I'm an Art Guinea Pig!

Hey, I got a great invitation to be Robinsunne's art guinea pig! She is working on a new book and wanted some feedback. Art Journals are in my head a lot these days (remember the one I made for Jonas when he went traveling this summer?), so it felt perfect to get to try out this concept for Robinsunne and offer her my feedback about the experience.

She is hoping to take these to press soon, so I also have a deadline....see how much I can do in it in one week (that will be next Wednesday). This works well for a girl who loved homework! There are many pages of blank colored cardstock, as the one below (my response after my first day of my internship at the Camden Rockport Middle School Library):
But there are also pages that include a word or image or photocopied "texture" to work from:Do you recognize my owl fabric? I am working on my Owl Bag and this was a scrap:
This page has the look of blue tissue paper glued to a purple background, that Robinsunne then photocopied:

And do you see that little silver word, "love," above? That is a little extra surprise: tucked into the back of the book, a handmade envelope includes several shiny metallic tape embellishments with words on them. And the last few pages of the book have stuff to cut up and play with: fairy wings, stamps, labels, and art-y sayings and encouragements.

SO MUCH FUN. It's great because I can pick it up and put it down...start a page and come back to it later...Just go with what comes to me. She asked for my family's participation, we'll see if that happens! This would be perfect as a gift for someone as a way to introduce them to the fun of "visual" journaling.

In the Studio

I use the term studio loosely here. You may be picturing some kind of light-filled oasis with lots of shelving and work surfaces, but I use the term "studio" to describe my house and its various parts. Sometimes the studio is in the kitchen, sometimes at my art table in the living room, the dining room table is handy for cutting out fabric. Mostly, the studio is wherever I need it to be for whatever I am doing.

I used my first kid-free day at home (both at school!) to make ATCs and to prepare fabric for my next sewing adventure...a bag for me that I have dreamed up, using the owl fabric with green floral lining. Well, that and housework.

The Why Cheap Art Manifesto, by Bread and Puppet, was the inspiration (thanks, Robinsunne---who is having a little giveaway participatory art project right now! Go check it out.) for these cards, with the backgrounds I prepared earlier:


Here is Sylvan, 6, on our George's motorcycle (plumber, adopted grandpa, friend). Sylvan is sporting his ski helmet, cowboy boots, his famous "sport pants," and my brother's tiny little leather biker coat:

Fiction Should Be Fiction

The debut novel of author Madeleine George, Looks, is fairly typical in the YA (young adult) genre of Problem Books. Teens like to read books about other teens struggling with the regular and extraordinary types of issues. There's a big market for this type of book, and George's contribution has the added bonus of pretty good story-telling and writing. The story deals with two main characters who sort of orbit each other in their high school, before finally connecting towards the end of the book. Both are outsiders: Meghan is obese, invisible to her peers and striving to blend in and absorb as much as possible; Aimee is an anorexic poet, trying to find her way among the fringes. I found Meghan's character to be the most compelling, yet George left me wanting to know more about her. Amy's character was more predictable, but the descriptions of her eating disorder were quite vivid.

Full disclosure: George and I went to the same high school. Also full disclosure: I was a girl on the fringes in high school also. In fact, she graduated in my husband's class, so I was pretty interested to read this title and we purchased it for the library. Yet, I find it really upsetting that lots and lots of George's details were directly "stolen" from our own high school, especially in a book that deals with plagiarism. (Can you plagiarize life?) I mean, I was OK with the high school being described as our exact high school in Amherst, Massachusetts, down to the various corridors and the tacky temporary classroom down by the English hall. I was bothered that George modeled the stellar English teacher SO IDENTIFIABLY on a real person, giving the character in the book the real teacher's first name, aping his unique way of speaking to his students, gestures, etc. But I was astonished and even offended that George's bullying villain had the REAL NICKNAME, J-Bar, of a boy who fit the character's physical description perfectly (white-hat wearing lacrosse player). His best henchman, in real life was called Liberty (yes, really) and in the book was called Freedom.

I get it that writers use their own experiences, and may even play with names a bit for their own fun and enjoyment. This is different. Who's to say that our own J-Bar didn't turn out to be a really awesome young adult librarian? How would these people feel to be portrayed in the pages of someone's book---in a positive light (the teacher) or a negative one (J-Bar)? What's up with an obviously talented writer using reality in this way? When I read fiction, part of my enjoyment comes from knowing I am entering an invented world, even if based on reality.

A Typical Morning at Home

It started with making up another batch of half-sour refrigerator pickles, recipe adapted from cooks.com because I don't like making a ton at a time since they are best eaten soon (and really, you can't help it), or ending up with unused brine, and I like my proportions better than theirs:

• 2 pickling cukes (crispy)
• 4 c. water
• 1/8 c. white vinegar
• 1/8 c. plain salt (no iodine)
• 1 t. pickling spice
• 1 t. dill seed (I never honestly measure this because I just pick the seeds off of their stalks into my brine)
• 2 cloves garlic
• a couple of sprigs fresh dill
• Heat up your vinegar, salt, and water until boiling; take off the heat. Then add the rest of ingredients and stir. Into your tightly packed quart jar of cukes, pour as much brine as you can. I usually end up with about a pint of brine leftover, ready for the next batch.

After slicing the green peppers and onions, while the sausage cooked, (prepping for pizza dinner), I started the above ATC backings. I first laid down a couple of coats of gesso, then some acrylics. Preparing some backings in advance will help me to be able to easily make cards, even as my life ramps up in busy-ness with my upcoming internship. Then, there's no "blank" page looking at me. I will cut up the above boxes into the standard ATC size: 2.5x3.5".

There was vacuuming, laundry, plenty of kissing and cuddling with Sylvan, and also time to scribble out some design notes on my next bag project! It will feature the adorable owl fabric you first saw here.
It was a lovely full morning, with lots of my needs and "house" needs, and Sylvan's needs happily met.

And finally one of our heirloom tomatoes:
Can you believe the colors?

Sometimes It Ends on a Bad Note

Dahlias from Miss Jean's garden, above.

This morning was Jonas's (4th grader) and Jake's (teacher of 7th graders) first day back at school. When Jonas left with the carpool, he was in a grump about not having more time to do whatever he was planning to, and he barely looked at me as I said goodbye. It felt yucky, and I knew I was holding onto the yuck way more than he probably was. Yup, here's how he looked 20 minutes later:

In the meantime, Sylvan suggested we draw together. He's working on a book about rockets. This is a strange and new passion and he's really dedicated, getting up and getting to work on it! Drawing isn't usually his thing. But it's fascinating to watch.
These folks are on vacation, possibly family members of the rocket crew. From left, Susie, Joe, Violet, Rose Petal, and Tom.
I made this ATC for Jonas and felt better:
Later, Sylvan (6) and I attended the Welcome Tea in the Kindergarten. His symbol:
Classroom beauty:
I love the beginning of school, with all of its rituals.

Two Books, Wildly Different

This past weekend at BookLovers' Cafe, I talked about two books. (You can read all of our collective recommendations from my notes, now posted at the Rockport Public Library's website.)You've probably already heard about the above title, as it is being splashed about all over the place. And you know what, in keeping with my WWII theme of late, I liked it. In fact, it was just what I was in the mood for after The Book Thief. Yes, kinder and gentler, but I don't want that to seem pat. I loved the quirky characters and happy ending, the epistolary format, the window into a new place in a certain time. Sometimes I am just in the mood for a good story that keeps me interested but doesn't give me a "reading hangover" (when you stay up to late because you can't stop reading, then feel not-your-best the next morning).

But here's another title I booktalked on Saturday:
Totally different, edgy, interesting, empowering, and really close to home. And you probably have not heard of it. It's a YA book (young adult) and it made me pretty excited that this type of book is being written for teens. It's about some young savvy hackers, smart and basically good kids. Their city experiences a terrorist attack and they are taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security and held and questioned for five days---only, the teens aren't told who has them imprisoned. Totally creepy. But it gets worse, once the DHS comes into their city with more surveillance measures and pretty much turns the city into a police state. So the question of personal privacy and liberty versus "measures that keep us safe from terrorists" is applied very neatly by Doctorow here. (Doctorow, by the way, is a super-techy Internet Freedom Fighter who has worked with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I guess I am a little in awe of the cool stuff they do there.)

I was a little personally offended for all librarians when the main character's dad (a librarian) caves into the pressure to conform to the demands of the DHS. Librarians are way more into protecting personal privacy than this! But this was minor compared to my other complaint, which is that there is a gratuitous (but not graphic) sex scene. This bummed me out because I would have happily been recommending this to many more 'tweens and younger teens who may have missed the depth of some of the more technologically-oriented material (lots of computer history packed in here), but could have appreciated many other elements of the story. But the sex scene would be icky for them. Oh well. (I did recommend it to my father-in-law, who loved it, and sent me an email with "Department of Bushland Security" in the subject line and filled the email with plenty of hot words to catch the eye of those machines who are busy reading our emails.)

So I like to mix things up on my nightstand. Ready to read anything that's good, anytime, all the time.

Fresh Peaches, Then Chutney

I have been obsessed with the idea of Peach-Ginger Chutney recently. Then Jenny gave me some peaches, sweet as you please, from a tree she planted herself! Yum. Above, that's how they look freshly skinned from their brief dunk in boiling water and then an ice-water bath. It was hard not to eat all of them right off of the cutting board. Slippery slurpery.

Here's how they look as chutney:
The chutney tastes pretty great, and I wish I could offer you a taste!

Oh! And I have a new reader, Ana, who stopped by to say hello yesterday. She is some kind of awesome sewer with a fabric obsession...Great inspiration for me! And to thank her for her visit and kind comment, an ATC will be making its way to her soon. So, hey, if you are reading this blog, take a moment to say hello and I'll send you a little Mailbox Love, too!