Departing for Bread and Puppet Theatre

Hello Friends! I am leaving today for a 5 week long apprenticeship with Bread and Puppet Theatre in Glover, Vermont. I am really excited! I am knee deep in packing! I am ready for a creative and wonderful summer!

If you find yourself in Northern Vermont any Sunday in July, please head over to Glover to see one of the Sunday shows. They are so much fun and you will love it! For more info about the show schedules, check out their website. I will not have internet access or cell phone reception while I'm up there, but if you by any chance wanted to mail me a letter, this is the address where you can reach me:

753 Heights Road

Glover, VT 05839

I will leave you all with some photos, lovingly pulled from the Bread and Puppet online image galleries of artwork and past performances. Have a great summer everyone!

Truth

I'm taking a short hiatus from my Ugly Apartments painting to post pictures of my final Harry Potter potion jar. It is Veritaserum, the potion that makes you tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. This potion makes me wonder how different wizard trials must be from muggle trials. I mean, if there is a surefire way to make people not lie, and not even bend the truth to make themselves look better, then wouldn't that make a lot of trials more clear cut? 

I wonder the same thing about the pensieve (for you non-Harry Potter fans, that is what I imagine to look like sort of a magical fog machine that you can store your memories in. Like an external hard drive for your brain. Combination fog machine and hard drive, hookah and coffee maker!). 

This is a pensieve, according to the Harry Potter movies.

Um, anyway if you can take your memories out of your brain and put them in a magical fog machine, then recall them with a sweep of your wand, and/or allow other people to enter your memories and walk around and relive them sort of, then why not just use a pensieve for every magical trial? The jury could literally weigh one memory against another. However, as we see in book 6, it is possible to tamper with memories, BUT its super obvious when a memory has been magically edited.

But THEN we get into the idea that truth for one person may be different from truth for another person. Is there one universal truth or does each person see the world just differently enough to make truth more of a series of individual observations? And what I don't entirely agree with about the pensieve is that it assumes that memories are static and clear. You can walk into someone else's memory as an invisible third party as it replays like a virtual reality movie. Why would you be a third party in the memory? Why wouldn't you take the place of the person who remembered it? And if you did, wouldn't your experience of the memory be effected by the rememberer's emotions and state of mind at the time? And wouldn't you need to understand their entire life to get the full context of their memory? And don't you find that the way you remember things changes over time? How would that be encompassed in a pensieve?

Oh man, deep stuff, people.................

So here is the Veritaserum jar I made:

I am really quite pleased with the shape, my only complaint is that you can't really read "Veritaserum" on the side because of the way the glaze came out. I wonder if this has something to do with the fact that this potion jar is made of red stoneware whereas the other two were made with white stoneware. I guess I'll never know... because I can't make another one because they closed the Cornell Studio forever. I'm still really bitter about it!

Anywho, here is a closer detail of the lettering:

The "rum" part came out more clear than the "veritase" part. 

Alcohol does tend to make people more honest, I suppose.

Painting the Ugly Apartments Round III

I took advantage of the solstice and painted from sunset well into dusk last night. It has trees now! I'm having issues with the willow branch on the right bottom quadrant of the painting but as they say on Project Runway, I'll make it work. Otherwise, I am pleased with the progress.

I painted a lot of this after it started getting dark. Because of all the nightscapes I painted last year, I have gotten pretty good at painting in the dark. The colors I choose are always a bit of a surprise to me the next morning though. I always think that I am mixing really subtle colors, but then they are actually quite vibrant. 

If anyone was wondering the secret to the nightscapes, it is that I can't entirely see the paint. Why are my paintings better when I can't see what I'm doing? No idea.

The Project Continues

I had to move this painting inside for the time being because some guys are power washing our house. Who washes their house? Apparently we do. My mom told me that she thinks one of the guys who is working on this power wash is eye candy. I asked her if I should give him my phone number. She said yes. I guess I'll work on that after I stop working on THIS:

It doesn't look great yet but I can feel it coming. This is how I work. It looks iffy until I am about 3/4 of the way done and then something clicks and it suddenly looks kickass.

Work in Progress

I started a new oil painting today. There is an apartment complex behind my house that my dad thinks is really ugly. He has been trying to create a wall of trees between us and them for many, many years now, but through the tree barrier, the bright pink chairs on some people's back porch are still visible. I have been wanting to paint them and tonight I said to myself, "What am I waiting for?" and jumped right on it.

I started with a couple watercolor studies for experimenting with composition.

Here is the actual building for comparison:

So after the watercolor studies, I totally ignored the studies and just kind of made it up as I went along. In case you were wondering about my process, that more or less sums it up. I make it up as I go... At least with oils.

I just came inside because it was too dark to continue, but this was my set-up:

There you have it! The painting thus far. It isn't even close to completion, but I have plans. I haven't even put in the pink chairs that so inspired me yet because I was so into painting the sunset. I have a pretty good idea of what I want it to look like, but no one else does. How cool is that! I see it's hidden potential that no one else can see. 

The painting is on a 30" x 40" canvas that I have had lying around for forever. I have not painted on canvas in literally years. I usually work on wood panel. Canvas is so weird and flimsy. Super light though! If I was working with a 30"x 40" wood panel, it would be much more difficult to carry. 

Anyway, my goal is to finish it before I leave for Bread and Puppet (6 days!!!!!!). Stay tuned!

Cropping, Composition, and the Farmer's Market

Since I have been out of town, this post is rather belated, but last Wednesday marked the last of my watercolor classes with CSMA. We rendezvoused at the Ithaca Farmer's Market for some on site painting. I spent the first half hour or so playing with sidewalk chalk provided by one of the booths, but when I was done with that, I painted this:

There are parts of this painting I am diggin' but other parts look like maybe just a study. Those kids wouldn't stand still long enough for me to really perfect them. I think they realized I was painting them because they started to make rude gestures at me. 

My watercolor teacher pointed out that perhaps compositionally, this painting could be improved if it were a different size or shape. Then she worked her artistic genius and suggested these two cropped versions:

 I think that if this one big painting were instead two smaller paintings, it would give them both a clearer focus and a simplicity that the big one lacks. Cool!! Before I whip out the scissors though, I will let it sit and think about what I want to do with it.

I consider that first painting sort of a practice. As I was painting it I kept thinking, "Oh, if I have done this differently, I think it would be more what I was going for. If only I could have another shot at this painting." And then I realized that of course I could have another shot and that painting and so I painted another one from the same vantage point (without the boys... they were gone by then):

I think that one of the most useful things I got out of that lesson was that rough drafts are awesome and helpful and not tedious. I think that if I was to paint this scene another time or two, I would come up with a totally even more brilliant landscape! I am gonna take that idea with me and use it again in the future. 

Art advice for the day: If you don't like how a painting turned out, paint it again!

Summer Art (and Craft) Adventures

Around this time last year I was headed off to Sequoia National Park in California to work at a summer camp as the Arts and Crafts Coordinator (sounds fancy, right?). I spent June through August making up arts and crafts projects for small children, raiding the Arts and Crafts supply closet, and providing endless boondoggles (or lanyards as they call them out West) to campers, co-workers and parents, like this:

You remember boondoggle! 

I also did a lot of sleeping under the stars, hiking, blood sugar checking, and carb counting (it was a camp for kids and families affected by Type 1 Diabetes). It is a pretty incredible community and resource for Diabetics and their friends and family-- I met so many really cool people and I learned a ton about Diabetes! I still frequently wonder what my blood sugar is even though I am not Diabetic.

I thought a lot about going back to the summer camp this year and resuming my post of Arts and Crafts Coordinator, but I will not be returning after all and here is why: I was accepted as an apprentice at Bread and Puppet Theater in Vermont!!! I am unbelievably excited!!!!

So instead of this:

...I will be doing THIS:

Bread and Puppet is a politically minded celebration of the arts. They put on shows both at their farm in Vermont (where I will be) and around the country on tours. They also have a museum, they make prints, they hold parades, and make delicious food. I am looking forward like you wouldn't believe to working with them, making art, and being a part of this community for the summer!!

"But who will teach the Diabetic kids how to make lanyards?!" you might be asking. Well, I will tell you! One of my co-workers from last summer is steppin' up. He is super funny and awesome at life so he's gonna rock the arts and crafts world!! He emailed me a while back asking if I had any advice for him from my vast experience of last summer. MAN did I have advice and I spent waaaay too long writing it all out not to post it on the internets.

In honor of the newest Arts and Crafts Coordinator on the block and staff training for summer 2011 which is going on RIGHT NOW, here was my advice to him:

First off, congrats on getting the A & C position!! You will rock it! In terms of running the Arts and Crafts program, there will definitely be a learning curve, and I do have TONS of tips and advice. I don’t know how much advice you were looking for, so I hope I don’t overload you. Also, feel free to discard some of my project ideas, I’m sure you have plenty of your own!

As for planning projects and figuring out what to do with your budget, there is SO MUCH STUFF in that arts and crafts closet that you could probably go the whole summer without spending money on anything but lanyard (about which I will go into more detail soon). Get to know the closet the moment you get there. If you don’t have any ideas, just put out a bunch of foam shapes, googley eyes, popsicle sticks, construction paper, etc. and have them go nuts. Also there is randomly a ton of old socks in that closet. I wanted to (wash them first and) make sock puppets but never got around to it.

OH MAN! Also, there is a TON of hemp for hemp jewelry making in a huge bin in the closet. USE IT LIKE IT’S YOUR JOB. DO NOT REST UNTIL EVERY SINGLE CAMPER HAS A HEMP NECKLACE. That was going to be my goal for this summer if I came back, so now you have to carry out my dream for me. Other project ideas: everyone loves painting, everyone loves paper maché, and everyone loves gluing stuff to other stuff. Also, little boys love to get messy, little girls do NOT love to get messy. Oh, and kids finish projects WAY faster than you think they will. Have like 5 backups. Seriously. Oh, and duct tape wallets went over really well last summer, so that might be fun to do again.

Don’t bother with tape if you can help it, you really don’t need anything but glue. Stock up on hot glue gun refills. On the subject of scissors, last summer I started out with 12 pairs and ended the summer with about three and a half pairs. I don’t know where the other scissors went, but it proved two things to me. #1 YOU MUST GUARD THE SCISSORS WITH YOUR LIFE. #2 It is entirely possible to make it through the summer with only two pairs of scissors. In fact… it is probably better when there are NOT a lot of scissors so that campers don’t go nuts with the scissors and you can keep track of them better. I kept one pair in my back pocket at all times. It is always handy to have scissors on you (the safety scissors anyway… don’t stab your butt through your pants!!!).

Are you going to be doing the fine arts teen camp also? If you are, my biggest tip for that is that teenagers hate being told what to do, so it is best to come up with really open-ended projects and let them choose which mediums to work in. I tried doing a day where we worked on traditional drawing skills and charcoal and they mostly hated it, so give them as much (structured) freedom as possible. They liked collage a LOT. OH and a project that I think would be good for the teens is tee shirt decorating. We have a TON of fabric paint in that closet. I recommend using your budget to get every teen camper a tee shirt and let them go crazy with fabric paint. HOWEVER, they WILL want to paint on their own clothes. Don’t let them. It gets super out of hand.

(As an aside, this is a detail of the mural I painted last summer with my teen campers.)

The last thing I want to address is boondoggle (henceforth to be known as lanyards because that's what they call them in California... Did you also know that in California they say "chonies" instead of "undies?" The things you learn!). 

I can totally make lanyards like these. It is a necessary skill for working at summer camp.

Lanyards, as you know, are a staple of the summer camp arts and crafts experience. Lanyards are a trend for the ages. Lanyards are like crack to all kids. Here are some things you should know about lanyards:

1) Know how to start 2 color, 3 color, and 4 color lanyards. If you don’t know, make someone teach you immediately. 

2) Make every single counselor show you that they can start a lanyard by the end of staff training. I’m dead serious. You will be followed by a parade of children asking you to start their lanyards all summer and it is more lanyard starting than any one human being can do, so you will be glad when other counselors can help you out with this. Sometimes counselors will also ask you to start their lanyards. I don’t even think people should be hired as summer camp counselors if they can’t start lanyards, but maybe that’s just me.

3) Stock up on key rings. Everyone loves making lanyards on key rings… and lets be honest, if lanyards are not attached to key rings, they are basically useless.

4) Set a “one lanyard per person at a time” rule and stick to it. Have each person show you their completed lanyard before you give them a second lanyard. This is important because kids will go lanyard crazy and start like 10 of them and then lose them and/or never finish them. EXCEPTION: It is always nice to send people off with lanyards for the bus/car on the last day so that they have something to do on the ride home.

5) Set a “counselors are the only ones who can cut the lanyard string” rule and stick to it. You do NOT want kids to cut their own lanyard. They will go nuts. This is another good reason to only have a couple pairs of scissors.

6) Popular colors: white, black, clear, sparkly, red, lime green, pink. Always have those colors in stock.

7) When kids ask you to trim the ends of their lanyards so that they are even, the answer is no, unless you want to be picking up tiny bits of lanyard off the floor forever. Even if you do it over a trashcan, the tiny bits get everywhere. They can trim them when they get home. Ok, maybe this is just a pet peeve of mine. You can make your own call on the trimming issue.

8) Your arm span is a good length for lanyard string, unless someone specifically asks you for longer or shorter string to start with. There is really no need to set restrictions on length of lanyards. If someone wants to make a lanyard belt or something, why not?

9) Everywhere you go, small children will approach you and ask if they can make a lanyard, as though you are made of lanyard, or you are the lanyard pied piper or something. What I started doing was carrying around pink and purple lanyards in my pockets so that when kids asked me for lanyards, say in the dining hall or at the campfire when I obviously didn’t have the box of lanyard string on me, I would hand them one from my pocket. It is hilarious to see a ten year old boy look at his pink lanyard in surprise and say, “um… but… um…” and then you say, “You wanted a lanyard! There it is!” and walk away.

10) Once you cut a lanyard color, the kid HAS to use it. Sometimes you will cut them a color and they will change their mind. Tell them just to finish it really fast so they can make a new one with the other color they liked. Otherwise, the lanyard box will be full of lanyard scraps. I hate lanyard scraps. Maybe they won’t annoy you as much as they did me… but… well, just make them use the string you already cut.

I think that’s all I have to say about lanyards…

Anyway, I HOPE YOU (All the counselors out there!!) HAVE AN AWESOME SUMMER!!! GOOD LUCK! 

Sketchin' at the Ithaca Festival

This weekend was Ithaca Festival weekend here in Ithaca, NY-- where hippies and people who are curious about hippies and even some other people come from miles around to experience a wide variety of live music, dancing, food, crafts, and other stuff. There is also a parade with a multitude of dogs, people in costumes, people with instruments, people with chain saws, and volvos in tutus driving and walking in harmony. It is totally a blast!! If you didn't go, make sure you do next year.

I saw some rockin' live music this year (as I do every year), but when I wasn't dancing my pants off, I was doing some gesture drawings in my sketchbook. "What are gesture drawings?" the non artists who are reading ask themselves. Well, they are quick sketches where the object is to capture a gesture, or the general shape, or movement of the subject. They aren't meant to be polished or finished, but to be fast studies. I love doing gesture drawings and I think they have a lot of character.

So, these are my sketches from the Ithaca Festival:

Djug Django is a fabulous vintage/gypsy swing group. They were wonderful to listen to and apparently play live at Delilah's every Wednesday evening. How cool is that? 

Below is my friend Liz dancing to Djug Django.

Above is Nate the great entertaining the crowd with his incredible juggling skills and witty jokes.

...And the next sketch is a few of the members from Kevin Kinsella's band. 

Kevin Kinsella himself is such an energetic performer that I was having trouble finding a good moment to draw him. The second I started drawing him in one pose, he was on the other side of the stage! This makes for an awesome performance but a difficult subject for a drawing. His four(ish) your old son, who was wandering around, handing out business cards in a bowler hat and sunglasses came up to me and said, "Are you gonna draw my dad already?" After that, I tried a little harder to capture Kevin Kinsella and here's what I got:

Kevin Kinsella's son is one of the most rad little kids I've ever seen, by the way.

To close this post out, here are a couple more gesture drawings of people dancing in the crowd!

Oh and one more fun fact about the Ithaca Festival this year: this awesome hippie guy told me he could, "sense the spirit of gaia" in me (Gaia being the earth mother goddess in Greek Mythology... and a character in Captain Planet voiced by Whoopi Goldberg).

I was like, "COOL!!"

Painting at Stewart Park

I am too busy dancing my pants off at the Ithaca Festival to write a proper blog post, but here is my latest watercolor. I painted this one on Wednesday when my watercolor class met up at Stewart Park to do some on site painting.

At heart, I am an oil painter and I am noticing myself trying to use watercolors the way you would use oils. Watercolors have different strengths than oil paints so you really can't use them exactly the same way. My goal for next week is to make a watercolor that looks watercolor-y and not an oil paint wannabe. 

As a side note, if I had been born a boy my parents were going to name me Stewart, so I feel a special connection with the park that holds my almost-name.