honest art talk

Paperclips connect!

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:53:08 GMT

As I read Petroski and think about the quest for a better paperclip, I am still thinking about the American artist (Hugh P. Botts) I've been researching for a few years. Thanks to google patents, research is easy. Turns out, Botts too was on a quest for a better paperclip. Botts' clips are coupled, my fascination is now quadrupled...

take care,
Rachael

linked learning (thinking in 3D from ArtWalk 2, Petroski, and Munson)

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 02:53:48 GMT

There is never a separate, disparate, completely independant concept, object or person in my world. Stuff (both the tangible and the idea sauce kind) and people connect like mad. Sometimes my sketchbook swims with objects, ideas and people, and the ping-ponging of relations between the three... Consider then, these notes, on what I am in the process of learning this weekend. From which hopefully, you might learn something too. I do believe in the learning.

A glimpse from my sketchbook thinking this morning...

Somewhere in that mess is some snippet of truth.

lesson 1: presenting ideas in 3 D is a bit of tactical strategy and a lot of problem solving

Starting last night, I devoted a total of five hours over two days to attend two free workshops to learn about expressing my ideas in 3 dimensions. At the end of this, I have a much better sense of the work of public art, skills and materials in model making, and strategies for successful ambitious project work.
These were part of the ArtWalk 2 project that is going on here in Rochester, NY. It's a fairly large scale public art project (actually a continuation of an earlier project) involving a bazillion meetings (many of which are public and documented here ). Because I work in the neighborhood and because the museum I work for is connected to the project, I have tried to attend some of these meetings.

Anyway, I listened and learned. Along with some sketchbook pictures from I've gathered a nugget of truth from two of the four artists.

File under strategy:
Nancy Gong talked about working hard on a proposal and then not getting the project. After she got over that, her subsequent proposals were better (more flexible, more self-assured, more conceptual instead of rigidly precise) and more successful. The finished work is classy, colorful, fitting. I appreciated her advice, "submit, emotionally detach, and then go home."

File under practical applications:
Ed Stringham makes models. Really great ones. And his was a funny, engaging presentation that had me jotting down details about styrene, callipers, and why his shop paints everything primer gray. He started off though with true truth..."Real education comes from having a need to know now".
If ever I need to build a model, I have some notes to start.

(For local readers, there are still events to attend, one is happening this Tuesday night, August 25th in fact. )

Lesson 2: when it's time to consider mundane objects, innovation and industrial design...there will be a sign

Yesterday, before I went to the workshop, I had to kill a little time between work and this program so I went to Goodwill and found some randomly wonderful books (including a Henry Petrowski book about the design evolution of ordinary objects). How these two books and the lovely orange notebook are helping me connect the dots is eerie and fascinating... and developing now.

So then I will leave with another set of notes, this one on the facebook world , on the page of the museum where I went to art school a million years ago. They asked me to tell what I'm doing now and what I learned then. Clearly the learning still resonates... but its still so messy.

take care,
Rachael

days spent wandering, drawing, looking and reading Miss Lonelyhearts in the heart of the big city

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:12:49 GMT

A few hours ago I stepped off a plane from New York. I had a couple of bags but more importantly I have a head full, sketchbook full, bag full of ideas found in the city. I had to go to New York. My crazy projects mandated it. I had a baby cousin to meet, an old friend to see, and about 60 prints to look at, and I needed to draw and stare at strangers to jumpstart a slightly stalled story.

My projects are starting to swirl together: the non-fiction project documenting and unearthing the prints of a some-what obscure WPA printmaker, and the fiction project about a few characters who mix drawing, writing, living and social justice. This trip helped separate them again and it also allowed me to draw the following and finally read Miss Lonelyhearts. It seemed a perfect read as I tried to understand how creatives in the Depression balanced empathy with ambition, idealism with self-interest, and romance with radicalism. I saw the whole book with pictures.

And now, from the relative quiet of my kitchen table, I can still wander and explore a little, even if it is only to connect some dots about West's Miss Lonelyhearts and read others who link West with drawing ( this article on Austin Kleon's blog) and history (great blogentry from How books got their titles about Miss Lonelyhearts ) .

I plan to upload some pictures soon but am plum tuckered out right now and the laundry isn't going to fold itself...

A to X

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:41:31 GMT

Recently, old friends have been magically appearing again telling me stories that make me smile and remind me that we are all strangely connected...and then the books I've been reading and the stories on the radio have been making me think about how we can help each other and how important passion is in the lives we live. I keep thinking of the bits of wisdom I'm gaining from these dear old friends and from reading more John Berger and taking time to think and draw again... That (and a million projects, some of which I will share more about soon) is one of the reasons I haven't been here much...

Here's a bit of what I can say about the Berger:

John Berger's A Painter of Our Time is a book I read (devoured really) twenty years ago. It shook me up and spoke to my dreams, realities and fears. And it made me want to see the paintings of Janos Lavin. The rich prose and vivid description made me think of the politics of painting and the romanticism of both, and it made me see the sketchbooks and coffee cups in his abandoned studio. I thought the intimacy of reading someone's sketchbooks/journals was a fantastic writerly device. It just worked.
So I was encouraged to see that Berger's more recentFrom A to X is in letters. I read it over a recent weekend and while it isn't quite as magic as Painter of Our Time, it is motivating, romantic, real, and vibrantly human. If you want another review, that's here.

alright then, I'm back to connecting with the old friends, the ones who knew me when I was looking up Janos Lavin in libraries and wondering why I couldn't find him...

Rachael

low ambitions in high temperatures

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:49:43 GMT

We used to live in Atlanta and now we don't. I think of that on days when it gets over 80 degrees and I feel unable to do anything outdoors or in. Tonight it isn't even that hot, just, slow and summer stalled.

I was eating strawberries when I realised they would make prints. I ate more strawberries.

There are other things I oughtta be doing, I suppose. Writing the stories in my head. Reading works of major or minor literary import. Mourning pop stars. Making pop corn. I don't know.
I'll just make another strawberry print.

If I had greater ambitions I would make a dress form using the paper tape I have up in my studio but have never used. I would apply to the Artists Market at the public market.

I really should say more about the public art project planning meeting I went to the other day. Ok I will, but not tonight.

Rachael

so it begins...

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:34:25 GMT

(cue the Ramones to play Needles and Pins)

I'm pretty sure I've called a dozen of these blog entries "needles and pins" but then again, my today-off was about acupunture and sewing and so it seems fitting (unlike the garments I've made recently which seem un-fitting, but close).

My acupuncture treatments and my obsessive straight stitching of ill-fitting tops and bottoms are helping. Each needle, each thread, each relaxed moment of pre-occupation has me not thinking about all the stuff we cannot control in this world-- from the safety of our loved ones to the longevity of the planet. Sure, sure, we can try but...

Better, for me, at least, is to trust the needles and continue to explore the every expanding world-o-sewing... my two favorites today.

There are the sewing divas and their layers of knowledge, ideas and couture-tricks. Prompts me to think I could maybe even make something that fits!

And if I do, I will endlessly walk down the street and hope someone takes my picture. But for all the photographers in Rochester, it isn't the same as watching fashionable strangers walk by on The Sartorialist. Lovely.

take care, troublemakers,
Rachael

Frederic Back and some thoughts on why retirees should draw more

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:35:45 GMT

In Montreal they've just opened a show of the work of Frederic Back, whose life of images, stories and activism inspire. Explore more here and should I succeed in getting myself to Montreal to see this show, I will tell more.

Even so, I'm inspired right here and now. More so, because I realize that this drawing thing is also a connecting thing.

Last night we had an Open House at work where about 90 fantastic people came around to find out more about our art classes. They included a bunch of recent retirees wondering how to begin or begin again at drawing. It's pretty thrilling to tell people the truth as I've seen it; those who begin to draw later in life come to the lines they make with so much life experience, so much honesty and history, that once they get past the stumbles they break quickly to a stride. One thing to know how to draw as a mazillion recent art school grads do, but it's quite another to have something to say.

I'm off to draw...
take care,
Rachael

not exactly timely, but alive and full of ideas...swept into sewing, stitching together ideas

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:30:10 GMT

Somewhere in the middle of the night last night as I was reading random women's blogs about sewing (see the feed dog or angry chicken), I stopped with a shock and realized that I used to keep a blog. The effect was somewhat like what happened when I tried to document my new skirt but slipped.

Slippery thoughts about what and why I write when and where and what I have not been telling started to overwhelm me. Somewhere in the past few months, I got myself obsessed with sewing. My bobbin ran out of thread just now and instead of re-loading, I paused, looked around and decided that it is indeed worth a few words and pictures in semi-coherent order. I oughta reflect on how sewing in saving my sanity, how learning to follow directions has been good for me, how it feels important somehow to be wrapped up in a global movement to re-learn how to make clothing and community.

It's a day later and I'm a little more resolved even. First, to show off the skirt (pictures don't show the awkward way it drapes or the wonky back zipper but that's alright by me). And secondly to claim that I will not stop blogging. Or at least I'll try not to. Who am I to suddenly stop blogging while the rest of the planet continues to twitter themselves into a frenzy?

Oh yea, and thirdly, to finish some of my projects and use this fabulous fabric for something other than decorating my bookshelf.

thanks for listening!
Rachael

balloons

Mon, 25 May 2009 14:18:17 GMT

Yesterday we went to a state park to walk around and watch about fifteen balloons lift into the air. I can't tell you what was more magical, the color and scale, effortlessness of these big graceful balloons or the calm, comfortable, crowd that watched and cheered.

When I was kid we would go every year to the balloon festival in my town, walk around in the early morning cold of the airfield and watch as they floated away. They floated around that sleepy little town as we chased them on our bikes.

I snapped a couple of quick pictures of the balloons as they were being filled with air. The photos may not inspire anyone but me. But now, again, I'm ten years old, looking up into the bright blue sky and peddling as fast as I can to chase down those huge, wonderful things.

That's all really.
Take care,
Rachael

Sketchcrawl Rochester April 11, remembering, and connecting through drawing...

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 19:38:44 GMT

About it is that the closest I come to a consistent spiritual practice is a pretty consistent drawing practice. It's at the core of many of my friendships, a form of meditation for me, and on days when the thing I do most is draw; drawing allows for magic to happen. Yesterday, drawing served to remind me about life and death, and the value of values.

A group of us here in Rochester had a sketchcrawl that started at 10 am in Mount Hope Cemetary and then stopped for lunch and then drew at the Lamberton conservatory at Highland Park. It was cold and still about 10 of us came out and clustered around chilly stone graves and drew.

The drawing above, is a sketch of the grave sculpture above the Gordon family plot. She calmly stood holding that anchor as I tried again and again to get it right. Below, though, are the first two draiwngs I made, on the left a sculpture in the cemetary and on the right, the 'warm up drawing' from a coffee shop I stopped at pre-sketchcrawl.

Joanie and I were both drawn to the sculpture of Jesus on a gravestone for Franklin Schmanke. He was wonderful to draw.

April 11 itself was a reminder of loss (the death a few years ago of the very good man who was my father-in-law) which made me more aware of the luck that is every day we have to draw (and bowl, and hug our loved ones).

From the cemetary, we went to the newly re-furbished conservartory where the heat and the life were everywhere. It was great to see everyone walking around enjoying the plants and I found myself sucked into the succulents room where I shed layers and drew the shapes of the cacti...

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Should you be anywhere near Rochester New York next sketchcrawl, I heartily urge you to join us. And to Genine, Shawn, Penny, Joanie, Larissa, Chris, and Vickie, THANK YOU!

Rachael

Among the joys

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:16:56 GMT

Of my year thus far:

To listen to and laugh with and watch the images shown in a lovely slideshow a few evenings ago by Maira Kalman. Today I discovered the following pleasures at her simple to remember website...A movie related to the Elements of Style project, a very funny collaborative poster Ask Your Doctor, and fabric she once designed for Isaac Mizrahi...

Oh and fabric, yes, there is some silk charmeuse that I am learning to sew and it will someday soon be a lovely dress to wear to a good friend's magical wedding. French seams and plenty of extra fabric, a drape-y front perfect to pair with pearls, and the glee of wearing a dress I made myself...

And a day in the middle of the week, off. Just off. Not working because I worked a little too much lately and lost the time to play and so, play needs to be attended to.

let's hope you are finding some joy today, too.
take care,
Rachael

Sketchcrawl April 11 and the joy of wearing a shirt I made myself

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:37:15 GMT

We'll be drawing around Rochester Next Saturday as part of the Sketchcrawl and so if you are anywhere near here, come and join us at 10 am at Mount Hope Cemetary and at 1pm at Highland Park's conservatory.

In the meantime, I can't stop sewing. That's the vice that keeps me from typing words into this little blog box but now as I do it is with the joy of wearing a shirt I made myself...

see ya (with sketchbook in hand I hope!)
Rachael

Hope and knotted threads

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:50:35 GMT

A week or two ago I went to a library booksale with a friend of mine. We filled paper bags with stacks of used books and with every book that went in to my bag it went with a story. Poems, puppets, psychotherapy. One book, especially, was exciting for the title alone. Images of Hope.
I started to read it but found the thing full of underlined passages and confusing generalizations. I just couldn't follow it, so I ripped a few pages out and put the book in recycling, images of hope, hopefully will help my garden as a mulchy sort of thing.

Other books from the bag have been much more successful: from Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed
(Barbara has a blog which is well writ and as thought provoking as her book), to a dozen other oddities I can leaf through when not sewing or drawing.

Oh my knotted threads, uneven button holes, and wandering hemlines. I have been obsessed with sewing. Skirts and bags and lots of practice rows of stiches somewhat straight. I am not even close but having a little too much fun with it all. I am about to explore:

making my own bias tape

More of Martha McQuade's designs and ideas from her uniform-studio and swell blog

making a better lunch sack than the one I just made up myself (a little too lopsided)

And then I'm hungry to clean the floor and make fabric from all those scrippity scraps of thread

take care,
Rachael

some sketchbook images

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:44:04 GMT

I've been absent from the blogosphere mostly because I've been sewing and writing and editing and thinking and filling another sketchbook. Below are some sketches from the little fabriano that challenged me by not laying flat and by not being the right size. Oh well, oh dear, it's a done deal now and I'm on to a moleskin.

And so then, I will try to put more stuff on here in the near future, forgive me for my silence and take care,
Rachael

to atlanta and back

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:18:14 GMT

I'm back home again from a short trip to Atlanta to usher in the All Small Redux show at Agnes Scott and to experience the ATL as a visitor. It was blissfully warm, relaxed and inspiring (from the 50 artists in the show to the amazing artist friends I spent time with). The postcard barely tells the story but then postcards never do...

Here's what I will tell of my trip: it allowed me to wander, wonder, wade through crowds of child cheerleaders (oh my, seven year old girls ought not to wear tops that show their midriff I think), and walk. I drew my trip into the pages of my submission to the ArtHouse sketchbook show. I stayed up too late listening to the sounds around me. I watched the long buried ceramic warriors mesmerize a room full of tourists.

And then I blinked and found myself again at work, again at home, again in the routines. These are wonderful everydays and I wouldn't trade them, my travels make me more aware of both the visited and the left. Lucky, lucky, lucky to be here... to go there... to do what I love surrounded by love.

that's all,
Rachael

small is mighty: all small redux!

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:09:29 GMT

all small redux is opening in Atlanta this week and I am thrilled to be heading there to see it. Lovely Lisa Alembik has been hanging and curating the show full of magical small work that knocked us out of our curatorial seats...Here's hoping you can come see it or otherwise support the small work carefully and magically made in this otherwise big world...

Show details: all small redux on view at The Dalton Gallery of Agnes Scott College, Decatur GA

Below is from the facebook page for the opening...

In this time of downsizing, low returns, minimal output and small budgets, it is refreshing to celebrate the fabulous preciousness of the tiny. Artwork is at the most 6 inches or 60 seconds in length.

Event is FREE and Open to All.

ARTISTS include: Anita Arliss � Temme Barkin-Leeds � Kelly Lee Barrett � Chasen Barry � Rebekah Berger � Adam Bledsoe � Christie Blizard � Marilynn Brandenburger � Jeff Brown � Stephen Calsbeek � Danny Bruce Campbell � Karen Campbell � Karen E. Cleveland � Eilis Crean � Craig M. Cully � Yosafa Deutsch � Craig Dongoski � Em! � Angus Galloway � E. Sherman Hayman � Karen Hennessee � Robert Hill � Cecelia Kane � Rachel Hall Kirk � Vincent Leandro � Anya Liftig � Kellianne McCarthy � John McWilliams � Prema Murthy � Kendall Nordin � Judy Parady � Virginia Parker � Andrea Prince � Julie P�ttgen � Michael Reedy � Nell Ruby � Michele Schuff � Marcy Starz � Sarah Steinwachs � Joan Tysinger � Rachel Wade � Cosmo Whyte � Rhea Wojcik � Tamsen Wojtanowski � Joo Yeon Woo � Tom Zarrilli � Jenny �Bunny Buns� Young

Jurors are Lisa Alembik, Rachael Baldanza & Richard Gess, organizers of 2002's "All Small."

ALSO, in conjunction with the exhibit will be an "All Small Night of Performance," March 4, 7pm.
This will be an evening of all sorts of performances, 60 seconds or less.
Contact the gallery if you are interested in signing up to perform.

Should be lots of fun and a re-freshing recognition that small is mighty!

Rachael

looking

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:59:24 GMT

I have the joy of seeing lots of drawings now, plenty of pots, and piles of paintings. Not that everything is wonderful, but the looking is learning, appreciating, understanding and respecting.

I'll try to look more today.

And you?

that's all,
thanks!
Rachael

process

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 02:00:30 GMT

Here's what I've noticed happens.

from a start and step
to a stall and stumble
then something sparks

and it catches
and it creates
and if carefully kept

the made thing is better
for more than one maker
and more often than not the mistakes make it better

or so it seems today.

off to make more trouble
Rachael

Kalman and Lincoln and making again

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:47:07 GMT

Thanks everyone for getting me making again! Now here's more cool inspiration from two different presidential directions:

Maira Kalman blogging the inauguration of Obama (thanks Margie!)
and

Abe Lincoln's photo on view in Rochester and explained by a smart conservator

enjoy both!
make!

thanks
Rachael

the under and over

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 01:37:27 GMT

Undermotivated and overwhelmed with millions of details, a big project at work, and the feeling that what I might make might mean nothing to anyone other than me, I have spent another full week making no paintings, paper dolls, stories or sewing projects.

I can't be the only one who has been temporarily stopped in my tracks and I am not entirely doom-and-gloom either...

But that said, I commit here and now to stop talking and begin working. Maybe a skirt, maybe a couple two or three little people, maybe a story. Whatever it is I am about to begin the fantastic process of making things. Nothing we make is for ourselves alone and if the stuck feeling sticks us from making something, it is taken away from the world itself.

Go make something, too. I implore you.

Rachael