My reading and thinking about art have reached a fever pitch again even if my blogging has slowed down. I signed up to teach a class in the fall to non-art majors and am now spending my non work hours working on compiling loads of resources, ideas and most importantly, images for their (and my) benefit. I'm looking at how we look and thinking about how best to introduce the practice of looking slowly, looking with passion, and looking with relevance to one's own life. It's actually a lot of fun and a great balance to my mostly manage-y summer and my art making.

In my visual travels around the web, I keep finding great stuff to look at. Here are a couple of today's favorites...

The flip flop car

A gorgeous frenetic yellowy orange sideboard by Cezanne (and more from that show last year)

A yummy Richter painting of branches but mostly of color

A Thomas Struth photo of Bellini's glory in context, not faith as much as tourism but it is truly magic

In other news: the paper dolls are still taking form, I'm drawing strangers, and the garden is producing (cucumbers and still green tomatoes).

take care,
Rachael

About 20 years ago I started drawing my own friends. After drawing all sorts of characters for all sorts of years, I started to collage and then draw an odd bird,a strange gal, a wierd young lady I named Janet Groundhog. Janet was the public question answer girl at the Eggville Public Library. I drew her as a little bit like me and a lot like my real friends and a lot like a young woman coming into her own with other people and ideas.

Her stories appeared in the little zine I made from 1995 or 6 until 2002, Trustworthy. Trustworthy started when I was an art history graduate student essentially looking for an excuse to be creative, collaborative, goofy, and to make small pieces of pretty and slightly subversive writing and drawing.


Janet's stories were amalgams of my own stories and those I dreamed up. She lied to impress her summer camp friends, she fell in love with a tree scholar and grew restless, she impulsively set root in a Vermont town. She figured out, or rather, I figured out (through drawing her and writing out her stories and sending them out all over the country on a semi-regular basis) some core ideas about place, people, and memory.












And Janet started writing more ( I wanted to have her write a bodice-ripper but never did) and I started painting more. I've been thinking of more Janet stories but I really haven't been drawing her. I'm about to close my old old old email account which is all spam but which has the first website I ever made and that holds the Janet and trustworthy stuff, so I thought I'd put it on this lblog simply so she doesn't completely fade into complete obscurity because, well, she's still one of my favorite imaginary people.

I may still finish the Janet story or breathe some new life into her, but in the meantime, enjoy what pops up here and be nice to everyone you meet on the street as Janet Groundhog would have you do.
take care,
Rachael

Alright then, while I have been mad busy and tired when I come home. I can tell you that this past weekend treated me well. I magically had lots of time to spend with my fine husband and some good friends, with our new washer (which was a trade for this logo I made for Jeff's fabulous appliance repair business), and with my garden and art.



There were two twin boys (maybe 6 years old) on the bus this evening. They were fascinated by a moth that had landed and was still hanging on to one of their tennis shoes. The little guys kept calling it a butterfly and talking about it and you know, there was all sorts of magic about the boys, the moth/butterfly, and the moment before it flew away.
that's all. take care
Rachael

I really oughtta go to bed about now to prepare for the wack-a-diddle do day I anticipate at the day job tomorrow. It'll be good I bet, but let me say right now, for the record that I put all the information in the note and I simply cannot be held responsible if not everyone read the note. Of course, most reasonable people, read the note. I will expect the best but be ready for reality. All's well until it isn't.

Meanwhile, I am happy to report that the Stecklevicious-es are now back in Buffalo and we went and visited them on Saturday. A bright sunny Saturday it was and there was much walking around and enjoying each other company and a little Albright Knox wandering. The Robert Theirren immensely oversized table and chairs was a trip and a real thrill for sweet 2 year old in our party, but it seemed to upstage the Clyfford Still in a not so friendly way. In the photo on their exhibitions page, it is in an outdoor setting and that's a bit less antagonistic to other art. Don't curators think about those things?

So today, I spent some time in the kitchen, the garden, the studio and the bookstore. A perfect day, really. And in the bookstore I like to grab a big fat stack of magazines. So I was really surprised to see the same cover on two major ceramics magazines. Yep, the same cover is on the Ceramics Art and Perception number 64. Now I know the ceramics world is small (smaller than Buffalo I bet) but that doesn't mean that only one man deserves a cover. It's enough to make me subscribe to Studio Potter. Well, actually, I'm already convinced of that...if they are still publishing which is a little hard to tell. And if they are publishing , here's hoping their next issue doesn't have this cover.

And also, I realized the other day that I absolutely do not believe that one must have expensive materials to make good art. Just needed to say that. Thanks for listening.

good night and may you have the strength you need to fight for truth, revel in the ridiculous and have a little fun tomorrow,
Rachael

Today the things that I needed to get me through a somewhat stressfull series of problems and pitfalls, and the mundane grey of a Monday were (in no particular oprder): old friends, phonecalls placed and received, letters written, cookies baked, all the goofy kids and fun people I watched today, about an hour of painting, a couple of moments of high humor, smells of fresh rain, sounds of dramatic thunder, colors on my palate and in my garden, and watering my neighbors impatiens.

Plus, you know, I am still brewing a lot of the stuff I was talking about, thinking about, listening to, and dreaming of in Penland and much of my thinking connected to the way we work in groups. Taking a well needed break from managing my creative chaos (running the circus is how I like to think of it) and watching a good guy do the same thing (that's you Mark) led me to some thoughts about how we need to, all of us, sometimes...read the note and get with the system. Here's hoping that everyone follows the rules and plays nice in your workplace and here's to all the folks in mine that do.

I don't necessarily believe in blind obedience and I sure don't want to be a jerk about it but when I was younger individuality and independance were high virtues and today, I have much more respect for the kids who can collaborate, communicate and get stuff done. When all the parts of the puzzle come together you can really see an image and sometimes, even, it's a good one.
I scribbled some thoughts on the way home from work (that's what's above) about why we need good systems, good plans, good structures, leaders and team players and why we all need to read the note.


good night, now and thanks!

Rachael