King's Gold.

Most of the things I make tend to be intricate and detailed.

Obsessive.

I am skilled. I am good at lots of things. I'm good with my hands.

On the good days I feel pretty graceful in my movements.

I react and adapt pretty quickly to things.

But I want to make sure that everyone out there knows that this kind of thing happens:



I had been sitting on my studio floor talking to my brother on the phone, and to make the most of my time I had been drawing with this ink..."king's gold" by shaffer, in a glass jar with one of the little built in inkwells. Later in the evening I tripped, (or something) and watched as the jar rolled away across the hardwood floors with a loose lid, leaving little puddles along the way.

I didn't really freak out. I thought, "oh no. I liked that ink!" and "I'm never living in a place with carpets ever again."

Since I really liked the color of the ink, I didn't go straight for the paper towels. Instead, I quickly shuffled through "the archives" and found these old print pieces from grad school. Subtle-on-subtle, these were white silkscreen on mulberry paper, with monotype and some stitching. Parts from some of the ol' super-complicated installations...



I mopped up the floor with them. It felt right. And (as I expected) the ink rejected the silkscreen beautifully, so they are on their way to becoming something else.

Sometime.

So yeah. This happens. Hell, its just paper. The floor is fine.

My students would agree that I have clumsy moments. One day I dropped a zinc plate during a demo. I joked, "and then you throw your plate on the floor..." A student asked what that does to the plate. I responded that it reorganizes the molecular structure of the metal in preparation for going in the acid.



Today it has cooled off in California. I have a feeling I'll want to put on a sweater when I leave work this evening.

Now I'm going to go have a frank discussion with the silkscreen exposure unit, and ask it nicely...again....to behave properly with me in front of my students.

Clouds.

This was the day before my birthday. Taken in Downey, California in my Grandmother's back yard.

Last Sunday, and the Future.

Hello!

I had a weird, wonderful Sunday last weekend, and I want to tell the world all about it.

It started at 3:00AM. I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. I tried til about 4, and then got up and started my day...

Around dawn I left my home and headed to the Hollywood Farmers Market, on Ivar & Selma Avenues, right between Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards for my non-California friends. That's part of why I like this farmers market I think: its in such a touristy, awful place, but at 7 AM its quiet and lovely, and I can walk-on-the-walk-of-fame with my colorful radishes and appreciate how Los Angeles indeed has its moments....













I also stopped by the new Los Feliz Farmers Market, which happens behind the Dresden. And I had a decadent breakfast at Figaro. It was early enough that the hipsters weren't cluttering up my neighborhood yet, so the place was nice and quiet. I sat outside and enjoyed life, and read, and wrote things down.



The rest of the day was spent drawing and binding books, so that ain't bad either.


So as to 'the future'...well, I was going to write about some of my forthcoming Michelle-things, but I've got a busy day before me, and I better get away from this damn computer....but in brief:

My students are starting the "Cal State Northridge Printmaking Society."

My students are having a show!

I'm teaching another bookbinding workshop at Surface Gallery in Bakersfield in November.

I'm applying to be a vendor at a couple of upcoming handmade sale/marketplace events.

I'm making books. Lots of books.

I'm making a halloween costume this year! That's really all I want to work on this weekend. sigh.

So all these happenings are well-and-good, but what I'm really obsessing about is my adventure to PENLAND (yep, going back for more, folks) in late October/early November. It's just about one month away.

Twenty-nine laps around the sun.

September 12 was my 29th Birthday. I had a proper birthday party for the first time since I was in elementary school, and my beautiful apartment has now been properly "warmed." What a good day and night.

I made this cake, and didn't feel right about writing "happy birthday" to myself on it.

Today I have been lazy like yesterday was my birthday; I've been staying close to the couch and watching episodes of "the Prisoner" all day.

and I'm hooked.

Pollyanna in Hell.

By the tone of my last post, you can hardly tell that California is a raging inferno at present.

'Tis the season.

I've only faintly smelled the smoke the past few days, and surprisingly it hasn't bothered my breathing or eyes.

But today there was delicate ash floating in the air, both in Los Feliz and Northridge.

And as horribly destructive as these wildfires are, you must admit that the smoke is spectacular:



In non-destructive-forces-of-nature news, I noticed that I have a pomegranate bush! As if I needed another reason to love my apartment.


I won't be harvesting a crop worthy of the farmer's market this year, but it's still a wonderful surprise. The plant needs some attention...seems to have some suckers, and could stand some pruning when it's done doing its thing.

But I have a fruit tree! Thank God, right?!