ArtSpark Theatre

Dubious Marketing

2012-01-11T11:22:00.000-08:00

It's the selling thing...I am devoting a lot of time to promoting on etsy these days, and the creativity tends to pop out when it can. In this case, I am showcasing a plastic wall candelabra sconce thing from the 60s in some kind of Venetian fantasy. Making interesting photographs works to some extent as an outlet, and then again I can feel divided. It's an old issue, when I was an illustrator (back when we were all going to live in the broadband and be rich as Croesus) I worked digitally, so the creative footprints vanished as they were made, a little sparking in the air. Nothing to show, but nothing to carry.

Swings and roundabouts?

New Day x 365

2012-01-01T11:56:00.000-08:00

Mission Twilight

2011-12-24T14:28:00.000-08:00

The last three photos show the windows of 826 Valencia, where there is an installation representing the Lilliput section of Gulliver's travels by artist Lynn Rubenzer.

Happy Holidays!

Unless

2011-12-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

Above, a swing installed on Valencia Street.

I couldn't find the name of the artist.

The rest of the Mission twilight photos tomorrow.

Hello - Okay!

2011-12-19T11:45:00.000-08:00

Yep, I'm okay. the etsy store has been going reasonably well, and I have been madly packaging and running to the Post Office during the season (above you see a duo currently on offer on etsy- a cheesy winking man and a hand making the Okay sign - wearing a flesh-colored pinkie ring!). My plan is to take a little time to say hello to some people I have been missing in the blogosphere, and to do a little Mission photo essay for the end of the year - twilight and holiday decorations).

Next year, I'll try to post a couple of times a month anyway - at least until the Holiday wave breaks overhead once again.

Do you know these two?

2011-10-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

I believe this is a rabbit riding a pig. Something about the red hair on the pig is making me think Spanish or Mexican. If you have any thoughts, let me know in comments. I'm about to list them on etsy but would like to know a bit more.

New Ride (ready for the Holiday)

2011-10-25T14:01:00.000-07:00

Spotted in a neighborhood trashcan- Looks like someone is getting ready for Halloween.

In the Mission

2011-10-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

A few shots from the trip into the Mission to take down the show at Paxton /gate.

Before we have eyes

2011-09-30T15:12:00.000-07:00

Do we see in the womb?

Is that why we keep searching for patterns?

Tomas Serrano

2011-09-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

Above is one of the brilliant cartoon sequences of the very talented Tomas Serrano. He has a new website here, visit for more brilliance (his Woody Allen is a favorite of mine):http://www.tomasserrano.com/

San Francisco Art Opening September 8

2011-08-23T13:11:00.000-07:00

Art Opening in San Francisco!

Yes. mine!

September 8!

I'll put you up if you want to fly in!

Ahab or the Whale: Which are You?

2011-08-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

Two items married by me and listed just now in my etsy shop. Well, you know...if I'd found a china albatross instead of a white china whale, the story might have gone differently.

Aye, aye! It was that accursed white whale that razed me; made a poor pegging lubber of me for ever and a day!... I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up. And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out.

---from Moby Dick, Herman Melville

I don't know about you, but some days I feel like Ahab, and some days I feel like the whale.

Scattering

2011-08-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

And when Thyself with shining Foot shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scatter'd on the Grass,
And in thy joyous Errand reach the Spot
Where I made one—turn down an empty Glass!

- from the Fitzgerald translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Free and Street Legal

2011-08-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

Outrage

More thoughts about forks here

Criminal Activity in the neighborhood

2011-08-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

Caught on Camera, Carlos' cat Mischa,
convinced that a benign feline diety has
delivered an armchair to her personal turf
for her to claw to her heart's content.

The Sisterhood of Guangdong

2011-08-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

I bought this jacket in a thrift store a few years back and was doing a little research prior to putting it on etsy. Checking the label, I couldn't find anything under "Plum Blossom", so I checked the place name, Guangdong, which opened up a whole new perspective. The cheerful birds on this jacket were not hatched in a sweatshop.

Guangdong province was famous for its handspun silk thread and its embroidery style (Yue). The silk trade gave independence to female domestic laborers, who took an oath to remain single. When the Communists took over in 1949, they cut off trade to the West from this area, and many of the women returned to domestic service as nursemaids (amahs). I don't know, but would like to think, that the embroidery tradition was kept up in private.

The style of script on the label leads me to believe that this jacket was made in the late 40s and that these embroidered birds were among the last to cross the sea.

Elder Abuse Lite

2011-08-09T14:46:00.000-07:00

Serving dinner to aged parent at 7:00 p.m. instead of 5:30 p.m.

My Lovely Assistants

2011-08-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

Mending the frame of an exquisite needlework piece picked up last weekend - those ceramic dogs are heavy.

Three things I found on the sidewalk

2011-08-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

With apologies to Oscar Wilde, looking at the gutter can have its rewards.

I'm mystified by the cross inside the metal frame.

Flight of the Dragon's Claw

2011-07-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

I posted this on etsy, it was purchased by Elizabeth Frank, who transformed it into this:

You can see more of her work in her etsy shop HERE

Happy Bastille Day!

2011-07-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

A quote from the Marseillaise...actually slightly shortened. This is an etsy treasury, which is when you make a collection of other peoples' cool stuff.

Lost (in time) Tribe

2011-07-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

Spotting this headline caused me to think that, if it were twenty years ago and I saw this, I would be as bewildered as some member of a sequestered Amazon tribe. Is an Obama a person or a sort of bird, and is debt some sort of inhalant, perhaps the reverse of nitrous oxide, which causes the normally high-pitched voice to become "tough" (gravelly, Tom Waits like)? Dizzying to think of the headlines of the future.

Not that I don't support the tough tweeting - go O!

Sale in my etsy store this weekend

2011-07-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

Sale this weekend for

Professor Tiny

Where the odd things are.

After the Ball was over...

2011-06-26T13:04:00.000-07:00

The garage sale, actually...offerings to the neighborhood gods. Irish kitsch, with a label reading "luck", in case anyone misses the point.

Some very shiny wood items from the Philippines, with a spoon reading "Soup 10", this was from a neohippie gathering a few years back which wasn't quite my cup of tea (so no sentimental value). Now you know, but it will probably be a mystery to the person who removes the set.

A somewhat random collection of patterned whites, vaguely coordinated with fire hydrant.

Don't you wish you lived nearby?

Ed: All gone now...

A Thing I made from Other Things.

2011-06-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

Intermediate (Sorry, don't have Before. He didn't use to be purple or have a brass leg)

After

The Afterlife

2011-06-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

...Of objects

Pictured above, a homemade white cotton petticoat stitched by a woman who was a square dancing enthusiast, from a box of many other garments she had sewn for herself during the 1960s-70s. Put in the etsy store, purchased by someone in Germany named Dieter. What a journey this garment is making, but I like to think that Dieter and the maker of this garment, both enthusiasts, could have sat down and had a wonderful conversation in a suitably noisy beer hall.

Who made THIS mess?

2011-05-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

Inside

Outside

I am just getting ready for open studios in Oakland this coming weekend. Believe it or not, I think I'm about 70% done with the cleaning, but I have deceived myself in the past about this sort of thing. The dragon is holding a felted blue wand sent to me by Yvette.

I expect to have some time in between callers this weekend, so I'll be posting a few After shots here.

Another post about obsession

2011-05-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

What is it about changing the world as it is

that fascinates creative people,

and why do people become obsessed with making

the things they make?

In this case, back about 50 years ago, someone crocheted

around a miniature rolling pin and then attached two cup hooks,

from which they dangled matching doilies

(Listed in my etsy shop).

It's a strange elaboration of a handsome, useful object-

the rolling pin- into a completely inutile one,

which can only be hung on the wall and admired after the maker

has finished with it.

Was this a kit?

Or did the maker come up with an original design?

Why?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

More compelling obsession IMHO-

swiped from Andrew Sullivan

Tribulation or Jubilation?

2011-05-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

And is Johnny Depp Jesus?

Bad, bad ad men.

Titus pointed out this has been done before -
I think she may have been thinking of East of Eden though -

Who's abducting whom?

2011-05-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

One of a series of illustrations for the East Bay Monthly for personal essays about childhood, in this one, the narrator's sister claimed that she had been abducted by aliens who were mutilating the family chickens.

One of the pleasures of an overcrowded environment with flotsam and jetsam is how things drift together (as with the phone receiver and board in the previous post). In this case, a printed chicken figure a friend gave me and a map a nephew rescued from a city sewage facility - smelled bad when I got it, yes.

From the Streets

2011-05-10T13:41:00.000-07:00

This is a phone receiver my sister found on the streets of Budapest a few years ago and brought to me. Here you see the beginning of my making it into *ART*

Here you see it incorporated with a bit of molding board I found on the Streets of San Francisco.

One of my entries into a juried art competition, when I went to the Post Office to mail it, I waited in line behind a very handsome 25 year old guy with a large ALIVE snake around his neck. Too many dates? Not enough interesting dates? Only dates snakes?

That's What Happens...

2011-05-07T16:54:00.000-07:00

...When you think too much.

A public safety message.

Happy International Worker's Day

2011-05-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

This is a detail of the cover of "The Jolly Blacksmiths", a march by the extremely prolific E.T. Paull which was published in 1905. It's for sale in my second Etsy shop, but if it doesn't sell, I can give it to my sister's husband, who has some blacksmithing skills, is studying piano, and is fairly, well, jolly - in a reflective way. He loves the rosbif, too, as do these guys, I'm sure.

Alack

2011-04-27T21:43:00.000-07:00

Spotted a big kid wearing a big shirt sporting the motto "DOING IT".

Not as far as this observer could see, and that was okay.

This civilization is going to Hell in a handbasket, people.

Alas

2011-04-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

Overheard in passing:

"I used to respect your mother%#(&!^* a**".

We all know how that sad, sad song goes.

I'm probably partly so amused because I got a piece of spam a day or so ago advising me that my own a** was appearing in a video at a particular online destination. Familiarity breeds lack of interest, so I did not click.

Sarah Palin as a wooden block (sculpture)

2011-04-22T12:57:00.000-07:00

And the second one...to quote Neil Innes, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I've suffered for my art, now it's your turn". Andrew, it's yours if you want it - just don't use it on top of paper, way too lightweight.

Donald Trump as a Walnut (sculpture)

2011-04-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

Another one to follow later today, if you read Andrew Sullivan you will guess who it is. As for the above, I feel I have revealed Donald Trump's inner angry bird.

Yet more art

2011-04-20T18:23:00.001-07:00

Excuses

2011-04-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

In the neighborhood,

In the neighborhood.

- Tom Waits

Hip or whipped?

2011-04-13T16:02:00.000-07:00

Have now opened a second etsy store with vintage stuff, stovetop experiments and just wierd stuff for peoples' projects.

The title refers to this Evel Knievel figure, whose head sags forward alarmingly - if you turn it to the side, though, he looks as if he is deliberately slouching and smirking.

Every picture...

2011-04-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I find things in the same thrift store that seem to belong together. In the background are two chesspieces, one of them a rook which is broken in quite a dramatic way, as if it had been knocked over by a Spring-maddened ram.Another photo on my flickr site if you are curious.

Character, tarnish and dirt

2011-04-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

A little patina adds a certain something for fans of vintage, but not I think for this particular item, in fact its state makes it a bit horrific. I have just put it in to soak (one part bleach to 10 parts water), will take a photo in an hour and post here - I should add that I have a more or less knackered paintbrush I am using to encourage the dirt to leave. This is quite a nice color, I will not be overdyeing it.

Yup. If I had only been cleaning the plastic, I would have made a first attempt with white vinegar, But the crochet has lightened up quite a bit. I'm going to try leaving a little sink product with bleach on the little discolored areas which are left to see if that takes care of the remaining problem areas.

Kitchen Sink Alchemy #2

2011-04-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

Another thing you can do on your stove top...dye plastic stuff*. I am thinking of opening a second etsy store,just for fun, partly with normal vintage stuff and partly with Frankensteinian experiments.

This is just regular old Rit Dye.

Some of the things melt in the boiling water.

After this was taken out, I noted there was a tiny light bulb under the plastic flames. I wondered if there was (and still is) a battery inside, but Mina tells me probably not because otherwise it would have exploded (her sister , who is now an engineer, did this when she was 11).

So, if you want to try this at home, with or without small children, check for batteries first.

And that's my advice for the day!

*Results will vary, buttons are easy,ditto artificial pearls, but otherwise rubbery stuff dyes better than hard plastic. But not knowing is part of the fun.

Kitchen Sink Alchemy

2011-04-06T17:44:00.000-07:00

So I went to this link and found out you can do this cool thing with tarnished silver- just put it in a receptacle lined with aluminum foil with the silver bits touching the aluminum, then boil water, put baking soda in the water, and pour over the stuff in the container - big foamy action, you can see the tarnish in the water. I think this might be fun to do with kids on a rainy day. Above, before - below, after. Alot easier than polishing, and you don't end up with bits of polish enmeshed with the silver. I'll be showing some more kitchen sink action here soon. Did I mention my father was a chemist?

Tubular Peyote

2011-04-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

It's not what you think

Regrettably, the photo above is of no help in understanding the concept, you will have to click the link. The author of this blog assumes no responsibility if you wish to try this at home.

Needles to say, I wish my name was tubular peyote.

Another Mystery

2011-03-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

On my way to Mina's - can you guess what these are? Answer after I return.

Yes, my commenters are correct - when I saw this

I had to come back with these

We are going to have an Easter parade in the window.

My first cinematic tribute in felt

2011-03-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

Can you identify the film and character?

The Bad Seed

2011-03-25T11:17:00.000-07:00

Japan Earthquake Aid

2011-03-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

People on Etsy are all over quake relief and donations, items ranging $1.00 on up in price. Here's a link to the search page for Japan Relief:

Japan Relief on Etsy

You can modify the search in any way you like, of course.

Above photo of my Etsy Japan piece.

Dude!

2011-03-22T12:16:00.000-07:00

Above, a photo from the Barbara H. Donnelly book "The Crewel Needlepoint World", published in 1973. If middle-aged ladies needed yet another reason to craft, she advises "Vests showing your man's hobbies will be a favorite with him". Imagine the possibilities...A vest lovingly embroidered with little motocycles for HIM to wear at the Harley Davidson Clubhouse on Saturdays. Can you think of more?

He likes it, really.

I am contemplating linkage here, as in April 2, posts of raw materials or work in progress (as long as it's not too far along). I would link those up, then May 2 link to the finals (as always, I would add in to the post as people posted their own).

TFE, before you ask, I don't know if the needlepoint world is more unkind than any other.

The Thrilling Denouement

2011-03-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

Things Etsy have gotten off to what I would describe as leisurely start (no sales so far) ...so I stopped making little things for a few days to concentrate on this. It's essentially a continuation of my mosaic sculpture work, except I used felt instead of broken dishes. The armature was our friend the styrofoam head. Since it was smaller than an actual head, I moved the architecture around quite a bit, pinning it in various ways at different times. If you want to see more views of this veritable feast for the head, see my Etsy shop at right.

Why so melancholy, styrofoam head?

2011-03-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

It looked this way before I started sticking pins in it, honest.

Reader, I ate it.

2011-03-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

Like a window at Chartres, I think -

But there you go,

The flesh against the spirit,

We know how that song goes.

Work in Progress

2011-03-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

I made a paisley....now it is going to be part of a corporate entity.

Don't think this counts as a craft tip, but I am learning that the photogenic quality of the model (thank you, Faith) does not compensate for the operator's deliberately limiting her knowledge about equipment. As in, read the manual for the camera. As with most creatives, this falls for me into the area of following the recipe and is met with much resistance and agonizing.

But photos are not clay, or felt...

Rain

2011-03-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

Hi guys. I've just been sewing and shrinking sweaters in the wash like a posessed fiend. I seem to be going over to the crafty side. And trying Etsy once again...before, I was trying to sell mosaic plates, somehow I seemed to lose the profit with the shipping. Felt is lighter! Also doesn't break! Also smaller!

My plan is to show you what I'm working on now and then, along with some crafty hints. I will also be breaking out the craft blogs and posting them at top on the sidebar.

Anyway, let me just start with one tiny thing. In forcing a needle through several thick layers, you can use a wide-ish rubber band where the point of the needle is sticking out to pull it the rest of the way through the fabric.

See you tomorrow, when I will start visiting.

At right, a link to my etsy shop. Heh, if you visit there, let me know if you recognize the cinematic reference (reviewed here a while back).

Slow Felt

2011-02-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

Above MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland.

There are a flurry of yarn hearts mosaiced into this fence, if I get a chance, I'll go back and get a red one in afternoon light.

I'm going to be off blogger for awhile - a bit of basic cleaning and direction-picking to do.

Soft Hearted

2011-01-31T17:11:00.000-08:00

I have been felting and cutting up old sweaters (jumpers to the Brits) and making many things...some necklaces, oh I am having fun.

Shampooing the Angel

2011-01-30T12:59:00.000-08:00

Skellig: The Owl Man is film based on a children's book by David Almond - Lucky Brits got it on television, but it's available on netflix. Did you rescue a baby bird when you were a child? I know I did, fed it raw hamburger in the garden shed. It disappeared one day, the cat may have gained access.

I'd recommend this film for anyone with kids or without. A certain gross factor, but worth it.

Oh! forgot to put in a link to the trailer (but my sister says it's blocked in the UK for copyright reasons)
Skellig Trailer

Three Wise Men of gotham

2011-01-27T07:08:00.000-08:00

Found a little blank space in Clarion alley, posted these three items I found on the ground.

Three Wise Men of Gotham
Went to sea in a sieve

I appeared to have conflated the old nursery rhyme with Edward Lear's "The Jumblies", the three wise men of Gotham actually went to sea in a bowl, it was the Jumblies who went to see in sieve.

Scarlett Yarn*

2011-01-24T06:40:00.000-08:00

Above, a mural at 16th and Mission in San Francisco

I have been reading the latest book by Scarlett Thomas, Our Tragic Universe. Her breakout book was The End of Mr. Y, which had as its central character a disaffected but infinitely curious female writer/academic. The new book has as its central character a disaffected but infinitely curious female writer/teacher, otherwise it is a sort of mirror image of the earlier book - instead of having minimal attachments, the heroine is grounded (even mired) in connections with her friends and extended family. Instead of a somewhat forced transcendent ending, we leave the character in the midst of a morning walk, a little clearer about what she wants from life. I remember years ago a review of a Kurt Vonnegut book in which the reviewer described feeling toward him as one would feel toward a beloved, curmudgeonly uncle. Scarlett Thomas seems somehow familial if you are the sort of person who relates to a constantly questioning companion. She is most definitely not among those who believe that everything happens for a reason - she likes her universe unfathomable. Recommended for those who prefer questions to answers.

*Knitting is among the subjects explored in this book

States of Mind

2011-01-20T06:34:00.000-08:00

I wish I felt a bit more dogged and focussed, like Winston, but I actually feel confused, like the tiger. These are a couple of new t-shirt designs.I continue to be somewhat buried in felt.

Homecoming

2011-01-18T06:59:00.000-08:00

Another in the Altered Ancestors series, I'm going to enter it in a juried show with theme of "landscape". I'm all over the place right now, as you can see...just a common thread, I guess...

Felt buttons (crafty)!

2011-01-16T15:42:00.000-08:00

Or beads for stringing, or items for applique/decoration...take some felted wool from an old sweater (or you could try it with unfelted). Cut sets of three circles (or you could cut flower shapes). Draw yarn with a knot on one end through a stack of two only (important!), then put the third one on top, hiding the knot. draw the yarn through the center, back up, and bisect the stack, divide that in half again, and then in half again to make this eight-segmented vaguely Buddhist sort of button. be sure to keep the yarn tight to bunch it all together. I used felted sweater wool, but I think I will put these through the wash to mash the materials together further. This is a fun little craft project which takes little room and time. The wool came from the bottom of a long sweater which had developed holes in it- I may replace the original buttons with these, or I may make a necklace.

Fragrant Land

2011-01-12T22:56:00.000-08:00

Above, the inside of one of the bins at the Milan Spice Market in Berkeley, these are miniature landscapes in intense desert colors. If you live in a good-sized city, you might be able to find a spice market in the Indian area. Oh, okay, it's also an economical way to buy spice.

The Visionary

2011-01-10T06:55:00.000-08:00

Monday morning inspiration:

Arthur Ganson's TED talk here .

Victorian Lady's Knuckledusters

2011-01-06T06:35:00.000-08:00

Here's a very quick craft project, arm warmers made from sleeves cut off an old sweater felted in the washing machine - I just sewed thin black yarn (could be thread) across the area between the thumb and the fingers - took twenty minutes or less. Buttons (from original sweater) added afterwards in case of trouble.

This one, though - two sweaters- both felted unintentionally - sewed together by whip-stitching the raw edges- took in excess of twenty hours (enjoyably spent streaming stuff like The Storyteller on my computer - is John Hurt's coat to die for or what?) The collar, where I inset the gold-colored wool where there was no space for it (I didn't remove fabric from the red, it's just a straight cut) has interesting sculptural qualities, I think. It takes a lot less time if you have a magic machine like Urbandon

Home is Where

2011-01-04T06:22:00.000-08:00

Some say a feeling more than a place, yeah. What is the fascination, I wonder, with buckets of bolts in space- Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Farscape, The Tardis - creaking, asthmatic machines in a huge indifferent universe. No matter how decrepit, it feels safe inside them, somehow more homelike than the surrounding of home. I've said it before, how we all long for escape but to be welcomed safely back, in the words of T.S. Eliot:

...to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

Stories to be told around a campfire in a distant universe?

Ed: Jasmine at Nature's Whispers brought this petition about the sale of forests in England to my attention. I signed it using my sister's English post code as it rejected my zip code. Yes, I'm agin it - I want to see those trees next time I visit.

More about kinds of home:

the watercats

junk thief

Oh, I just have to put in a link to the firefly theme, cause Joss Whedon is holding a gun to my head (metaphorically speaking):

firefly

Scarlet Street

2011-01-02T13:35:00.000-08:00

Comparisons are odious, but here goes anyway. If you want to see if a terrific melodrama about art, watch Scarlet Street, the 1945 Fritz Lang film. Wonderful script and performances, too. Edward G. Robinson is very touching as the archetypal little man bedevilled by not one but two she-wolves. Dan Duryea is enormously energetic as a cad. The script is both thoughtful and witty. Eventually, The Robinson character is revenged on both women, but it costs him. The film also works as an examination of art and commerce. Unlike the film I'm comparing this one to, it lets the audience think. Also I must mention, the studio apartment in which the plot advances is to die for - apparently there was a time when studio apartment meant, you know, an apartment with a studio IN it. The Hayes commission makes an appearance by forcing the director to stick a bed (referred to as a couch) in the living room to imply goings on. Excerpt on Youtube here

You have a problem with perspective, dontcha?
- Johnny Prince

Dogs and Morning Light

2010-12-30T06:12:00.000-08:00

Something about seeing dogs on a sunlit morning seems to predicate a better world, or the possibility of one. I wonder if this image came from the title of the blog flying dog studio design wall? It could be. The above is another t-shirt design.

I love this alternative to a journal/idea book on spiritcloth.

A Swan is Born

2010-12-27T18:47:00.000-08:00

Just saw the Black Swan, an improving cinematic tale of a girl with stars in her eyes, her nurturing mother, and her consummately professional mentor...

Oh wait, that's not right...

This movie is a hoot, but it's beyond me whether that's intentional. The David Cronenberg reference in a pivotal scene would seem to indicate it's meant to be tongue in cheek. It's as if the Crypt Keeper was telling a Weird Tale about ballet. Has anyone seen it, and if so, did you manage not to cover your eyes during the manicuring scenes? In the same theater, The King's Speech was playing, which probably really was improving.

Review of The King's Speech on l'astronave (which in no way implies endorsement of my views of The Black Swan by the proprietress of the l'astronave)..

Something else to open

2010-12-22T06:57:00.000-08:00

Doors on trickhouse, my own assemblage story is behind one of them. Cool sound effects - check it out!

Above is a detail of an assemblage made in an antique portable writing desk, similar to the one featured on trickhouse.

Florence Street Sculptures

2010-12-20T16:01:00.000-08:00

This is the work of Patrick Amiot and Brigitte Laurent in Sebastopol, California. Not sure, this may be a working mailbox (see right paw).

More photos of other Florence Street sculptures on Tinytheatre.

A delightful series of small scale scenes on krumelurerockstrek

Young artists at work at Studio Banana

Too much light?

2010-12-18T10:12:00.000-08:00

One of the truly marvellous jeweler's elves by Kat Soto in the windows of Shreve & Co. in San Francisco. Part of the proceeds from sales of these benefit Doctors without borders and the Aids Memorial Grove Foundation. I wish you could see the beautifully articulated hands of these, delicately jointed at the wrist.

Finished tea cosy

2010-12-16T10:17:00.000-08:00

I don't have a teapot the size of Mina's, so I am holding a spout up to show where the spout would naturally come out, with my fingers substituting for the handle.

W.I.P. (Christmas gift for a tea drinker)

2010-12-15T15:41:00.000-08:00

In a friend's flower shop recently, I noted that she was keeping her teapot warm with a towel. Tea cosies are simple to make - just make a semi-circular paper pattern with the spout and handle marked. Then cut out the lining and the front a bit larger. I have ironed interfacing to the lining and will do so with the back side of the front also. See where I have ironed the back of the lining to overlap the interfacing? the front and lining should be sewed together, then both halves are sewed together remembering to leave the gaps for the handle and the spout. A great D.I.Y. project for a winter evening (unless you crave efficiency, it's also a nice one for hand-sewing)- I will post a photo of the finished item tomorrow.

Into light

2010-12-13T07:04:00.000-08:00

Above, the interior of Terrasol on Polk Street in San Francisco, presided over when we visited by a young man so jolly it seemed as if he could be Santa Claus in 40 years.

Above, An installation of mosaic eggs by Robert James in a run-down part of Market Street, part of a program of The Artery funded by the S.F. Art Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Across all the cultures and religions in the Northern hemisphere are celebrations of light in the darkest days - It's fascinating -literally hypnotic- the dazzling surfaces presented by the reflective, faceted surfaces of ornaments, as if staring into this dissolving radiance could take one right out of materiality, time and civilization and its discontents.

Robbie's Idea

2010-12-09T10:33:00.000-08:00

Robbie had the idea of my making a cushion cover for his mother (my sister) to memorialize their terrier Teddy, who is no longer with them. The reference photo was taken by a family friend, Dick Gilmore.

For the fur, I felted a wool shirt I found on the street. I have plans to turn five sweaters which have been felted (three of them intentionally) into two fashion forward sweaters, possibly over that limbo week between Christmas and New Year's.

December Evening, San Francisco

2010-12-06T16:37:00.000-08:00

Heeeeeathcliffffff!

North Beach

China Town Window

The Window of Community Thrift, in the Mission, where students from California College of Art are doing a series of installations.

I'd identify the artist, but the window only had a list of participants in the series. If anyone knows, please let me know.

Made for Aid

2010-12-05T10:44:00.000-08:00

This reversible wall hanging is for sale at the Made for Aid Etsy Store, along with other items suitable for Christmas giving, including scarves for wintry weather. All proceeds go to charity, see the Made for Aid website for more details.

Something Wrong

2010-12-04T10:42:00.000-08:00

Christmas ornaments in a local store. Please note: these are gun-sized, not ornament sized. If a certain ex-governor were a festive decoration, this is what she'd be.

Edit: After I posted this, went to a gallery show which had a matched pair of stitched and stuffed white satin pistols as a wall-hanging. How can political/didactic art hope to keep up with the proliferating weirdness efflorescing from the strange machine which is mature capitalism?

Something Mysterious

2010-12-02T17:45:00.000-08:00

I get the part about the protective coloration...but surely this is unusual? If you feel inclined to speculate, please do.

Holiday Card

2010-12-01T13:36:00.000-08:00

I'm not exactly sure which Holiday is being celebrated here...in any case, I'm offering 10 of these 4" by 6" cards, blank inside, with pristine white envelopes for purchase at $12.00 American, shipping included. As the Holidays are upon us, I'll just be sending them out for the next week or so, so you'll have time to use them before Christmas. I will attempt to send out any orders in 24 hours.

They were a family of dreamers

2010-11-30T06:40:00.000-08:00

There's a beautiful tribute on Waldo Walkiria World- one of those works you look at and it seems so simple, yet you've never seen anything quite like it before.

Something Horrid

2010-11-28T10:35:00.000-08:00

On redubble. This must be the Antiguardian of Dreams, or the Bringer of Nightmares. I wonder how far back the Punch and Judy show goes? He is the little homunculus in all of us, the reptilian brain which it's well to sing to sleep.

Softly, softly.

Link to Jan Svankmajer's Punch and Judy.

Something Pretty

2010-11-27T18:03:00.000-08:00

Something I made for Mina's shop. I like this narrative cartoon about the creative process.

Paper blooms

2010-11-24T09:50:00.000-08:00

This is a detail of Bryan's lovely 2011 calendar,

there is a larger detail on Tinytheatre

along with more about of the studio visit.

The detail shown here is about 3/4 of an inch across.

These are made on a letterpress,

a traditional printing technology which

impresses a metal plate into damp paper.

Commissioned work

2010-11-22T06:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday - here is another commissioned piece.

Brought to you by the Department of Wishful Thinking

2010-11-18T16:31:00.000-08:00

Off Leash T-shirt

I suppose you could get into some interesting discussions in a bar wearing this...

Edit: it occurs to me that when we are contained, we long for freedom, whereas when we are completely free, we start thinking about the wee little cottage with the light in the window. This is, of course, hardly an original thought, in fact I believe there is a classic song involving a red bandana along these lines.

All Fall Down

2010-11-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

Looking for that still space in the middle...not much time to make art lately, health issues of my remaining parent taking up a lot of time.

A digit is not always a number

2010-11-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

Illustration for a Berkeley Monthly article about a teacher explaining the term "digit" to middle-school students. Unfortunately, this particular teacher confused "lie" and "lay" unintentionally in the text of the article - gnashing of teeth, rending of garments here. Sigh.

Guardian of Dreams

2010-11-11T00:46:00.000-08:00

Another t-shirt, this was based on a stuffed lion I had as a child. The sale at redbubble (see Nov. 4 post) ends on the 14th.

After I had made this, I visited Spirit Cloth and saw a sibling of this character (not the first time Jude and I have been looking at the same page in the book of dreams). And there is a more cautious cousin of these two on fiberrainbow.

Bokeh!

2010-11-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

"In winter," Grandfather Trout said, "summer is a myth. A report, a rumor. Not to be believed in".
- John Crowley, Little,Big
Edit: See comments section for selections from readers' favorite winter-themed poems ( add your own if you would like).

Descent

2010-11-08T07:09:00.000-08:00

For film buffs in particular, there is a post about racial and gender strereotyping in film/television followed by some very thoughtful comments at Razored Zen.

Sale at redbubble

2010-11-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

Above, the Ancient Mariner as a t-shirt buddy. For the next week, through November 14, all my t-shirts,prints and calendars are 15% off ar redbubble with the code below. Just saying...

SusanSanford_is_on_sale_1725

And here's the link to look at all of my work:

on redbubble

I'm going to make this an illustration friday entry for the prompt afterwards-
in the sense that this is after the phantom ship sails away,
and the Mariner is left with the consequences of his actions.
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Cassandra

2010-11-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

Cassandra was given the ability to see the future by Apollo: when she refused him, he cursed her with the provision that her prophecies would never be believed.

W.I.P. and Jeopardy question

2010-10-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

She was given the gift (gift?) of prophecy with one disadvantage...

I chose this as the oracular shell from among those below (and replaced the book cover with this piece of plain wood)

The final on Monday.

A Little Bird Told Me (Commissioned Work)

2010-10-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

Do let me know if you are interested in commissioning one of your own...the next one I am doing is a wedding photo, very excited about that. I'm treating these differently than the ones I do for myself, they're softer, and of course I assume people don't want the faces hidden. Thursday I'll be posting another altered photo of a child, this one more in the usual mode.

Not a Japanese Horror Film

2010-10-25T06:13:00.000-07:00

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas

--From The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot

It's wrong to confuse an author with his or her works...but he has a dyspeptic look that seems perfect for a crab, does Eliot. Not to mention the poem being set in October, in keeping with its Autumnal mood. I'm going with literature-related t-shirts on Mondays for awhile. Next week, continuing with the nautical theme, I'll have the Ancient Mariner up.

Two Books from a garage sale (There are no seasons in California)

2010-10-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

The second image is from Heath's New System of Writing, more from this exquisite little pamphlet on Tinytheatre.

The season to go inward and take some satisfaction in the hearth fire (whatever that may be for you) in Northern Hemisphere. For myself, I tend towards cooking root vegetables and sewing.

Lives of the Saints: The Burden of Proof

2010-10-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

Things which don't constitute proof (aka truth):

Evidence

Deeply held convictions

Elegance of the Equation

Your dead Aunt Fanny's sugar cookie recipe

One draws one's own conclusion, the portrait you see is of necessity merely a sketch.

I like this set on flickr too.