excursions: workshops

I am extremely lucky to live in a place with cool community workshops. For a little town, they’re more available than one might imagine. Thanks to Carrboro Greenspace (and the friends that taught the workshops), I recently learned about cultivating edible mushrooms and making cheese. It turns out that with patience, clean hands and an interest in paying attention to what you’re doing, neither thing is so hard.

(preparing shiitake mushroom logs)

Both workshops demystified what seemed like hard (or at least mysterious) ways of creating food. The barrier to entry for cheese making – it turns out- is a few basic steps, Maple View‘s ubiquitous local milk and a shop about 2 miles from my doorstep that sells cultures. In the spring (or fall, depending) I should be able to eat shiitake mushrooms growing from the inoculated logs in my back yard. And if I want to inoculate more, I now have the basic skills and these links. Awesome.

 

yellow day, part II

Another yellow conversation from my images folder, this time a bit brighter:

(art by Eva Hesse, portrait from Street Peeper)

yellow day, part I

I like to scan through my images folder and see what conversations are happening between the pictures I’ve collected.

Here is a golden yellow conversation:

(portrait from facehunter)

 

end of november/ beginning of december reading

I finished reading Modern Women. All of it. Since I read one text book, I can certainly read another. This week I began this one:

This book is the companion to an incredible exhibition I saw at MoMA a few years back. It was given to me a little while after that, so I’ve read bits and pieces already, but I’ve never approached it in a structured way until now.

collecting images

I’ve spent a few HUGE chunks of time lately getting lost on the internet/ collecting reference and inspiration images. My “this is interesting” folder is a whole lot more full thanks to these binges. Here are some things that have caught my eyes since beginning my triangles series.

For some artists (Agnes Martin and Gego), I looked their work up more after reading essays from Modern Women. Two of the internet gateways to many other great photos/ blogs have been Garance Doré and OUI.

triangles

I began some little play-drawings with my gouache. They turned into something I really liked and now I’ve made a whole bunch. There are enough now that they’re starting to evolve. (The top left is most recent; bottom right, the first.)

I’m feeling really good about these, so far.

sedna of the sea, part I

The exhibition of illustrations Matt and I made are now on view at Caffe Driade.

We chose the Inuit folk tale of Sedna and each made four illustrations, depicting different aspects of it. We discussed themes, colors and compositions to make sure that we were on the same page. We shared a small reference folder to serve as our visual guide (though we each assembled many more reference images.) We illustrated, tweaked, critiqued and assembled. We hung the show on Tuesday (11/2). You can see them through the end of the month.

Photos soon (they need to be scaled for blogging, the images are HUGE right now), the statement below, preceded by a reference image.

“In the legend, a young woman is deceived into marrying a sea bird disguised as a man. When the trick is discovered, Sedna’s father comes to rescue her. He kills the bird-man and they begin their journey back across the water. The other sea birds flock together to create a great storm which threatens to sink the small kayak. Frightened, the father heaves Sedna into the sea. When she tries to climb back in, he severs her fingers with his knife. Unable to save herself, Sedna sinks to the ocean floor. Her fingers become the whales, seals, fish and other marine animals which sustain Inuit life.

Historically retold orally, folk tales stretch the boundaries of the real and unreal to engage the listener. Often used as teaching parables, they offer an intimate window into a culture. Although Sedna’s tale is gruesome, it serves as a stern warning against misplaced trust and the danger of the indigenous landscape (the northern coastal reaches of Canada). It is also an embodiment of lives sustained through a life lost.”

recent reading

September is almost over, but here’s a look at what I’ve been reading.

costume jewelry

Scanning through my inspiration folder today, it seemed like there was a conversation happening between these two photos. Mata Hari and Kate Moss (Vogue).

moka

I read this article in the New York Times just now and really enjoyed two things.

First, the man quoted saying, “We may not be so rich, but we are capable.”

Next, this old commercial for the Moka Express, a coffee maker that I like very much to begin with.

(While I think the animation is amusing and silly, I will admit that it may be a little unkind and I don’t understand why there’s a gun at the end. But then, my Italian isn’t very good.)