I'm Scared To Death Already
Bush's Latest Supreme Court Choice Likely to Trigger Huge Fight in Senate

I freeking hope so.

Our representatives have to know right now that we are behind them in our desire to keep a mainstream Supreme Court. I'm not talking about the Court of my dreams, a court many would call pinko and round-the-bend wild-eyed and liberal. No. I'm just talking about a Court that doesn't step over the line between church and state that I grew up thinking was the freebie you get with being an American.

This is not just about abortion, you know. It's about a whole bunch of issues related to privacy and governmental interference. It's not just about whether Frosty The Snowman is a religious symbol.

I was appalled when I heard that Alito voted in favor of forcing a woman to tell her husband if she wanted to get an abortion. He doesn't own her! It's medieval! Her beliefs and choices are strictly her own, and we have to keep it that way.

This stuff creeps. Before long, a woman wouldn't be allowed to drive, because it might harm the fetus if she got into an accident.

I've already sent off letters to Obama and Durbin. Please let your senators know that you don't want an extremist ideologue on the Court for the rest of your life.

It's not like Survivor. We can't ever vote them off.

Here's the link to Planned Parenthood.
- posted by Cynthia @ 5:18 PM | | | Link |

 
No Use Hanging Around
Merry Fitzmas, everyone! Alternatively, Happy St. Patrick's Day! At least, I hope it is.

Apparently we'll have to wait for the press conference later today, but it seems that the Rovian Empire will remain intact, since Bush has indicated he'll never fire the man unless he's actually tried and convicted of a crime, and probably not then, because they'll never believe what they were doing was a crime, since it was just good politics to slaughter tens (probably hundreds) of thousands of innocents plus 2000 plus Americans.

This is good, since as long as Karl is still under investigation, the longer we can point fingers at George for not firing him, and the longer the story stays in the news, and the more rats will leap overboard with leaks and delicious gossip.

Must run, however, so I'll have to TIVO the perp walk.
- posted by Cynthia @ 9:08 AM | | | Link |

 
Continuing Story, Continued
Was it a dream? Did it really happen?

Not talking about the Sox win (tho still not sure about it -- generally am a Cubs fan, but we in Chicago will take anything).

Tuesday night (if it really happened) got phone call at 3:45 am, that I of course answered, figuring that, since I haven't had a heavy breather in awhile, it had to be Bad Family News. (Didn't really think all this until later, however, since I was mostly asleep.)

Was police, and could I come outside and look at my garage? I looked out the window thinking it was someone with a baseball bat trying to lure me out of the house, but with all the flashing lights, it appeared that they were truthful.

Found robe and shuffled out, thinking about a new theory of sleep -- that when you sleep you upload your brain somewhere while the shell of body rests, then on waking you download it again. And if sleep is interrupted it doesn't all download correctly, or perhaps you get someone else's brain.

Anyway, if it really happened, the only thing I could find wrong was that someone had placed a magazine in the middle of the back window of the car. This was what had caused the police to stop, in fact, because they thought it was peculiar.

Yes, strange. People usually take stuff from my garage. They don't leave stuff (except for throwing away trash, pizza boxes, etc.)

I live near a busy corner and former crack house (now torn down). A few months ago someone called the police because they saw someone lurking in the bushes, so I found myself telling them about seeing someone peeing near my neighbor's house. He had gray curly hair and was looking in the window.

But did it happen? I don't know. Since my brain hadn't completely arrived back in my skull, maybe I made it all up.

Eventually I went back to bed, but by that time I was completely awake and should have stayed up and painted or whatever, but didn't, so fell asleep again around 9:00, and so missed the whole day. Good thing I'm still unemployed.
- posted by Cynthia @ 11:39 AM | | | Link |

 
Sox Win!
What else is there to say?
- posted by Cynthia @ 11:05 PM | | | Link |

 
Upcoming Show at Gescheidle
Bet you thought I'd given up looking at art, but you're wrong. I like to look at the art shown at quite a few galleries a lot. In particular, I like gescheidle and Wendy Cooper in West Loop Gate.

Arrived yesterday in the midst of Installation Day at gescheidle. Louise LeBourgeois and husband Steven Carelli were busily measuring and marking in the smaller back room for her show of luminous-surfaced landscapes of sugar cane fields in Louisiana. I was there for the unpacking back in late August. She has completed a few more with sugar pots, which glow mysteriously and somewhat erotically on her mirror-smooth surfaces. And the show will feature an actual pot, somewhat used and corroded, at the moment in the middle of the floor ready to be tripped over. It looks rather like a cauldron that, since it's Halloween weekend, should be filled with a poisonous brew (or at least candy).

And Joel Sheesley was installing his show as well of good old-fashioned well-painted representational paintings of various subjects. I particularly liked a self-portrait obscured by what is either a shower curtain or a pane of glass with water dripping down.



(the hands aren't part of the painting, naturally, but these days you often have to say so)

I was less taken by diptych and triptych paintings (or rather, double and triple images done on the same canvas) since they seemed a little gimmicky and obvious.

Images from the entire show are on the website. Show opens this Friday.

p.s. Sorry, Tom and Holly. Never got to your opening and show last month.
- posted by Cynthia @ 2:43 PM | | | Link |

 
The Continuing Story
I took the Al Franken pic below at a Democratic Party fundraiser hosted by the indispensable Jan Schakowsky. Both spoke briefly (and passionately) about issues close to our liberal hearts, and Al didn't plug his new book hardly at all.

Was seated at Debra Shore's table. She's running for one of the Cook County Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner spots and is eminently qualified to do so, having been an environmental activist for many years. And is a smart and energetic person as well. If you are a registered voter in Cook County, please get in touch with her so you can sign the petition to get her on the ballot. I think she said she probably has enough signatures unless there are a lot of challenges. A lot of people don't realize that you have to live in Cook County and be registered to vote there to sign a petition, but you do. Lake County doesn't count.

Here she is with Jan:



Is eerie how much they look alike.

So. We're now up to Friday on my Stuff-I've-Been-Overly-Occupied-With List. You will recall I had been plugging the open house at the EAC print shop for last weekend, holding out private audiences with self and other printmakers as inducements to come visit.

Sorry, folks. Stuff happens. Will let you know in next blogging about it.

Am writing this from the library today since my at-no-cost-to-myself WIFI from home has a miserable signal owing, most likely, to the enormous amount of construction in the area, walkie-talkies, etc. etc. Or else the gravy train has finally caught up with me and passed me by (you are allowed to squirm at this image and protest, if you like).
- posted by Cynthia @ 1:41 PM | | | Link |

 
I Give In
... to the chill. Have turned on the heat. Thermostat set to 55 degrees, and isn't going to budge until there's frost on the pumpkin.

Honest. For real.

Back shortly with what I've been up to. Here's a sneak peak at part of it:



If you think it looks like Al Franken with a serious case of red eye, you'd be correct.
- posted by Cynthia @ 3:43 PM | | | Link |

 
Canvas Tree(s)


Out at the forest preserve all day yesterday working on a big (for me -- 24 x 30 inches) canvas. It took awhile, but I managed to find the only red tree in the entire place just so I could slaughter it in paint. It looks clunky at the moment, not elegant.

This is an awkward painting for a couple of reasons. First, as painters know, is hard to paint complements when you're working wet into wet -- things gray down too much -- like the weeds at the front of the painting, not all of which is oil glare.

Second, I painted this standing at the easel. Usually when I paint outdoors I lazily sit down. This may be why the painting looks a bit chaotic right now.

Third, I've been painting single objects (cars and boats) with only vaguely blocked in backgrounds lately. I know, stupid excuse.

Fourth, I didn't know what I was painting until I got home.

Fifth, I stepped on an entire tube of alizarin crimson. Scooped it up with a leaf and threw it in the easel, but not before getting it EVERYWHERE. If you see a reddish deer wandering down the street, you'll know where it came from. (I assume it was alizarin crimson. The label is in Russian, a present from my model/painter friend Marina. If I ask her what color it really is, she'll tell me the Russian name for the pigment, which will get me nowhere.)

So I present this to you for what it is at the moment. I need to ungray some of the colors and wash my brushes thoroughly. Good thing it's supposed to be gray and dreary for the next few days.

Finally, sixth: I painted it over an old figure painting. If you look carefully you may see a penis somewhere in the trees.
- posted by Cynthia @ 11:20 AM | | | Link |

 
So That Means....
Miers backed anti-abortion amendment - The Changing Court - MSNBC.com:

"A candidate taking a political position in the course of a campaign is different from the role of a judge making a ruling in the judicial process." said Jim Dyke, a White House spokesman.

Classic Republican-think. You say anything to get elected. You become born again. You lie about drinking.

So either we'll get a liar as a Supreme Court judge, or someone who is on a Texas-style mission to overturn the rights she, as a woman, has enjoyed her entire adult life.

Unfortunately, I think it's just someone who takes her orders from the nearest big strong man around. But they never marry you, Harry. Sorry.
- posted by Cynthia @ 10:20 AM | | | Link |

 
I Love This
18 Grandmothers Arrested at Iraq War Protest in New York

"We tried to ring the bell at the booth, but no one answered," Wile said. "I saw a head poke up from behind the counter every once in a while and then duck back down. I don't know what they were afraid of. Maybe they don't know how to deal with a bunch of grannies."

Grandmothers against the War joined the New York City Raging Grannies and the Gray Panthers to form a coalition called the Anti-War Grandmothers, which organized the protest. The group said about 100 people attended.

I want to be old, too.
- posted by Cynthia @ 10:21 PM | | | Link |

 
Tree and Friend


Did a few of these at the print shop's open house yesterday, placing the little tree in different locations (didn't get snaps of the others since was in hurry to get home after long day). Need to go back to the studio and figure out what next. I like this, though. I may include it with others in the "Simple World" series I started several years ago.

The open house continues next weekend -- Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and Sunday too, so come on by. We had muffins!
- posted by Cynthia @ 2:29 PM | | | Link |

 
Just Pile It On
I was going to title this blogging "When It Rains, It Pours," but since I am acutely sensitive to the plight of the waterlogged states, I restrained myself.

Review of Armstrong Williams Contract Referred to U.S. Attorney's Office

The Government Accountability Office has concluded that the Education Department engaged in illegal "covert propaganda" by hiring Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act without requiring him to disclose that he was being paid. The Education Department's inspector general has also reviewed the Williams deal, which was part of a broader contract that the education agency had with Ketchum, a public relations firm.

Now the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia is investigating whether Williams accepted public money without performing his required duties, said Dan Katz, chief counsel for Lautenberg.
[...]
"It's bad enough the administration bribed a journalist to promote their policies, but now it looks like taxpayer dollars were handed over for work that was never done," said Lautenberg.

Hilarious!

Good afternoon, friends. It is so deliciously beautiful outside that I am shortly to leave the house and enjoy it. 71 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and likely to remain like this for the next 10 days, at least.

Need to find a new tree and then paint it. Later.
- posted by Cynthia @ 2:05 PM | | | Link |

 
What I've Been Up To
This is some of it:



Much of this is printing the litho tree stone over monoprinted backgrounds. Have done tons of backgrounds in preparation for trees (or perhaps faces) as well as I learn this process. Is messy and inexact, but freeing, in many ways, since doing monoprints is inherently a messy, inexact, thing.

Will be at it tomorrow and Saturday, when our art week starts. If you have a chance, come by and visit:

EAC Printmaking Studio Open House

Free

10 a.m. to 4 p.m., held at Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St.

847-475-5300

The Evanston Art Center holds printmaking demonstrations and an exhibition of student work at its printmaking studio in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center.

Took individual pix of most of these today (too big to fit on the scanner comfortably), so will in good time post to the works on paper blog.

- posted by Cynthia @ 6:26 PM | | | Link |

 
He's Not Gonna Leave Laura For You
... no matter how many love notes you write or little boxes of M&Ms you pack:

Harriet used to keep a humidor full of M&Ms in her West Wing office. It wasn't a huge secret. She'd stash some boxes of the coveted red, white, and blue M&Ms in specially made boxes bearing George W. Bush's reprinted signature. Her door was always open and the M&Ms were always available. I dared ask one time why they were there. Her answer: 'I like M&Ms and I like sharing.' "

This anecdote almost invites the retort: Well why don't we go all the way and put Barney the purple dinosaur on the court?

I like the other anecdote printed here too:

One Republican lawyer told me of a briefing session to prepare Miers to enter into her duties as White House Counsel a year ago. A panel of lawyers who had served in past Republican White Houses was gathered together. After a couple of hours of questions and answers, Miers left to return to the office. There was a silence. Then somebody hopefully piped up: "Maybe if we can find her a really strong deputy ..."

Yet why do I keep having this feeling that we're being played? The woman is indeed conservative, or at least takes her orders as a gift of love from the conservative front. The enemy of my enemy is my friend? The friend of my enemy is my enemy? My head hurts.

Good afternoon, friends. Yes, I'm still here, tho haven't been checking in with you as much. Is pleasantly cool and gray today. No rain, just cloudiness, forecast from now until the end of time. I think I counted only six times it's actually rained since May. Should go out and paint but have all sorts of excuses stuffed in my head why I shouldn't, beginning with the whiney, depressed-sounding personalities not struggling very hard to get out.

I think I mentioned that the last batch of plywood I got was very badly cut and splintery, forming a whole universe of excuses. So will now go to hardware store for more sandpaper and wood putty and see if I can fix up the edges a bit. It's either that or clean.
- posted by Cynthia @ 2:14 PM | | | Link |

 
It Was a Dark and Stormy Tree


Is abt 40 something degrees out, half of what it was 2 days ago. Am trying not to turn on the heat, relying on the pent-up inferno still up in the attic to keep me warm. Warm. Never thought I'd long for warmth again.

Did a huge amount of work today, mostly working with the tree images from these past few weeks on different silkscreen/monoprint backgrounds. Only did one of these, nicely murky. Printed the water based ink over the oil based litho on half of the prints and got interesting results. Is possible after it dries I'll get some interesting cracking and weirdness, but I don't care.

Did the other half printing litho ink (flame red!!) over the monoprint silkscreen backgrounds. This was as they say more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

I am now as tired as a barrel of monkeys who are tired, so am drinking some wine. May go back tomorrow and rescue the flame-red prints that are drying so I can show them to you.

May be back with the other print I brought home later. One of these days I'll organize all of the trees in one place. In case you hadn't noticed, I managed to organize most of the faces over to the right, in my Works on Paper blog. It's all so tiring.
- posted by Cynthia @ 5:51 PM | | | Link |

 
News From Katrina Art Front
... and a Chicago connection.

Conservationists revive art damaged in hurricane

In recent weeks, hundreds of damaged pieces - including paintings by well-known artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, William Merritt Chase and Alfred Bierstadt - have arrived at The Chicago Conservation Center in climate-controlled trucks.

They were collected by intrepid staffers who secured the art in what they call "rescue and recovery missions."

Donning impermeable Tyvek suits with hoods, gloves, boots and respirators and guided by flashlights, the workers often made their way through dark, flood-scarred homes in New Orleans.

"It's like an oven," says Walter Wilson, the center's director of disaster response. "You're doing an excruciatingly difficult job when it's 100 degrees."

Heat wasn't the only obstacle. A few times, Wilson pulled out a chainsaw to cut branches from fallen trees so he could get into houses.

Once inside, the work could be slow going. It took an entire afternoon for a crew of five to pack a 21-foot-wide abstract expressionist piece that weighed about 250 pounds.

Found pictures that accompany this at the Times Picayune site, but couldn't find the article.

Good afternoon, my friends. Is blessedly quiet right now. I have construction on 2 sides of me (they've started work on the condos again, and my other neighbor is still going at the dry wall with the nail gun, measuredly, methodically, thunk.... thunk....). They are soon to start the "shoring" behind me, at which point I will probably take up residence in the print studio.

For those who were concerned, yes, the tattoo I got is temporary, and no I didn't lose my mind (it's long gone in any case). And yes, I do love the tattoo, and yes, I'll be sad when it finally goes away (is beginning to disappear around the feet already.)

And the only update I have about our open house is that we're basically to just be zoo animals -- we're encouraged to just print "normally" (and I suppose not spit or masturbate in front of the children). Screeching is allowed, I believe.

On the 21st is a curious event called something like Art and Jazz. A jazz quartet will be playing in the lobby at the Noyes building and we're supposed to go and do art in response while people watch. Sounds creepy, but I may do it anyway. More details later, perhaps.
- posted by Cynthia @ 12:10 PM | | | Link |

 
A Wednesday Tree
Why wait till Friday?



Printed the flat green last week and was still a little wet, so overprinting it with the black tree transferred some of the ink to the stone.

Ugh. Will mix up a stickier, thinner ink for next print. And not green, either, since it's now officially fall, and everything is turning colors, albeit boring Illinois colors.

So will try some mewling yellows and dirty tans when I print next.
- posted by Cynthia @ 1:39 PM | | | Link |

 
Skin Lithography
No, I didn't put my arm thru this press:



Had to drop by the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative open house yesterday as an ambassadress from my shop up here. They now have a very active (tho a little twisted) young lithographer, Jessica Meyer, who has developed a process involving non-toxic commercial inks, medical adhesives, and decal transfer paper to get a surface sticky enough (and non-lethal enough) to work with stone lithography. Oh, and skin.

Here's the stone with the images:



Freshly printed:



And cut apart:



And applied (this is not me):



She does more complex designs in multiple colors, and has shown her work on the backs of friends as part of gallery shows.

So I had to get a tattoo too.

Is odd, since I now feel a little funky, as though I should put on black lipstick and too much mascara, and start smoking, maybe get caught shoplifting and have my mother get called and have to pick me up at the mall security office.

I also liked Jessica's t-shirt:



Hiroshi Ariyama demonstrated screenprinting == if you pulled your own screen you could keep it -- very generous of him. (Will post it later).

And Deborah Maris Lader showed us photo emulsion transfer -- soaking and taking apart color polaroid, then applying the slimy separated image layer to ordinary paper. Cool.
- posted by Cynthia @ 10:47 AM | | | Link |

 
I Get Tattooed


Explanations later...
- posted by Cynthia @ 5:49 PM | | | Link |

 
Thirty Days Hath September
thank god. Perhaps with a new month we'll stop having these hurricanes and tropical depressions. Up to number 20, I see.

And it being Illinois, October is Illinois Art Month, where stuff happens all over the place that I'm unlikely (given recent moods and history) to get out and see.

Here's the official schedule for Evanston's single week (plus a few days), Oct 15 - 23. I see that demonstrations and a print sale are scheduled for the shop at Noyes, but I don't know any details yet. I know, I should, since I'm the official studio monitor over there. I give you my pledge, however, that if you want to drop by on Friday mornings, I will show you wonderful stuff and you will see several printmakers (other than me) in action.

We've been talking about organizing a sale bin for awhile now, and perhaps it will happen in time for Holiday Giving.

I thought my print buddy Sadie Gerbic's show at Mars Gallery was going to be up for 2 more weeks, but it's apparently coming down today. It wouldn't hurt to drop by, just in case a few pieces are still up. She tells me that Gallery 312 (that used to be over in Fulton Market) is no more. Will check on it.

I am devastated that I don't have a Weekly Tree for you today, so I will have to give you a Bush instead:



Joe Taylor, at the Lincoln Park Art Fair a few weeks ago. (The red one is Bush surrounded by skeletons, if you can't see clearly.)

Didn't think I'd have a whole bunch to write about this morning, but there you go.
- posted by Cynthia @ 10:17 AM | | | Link |