LAW 134: Looking For America, part 3

Sorry about being away from here for so long. Life, put simply, as gotten in the way of a regular posting cycle. My friends whom i communicate with primarily by snail mail will testify that my record there is just as bad as this one.

p.17, 6.5.17, Tulsa Ok.

I have been working diligently on a variety of art projects; i have two journal/altered book projects going, Looking for America, see below, and Jerome, A Froggy ABCdarium(more later), a new needlepoint piece, Grandmother Turtle, and a series of signs painted for Middle River Landing Marina.

p18, 6.6.17, Monument Valley, Ut

 I've been a busy girl, all of the above along with the ongoing W.I.P of Tesla's Revenge and simply, the lazy days of summer.

p.19, 6.14.17, Spokane, Wa

So these images are from the third signature of Looking for America.  I created the pages out of city maps found in the index of the 1954 edition of Hammond's Ambassador World Atlas. This is intended to be a daily work project. The formal structure hinges on two questions, have i been here? Questions answered with stream of conscious writing. Could i travel by water in my EV Tesla's Revenge, with zen doodle pen and ink drawings which play off the gird of the street maps.

p.20, 6.15.17, Springfield, Ma

Although i adore the calm, zen qualities inherent in simple black and white line drawings, some times  i just can not deny the color jones'. 

p.21, 6.24.17, Syracuse, NY

Also there is a tremendous difference, in a making sense, between drawing and collage. Almost as if the two techniques use different parts of my brain, or use them differently.

p.22, 6.25.17, Tokyo, Japan

Hard to explain, i think that it goes deeper than the additive/subtractive thing. I have always thought of myself as an additive sort of girl; yet collage certainly has a subtractive element to it, all that paper you cut away....

p.23, 7.7.15, Xochimilco, Mx

p.24, 7.27.17, Worcester, Ma

Have i mentioned i have finished the Firebird piece? That only took a year, not quite.















Enjoy,
more later,
gail

LAW 133: Thinking about Technology and Other Issues

I know, i know, waw, waw, waw, my computer died the same week our internet access went south here at the marina... Such first world problems. But seriously folks, don't we all rely, and rely heavily on the Internet, and it's attendant tools for information searches, for complete and instant communication? You bet we do. In my opinion, sometimes far to extensively.

Hey, every blog post needs a cat pic, right?

Most of us use portable computing devices(aka, smart phones) constantly. We take for granted the sheer power and speed of our phones, and we bitch continuously, and loudly when they don't work as advertised, when our data stream is too slow, when the wi-fi isn't working, and, and..... Remember we launched the first men into space using chalkboards, chalk and human calculators. If you haven't seen Hidden Figures, you should.

It took less than a week to replace my trusty old Mac laptop. Sadly i have yet to recover my files from the old hard drive. This is a very sad thing. Yes, i do know that i should be backing up my files, and yes, i have learned my lesson. Still, i have lost, hopefully not for good, an enormous image file, family photos, and eek! all of my own art images. Time to send the hard drive out to a professional company, and time to get my camera out, again.

Magellan, the sleeping cat, working on my hard drive problem

It took close to three weeks to get reliable internet service, truly an eternity in the digital age. This was just a little scary, Don was still working, my only access to the outside world a text only wifi only smart phone. No internet, no wi-fi, no, you get the drift......

What rubs me against the grain about the whole smart phone phenomenon? The phone seems to be taking the place of face to face communication. Spend some time in pubic places watching people. Watch people at dinner, at the bar, at a party, hell even people sitting together under the trees, enjoying the view. If there are four people there, its likely that at least three of them are on the phone, texting, talking, playing music, surfing mindlessly. We are becoming a culture that seems incapable of being present in the moment.

Sunset mirror

I don't want to live that life. I do try, really, to put down my phone, pay attention to the people around me. I try to pay attention to the beautiful world around me.
Now about my e-reader.......
really honey, i just want to finish this chapter.....

Full moon rising over StoryTeller

More later, mainly about art next time, i promise.
gail