Mural Project

Arting Away

2011-10-24T22:04:00.004-04:00

This is a sneak peak of the work I'm doing for the show with the November 1 deadline. I set out to do a mixed media piece using materials/techniques including crochet, shrinky dink, water colors, and maybe embroidery. I've been working on the crochet elements for the last two weeks because it just takes forever when you use the thin thread instead of yarn. The picture shows how I incorporated shrinky dink into the chrochet.

So far my unemployment has been peppered with holidays so I haven't really had much time to fill. This is my first full week without a holiday coming up, and it's pretty busy. Tomorrow I start back up at the pottery studio finally, and I am working on these shows as well as revamping my portfolio and website. Those projects combined with general erranding and the inexplicable time warping that happens when you're home all day makes for a full-feeling day. Why is it that time goes by faster when you're at home all day?

Making Deadlines

2011-10-11T18:42:00.003-04:00

When my time at my organization ended, I was really concerned about what I would do without somewhere to go every day. I am very productive at work, but sometimes it's hard to be productive for my own projects. I'm still in the early part of adjusting to being on my own most of the day most of the week, and with the holidays this month I haven't really been faced with a full week alone yet. But to make sure I keep myself busy and working, I made a "menu" of things I could be doing.

But that's not really enough, I think, because part of what makes me so productive at work is the deadlines. So I am going to try to focus on my artist identity a lot during this time of complete "employment rest" and sign up for some shows. I've got three shows with upcoming deadlines in my sights, one of which is coming up in only a few weeks but I am so excited and inspired by the project constraints.

AND, once the holidays have ended and I get to have full weeks again, I want to begin a regular schedule at the pottery studio again. I was able to sell my work at the craft fair last summer and I really think that I have some good ideas that I want to see to fruition.

Everything is exciting and I only hope that I keep myself motivated. I think this will be a major test in finishing what I start and finding internal motivation. I also plan to use my blog as a way to keep myself motivated, with way more frequent posts and project updates. We'll see, we'll see what 5772 will bring!

Day Book, D.A.I.Y.E. Day.

2011-10-03T22:16:00.000-04:00

Today I made an organizer, because when I am feeling disorganized I make systems for organizing (and then maybe I don't use them). I decided the first thing I would do after my time at my current position ended would be to do something that felt productive and grounding... so... and organizer it was.

I took three sides of an old box (plucked out of the paper recycling bin in our apartment, somewhat to JewishGuy's dismay). I collaged on the outside, covered it with mod podge, and used brads to hold the "general to-do list" paper on one side. Then I did something way too complicated to bind the other side together into a book and then sew it onto the cover very slowly. I also put a brad on each side of the covers to be used as closure devices (a red string wraps around them to keep the book closed).

I might still sew a pocket into the large empty flap so that I have somewhere to keep business cards or whatever that I pick up.

Basically, I felt like I needed something to keep me motivated, because now that I have nowhere to go during the day I have become very anxious. Okay, today was Day 1 of not having anywhere to go... and I already contacted a temp agency to help make some moneys while I continue the job search.

My position ended because the department closed, effective Erev Rosh Hashana, last Wednesday. Last week was such a stressful week, and even though Rosh Hashana was good it was not due to our planning! We were both so stressed we barely got what we needed to get done, done, and one of the meals we hosted was woefully short on food (I mean, for my standards - I want people to be stuffed with food of all sorts before dessert, and that just wasn't the case).

A piece of good news - I sent in my ATR application as soon as I got home from work on Wednesday! All of my hours are finished, the application went in the mail, and this week (or next) I will follow-up to see if they got it. Hooray! I also put in for a hold on my LCAT permit, hopefully that will come through soon.

And finally, one of my goals for the month of October is to create a consistent online presence, which will mean a major overhaul of my website and blog. I will keep updating (such that I have been) in the meantime, but look forward to some big changes soon :)

Endings

2011-09-07T14:54:00.000-04:00

I won't be volunteering anymore at the end of the month, so I'm not sure what happens next. I made a calendar and put it in the art room so we could talk about endings, and how things are going to end in a few weeks. It's scary.

It's also odd because the last day of the program (and my last day volunteering) is also Erev Rosh Hashana. So my new year will start without this volunteer gig, something I have literally been doing since the day I got here in New York. I'm really not sure what will happen next and it makes me nervous, but I am trying to see it as an opportunity to do something new...

Embroidery

2011-08-16T19:20:00.000-04:00

I have really been getting into embroidery at one of the studios where I work. It's fun, it's like painting with thread! Plus it is incredibly soothing.

Today I did a demo at work with a bunch of different stitches, I don't know what they're all called but I know how to do them mostly from trial and error:

It started with the blue line, then the brown chain stitch, then the other stitch I don't know what it's called, and then combining stitches to make the orange sun and yellow star.

Fun!

Maybe if I get really good at it I can start doing designs on skirts and other clothes... I would love to do things like that to my clothes. I have some skirts that I barely ever wear that might want to have some decoration on them...

The Four Pound Terror (Part 5)

2011-08-07T22:46:00.000-04:00

The Four Pound Terror (Part 4)

2011-08-06T22:45:00.000-04:00

The Four Pound Terror (Part 3)

2011-08-05T22:44:00.000-04:00

The Four Pound Terror (Part 2)

2011-08-04T22:43:00.000-04:00

The Four Pound Terror (Part 1)

2011-08-03T22:43:00.000-04:00

I've been doing this as a series on facebook, I suppose it's time they found their way to the blog! I will post them one by one so each gets its own post.

Help my tomatoes!

2011-07-22T13:02:00.001-04:00

This heat is withering my tomato plant. We haven't had a good rain in a few weeks and the temperatures are in the upper 90s / 100s. I am giving it lots of water but it's just not enough. Is it too late? Should I harvest the green tomatoes and throw the plant away? Or can I save it? Help!!

Spending thyme with a new camera (heh heh)

2011-07-15T11:16:00.000-04:00

Oh it feels so nice to take pictures with a camera again (and not my phone).

I love that I can set the image aspect ratio on this camera because I find myself taking better pictures with a 3:2 (as opposed to the usual 4:3 or the HD 16:9). I can also take square pictures, another ratio that I like better than 4:3. 4:3 is just always missing a piece, or has too much, it's never the right size and I always want to crop it after the fact. This photo above is completely unedited, this is what it looked like on the camera when I took the picture.

Our garden is going well, by the way! (Image above is our thyme basking in the sun) Despite the complete lack of rain and some pretty hot temperatures, things are growing. My tomato plant is hurting for water even though I feel like I overwater it every day, so the bottom leaves are wilty a little, but we have some tomatoes growing!

I'm waiting for the day they are ripe, I will make some home-made mozzarella cheese, harvest some tomatoes and basil and have a completely home-grown salad. If only we had a cow or a goat for me to raise, then I could have raised the milk to make the cheese, too (hahaha...).

I'm hoping for some great fruit and veg images from the farmer's market today, and also some delicious produce.

I missed having a camera :) :) A big thank you to my husband's parents who are partially sponsoring this replacement camera!

New Camera :)

2011-07-14T21:32:00.000-04:00

It arrived! My new camera!!! (This is my hair)

Conference Success!

2011-07-14T10:33:00.003-04:00

I recently got back from the 2011 American Art Therapy Association conference and what a great and successful conference experience! The picture is of my table at the craft fair that I shared with someone from my program (I'm on the left with my pottery). It was a pretty successful craft fair for me, and I made enough money to pay for almost half of a replacement camera off of selling my pottery alone.

Selling my pottery was really motivating for me - I charged more than I thought I should, and people seemed to think these were reasonable prices. It was great because I think I would otherwise very much under-charge for my pieces. Four bowls broke - four great bowls - so that was money lost, but I brought home the shards to use in my garden, so at least it doesn't completely go to waste. Also some people took shards for their own art work.

I also presented my thesis again. I actually had a decent crowd even though I was scheduled during the lunch hour and across from the Town Hall meeting. People asked really nice and supportive questions, no heckling (which can happen, even from a crowd full of therapists, it's surprising). My thesis (and a handout summarizing my presentation) will be up on my website soon so that people can access it and cite me in their work. In general it was great to get my feet wet in national presentations, and I've got two proposals in the works for next year.

(What am I thinking?? I'm also planning to take the ATR-BC exam at the conference next year?? Clearly I am insane.)

Happy Anniversary To Me

2011-07-12T10:47:00.001-04:00

Today is my 1 year anniversary of volunteering for this organization in New York. Monday, July 12, 2010 was my first day of work last year, and it doesn't feel that long ago! Since then I have run countless groups, seen individual clients, taken on more hours, started an art studio in a residential facility, created workshops, helped organize events and exhibitions, presented at trainings, written curricula, and made so much art.

It just so happens that tonight I've put together an exhibition/opening event for the art studio I started. It's a pretty good anniversary because I don't think anything illustrates the amount of work I've been doing more than an exhibition, right?

I was about to post the flyer for the exhibition when I realized the flyer has client artwork all over it and I had to delete it... But the name of the exhibition is "A Peek in the Studio: a show of in-progress work by the artists who live in our residence." There will be awards, art making, viewing artwork, and of course food.

I also hope this show will revitalize the studio. We've been seeing dwindling attendance, so I hope that we will get more people to start coming once we show the studio is a fun, relaxing, creative place.

Time to go back to prepping!

(This picture is the awards I made for the participants - each one will have the number of visits to the studio they've made, and anyone who has come at least twice will get one!)

Urban Nature series

2011-06-24T18:38:00.000-04:00

Uprooted.

(Urban Nature series is done using my iphone "instagram" filter because I don't have a nice camera right now!)

Urban Nature series

2011-06-23T18:36:00.002-04:00

More from the open lot with the barbed wire fence.

Urban Nature series (in fake polaroids)

2011-06-22T18:31:00.006-04:00

Who needs the High Line when you have huge empty lots with tons of natural growth? Oh, except the scary barbed wire and 8 foot fence kind of keeps people from walking around and exploring in there, I guess.

Book making

2011-06-21T14:16:00.000-04:00

Today I started assembling the books that I meant to assemble back in February when I initiated a mail-in collaborative artist book project. Fifteen people signed up, fourteen people actually sent in pages, which is pretty good. This morning I put holes in the pages and covers and bound six complete books in a few hours. I'm hoping to finish them tonight and mail everything tomorrow or Thursday, but we'll see.

I really meant to have this finished back in February. But that was when I started volunteering almost full time, along with a lot of other things, and it fell very far down the priority list. Since the end of May I cut back my hours and a few other things, and have been spending time winding down. I finally felt like I could begin to tackle this enormous undertaking. I can't wait until it's finished.

Will I do something like this again..? Maybe, but not a book project, not something that requires so much work on my end! I have coordinated printmaking exchanges and that was much more fun because all it required (after coordinating sign-up, etc) was assembling collections of images and mailing them back. It's the binding that has been the daunting part of the process.

Anyway... back to work!

Basketball

2011-06-20T22:16:00.002-04:00

Stumbled across a basketball game while on a long walk today after work.

Frustrated!

2011-06-19T23:10:00.001-04:00

I am so frustrated that my camera was stolen. I am angry and sad and frustrated. So angry. I'm just going to say that over and over until I figure out how to cope with it.

My camera was so important to me. So important that it is the only thing I keep on me at all times besides my phone and my keys. The camera on my phone takes pictures and sometimes they are all right, but they aren't nearly the quality that I want. They look better as fake polaroids than they do as regular images, I think. At least then you expect lower quality images.

UGH. I'm so angry and frustrated and disappointed.

Today we went to buy a new camera but it was such a frustrating experience. Not only because being in the store was overwhelming and frustrating, but also - I don't really want a new camera. I wasn't in the market for a new camera before mine was stole and I don't want a new one now. I want my old camera. I don't want to spend money replacing something. If I'm going to spend money I want an upgrade, I want a digital SLR, I don't want to re-purchase a perfectly functioning digital camera that suited all of my point-and-shoot and some of my better quality needs. I wanted my next camera to be an upgrade to something that took really substantial, nice photos, not another point and shoot. But I still need a point and shoot to carry with me for the random pictures I like to take.

It makes me SO sad.

And it was stolen from where I volunteer; I don't get paid to be there, so that adds another blow.

I know, it's a thing, it's not a person or a pet or something truly important, and it can be replaced. But I am having a temper tantrum over here over having to replace it. A lot of "I want I want I want" like a child. I can't control this situation any more than I can control my job situation. I just have to deal with it.

Expect lots of fake polaroids to come until I figure out what I really want to do next.

PS the picture above is from the garden. I hung some paintings around the fence and they are slowly being overgrown by the ivy that has come over the fence. Pretty :)

Assistants on break

2011-06-17T10:04:00.000-04:00

Cilantro

2011-06-16T18:03:00.000-04:00

Why oh why do I have such little success with cilantro?

This is the furthest I've gotten, out of six pockets, this is what I have, this little bit of limping, struggling cilantro. This and my marigolds, they basically want to be put out of their misery. Sad.

2011-06-13T19:11:00.000-04:00

(Click for larger version)

My camera was stolen and there's a good chance I won't get it back or be reimbursed. It's pretty sad. My phone camera just doesn't take the kind of pictures I want, I have no control over the adjustments to light or focus, etc etc.

As a result I have been using my garden as a coping tool. Today I decided to share some pictures of progress in the garden.

I love that all of the herbs are really taking off (except the cilantro for some reason). But I think what I'm most happy about is the flower bed feeling alive with wildflowers. Last summer the flowerbed was completely dead, not even weeds grew in it. The last tenants threw trash and cigarettes into it. I tried planting in it last year but it was July when we moved in, August when I was planting, and that is the worst time to plant. Plus there was also cat poo and stuff in it, so I didn't want to really touch any of the soil. This year I sprinkled wildflower seeds every week for a few weeks, not knowing what to expect. Only a few little white flowers have blossomed, but everything is so green and alive.

The whole garden patio is full of life, it is so different from last year to look out there.

PS Sorry for the low quality photos. Sad sad sad.

Ode to the cats

2011-06-02T22:01:00.000-04:00

This little kitten has been with us for almost a week now. She is crazy. Also, she is driving Lilly crazy. But also, she is very cute.

She is obsessed with food, she follows me around the house (often under my feet), she gets into everything, and she chews on things. Did we take home a puppy by accident?

They said she was 3 months old when we got her, but she is only 2lb - or she was last week. I believe she's gained weight since then. Last week when she was lying down you could see her ribs through her skin on the part of her belly that was shaved for her spay. This week you can't see the ribs.

It's really hard to take pictures of her. She is a gray tabby with tuxedo markings. And she has a bright pink nose. And a HUGE head. Which I guess makes up for Lilly's tiny head.

For comparison's sake, look at how perfect Lilly is at modeling. She is amazing. She should be on America's Next Top Cat Model. If Tyra saw her, she'd say that Lilly really understands how to use subtle changes in her pose to accentuate different parts of her face and convey different moods through the photograph.

Two assistants? We'll see if Lucy is as good at the job as Lilly, or if she is more of a Professor Chaos type.

Weaving

2011-05-24T23:25:00.000-04:00

Tonight I taught my group about weaving after reading a tutorial about using cardboard to make portable looms on gingerbreadsnowflakes.com. I didn't quite do it correctly but it came out well enough! This is my square, it has some stripes, nothing too fancy.

Garden Friend

2011-05-20T19:57:00.000-04:00

Found this guy sitting on top of the air conditioning unit outside and was worried he would get sucked in and die! Since the a/c was off at the moment, I took some pictures of him close up, then relocated him to the garden. (I put him in with the weeds and ivy that is overgrowth from someone else's garden, so he can eat that first)

Isn't he cute? I have some other, grosser pictures where you can see how slimy he is, but I just love the one above, he is cheesing for the camera.

Playing with buttons

2011-05-17T23:46:00.000-04:00

Working on a mixed media project, doing some demos for clients, and this is what happened today. Buttons, beads, embroidery, and some cool b&w fabric.

Recycled Planters

2011-05-13T18:24:00.001-04:00

Did some work on the patio today.

I have spent more money on the garden than I had anticipated, but I think I've stretched it further than last year. I made planters out of tin cans, twine, and beads I pulled off of an old necklace and hung cheap flowers in them. So I guess hanging these flowers really only cost me what the flowers themselves cost me, and it was $2.99 for a pack (of four plants), so ... what you see in this image cost about 75c. Not bad. I have five of these hanging around, and then the leftover three marigold plants were put in an aluminum bucket I got at a flea market.

Mostly I am trying to do the actual plants for as cheap as possible because of my tendency to kill things. I bought some plant food today so I fed my plants, which I will try to do every Friday. But almost everything in the garden has been started from seeds or are super cheap (like the flowers). Because all of the sprouts I started in April died while we were out of town, I am starting from scratch outside - but the spinach is already sprouting, so I have hopes the rest will follow suit soon. This is why I'm doing it cheaply... okay, so all of my sprouts died (except the peppers), I'll just start over, no big deal! I don't mind the "wasted" effort, because the process is the fun part for me, not necessarily the product

Yesterday I put up the solar powered lights and last night it was so pretty...

I can't wait until we're finally finished and I can take pictures!

Professional Nerdiness (I love charts)

2011-05-12T18:43:00.000-04:00

Because all of my hours are volunteering, sometimes I feel kind of low. I keep a very detailed chart of my progress but tonight I made a graphic to show myself getting closer to my goal as a way to stay motivated. I also calculated the percentage of the hours I've completed towards my two licenses - I am almost finished with 30% of the hours I need for my state license, and have finished more than 50% of the hours I need for my national registration!

Luckily, I married an engineer. Everyone ASSUMES he is the nerdy one. But I am an ARTEEST. Obviously that makes me cool automatically, right? Coolness came when I bought my first canvas? Or pastels? Right?

This chart is so awesome, and it just keeps getting more awesome. You can get so much information quickly and easily (well, YOU can't, because you can't see the headers).

The graph just makes the info look pretty, like at a fundraiser, I can see the totals rising. I hated the color schemes so I put awesome retro wood paneling on it.

NOW YOU KNOW HOW COOL I AM.

Coming soon... art? Maybe? Sorry for the intermission of art making, I am going a little nuts.

Bee

2011-05-06T18:13:00.000-04:00

I don't know what happened to this bee. It was dead but in perfect shape. I couldn't help getting some really close pictures because, well, how often can you get this close to a bee?

Our 2011 Patio Plans

2011-04-28T15:36:00.000-04:00

Well, I was home today taking a bit of a vacation after coming back from Passover with family, and I decided to work on the plans for our patio that I mentioned. The winter was really hard, especially with our heat going in and out every few days, and our apartment isn't very big. We took this place because of its sweet patio space, so we are going to make it amazing for this summer.

So this is my vision! I decided to make a collage because it helps me get a feel for the colors I want, and it also explains it to JewishGuy who luckily trusts my tastes enough to say "I can't picture it, but I'm sure it will look good." So there you have it, the foundations of a good marriage, right? :)

Read the full description after the jump!

FURNITURE
We already have all of the furniture we're going to have out there, although if I see any interesting chairs at the fleas over the next few weeks I might pick some up. I'd really like an outdoor rocking chair, actually, but we'll see what's out there. The problem for me is that the furniture we have right now is the same color as the fence, and it got a little weather-worn over the winter since we forgot to cover it and then it snowed a ton. The plan for the patio table is to clean it and then paint it a distressed blue. We have the APPLARO table, which I purchased last year at the end of the season and I got a good deal on it because it was the second-to-last one in the store. We also have the matching adjustable chairs, which I'll painted a distressed dark yellow. I'm thinking of buying or making cushions (it's not comfortable to sit in the chairs for too long right now), which will be dark browns, bright-muted greens, and deep reds mixed with black and white patterns. Don't worry, it matches, these are the colors of the inside of the apartment so I know it works!

ARTWORK
We were at the flea market not too long ago when we saw these amazing outdoor artworks that looked like huge tiles. They were so simple but beautiful we thought we should purchase a few to hang around the outside. There's a huge white wall that we can't do anything with, it would be so great to add some interest by putting up a painting or mosaic. But they were selling for $80 each, which we can't really afford and also seemed silly considering how easy it would be to make our own. So that's my project for tomorrow - they will just be pieces of wood with quick paintings, similarly distressed to the tables and chairs but in brighter colors. I'm also planning to make a few pieces we can hang around the fence, to brighten up the drab, weather-worn wood fence.

GARDEN
We'll have a mix of container garden and planted flowers in the flower bed. There will be a vertical garden hanging from the spot of the fence that gets reliable sun filled with herbs and flowers. There will also be potted plants here, which is a mix of flowers, tomatoes, and pepper plants. I saw a picture of flowers potted in painted tin cans, so I might do that and hang some impatiens from the fence, too. The flower bed will have wildflowers, a bush that magically survived the winter, vines creeping in from next door, and maybe some bamboo that I can see coming up from underneath. The sunlight that the flower bed gets is so variable that I can't be bothered to try to figure out how to make a consistent garden in it, so we'll just see what grows. Also, I need to figure out how to keep the neighbors' cats from pooping in it.

LIGHTING
We don't seem to have a plug outside. SO. We'll create our own solar-powered chandelier of tree lights hung on a hanging bird-feeder stand. We'll also string solar-powered string lights around the fence, as well as some decorative ropes I'm planning to make from chopped up fabrics (maybe chopped up umbrellas). The lights are actually a good plan anyway, because they will come on automatically every night, which means they are Shabbat-friendly (we won't have to turn them on or off). They won't be very bright, so it's not a substitution for real outdoor lights, but it should be enough to have dinner outside as the sun goes down, allowing us to stay out longer than twilight.

OTHER PLANS
We may also build a structure to hide the enormous air conditioning units that share our patio space with us. They are not only ugly and loud, they produce a hot wind that is pretty uncomfortable to sit near in the summer. We're planning a cloth fence that should block some of the heat and the eye-sore, but there's not much we can do about the noise.

It's going to be a busy May as we put all of this together, but I'm pretty excited to have a project to make our patio nicer. I don't expect this work to cost much money because we already have the most expensive pieces (the furniture) and the rest is a matter of planting at the right time, resourcefulness, and work. We want the patio to be a colorful, relaxing, dynamic, fun space, so we can start having weekly barbecues and/or shaloshudis as Shabbat gets longer.

Fun!

.

Boozy Birthday Present

2011-04-16T21:17:00.001-04:00

JewishGuy's birthday was Friday so for his birthday I made him a painting of his favorite Scotch. Well, it used to be his favorite, I hear rumblings there may be another contender. But he always has a bottle of this in the Scotch cabinet so he at least likes it enough to have a painting of it on his wall at the office.

I almost didn't do the lettering because that is my absolute weakness (painting lettering ... just ask my former job as a custom plate painter at a pottery painting studio). You can see I'm not very good at it. But without the letters it looked so blah and generic.

Anyway, I like the way it came out, and I'm writing this before I give it to him because I scheduled this post for the future so he won't see it before he gets his present so I haven't seen his response yet. I think he will like it!

Plans and Plants

2011-04-08T11:33:00.000-04:00

From here you can see (clockwise from left) the basil, spinach, tomatoes, chives, and then in the front right one little bell pepper starting to peek up! The bell pepper seeds came from a pepper I got at the grocery store that I wasn't sure would sprout, but here we are! And because the planters are clear, I can see that there are at least four other sprouts coming up. Yay peppers!

I know there's not a lot of art making going on around here, but actually there's quite a bit of art making going on! I just can't share it! My groups at work are making many long-term projects so I don't have little directives to share, and I haven't been able to make my own versions of these projects so I can't even show the ones I'm working on.

However, the planting is part of a larger therapeutic process for me. We are planning a big decorating project for the patio. It's very exciting! It is also helping me through these cold, wet days that are just dragging on.

I even made a sketch, although I don't think the lamps will be the same. We'll have a vertical garden on the fence that gets the most sun, which is where these sprouts will go assuming they survive us being out of town for Passover (I'm going to ask the pet sitter to water them every day but I am nervous). We're also planning to have solar lights placed around the fence and even make a solar light chandelier type thing so we can do seudah shlishit out there - the solar lights will turn on automatically when it gets dark so we don't have to do anything. They aren't very bright but most of the meal would happen before it gets too dark anyway. Also we are hoping to somehow cover the gigantic air conditioning units just to make it not seem so ugly and maybe buffer some of the noise. When the units are both on it's pretty loud out there. AND we're going to try to figure out something to do with the space right next to our apartment, under our upstairs neighbors' overhang, because it's kind of just empty space right now.

All that and more ... to be unveiled in June. A big project! A spring project to keep us focused on the summer and warm weather! Keeping spirits high during the last days of winter and the first days of spring...

Grow Station

2011-04-01T10:54:00.000-04:00

I bought a gro-bulb and a lamp just to keep the baby plants warm, nourished, and happy. I read that if they don't get enough sun they get stretched out which can kill them, and baby plants need more sunlight than their adult versions, but even the adult versions probably wouldn't like the conditions inside our apartment. So of course I rushed out and bought a bulb.

I'm going about these plants much differently than I did two summers ago when I planted the cholent mix to see what would grow. (I never harvested, by the way, because I moved the plants downstairs to be in the sun and promptly forgot about them.) But those plants were a self-exploration in nurturing as I was working through feelings about nurturing where I was working with children. This is more of a hobby and a way to feel productive, so I really want to make this work this time. Come on, little planties!

@artsyplantsy

2011-03-31T10:55:00.001-04:00

I've started a new twitter, @artsyplantsy. Here I'll post all the little things that don't merit a full blog post, like tons of pictures of sprouting things, or art I see while I'm walking around. And of course links to interesting artsy or plantsy blog posts. I like this new name because I feel more free to post the things I want to post, and feel like people will follow me based on those things, instead of having lots of random Jewish organizations following me because of my username even though none of my tweets are Jewish-related.

I haven't decided how I will include a feed to artsyplantsy on the blog yet. But if you want to follow along while I'm still in the rough stages, please follow me!

I think this new twitter account signals a move from my JewishGal brand that I've been working under for the last almost four years. I'm not really connecting with that part of me right now the way I was back when I started this blog (and the other JewishGal things, like my old twitter account). I'm more Jewishly active in my private life than I was back then when I was a Jewish professional, but I'm less interested in using that part of me as a lens for my public life.

What I'm saying is I'm contemplating a major shift that will have minor effects. I am thinking about moving my blog and revamping it, including all of the past posts, but under a new name. I'm thinking of consolidating my "brand," changing my personal website url from the obscure "spiffywafer" to something that is more cohesive with the rest of my online presence. I don't have any ideas, but coming up with a new twitter made me think about it. But I don't think there will be any major effects on any of my regular readers' experiences with my blog, website, etc, other than typing in a new url when you want to see what I'm up to. I've been spiffywafer since 2001 and JewishGal since 2007, so it's kind of a tough choice!

In any case, look forward to future unveiling of something big and more put together than the current semi-connected website, blog, and twitter accounts. But not yet. Still kind of busy with what's on my plate right now!

Happy Anniversary :)

2011-03-29T10:31:00.023-04:00

Today is our second wedding anniversary. It's funny that it's our "second" anniversary because we've been together for eight years! But two years ago today we got married. It was 75 and sunny (maybe a little misting of rain in the afternoon). It was such an amazing day and an amazing weekend. :) :)

This past weekend we sponsored kiddush and scotch club at shul and I made this surprise centerpiece while JewishGuy was at work. He didn't know about it until it was on the table at shul.

I tried to recreate our wedding invitations in a found object sculpture. Ha!

We decided not to do anything for our anniversary except go on a date and get a big cake with two candles in it. It's too hectic to plan something crazy and really we don't need to do anything but spend time together. AW. MUSH. Also, last year, our anniversary was the first seder, so we spent our anniversary at a stranger's house with lots of people we didn't know (and a few people we did) getting drunk and eating matzah. Actually it was a TON of fun! But having a big piece of cake on our anniversary is definitely an improvement over matzah.

(Anyway, we still haven't been on a honeymoon. Whatever...)

Happy 2 years! Looking forward to many, many more.

Growing!

2011-03-27T12:59:00.000-04:00

I've started my garden already. It's still in the 40s out so whatever starts growing won't go outside for another few weeks, but I'm supposed to begin sprouting them inside so here we are.

So far I've already got spinach (above) and tomatoes that I can actually see above ground! Also planted is basil, chives, bell peppers, and oregano. Dill and cilantro will be sown once the weather warms up because they both want to be outside and don't transplant well. Other plans for plants include mint and maybe jalapeno peppers - the peppers I am planting from seeds from peppers I got from the grocery store, so I don't know if they will actually grow, but you can sometimes see peppers growing inside other peppers so I assume there is at least the possibility.

I don't have a good track record for these kinds of plants, so that's why I'm growing from seeds this year instead of buying little plants. The whole set-up so far has cost about $7, so I haven't invested too much money in it

Meanwhile, I've also planted the bulb I bought a couple of weeks ago and it is growing away... It looks more and more like Edward Scissorhands kind of hand, as the fingers sprout further and further up. At least it looks less like someone giving me the finger. I can't wait until it blooms, because I really don't know what it's supposed to look like. The guy at the plant store said this thing would grow in a cup of water, but since I planted it it really took off - in the cup of water it was growing roots but the tips of the parts that already looked like they were growing started to die. And I even found a use for the flower pot I made last year in ceramics, yay.

Also, I purchased some wildflower seeds that I'll start tossing around the flower bed in a couple of weeks. I'll do a little at a time, once a week or every other week, up until June. Hopefully things will start to grow as other things are sprouting so we can have flowers all summer.

Also! I think Mable the Maple has started to bud. Pictures of that later. Remember how pretty she was last fall?

I'm loving how green and fresh our apartment feels right now. I planted a couple of spider plant babies I took from work and hung it in the window and they seem to be enjoying their new location. I made some clippings of my plants I brought from Chicago and I'm letting them root so I can help them fill out (no thanks to the cat who keeps eating the leaves). And I've got all of these things sprouting, hopefully to turn into one pretty awesome herb garden come May. Hopefully I won't get stressed and neglect my plants like two years ago...

what the what (new playlist)

2011-03-24T19:31:00.000-04:00

I've listened to all of my playlists so many times ... I am ready for a new one. This one I still haven't tweaked, I don't know how good it is yet, but here it is anyway! The title pretty much describes how I feel about it. It's kind of bouncy, kind of upbeat, but not in your face. It's for cooking, cleaning, or running an art group when you're struggling to stay awake.

what the what
(put it on shuffle, it's pretty random)

Sheryl Crow, "Love is a Good Thing"
Rolling Stones, "Not Fade Away"
RJD2, "Good Times Roll Pt. 2"
Dispatch, "Flying Horses"
The Duhks, "95 South"
Moshav, "Hallelu"
The Cave Singers, "Oh Christine"
Black Eyed Peas, "They Don't Want Music"
Garbage, "Til the Day I Die"
Regina Spektor, "Dance Anthem of the 80's"
The Dodos, "Jodi"
Hadag Nachash, "Melodikah"
Bronx River Parkway, "Donde"
Led Zeppelin, "When the Levee Breaks"
Van Morrison, "Gloria"
Leona Naess, "Blue Eyed Baby"
North Mississippi Allstars, "Freedom Highway"
O.A.R., "Road Outside Columbus"
Sarah Jarosz, "Can't Hide"
Santana, "Oye Como Va"
The Mountain Goats, "In the Craters on the Moon"
Marcy Playground, "Gone Crazy"
The Presidents of the United States of America, "Peaches"
Rabbit, "Ladybug"
Mnemonic Sounds, "Keeping it Quiet"
Ray LaMontagne, "Three More Days"
Florence + The Machine, "Between Two Lungs"
Nick Drake, "Cello Song"
David Mead, "Chatterbox"
Thievery Corporation, "Exilio"
Sufjan Stevens, "Come on! Feel the Illinoise!"
Spoon, "I Saw the Light"
Violent Femmes, "Video Killed the Radio Star"
Harry Belafonte, "Jump in Line"
!!! (chk chk chk), "The Most Certain Sure"
Sara Bareilles, "Many the Miles"
Blind Melon, "Wilt"
Incubus, "Battlestar Scralatchtica"
PJ Harvey, "The Mess We're In"

Mixed Media Inspiration Book

2011-03-22T14:45:00.000-04:00

For a group that I am running I am working on a mixed media inspiration book. I can't wait to write more about this project but it isn't finished being outlined quite yet. It's very exciting, though! Click the link below to see the whole book (the images were too large to post on the main blog page).

Some finished work... (finally?)

2011-03-18T12:14:00.000-04:00

I've been making lots of stuff in the studio but I haven't shown anything. Also I have forgotten to pick it up AND I was having trouble with glazing on the dark brown clay that I love so much. Here are three of the seven things I brought home with me this week. One of them is another handle-less coffee mug.

The glazes aren't so exciting because I am working on the form more than the glazing. I've got a few bowls of varying sizes and one other small cup. Two tall narrow cups and one tall narrow vase are in the bisque fire this week so I will glaze them next time I go in. I made a third tall narrow cup this week after much struggling with the clay - I felt like goldilocks in there (this clay is tooooo soft, this clay is tooooo hard).

I'm excited because I'm really starting to build up inventory. In July I will have lots of small bowls and cups to sell at the conference. Yay!

Arches

2011-03-17T18:00:00.000-04:00

3.13.11 - shot from the hip, arches in DUMBO, NY

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Hamentaschen 2011

2011-03-16T22:10:00.001-04:00

I made this movie about our hamentaschen this year. We've been making them every year for a while but this year it was different for some reason. Anyway, it was still fun, and I made this fun little video about them, so watch!

Ever since that movie "For Your Consideration" came out, Purim has a whole new meaning. One of my favorite lines from that movie is something like "How could you do that as we all sit together at the Purim table." I laughed so, so, so hard at that movie, but I wonder how many non-Jews thought it was funny. Their Purim suedah was the saddest meal on earth. I'm glad ours aren't like that!!

Purim starts Saturday night and we've got a weekend full of parties planned for us, plus giving out nice little mishloach manot packages. How fun! I'm looking forward to it so much I totally forgot that St Patrick's day is tomorrow.

And of course I'll probably wear the same costume I've worn for the last five years. What can I say?

Happy Purim everyone!

A Dumbo Wedding

2011-03-15T17:56:00.003-04:00

3.13.11 - bride and groom pose for wedding photos in front of a mural in DUMBO, NY

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DUMBO

2011-03-13T17:51:00.000-04:00

Today we went on a trip to DUMBO. We're trying to visit different neighborhoods in New York, starting with brunch at a new restaurant and then walking around the area. Usually it's because something interesting is going on in the area that we can do/see while we're there.

For brunch (what New Yorkers call brunch starts at 12:30 on Sunday) we went to Dumbo General Store Cafe, which reminded us a lot of one of our favorite restaurants on Houston, Brasil. The food was tasty and fresh, but the coffee and tea wasn't as nice as the food - it's not unusual, so many of the good restaurants we go to still brew Lipton tea and don't use the nicer coffee beans available in New York. The only one that had good tea and coffee that we've been to on these outings was tablespoon in Chelsea, still one of my favorites.

Then, after some wandering, we went to the Monster Drawing Rally at the Dumbo Arts Center, a fundraiser to support the center and other galleries in the area. The admission was a suggested donation of $10 each, and all the drawings made during the rally would sell for $50. It was interesting... we got there early on so maybe the best was yet to come. Also it is their first year doing this, so they are still working out the kinks.

We saw wedding pictures being taken, wandered into a "these are random cool things I like so I'm selling them in my store" store, a boutique store for men with amateur pornographic images in the dressing room that you could see from the store, a book shop with a book making studio and performance space inside, and were nearly blown away by all of the wind!

So. DUMBO, check! So far we've explored Union Square, Chelsea, Chinatown, and DUMBO, with some quick visits to other neighborhoods, too. And our quest to eat around the city continues...

(check back for pictures from our trips, they will have their own entries)

Spring is almost here (feeling grounded)

2011-03-11T15:24:00.000-05:00

This bulb looks like it's giving me the finger. I bought it today at the plant store when I stopped off to talk about Spring planting, which should happen in the next few weeks. I asked about what to plant in my partial-shade / shade garden space, and had a great conversation with the guy who works there who has some good tips about gardening for cheap.

And then I bought this bulb. I've already forgotten what kind of flower it is. It just sits in water for a week or two and it will turn into a few purple flowers. I'm excited to see this bulb grow as a sign of impending Spring.

It's been a stressful couple of weeks, which is why I don't have much to report. I'm feeling more grounded today, but a lot of that could be due to the warmth and sunshine that's going on right now. I walked around for about three hours this afternoon, which just felt so good. I dropped off my film from my Holga, so I'll have that early next week and I can't wait to see what's on it. Now I've got the windows open, soon I'll be playing some music, making art, and getting ready for Shabbat.

New Perspectives Directive (or: funky colors and waterspouts)

2011-02-24T18:38:00.001-05:00

In a previous post I showed you some fun pictures I took with my iphone camera of a random plant. Well, the plant is actually the plant in the art room at work. How that came about was I was waiting for a client who didn't come, so in the meantime I took pictures (something I often do when I don't know what to do with myself). I chose to take some close-ups of the plant in the art room. Then I realized if I took pictures with my iphone then I could email them to myself and edit them at work instead of waiting to get home! I did just that, then turned them into the black and white images you see in the other post, and brought them to groups.

The first time I brought them to a group I just had them out in case someone needed some inspiration. Two clients began coloring them in with funky colors. Meanwhile, I traced one of the images and then colored it in with some interesting colors of my own.

I was really interested in how this came out! Also what came of making this during the group was that people wanted to learn how to mix colors on the paper like I did - either with colored pencils (what I used) or oil pastels. The result is that now I will be running a workshop on techniques for using oil pastels next week, since I think it is probably one of the most accessible drawing materials and a lot of "heavy handed" people may enjoy learning how to create illusions of depth, etc etc.

The second time I brought the images to group I pre-cut them into lots of random shapes, purposefully obscuring the image so it didn't look so planty anymore. I then asked participants to glue one or two of these pieces onto a larger sheet of construction paper and then include those images in a larger art piece. I said, think of these as the "seeds" for a larger art project.

My project ended up looking like a lot of waterspouts on a turbulent ocean. I wonder what that's about. It's probably the most violent image I've made in a long time, even though it's in all blues, greens, and browns.

Anyway, the group really got the idea of the project and ran with it. It was great to see where people went. I think pre-cutting the image really helped people move past its origins and try to make something new instead of relying on the original form of the plant.

In general I love using the xerox machine to warp images, so I may continue to stretch the plant pictures beyond their origins and bring them into the groups to have at it!

Fun with iphone pictures

2011-02-24T18:14:00.001-05:00

This picture is from my iphone camera, except I cropped it in iphoto so it's a little pixelly. But still! What a good camera for a phone!

I also cropped this one from a larger one. I love it.

These are the originals:

More about what I did with these pictures in a future post!

Tall Narrow Cup Goal: Accomplished!

2011-02-22T16:58:00.000-05:00

Well, mostly.

A bit ago I mentioned one of my goals was to make a tall, narrow cup. Here we have one vase and two tall narrow cups! The vase is the one that's finished and the cups still need to be trimmed on the bottom. They are pretty much the shape I wanted them to be and so far have survived in my care - that is, I transferred them to my shelf without dropping them. Pretty good!

Today I went to the studio for a while because there was a silly miscommunication and I ended up not at work today but not at the other site I was supposed to visit, either. So, finding myself with nothing to do, I decided to spend at least two hours on my pots. When I got there I found a lot of things had made it through the last bisque fire, so I was able to glaze five pieces! Then I trimmed the vase I made last Friday and made the two new cups. Pretty productive day!

I wouldn't say my goal is completely accomplished, however. I did manage to make a cup, but I want to make this cup shape consistently. Then I will try another shape. But I think I've really started to understand how to make the shape I want, which is largely about feeling the difference between pushing on the outside and pushing on the inside of the clay. (Push on the inside to go wider, on the outside to go taller) I don't think I have special talent for working with clay, but I'm proud of the hours I've put into this to get where I am and I'm seeing real progress. So... yay :)

AppsAppsApps

2011-02-22T10:12:00.000-05:00

I will update with some artwork in a bit but first I want to share my new obsession: apps.

Oh, yes, I know, I'm not the first person to become obsessed with apps after getting a new iphone (birthday present from my parents - thank you!). But my app obsession is pretty single-minded. I just want strategy and puzzle games. That's all. Basically, my iphone is a fancy gameboy.

But I'm struggling a little because I am kind of OCD when it comes to desktop spaces - not in real life, just virtual desktops. I don't like messy desktops with lots of things you have to search through. This is something people probably wouldn't guess about me considering what most spaces around me look like (have you seen the piles of paper and art supplies next to my computer?). But on my iphone I want everything on one screen and neatly organized. The problem with this is that folders can only hold 12 things in them. I had to separate my folders into full version games and games I've got "LITE" versions of, aka "trial versions."

These aren't even all of the games I've downloaded. I have culled a few already, and I've got Plants vs Zombies, Angry Birds, and World of Goo on the ipad (graduation present) so I didn't re-purchase them. I'm on the look-out for more games, not that I even have time to play all of these games in depth. I'm enjoying "Zombie Cafe" right now and I've got 3 games going in Words with Friends (aka Scrabble). Today I downloaded everything you see in the "trial games" folder except StupidZombieLite, which I downloaded yesterday. I'm excited to try bad air day, where you fart in an elevator and you have to get rid of the smell before people around you die. ...nobody said these were high brow games.

It's bad because instead of reading on the subway I'm playing games. But I am also playing strategy games instead of mindlessly refreshing facebook and email over and over, so I guess that is an improvement somewhat.

Also my background on my phone is a picture of a butterfly I took in 2002 when I went with some friends to the butterfly garden (I think it was in Philadelphia).

The butterflies were so tame they let you get really really close!

Anyway, that's my iphone games post for now. Back to regularly scheduled art making...

Superheroes Directive

2011-02-17T18:35:00.020-05:00

Superheroes (Strengths-based telling of personal narratives OR developing a positive self image)
Date(s) completed: 2/8/11 - 2/22/11

Single or Multi Session?
Multi-session
Age of Group Members?
Any age (In this group it was adults)

Gender of group:Men and women

Number of members?
10-12 (any size would work though)

Type of site?Outpatient

Other relevant information about population or site?
Clients diagnosed with severe mental illness. The topic of the group is "Storytelling Through Art"

Materials Used?
2d

Describe materials needed for directiveOptional prepped materials included blank comic book strips (boxes on the page to fill with comics), speech and thought bubbles, pictures of classic superheroes for reference

Directive Description:
As many know, superheroes often have a traumatic or troubling past. Many superheroes have witnessed or suffered severe trauma (Batman saw his parents murdered). Some superheroes have something about them that makes them different from their family and friends and may have been rejected due to these differences (X-Men). Superheroes use their experiences and transform them into something good - Batman protects the vulnerable citizens of Gotham, the X-Men protect other "mutants" from persecution and advocate for their rights. It is important to note that super-villains also experience similar histories to superheroes, so it is up to the person whether they use their experiences for good (Batman) or evil (Joker).

In this project you will create your own superhero based on yourself. If you were a superhero, what would your superhero name be and what would your powers be? Who would you protect and why? You can draw yourself as a superhero, make a comic book, or be inspired to do something else with the project idea.

Objective:
The goal of this project is to encourage the group participants to recognize their strengths (in spite of or because of their experiences). For example, the creation of a fictional superhero may allow group members to see themselves as "survivors" rather than "victims."

Prior directives or prep work with group?n/a

Comments/questions/suggestions for improvement:
I thought this would be a one-day project but the group members really got into it, even the people who have a hard time focusing usually. Some people weren't able to come up with their own superheroes but chose their favorites and made homages to them, explaining why they were their favorite superheroes. It was pretty surprising (maybe shouldn't have been) how many fans of Wonder Woman were in the group - men and women. There were a lot of metaphors that could be used for other groups - The Hulk was a great superhero for discussing anger management, for example.

Also, using this directive helped me win over a few of the male group members because I have a pretty decent working knowledge of superheroes. I did some research on different superheroes' pasts, too. The guys were impressed. However, I felt it was also important to have pictures of female superheroes, which is kind of hard considering there aren't that many famous female superheroes (Wonder Woman, Bat Girl, Super Girl, etc), but the women in the group seemed to appreciate it.

I got a fancy phone

2011-02-15T17:44:00.000-05:00

I got a fancy phone with a fancy camera so now I can take fake low-res pictures. :)

love songs playlist

2011-02-15T15:45:00.013-05:00

love songs playlist
(for the art room the week of valentine's day... and beyond!)

"somebody to love" - queen
"romeo and juliet" - indigo girls
"i feel the earth move" - carole king
"crazy for you" - adele
"goodnight and go" - imogen heap
"bizarre love triangle" - frente!
"head over feet" - alanis morissette
"i only have eyes for you" - billie holiday
"what i'm trying to say" - stars
"feelin' the same way" - norah jones
"we've got a groovy thing goin' " - simon & garfunkel
"you make loving fun" - fleetwood mac
"crazy for you" - madonna
"love is a good thing" - sheryl crow
"true colors" - ane brun
"i get lost (acoustic)" - eric clapton
"love song" - the cure
"your song" - moulin rouge soundtrack
"by my side" - ben harper

OK ... there is a CHANCE I overthought this playlist, but here's the story I imagined when I put it together.

Someone sits around wishing for somebody to love (somebody to love)... he meets his love, but it's complicated (romeo and juliet). But when they're around, they can't pretend they don't feel anything for each other (i feel the earth move). And they think about each other all the time (crazy for you), but it's just so complicated, maybe it's not worth it (goodnight and go, bizarre love triangle). Despite the complication, whatever it is, they fall in love (head over feet) and they can't imagine being with anyone else (i only have eyes for you). They finally meet and want to tell each other what they're feeling (what i'm trying to say, feelin' the same way). Their relationship gets off on a rocky start due to whatever was complicating it in the first place (we've got a groovy thing goin') but they work past it (you make loving fun, crazy for you, love is a good thing). The longer they're together the more they realize they are right for each other (true colors) and are so happy together (i get lost, love song, your song) that they decide to get married (by my side).

Sappy, yes, but it's a love song playlist!

Free Valentines!

2011-02-12T10:46:00.002-05:00

Do you celebrate Valentine's Day? I know a lot of people don't for a variety of reasons. But I like Valentine's Day, even though it's not in any way a Jewish holiday (you can't even pretend it's not the feast of St. Valentine). I just like love notes and hearts. What can I say.

Amy Rice, an artist I found through poppytalk, is providing cute free valentines to download, print, and distribute! They are so cute and sweet. And also, Amy Rice is a really interesting artist, so make sure to take a look at the rest of her work.

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(Of course, for Valentine's day there's always the classic "I Choo Choo Choose You" and "Let's BEE Friends" valentines from the Simpsons. Can't go wrong with those.)

Blooming Garbage

2011-02-11T09:48:00.000-05:00

Spring is coming and the garbage is blooming.

Everyone thought I was joking when I said that the reason the piles of snow were so high was because underneath was frozen mounds of garbage leftover from December. Well, it's been above freezing and the snow is melting, revealing the garbage (and piles of neglected dog poo) beneath. It's like a time capsule - you can even see frozen Christmas trees that were left out on the curb.

Ah, New York...

2011 Chinese New Year

2011-02-06T21:10:00.000-05:00

Today was the big parade in Chinatown so we went to see what we could see. There were a lot of people and it was pretty insane, but we were able to find a spot near the end with good visibility. Unfortunately it was pretty late so we really only caught the tail-end of the parade... tail end, get it?

I got some fun pictures and I think I also got some good ones on my Holga but I won't know until I get them developed (hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday). Instead, I present to you this collage of my quick digital shots, cut down to look like fake polaroids or something. Ha! I am excited to finally develop this roll of film... I have been afraid to use it because I didn't want to waste exposures, but instead it's been sitting in my camera and I have no idea what's on there. So I finished the roll today and I can't wait to see what comes out. Hopefully... SOMETHING. As opposed to the NOTHING that I got from our trip to London in 2005 when I loaded the camera incorrectly - repeatedly. Sad.

Two scary things happened today. ONE: fresh fish flippity floppiting around. If you know me, you know I have an irrational fear of fish out of water. I don't mind dead fish. And live fish underwater can just stay away from me. But once they're out of the water and flippity floppiting, struggling and drowning in the air, I get uncontrollable shivers. BLEH! I'm even okay with fresh fish in marketplaces still moving, but it's the flipping and flopping.

TWO: We tried to take the Q or R from Canal street. We got into the subway station and the train just wasn't coming. The station continued to fill up with people until it basically became dangerous to walk on the platform because it was so packed. I had visions of falling onto the tracks. So we left. And then we realized the station was full all the way up the stairs. I'm glad we got out of there. We walked a few more blocks and took a different train. We wasted $5 and 20 minutes but I am glad we left. I hope everyone still down there was okay. I could just imagine something spooking the crowd and then it would be a chaotic death trap. And it was nice out anyway so it wasn't a big deal.

So that was the day. We're making an effort to do New Yorky things, so this was one of those things. :)

Encased

2011-02-06T08:51:00.000-05:00

Our weather has really been up and down lately. One morning the trees were all encased in ice, but it had all melted by the afternoon when the temperatures got up almost to 40.

Long story short, I can't wait until Spring.

Distressing Distressed Clay

2011-02-04T14:21:00.000-05:00

I am really loving how my latest stuff is turning out. The dark brown clay looks beautiful under the white glaze. I just can't get enough of it.

modified coffee mug

The top image is a mug design inspired by my friend who is something of a coffee fanatic. He asked me if I could design a mug that wouldn't have a handle but that could be used while the coffee is hot. So instead of making a handle I used two slabs and made a built-in coffee sleeve. Plus I think it looks kind of cool and modern.

There's only one problem.

The insides of all of these vessels is pitted and pocked, which means none of them are food safe. I now have four great bowls or cups, including the modified coffee mug, and I can't use any of them because they're just not sanitary.

tea cup

Sigh.

One of my bowls is in line to be re-fired with a transparent glaze inside to hopefully seal all of the pits, so we'll see.

I have about five more things ready to trim either today or next week sometime. I will have to come up with a different way to glaze the insides. My theory is that the glaze is too thick inside, because it's not pocked on the outside and it's all the same glaze. I'd like to have a nice solid white inside of the mug, but I might have to change my technique. Right now I'm dipping the bowl quickly in the glaze but I might need to brush it on watered down and then coat it with transparent gloss.

Another problem is that I am really struggling to find time and energy to go into the studio lately. I'm up to four days a week where I volunteer (I got my LCAT limited permit, yay! now I need 1000 client contact hours...) and I am trying to work out in the evenings, so I am missing the open studio hours and the evening classes are too full for me to try to sit in the back and work on my own. It's been two weeks since I've been able to work and I'm not sure I'll make it today as I had planned. Well, we'll see, I am mustering up some energy as we speak...

Face Jugs

2011-01-28T11:20:00.000-05:00

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Face Jugs have a long history in the Southern US but nobody seems to know exactly their origins. The most common stories are that they were invented as a way to warn children of the poisonous contents of the jars (be it arsenic or moonshine) or that they were meant to keep away evil spirits from the graves of family members. Most believe the tradition began with slaves who worked pottery wheels for manufacturing goods and created face jugs for their own use. One source even mentions that the face jugs may be an artistic coping technique, to deal with the harsh and oppressive conditions in which these people lived and worked. The tradition of face jugs has continued to this day in many areas of the Southeast, especially in North Carolina and Georgia.
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Traditionally, the clay is sourced locally, glazed in alkaline glazes (many glazes were made from ashes of wood burning stoves) and fired in "groundhog" kilns. Making these jugs was a time-consuming and labor-intensive process that depended heavily on limited natural resources. When a vein of clay in the soil ran out, an entire operation had to move! Because of the expense and time involved, this type of pottery was no longer profitable once slavery was abolished and mass-produced tin cans and mason jars became readily available. Now most face jugs are sold as souvenirs to tourists or as works of art..

Janice Hall Shields, a potter in Georgia who creates face jugs, explains her technique in this short video. Watch as she creates an elaborate face jug from start to finish, including explaining her glazing and firing processes.

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While doing more searching for images of face jugs, I found many examples of face mugs, which, due to their smaller scale, might be an easier project to tackle if you're interested in this type of pottery.

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What I love most about these face jugs and face mugs is the effect the faces have on an otherwise standard pot or cup. Some of the faces are truly horrifying, while others are whimsical and engaging. Imagine going into your cupboard for a cup and seeing so many faces looking back at you!
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Links to more information about face jugs:

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[I wrote this post for the Supermud Pottery Studio blog in the next few weeks, so you are getting a preview!]

Snow Day!! (Part 2)

2011-01-27T16:57:00.001-05:00

Today I went sledding in Central Park with my friend. To meet her I had to cross the park, which took me a while to do because I kept stopping to take pictures. The park was so beautiful today, covered in snow, and everywhere you could hear people laughing while they were sledding down different hills.

We went sledding for about an hour before we became exhausted. My friend ran into me a few times, which was hilarious and painful at the same time. Then we got hot drinks and took the subway home - turns out the buses are back in business so I didn't have to walk across the park on the way back.

Click below to see more pictures from my walk :) No pictures of me sledding, it was too crazy to try to have my camera out at the same time!

Snow Day!!

2011-01-27T07:50:00.000-05:00

This is the view from my patio this morning. I love trees covered in snow. Work is canceled today, which is exciting except that means I don't get the hours I need from today, but whatever. I'm thinking of going sledding in the park. I might have to McGyver a sled out of some cardboard boxes, though, since I am woefully unprepared...

I'm a Winner

2011-01-25T19:02:00.000-05:00

When I went to the One of a Kind Show in NYC this Fall I entered a raffle at the etsy.com booth and I won! Today I got my winnings (a little peak in the collage above, sorry for the bad lighting). As you can see, Lilly loves the tote. I am so excited about all of these things!

An etsy.com tote bag, t-shirt, keychain, button pins, stickers, lip balm, and bumper sticker
A 2011 calendar from dutchdoor.etsy.com
A note card set from zoetropa.etsy.com
A thank-you card written on a cool orange cat letterpress notecard from sesameletterpress.com
A cup and saucer from takemehomeware.etsy.com
A little make-your-own mini bunting cut-out from spoonflower.com

This is the first time I've ever won anything in a raffle! Hooray!

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Featured Blogs: The Lady Cartoonist and the "A Scarf a Day" project

2011-01-24T18:47:00.000-05:00

I found out about this awesome project from CRAFTzine. Meredith Scheff (The Lady Cartoonist) is making a scarf every day for the month of January! I know this is near the end of the project, but it's great to go back and look at all of the amazing scarves she's made. It's pretty incredible. I know I have a hard time with NaBloPoMo and that's just writing a blog post every day. Imagine creating a new scarf every day!

My favorites are the organs scarf and the giant tuba scarf (both pictured above). She also has a shower utility scarf, a scarf with bones felted into it, a scarf that is in the process of sprouting (literally, she planted seeds in it and put it in a bucket of water to sprout), and more and more and more! What a fun and interesting project - to watch, I mean ... I can't imagine trying to do this myself!

Edible Art on TV

2011-01-22T19:31:00.002-05:00

food jammers [image credit]

I just watched this episode of Food Jammers and I really had to share!

In "Gallery Eats Art" the Food Jammers try to make edible art. They investigate making pigments out of food, screen printing onto crackers and crepes, painting on pizza dough, sculpture with gelatin and freezies, and more. The pizza didn't actually make it up on the gallery wall because it dripped when they hung it, but it was a cool idea.

Obviously these guys are more interested in the technical aspects than the aesthetic aspects. Or maybe I should say they probably didn't have enough time within the parameters of the show to really learn how to use the edible components. A lot of their projects are more about the challenge of making it work on all of the necessary levels (taste, smell, sight, texture, etc) and not really in depth exploration of edible art, but what can you really say, it's a 30 minute episode. Some of what they made was interesting, and they invited some friends to also submit work to the gallery. My favorite was the preserved cabbage in a giant block of agar-agar, but it didn't taste very good (apparently). I'm also impressed that they managed to make so many successful screen prints onto a cracker using edible ink.

pizza painting with edible pigments

When we were watching this show, JewishGuy said to me he wonders if these guys are chefs or if they're just a bunch of stoners who like to see what they can do with food or what gadgets they can make. It's the Mythbusters of the food world, I guess. In any case, it doesn't seem to matter if they are classically trained (culinarily speaking) because it's pretty fun to watch them futz around with machinery and gadgets. As someone who appreciates the process sometimes more than the product, it's a pretty fun show to watch. And though I'm not from Toronto, I've been there a lot and I recognize some of the places they end up (like the store "nuts make the world go round" - I think that's the name of the store - in this episode, I don't think I went in but I remember passing it once on the way to lunch with someone).

In any case, it made me interested in the idea of bringing food into art making, especially with clients. Some people have done food projects in art therapy, but mostly just regular baking, not necessarily exploring food as an art material. I'm interested especially in screen printing, potentially screen printing on cookies or cakes - what an interesting idea!

You might be able to watch the episode on ovguide, but I'm not sure it's really supposed to be up there, so I don't know how long it will last. If not, check out the episode's page on CookingChannelTV.com for when it's on next and set your DVR if you're really interested!

A presenter is me

2011-01-20T14:20:00.000-05:00

I've just been accepted to present my thesis at the 2011 American Art Therapy Association Conference! How exciting!

The presentation is mostly going to be the same as my thesis workshop (minus the workshop part), but I might add a few slides to include questions/considerations that were brought up the first time I presented. It's a 30 minute presentation, so not a full length "paper" presentation but rather a digital poster. I was a little intimidated to do a full hour by myself, so this is the right amount of time and probably the right size crowd for my first solo professional presentation!

This, along with a presentation I'm doing next month with my supervisor and other intern at my site will help flesh out the "PRESENTATIONS" part of my resume - which is currently not there because I've only done the one.

This year's conference I'm planning to be all over the place. I'll be selling my pottery in the marketplace, displaying work in the digital gallery, presenting, and will maybe even submit a 60 second film to the short film festival. That along with going to presentations, the art studio, and maybe a workshop. Because it's not too far I'll be there the whole time, instead of showing up Thursday afternoon like the last conference (Thursday morning seems to be the best day for presentations). And I'll be throwing business cards all over the place because hopefully I will be looking for a job either in December or January once I finish my license.

Excited!

I Heart Funamals

2011-01-19T18:59:00.000-05:00

In this video, Amy (the artist behind Funamals) describes Funamals, how she came up with it, her past as a dancer, and is generally hilarious and awesome. If I lived in Michigan I would try to make Amy my friend.

When I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan for a wedding I bought up a ton of her stuff at Minty Keen. This is a store you must visit next time you find yourself in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I bought mostly presents for other people but I also bought a kitty magnet and a set of "um, hi" crab note cards for myself. I also frequently haunt her etsy shop. LOVE! IT! In addition to her paintings and stationary, she sells hand-made textiles and puppets, and has a few stop-motion animation videos on her website using her paintings. She's prolific and whimsical and really has a sense of humor that comes through her work.

Watch the video, then buy her stuff. There is nothing else you can do.

Oh yeah, there is something else you can do, you can visit her website: www.thefunamals.com or her blog thefunamals.blogspot.com.

Winter on the River

2011-01-18T11:37:00.001-05:00

Gramma's Gator

2011-01-17T11:34:00.000-05:00

My gramma likes ceramics, too! She hasn't used the wheel much but she has taken many ceramics classes in the past and is now going to the ceramics class where she lives. She hasn't gone much lately because her eyesight isn't what it used to be, which frustrates me because clay is something anyone can do (even people who have a hard time seeing - or can't see at all). I'm not frustrated at gramma, but I wish the person running the class would make an effort to help her work with clay even with her sight issues, because she clearly likes it. Well, I can't be the art therapist everywhere, I guess. At least the person who does the jewelry making still encourages gramma to make necklaces, and I really think beading is harder than clay for people who have bad eyesight, so I don't know. It really shows you how much the joy in art making depends on the facilitator.

Gramma gave me her alligator that she made in ceramics because I gave her my teapot. I'm planning to give her another ceramics piece but not yet, I don't have anything I want to give her yet. Just lots of bowls. I love this alligator, especially because it has no teeth. He kind of looks like a grampa gator. She says his name is Ally the Alligator. He's on display in the living room :)

Yesterday I went to visit gramma (my mom's mom) with my parents. It's always fun to visit with gramma and I wish I had a car or an easier way to get up there. I can get most of the way on public transit but there's 15-20 minutes of driving after the train stops and it's really hard to do that on a regular basis with cabs (or renting a car regularly to drive up there). We never run out of stuff to talk about! 97 years old and she uses email. Excellent. Yesterday we talked about shopping, and how good bargains take a lot of work but can really be worth it. She said she used to love to shop, especially at the discount stores that used to be at Union Square. Well that explains my gramma's fashionable wedding dress! It was, by the way, aquamarine, which I still can't get over... how awesome is that.

How Art Made the World

2011-01-16T12:22:00.005-05:00

How Art Made the World
pbs.org/howartmadetheworld

I discovered this show the other day while flipping through channels and I was so excited. My DVR is now recording every episode. Check out the website, watch some images, and set your DVR!

The few minutes I caught was about Egyptian obsession with orderliness in their art. They found a grid that creates a standardized system of drawing the human figure so that their style of drawing people would be maintained for centures. Why? Well, I guess I will have to watch the whole episode (More Human Than Human, the title of which makes me think of the White Zombie song).

New ceramic goals

2011-01-14T11:55:00.003-05:00

I have discovered the dark brown clay at the studio and now it's all I want to use. I just love it. My favorite part of using it is that I don't feel like I need much glaze at all because I love the color of the clay so much.

top bowl

This technique I figured out by accident when I tried to wipe one of my other bowls because it had too much glaze on it. I realized I really liked the crackled, faded look of the glaze, and so I set about to achieve it on purpose with the dark clay.

The top bowl just has one, thick coating of white glaze on it that I gently dabbed off with a sponge. I left the inside untouched so it would stay sealed (for sanitary reasons). The bottom bowl I made a while ago and I wasn't sure how it would turn out, so I couldn't resist dropping some green glaze on it. I'm not sure how I feel about the green glaze, though, to me it kind of looks like someone sneezed on it.

bottom bowl

I went into the studio this week and made eight things. I'm getting better at envisioning a shape and then creating it. Sure, I have been able to make bowls, but their shape is largely by accident. I've gotten to the point where I can make a decent shape and then trim it so it doesn't weigh five thousand pounds when it's finished, but now I want to be able to make what I want to make when I want to make it. That was my task for myself when I went into the studio this week.

Not all of these pieces may make it to the finishing stage, but I am proud of them. I don't have a picture yet but when they're trimmed and ready to fire I will take pictures! I made four bowls, one tea cup, two mugs, and one hand washing cup (something like these, but I'm not sure of the finished shape or design yet). I tried to make a plate but it was a disaster. Plates are somehow so much harder than the other shapes!

My main goal right now is to make a ceramic cup.

I saw stepanka ceramics at the One of a Kind show this year and have fallen in love with her work. I especially like the shape of her cups. In a way, mugs are easy because they are short and wide. Cups are hard because they are tall and narrow, very hard for me to throw right now. Lots of people make cups this shape (usually called "tumblers") but when I saw her cups at the show I said to myself: I am going to make one of these! Actually, I wish I had just bought one, because even when I get this shape mine will never have the same look as hers.

stepanka ceramics

Once I make a ceramic cup I hope I will decide on a new shape to conquer. Maybe a platter.

I'm so excited that I've gotten to a level of throwing where I'm not struggling as much with the basic throwing technique anymore. I can center my clay and generally make something out of it more often than not (on a good day).

Coming up I will show some pictures of an interesting coffee mug I designed based on an idea by my friend Jason. It's still in the beginning stages so I might not show it until it's completely finished, but it's exciting!

Featured Blog: Make Something Every Day

2011-01-11T11:15:00.002-05:00

makesomething365.blogspot.com

WOW What an enormous undertaking! This blog is posting one new project idea every day to inspire people to make something every day! Okay, maybe I won't make each project every day (I think that is impossible), but I love this blog idea.

Of course, there is also a book full of daily prompts by the same author:

I definitely want to get this book! What a fun idea... Even if I don't do it EVERY day, I could still work through the projects. A bunch of them could work for a great art therapy group, don't you think?

I want my studio to look like this!

2011-01-10T18:56:00.002-05:00

This is what I want my studio to look like. I LOVE it. It's so simple, pretty, inspiring and fun!

These photo (above and below) is from The Storque's post about the studio of Christine Tillman. It makes me want to decorate my studio, which I re-organized two months ago.

Also, doesn't she seem like a neat person to know??

I love the hilarious stuffed cat about to maul her face, and those giant tree ring slices hanging out under her desk.

White is such an interesting color for a studio because you know you're going to make a mess all over it. But at the same time, it looks like her studio space isn't much larger than mine (and has a sloped ceiling to boot), so the white opens it up.

Here is her etsy shop:

Check her out for some great paper products (from stationary to 3D work with paper). LOVE IT.

My studio space hasn't much changed since when I redid it back on Halloween:

The room is a little over five feet wide (you can almost touch the walls if you stretch your arms out from side to side) so I had really minimal space to work with. But making floor-to-ceiling shelves really helped open up the space in the back so I have room to move around. I still have to cut large sheets of paper on the dining room table but I can do most of my work in here. Even painting and block printing! See my neat fold-up travel easel?

I love my studio space because I really have so many different kinds of art supplies I can do whatever project on a whim. Painting (acrylic or watercolor), printmaking (block or screen), fabric dying, printing on fabric, found object or oven-bake-clay sculpture, sewing, drawing, photography, video editing, bookmaking, scrapbooking, jewelry, embroidery, whatever I want to work on, it's here. It's kiiind of ridiculous and awesome at the same time.

Maybe I should make some fun paper chain decorations and hang them from the ceiling, too...

Happy New Year

2011-01-03T20:50:00.001-05:00

We were out of town for a bit, so this is a picture from the airplane of the sunset just north of New York.

I have some great projects lined up for 2011, not just the haggadah, and I can't wait!

The first snowfall

2010-12-26T17:19:00.000-05:00

I like snow in theory. In actuality, I much prefer to be inside. Bleh.

Happy Chinese Food Shabbat (or Merry Christmas, whichever you celebrate)

2010-12-24T13:14:00.001-05:00

Tonight, many people in the US will be sitting down for a big meal with friends and family. They will either be celebrating Shabbat or Christmas or a long weekend (or other holidays I'm not aware of).

Like many Jews, I grew up with the tradition of Chinese food and a movie, either on Christmas eve or Christmas day. Since this year Shabbat and Christmas are the same day, we are having a Chinese food themed Shabbat dinner. These pictures are of JewishGuy prepping the tofu for our cold tofu noodle dish (we also have a couple of meat dishes and soup). He is doing all of the cooking, and I'm doing the cleaning and set-up. I wouldn't even know where to begin with what he's decided to make!

Last year we went to our friends' house in Chicago and had a big sit-down Chinese food themed dinner (not on Shabbat). It actually felt kind of odd to me to have the big dinner at someone's house and not at a restaurant, believe it or not! It was amazing and we had a really great time, but what a funny feeling, since I'm so used to being at a restaurant. It's kind of a hilarious tradition. I remember running into people from shul at the nearby Chinese restaurant or the movie theatre. When I was younger I was surprised, I wondered why they were doing the same thing we were doing, not realizing it's a nation-wide thing.

This year is different because it's Shabbat, too, and it's my first Shabbat on Christmas since I started keeping Shabbat (so I can't go out to dinner). If JewishGuy wasn't such an amazing cook and was up for the task of tackling Chinese food, we'd probably just have a regular Shabbat dinner. But still no movie. At least, not until tomorrow night. Maybe.

And, for those of you who celebrate, Merry Christmas :)

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Crochet Tulips

2010-12-20T22:20:00.002-05:00

The last time I broke out the yarn was to make a piece to alleviate anxiety and weave a kind of protective symbol. And it was about a year ago, too. Hmm...

Anyway, I was feeling anxiety yesterday and needed something to do with my hands, so I started making these tulips. I wore the big green one as a ring today, but my favorite is the big white one (at the top). Today I tried making the pink and white ones, which I don't like as much as the brown and white/blue/green ones.

They also kind of look like barnacles to me. Which made me think of this amazing installation:

(Image credit and more info at crochetcoralreef.blogspot.com)

Love it! Maybe I should make a little underwater scene... (Not that I have anything else to do, oh wait, that anxiety is why I was making the tulips in the first place!)

Check out Crochet Coral Reef, the blog! It is neat!

Landscape in a Coffee Cup

2010-12-20T10:56:00.003-05:00

This piece, created by Yukihiro Kaneuchi , is a little landscape in a coffee cup that appears over time from the stain of the coffee inside the mug.

(Image credit and original article from designmilk.com : http://bit.ly/i7NoSb)

I love this idea! It's cool to make art that changes over time, reflecting how often it's used (and making art that encourages being used). It reminds me of Japanese tea ceremony cups described in the book Thousand Cranes, that sometimes were stained on the rim from the lipstick of generations of women.

My only concern is how the stain is able to stick to the mug... the only way I can think this would be possible would be for the bare clay to be exposed, which unfortunately isn't very sanitary. I would be interested to know how it works!

Growing and Not Growing

2010-12-17T13:13:00.000-05:00

I had this going for 5 days. It was really hard not to move the camera... I missed having it on me at all times. But, I think this was a fun project. It's nice to watch plants grow. (Maybe I'll do more plants growing, like watching roots bud or sprouts...)

Featured Blog: A plate a day.

2010-12-14T16:12:00.000-05:00

Looking for some daily inspiration? A Plate a Day posts a new plate every single day! As of December 3 there are 542 plates posted, with more coming daily, so go back and look at the archives.

I love subscribing to this blog. Every day I look forward to seeing what kind of fun and interesting plates they have in store for me! It’s also a great way to find out about new artists, as each plate is properly credit (with links when possible) to the artists’ websites, blogs, etsy sites, online shops, and photo galleries.

Eraser Landscape

2010-12-13T20:22:00.001-05:00

I took an impression of the pieces of eraser left on the art room table today.

It was a lot. A lot a lot.

Some people demonstrate anxiety by
pressing down on a pencil or crayon really hard,
some people
color with a marker over a spot so many times that the paper rips.
There are countless ways people demonstrate anxiety
with art materials.

One of those ways is erasing.

Erasing until the eraser is gone,
until it's just a nub.
Erasing until there's a rip in the paper.
Once a mark is made it's almost impossible to completely unmake.
Must keep erasing.
Even after it's no longer making any changes,
erasing, erasing, erasing.
The eraser is ripped to pieces
and you blow the pieces around the table,
or maybe make a pile of them as you deftly wipe them off the paper like garbage.
These little sticky white rubber pieces that aren't useful anymore,
not that they were useful in the first place,
at least after the first few passes.

The art room was empty.
I couldn't resist.
I saw a mountain range of pilled-up eraser pieces
and I had to have a picture somehow.
I didn't have my camera.

So I gently laid my paper
over the mountain range
and rubbed with a pencil.

First, I rubbed lightly,
but it wasn't coming out how I liked
so I tried adding pressure.
Then I just kept going.
And the rubbing of the pencil
seemed to mimic the movement
the eraser must have made.
A dance to honor the death of a once-useful yellow artist's eraser.

I made four xerox copies of the rubbing
so I could keep it
without getting graphite all over myself
(too late).

It wasn't enough.

When I got home I took an eraser and
erased the rubbing of the eraser.
Erased, erased, erased
until I ripped the page.
Then erased some more.
It's very hard to erase a xerox,
and the eraser is useless
after the first layer.
At first I thought I might make a design
but I realized quickly that was impossible
so I focused on simply erasing the pigment from the page.

Tectonic plates collided,
earthquakes formed a new landscape in the wrinkles of the paper.

I erased so much
the fiber of the paper cracked
and felt soft and smooth like cotton.

I stopped because my hand hurt and
I felt like what I was doing was useless.

After all that work,
all I had was a ripped sheet of paper
and a used-up eraser.

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Haggadah Project, here we go!

2010-12-12T16:18:00.001-05:00

I'm working on my illustrations, trying to make up for some lost time. Working on the pages is making me so anxious for some reason. It takes me forever to sit down and actually do them, and even though each one doesn't take very long to make it takes a long time to actually put brush to paper.

This painting will be the illustration behind motzi matzah (where we say the blessing over the matzah). Imagine it without the watermark, and instead having the text formatted beautifully around and through the image.

(Read My first post about the haggadah project!)

Art Room Ladies playlist

2010-12-09T13:29:00.000-05:00

I am working on some playlists to bring to the different art groups that I run. Generally, I don't put music with words on in the art room, but lately I have been rethinking that approach. I started playing some Carol King in my women's group and I realized that sometimes songs with words have a place. I've made an "art room ladies" playlist for the groups when we are making art about fun things, or making fun things.

Like yesterday, we are making fun sailor hats so that when we talk about what makes us feel special we can wear hilarious hats. And I'd like for these hats to make a reappearance after we have discussions about heavy things, like what makes us feel angry or what makes us feel disappointed.

(I don't know if I mentioned this here, but we are working on a long-term project, a book about "What Makes You Feel..." with words like "special," "beautiful," "angry," "disappointed," "vulnerable," etc)

So here it is:

art room ladies
36 songs, 2.1 hours

Everyday Is A Winding Road - Sheryl Crow
Heal Over - KT Tunstall
Just A Girl - No Doubt
Dance Anthem of the 80's - Regina Spektor
Say Aha - Santogold
Finally Made Me Happy [Feat. Natalie... - Macy Gray
I Feel The Earth Move - Carol King
I Tried to Rock You But You Only Roll - Leona Naess
Ice Cream - Sarah McLachlan
Folding Chair - Regina Spektor
Better Version of Me - Fiona Apple
Halo - Beyonce
Sweet Rosalyn - Sheryl Crow
Come Round Soon - Sara Bareilles
Can't Hide - Sarah Jarosz
Four Walls - Charlotte Martin
How Sweet It Is - Joan Osborne
Record Collector - Lissie
Wish You Well - Katie Herzig
True Colors - Ane Brun
I Was A Daughter - Basia Bulat
Bad Body Double - Imogen Heap
Chasing Pavements - Adele
Hard Believer - First Aid Kit
Rhiannon (Single Version) - Fleetwood Mac
You Can Do It - No Doubt
M!ssundaztood - Pink
Miniature Disasters - KT Tunstall
Many Moons - Janelle Monae
Dog Days Are Over - Florence and the Machine
Strange Little Girl - Tori Amos
Mr Zebra - Tori Amos
I Saw A Bird Fly Away Feat. John Pop... - Dar Williams
Out Of My Sight - Frente
Giggling Again for No Reason - Alanis Morissette
You've Got A Friend - Carol King

Lilly in "Sleep Mode"

2010-12-08T20:02:00.000-05:00

Lilly went into "sleep mode" (as my supervisor calls it, when the cat tucks her feet in and sits with her eyes closed), so I took some pictures.

Lilly has been begging for some extra attention the last couple of days, which is great, except for when that begging involves sitting directly in front of the computer screen in such a way that I really can't see anything at all. She has a blanket on the windowsill but she never sits on it because it's too cold over there. So I moved the blanket to the desk and she immediately went over and went into sleep mode.

The good thing about this for me is that now she is in prime position for me to annoy her all evening!

Filling a void

2010-12-07T23:25:00.000-05:00

Part of the definition of "home" is a place where my guinea pigs are - the only mornings I've woken up without screaming pigs pretty much as long as I can remember have been mornings I've woken up somewhere else (vacation, camp, traveling, etc). Part of the definition of "home" is the noise and the chaos of animals, and although guinea pigs don't contribute as much as dogs do, they do their share. The last two mornings have been rough. Lilly is noisy but not as noisy as a pig! And most mornings she sleeps in.

I went on a really long walk today. I went to six stores - four thrift stores and two furniture stores, to maybe look for a chair to sit in the spot where the guinea pig cage was. The emptiness in that spot is really odd and jarring to me. Probably not to anyone else, though. I walked almost non-stop for three hours

I took some pictures.

Good-bye Fiona

2010-12-05T21:51:00.005-05:00

Today Fiona passed away. She died at the ripe old age of (roughly) 7 1/2 years, after living in 5 different states (Virginia, Maryland, Texas, Illinois, New York), with two other pigs and a cat, and having more lettuce, peppers, carrots and hay than she knew what to do with. My little piggy-face :( I made this painting of her when I got home from one of my favorite pictures of her. She had the best piggy lips. We will miss you, Fiona!

More about Fiona's last illness and my other pigs here.

Haggadah Project

2010-12-05T18:43:00.046-05:00

Blank pages, just waiting to be illustrated

My next big project...

A complete haggadah, fully illustrated by me :)

Yes, it's ambitious. I have already set out my deadlines and figured out how many pages and illustrations I will need. I will use this blog (as I did for my mural project) to inspire me and keep me going as I work all the way up until April 2.

This haggadah will contain the full traditional text, highlighting a few songs along the way (and at the end), as well as a little bit of commentary. There won't be any specific "bend" to it, it's not a "feminist" haggadah or a "revolutionary" haggadah. It's just a regular family haggadah... made by me.

The final project will be printed in limited quantities for me and my family to use, and then will be available for purchase in a few formats. I'm hoping to have a cheap PDF downloadable format as well as a full-color printed format. Unfortunately, I'm not sure these will be ready to purchase by Passover (my goal is to use them by then but I don't know if I can realistically pre-sell them), so follow along and maybe buy one for next year!

Since I'm not going to post this until after Found Object Art Month, I will continue to update this post until I reach Dec 5, when it will be officially posted... if that makes sense.

November 23

I'm already behind! Today's check-list was to finalize the spread and make 5 illustrations. Finalizing the spread took longer than I thought it would. There were so many options to have the book printed but none of them seemed flexible enough. I felt that I needed to figure out exactly how I would be putting the pages together (and their measurements) before I even began my illustrations, which I imagine will be full pages. I want to be able to print a limited quantity on my own, and then export a PDF so that it can either be available to download online or I can send it to a real printer.

AandIBooks seemed like a good option - they had a downloadable software that would help me do the text layouts over the images. Predictably, their software only exports to their printing website, and any "proofs" export with huge watermarks all over them. I spent a good portion of the afternoon investigating this option, losing at least an hour in the process, but at least I found this out now, before I base my whole book on their layout and format!

So I'm back to my iPhoto printing option for the limited quantities (or Kinko's I guess). The problem is that iPhoto doesn't do text layouts the way I want them to. So, instead, I figured out how to rig Pages to do the text layouts. I'm planning to cut full-sized sheets of watercolor paper anyway, so I'll just import the images into Pages and then do a text layout on top of them. THEN export that as a PDF, change it from a PDF to a JPG in Preview, then import it into iPhoto, then turn it into a book.

I could also skip the PDF -> JPG step and get it printed at Kinko's or wherever.

So this evening I finally got started. I was hesitating because of this decision, I think. It is a major decision, one that is hard to backtrack once I've gotten started. But now I have cut some paper and I'm ready to start illustrating (beginning with bedikat chametz). But I'm already behind. Even if I start illustrating now, I won't be able to finish five tonight.

Leaves

2010-12-05T12:21:00.000-05:00

The great thing about having an outdoor space as large as ours is that in the warm months we can have parties, barbecues, and Shabbat meals out there. The not as great thing is that it means sweeping leaves during all of the autumn months.

It makes me want to just jump in and play around in it. However, there's a good chance there's cat poo mixed in there from our upstairs neighbors' cats, so I won't.

AATA Conference Booth

2010-12-03T12:32:00.009-05:00

Here we are, selling at the 2010 American Art Therapy Association conference in Sacramento! Of course, my ceramics didn't make it out of the kiln in time, so all I could sell was some of my watercolors.

I have a plan for combining my watercolor painting style and my ceramics... it's in the works, but it will be slow to come to fruition for sure.

Ceramics what what

2010-12-02T12:12:00.036-05:00

I got my ceramics pieces back from the kiln in November but I didn't want to interrupt Found Object Art Month too much by posting them. SO. Here they are!

I will try to remember what glazes I put on them. YES. I KNOW. I should have a glaze journal.

This bowl (above) is about 5" diameter, so not huge but a good size (it seemed huge when I was making it).

Outside: Ada's Ash

Rim: Plum

Inside: Blue Celery and Floating Blue

A small but nice sized bowl, probably good for ice cream.

Outside: Nutmeg and Floating Blue

Inside: Ada's Ash

I like to think of this as being the perfect cup for hot chocolate... no handle, so it will warm your hands while you drink it, but probably too large for tea (although the mugs I use for tea are pretty large).

Outside: Floating Blue

Rim: Plum

Inside: Ada's Ash

This bowl fell in the glaze bucket while I was trying to put Plum on the rim. I dabbed it off with a sponge and I kind of love how it turned out. Also, you can see my signature that appears on the bottom of all of my ceramic pieces (it's my name in English and Hebrew). This bowl, as it is, isn't food safe because there are a couple of spots inside that are rough. I may re-fire it to fill in the holes. It would be a nice size to serve hummus, for example.

Inside: Blue Celery, Floating Blue and Plum

Outside: Ada's Ash and Plum

This is my second hot chocolate mug, pretty much exactly the same size as the first one.

Inside & Outside: Nutmeg under Floating Blue

My work is getting better and better. I think I am driving the other people in the studio nuts with my disorderly glazing. I'm like, let's see what happens when I do this! And they're like, KEEP A GLAZE JOURNAL. So this blog is kind of like my glaze journal.

I hope to built up a good amount of inventory and then start selling on etsy and in handmade markets by next year. I'm hoping my debut will be the next AATA conference (in July), but only if they keep the marketplace on Thursday (as opposed to Friday night - aka, Shabbat - which up until now was the recurring time).

Happy Hanukkah!

2010-12-01T13:50:00.004-05:00

JewishGuy and I decided not to exchange presents this year - instead, we went to the used book store and bought some new books. When I was growing up we always got books for Hanukkah (among other things), so it seems only fitting to splurge and buy a bunch of books all at once right before the holiday.

My new books:

"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman
"The Best of Simple" by Langston Hughes
"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" by B. Traven
"Slapstick" by Kurt Vonnegut
"Memories of My Melancholy Whores" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

JewishGuy's books:

"Silas Marner" by George Eliot
"Exist Ghost" by Philip Roth
"The American" by Henry James
"Dead Souls" by Nicolai Gogol
"Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev

So excited!

We figured out (based on the different display tables set up in the book store) that JewishGuy mostly reads "Classics" and I mostly read "Modern Classics." So, okay. Now I have a label for the kind of books I like. I don't know which I'll read first!

(Also, Happy 97th birthday, grandma!)

"Radvent Journal" December 2010

2010-12-01T07:56:00.002-05:00

I'm participating in Princess Lasertron's December 2010 Radvent Journal project! I started making a visual diary last night but I'm not sure I will have time for that every day with all of my crazy projects! So how about one visual diary entry a week, and I will try to keep a text version up here every day.

Since they will be long entries, click the link below the image to read my response!

I'm not going to go into too much detail with this one because it is hard to share so much online. In December 2005, I had just moved to Houston a few months prior to live near my then-boyfriend-now-husband. It was a challenging few months, the change in distance definitely changed our relationship and my job was very stressful. I was having a hard time making friends because of the hours my job asked me to work (evenings and weekends). Let's just say, 2005-2007 were hard years for me!

The other night I was working on a scrapbook of my time in Houston and I realized I literally have no pictures from those two years. I have some pictures from work (but not many). I know I had an old camera until summer 2006, so that might explain some of it, but why no pictures from 2006-2007? I take so many pictures of my life. I wonder if there is a correlation for me between how many pictures I take and how happy I am. Suddenly, in the winter of 2007-2008, I have a burst of pictures.

I didn't know what I wanted out of life, I was just kind of doing the next thing that came my way, and it seemed to fit in with my skills. I was trying to learn to be an adult. Today, five years ago, I finished getting my own car insurance, which I felt was the mark of being pretty much financially independent from my parents (I guess, not including the cell phone, haha).

There were some good times, definitely, but this Fall was very hard for me. I wasn't yet in the swing of things, I didn't have a routine or a friend base, and I didn't really know who I was.

This summer I moved to New York with my husband for his job, which kind of parallels that 2005 move. But I'm in a much different position this time. Now we are making friends together as a couple, trying to find other couples to be friends with. He doesn't hang out with people from work as much as he used to hang out with people from his graduate program, so I don't feel as much an outsider at our social gatherings. I have a career that I'm trying to build and a direction I feel like I'm moving in, so I feel a lot more grounded than before. I also have perspective I didn't have then, and a sense of awareness of my limitations and abilities. I also understand, I don't have to put up with certain things in my life, like certain kinds of stress from/about a job, and I feel a lot more confident in myself because of that knowledge.

I feel a lot older than I did five years ago. It's funny to say that. Five years isn't a long time. I wonder when I'm 80 will I say I feel a lot older than 75. I hope not!

Found Object Art Month Ends...

2010-11-30T11:52:00.008-05:00

Well, it's certainly been fun.

Found Object Art Month has been a challenge for me as a blogger, artist, and art therapist. I'm going to use this post to serve as the blog-equivalent of a clip show, remembering the good times...

I've featured a few interesting blogs with recycling in mind.

I've given you a few ideas for found object art projects.

I've shown you a few artists who use recycled or found objects in their work (and some where you can purchase their work on etsy!)

And I've updated you on the progress of one of my own found object art projects that I'm doing with clients at work.

Oh, and so much more...

Tomorrow is a big gallery show and creative arts celebration at work, where all of the found object art projects will be on display. Unfortunately, I can't show you any pictures from that event due to confidentiality, BUT I can promise you, it is really going to be awesome.

And now I leave you with one of my favorite found object artists (or, rather, two of them, they work together): Tim Noble and Sue Webster. They use light and shadow on found objects to create AMAZING work.

Image found in this blog post over at web designer depot, which also has examples of even more found object artists!!

Coming soon: a 'zine about running Found Object Art Month at your art therapy site!

Defining Home FINISHED

2010-11-29T18:51:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it's finished!

Read about the original directive, my birthday and first progress post, and the last progress post.

This has been a great project to do with my group. A month may have been too long for some people, and maybe not enough for others. For me, it was the right amount of time. I got to invest in my project, but not become overwhelmed or consumed by it. I worked on it for about an hour a week for the whole Found Object Art Month at work. Today, I took pictures of all of the clients' projects for a big creative arts celebration we're having on Wednesday, and I have to say I am really proud of what came out!

Since I can't show any of their work here, I will just conclude this directive with my finished piece. I may also write a formal directive outline for future use (and to pass along to others).

See the individual pages below the cut.

Featured Blogs: Web Ecoist

2010-11-29T11:32:00.001-05:00

At first, this wasn't going to be a Featured Blogs post, but as I looked around Web Ecoist I decided it was worth featuring so that hopefully you would take a look at some of their other posts, too. But the post that inspired this post was...

32 Amazing Examples of Recycled Furniture
at Web Ecoist

I would really like to copy the entire post here, but I won't, because that is bad bloggy karma.

(Images below are found in that post, I take no credit for their awesomeness)

One of the fun things I imagine about that CD chair is that it is really rolly. Maybe that would make it hard to sit on - because you would keep rolling off - but it looks kind of fun.

I remember in undergrad there was a classic first project in one of the "Intro to 3D Fundamentals" class where the students were asked to make a functional chair out of recycled cardboard. Though everyone always complained about that project, I thought it was amazing and was a little disappointed I never had that assignment. (Instead, I had to create a life-size self portrait using only cardboard and re-bar wire, which was pretty fun I will admit and I wish I had a picture of what I made)

Anyway, this blog Web Ecoist is pretty interesting, and I recommend checking them out. They have other quirky "eco" things to blog about, like living furniture:

I'm not sure if I like this, but I think I do. (Image credit and read more about green growing furniture)

Elegant Found Object Vases

2010-11-28T11:39:00.001-05:00

Haha, okay, it was my idea, but I'll still call them elegant. I decided to pick up some cheap flowers (baby's breath and purple eucalyptus) on the way home one day because ... well, I wanted to. But then I got home and realized I didn't have a big enough vase for any of those tall stems. I didn't want to cut them because I liked how tall they were.

So I went into my found objects box. (I have one. It's not very big because I really try to limit myself from keeping cool trash. It's a way of controlling the hoarding tendency that I think a lot of artists / art therapists have) I found some packaging material from our wedding china (I'm telling you, HOARDING TENDENCIES) and wrapped them into tubes for the vases. This worked for the eucalyptus stems, which I'm pretty sure don't need to be in water, but the baby's breath needed water.

I went back into my found objects box and found an old - but clean - yogurt container. I filled it with water and then wrapped the cardboard packaging around it, taping it together on the inside.

This is a peak underneath, but I am keeping the cardboard flush against the top of the bookshelf so nobody can see the yogurt container.

The whole process took maybe 10 minutes, including some trial and error, and was completely free, made out of what would have been thrown away a year and a half ago when we opened the china.

Now, the baby's breath is in its own little vase on top of one bookshelf:

And the eucalyptus stems are in their own vase on top of another:

So you see, found objects can be easy and crafty solutions to every day problems. I think they look like nice vases, no longer lowly packaging meant to prevent dishes from break as they are hurled over a tall fence into a back yard - like how our china was delivered.

As an aside, the print of the woman by the eucalyptus is called "Mother Earth's Tears" by Canadian artist Maxine Noel. We bought it in Stratford this summer when we were there for the Shakespeare Festival. One day it will be framed. It's not an original print; we got it at the gift shop, shhh.

The framed art above it is an original paper-cut that we got for our wedding that reads

אם אשכחך ירושלים תשכח ימיני
(If I forget you, Jerusalem, let me forget my right hand)

It's really intricate and lovely :)

Cheap projects

2010-11-27T11:06:00.001-05:00

I have found a few sites that have some projects you can make with cheap, recycled materials. Instead of spreading out the projects over the course of the next few days (which I guess would be the easy way to finish Found Object Art Month), I will post the links to the sites and set you off to explore on your own!

kinderart.com/recycle has tons of projects using household refuse... my favorites are the egg cup flowers, handmade paper, and paper bag kites.

make-stuff.com/recycling has a list of projects to make with recycled materials, such as a frisbie bird feeder, things you can make with old berry baskets, and things you can do with plastic bottles.

These sites have resources for either finding reusable materials or buying usable things from people using reusable things (say that 5 times fast).

The ReStore takes usable building materials from construction sites that would otherwise be junked and sells it (very cheaply). On their site, they say: "Since its inception, The RE Store has turned building material waste into a viable sustainable business venture that diverts close to 4 million pounds of waste per year from needless disposal while employing over 25 full time employees." Pretty cool.

ecobusinesslinks provides a list of artisans and businesses that use recycled materials in their products... anything from gifts to furniture to ... well, whatever!

I don't have a fun image to accompany this post, so instead I will quote a pertinent episode of Futurama (Season 1, Episode 8: A Big Piece of Garbage)

Leela: Fry, what the hell were you people thinking back then? How could you just throw your garbage away?

Fry: Hey, hey, gimmie a break! What do you do with it?

Leela: We recycle everything. Robots are made from old beer cans.

Bender: Yeah! And this beer can is made outta old robots.

Leela: And that sandwich you're eating is made of old discarded sandwiches. Nothing just gets thrown away.

Fry: The future is disgusting!

Extra cardboard, anyone?

2010-11-26T10:54:00.001-05:00

Cardboard seems to be the junk art material of choice for many people. It's easy to acquire, has many possibilities (melt it with water, peel back the layers, paint on it, layer it, can be strong enough for support of heavier objects, etc) and its color basically screams to be covered in something. It's so cheap and easy that it's a relatively guilt-free material to experiment with.

When I saw this Cardboard Surfboard, I was intrigued. The creator of this design posted directions and blue prints on this site so you can make your own and help improve it.

(image credit to linked article)

Not sure I would trust a cardboard surfboard but it is pretty interesting!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

2010-11-25T09:45:00.001-05:00

(image credit: funnyphotos.net.au/melon)

Okay, it's not junk, but it's kind of a found object... if you have leftover watermelon. Anyway, it's kind of creepy how life-like the tongue looks.

Tinfoil (as found object?)

2010-11-24T11:37:00.003-05:00

Stunning.

Or, check out the section of the artist's website about "Speed Creating". For 30 days he tried to create completely new projects (often, they ended up being out of found objects!). This tinfoil project was Day 24.

(image credit to the artist, Dominic Wilcox.)

Make your own "Wristies"

2010-11-23T13:26:00.006-05:00

(Image AND idea credit: mayamade.blogspot.com)

Ah ha!

I saw someone wearing these recently and she said she bought them at a store in the Village. I said, wait, aren't those just sleeves from an old sweater with a thumb hole cut in them? She said, ummmmmm maybe. Debunking a purchase like that to a fellow art therapist probably wasn't the nicest thing I could have done (since now she knows how she could have made her own for free), but maybe now she'll make her own in many different colors and styles!

The ones on Maya Made are pleated, but you definitely don't have to do that to enjoy the wristies.

This reminds me a lot of the legwarmers my friend from grad school wore one day. She said she just wanted to keep her legs warm in the Chicago winter but be able to slip them off once she got inside, but then left them on because they were cute. So there you have it. Legwarmers and wrist warmers. Warmth never really goes out of style I guess!

So I decided to make my own!

Okay, they are knee-high socks instead of an old sweater because before moving to New York I donated all my old things and had nothing to recycle for this project. Instead I went to H&M and bought some cheap, warm socks and cut them the same way. I didn't pleat them because the top of the socks was stretchy enough.

At some point I may hem them because I don't trust the jagged edges not to unravel when I decide to wash them. But they are warm and nice! (Especially since our apartment still doesn't have heat!)

(PS: That awesome bowl on my desk is by Laura Zindel, and was a wedding present - along with three other Laura Zindel beauties :) )