October 7, 2005
October 7, 2005
So the other day, I bought some fabulous stamps from Mandy (well, "bought" because I still owe her the money!), who I realized I'd left off my links page; so now she is on there, along with Kate, who is now updating her blog again. I am quite excited for these stamps. I have a plan for a big headboard/bookshelf contraption, to be realized in my new apartment, and these stamps will be incorporated. I bought the Shopkeeper's alphabet, so I'm going to "type" out some text I like in decorative ways on the sides of it.
Tentatively, that'll be something from Judith Butler, possibly some of the introduction to Bodies that Matter. (yes, yes, the intro is as far as I've read in that, but that's only because it's all that's printed in the collection I have. I've been meaning to buy the book itself...) Partly, I love Butler's theories on things, plus I've been thinking a lot about gender/sexuality lately, but also her text itself is visually exciting. She uses such interesting/bizarre combinations of words, and she's one of the only writers now who actually uses all the punctuation they've got available. One example that jumps out at me: "And if "sex" is a fantasy, is it perhaps a fantasmatic field that constitutes the very terrain of cultural intelligibility?"
Also, triple bonus obscurity points.
On the sweater front, I finished the first sleeve today, only to try it on and realize that it was a good 3 inches too short. Lesson? When you're making up your own pattern / bit of a pattern, measuring is an important thing. Luckily I could just rip out the armscye shaping and keep knitting -- all is well.
I was knitting in an excellent little coffee shop in Cranston today on my lunch break, and one of the guys working sat down to chat. We talked about knitting, the fact that he sucks at sewing, &c. &c. and then he said, "you know what looks really tough? looming." And obviously he meant weaving, but it just occurred to me that "looming" is an excellent name for some kind of craft. It reminds me of my friend Kathy from high school, who had a bit of a thing for monsters, and when she was bored would stand behind you and wiggle her fingers and make loomy monster noises.
|
October 3, 2005
I am so excited to move at the end of the month. I don't even have a place yet (note to self, call one of the landlords tomorrow), but I'm really craving the possibilities and creative energy of a new space. I had those when I moved in here, but boy-at-the-time sort of crapped all over any kind of decorating/artistic urges in favor of the white/beige/poop/touch of pink color scheme of the apartment as it was. So now, of course, I'm still living here and he's gone, leaving his poop/beige behind and me without the motivation to change it.
My current desire is to happen on some fabulous antique maps (maybe I should talk to my father about that...) and frame them and put them on a red wall. I also sort of want at least one red wall in my bedroom, but I like red living rooms too...
Also! I want to make fantastic pins for my Blackberry! There will be at least one knitted flower, made from one of the many gorgeous-but-silly yarns I have lying around, and maybe a beaded one, and hopefully one out of shellacked paper (I'm feeling newsprint? or... yellowish paper that's been typewritered? or... the cover of the free zine I picked up at AS220?) and some collagey flat ones... so many possibilities.
|
September 30, 2005
The painting! Finally!
Carrie has seen it & loved it, so I can share pictures finally! There will be more when she picks a place for it -- you've got to see it in its new home, too!
The title is "cuadros, cuadrados," which superliterally means something like "squares, squared." But I love the word "cuadro" because it means square/rectangle, but also "painting," commonly, or pretty much "anything with corners," really. And the verb cuadrar has meanings like "to put in order," or "to arrange," as well as the verb form of any of those meanings of cuadro. So my title is meant to have all those ambiguous translations, because I heart ambiguity.
But today, today was yarn day. And what a glorious one it was, too.
The Blackberry will officially be made from Cascade's EcoWool, in a lovely charcoal color called "night vision." I'm told that the "Eco" part means that it's unbleached and undyed, which is cool, but oh damn it's cozy. I'm excited to have a sweater from it, especially because my dear, dear charcoal-colored cardigan died an unpleasant stretched and armless death right about the time i graduated from high school, and I haven't had a similar one since. [Plus, it comes in enormous skeins and was on sale, putting the yarn cost for the sweater at a whopping $24!]
I also got some fabulous Alpaca for my striped not-for-a-baby hat, which makes me want to roll around naked in a big pile of yarn. And, because I am incapable of going yarn shopping without coming away with a new project, some Filatura di Crosa 127 Print which will be a cozyawesome winter hat.
The next few weeks will be knitting-tastic.
|
September 27, 2005
I've realized I really need a proper knitting project that I'm going to finish and will be useful and nice when it's done. Also, I could work on it at my job! And for whatever reason, I've got a sudden hankering for an olive green sweater with cables. Brilliant!
The sweater of choice will be Blackberry, from Knitty. I'm going to do something different for the arm details, though, because I don't really like the way the cables look from the side, and I'm not sure I'm ready to own something with knitted bobbles. At this point, I'm thinking there will be some combination of fat cables and tiny cables TBA.
So that leaves the question of yarn. The pattern calls for Rowan Chunky, which I really can't afford 6 balls of. So, Friday afternoon I have off work and I will spend several hours fondling yarn in Pawtucket. Then I guess if I can't find something, to KnitPicks I will go! But I will be buying hat yarn, I think. That's the other project floating around in my head -- an adult version of this baby hat my friend made (though probably without the hearts). I want to do it in somewhat chunkier yarn, so hopefully I'll be able to just use the baby size at a larger gauge, but we shall see.
And in other news, I finished the painting tonight! There will be many pictures as soon as I've had a chance to give it to my lovely neighbor. I'm really pleased with it; it's got a title and everything!
|
September 26, 2005
Busy busy busy.
This weekend was the Providence Zine Fest at AS220, which I stopped by briefly before running home to take a nap. Persephassa had a table there, and I was much impressed/inspired by her work -- hopefully I will have time to take advantage of this inspiration...
Last night I bought two more typewriters (bringing the collection to 4!), one of which types in cursive script! Very cool. It will appear in collages soon, so soon.
Also, there has been much work done on the neighbor-painting, and it's approximately 2 seconds from being done, so there will be many pictures and updates once I've given it to her. And, new knitting ideas floating around, so those are coming too...
|
September 17, 2005
Apologies &c. for the total lack of updates lately; I just got a job! I'm working at a lovely nonprofit in Cranston (the Fund for Community Progress) but it means I've been busy doing things that are neither art- nor website-related. I came in right at the beginning of the annual fundraising campaign, AND right before the big benefit event, so I'm sort of insanely busy without having had a chance to get settled in the office at all. But it's all good, I'm enjoying myself so far, and my boss promises that this is the busiest time of the year.
One of the reasons I've been busy in general is that I am adamant that this job (or any job) will not take over my life. I will spend lots of time with friends and doing fun things outside of work -- the job will not be the sum total of my existence because life is more important than that. So, I've been doing tons of exciting things in the evenings, but I took Wednesday to myself for some quality art time (as it seems today will be as well) and collaged the front of my new planner. It's exciting and vaguely job-themed, because hey, that's why I need a planner in the first place.
I'll repeat -- this particular notebook is not for sale, but I'd love to make one just for you! Drop me an email, say "Katy, I'd like a notebook. I enjoy monkeys," and I'll go at it.
Speaking of, I also bought myself a lovely quad-ruled Moleskine today that will become my new all-purpose Book of Everything, once it has a pretty cover.
|
September 11, 2005
Cats and oil paints do not go well together. My painting has been sitting against the wall while it dries, and today I sat there with tweezers for maybe an hour and picked fur out of the wet parts.
|
September 9, 2005
Grrr. I tried to enter Photo Friday's "order" last night, but my ftp program couldn't connect and I couldn't upload anything. It's working fine now, but of course I missed the deadline for entries. Anyway, it's up now, because I really dig this picture for the theme.
It's sort of appropriate, as Amelia mentioned to me the other day, that the previous week was "chaos," although in some ways they should be switched. Katrina, particularly, and all this crazy personal stuff. But either way, I've been thinking a lot about order vs. chaos lately. One of the ways I've been dealing with it is in the painting I'm doing for Carrie, which I guess I'll explain further when it's actually done, since it's still largely a surprise. But that's why I really like the tubes of paint representing "order." Even though sometimes it's when I seem the most chaotic, there are few things more reassuring to me than doing art. Color, media, possibility -- this is where I'm comfortable and things are as they should be.
|
September 7, 2005
So although I clearly haven't been busy updating my site, it has been a busy week, full of personal drama, job-getting, and a lot of beauty. Art beauty, people beauty, life-is-beautiful beauty.
Work continues on the painting, and my goal is to have it done by Friday, for her birthday, but I don't know if that will actually happen. It's certainly possible.
And there was another Roller Derby bout this weekend, pictures from which are being processed as we speak. (Or, probably more accurately, are sitting in a box waiting for me to pick them up.) So I thought it was about time to scan the pictures from the last bout, which was of course almost two months ago. So there are several new lomos up. Check them out!
|
August 31, 2005
I've finally added one of my favorite collages to the 2D page! It was also homework from that art class I took last year; the assignment was just "a portrait," and I decided to do a collage interpretation of a lomo I took of a random guy sitting on Thayer street. I've since lost the picture, or I'd have it up here as well.
I'm still really pleased with how this turned out. I think it's a technique I'd like to try out further... and in fact I've been thinking I might try it on the Jesus-and-a-frog-at-a-bus-stop drawing I started a few weeks ago. (That was for Illustration Friday's "wisdom," but of course it's several weeks late at this point.)
But of course that will wait until I've finished the painting for my awesome neighbor. Which will be awesome too.
|
August 28, 2005
And the Friday page is here! Check it out over to the left there. But if I ever decide to make a change like that again, please talk me out of it. That required going through every individual page and changing every single link. Maybe next time I'll just redesign the whole site; I think it would be easier. Or at least less stressful.
Live and learn, &c. &c.
Also, I added a few more lomos.
|
August 26, 2005
Sorry for the lack of updates; I'm working on changing the "featured" page to a "friday" page, and about half my pages have one set of links and half the other... so there will be new things soon, when I've done that.
BUT, the new Photo Friday thing is "chaos," and I just took a ton of pictures of pigeons going crazy, so maybe one of them will work.
Also I'm in Delaware with my family, and then Amherst helping my sister move into college, but as soon as I'm back in Providence there will be much art happening.
|
August 20, 2005
The theme for Photo Friday this week is "one." Interesting, yet nothing sprang immediately to mind. So after much thought, I chose this:
It's from this year's mission trip to the boonies of PA, where we fixed up people's houses (I worked on a trailer for Larry and Betty, who rent some land on this farm, with 4 kids and another 20-something chaperone) and generally were crazy and spiritual. This is Matt, with whom I bonded over the Quaker-school upbringing.
I love the sense of space in this photo. It's taken on expired slide film and then cross-processed, and I'm really excited about the way the slightly weird colors emphasize the openness of things.
|
August 17, 2005
I forgot to mention, I entered Photo Friday again this week. The theme is "violet."
And, because I deserve it, I went to Michael's today and spent $30 on a t-shirt and paint and adhesive pens (not for the t-shirt). There will be some wondrous hand-painted t-shirt action in the near future.
Still working on the crazy loop scarf thing. The yarn that inspired it is really amazing to knit with. It's sort of vaguely a pain, but it's so soft and it looks like a muppet when it's knit that it's hard to hate it. And I will work on that tonight as well, over a beer and a monstrous bacon cheeseburger. (also, deserve it.)
And work has begun on my first-ever commissioned painting! It will hang in Carrie's living room, and it will be amazing. I want to keep the content sort of a surprise, but it will involve squares and tissue paper. And it's my first venture into oil paints as well, which I'm really excited about.
Please comment below on my "featured work" section!
|
August 15, 2005
I'm thinking about eliminating the "featured work" section and maybe replacing it with a list of my Illustration/Photo Friday entries. Originally I wanted to have featured things so that there would be something new and interesting to look at every time you visited my site, even if I hadn't done anything new to add. But, I've been pretty good about adding new things, and less good about changing the featured photo regularly.
So, do you look at the featured page? Do you like it? Would you miss it? Do you have any better suggestions I haven't thought of?
|
August 14, 2005
Another batch of lomos up. I really like these.
Kickball this afternoon! Everything went the way I hoped it would. The Bike Panthers won the Cianci cup (Festival of Losers!), and CBP won the real championship! They're good people.
And I've had Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros stuck in my head all day. I really love "Streetcore," and I think everyone should have a copy of it. So let me know... and does anyone have any of their other albums? I'd love to negotiate a trade of some sort. And just now I read one of his obits that said something like, he was always disappointed that his work with The Clash always overshadowed everything he did later, and that makes me really sad. Because while I adore The Clash, I also think the stuff with the Mescaleros is amazing.
August 12, 2005
First, I've uploaded a bunch more lomos. Starting to get to spring! Actually there was a big chunk of time where I didn't really take many pictures at all (from about New Years' through about April or May), because I had tried the lc-a and fallen in love with it, but hadn't bought one yet. So going back to the Colorsplash was really a letdown, and I didn't do it much. Anyway, these are some spring, first-few-rolls-with-the-lc-a shots.
I went to the zoo today with the awesome little summer camp, which was super fun. I'd never been to the Roger Williams Zoo, and it's really an excellent one. For the past few days, we've been talking about types of animals (mammal, reptile, fish, &c.), so today we did a little "photo safari," where the kids had to get pictures of each kind of animal. Which meant there were a ton of disposable cameras floating around, and photography was in the air. So when their film all ran out, I still had my lc-a at the ready, and this one darling little girl kept asking if she could throw a picture with my camera (which of course is the expression in Spanish, tirer un foto, but it sounds so cool in English!) So she took a ton of pictures of things, and I realized when I got home that because she hadn't recognized the end of the roll, I'm pretty sure it double-exposed almost every shot on the roll. So now I'm really excited to see how it comes out! I think it will be super fun. And I took most of a whole roll beforehand that didn't get double-exposed, so I'll have those too!
The new Illustration Friday theme is "wisdom." It took me a few hours, I really couldn't think of a thing, and then for some reason I kept thinking about frogs. And then Jesus. So I have a rough sketch of Jesus and a frog sitting at a bus stop, and it's pretty cool.
August 10, 2005
My first Illustration Friday entry is ready! The theme this week is "empty."
That's the big scanned-in version; there's also an album of pictures of it here. It was almost hard to choose something to illustrate "empty," because so much of life right now seems vacant, in the sense of lacking substance or moral fiber of any kind. So that's the concept I went with -- lost in a spiritual void.
It took me at least 8 tries to get the stick figure guy looking remotely like I wanted him to, and it was really a happy accident that I drew a decent one on the page with "Less than half in survey of Americans believe Bush is honest" in such a convenient place. (Ignoring the slightly awkward journalistic turn of phrase...) I also ran out of adhesive halfway through putting the collage bits together, and Staples stopped carrying the double-stick adhesive pen that I love, but it all worked out okay and I'm quite pleased with the results.
In other news, I uploaded a few more lomos in my continued efforts to catch up to myself. I think one of my evening projects will be to scan a few more rolls, so maybe in a few days I'll do sort of a blitz and upload the decent ones from the past few months. I also added a link to David Kapp's photo site, which I happened upon while I was checking out Photo Friday. [Illustration Friday was inspired by it; some non-photographers wanted to have their own thing.] I really liked David's work, particularly the more urban shots, which I thought were really dynamic and exciting.
And tonight is the night for knitting & drinking, much-needed in both aspects. I'll be working on a scarf that was inspired partly by some fantastically soft yarn that I felt compelled to buy in some weird, not-quite-coordinating colors, and partly by the design from the cover of Loop-D-Loop. I didn't actually look at that pattern at all, but I'm making my own knitted/crocheted/sewn/who knows what else loops and linking them together. So that project is full of fun and soft and craziness, and should be reasonably quick, I think? Unless I somehow decide that half of the loops should be knit on size 2, which I can't imagine ever doing. I don't think I own anything smaller than 4, and I ended up not using those. I heart big needles.