Slippery Slope
BBQ owner, city divided over pig mural

But as the painting's neared completion, Carpenter said she was told that while painting a building is kosher, pigs and other objects are considered murals and require a permit.

She said the city's Design Review Board, which makes recommendations about exterior changes to buildings in the district, objected to the painting because it doesn't fit the district's landscape and because naked pigs might lead to paintings of naked people.
...
"How offensive can a pig be?" said Tom Grissett of Snohomish, a customer eating barbecue pork at the diner on Wednesday. "When was the last time you saw pigs with clothes on?"

Porky Pig? Oh. Right. Not a real pig.



- posted by Cynthia @ 2:58 PM | | | Link |

 
Shifting Sands
.... of links. Have moved them around, recategorized and combined, and added one or two. Biggest chunk is the list of art world sanctioned blogs from the Art in America January issue, as good a place to start explorations from as any. I may add a few more, but I don't want to become either a link farm or an arbiter of taste. There's only so much time in the universe and I'd rather spend it knitting, watching TV, looking at or doing art, rather than waiting for an overweight page to load or figure out whether I'll ever visit it again.

A note about declaring Bridge Magazine moribund: I don't know when it was last updated, or if it's even being published any longer. Every time I've gone to the site they have the same old stuff they had before, or maybe not. Hard to tell. I wish they'd at least date their entries, otherwise I end up getting excited about seeing a show that closed 2 years ago.

A site like GARDENfresh has a similar problem. It's an interesting concept, but someone needs to keep up its online presence (i.e., keep it "fresh").

This is why I'm so fond of blogs and bloggers. Static sites tend to just sit there, are often overdesigned and take a year to load, though perhaps are beautiful once they're loaded if they don't crash while doing it. They are still dead. Art and writing should be alive.

- posted by Cynthia @ 1:16 PM | | | Link |

 
Painting Darkness


Last night wasn't really dark, since it's never really dark in the city. The moon was high with a ring around it, and the light was dispersed through the clouds over the lake.

The smoke detector back in the studio started making that chirping sound (I had at first thought it was a squirrel caught in the walls) so raced out for a fresh battery, then swung by the lake without a notebook before coming home, so had to memorize and repeat lines and colors.

Signs saying it's illegal to park at the beach at night are for sissies.

An unoriginal thought: things seem darker if there is a little light.

This is meaningful in some way.

- posted by Cynthia @ 1:22 PM | | | Link |

 
Sick of Gray


Yes, I am.

- posted by Cynthia @ 2:51 PM | | | Link |

 
Morning Lake
Not so inspiring today, everything getting dirty.



Here's ice formations from Christmas Day:







Something very evil about the last one.


- posted by Cynthia @ 10:49 AM | | | Link |

 
Bill? Steve? Anyone?
While looking for something else, found this:

Steinbeck's hometown to close libraries

Facing record deficits, the City Council voted Dec. 14 to shut all three of Salinas' libraries, including the branches named after Steinbeck and labor leader Cesar Chavez. The blue-collar town of 150,000 could become the most populous U.S. city without a public library.
...
Some residents are hoping a private donor will rescue the library. Librarians are considering seeking corporate sponsorship.[ed. I leave the Photoshop op to you]

But a top library official said the prospect of a white knight emerging to cover the roughly $3.2 million in annual operating expenses is remote. And she is pessimistic that the libraries could close and then seamlessly reopen if the economy improved in a year or two.

Come on, Arnold. Cough it up. I realize an educated populace is not what the Repugs want, and god forbid someone who isn't even a citizen might want to take advantage of your city's services, but how cheesy is this?

Good afternoon, folks. Out at the lake earlier, musing on Nature and Her Power, feeling very 18th-19th century Romantic about it. Was very calm, cold, and frozen, everything just about the same color. Let's see what I can come up with.

- posted by Cynthia @ 3:10 PM | | | Link |

 
Not a Lake
Here's the Milton Avery painting, "Advancing Sea, 1953," I spoke of earlier.



I tried to find a shot online but had to scan it in from the catalog of the show from a few years back, "Milton Avery: The Late Paintings," at the Milwaukee Art Museum, a show I went back and saw 2 or 3 times. This was a painting that literally made me gasp and feel faint at the uncaring and hungry mouth of the sea.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

- posted by Cynthia @ 11:32 AM | | | Link |

 
Pac Man Mondrian Finally Makes the Times

Pac-Mondrian was created by a Toronto art group, Prize Budget for Boys, for a contest sponsored by the Web site rhizome.org, an affiliate of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in Manhattan. It did not win, but two prominent Web sites - metafilter.com and boingboing.net - picked up Pac-Mondrian's Web link. Soon thousands were playing the game and passing it on to their friends. Last month the magazine Art News wrote about it....

But a number of arty Web sites and Weblogs have, including eyebeam.org, beadesigngroup.com and even a blog about the Abstract Expressionist painter Franz Kline. At watercoolergames.org, a site devoted to "video games with an agenda," the comparative aesthetics of the game and the painting were debated.

Yes, that must be me, though why they couldn't provide the actual link is simply rude. I am not offended. I am not angry.

Good morning, everyone. I had other things to write about besides a nugget from way back in July that finally made it to the NYT, but got so excited I had to post this quickly.

Far better than writing about the devastation and horrors in Asia from the earthquake and tsunami. I sit here comfortably with my knee warmers, coffee, TV and look forward to a pleasant, somewhat boring day as a bloggist and realize how very good not having to worry about anything worse than running out of half-and-half can be.

- posted by Cynthia @ 9:56 AM | | | Link |

 
Merry Christmas
Let me just pound my chest a minute to knock out this morning's cholesterol and get the ticker started. There. That's better.

In my fervor to eat the omelet made with cream, real butter, ham, cheese, and something else fatty I neglected to put the pot underneath the dripping coffee as it brewed resulting in a coffee pond in the kitchen. I just now tipped the remains of the pumpkin pie face down perilously close to it.

The third thing will happen shortly. I'm sure your morning has gone much better.

And welcome to all you new bloggers. Make sure your firewall and virus protection is current before you continue prowling. I am pummelled day and night by attempts to get through my Fortress of Paint and you will be too. Do not click "OK" if you are asked if it's ok to download something unless you know what you're doing.

Now hit "Next Blog" and have a Merry Christmas.

- posted by Cynthia @ 10:50 AM | | | Link |

 
Art In America, Again
Dan at Iconoduel has transcribed the entire article. This is punishment for Art In America not sending out magazines to all subscribers simultaneously.

The List, Transcribed

Good morning, all. I hope those who requested the Knee Warmer pattern are busily making them up (they go fast) in time to stick under the tree tomorrow. I have been known to wrap up the whole unfinished mess and stick a bow on it, in a pinch.

The family downstate is snowed in and has brought many of the vulnerable animals (in particular a rabbit, rooster, and all of the dogs) into the house. I am not there to document this and provide another round of rabbit, poultry, and dog blogging like I did for Thanksgiving.

So am eating pumpkin pie for breakfast and getting ready to do art or something. I'm not fond of this time of year.

- posted by Cynthia @ 11:08 AM | | | Link |

 
Pattern for Knee Warmers
In honor of it being a little over 5 degrees on the sunny side of the house right now (and Xmas eve), and by request from several people, I present the pattern for Knee Warmers from my old knitting book.

KNEE CAP -- Cast on 6 st. K4 ridges (8 rows) garter st.

Inc. row -- K1, inc. 1 st in next st, k to end. Repeat last row until there are 30 st. on needle. Work 20 ridges (40 rows) even.

Dec. row -- K1, k2 tog., k to end of row. Repeat last row until 6 sts remain. K4 ridges. Bind off, do not break yarn [ed. unless you're changing colors, like I did]

CUFFS -- Pick up and k 60 sts on one side of knee cap. Work even in ribbing of k2, p2 for 3 1/2 ins. or desired length. Bind off in ribbing [ed. loosely!]. Work cuff on other side of knee cap in same way. Sew back seam.

That's it, very simple. Instructions call for "Bear Brand or Fleisher's Machine Washable Win-Sport", 2 oz. sk, 2 skeins. Knitting needles: 1 pair Size 3.

I made these with worsted weight on size 4, since I'm not (ahem) utterly petite and "sport weight" is hard to find beyond the internet. I also changed to size 6 needles to bind off, which made it easier for me to bind off loosely.

Original picture.
My version.
My knees.

- posted by Cynthia @ 9:40 AM | | | Link |

 
Ice Is Born


More lakes over here.
- posted by Cynthia @ 1:36 PM | | | Link |

 
A Tease
If you (or I, at any rate) thought the ice from yesterday at the edge of the lake was good, you will be blown away (as I nearly was just now) by the rapidly growing ice packs being built before my very eyes.

It has at least quadrupled in size since yesterday. I can barely see the water from where I stand, and the waves smashing against it throw a sandy gray-ochre plume at least 8 feet in the air before settling down to coat the pack further.

Four large ridges, roughly wave and/or breast shaped, have formed. I am reminded of when as a child I pretended to herd sheep (I was strange) and built a landscape on a shaggy pale blue bath rug with tissue stuffed into my well-endowed mother's bras, and layers of socks. You modern children will not comprehend how we did all this without instructions and age-appropriate guidance, but we did. The sheep were in actuality marbles, the kind that children can't play with any more because they might put them in their mouths and choke on them instead of pretending that they're sheep.

Anyway, I was reminded of my sheep farm when looking out at the ice covering the beach. And in the distance icebergs were forming.

Back later with an attempt at rendering this.

- posted by Cynthia @ 11:02 AM | | | Link |

 
Very Cold Lake
With ice, in fact. Was 13 degrees out when I left the house to take a look. And WOW! The entire front of the beach was a mass of clean, white ice, with lake behind and vapor rising here and there, since the water is still warmer than the air. A challenge to do without a photo, but there you go.



Note for new visitors: It's all for sale, anything you want. Just email me.

- posted by Cynthia @ 2:24 PM | | | Link |

 
Art in America Blog Links
artsjournal.com/artopia
artsjournal.com/man
fallonandrosof.com/artblog
art.blogging.la
iconoduel.org
digitalmediatree.com/tommoody
fromthefloor.blogspot.com
electricskin.com
jameswagner.com
newsgrist.typepad.com
dennishollingsworth.us
http://www.livejournal.com/users/burgertime

All this via an email message. My issue hasn't arrived yet. Sniff. I didn't make the cut, nor did most of the others out there. One of my favorites, Carolyn Zick's Dangerouschunky is left off the list, a travesty indeed. Plus Modern Kicks. And artblog.net from Florida has interesting rants.

Will have to wait for the issue to arrive to verify all this.

Good morning friends. Is about 10 degrees out there and am wearing my recently knitted knee warmers. To walk around in them, however, I need a garter belt, which is not going to happen, so will have to remain seated till the cold snap is over.

Promise to do some art today, even though it's cold and I'm sad. Another artist gone from the world, Tom Wesselmann, at age 73.

UPDATE 12/23: added the burgertime blog (via Newsgrist), which hadn't made it into the email I got. Hope all is accurate now.

- posted by Cynthia @ 9:29 AM | | | Link |

 
Look Ma, No Cavities!
Does anyone remember when toothpaste used to be advertised on tv during kids shows? Am I that ancient?

Marshalled enough strength afterward to do a lap through the Art Institute, not recommended on a Free Tuesday during Christmas vacation. Bloodthirsty children speculating on what horrible deaths the weapons in the Hall of Armor might unleash, even bloodthirsty girls admiring the flowery inlaid designs on the ancient guns. I must admit that I admired a shirt of chain mail, thinking how I could knit up something very like it, since the pattern would be easy to count out and duplicate.

Since I go to the museum fairly often (or used to), all the paintings are old friends, so when they rotate the collection or present a new acquisition, I rush past the Monets and nauseating Renoirs to take a look.

But before all that, I had a late breakfast at the Artists Snack Shop on Michigan Avenue, and visited the ladies room which I'd never done there before:



I was utterly charmed, and at the cleanliness too.

Was also charmed by this detail from an etching (The Artists on Their Journey, 1819 by Johann Adam Klein):



I'd never seen a drawing board like this, with a stick attached that fits in your foldup stool. Plus he's seems to have either a pencil or a cigarette in his mouth.

Finally, wandered quickly through the so-called contemporary collection, which they should be ashamed of. Dreary installations plus the Warhol Chairman Mao that's been hanging in the same place far too long. I mean, when do you stop being contemporary?

Was taken, however, by this radiant and large clothed statue (?) by Yinka Shonibare called "Big Boy":



Such presence.

Didn't get a snap of it, but a very spare painting by Gertrude Abercrombie, whose work I hadn't seen before, was new to me too. It was a room with a bed and pillows, a painting above the bed, and 2 tables, eerie, almost surreal. The painting above the bed is also eerie and strange.

Anyway, don't try to go near the miniature rooms this time of year. You may go mad.

Addendum: Winter Solstice! (thanks Ralph)

- posted by Cynthia @ 4:32 PM | | | Link |

 
Not Much Happening
... except Christmas cards and laundry.

High point of day was dropping by the local yarn store and treating myself to a pair of bamboo needles. While prowling around the interknit had run into advice that bamboo needles tended not to split the strands of a soft yarn like my ancient, pointy alumninum needles.

And it's true. They're also not freezing cold, are lighter, and make a soft clucking sound, rather than a harsh, slippery clanking. Haven't dropped or split a stitch yet, and everything just seems much more cuddley.

Ignoring as much as possible Bush's "press conference," where he showed us all plainly that he lives in a completely different universe that is very evil. I just wish he'd stay there permanently. I don't understand what magic Rumsfeld has. Is it a big dick or something? Does he possess the missing Bush's missing military records?

It is a good sign that Nancy Pelosi jumped all over his ongoing attack on Social Security. This is what the dems must do repeatedly, and in small sound bites, until we've taken the issue and made it ours.

Dentist again tomorrow. Plus Winter Solstice coming up, thank god. Means it will start getting light again, and we haven't even had any stickable snow yet.

- posted by Cynthia @ 8:49 PM | | | Link |

 
All Bush All the Time, Part II
Time does it again:

The magazine gives the honor to the person who had the greatest impact, good or bad, over the year.

Kelly said other candidates included Michael Moore and Mel Gibson, "because in different ways their movies tapped in to deep cultural streams," and political strategist Rove, who is widely credited with engineering Bush's win. Kelly said choosing Rove alone would have taken away from the credit he said Bush deserves.

I am shocked. Shouldn't Scott Peterson have been given the honor? Didn't we get more blanket coverage of his trial than we did about the tens, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dying, the more than 1300 American deaths, the unimaginable damage that will be unleashed if Bush gets his way with Social Security?

Not to be a buzz-kill this Sunday morning, but this is why I've been happy to live in my little lite-news bubble the past few weeks, and it will only get worse as the pundits have to find year-end wrap-up stories that will mostly bash Democrats and get the moral victory crap further wedged into the collective consciousness.

So step away from the TV, people. Nothing here to see.

Is 6 degrees right now on the sunny side of the house, brilliant sunlight, and I am contemplating going to see what the lake looks like.

- posted by Cynthia @ 9:23 AM | | | Link |

 
Happy Saturday
It's snowing outside, first I've seen this season. Have started knitting a sweater in dark gray Wool Ease, with complicated stitches and cables and everything. Think it's already too big, and it's only an inch long so far, so am at the point of whether I should rip it out and start again or start eating cookies and cheesecake to bulk up.

And have been fighting with Photoshop trying to construct a Christmas card, which at the rate I'm going may be ready for Christmas, 2007.

So back to work. No art today.
- posted by Cynthia @ 3:45 PM | | | Link |

 
Lake Agony
Here it is. It's a nice lake, but it looks like others. (click for bigger picture).



Need to return unacceptable yarn to yarn store (I'm sorry, I'm just not in the mood to fight with boucle that doesn't knit up easily), and will see what the water looks like this morning.

If you'd like to buy this, or others, just email me at the link on the side.

- posted by Cynthia @ 9:31 AM | | | Link |

 
And In a Related Story


A Star Goes Home

In his speech, Obama praised Hawaii's Democratic Party, calling it "one of the strongest ... in the entire country." He also spoke about the defeat for Democrats in the 2004 election, saying the party's members need to "adapt to new times." [ed. is this code for Howard Dean?]

"We cannot, will not and should not compromise those core values that make us Democrats," he added. "We continue to have to stand for those people who don't have a voice. ... There is a better day out there."

Circle January 4th, the day Obama will be sworn in. Now that's one party I'd love to go to.

- posted by Cynthia @ 8:49 AM | | | Link |

 
I Was Right About the U-Haul
.He's Gone

Neighbors of the former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Alan Keyes said he loaded the contents of his Garfield Avenue apartment into a U-Haul truck just days after the Nov. 2 election.
...
"I saw him. I got home from work at about 11:30 p.m. and his driver was in the U-Haul," Witherspoon said.
...
"He left all his things in Chicago," Hair said. "He took everything from the one apartment, like his BowFlex, and moved it to the other."

Keyes chose the downtown condo as a part of his plan to re-energize the Illinois Republican Party by "bringing new blood in," she said.

Don't know whether Judy rented a U-Haul too, or whether she's just going to start running for governor right now from the back of her car.

State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka told leaders of the Illinois Republican Party on Friday that she will step down as party chairman at the end of January, providing transition time for a new leader to be named in coming weeks.
...
There was almost no talk about the U.S. Senate race involving Alan Keyes, a GOP candidate brought to Illinois from Maryland, who got 27 percent of the vote to 70 percent for Democratic U.S. Sen.-elect Barack Obama on Nov. 2.

In honor of ArchPundit returning to us after a lengthy computer illness, I have dug out a few things we might have missed about the Illinois Republicans. I could care less what they do, since they are the minority party in Illinois and I can stomp on them as cheerfully as they would stomp on me.

I will shortly post yesterday's lake that I agonized over with deep, searching questions, but my image server was down, so will wait a bit.

Any Keyes sightings in downtown Chicago lately? He's supposed to be around somewhere, revitalizing stuff and all.

- posted by Cynthia @ 8:23 AM | | | Link |

 
Question of the Day
Is it cheating to either 1) wait for the sky/water to become interesting, or 2) look in a different direction where it is interesting? Discuss.

The last time I did a really obsessive series, 2 years ago, the rules were thusly: I will sit in the park and paint what is in front of me. For the next painting, I will move my easel and paint what is next to that, even if it's ugly or boring. In this way I went all around the edge of the playing field at Gillson Park in Wilmette, Illinois between May and September, doing 26 (I think) paintings. I never backtracked, or painted the same scene again, but always plodded forward, counter-clockwise, regardless of whether a whole horde of children was standing behind me saying it didn't look like a tree.

As I was sitting at the lake today with my Starbucks and scone, I kept telling myself "NOW! NOW is the time to select the moment!" but the sky kept getting more interesting as clouds moved away, and new moments came into being. I became confused and agitated, and luckily few people were around to witness it, and how I eventually sat frozen to the spot (and it was about 40 degrees out), unable to decide what to do.

Until I just said, f--k it, enough already, and started writing and drawing.

The Masterpiece itself will be up later.

- posted by Cynthia @ 4:36 PM | | | Link |

 
Wasn't He Already Working For Them?
Fox News Channel, Giving 'Em More Zell:

Sen. Zell Miller, the fire-and-brimstone-preaching Dixiecrat who tried to challenge MSNBC's Chris Matthews to a duel after delivering the keynote speech at the Republican National Convention, has been welcomed with open arms by Fox News Channel.

The cable network announced yesterday it has signed the departing Georgia Democrat as a contributor, beginning in January.

I thought all Republicans already worked for FOX, and vice versa. Oh. Forgot. Zell is a Democrat. Now they can claim to be Fair and Balanced again.

Good evening, folks. They'll do anything for a buck, won't they?

Planned to do gallery hopping after the dentist, but being told to keep your jaw open for 45 minutes was apparently too tiring for me, so I dropped in at the Zhou Brothers show at the Chicago Cultural Center (open thru Jan 2, so get there).

It was good to see all these works in one place, and to see that I'm not sure I'm happy with the direction they're going. I liked their earliest works, like a cross between cave paintings, Chinese narrative hand scrolls, and enthusiastic lashings of paint. The paintings have become much more tied down, decorative, self-contained, and repetitive.

Visually, they've become pretty, or at least the selection I saw are. This is fine, I suppose, since I like to paint pretty pictures too, and wish I had the energy to produce works like the Zhous with extraordinarily complex layers and surfaces and materials. I just sometimes wonder what all the fuss is about.

I missed the painting demonstration they gave in October, since I was in Wisconsin. If anyone out there went, I'd like to know if they're working on something interesting again.

Dan at Iconoduel had reported that the Zhous have become trendy, and you can buy a dinner with them on Ebay. And then I realized I was at a big bash this past 4th of July with them (or at least one of them) in Bridgeport at Michael Hernandez de Luna's house, where we ate and drank so much and ended up all dancing in the kitchen. I took many pictures. Maybe I should sell them on Ebay, now that everyone there is famous.

- posted by Cynthia @ 10:52 PM | | | Link |

 
Yesterday's Water
Here's the thing from yesterday. Didn't get the jello-like quality I wanted, but got the flat surface reflecting sky part I liked, and some of the grayness of the wave. Why I'm using craypas, which can be corrected only so much, is beyond me. Maybe I'll try to do a few oils.



But it will have to wait until I'm back from the dentist.

- posted by Cynthia @ 11:25 AM | | | Link |

 
Waves Onrushing
My favorite Milton Avery paintings are of waves -- especially when the mouth of the wave is dead gray and comes right at you. (will stick in link later -- am already late for an appointment).

I am working on waves today. Out early, is 16 degrees at the lake, brilliant lemony sun from the south on the water, but the brain doesn't understand still how to draw a wave. I don't want to take a book out from the library, or learn from Monet, or whatever (I've done all these things and it just seems wrong, somehow) or take a picture and copy it.

So here's a few words:

Waves: tall gray ridges of cream coming this way straight, not at an angle. Slowly, like jello beginning to jell, very methodical. The rise picks up the sun from the south, slightly west. As it falls away, darker, onto ice blue picked up from sky, criss-cross lozenges.

oooooohhhkaayyy?

Back later with how it ended up (not all that hot, but WTH).

- posted by Cynthia @ 11:48 AM | | | Link |

 
The Race That Never Ends
Election Official Says 561 Ballots Wrongly Rejected in Washington Governor's Race

Logan said election workers mistakenly rejected 561 absentee ballots because they thought signatures on the ballots did not match original voter registration records.

However, he said that the signatures simply were not on file in the county's computerized voter registration system and that original registration records should have been checked.

"We need to correct the error and count those votes," Logan said in a statement.

One of the rejected ballots belonged to King County Council Chairman Larry Phillips, The Seattle Times reported.

"I was under the absolute impression not only I voted, but followed the instructions correctly," Phillips said. "If it can happen to the King County Council chairman, it can happen to anyone."

Just to prove it's not all art, all the time around here.

This reminds me of my own little cause celebre when I went to vote absentee, and how a mistake caught in time provided Barack Obama one more vote in that tight, tight race.

- posted by Cynthia @ 11:37 PM | | | Link |

 
The Spitting Image
New York Art Shuttered After Bush Monkey Portrait

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A portrait of President Bush using monkeys to form his image led to the closure of a New York art exhibition over the weekend and anguished protests on Monday over freedom of expression.

"Bush Monkeys," a small acrylic on canvas by Chris Savido, created the stir at the Chelsea Market public space, leading the market's managers to close down the 60-piece show that was scheduled to stay up for the next month.

Check it out here. Bloggy (a pretty good art blog) has something on it too. You can buy a copy here. NYT has it here. And here's the picture itself:



It joins my gallery of Things Bush Doesn't Like that I wrote of way back in October, here.

Good evening, folks. Have been busy trying to organize all my stuff and get a PayPal thing going. Trying to focus on all the things that interest me all at the same time is useless, meaningless.

But this had to get posted, so here it goes.


- posted by Cynthia @ 6:53 PM | | | Link |

 
Yesterday Evening
I just can't stop.

On way back from store around 6 pm drove by my usual post and couldn't believe my eyes. The water was pink, like the sewer in a mad scientist's cellar. The sky had a faint sundown tinge behind me, still, but little light over the lake itself. I don't know where these colors come from. I didn't have my regular notebook with me, so scrambled in the car and found sloppy paper and started scribbling.

One thing about color: it's easy to do two things: 1) assume you know the color (ie, sky is blue, water is greenish blue, clouds are white, earth is brown or green, etc.) or 2) your brain can't figure it out, because it goes counter to what you're brain has been telling you all these years.

I haven't been studying colors in low-light since I was at Ox-Bow years ago and was encouraged to hedonistically explore light in all its manifestations.

So here's one more step in the education of The Management. I think the pinkish water was a little more pearly and shimmering, but that may just be my dementia.



Back more with more. (Click to view bigger image, now that I've figured out how to do it).

- posted by Cynthia @ 10:10 AM | | | Link |

 
The Lake Project
I've collected all of my little craypas lake drawings and put them on their own page at http://www.freshpaint-lake-project.blogspot.com, here. It's also in the list to the right.

As anyone who has a web page or blog knows, all this is very tiring, and so must be worked on in bits, so will be enhancing this stuff over the next few days.

-- The Management

- posted by Cynthia @ 4:34 PM | | | Link |

 
Knee Warmer #2
... is done, just in time for the temperature to plunge this week. Since a separate portrait of #2 would be meaningless, here's me wearing them over my ratty painting pants as I'm sitting on the couch. My legs are curled up underneath me and I'm twisted around in a strange and uncomfortable way to get the shot, and why I did it this way I don't know, but there you go, and here you are:



Must get the day started, and perhaps go shopping for more yarn. Something genetic gets triggered in my brain as soon as the temperature hits about 30 degrees, and I must knit.

- posted by Cynthia @ 9:53 AM | | | Link |

 
Dawn Lake
OK, so I'm back now. It was cold out there and windy, so this is a composite memory of the colors, since it started getting light very quickly.



One odd thing. I was looking east, where I expected dawn to occur. Dawn was actually happening first north and west with a bunch of pinks. Then south. Nothing much to the east except a gradual lifting of grayness. But it was very windy, so hard to concentrate on the water, except to see all these gray-green waves, hard to draw with craypas in this small format. But will persevere, since something being "hard" is no excuse. You can see where i stabbed at the water in frustration. Was going to smooth it out, but decided to leave it.

- posted by Cynthia @ 8:46 AM | | | Link |

 
Earliest Blogging on Record
You gotta see these:

A Painting a Day

Via BoingBoing. I hope he can keep it up.

You may wonder why I'm up and blogging so early. My idea is to go out and do a Lake this morning, see what dawn looks like.

So must lace up my boots, and park this thing.

- posted by Cynthia @ 6:15 AM | | | Link |

 
Friday Night Gloom
Another lake, from earlier today. I was going to do the Friday Night openings over at West Loop Gate tonight, where most of the action is this week, but it's raining and dreary, and not even art will get me out of the house, so I'm going to sit inside and feel sorry for myself.



It did briefly look like this around 10:30 this morning, then clouded over even more. Was very foggy and pale. This is a slightly different location from where I had been drawing, since they put a big storm fence right across the path to the beach. Darn them. Don't they know an artist is trying to work?

My Wi-Fi connection has been very poor today. I think SBC is doing something down the street, or I'm getting interference from the giant trucks that have been ripping down and grinding up our sick, giant elm trees. We managed to save a few of them since they were good candidates for the injections, but is hard to see them go like this. Just hope we can get some new hardy trees started right away.

- posted by Cynthia @ 5:00 PM | | | Link |

 
Yarn Tales
Thinking about yarn, I drive north deep into Republican territory. No "Knitters Against Bush" here. Find knit shop ("fine yarns and hand knits"). Yeow! I've never seen stuff like this before, since I'm from olden times, when yarn cost 99 cents and was acrylic, or very long ago, when wool was everywhere.

Man walks in holding a plastic see-thru knitting bag. "I was told to bring this to you and then bring it right back as soon as you fix it." Workers cluster around trying to figure out the mess. A scarf, twisted and piled up, in a complicated, expensive yarn with dropped stitches or ravelled or some other crime committed against it. "If I can't figure it out right away, I'm going to have to charge you." "I don't care," the man says, and sits at the big table.

A long time ago, this would have been a ladies' hat store, though for hats that cost about 500 dollars each.

I am aware that they are watching me, like I'm in a museum and might break something. Steal something. I am clearly just looking. Is obvious my real leather purse cost no more than 15 dollars at TJ Max.

A basket of yarn is so rich, so deep, each ball coiled around a center, vulva-like. Cashmere. 52 dollars a skein.

Door flies open, confident-stepping woman breezes in, needs red cashmere, bulky, plushy. In a hurry. Off to Austria, or whereever. "Though I haven't finished the other sweater yet, and there's still the shawl for my daughter. Still..."

You don't have to swatch the yarn yourself here. And they generate the pattern for you in just your size. You can knit the pieces, and then they will put it together for you.

I am suddenly aware that they all know each other, like cave-mates, and I am from a tribe so very far away. Even the man belongs, his wife's proxy, the spinner of money. They are not warm toward me, and I feel embarrassed even being there. They know I'll never spend 17 dollars on a single button. The store has dozens and dozens of tubes, all sizes. I've never seen buttons like these before. I suddenly realize that buttons used to be considered jewelry, as was lace.

I've never seen such beautiful stuff in my life. I feel like a hick. One wall has just 3 or 4 yarns on glass shelves, lit from below. It would take at least 10 balls of any of these yarns to make a simple sweater. They are busy selling cashmere to someone whose skin is rich enough to be warmed by it. I slip away.

- posted by Cynthia @ 8:22 PM | | | Link |

 
Knee Warmer #1
... is done.



It's been tried on and tested and works, though it's a little big. And if you make your own pair, remember to bind off loosely else say goodbye to the circulation in your leg. I made the cuffs a little shorter than the directions suggested and glad I did. The 1950s instructions called for size 3 needle and sports weight yarn, which doesn't seem to exist any longer. I used size 4 and a skimpy cheap sayelle from Michaels, a reminder of my afghan-making frenzy of about 5 years ago.

Unfortunately I thought I had another skein of the pink yarn but I don't and don't really want to spend another 99 cents, so I may get creative with the second leg.

In any case, it doesn't matter, since I'm not 15 and there's no possible way I'm going to wear these in public. Because of the curve, they're strictly for your TV watching wardrobe, especially those winter days when no one is around to watch you scarf cheetos and watch Desperate Housewives, though you say you're a feminist and don't really watch TV.

- posted by Cynthia @ 2:41 PM | | | Link |

 
Another Lake
From early today, after most of the rain, but still drizzling a little. Weather was odd -- one street it was raining, next street not.



- posted by Cynthia @ 6:54 PM | | | Link |

 
Assignments for Strom Thurmond's Love Child
Obama named to key panels

Looks like it's Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works, and Veterans Affairs:

For Obama, the seat on the environment and public works panel will give him a strong hand in negotiating the state's share of federal dollars in the massive highway bill expected to pass next session. Illinois, and Chicago in particular, lost considerable influence in terms of transportation funding when U.S. Rep. Bill Lipinski (D-Ill.), an influential member of the House Transportation Committee, retired this summer.

On foreign relations, Obama will have a voice on policy initiatives ranging from nuclear proliferation to the war on terror.

Democratic leaders are keen to use Obama's rising profile as a public face for their foreign-policy positions, Democratic congressional aides said.

Also good training for a president, unlike George's early training in Mixology. Needless to say, El Presidente is creating a lot of gravely injured veterans who will come home to no jobs and no health care by the time the repubs dig up another Bush to run in '08.

And we're reminded how funny he can be. I don't know who writes his material, but I hope they aren't too eager to leave Washington.

In the same self-deprecating vein, he also raised up a mock National Enquirer headline declaring: "Obama's shocking secret. He's Strom Thurmond's Love Child."...

He said he and President Bush have a lot in common--they both graduated from Ivy League schools, married above their station and beat Alan Keyes.

The senator-elect teased about his big victory over Keyes, saying that he received 70 percent of the vote statewide "and 102 percent in Chicago. Our voting system is so advanced that the folks in Florida are coming up to study it and see what they can learn."

Tons more. Check it out, even though it is the Tribune and I'm still miffed that they supported Bush. They did support Obama, so they have an investment to protect.

- posted by Cynthia @ 2:09 PM | | | Link |

 
Night Lake


Wanted to see if I could figure out colors in the dark, so since there was nothing on tv (except a major fire down in the loop -- sad, but nothing I can do about it -- went to my sketching post by the lake in the dark.

Since this is a park, there's a fair amount of light from the yellowish anti-crime lights and the older white-light street lights, plus lights from the harbor and a faint glow from the sky giving it a slightly reddish cast. But was dark, dark, dark nonetheless, and couldn't really draw anything, but just tried to memorize the colors.

Interesting, anyway. Somewhat brooding.

Supposed to rain all day tomorrow, so who knows when I'll get out again.

My color memory is getting trained. I'm just forgetting to pay bills, like mortgage, etc.

- posted by Cynthia @ 10:09 PM | | | Link |

 
Mid-Day Lake


Fog sometimes makes colors glow. These could still be paler, and a little more pearly, but ok. Need to get a few better-quality oil pastels if I'm going to try to get more subtle. Perhaps will go shopping later.

This is still tiny, about 6 inches high. Have an "anatomy of a wave" I want to work on, since it's so difficult to figure it out while it's crashing toward you, that I may do the opposite way.

I hope you're enjoying my lakes, since I like to do them, and haven't figured out a good winter project yet.

- posted by Cynthia @ 1:54 PM | | | Link |

 
All Bush, All the Time
Fox to Provide News to Clear Channel Stations

Fox will provide a five-minute top-of-the-hour newscast, a nightly news broadcast, and around-the-clock dedicated national news coverage. In return, Fox News Radio will have access to news produced by San Antonio-based Clear Channel's news network. [ed. i.e., the office that xeroxes the Bush propaganda and manufactures Swift Boat shit].
...
"Working this closely with a premiere national news provider for the majority of our news/talk stations makes overwhelming sense," said John Hogan, chief executive officer of Clear Channel Radio. "Because of the breadth of this relationship, our local news directors will get a more customized and higher quality national news product - and that's great for listeners."

"This deal positions Fox News to become a significant player in the radio industry and is another example of our commitment to the Republican Party medium," said Roger Ailes, Fox News chairman and CEO.

They've figured out the sweetest deal I ever heard of. Why bother buying the stations and risk FCC intervention and liberals whining all over your doorstep, when you can simply buy the content?

Good morning friends, and it's a gray morning indeed. So gray I didn't make it out of bed until recently. An excess of political fun yesterday, I'm thinking.

So will check out the world beyond the coffee cup and try to not think about what's happening in Fallujah (via Steve Gilliard via Atrios), and how we can do something more here at home. Update: BoingBoing has an excerpt of the long article too.

Of course, you Clear Channel people know nothing about it, and never will.

- posted by Cynthia @ 11:44 AM | | | Link |

 
Whither Democracy?
Just back from an event sponsored by the Democratic Party of Evanston and Jan Schakowsky's office on the topic, "What Now?"

Since there were more than 30 people in line for questions when I finally left, it may not yet be over. I'm hoping a transcript will be available somewhere. I asked Alex Armour, Jan's staffer, how many people he thought were stuffed in, and he figured it was more than 300, maybe 350, since he put out 250 chairs and they were all taken well before I managed to find parking 2 blocks away. I'm sure some circled the block and went home because of the crowd.

From my point of view as a voter, hearing Jan reiterate that she will not, nor should the other Democrats, flee toward the center was the best news of the day.

People, if you've never heard her speak before, try to catch her on C-SPAN someday. If we could clone her and distribute her around the country, it would be a better place. While I am as fond of political speeches and beautiful rhetoric as the next person, and can be enthralled by a speaker such as the eloquent Bill McNary of Citizen Action Illinois, who also spoke, I appreciate someone like Jan, who just talks like a normal person and that you can imagine sitting down and having coffee and a good gossip with.

She told us one delightful tidbit about a meeting she had had with Don Rumsfeld, when she asked him about Iraq, and how many Iraqi casualties had been reported.

Rumsfeld looked at me like I was a bug.

"Well, how should I know that?" he replied testily. [insert astonished laughter from the crowd]

I said that one of his staffers must have the figures. He brushed me off, remarking, "Maybe in a few years some historian will make a study."

What she particularly emphasized was that the Republicans own it now, and that all news stories (I guess that counts us bloggers too) should always say, for example, "the Republican-controlled House" or "the Republican-controlled Senate". OK.

We must speak with conviction, conviction, conviction about the "values" debate and not become Republican Lite. That 1 out of 5 children lives in poverty in this country is a values issue.

So much, so much. Jan's husband Bob Creamer, a political consultant, talked about where the Dems went wrong, and concluded that the thing we were worst at was persuasion. "They discussed right and wrong. We discussed plans and programs. People want a connection to the emotions in a president. We let them take it from us."

Pete Giangreco, pollster to the stars, also gave a summary about what the polls tell us, and it's not that voters are suddenly more moral. We lost non-college and older women for the first time, and Latinos. "We should have realized the patriotism of new citizens," he said, "and that they are over-represented in the military." He pointed out that toward the end, George didn't go anwhere without "Laura stapled to his side" to get the women's vote. He said that in New Mexico, the Secretary of State (or maybe the Lieutenant Governor or Attorney General), a woman, had to fight her way through the crowd of men surrounding Kerry to get to the podium when he spoke. "Not good visuals," he said.

Jan said that the House Democrats have all read the book, "Don't Think of an Elephant," and will be meeting with its author this Wednesday. This is a very interesting development.

Another mistake we made was pointed out by Bill McNary. The "3 M's" of a campaign are "mobilization, message, and messenger." "We fattened frogs for snakes," he said. We got the voters turned out to the polls, but they may have voted for the other guy.

Daniel Dennison spoke briefly about our efforts in Wisconsin and elsewhere and upcoming plans for projects we can work from right here at home to prep for 2006. This will be an exciting development, and I'm sure I'll have more on it later. You can always keep up with this on his blog, Search for the Democrats' Soul.

Finally, Doug Cassel of Northwestern University spoke about foreign affairs and human rights and what we can do. He suggests building a bridge to the Christian right on common causes, like the genocide in Darfur, abuses in Cuba, progress made in Taiwan.

So much more, so much more, but I should post this now.

I regret not having pictures, but pictures of people talking to a large group are rarely interesting.

- posted by Cynthia @ 7:51 PM | | | Link |

 
Daily Lake
I'm sorry, but it's really too nice outside to be inside drawing lakes. This was at about 8:00 this morning. The scene has changed, but has been ridiculously pretty every time I've gone out. Am sure it will change all too soon, but am looking forward to strange ice shapes and horrid gray waves -- from the comfort of the car, however. It will be a challenge to see how fast I can get the gist of the scene.



I have a backlog of other images I still must do, and need to try to make these bigger, and, of course, maybe sell them. If anyone out there wants to buy any of my stuff, just let me know, will ya? I'm not good at this.

Will be off to a discussion sponsored by Jan Schakowsky (9th CD) and the Democratic Party of Evanston later. Everyone is welcome.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5
4:00 pm
Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation
303 Dodge
Evanston (Illinois)
(parking avail across the street at the Levy Senior
Center)

- posted by Cynthia @ 1:02 PM | | | Link |

 
Through the Looking-Glass
Supreme Court Rules Election Results Invalid and Calls for New Vote on Dec. 26

WTF????

Oh....

In Ukraine.

You may wonder what I've been up to this morning. Trying to find my knitting needles, is what. The sad thing about having visitors is that you end up stashing bags of stuff at the last minute in the oddest places, especially if you are low on closets. My house is nearly 100 years old, was built near the train for the convenience of working men, and working men didn't have a whole bunch of possessions. Women owned 2 or 3 dresses and laundered all the time, if PBS is correct.

People in 1950 knitted tons of socks, however, but I'm going to make these knee-warmers in startling colors, rather than like in the black and white photo from pamphlet #340, "Hand Knit Socks for Men, Women, Children" by Bucilla, Bear Brand, and Fleisher yarns.



I also tackled the job of trying to set up my winter studio. I have no heat in the back room, so usually paint with a nice full teapot nearby. But since everything gets tossed back there when visitors arrive (sorry, M. -- you can visit anytime. The studio is big.), a certain amount of routing out needs to happen periodically. And WI-FI isn't good back there.

So let's post this blogging and get on with it before I start drawing obvious, though of course brilliantly insightful, parallels between US and Them.

- posted by Cynthia @ 1:25 PM | | | Link |

 
A Dog's Thanksgiving
Why, what's that you got there, boy?







Please, no kissy right now.

- posted by Cynthia @ 2:03 PM | | | Link |

 
Astonishingly Early Post
Yes, but I wanted my oatmeal and coffee, so sleep was the less appealing alternative.

Have been trying to catch up with everything, including the stack of New Yorkers and Art magazines I'd neglected since October.

The one article in this week's New Yorker (December 6) not online is one we Democrats should read and take to heart, and stop all the freaking flagellation about "moral values." It's called "Permanent Fatal Errors," by Louis Menand, and completely explodes the myth of the moral voter. They are if anything less moral (or at least less churchy) than in previous years:

According to a report on Beliefnet, a religious Web site... forty-three per cent of Ohio voters in 2000 attended church once a week or more often. In 2004, the figure was forty per cent. In Florida in 2000, forty-one percent of voters were regular churchgoers, but only thirty-five per cent were this year.

Heathens! Godless voters, give us back your pagan votes! Bush doesn't want such filth in his administration!

The article also points out the bias toward anal sex and baby murdering inherent in the interpretation of the exit polls, where "moral values" was not interpreted as a concern for having a president that doesn't lie all the time or spend the day slaughtering and torturing people in Iraq and elsewhere, or try to exclude same-sex partners from visiting their dear ones who are dying in the hospital.

No, it really was 9/11 and security moms (though only by about 2 percent) and stupid white men in general, like we thought all along.

The article concludes

If Democrats believe that the lesson of the election is that the party needs to move to the right, then, if it moves, that will be the lesson. It might be wiser for the Democrats to chalk Bush's reelection up to 9/11 and stick to their positions.

Are you listening, DNC? I hope to god you are.

Back later with more good stuff.

- posted by Cynthia @ 6:58 AM | | | Link |

 
Ed Paschke, 1939-2004
On Thanksgiving, of all days. Dan at Iconoduel (where else) has more.

Here's an introduction:

Ed Paschke's Vision

He's also one of our "famous" Evanston, Illinois artists, on the faculty at Northwestern University, and had a studio on Howard Street. I saw him once at the art store, Goods. I never could figure out how he could get those neon colors out of ordinary oil paint, using the same pigments Rembrandt and Monet (and me) use.

Well, there you go.

- posted by Cynthia @ 5:54 PM | | | Link |

 
Day Without Art
I am reminded that today is the "Day Without Art" in honor of the art that AIDS victims can't produce, dances they can't dance, plays they can't write.

This is not a difficult thing for me, to not produce art -- just a day like any other. So I have spent a huge amount of time producing my Lake with a void at the center, in honor of Steve, who died of AIDS in the 80s, so long ago I can't even remember when it was, a very sad fact.



- posted by Cynthia @ 1:16 PM | | | Link |