Day 30: Birth Announcement

 

Birth Announcement (2003) Gouache and inks on bristol board over pencil. 11x14.

Celtic knotwork and calligraphy panel, meant to mark the brith of my first child.

Day 22: Herod and Salome

 

Herod and Salome (2003) 8x10 pen and ink Illustration, some digital cleanup. Intended for print.

This is one of a set of several pen and ink illustrations made from photographs of 12th century stone carvings, which were done for a small-press publication on the clothing of the era. I used about 10 different photographs of the particular piece as the source documentation, and I'm not even sure I consider it art - this feels more like a technical illustration of an extant artefact than my own art.

Day 16: Infant Figure Study

 

Figure Study of My Son (2003) Pencil on paper.

Pretty straightforward - my contstantly moving infant son had passed out on the floor, I picked up a pencil and my sketchpad and whipped out a sketch. It came out well enough to make me happy, and I really ought to do that for the second baby, Real Soon Now.

One of my most prized things in my family's collection of photos and keepsakes is a polychrome crayon (as in crayola-64-colors) sketch of me done by my mom's friend Nadia when I was about 6. Photos only tell what you looked like, but portraits and sketches tell how others saw you. Which is more valuable?

Redecorated again, and other news

So, they released another style available to the freebies on lj, like me, and i have chosen to try it out.



I like it, kinda. We'll see.



Finished my illo job. All submitted and everything. Go me. Watch this
space for publication news. It's mostly good to not have that deadline
hanging over me.



FX now has 8 teeth and he's working on canines. Pray for me, that my nips remain attached to my body. I hold out little hope. :/



Yes. it is not-quite-6-am. Yes, I have been awake since 4. Fx doesn't really have a sleep pattern yet. Sigh.



Maybe, now that I'm all done with the illos, I should play a game or something.... Hmmm. Books. I remember those....

For those who have been targeted by gossip hunting lj skimmers

http://thequarter.org/issue21/page08.php

That about sums it up!

Well, I just like reading the Quarter.

seven teeth

He has seven teeth now, and they are VERY VERY sharp.

Hmmmm. There does not seem to be a "chewed on" mood. There ought to be. I see weaning in our future if he doesn't change his nursing habits.

To be fair, not everyone self-taught is unqualified

This is sightly edited and reposted from my reply to someone else's comment in another person's (freinds only) lj. I decided that if it was important enough, to me, that I say this, then I should also put it here. And make it public.

The term 'self-taught' usually doesn't mean 'just read some books'. It should not be taken, or used, casually, to mean 'crackpot'. Sometimes one's field of study just _is not_ available in a university setting, so you have to study independently, which can mean a lot of things. Independent study of obscure subjects, if taken seriously, as seriously as any academic study, and held to the same standards (not including academic alphabet soup), if of equal quality, should be given equal respect.

My dad, an internationally recognized authority on folk music, music history and bagpipe resoration, is a good example of this. He could not get what he wanted out of formal eduaction 30+ years ago, and set about doing it himself, at fairly great expense. Dozens of trips throughout the world, to study and collect music firsthand when possible, and the purchase of numerous instruments for study and performance purposes, as well as decades of continuous, intense, research and study have made him what he is. There STILL is no degree program (or even combination of degrees) that could give him the knowledge that he has acquired mostly on his own. He's lectured and performed at museums and restored rare instruments to playable condition for many, including the Smithsonian.

Why does the bias against independent studies make me feel a bit defensive?
I'm mostly self taught as far as the history of clothing is concerned, because I cannot afford the expense of a double degree in Physical Anthropology and Costume (or Fashion) Design, which is as close as I can get to what I need for my research. I have no formal degree in costume.

I have an incomplete Associate of Arts (in Graphic Design - I never took my Gym class). This does not reduce the quality of my own work, or the quality of my research. It does not mean I have not done my own research, nor does it mean that I have not had any training in my chosen field of study. I have studied draping and cutting, apprenticed to a professional milliner and dressmaker, independently studied hundreds of works on modern, early modern, classical and medieval material culture, taken anthropology classes, theatre classes (and worked as a professional costume designer and cutter in theatre and costume shops), volunteered at museums, studied original pieces, made numerous iterations of theoretical pieces to determine possible cuts of now lost garment styles, the list goes on.

I can understand the frustration with people who spout falsehoods (either original or passed on unchecked). I fight against them all the time. I try to counter disinformation and outdated theories (often treated as gospel) with study and the willingness to spread the facts, as they are currently understood, around. It's hard, it's frustrating. it seems like the toils of Sisyphus.

I hope that those who are lucky enough to feasibly afford 'real' academia won't throw us all out with the chaff. Some of us are just poor people who cannot afford the letters after our names to 'prove' our adherence to academic standards. We're out here. Give us a chance.

Ack. RPFN RIP

RPFN is closing for good. I just saw a copy of the closing notice on H-cost.

Mixed feelings. I practically grew up working that faire, except that the faire I grew up at has really been gone for a decade. What was left of it was finally killed off by REC and the rising cost of living killing off people's disposable income in the Bay Area.

I'll never forget the year after my guild got axed, when we went for a weekend and the sponsor was Miller Lite. And they were raffling a JetSki at the gate. Add that to the security guards in polyester uniforms replacing the old,at least camouflaged, Faire constables, and I *think* you get a loss of ambience. When all your audience is paying for is ambience, and you're killing the mood, what the heck do you think will happen?

Sigh. I knew it was gone, but now I know it's never coming back. At least not from REC. Not like I was ever going to go again. I live halfway across the country (well, just now I don't, but I knew that my time in San Diego was only temporary), and I have for the past six years.


Edit: Apparently it's REALLY gone downhill since I was working! See this entry (freinds only) in 's journal.

Over the hill and through the woods to granpa's house we go...

Or, the promised trip report

Don't EVER EVER get driving directions from Expedia. They doth SUCK. If you do anyway, buy a map before you leave. They give you 'shortcuts'. Meh.


We left last Thursday morning, and got to where we thought we were supposed to turn off (no exit number was actually given, very bad), and we actually miss the exit. Lo and behold, thirty miles further there's another exit ... For The Same Road. Bad sign. We take it, since it seems to be going in the right direction. It actually isn't. it's narrow, and dark and has no other cars on it. We pass a prison, while going down this lonely road that reminds me of Close Encounters. Creepy.

To cut it short, we drove for miles in the wrong direction (south) trying to find our way back to the highway before we gave up and declared that we would take the next road that carried significant traffic in the right direction. Bonus: I saw a sign for a town I recognized in the direction we needed to go. So, back on track, we head off, with only 150 miles of needless backtracking under our belts.


We stop for gas and a map, and the remainder of the trip is uneventful. We get to our hotel and check in ... at 2 am.

Sleep happens, and we get up, have breakfast and try to jog my rusty memory of how to find D&I's house. Much fairly aimless driving around, during which we discover that a favorite old cafe is gone (sniffle) and are forced to resort to Staryucks. We buy another map, and discover I was on the wrong expressway. Embarrassing. We go see freinds, D&I approve my choice of guy, coo over my 'little wiggly pink thing' and we arrange to have dinner. Discover Chris likes Indian food. Go back to D&I's and bullshit, and then back to the hotel for sleep.

Saturday & Sunday are mostly set aside to visit Chris's aunt and Uncle in Grass Valley.
Beautiful, uneventful drive. We arrive at dinnertime and see their amazing house. It's really gorgeous, they have all manner of wildlife, a small koi pond, a gazebo, a veggie garden, fruit trees, a pool, a hot tub, and just all the neat things we'd like to have when we retire. They, of course, love FX. Everyone loves FX, since he's really charming. We sit up late and tell stories on the patio, then go to bed. In the morning we have breakfast and go wander around Nevada City, buying little cool things (I got new cheap silver hoops for my ears, and new cheap hairsticks, FX got a gobbly-noisy-thing and a book, Chris got a box of color-block magnets for the fridge, and we got some little booklet thingies for gifts). We stop for dinner at a yummy Chinese buffet, go home, take pictures with T&R and baby, head off to SJ.

Back in SJ we stop by and visit D&I again. D. is evil and introduces Chris to Star Wars Galaxies (hereafter referred to as "crack") while I. and I talk. Around midnight we finally pry Chris away from D's computer and say our goodbyes. Back to the hotel for sleep...

Monday we see my sister and the town I mostly grew up in.
We drive up to Oakland, I take Chris to my favorite dim sum resataurant EVER (if you ever go to Oakland, go to the Jade Villa on Broadway. Expensive, but worth it), we shop a bit in Oakland's Chinatown and buy a real wok (I do a lot of Asian cooking and my old flat-bottomed American wok isn't cutting it) as well as some nice cheap dishes for our asian food nights.

Next, we head to the house I grew up in. We tour my old neighborhood, take some pictures. The newest owners of our house have painted it a pale slate grey (not blue, for the first time in 30 years) and put in a slate walk. It's not so much my old house as it used to be, and I'm sad. We head off to the Mountain View Cemetery in Piedmont, becaseu it's beautiful, we have a couple of hours, and I have to show it to Chris. We end up (as I expected we might) spending 2 hours taking art photographs of the views and monuments. Off to the Windmill to meet my sister.

We get there, and Chris decides he likes my sister and her intended. We hang out, her mom gets there, and we go off to see our bio-father. He likes the baby, pictures are taken, we go to dinner. I am disappointed that nobody else could come, but we eat anyway. After we eat Far Too Much, we go back to my sister's house and talk and catch up a bit, then it's back to the hotel.

Tuesday we go see my Dad (step-dad, but we are very close) in Carmel.
We check out of the hotel, get gas and head off down the coast. The drive down 17 is pretty, and we decide to eat lunch in Capitola after we get on 1. We find a nice little diner-style restaurant with decent prices and the undersides of duck decoys tacked to the ceiling. Really Good Food, nice service (eat at the Capitola Beach House if you are ever there). We have 45 minutes left on the meter so we go shopping, not intending to buy anything. So, of course, we find a little shop that has reasonably priced frog netsuke, which I buy for Mom and Dad for Xmas gifts, and a suprise for Chris's grandma, as well. Then, having spent too much money, we go on to Dad's.

Off into the hills inland of Carmel, and we sneak up on Dad, who is vacuuming. After scaring the crap out of him (hee hee), we introduce the Baby, and Dad, of course, loves him. We go out to dinner, walk along the waterfront in Monterey and watch the seals beat each other up and cavort in the night waters. Back to Dad's, sleep. In the morning we let Chris sleep and Dad, FX and I go out to breakfast (well, alright, lunch). After that, Chris, FX and I go to the Aquarium, while Dad does some maintenance on the house. The aquarium trip is expensive, but, as it turns out, worth every penny. FX loves fish. Really loves them, as in crawling out of the stroller or my arms to press his body against the glass to be closer to them, and sitting fascinated for 20 minutes at a time. So, we must have a fishtank, later on.

Very tired and achy, we head home and pick up Dad for dinner. After dinner we go for a walk in Monterey's downtown and Dad buys Chris a congratulatory cigar, which Chirs happily smokes. We go back to dad's watch a strange movie and go to sleep.

Thursday, after my younger sister comes by and meets the baby, is an uneventful drive home, with a couple of stops for food. At about 10 we're FINALLY home. I've never been so happy to see my messy living room. FX spends a couple of hours crawling around on the floor getting tired, and we get to bed by 12:30.

I'm tired. I don't want to get in a car for a LONG LONG time. I just wish we'd had time to see everyone - I missed a whole bunch of beloved freinds ( , for example, who was out of town, sigh) and some family (my aunt&uncle, some cousins, my brother) who I wanted to see. Ah, well, next time.

Home again!

This is going to be short, amy be edited to add adventures later.

Long road trip, tired. Back to MASSIVELY FULL inbox, and baby who is not tired due to hours of sleep in the car.

To all who are owed communication, it will be about a day before I'll have time, but it's coming.

I'm glad "exhausted" is a mood.... that saves effort.