LAW 105: What's for Dinner?

I want to be up front here. I will eat almost anything, from almost anywhere; i do however draw a line across which food from China will not pass. This may not be fair to Chinese producers, still there has been too much information published that points to all sorts of contamination, why take a chance? Besides the bounty of the Chesapeake Bay makes not eating Chinese seafood hardly a sacrifice. Since we're talking fish here i would also like to point out that i also boycott any 'farm' raised seafood, this to me is also a 'no brainer'. Mungo and i try to eat as locally as possible. Again living on the Bay makes this an easy matter.

So, last Friday we had just walked into Geresbeck's, our locally owned grocery store, making a beeline to the fish market. Justin(the seafood manager) is a great guy. He offers locally sourced seafood, mostly wild caught, as well as the standard offerings. Since we have gone out of our way to 'make friends' with the people we interact with on a daily basis he has been very accommodating; and searching out and delivering at great prices a wide variety of special requests. I've written at length about the glories of the grilled and stewed octopi. So when he and Jack saw us coming they were ready for us.

Turns out that Justin had special ordered a rather special treat for another customer; what he didn't realize was that the smoked black cod fillets came as a two pack. Since this is a very very pricey fish this could have been rather big ouch! But, ahem…. good Samaritan's that we are, we obligingly took it off from his hands. Justin didn't lose any money, we got a great deal, and an almost two pound fillet of smoked sable fish(it's other name).

Mungo trying to distract me, i think the cat's in on it too!

Oh my! Oh my oh my, can i tell you just how drool worthy this piece of finny goodness was? Although neither of us had ever had this particular species of fish smoked before we were not at all worried that we would not like it. I have never met a piece of smoked fish that i didn't like. Go ahead, feel free to call me a smoked fish slut. I grew up in a part of the country where smoked and pickled fish made frequent appearances on the party table, and had lived in Denmark for a year i knew just what to do with this little treasure. Enter a platter of Scandinavian sushi, err, Smorgasbord. Well really a Smorrebrod platter, daintily little open face sandwiches, surrounded by the best fresh vegetable garni and pickles.

Yes, dinner!

So our first night's dinner consisted of the loin of the sable fish, pumpernickel bread, sweet cream butter, Havarti cheese, assorted olives, fresh radishes and green onions, paper thin lemon slices and homemade  Sichuan cucumber pickles.

Culinary heaven!

So in total we managed to dine on this almost two pound piece of piscatorial pleasure for five, no six separate meals. Two supper Smorrebrod platters, two lunch time snacks and a hard to describe, but very delicious concoction i found in one of the late, great Bert Greene's cookbooks. A hybrid cornbread, (made with polenta) quiche, which always features a grated summer squash, lots of onion, and in this case the last little bit of smoked sable fish flaked into the batter. Oh, did i mention lots of cream? It is very good right out of the oven, but frankly i think i like it better as a leftover breakfast or lunch at room temperature.

So all in all it was very good eats this past week.

More later,

Morgainne

LAW 104: Mungo's Dream

One of the greatest joys that comes when you live on water is all the amazing opportunities for bird watching. Here on the Middle River our favorite birds to watch during the summer and early fall are the Ospreys. What wonderful birds of prey. They of course nest all over the upper bay, commandeering virtually all of the tops of channel markers, buoys, any relatively undisturbed flat surface they can find, including tree tops. If you've never seen an osprey nest, they are huge, messy, untidy masses of sticks.

We have been lucky enough to watch at least one or two nesting pairs every summer since we moved onboard. One of our favorite late afternoon pastimes involves relaxing under the 'Drinking Tree', yes, of course with a glass of wine, watching the Ospreys fish for supper. They almost never miss. A sure sign that fall is here, the Ospreys take off for warmer climes.

Any way, Mungo's Dream goes like this……..

The chair in question, visualize the Osprey!

An Osprey lands on the back of an empty lawn chair says "Hey", …. amazed, perplexed, we uncertainly go "Hey?" back. The Osprey continues the conversation, asking us if we were okay, letting us know that they were getting ready to head south for the winter……."We just wanted to make sure you guys would be here next spring, we really enjoy watching you."

Alright, just a little on the surreal side, but….
More later,
Morgainne

LAW 103: Happy Labor Day, Where did August go?

Hmmmmmm. Well, i've been a bad little blogger girl. Some how i have let an entire month slip away unrecorded, unremarked. What can i say, it has been very very hot.

8.26.16.1 & 2, from August Kalends

Every time i went to make paper, it either became brutally hot and humid, or it rained. Average drying time, four days. Not good. Although i am really jonesing to try making paper out of the ubiquitous water weed that is literally coating about half of the river, i'm waiting for cooler weather.

8.24.16.1 & 2, from August Kalends

I did finish my August Kalends project; although with four fewer signatures than i had planned. I had not taken into account the fatness i would get just from the collage work, so slowed down on that front. I'm taking a break from that project right now. I'm thinking i need some new collage material.

Ganesh Mandala, i think it's done!

I did finish, i think, my Ganesh mini quilt/hand embroidery piece. It is still hanging on the studio wall, uncut, as i want to make very sure i am happy with it, before cutting off the backing.

Outline done, no the hard, long part begins

I have started another wall hanging, this one a Phoenix. It will be completely stitched, and i'm thinking of some bead work on it as well. It should take a good long while to finish.

Week two progress, breast feathers

As you can see, Magellan does think that my computer really does belong to him. Here he is from yesterday, employing the Edgar Cayce method of web surfing.

The night before Hermine was scheduled to impact our area this is what the sky looked like. Spooky beautiful.

Okay so that's the round up, i promise to be better. Please feel free to check out all of our other sites, including Mungo's newest; colonizeearth.org.

More later,
Morgainne, aka Gail

LAW 102: August means the end of ICAD

August is not only the harbinger of the first harvest, happy Lammas, only a little late to all of you. I hope you are enjoying the wonderful fruits of the planet. August also means the end of the annual ICAD art challenge. It is a pretty simple challenge on the surface, make a piece of art for 61 days on an index card. It is an opportunity to play, to experiment, to take chances and to not be afraid of failure. Mungo and i both participated this year. He did a really cool, very much appreciated project, a 'writer does art'. He laid out, and mapped out an image that was gridded out over all 61 cards. Than did free form writing around the marked out image. People read the art every day, and waited impatiently for the image. I imagine he will get around to posting it on his blog real zoo now.

Here are the last two pieces i did for ICAD, you can see all of them, sequentially at my art page, https://www.facebook.com/theartofgailelwell13/

For Those With Eyes to See

Let the Day Begin

Although i was a pretty consistent every day art maker before the challenge, i am also a 'butterfly', with many different projects going at once. Once i settled into small format collage as my medium of choice for ICAD i found the daily ritual was sharpening, focusing the way i was approaching the ideas and challenges of collage. This was/is too cool to give up. Tammy through Daisy Yellow of course encourages us all to continue with the daily practice, particularly through art journaling. This is of course a very good idea, but felt unsatisfying to me. The practical/ambitious  part of me wants to make things that i can show or sell.  So i hit upon a hybrid of sorts. I am already a book maker, i've played around with the idea of 'artist' books before, so the idea of a  daily collage journal came about.

My hope is to sustain this project for an entire year, i'll be happy with completing August and will see what happens after that. The project is called Kalends; the format is 4.5 x 6", so it is roughly the same size i was working during the ICAD project. Each of the books will have between 14 and 15 signatures, each signature will have 8 pages. The paper is a heavy weight, wet or dry media, Canson 9 x 12". By folding and tearing i will get one signature out of each page. I am creating four pages every day; each signature contains two days of collage. Due to the nature of hand book binding the four pages of each day do not always flow together. A design continuity challenge to say the least.

Here are the images for the first signature, in the order you would see them bound in a book.

 

I will share more later with you,

Morgainne, aka Gail

P.S. Images of Mungo's piece

LAW 101: Let me introduce to you…..

Mea Culpa! No, i have not been on vacation, no, i have not died, no, my computer has not broken down….. So what is my excuse?


Aahhhh, it's been hot? Summer fun?? Politics???? I've been busy making art????? A little of all of the above, but really, no excuses. I've fallen down on the letter writing side of my life as well.

Under the Hot Summer Sun, ICAD 55,  7/24/16

Okay, so we've been experiencing some of the hottest summer weather i have seen here on the bay, yesterday's 'real feel' topped out at 117 F. And no, we do not have A/C on the boat. Up until this past week i would have stoutly insisted that it was not necessary.  Yesterday….. not so much.

Our most adorable ship's cat, Magellan the Magnificent, has earned his third name. May i introduce to you, Captain WaterPaws? Alright, it is kinda cute when he drags his water bowl all over, and i do mean all over the boat; at least in the summer……but, come winter time i feel a little less amused. Literally he will stick one paw after the other into the bowl, moving it about six inches with each paw stroke until it is just the right position, than drink. Until this past week. During the heat wave he has added to his Esther Williams routine by tipping it onto its side once he has the bowl properly situated.

I've been busy on the art front. I started making paper in mid June, but had to take a temporary hiatus, due to the extreme temperatures. I've started adding plant matter to the mix, which all though interesting adds at least two more steps in the process, one of which includes cooking the plant stuff in a caustic water bath for several hours. Just what i want to do when the temps are as high as they have been, and yes, of course i do it outside.

…Toward an Uncertain Future, ICAD 55, 7/25/16

The ICAD 2016 challenge is winding down, just a few more days. I find that i have begun to use the daily routine of making index card art as just a little bit of therapy, a chance to direct some of the anger and hopelessness generated by the current state of American politics. All ICAD collages are hand cut and are 4 x 6".

I See Clearly now, ICAD 56, 7/26/16

More later,
Morgainne

LAW 100: Milestones

Okay, so i have been away for most of the month, sorry about that. I caught a nasty summer cold than, being the sweet, gentle, sharing kind of girl that i am, i shared it with Mungo. Duh! Wouldn't you think after 30 plus years we would be immune to each other's diseases, apparently not. But truly that was not where i wanted to go with this story. We've experienced some wonderful food, i am truly in love with the whole Vietnam carmel protein thing. We've done bluefish, amazing, and last night chicken thighs! Oh my! Hopefully when we try this on pork ribs(real soon now) i will remember to take pictures so i can share it with.

ICAD 22, "Dividing Between"

But, just to tantalize your tastebuds, take about 3/4 cup of brown sugar, a 1/3 cup each, fish sauce, rice vinegar, a big bunch of  minced garlic and ginger, along with a couple of minced shallots. Take 3 or 4 chicken thighs, bone in or not as you choose, just remember to adjust your cooking time, and sear them in about 2 tb oil, your choice, i would use coconut here, add about 1/4 of the sauce that i forgot to tell you to make with the above ingredients, duh…… and continue to braise at a fairly high heat, spooning the carmel sauce over the meat. Depending on the size of your chicken, bone in or not, this could take anywhere from 20 minutes to almost an hour. Patience is key here; you are looking for both a color change, from golden brown to almost black, but a consistency change as well. The carmel sauce will bubble along merrily, way to liquid and then, presto, the alchemy of heat applies and it is a wonderful thick, unctuous sauce. It is time to drop a bunch of sliced green onion, jalapenos, and basil on to the chicken, and dinner is ready.

ICAD 24, "Screen Test"

We had company for dinner last night, the evening was topped off by a rainstorm and a beautiful double rainbow.

Rainbows from the stern deck

Yeah me! i have finally hit the magic number of 100 posts for this blog. i can't imagine making a commitment to writing this every day. i have however managed to participate in the 2016 ICAD challenge: a piece

e of art everyday or the months of June and July. We are coming up on the half way point with that and i'm stilling with the program. I have for the most part gone of prompt, and am making collages that mostly resonate to the theme of the Divided Mind. So, here are a few from the last week or so.

ICAD 23, "Question of Identity"

I will update my gailelwell site with more in depth info about the work. Happy 100 to me!

ICAD 25, "Seeing with a Blind Eye"

more later,

Morgainne

ICAD 28, Cats & Dogs, "True Nature"

LAW 99: ICAD 2016

So, through the good offices of a Facebook friend i was introduced to the world of ICAD. Which is quite simply a lovely 61 day art challenge. The challenge, to make a work of art on an index card every day for 61 days. There are daily prompts, weekly themes and an over arching element that ties everything together; if you choose to go that way.

ICAD 1 mixtape

ICAD 2 PYRAMID

For some people the prompt is an unbelievably useful tool, providing a much needed trigger for creativity and inspiration. For others it can be a road block to getting things done. Whether you use the prompts, or go off into the wild blue by yourself, either way, or some combination of both it's all cool.

ICAD 3 SNOOPY

The point is MAKE THE ART, experiment, play, take chances. Post your work, get positive feedback, and it all is, meet interesting people, make friends.

ICAD 4 OFF PROMPT

Get the drift? It's a no brainer, no lose situation.

ICAD 5 CLOUDS

I started thinking that i was going to play across the board, particularly with materials; a week and a half in i can tell that i am probably going to stick to collage. The smaller size, 4 x 6" is a challenge in and of itself. I intend to use as much painted background and drawing techniques in the collages as i  can force myself into. I've always been something of a purist with my collage work. Along the way i will set myself daily challenges, as well as tempting to work to the daily theme. This is definitely outside of my comfort zone. I have always felt that my strongest work is improvisational in nature.

ICAD 6 TOP TEN

Sitting down with a blank piece of paper and a folder of random imagery is my favorite way to get started. Perhaps this challenge comes at a fortunate moment. I haven't added to my portfolio of collage materials in some time. I'm getting pretty familiar with what i have, so it is getting more difficult to surprise myself with new juxtapositions.

ICAD 7 PINBALL

ICAD 8 ISLAND

My intention is to build separate  page here on Life Art Water for the ICAD challenge. I plan on doing updates weekly. So if you want to check it out……

ICAD  9 COMPASS

More later,
Morgainne(that would be me, Gail)


PS: Will do these weekly from now on so you don't have so much to look at at once.

ICAD 10 COBALT BLUE

ICAD 11 BASEBALL