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

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 :)

Recycled Planters

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!

Our 2011 Patio Plans

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!

Plans and Plants

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...

The Art Room

I wrote about how moving makes you take inventory and how I am sad over the loss of our books, among other things (though it's an important purge). Recently, we also gave away our couches and coffee table, as well as JewishGuy's office furniture. We're giving JewishGuy's sister our dining room furniture to hold on to for an indefinite amount of time. We will arrive in New York with... what?

Having my own art room has provided me with the space to collect a large number of art supplies, especially over the course of the last two years. I've always had this cart:

(This picture is from 2005, when Lilly was a baby, but already a budding assistant)

This cart contained basically all of my art supplies until grad school, when my art room became a new frontier for all kinds of media I hadn't much explored before: screenprinting, fabric dying, small found-objects sculptures, fiber art (crochet, embroidery, felt sculptures, etc). I began making stationary and small books last summer, and had a whole shelf dedicated to that inventory, plus what I collected from others. Before this art room, my art cart mostly had supplies for linoleum cut relief printing, collaging, and painting (acrylic). These supplies, too, exploded - even before the new art room - as I bought more magazines than I could handle, bought new linoleum blocks, and collected a massive amount of acrylic paint for the mural project that inspired this blog.

When we moved to Chicago I had the art cart, a folder of paper and prints, and maybe a box of miscellaneous supplies. Packing up the art room now took at least 8 boxes, some of them very large.

Our apartment in New York isn't very large. It could sort of be considered as being a two bedroom, but one of those bedrooms is very narrow and long, which makes it practically impossible to use as a bedroom. The last time we had a two bedroom apartment (in Houston), the spare room became JewishGuy's office, where I kept my art supplies and a small table to sometimes make art on. Now the second room is going to be my art room, with a small table for JewishGuy to put his laptop on when he's at home.

I'm going to buy a new, fold-up drafting table. I've already imagined how I can set up the space for optimal use of the drafting table while still having a place for my computer - I have a desktop now (old school!) so it actually needs a permanent place to sit. I imagined where the plants would go and where I would keep my art supplies so they are within easy reach of my seat.

I'm so excited!



(This month's theme is "saved.")

Wedding Colors

(First of all, I did make a blog about the wedding: jewishgalwedding.blogspot.com, so this is an overlap in content but not a repeated post)

Since the wedding is going to be a year from today (March 29), it should be right in the height of cherry blossom season in DC, which is where we're hoping to have the wedding.  I think incorporating cherry blossom-related colors into the wedding would be a perfect homage to the season and local colors.  Plus, they are super, super pretty!

(I took this photo at the Cherry Blossom Festival in 2005)

So what I'm thinking right now, is yellow, green and chocolate brown with pink highlights (pink light the blossoms).  I'm also considering - in the back of my head - light blue, green and chocolate brown with pink highlights, because that is more in light with the colors of the cherry blossom festival, but I don't know how I feel about light blue at a spring wedding since it can be kind of a wintry color.  If the main colors were green and brown with light blue and pink I think it could be very springy.

Some people were very surprised at how excited I got about planning, but I think the reason is that I am seeing this as a great big art project that I get to live in!

Project Resolutions

JewishGuy, my boyfriend, is much more practical than me and would therefore probably be a lot better at ceramics than me if he tried it. He is focused on making useful things and how to make them, and that is good (to make useful things). I wanted that to be my focus for this class, but because I got these "assignments" I was totally caught up in making artsy things and was frustrated beyond belief. I even went to the studio yesterday and got so pissed off, I couldn't think of anything and my clay started drying... I made a vase and two little pitchers because I just needed to make something before the clay dried and was wasted.

Today JewishGuy and I sat down to figure out what I was going to make for the rest of my assignments because this is ridiculous. I need to just think of something and make it. The Shabbat lamp is on its way to being finished and looks good - I had a clear vision and I made it and it will be useful (hopefully).

Here are two of my new ideas that I sketched on the computer:

These are hanging herb jars for my "Off the Wall" project. Hanging jars sounded so boring so I didn't really want to make them, however if I make small hanging jars for herbs, that could be cool and useful.

The idea is that they would be small jars with a string tied around them that could easily be hung on any kind of hook. You could either put a hook in the wall or use an over-the-door hook to hang it on a door (like our kitchen pantry). Then each jar would have enough space for water at the bottom and some fresh herbs that would stick out of the top. In the picture I drew dill, rosemary and basil. This would save us counter space, as when we have fresh herbs we stick them in a cup on the counter that can easily be spilled.

I haven't decided if the jars should literally be tied on a string or if I should put a metal hook around the jars that would then be attached to the string somehow. (I would like an excuse to go back to the junk store, I will have to relate how fun that was when I went last week).

Another project was the "Self Portrait" project. JewishGuy suggested making pancakes first, since I LOVE pancakes (chocolate chip pancakes to be exact). But I was kind of against it, not to mention it would kind of be an ugly object. Then he suggested making a giant nose with my nose ring. I really like this idea.

One of my first projects in printmaking (my favorite) was to do a self portrait, so obviously I did this giant picture of myself, emphasizing my nose ring. My nose ring is really important to me, having the hoop is especially important - I had to take the hoop out for a while when I worked in the Jewish community, and I have to say I felt really saddened by it. As soon as I put the ring back in, I felt much better. This was also, coincidentally, the day after I quit my last - and worst - job, so who knows.

Anyway, making a giant nose also has other implications. Besides the whole deal with my nose ring, which I got almost 7 years ago and still love, it also brings up issues of being Jewish and how I never really feel like I fit in with the community. I don't "look" Jewish. Nobody ever thinks I'm Jewish by looking at me. Even if I dress like a frummie, I think only if I were in Israel would people think I was Jewish. In high school, if someone tried to guess my religion, invariably they would guess Catholic. I guess this comes from my mom's side of the family, with my grandma who has bright red hair (still, even at 94, it's pretty red and she doesn't dye it). Because of her hair and her very, very Irish-sounding name, she was often mistaken as Irish when she was young - the joke was on them when she opened her mouth and Yiddish came out!

I also don't really feel like I fit in with The Community. I'm not exactly sure what I mean by that, though. This feeling has pretty much persisted throughout my experience, wherever I've lived or gone to school - that I fit in with the others who feel they don't "fit in," and make my own community of odd Jews.

Anyway, so definitely doing a giant nose, and then as I drew it JewishGuy suggested I make it into a vase so at least it can be useful. Good idea. Very practical. ;-)

Glazing

Today was my first foray into the world of glazing. And after 3 hours in the studio of just glaze glaze glazing away, I am totally and completely exhausted. (No pictures yet, hopefully some pics of my finished pinch pots on Tuesday or Wednesday, when I see them after they've been fired)

My job with the pinch pots was to make use of as many glazes as possible so that I could see the kinds of things they do - also, I guess, to practice glazing on things I don't care very much about. I made a little organized chart in my sketchbook to keep track of everything I did. And as I'm sure you're all curious to know what the chart looks like, here it is:

Pot#	Type of Clay	Glaze/Technique
1	Dillo White	Oribe (inside); Winiker Blue
2	Dillo White	Tom's Copper Blue (inside); Tumoku
3	Dillo White	Rustile Green (inside); TC White
4	Dillo White	Rutile Blue (THICK inside); Celadon (leaked into inside!)
5	Dillo White	Kaki
6	Dillo White	TX Blue Green
7	Balcones	Kaki
8	Balcones	Oribe (inside); Temoku
9	Balcones	Rustile Green (inside); Winiker Blue
10	Balcones	Tom's Copper Blue (inside); Celadon
11	Balcones	TC White
12	Balcones	Shino
13	Balcones	TX Blue Green
14	Porcelain	Kaki
15	Porcelain	Shino
16	Porcelain	Oribe (inside); Celadon
17	Porcelain	TX Blue Green
18	Porcelain	Tom's Copper Blue (inside); Winiker Blue
19	Porcelain	Rutile Green (inside); Temoku

What does all of this mean, you ask. Also, the more astute readers will notice I only listed 19 pots, when the assignment was 20. WELL, one pot broke on the way to class the first day, it was very disappointing.

First, the types of clay:

Dillo White is a white clay that has lots of "grog" in it, which basically just means it has little rocks and sand in it. The rocks and sand create their own texture - they also make the clay more sturdy. So if I wanted to make something big and tall, I'd have to use clay with lots of grog in it or else it would fall over.

Balcones is a red clay that also has lots of grog in it.

Porcelain is a white clay with no grog, which means it's very smooth. It's really easy to work with for small things with lots of detail, but when it starts to get larger it will break or fall over if you aren't good at handling it. So far, the only things I've made with porcelain are pinch pots, since I am kind of afraid of it right now. When I get better at building I will probably start using more porcelain.

The glazes are separated into two categories in my head (simplified because that's how the teacher explained it to us in our 2 hour crash course last Thurs): Runny vs Not Runny.

Runny glazes have to be used very carefully because if they drip onto the kiln shelf then you have to buy a new kiln shelf. And by "you" I mean ME, and a kiln shelf costs at least $50 each. Eek. So for the pinch pots, all of the glazes that I labeled as being used "inside" of the pot are the runny glazes, so that when they run they will pool into the bottom of the pot, rather than drip off of the pot and on to the kiln shelf. The other glazes are Not Runny.

He didn't really explain what it meant when a glaze was runny other than, physically, it drips and runs. I don't exactly know why it does that. My best guess is that the metals in it are very susceptible to heat - for example, copper glazes are runny, and I assume copper in very high heat turns liquidy. This is the only explanation I can come up with.

---

One really annoying thing happened today while I was working in the glazing area. Glazes, in powder form, are very dangerous because they are heavy metals and can easily become floaty dust in the air. You're supposed to wear a dust mask when you're in the glazing area if you're using any powder (well, you're supposed to do it in general) - unfortunately I wasn't able to find a dust mask before today, but I figured, OK one time will be fine and anyway I'm not using powders.

Well. This guy decided he was going to mix a huge bucket of glaze from powder. So you know what he does? He gets a mountain of powder, dumps it in a bucket, then dumps in some water and uses a big power tool to mix the glaze. Fine, whatever, except that he decided to do this INSIDE, where other people were working. Of course, he protected himself by wearing a respirator mask (I don't know the real name, but it's like a gas mask but to keep dusty particles out). But he's working 2 feet from where I was standing, so obviously I was not protected.

I had to go and stand on the other side of the studio for probably 10 minutes while he did this. I was pretty annoyed. Nobody else seemed to mind, and when I came back and went to see if it bothered other people, another student was like, "eh, I have breathed in so much pollution in my life it probably doesn't make a difference." The main difference I see was that I have no idea what was in that powder that he was mixing, but there could have been heavy metals like lead, cobalt or copper. Nice.

I'm definitely going to find a dust mask by next week!

Abstract Painting

Here's my sample painting for my abstract painting class:



I used the same still life as I did for the life drawing sample. I kind of added some things in the background.

No Need for a Primer

Well, I talked to some of the construction crew today (I didn't tell the people who hired me I was going by, I hope this isn't a problem) to find out what the deal is with the concrete and my schedule.

--[ By the way, I realized I wasn't clear in previous posts - I am painting the columns in the middle of the store, not an actual wall. I may be painting walls in the staff room. ]--

One great thing I found out today is that the columns are primed and sealed and ready to be painted. Hooray! This means Phase 2, which was originally me rushing around like a maniac on Thursday trying to prime the columns before and between other appointments has now been pared down to simply me buying supplies at home supply stores and art stores and finding a projector if JewishGuy can't get one. This means I have more time today to sketch and make lunch for myself and make phone calls that need to be made.

I did admit to the construction guy that I don't really know anything about painting on concrete, and he said, "Please don't say things like that." I think he was half-joking. But I really don't know. Although... I vaguely remember using concrete in some project I did in college, and perhaps I painted it. I don't remember much of what happened in "3D Fundamentals." I think I created concrete bricks, experimenting with mixing concrete with paint while still wet vs. painting it once it's dry, and then I carved some of the softer bricks into faces and stacked them together.

Now, on to the sketching. Or maybe lunch.

There is a Plan! (???)

As many people know, probably everyone, I have never painted a mural before.

Okay, that isn't 100% true, I did help some teens paint a small mural this summer. It was fun, and a lot of work. We (7 teenagers and I) got it done in about 3 1/2 days. It was four pieces of masonite, lots and lots of latex paint and plastic drop cloths. It was a simple Spring scene: a field, a tree, some mountains and sky. Ahhh....... :)

This isn't like my current project at all, pretty much.

From the pictures, you can kind of see that I'll be painting directly onto concrete, which is kind of cool but also kind of difficult. And not just directly onto concrete, but very high up, and over shelving and other things that can't get paint on them (besides the floor, which is already protected).

Here's my plan for now, let's see how well it goes:



Just kidding.

Phase 1: Make sketches. Um. So this basically has to be done tomorrow or Thursday. Eep!

Phase 2: Thursday, I have about 3 free hours in the middle of the day. The three hours are between a job interview and an orientation/health screening for volunteering at the hospital. So on Thursday, I am going to go and set up, tape things off, and prime the concrete and also - hopefully - the other two wall spaces they want me to paint if they haven't been primed already. I want as much as possible to be ready for Friday. I have a sneaking suspicion the additional rooms have already been painted, or the one wall where I'm only doing lettering should be [already painted].

SO. In the meanwhile, JewishGuy (also known as JewishGal's boyfriend) is going to try and procure a projector for me from his university. I'm only going to have it for a day at the most, so I'm going to have to work quickly on this next step.

Phase 3: Sketching onto the wall. This requires the projector. I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to get it to project on the highest parts, although maybe that isn't as important. So this phase is fairly obvious - project my sketches onto the wall, trace the sketches, and voila - ready to paint.

Phase 4: Paint. Paint. Paint. Bring in people to help and paint some more!

So that's fairly straightforward. I'm pretty confident that with the help of some volunteers and paid sub-contractors, I should be able to get this done in time without completely going nuts. I know I'm going to go nuts, but maybe I can not go as nutty as possible. Mmmm... nuts.