LAW 130: Looking for America

So i have a pretty good start on my newest project, which i previewed in my last post. It has taken on a definite shape; i see a definite focus, and i am enjoying it! I had better, as it is looking to be a pretty big time commitment. As i currently envision it there will be 9 signatures in the book, with 8 pages per signature. Gadzooks! that's 72 drawings. I am hoping that this will be a daily process. We'll see what my hands think about it.

Personal assistant, studio cat, ship's cat, Magellan

So, the project is called, Looking for America, a tip of the hat to Simon and Garfunkel. In a weird little piece of synchronicity this very cool, evocative song was actually playing on the radio as i started the first page!

page 1, day 1, 5.6.17

I really like creating a series of work, like this one, around an internal structure; a frame work, if you will, that provides unity to the body of work. I have taken this approach to most of my creative endeavors beginning while i was in graduate school.  The rules of the road to not need to be elaborate, or even ironclad. They are simply there as a guide, or, as in this case, a road map.

page 2, day 2, 5.7.17

In the case of Looking for America I created the pages out of maps from the index of a 1954 Hammond Ambassador World Atlas. The pages are 9.25 x 6.25". Formally the text functions as a frame for the map/drawing; is stream of conscious,  and answers the following 2 questions, have i been here? and could i get my boat, Tesla's Revenge there, by water. Drawings are mostly zen doodle playing off the gird of the street maps. Or as an art friend commented recently, mapping the maps.

page 3, day 3, 5.8.17

As always i have help from my beloved personal assistant, Magellan. See photo above.

page 4, day 4, 5.9.17

An online art friend was curious about what led me to structure this piece the way i have.  Since Don and i are planning to travel extensively, starting sometime this summer, it was a natural focus for this work. We are still at the big picture part of trip planning, we still need  to work out something like a schedule for our ports of call. Tesla's Revenge, as a solar powered boat, theoretically has an infinite range, but it does require the sun, and time.

page 5, day 5, 5.10.17

So, each day before starting i usually google the city of the day, looking at water accessibility, travel time, etc and maybe if i haven't been to the city in question, basic tourist information.

page 6, day 6, 5.11.17

So the first signature is done, i have developed a rhythm, my wrists hurt, but hey, what's new with that? I'm a maker, it goes with the territory.

page 7, day 7, 5.12.17

 I have yet to decide how i am going to approach the non map pages. I have several 'tourist' shots that backed some of the maps. Well, i have time to think about, right?

page 8, day 8, 5.13,17

More later,
gail

LAW 129: The Art of Making part ?

It has been a while since i written a post just about making art. So much of my creative impulse recently has gone into disassembling The Floating Empire, and the re-imagineering of Tesla's Revenge that the daily art making has taken a back seat. You all know that some times that that is alright. Whats not ever alright; beating yourself up regarding what you promised yourself you would accomplish. You know that the thing called Life gets in the way of all the best plans.

pages 1 &2, Love Songs, March 28, 29, 2017

I'm winding up my last altered book project, Love Songs. I do need to work on the cover, and inner frontispiece. Since i haven't quite decided what is happening with the aforementioned pages, i'm willing to let it sit on a back burner for awhile. But while we all wait for my brain to kick back into gear on this one, here are the spreads from Love Songs.

pages 3&4, Love Songs, 3.30, 3.31.17

Die Minnesinger, or Love Songs was a small German edition of unknown age, but likely from the 1920's. This is the Medieval German version of the French Troubadour tradition.

pages 5 & 6, Love Songs, 4.1, 4.2.17

pages 7 & 8, Love Songs, 4.3, 4.6.17

 I cut away everything but the main figures in each of the color plates i used. I than collaged behind them; playing the medieval imagery off from advertising coming primarily from the mid 1950s, with a dose of "the male/female gaze" thrown in for seasoning.

pages 9 & 10, Love Songs, 4.18, 4.24.17

The text comes from the advertising that i used, although it is often cut up and arranged in such away to provide a whole different level of context from the original use.

pages 11 & 12, Love Songs, 5.3.17

In honor of Earth Day this year i collaged a series of city maps(from the Hammond Ambassador World Atlas, c. 1954) on to the cover of a children's book, Merry Times, along with colored pencil drawings, and stream of conscious writing.

Yes, Magellan is also a very good studio cat! Really

I've spent the last three days prepping my newest book project, Looking for America. I harvested all the remaining city maps from the index of the aforementioned atlas, cut them to size, along with two spines for each set of pages, which were then glued into a foldable 'page' for signatures capable of binding with a Coptic stitch.

"finished" signatures, ready for Looking for America

Don't know where i am going with this one yet; it could be collage, or it could be drawing. I had fun with the drawing for the Earth Day piece. Likely there will be text. You will see it here, when it happens.

More later,
gail

LAW 128: Ah Spring Time, Ah Pollen.

Yes, we know it is officially spring here on the water. How? Well the river is coated with pollen. At first glance it looks suspiciously like pollution, but on closer examination it is easy to see it is tree pollen.

Breathe Deep!

Yes, it could be much worse. We could live in a marina that was completely urban, or completely industrial, with out the benefit of our beautiful, bountiful, numerous trees that line the bank here at Middle River, across the river in Hawthorn and down river.

Not complaining, no sir. My sinus' are however. It is not much fun to wander around with a head full of glop.

Progress on Tesla's Revenge is coming along slowly. We are still waiting to get the mast removed. Once that happens we can proceed with the wheel house, solar panels, etc.

Next, the snake farm

In the meantime i have finished re-upholstering the foam cushion for the settee in the salon. The fabric was gifted to me by a friend, i think it might be a vintage Marimekko, certainly it is vintage.

Talk about wrestling with a dead body!

Next i will piece together the remnants to make the curtains.

That's all for today, off to run errands.

More later,
gail

LAW127: The End of an Era, and Other Events

Thursday afternoon at approximately 12:25 the Floating Empire left her home pier at Middle River Landing, bound for a new home and new adventures. It was a very bittersweet moment. Don was scheduled to work, so could not be here to say goodbye to our beloved barrel barge shanty boat. Likely just as well, as he is the more sentimental one about stuff like this.

With a little help from friends

Still, i will miss her as well. After all, she was our home for just over three years. We designed and built her in our backyard, arguing over every square inch. She went through a major renovation last winter/spring. And now, she will provide shelter to some one else. Lucky for her new owner, he did not have to tow her very far.

Hard work, getting her out of the slip

We learned a lot building and living in her. We will definitely put all that experience to good use. Soon too, i think. We are currently living in, and rehabbing at the same time a 29' 1976, Cal sailboat; Tesla's Revenge. Soon she will lose her mast, as soon as we can find a boat yard with a working crane in reasonable proximity to us. Then we we can build the wheel house, install the solar panels(on top of the wheel house) and of course the motor. Then we will be ready to motor off, very quietly to new adventures.

Yes, there were plenty of witness'

Magellan, our beloved ship's cat is adapting nicely to the new space. He has lots of new, little nooks and crannies to explore. He loves walking the fore deck. It is quite startling to see him stroll by the galley windows. He does however, walk the dock, stopping at the empty slip where Empire was moored. I'm sure he knows that something is missing.

Magellan loves playing with his water bowl.

Boats, particularly sail boats have a tremendous amount of storage, unfortunately, almost all of it is 'dead' storage, underneath, or behind something else. It is a challenge to remember where i have stowed everything. I don't even want to talk about 'my' quarter berth. I had to seriously down size my studio space, and i do have to move at least two things to get to anything other than my current needlepoint piece, or the altered book i am working on.

Speaking of the most current textile piece, i made a design decision about two weeks ago, which has altered the ultimate over all form of the Firebird. I chose to do away with the hanging 'dags' on either side of the bottom. I felt that they were competing with the central flame and tail feathers. I also have added one more tongue of flame to the lower edge. I just finished the one on the left, next will be the new flame on the right hand side.  Of course i feel the design is stronger for these changes.

One more flame, the rest of the sky......and

We plumbed our little cooktop this morning! Yes, no more small, expensive bottles of propane cluttering my counter top.

I made a lovely soup last night, sort of a homage to one of my favorites from Anna Thomas. Her's, a vegetarian potato and corn chowder from one of her first cookbooks. Mine had sweet potatoes and fresh corn, but it had a very definite Malaysian twist. I made a sweet/savory flavoring paste(cumin, fennel, cardamon, ginger, garlic, tumeric and fenugreek), coconut milk, a little shredded cabbage and shrimp. Absolutely delish!

Really, i wanted to eat it all, but i saved some for Don.

It has stopped raining, the cat has left the boat, and it is time for me to go to my studio and make stuff.

Oh yes, Happy Earth Day! Every day should be earth day, she is after all the only one we got.

More later,
gail

LAW 126: Moving out/Moving in

We definitely have mixed feelings about leaving the Floating Empire. She has been a very comfortable. albeit, funky tiny home for the past three years.  Luckily, we found some one willing to take her; so some time this week the Empire will be leaving her home pier, traveling to new adventures.

Another victim of downsizing.

We are hoping to get everything moved out of her today; the weather, however, is not cooperating. Some how rain has developed. So much for decreasing clouds. Sigh. It does allow a little time to regroup and rearrange yet again here aboard Tesla's Revenge.

The EV Tesla's Revenge is a refurbished Cal 229, circa 1976. Next week we will be de-masting her, and will start building the wheel house.

In the meantime we are living aboard, learning to juggle the different space configurations. Sail boats have great storage, but so much of it is tucked away, under a cushion in the seating area; underneath more readily accessible storage in the galley, underneath and behind several more storage elements.

First dinner on Tesla's Revenge.

Vegetable storage, (which i think in almost all cases should be at room temperature) had to be totally re thought. We went from under counter, in wicker baskets, to the umpteenth re-working of a wire mesh frame and basket system that we have used since the mid 80's. Recycle, Reuse, Re-purpose, definitely the 3 R's in our house!

Clever coverup, i think!

The collage piece behind the wire frame is part of the bathroom wall of the Floating Empire. It covers one of the deconstruction errors of a previous owner.

pretty ugly, but hey, we got it covered.

We've had to adapt some of our old tools to the new space. The knife rack had to be mounted in a rather dramatic fashion, nothing like a good strong diagonal line to create a strong design element.

Hey, it works!

I think our hanging pot rack will be what i miss the most in our new galley space. Just not enough head space to allow it's use. Yet another element added into the 'where does it go' roulette.

old, favorite tools, new home.

Moving is one of my least favorite things to do. It is always stressful. It always feels as if i am leaving 'my only home'. Moving always uncovers my weakness; my belief that if i just keep this ...... (insert list of extremely odd and usually useless objects) i will one day, real soon now, make something beautiful out of said object. My studio space has ranged from, a two bedroom house, the entire basement, a room in a basement, a re-modeled sun porch, the back of the Floating Empire, and now,  the port side quarter berth. Well, that is actually art stuff storage, the real work will take place,  at the salon table, a very versatile object indeed. It swivels 360 degrees, and  folded in half. It also doubles as a bed.  Or maybe, most likely, in the wheel house, which has a much better view!

Sigh, it is still raining.

To many more!

More later,
gail

LAW 125: We splashed, or hurry up and wait.

Yesterday was the big day. After approximately two months of scraping and painting and putting back together and re-wiring and... we finally launched our new floating home, the EV, Tesla's Revenge. Yea us!

It is a little intimidating under here.

Don finally got two days off in a row, we finished painting the spots on the hull where the stands had been; he got the twelve volt system working, which meant that our bilge pump was now functional. This is a very important safety feature in a displacement hull boat. We were next! We were in the sling, time to touch up the bottom of the keel, buy the champagne we forget to buy when we were out this morning, and hurry up, splitting up these last few duties, because we thought we would be in the water in minutes, not almost three hours later.

Last minute painting!

Unfortunately, the gods were laughing at us, the barge with the work crew's pile driver was kind of in the way. They were at lunch, that is our new slip they are blocking.

Yes, that is our slip that is blocked

Boats do have a mind of their own!

Alright, back from lunch, the push boat is launched, and the barge is moved into the fair lead blocking our trip to our slip. At this point we are in the water, Don is happy as Tesla's Revenge is floating, and even better, as he says, she is floating upright. Now we just wait until the crew gets the old, broken piling removed, and yes that is at least as important as launching our boar. Still, hurry up....

Petitioning Poseiden to accept Tesla' Revenge

A small offering for protection.

We are in the water, in the slip. We re-christened The Gilded Lady, petitioning Poseiden to please strike her from his rolls and accept Tesla's Revenge. Most, but as you can tell, not all of the champagne went to Poseiden, we had to have a little!

Now it is our turn!

Drinking out of a champagne bottle isn't easy!

Well, we are in. we are floating, and yes, we do have so much left to do.

Contemplating the move

More later,
gail

LAW 124: Love Songs and studio, sigh, deconstruction

After promising myself that i would not start another daily project before the big move to Tesla's Revenge, sigh, i am proud to report i did exactly that.

Ta Da! Welcome to Love Songs. I sat down to play awhile before tying back into studio deconstruction. So much for that plan, i actually knew what i wanted to do, i'm sure that is why it didn't work. As i came to that conclusion i also realized that i had, gasp, THROWN AWAY! a book i have had for many years. I had always intended to alter it, but for some reason a few days ago in an orgy of de-cluttering downsizing, i threw it away. I reasoned that since i had possessed it for many years and not used it, it was time for Die Minnesinger to go!

Luckily, i had yet to empty the waste basket in the studio so i was able to recover the book. Inspiration had struck and i knew after years what i was going to do with the book.

See, i should never, ever, ever, throw anything out! Right! I live on a boat, and, in less than a month will likely be living on an even smaller one. This does not compute, does it?

frontspiece of 1920's edition of Die Minnesinger

See, it's this way, we plan on splashing our new floating home, the EV Tesla's Revenge, next week. In preparation i have have diligently touched every object and paper in my studio, deciding whether it comes with me, or goes into storage, or is gifted to friends. The process is over 95% complete. Storage  has been all reconfigured; everything neat and tidy in plastic bins. It all has to fit into the port quarter berth.

first step, cut away everything that doesn't belong!

So, everything is packed away, i thought i would be content with the embroidery piece i am currently working on. Alas, i can only stitch for an hour or so before the hands start complaining.

Hey, i should think of it as a test run of my new storage and allocation system, right? After all, Mungo is working for a couple of months, and isn't here, so .....

Make sure to use some of the background!

Here is the second process shot of my new project, Love Songs. My plan, to collage a contrasting narrative behind the cut out figures, while also incorporating some of the imagery of the 'background' page. Next, the final first image.

This is the beginning of a new series for me, which i will call Love Songs, which is the translation of the German, Die Minnesinger,  title of the book that i am altering. It is small,  7.25. x 4.5" beautifully illustrated, hand stitched and hardbound. I think that i want to explore the relationship between  German  popular media of the middle ages (12th to 14th century) and contemporary media. Well, at least that is where i started with Andy Warhol and print advertising from the late 50's.

The plan is to alternate which side, recto or verso, to cut away, and which to use as background.  This  of course means that i will be sacrificing some really cool pages, but, hey, that's life and art.

Make sure, please, that you keep up with what Mungo is up to at The Floating Empire. He is documenting what we are doing with the EV Tesla's Revenge.

More later, time for more Floating Empire deconstruction.

Morgainne

aka gail