Middle- aughts sketchbook scans

I like re-purposing printed books as sketch books.

Writing down what you eat & what you spend is a simple and simultaneously detailed way to record everyday life, especially when traveling! Where did I get venison jerky in November of 2005? I can remember what it tastes like, but not where it came from! (Do you know where I got it?)

Opaque watercolors are nice for little detailed illustrations. This is a color xerox of something I painted because I gave the original to my friend Jake, who one year made a stuffed animal every day and ended up in Reader's Digest.

I drew this with a brush pen on a plane ride to Japan. The top spread says, "This morning I watched the sun rise pink above snowing clouds." The bottom says "five/ eleven hours into thirteen to Tokyo!"

I love cut & paste collaging. I especially enjoy carefully cutting shapes out with scissors. Takashimaya gave away glorious posters advertising New Year's food in 2005- 2006.

Sometimes I like a whole magazine page enough to not cut it up.

I don't really read much Japanese, but I love practicing writing it.

Old sketchbook scans

These come from Vol. III of The Products, begun in 1997.

I like sewing through paper and there's a little of that here.

My beautiful friend, Paula Oliva Mcbeth, and I would sometimes take crazy road trips for breakfast after staying up all night, back when we used to work in Baltimore as security guards. I got some dirty looks in Amish country because my hair was pink.

Old drawings

I contributed this page to a zine that Merrydef Stern put together in 2004/5 called "The Dragomen."

This is the back cover of a zine I made about 10 years ago, "I Love Everybody #2."

Some ballpoint pen sketch

a weird comic and some doodles I made in the late nineties

"Big E"ats

Continuing on my theme of visits to carnivals in different countries-- back to the United States!

At the Big E each of the states of New England is represented in a permanent pavilion that showcases the bounty of that state. (Doesn't it look like there should be two "l"s in pavilion?)

It seems that most of New England is proud to produce at least maple syrup and seafoods (except for Vermont which boasted dairy products, apples, and wool goods with their syrup, not seafood.) The unhealthy carnival food vendors were mostly all outside, while the food vendors in the state pavilions tended to offer more local, in- season, regional offerings.

for sale

flameworked jointed Pyrex glass robot

I have glass up again in my etsy shop, and I'll be posting rufflebeard kits soon (like the one I'm wearing at the top of this blog!)

Fall in New England

A leafy rainbow landscape bursts into the minds of most with the words, "autumn in New England," but many locals also associate this phrase with "The BIG E," more formally known as "The Eastern States Exposition."

The BIG E functions as a centralized state fair for all six New England states: Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. A permanent fairground was erected in West Springfield, Massachusetts and it hosts this huge festival for a few weeks every autumn. Here are a few images from the BIG E, which ended last month. I'll be posting more in the near future.

This life- sized cow is sculpted entirely in butter.

If you're vegan, here's an enormous slide, ridden by children on burlap sacks. Fun for everyone!

Accidents

Some people thought these were creepy before. Now they're really horrifying.

My work met gravity from a height while displayed in a gallery.

I'm not happy about it, but worse things have happened in the world.

This piece included heads that I sculpted in cernit with lampworked glass eyes, hand- forged sterling silver jewelry, and handmade (and dyed) wigs.

Speaking of D.I.Y. . .

Home surgery.

I do not recommend it, but it was a bit of an emergency and I like to sew. I put in 6 stitches 5 days before this photograph, which was taken right before I removed them. He didn't keep it covered when healing, but he wanted a scar.

As big as your head!

Kiku, or Japanese chrysanthemums, have such lyrical beauty.

These blossoms are as large as cabbages!

Chrysanthemums are in the Asteraceae, or daisy, family. Other composites include zinnias, sunflowers, asters, black- eyed susans, marigolds, and dandelions.

The family resemblance is especially apparent here.

There are many different classes and cultivars of mums.

Like other Japanese art forms that have been refined over centuries, the champion cultivation of chrysanthemums distills so much surprising and mysterious complexity into simple and beautiful perfection.

Where's the surprise? What is the mystery? Look underneath this mountain of 464 blossoms, and find that they all grow out of a single stem!!!

My favorite species is the spider mum.

Some styles of fireworks are called chrysanthemums. What a likeness!

Coming along

Laser and hand- cut silk, sewn by hand with lampworked glass

Here are some newer photos of pieces I've been assembling for a while now.

For my upcoming show at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (up January 21- March 20, 2011) I hope to prepare about a thousand pieces for this chandelier (one of 2 for the "Inverted Harmony" installation.)