Face Jugs

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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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Snow Day!! (Part 2)

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!!

 

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

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!

1. An etsy.com tote bag, t-shirt, keychain, button pins, stickers, lip balm, and bumper sticker
2. A 2011 calendar from dutchdoor.etsy.com
3. A note card set from zoetropa.etsy.com
4. A thank-you card written on a cool orange cat letterpress notecard from sesameletterpress.com
5. A cup and saucer from takemehomeware.etsy.com
6. 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

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

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

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

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

Gramma's Gator

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.