class. The final event of the Symposium was the construction of a long accordion book over Minneapolis' beautiful stone arch bridge...a brilliant idea! But neither the letter or the web site told me how I could participate in helping to create this book. I did find the information in the folder of materials, but only late on Saturday night after it was over. That's something that a staff member could have mentioned if they had dropped by to visit the class.
* The biggest disappointment was the attendance at the Trade Fair. It was heart wrenching to see vendors and book artists (who had paid for their tables) in a room with only 2 or 3 customers. The promotion of this event was minimal and was not even listed on the symposium schedule on MCBA's web site.
I know how much work goes into events like this and it's nearly impossible to get all the details just right. But I think the "Field of Dreams" philosophy is wrong ("If you build it, they will come"). "We're so glad you're here" is the spirit of a successful event.

Real Messages

I'm in the middle of three days of classes at MCBA's Symposium so I don't have a lot of time for posting. But Charlie Quimby has a good post on the class he was in with printer Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. Every time we had a break over the past two days, I'd go downstairs to see what the printers were doing...beautiful, real and powerful work. (Pictures soon!) Amos was a happy presence everywhere in the last few days...gently kidding teachers and staff and teasing me (with my camera) about being stalked like Lindsey Lohan. He's also curated MCBA's current exhibition "We Too are Book Artists."
I loved my class with Daniel Kelm, but I think that there's a lot to learn from Amos.

Monkey Mind

A lot of different signs have been encouraging me to meditate regularly, so I've been trying to do it first thing in the morning. With apologies to Liz Gilbert, here's what it went like this morning:
Me: "Breath in, breath out."
Brain: "Wow, it's really nice out here."
Me: "Yes, it is. Breath in, breath out."
Brain: "I wonder how hot it's going to get."
Me: "I don't know. Breath in, breath out."
Brain: "Are you worried about your appointment this morning?"
Me: "A little, but I'm trying to focus on my breath. I'll think about it later."
Brain: "ok"
Brain: "Did you open your brother's email?"
Me: "No, I didn't want to be distracted by it yet. Breath in, breath out."
Brain: "You know it's going to annoy you."
Me: "I'm really trying to concentrate."
Brain: "Ok, sorry."
Me: "Breath in, breath out."
Brain: "I'm really sorry."
Me: "It's ok. Breath in, breath out."
Brain: "Can I stay with you?"
Me: "Of course, you just need to stay quiet. Do you think you can?"
Brain (childishly petulant): "I suppose."
Me: "Breath in, breath out."
Brain: "I'm bored. I can think of something we should think about!"
Me: "You can do that in a few minutes. Right now, we're just going to think about our breath."
Brain: "Ok"
Brain: "When are we going to be done?"

Why I love Harry Potter (no spoilers!)

I finished HP7 about 24 hours ago and woke up crabby this morning and with a strange sense of loss. The series was done. I pretty much know everything. Much like watching the last episode of Six Feet Under, I'm never going to meet up with these characters again. And I really loved them.
There were so many articles before HP7 was released about the marketing machine of HP and whether the books get kids to read or not and all I can say is, that is so not the point. JK Rowling has created a series that delights both children, teens and adults and how many writers have done that? It's my favorite thing in the world to find a child or adult and talk about favorite (or not so favorite) characters or scenes. And isn't that enough? Isn't it a rather medium-size miracle to create a story that has engrossed millions around the world for 10 years? And even nicer that it's a book?
Another friend and I are actually not all that enthralled with Harry himself. My favorites in the book are the Weasley family, Hermione, the DA, McGonagall and Hedwig. Oh and Olivander and Hagrid and Dumbledore and Sirius and Lupin. And Hogwarts, the school (a character in its own right). Ok, I love them all. And that's the second reason I love HP: Everyone has such a distinct and full personality, flaws and all. Harry has the weight of the world on his shoulders, but Molly Weasley is out to protect her family, no matter what…a feeling that any mother can understand. (One of the highlights of the book for me is when she cries out "NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!") Each of these individuals contribute in significant ways to Harry’s journey. Without them, he would most likely be in the mail room at a drill factory. Harry just simply could not be Harry without the wisdom of his friends.
Finally, I love the moments when Rowling takes a break from hurtling the plot forward (and this final book is a page-turner) for some sly humor. Visiting Ravenclaw's common room for the first time (Ravenclaw students are known for their wisdom), Harry is stopped at the door by a question he can't answer. His friend Luna tells him that he can't enter until he learns something (even when there is a battle raging elsewhere in the castle), but helps him out anyway with this small task.
There are wonderful reviews out there that comment on this bildungsroman (I stole that word from the NYT) and the contemporary reframing of the archetypal quest story. But isn't a book successful in the end when author and reader are mutually satisfied? JK Rowling dedicates this last book to her readers who have stuck with her for 10 years. And I say simply in response, thank you.

HP7 in the freezer

There is a classic scene in the television program "Friends" (which often had scenes of under appreciated and brilliantly written comedy) where Rachel finds the book "The Shining" in Joey's freezer. When she asks him about it, he says it's his favorite book but it is too scary to keep out in the open. That's how I'm feeling 3 chapters into HP7. I need a break!
BTW, the Friends episode continues with Rachel loaning Joey her favorite book, "Little Women." A day or two later she finds it in the freezer. "Why is this in the freezer, Joey?" Joey replies, "Beth is sick and I'm afraid she might die!"

Shhh.......

I'm reading Harry Potter.

That's Ms PicassoHead to you

Thanks so much to How about Orange for pointing out this sweet diversion and for additional technical help.

An A-mazing Garden!

My niece and nephew (10 and 12) are coming for a visit in two weeks and it's sort of a big deal--the first time they'll come on their own without their parents and younger sister. This is a huge treat for me and I hope for them, so I'm scouting out some fun and unusual activities in the Twin Cities. At their request, we'll go see the Mn Twins vs the KC Royals and spend a day at ValleyFair (so you know how much I love them!). But I'm the weird Aunt in their life (arty, urban and single) and I feel a responsiblity to show them some things they might not see otherwise.
This afternoon I went out to the Minnesota Arboretum to see their new garden maze. I love installations of art in landscape (Maya Lin is one of my favorites) and the Art-to-Amaze walk is by turns charming, thoughtful and inspiring. We'll definitely be back for this!

This is the Green Grump. Note the ring in his nose and the grass haircut. He even has grass eyebrows.

Wind in the Trees

The walk up to Children's Nest Egg

And the Nest itselfAcorn Aboreal Arch (the acorns are actually bells). If you look closely, you can see Green Thumb in the background.The interior of Pine/ConeThere are 15 installations in total. I'll post more pictures when we're back in two weeks!

A really Big garden

My friend Kate has asked me to water her garden while she’s on vacation. But it’s not just any garden. One short street over from me is Dowling gardens, 6 blocks that the city has managed to preserve for neighborhood gardeners since 1943…a true Victory Garden!
It’s a wonderful place to walk your dog, particularly in the early evening when the sun has released the scent of dill, basil, and marigolds (to keep the rabbits out). Birds and butterflies are everywhere. You see gardeners all over the place watering their plants and they all volunteer to help keep the enterprise working well. (Kate has weed patrol. Others are unlucky enough be assigned keeping the water barrels filled.) Because it gets full sun from early morning to the end of the day, the plants are really outrageously huge. There is corn, lettuce, beans, strawberries, squash and cucumbers. Minnesotans are wildly crazy about tomatoes…they are almost a religion here, so everyone has them as well.







Many people have sunflowers but I love the hollyhocks best. So for the next two weeks Bella and I will walk over each night and see what’s new. We get to pick the flowers and cucumbers from Plot 36 as well! (The tomatoes aren't ready until the end of the month ;-)

What is the antonym for "obsess"?

Living life without a job has meant that I can pursue some things in ways I couldn't before. I can track down the name of the bird at my feeder in the winter. I can explore blogs and read postings back a few years to see when they had the baby. And I can obsess about topics like I'm a toddler in a splash pool...happily hitting the water over and over again. Two weeks ago it was the iPhone. I read everything there was and am still laughing over David Pogue's videos. (He reminds me that you can bring some fun and creativity to any topic.) But I come out of those long fugues on the Internet a little groggy and like I might have lost a few interpersonal skills.
So I'm very wary of the Harry Potter dangers coming up this week. I love HP and I will be shut down on Saturday to read Book 7. I love the story of JK Rowlings and all of the kids who love the books. But it is mid-July and the media (thankfully) has not much else to write about except this phenomenon and how it will end. And I'm just the kind of person to delight in reading every single word. (I should tell you that my high-speed connection is out until Tuesday. Last night found me on the deck poaching a neighbor's wireless to see the NYT's video comparisons of the HP story.)
But after the iPhone episode, I've decided that I'm not a better person for, um, "over-indulging" in this media bath. So I only hope to read one HP story a day until Saturday morning when I'll shut down the computer and phone and spend a long, wonderful day on the porch reading the conclusion to this amazing story of a boy and his true friends.

Jade and Sapphire

Another perfect day, all jade and sapphire. No place can have more beautiful days than Minnesota when it behaves.
Sinclair Lewis

Paper purchases

Since my class at Penland where we created our own visual images for our books, I've been trying to stay away from the Twin Cities' five (5!) strong paper stores. But sometimes you just have to go visit your favorite shop for inspiration. Wet Paint has a new stock of swirl printed loktas on hand. The swirl pattern is a little kooky and the lokta colors are really great...not pastel-y but a wonderful orange, sage green, etc. And lokta is my second favorite paper to glue.
A new store has opened in Minneapolis called PaperGami. They say that they're the largest importer of Japanese paper in the country, but I find that most of their chiyogami has that plastic-like feel. Still I stick my head in occasionally because they also carry a small amount of katazome (however my heart will always belong to Japanese Paper Place). The small orange and green oval patterned paper came from PaperGami but is a machine made text weight paper. I'll try gluing a small sample before using it for a bigger project.

Beauty and the wall

My apologies if I was really whiny yesterday. My BFF says she didn't notice it, but then admitted that she's been pretty whiny herself (which is why I love her).
During a break I picked up Sarah Susanko's new book "The Not So Big Life" and dipped into it...right into the chapter on "The Power of Beauty." She describes a simple handmade ceramic tile that she loves and says "That's what beauty can do. It's a doorway into the next dimension, the dimension that we normally think of as time but that really is beyond linear time, and in real time--in presence. Beauty, when you experience it fully, opens the door to being in the Now just as surely as any death-defying act."
So here's my new studio wall just about done. I brought some flowers in from the garden to celebrate it and put my cute iPod Dog on his new home. I want to find a bulletin board for one side and there's another shelf to hang, but you can see the results. I have never used colors like this anywhere else in my life, but I really love them.

The Big Mess

When I was a senior in college, I had a tiny single room in an old dorm. Next door to me was another senior who became a close friend that year. At one point we decided our rooms were too big a mess to bear. I dug into the project by emptying my room into the main space outside our doors and then collapsing from exhaustion, too tired to sort, clean and re-organize. Next door Stephanie was working on one corner, taking a break, and then moving onto another. At the end of the day, I had to move everything back and just stacked things in piles once again. Steph's room was tidy and sweet.
I'm thinking about that now as I'm trying to deal with the on-going challenge of the basement. For so long, it's been a place to dump half-finished projects, models and new paper purchases. Much of it is protected in plastic shoe-boxes or other similar storage, but I have no idea what is where. However, I have a different vision for it now. Simply put, I want to know where everything is.
I did quite a bit of this kind of work when I left my job last winter. Closets, kitchen drawers, pantry cupboards all got cleaned out and what was not being used was assigned to the garage sale. There is something emotionally exhausting about facing what you own and that is coming back to me again today. Part of it is embarrassment (I'm not even going to tell you how many sheets of Japanese paper I have). Part of it is facing old dreams...all those ideas you had that you never realized. And then there is coming face to face with who you used to be. (At my garage sale, someone quipped "I see you're getting rid of your blue period".... a reference to the profusion of blue bowls, pitchers and dishes for sale.)
While I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the basement project I know that it will be tremendously rewarding once I'm done. My upstairs home is so much more livable, and so much more beautiful after the work I did this winter and that inspires me in many different ways. I still am painting this week, but my other goal is to clear all of the flat spaces in the basement entirely. I'm just going to need to take more than a few breaks so I don't get overwhelmed and give up!

Doing

Bookgirl has a great discussion going now on her blog about dreaming and doing. I've been happily getting my studio ready but also thinking...what about after it's done?
My local book arts center, MCBA, is having an evening of wine and books in late August to show off material in their shop and I want to use that as a motivator to get some book work done. To get started, I went over there this morning and chopped some board for boxes. Studio time there is expensive, so you can't sit around afterwards making sure everything is square. I'll check my work at home later today or tomorrow. My hope is that I can get some decorative boxes done and perhaps some drummed books, similar to what we did at Penland. I'm also looking into a shop on Etsy. My ultimate goal is that some sales can help pay for supplies, at least.

Secret nerd

Ever since I got an Apple iPod, I've become a secret technology nerd. I'm not quite a "first-adapter" (getting the latest technology before anyone else), but I now admit that I'm a second-adapter. My iPod is a vintage blue "mini," though I also admit to owning an orange shuffle for portability (and because it's so cute...more on that later). If I had a steady income and was free from my Verizon phone contract, I'd buy an iPhone in a minute. I have been reading about it obsessively, especially David Pogue's posts. His videos are hysterical.
In my previous work life, I worked with a number of producers and arts administrators who were wed to the idea of getting their work heard through radio and tv. Period. The web was for listing programs but not much else. Streaming, downloads, podcasts were all completely foreign to me...and to them. But I started to see that these new technologies could be a really critical way to get cultural works out to a larger number of people. So I started reading, particularly blogs, as they are often on the front line of what's being developed and how it's being used.
The one I'm reading religiously these days is Scobleizer and I will admit, I often don't know what he's talking about. But it does give me a sense of what's happening out on the frontiers of technology and how people are using it...and more importantly, how it's changing communication. My own age shows when I hear my colleagues say "oh these kids and their iPods." I worry that they see technology like this as a fad instead of a communications tsunami that will wash over them and leave them stranded in the 20th century.
And now, friends, I will get around to book arts. Scobleizer alerted me to Google's new blog search. Just enter a subject and it will find posts on that subject. Bookgirl shows up on the first page after a book arts search and some others that I haven't had time yet to check out. But what a great way to find new blogging friends!

10 Moments in a Drawer

The movie Once made me think some more about those times when you truly wish that you could preserve a few moments in a drawer. So here are 10 (or more) moments I’d like to put away so that I could come back to them again: 1. early summer mornings when I’m still in bed and can feel the breeze on my toes 2. summer mornings on the porch with coffee (and summer evenings as well) 3. recording Beethoven quartets with the Emerson String Quartet 4. any time at Penland 5. the 2nd to the last night with my first dog, Agnes, lying out in the park together 6. eating homemade strawberry rhubarb pie and coffee with my friends John and Roberta out on their yard in rural Wisconsin 7. sharing gossip with former co-worker Lauren who would make me laugh so hard that I’d spurt out my coffee 8. learning a new book structure from Hedi Kyle 9. the first morning I spent at my friend Tony’s cabin 10. my parent’s 50th anniversary dinner at my house 11. G&T's on Earl's porch (and visiting his upstairs studio) 12. dinner on Karen and Orton's porch (hmmm...there seems to be a strong porch theme)

Perfect Movie

For me, a wonderful movie is mostly about the story. Does it offer me an insight into my own life? Does it offer a different view of a familiar experience? Once is one of those movies. A simple movie (the two main characters are never even named), it explores the intimacy and love that happens in a creative collaboration. From the very first scene I fell in love with the musicians for their charm and vulnerability. (And after spending 25 years in a recording studio, the later scenes of the characters recording their songs were fun to watch.) It helped considerably that the actors were musicians first and actors second. It was clear that their performances were authentic and passionate. But the transient nature of the personal relationship--it may have taken place in just a week or so--was so true to life. You never know when that experience will happen to you. And as much as you want to keep it going, treasure it, sometimes it may not be able to be sustained. And then it is simply one of the reasons that life is amazing.

Something there is that loves a wall.

I know that Robert Frost didn't like a wall, but I'm excited about the new one in my basement. The basement itself is quite small and holds the standard washing machine, dryer, wash tub, furnace and (thankfully) AC. In addition, someone built some strong and wonderful shelves into the wall which have been great for all my plastic shoeboxes of rubber stamps and art supplies. (When I saw the shelves while viewing the house, it was another of those "I have to have this house" moments.) It became the de facto studio for me, though its location was less than inspiring. But while putting together my Ikea purchases I had the inspiration that a simple wall could really help make the space more appealing and more functional. Today my brother brought his truck of tools and know-how over and put that wall up for me. It doesn't have any true use except to block the view of the furnace and AC and provide a sort of white space of inspiration for me but I'm still very excited about it. You can see that he's hung a good shelf across the middle. I'll place my worktop underneath that and use the shelf for pots of glue, paint, etc. Other than that, I'm still thinking: Should I hang some cork on it as a bulletin board? Paint it a wonderful color to motivate me? A landscape of Penland?

Garden mea culpa

Despite the subtitle of this blog, I haven't posted on my garden since I started writing. (You can find out all you want about Bella on her blog.) When I moved into this house six years ago, my plans were, um, a little over-reaching. Each spring, I'd buy plants for all sorts of sites around the house, never complete any of them and then lose energy in July. This year I focused on getting two spots established before I went to Penland. One is a cutting garden full of favorite cosmos, zinnias and bachelor buttons. Happily it's doing the best it's ever done and is already supplying me with those cheerful flowers. There are chocolate cosmos there as well and when they bloom next (I recently dead-headed the June flowers), I'll post pictures.
The larger project was to complete a corner garden in the backyard which included planting a redbud tree. I've long loved the redbuds that grow like weeds in Missouri and was ready to take a chance on one when the University of Minnesota arborists created one for Minnesota's Zone 4 climate. (One glib local radio host says Minnesotans have "zone envy" when it comes to planting.) Following one of my new "motivators" (definition: not a rule, but not a suggestion either), I can now not plant until the bed is ready. So I weeded out last year's crop of clover and dandelion, dug in bags of manure and planted the tree in mid-May. So far, so good, but I won't see flowers until next spring (presuming it makes it through the winter).
I also planted a few new varieties of coneflower and I'm happy to report that 4 of the 6 plants are thriving. One has disappeared entirely and the last seems happy to just send out green leaves despite being all of 6 inches away from its siblings. The top photo is my first bloom from a new coneflower called "Echinacea Coconut Lime," a wonderful flower with a green "cone" and white petals around it. I ordered 3 of these plants from White Flower Farm and they have really taken off. The other flower is "Echinacea Big Sky™ Sundown" and comes from a local nursery. It hasn't yet fully opened, but its colors are already a mysterious blend of orange-red and lavender....much like the sky at sundown. The picture doesn't really do it justice. I'll try again when it opens completely.
For those of you who love dogs, the final picture is Bella in the garden (naughty dog!) begging DPL for a ride in his van.

No snow expected

July is the only month in Minnesota that has never (officially) had snow recorded.
(Photo courtesy PDPhoto.org)