The New.

Here's to a year of reinvention.

Love and luck to friends who have gone or are going places, deciding things, taking a leap, living in the moment, planning plans.

I'll see you there.

Anywhere.

And thank you strangers, friends, family, and well-wishers who read my blog. Thanks for your support and interest in my art and related nonsense.

The future is now. Happy start of 2011.

Anywhere: this is what's happening.

I'm visiting a brand new little redheaded person this week. I'm very fond of my little goddaughter. She's very neat.

Also neat is this funny girl, who I am rather more comfortable with then the newborn...


cold and rain.

and quiet.

and thinking.

and reading.

and the internet:

I've had a flickr account for some time, and it has been entirely neglected for two years. In an ongoing effort to pull myself together, I plan on getting back into the habit of posting pictures there. Check it out.

The past few days I have been picking over these blog posts, via Etsy.

Speaking of Etsy, lately I have had time to browse and explore, which has resulted in a lot of good discoveries. i made a treasury, which I haven't done in I-don't-know-how-long.



These happened, and more in progress...

big plans for little books.

My winter plans include making a whole bunch of soft-cover pocket-sized books. I was recently commissioned to make a couple, so Santa decided to let me open one of my Christmas presents early.


A Japanese Screw Punch of my very own. Yes!







Last night I taught my older brother to make a book. What fun! I've been cooking a lot, working in my parent's backyard, drawing, writing, and doing other good, quiet things.

Great moments with Mr. Stitt.

My pal Wes Stitt has moved back to that mountain, to a good job with a good man, and to adopt a black cat. I am envious and mopey, and could run away to North Carolina any minute. Okay...probably not, but I am planning a visit in the spring, and daydreams about moving to North Carolina persist.

Before he left, and before I helped him pack up his library, we went to Disneyland...


...for any number of reasons.


It was so fun. so ridiculous. so exhausting. so expensive.

perfect.

Not that we spent any part of the day waiting in lines...but I found plenty of time to take pictures for my own amusement. The tip-tops of things, disney railings and fixtures and details, and our tired feet standing in line.




We had silly-tired conversations. I think that may be my favorite part of a day at Disneyland: the unlikely, imaginative conversations it facilitates. I knew Wes would totally be into that.

To the end.

This is one of those "where has Michelle been?" posts.

I've mostly been in my office at CSUN, grading and photographing work. I can't think of any artist-teachers I know who love grading. I think we all reward ourselves with treats or breaks after going through a few pieces (papers, portfolios, whatever.) It's been particularly unfun this time, because I had an astoundingly large intro. to printmaking class. Thirty people. We don't have thirty of anything in the shop, (including chairs) so I've had a very tense few months. In addition to the giganto class, I had seven intermediate students, who bravely navigated the studio and made the most out of the tough situation. Thanks again to Michael, Jenny, Jeni, Shihori, Carlos, Gina, and Wai. Mostly for your patience.

I had a great advanced/grad group as well, and there was a lot of laughter and printing, and drawing-til-it-hurt, and coffee, and the best ever strange and wonderful tangents instigated by Daniel George.

smile. win it. find big.

I hope I can muster the energy to go out into the world tonight and do a little Christmas shopping. Also hope I can make it to Hiromi Paper tonight, to get some supplies. I have big plans to make many little books while traveling.

A student just told me, "you look exhausted!"

That's that.

the saturday 6am restlessness.

Opportunity-hunting online this fine December morn.

I did not sleep well last night.

Cups of tea.

Space-heater.

What does this image mean? It means I am starting a drawing-a-day project this winter. Mentioning it on my blog will keep me from abandoning the project when I start traveling. I am "nerding it up" by pre-stamping the paper with the dates. My rule for this project is that I will start a new piece each day, but I can work on them for more than one day. the size is a scanner-friendly 8 1/2" x 11". How long will I do this? I don't know. Forever. Or 'til I start teaching the Spring semester at CSUN. I don't know.

Find Big.

Michelle C. Moode's plans for today include...

Cleaning.
Studio-organizing.
List-making.
Walking.
Christmas tree-ing.
Opportunity-hunting.
Letter-writing.
Unlikely-adventure-day-dreaming.
Drawing.

Time. and Space.

I realized today that I have two weeks left in this semester. Also that tomorrow is December. Whoa. The future is now.

I am excited about the any-day-now birth of my best friend's little girl. I can't wait to be crazy aunt michelle to this little person, and wish I wasn't quite so far away from Murray, Kentucky.

My best friend on this side of the country is moving back to the other side of the country, and although I am super excited for him, I'm a little mopey about it too. Boo.

Sunday was great! Thanks to the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts, all the good people I talked with and shared my work with, friends and well wishers, and Wes, who helped carry a table and took these photos.



More on the Facebook page.

Thanks for your time!

Here Along the Way.

You know Maranda? One of my favorite people to laugh and cry with?

or at?

Here she is tree-climbing with kittens...


Well, Maranda is currently in Wyoming, living the life at Jentel and she is blogging about her experience: Here along the way.

I envy her snowy, thoughtful days of printing, bookbinding, baking, and blogging. God, I hate her. (I'm mostly kidding, Maranda. It's better.)

Eagle Rockin'.

This Sunday! Come say hi!

This? Good.

I think this project is worth mentioning on the ol' blog. Kyle Durrie of Power and Light Press is raising funds for Moveable Type: cross-country adventures in printing. Check it out.

What really delights me about this project? The scale model. Obviously.

I have a cold. I am not happy about it.

Elsewhere.

Elsewhere, in Greensboro, North Carolina, is a "living museum set within a former thrift store." I am fascinated by this place. I stumbled upon it years ago (on the internet I mean) when I was in grad school. Re-stumbled upon it while opportunity-hunting earlier this week. As many of you strangers know, I have a personal and academic interest in both logical and illogical collecting, arranging, accumulation and...let me say it quietly......hoarding.

hmm.

I hope to visit this place sometime. Anyone ever been there?

A big etching plate with droplets.

And yeah, That's how I hold my writing/drawing tools.

November!

I was "Ambiguity" for Halloween, which meant I wore many many shades of grey. Sure, it was a last-minute costume, but I thought it was quite clever and understated.

I've been printing a lot. Still.

I spent some time on friday going through my art and sewing supplies, and plan on giving some stuff away to my students (if they want any of it). Will I be using oil paint or ceramics tools anytime soon? Not bloody likely.

I'm having a fit of restlessness, and organizing/letting go of stuff helps.

Today & Ink.

So, this is almost done. More printing awaits, and a wee bit of sewing. Machine sewing. They are 15" x 20", two plates, (neither plate is near the paper size. huh?) and I'm working on 30 of them. The best thing about this whole "varied edition" thing is that I am changing the colors....(slightly) every 5 or 6 prints.

Better pictures when I am DONE!

Today I didn't get any time to print at CSUN, but I had a good day teaching. My advanced/grad class is very psyched to do some papermaking science experiments next week. So am I.

three-legged screaming thing, part two.

Long morning and afternoon printing. Good. Tired now. Covered in ink. Intaglio muscles sore. More printing (and teaching) tomorrow. I'll take some pictures of the actual prints too. (I can't help myself...I am more interested in documenting my tarletons and piles of ink.)


Unintentional muppet-y colors. Well, maybe a little intentional. And picture me in pink gloves and pink corduroy pants.

Really.

What am I printing? I'm down to the wire working on my edition for the Varied Edition Portfolio for the Dirty Printmakers of America's "States of the State" project. (Whew, I'm not even sure I followed that....) I'm very excited about my prints, and even more excited to be in a VARIED edition portfolio.

Hoopla!

three-legged screaming thing.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning. I don't know why that happens, but I'm running with it. Running up to Northridge to do some printing, and probably some grading, too. I have a million students this semester, so the work has piled up.

And by the way, where did October go? I have had a lot on my plate the past couple of weeks, and I have stayed sane by regular doses of the Muppet Show.

And THIS is one of my favorite bits, for a lot of reasons that I can not get into this early in the morning, before coffee. Why do you think I like it so much?

Let's all enjoy some pictures of Pumpkins!

This one came home with me.

"Not life as we know it, Jim."





The first pictures are from the Pomona Pumpkin Festival, the latter ones are from my aunt and uncle's pumpkin patch in Corona.

Etching plates.

I have been printing some big etching plates this week. I love the way my in-progress plates look....See if you don't agree!

And.

In other, non map-of-nowhere news, yesterday I began experimenting with screen-printing on bookcloth....

Furthermore.

Yeah, okay, I just liked the way my previous post looked. It amused and delighted me. My blog.

I have posted a few new-to-the-world pieces in my store. More to follow.

Recently. Also.

Never. Constantly.



This has black and pink and grey-and-pink stitching all over it. I love the subtlety of the bit of machine stitching with a grey top thread and pink bottom thread...apparently so did my scanner, as it decided I needed this funny little detail....

Recently.

Tulips and Smoke.

This grey ink is my new best friend.

Art and Pants.

I had this spooky encounter while browsing at Banana Republic on Saturday.

Someone from Banana Republic is spying on me. They know my penchant for pink corduroy pants, and beyond that, they've been taking note of what colored pencils (ink, thread...) I use daily...

But really the joke's on them, because I wasn't actually in a buying, or even a trying-on mood. Just a hungry-for-thai-food mood. And $80? Sorry, Banana-Republic-Designer-stalker, but I'm watching my spending.

A lot.

I have a lot going on.

No news to share, but a lot going on.