LAW 111: More new book projects.

One of the really cool and interesting things that came out of my participation in the Daisy Yellow ICAD 2016 challenge is my re-found interest in drawing. If you are not familiar with Daisy Yellow it is a participatory internet art group moderated by Tammy Garcia, among others. ICAD is a 60 day long make art a day challenge made on index cards. I really did not do much drawing for the challenge itself, but the idea stuck in the back of my head. By the end of August and by August Kalends project i was ready to leave collage alone for awhile and focus on some other media.

Display view of side one

the first two books of this series were in essence zen doodle meditations that were serial in nature. The first, Zen Doodle is a zigzag accordion book. The paper i used,  mixed media Canson 98#, was first used as a "drop cloth"  when we antiqued the grill that went on to become one of two new port holes on our boat. I than cut and formed the book block. I treated each of the pages of the form as a separate drawing(i did one a day) and as part of the overall composition of the book. I played off  the underlying imagery formed by the stencil effect. In essence i had a mandala that i was able to play off from. The second side has a little bleed through, but not enough to create patterning off it. So i simply played with line and connections on this side.

Side two, complete and hanging.

This book can be read as a book, when folded, or can be displayed on the wall as a drawing. The book when open is 14 x 17". The individual 'pages' are 3.5 x 4.25". There are 16 pages per side, with two serving as covers for the book.

The second book of this series, Autumn Moons, is a 'straight' accordion book. A strip of the same Canson paper was painted, than folded into an accordion. The individual pages are 7 x 43/8", with six panels per side plus covers. I used the same circle mandala to start each drawing, the moon of the title. Each drawing was completed in one day, and each informed the other in terms of pattern.

Book cover, and inside shot

I approached these two books as a journal project. I gave myself guidelines to work off from, than allowed my pen, my mind and my emotions to take me where they would. I worked on these two pieces pretty much every day during September and October.

Green side, panel 2 detail

Red side, long shot

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

LAW 110: Another Day in Paradise

Finally the fall color here on the Middle River is approaching it's peak. I've been seeing gorgeous photos of fall color from a lot of you. Finally i can share some of the beauty i am blessed with everyday, as all of this is literally my front and back 'yard', so to speak.

From the end of my dock, looking across the river

We have been experiencing glorious fall weather, cool, crisp nights. Just cold enough to warrant a fire at night and before breakfast. We so do not miss the odor of the kerosene heater; although i will admit that it was a good little heater. The days have been warmer than usual for mid November, most afternoons are pleasant enough to spend a little time under the drinking trees.

The view from the drinking tree

Magellan, our valiant ship's cat wants to go on record as being in firm opposition to the end of daylight savings time. He generally is not allowed outside after dark, and is in not so quiet rebellion over what he sees as unrighteous lockdown measures instituted by his shipmates. He is currently protesting his illegal detention by conducting sit-down protests in his litter box.

Magellan as figurehead on one of his many boats

Our second round of home made apple cider this season is very tasty. Perhaps the best yet. It actually was a Ciser, or Cyser, just a fancy way of saying, cider with some other fruit, in this case, strawberries from this summer that we had picked and frozen.

Yum yum Strawberry Apple Cyser

The election? Wow! I'm still processing what happened. We were at our local grocery this morning, i was amazed by the rancor, loud and boisterous from shoppers and employees on both sides . Obviously  we all need  a little more time and distance on this. Let's all make an effort to be nicer to everyone, okay?

Yeah me i voted.

More later,
Morgainne, that would be me, gail

LAW 109: Pollacking and ABCdariums

NorthWind ABCdarium is my newest daily book/journal project. My husband and i 'pollacked' a 22 x 30" piece of unknown watercolor paper. 'Pollacking', a term my gallery mates came up with in reference to the paint style we used on the industrial grade, incredibly ugly grey carpet installed in our gallery when we rented it. We were afraid to see what was underneath it. Yes, it was a lot of fun splashing paint on the floor, yes, we got quite a bit on ourselves as well. You can really develop beautiful color and layering with spatter painting. This project is the NorthWind ABCdarium because we took the paper and premixed paint out to the end of our dock as there was no room in my studio for fun and games like this, it was a beautiful bright sunny and windy day. I can see the strong influence of the north wind in the paint patterns.

Action painting on the dock!

To create the body of the book i folded the paper first in half, then in quarters lengthwise; creating strips 30 x 51/2" long. Two of the strips were than folded into eight panel accordions, which were than overlapped and glued in the middle. This construction gave me a two sided, 28 panel accordion book plus cover flaps. Plenty of room for an alphabet book.

Not a bad studio space, hey?

The individual panels are 5 1/2 x 3 3/4", the background a very thinned liquid craft acrylic paint which was purchased for another project and languishing in dark hole storage in my studio. Since this is another variation of zen doodling i made the decision that an important 'constant' would be the size and shape of the letters. I've used the idea of the circle/mandala for the last two books, it felt right to branch out into other shapes. I toyed with the idea of using a commercial stencil, but rejected all the ones i have to hand as too mechanical as well as too small. So i sat down and started designing my own font.

I had to fold the paper on my studio floor!

A very side note to font design: as a teenager, quite some time ago i was a cheerleader. Needless to say, back in the Stone Age we had no cool tools to help us create our spirit signs. I became my squad's de facto font designer/sign writer. Then as now i utilized the whole design process, hated by all design students, thumbnails, rough sketches and drafts to final project. Since i was overlaying the letter onto a painted surface i really, really did not want to sketch onto that surface. Rather i wanted a smooth one line mark. So, in essence i have created my own font, and turned them into stencils. 

Progress with stencils

The process of the ink drawing feels far more decorative than the circle books. Part of the process has to be grounded in the recognition of each letter. With the circles i was much freer to simply go where the line took me. Both practices have positive and negative elements. Even though i have only finished four letters so far i feel a definite lack of spontaneity.

So, i think that the separate letter panels are all pretty self explanatory, right? If not, i guess it might just be time to go back to grade school. I'll post more of these every few days, along with progress shots.

More later,

Morgainne, aka Gail

LAW 108: Blessed Samhain, or what the h… is Halloween?

Just a quick note or two. When i realize how long i have been thinking about writing another blog entry, but actually not doing it, i realize just how wrong some of my fellow employees where when i announced my retirement. "Ooh, you'll be bored! You'll be back to work in no time".

Mr & Mrs Anonymous ready to party!

Well, on some levels they were right, not on the boredom front, never that! But work? Well, there is still never enough time in the day to touch every project that i am working on, much less house(boat)work.

View from the fire pit

Any how, Hallows is come and gone, there was a small, very pleasant party Saturday at the marina. The new fire pit is functional, the weather unbelievably beautiful, the food beyond drool worthy, and thank the gods, election 2016 is indeed almost over.

Samhain dock side altar

I'll post some really yummy fish dishes that we've had real soon now. I promise.

Mungo was not surprised at Flippy the Flounder's choice.

But for now: now is the time to look inward. To sit quietly in the dark, to review the choices we made in this past year, embrace our mistakes and forgive them. Now we have weeks of quiet, calm, dark solitude. We should all use it to recharge our bodies and spirits.

More later,
Morgainne

LAW 107; A love affair with cauliflower

Cauliflower has always been one of my favorite veggies, raw or cooked i say bring it on. It is an incredibly versatile player in the culinary games; stew it, fry it, grill it, puree it, bake it, roast it. The list of styles and ethnicities of the humble cauliflower goes on and on.

Last night's entry into the cauliflower sweepstakes will certainly becomes a staple dish here on the Floating Empire. So simple, so delicious; stovetop roasted Cauliflower. Yum, yum, yum. I'm sorry i honestly do not remember which Facebook feed i tracked this down from. When i asked Dr. Google he came up with many variations, but not the site that i remember.

Regardless, it is simplicity it self, and i will share it with you. What you need: a cauliflower, approximately 3 TB of butter, sea salt, fresh sprig of thyme or rosemary, a couple of Tablespoons of red wine vinegar and a stove top safe deep dish pan with lid, preferably of course good cast iron.


Trim the cauliflower in the normal fashion, taking care to slice the bottom end so that it can set evenly in the pan. Melt the butter, throw in the herb, sprinkle the cauliflower with salt, cover, turn the heat down to low/medium low and walk away for at least 25 minutes, perhaps as much as 35. I would err on the side of less time than more. At this point the bottom of the cauliflower will be completely caramelized and smell unbelievably good. The cauliflower is likely completely tender at this point. Carefully flip up over, cover and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes. All you are doing here is adding a nice brown crust to the top. Gently flip back right side up onto a pretty serving platter. Deglaze the pan with a couple of TB of red wine vinegar, reduce and serve over the cauliflower. The site i got this from recommended serving it with a Hazelnut Gremolata, which i made, blithely substituting for everything i did not have, which was pretty much everything in the recipe. It was still recognizable, but of a slightly different species. Honestly i won't go to the trouble the next time i make this, it was simply to good naked.

Although we did indeed consume the entire head of cauliflower between the two of us, it wasn't the only thing on the menu. Our good buddy Justin, fish monger extraordinare of Geresbeck's fame brought in some whole red snapper the other day. This is not an ordinary event and of course we immediately decided that we would feast on red snapper. Since the weekend was incredibly windy we opted to bake it in parchment, Spanish style. Stuffed with lots of lemon slices, shallots, fresh thyme and stuffed green olives. I bedded it in a puddle of tomato sauce, and topped it with a little more. This, in lieu of our first choice, grilling over an open fire. It was good, but nothing beats whole fish on the grill.

We raved about the cauliflower all night long, it was great, it's not often that a vegetable side dish will completely eclipse a really good entree.

More later
Morgainne

LAW 106: Dinner anyone?

One of things that fall means if you live on the Chesapeake Bay is the change of emphasis on just which shelled sea creature will grace your dinner table. The tide and the seasons swing inexorably  in a great circle and our dinner plates here reflect that.

In spring we gear up for crab season, waiting impatiently for those tasty little spiders of the sea. Oh but way before summer is over i, at least, start seriously jonesing for oysters. September rolls around, technically it is the start of Oyster Season, but alas, the water is still to warm and the crabs are still abundant.

This past Saturday that all changed. A slipmate came knocking on our door with the offer of fresh caught oysters. We didn't say no! So armed with a bucket full of oysters they had plucked from the Kent Narrows that morning we prepared for an evening of epicurean gluttony.

Venus, oops, i mean Oysters on the half shell

Evidence! This is round one from Saturday evening. As you can see we enjoy our condiments with our oysters, but let me tell you, they were so wonderfully fresh and briny that we mostly just ate them naked. Surprisingly we were incapable of eating all of them Saturday night. We shared the last dozen or so Sunday afternoon with friends and family here in the marina.

Last night we finally got around to grilling the Black Sea Bass that we had been given. Have i ever mentioned that people in marina's take care of each other? We do. Any way the sea bass was a gift from our local fishmonger. He was passing on the bounty as it had been gifted to him.

Yum yum. Fresh sea bass, stuffed with garlic, sea salt, olive oil and fresh herbs grilled over hickory. Oh my, heaven; not to mention the butternut squash, also roasted over hickory and broccoli with garlic, shallots oyster sauce, ginger and yellow bean paste.

Yes of course there were bones! A finger lickin experience.

Somehow we refrained from eating everything in sight. The squash was really big. With astonishing foresight i cut the halves into half. Roasting it all, buy saving the cups for breakfast.

Into the pan!

Anyone for 'poached' fresh eggs? Yes, free range, yes, also a gift from another slip mate. Anyway, eggs and squash Not a bad way to start the day.

Ready to dig in.

Hmmm, maybe we should all just forget about money and live in a gift economy.


For dessert a shot of the Super moon of the other night.

Night shots are so difficult and the moon comes up so fast.

More later,
Morgainne

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