Apple Crumb...

I don't know what you'd call this. It's based on a recipe I have for a dessert called 'cherry crumb torte', but I dont think this is really a torte. Anyways, the cherry one is one of my favorite desserts to make - unbelievably easy and looks gorgeous everytime. I had a bag of some getting-old apples and some big hunkin fresh guys from the farmers market the other day all ready to be used for a pie. When I was cooking the apples though I decided it'd be delicious to try the crumb idea with apples instead of cherries. I was right - it was!

I forgot to put an egg in the crumb mix, but I think it worked out perfectly. I was really worried when I realized I had done that cause I thought it was going to fall, but it didn't! It's a little doughy in the center layer but otherwise it's delicious - the apples are AMAZING in texture and taste and the top and bottom crust are crisp and sweet. I shaved some manchego on top but could have done much much more.

Enamel Bunny

A bunny charm I made for my enamels class - he's jointed!

Illustration Model

In my illustration class that I go to way more often than I planned to, we're building model rooms to photograph for reference. We were supposed to pick a room that was the scene of an emotionally impressive moment in our lives, so that we're invested in the scene and will therefore be invested in our drawings. I chose something that happened in the living room of the apartment Rachel and I shared on Evergreen St., the night before we moved out - therefore it's pretty empty. I'm not done yet - and these are really (really) shitty photos, but I wanted to get this up here before I forgot.






I've still got to make a boombox, papasan chair and light out of clay - then the figures.

Illuminated Text

I've been working on the project I started talking about in my last post. I don't really like the text I wrote but I think it works really well as a text to illuminate. So far I've only done work on one spread - I have a feeling the book will be four spreads, 8 pages. I'm really liking where it's going, though. I have been borrowing the general gist of the decorative aspects from manuscript plates I've found in the books I have on illuminated manuscripts. I sort of want to go back and re-do the initial letter with gold leaf - that was my original intention but I don't have tools to do a small guilding job like that. Hopefully a trip to Michaels will solve that problem.

Here are some pictures of the work in progress -









All I want to do is work on it! Wonderfully inconvenient though, it takes a long time to do anything on it, and without a doubt a very certain calm and focused mindset (which is not always easy to come by...)

I'm working with acryla gouache for the color and a higgins calligraphy ink and flexible nib pen for the text

Also, check out my mixtape blog, i just uploaded a new tape chock full of 80's pop bombs and i bet you'd dig it!

New Project

In Letterform Anatomy today Joe gave us all rolls of tuppence to work on. This was awesome (especially he gave me two extras to take home!). I decided to do some free writing and I ended up with a sweet little story/poem/rhyme - don't ask where it came from, it just did. Here are photos of the scroll, and below that is the edited/completed text that I finished tonight.

_____________________________________________

A nightingale once said to me,

“in time, my dear,
wait and you will see,
your heart will shine,
as once before,
and while I can not promise
nevermore, for a while
at least, your tears shall be cured.”

As time went by, my head hung low, I waited for a sign to show. A little key to prove her right, to bring her prophesy to light. I went about my daily tasks, doing my best to stay unmasked. For the nightingale, she also said,

“I know my dear,
as you do tend, to keep
your life up in your head.
Your face, it shows
contentment yes, while
really what you feel’s a mess.
Restless, darling, as you
may be, I think it’s time for
them to see, what’s in your head,
upon your face, and only then
may you find grace.”

And so I took her words to heart, believing if I did my part, keeping my face (heart) honest and true, that someday, oh, I would find you. And thus I went about my days, relating to people in different ways, taking comfort in honesty, letting myself, well, just be.

Quickly, though, it did not come, a change, a shift, had begun. Where once my days, they had been cold, a bright new warmth I now did hold. No longer did I feel the need, to find myself part of a ‘we’. Content I was, truly this time, on my own, for I did find, the nightingale, her words were true,

“the most important company to find is you.”

It was then, and only then, that I saw you there. You came to me as in a dream, for now I was prepared, to love someone as once before, no longer was I scared. For the nightingale, taught me she, in order to find your care, that I must find, for myself, that which must be bared. And as my eyes, open now, found your pensive gaze, I heard her words, so clearly now, over once again,

“And once he comes,
for you will know,
as if the world did bend,
to bring you two together then,
and draw you hand to hand.
Your love will grow with strength, with hope,
and with honesty, for at this point,
you will have become
what you are meant to be.”

_____________________________________________

I think i'm going to keep working with this because I like the text and I think it'd be fun/good practice to write it out and sort of illuminate it. I'm going to keep working with the scroll because it's awesome, and I want to do really ornate initial letters and illuminated borders. I think it could be pretty awesome when I'm done - although I have very little idea how to do it all. Time to stick my nose back in those books about illuminated manuscripts...

Lately

in class doodles

taking letterform anatomy, again

there are monsters among us
(unfinished)

Benches, Benches, Benches

I want to buy a bench for my living room. Yesterday Anna, Jamie, Elliott and I all went to Ikea and I finally bought some stuff for the house I've been wanting, including some DVD racks. When we got back home we rearranged our living room into something not-so-bad and finally moved out our shitty ugly uncomfortable broken 'couch', moved in jamie's plush comfy love seat. Now, I want a bench to double as a seat and a coffee table. I started searching for some this morning, knowing that ideally I'd love a slat-stlye bench, but also knowing I may not be able to afford one. So far I've looked on Etsy and Ebay, and these are what I've found that I like.

Slat bench on Ebay, $99 with $30 shipping

'danish modern' dark stained slat bench on Ebay $25 with $45 shipping, stamped 'made in yugoslovia'

mid-century danish modern slat bench on Ebay $45 with $55 shipping. i love, love, love this bench - it's expandable!





'primitive' bench on etsy, pine, stained red $45 with $15 shipping






hilariously awesome budweiser bench?? $25 on craigslist, pickup in hanson, ma

So what do you think? I think I really want the expandable slat bench. $100 is more than I should spend on this but I really like that a lot and it seems pretty perfect. I need to double measure and make sure it works though.


Got any other suggestions?

In Her Presence

School starts up again tuesday and while I haven't done much new work recently, I thought i'd post a project or two that I hope to finish up during this coming semester. If all works according to plan, this should be my last semester of my undergraduate career (WHAT?!? WOOP!!!), and after many long, painstaking, difficult (read, easy and willy nilly) years, I will be really glad to finally have my BFA.

Anyways, here's a project I started at least 2 years ago. A long time ago, I was hanging out on the internet and stumbled across this picture.


It's a photo of Bill Callahan and Joanna Newsom, taken while they were dating. This photo struck me for a bunch of reasons, but the two most prominent being: why would someone take a photo of these two? and, the chemistry between them is melting me. Yeah, to someone like me, seeing Bill Callahan and Joanna Newsom would be pretty wild and exciting, and I guess someone with a pap-sort of mind would snap this photo - but the fact that someone like that would stumble upon this couple and have the chance to take the photo just seems so unlikely. But more than anything, this picture made my heart beat fast and made me think of another photo I had seen of Bill Callahan, that was taken by Joanna Newsom. It's this one:


The first time I saw this picture, it also killed me. The look on his face is stunning; he's looking directly at her, enveloped in her shadow, the two of them trying to get some album photo out of the way, most likely not realizing how much emotion is conveyed through the snapshot they made.

So, I started searching for more photos of the two of them together, or that one took of the other. I understand that not everyone will see and feel what I do in these photos, and I know that my love for both of these musicians (especially Bill), and my heart-filled-dream-head that loves intense firey love is what draws me to these images and shows me what I want to see. But I saw it and I wanted more.

So, I started searching and found a bunch of photos - some more that Joanna had taken of Bill, but more than that, photos of the two of them playing together or photos of him playing while she was in the audience on backstage. I was interested in images of him primarily, for a thousand reasons (he's a hunk, i'm in musiclove with him, his music has governed/guided/soundtracked dozens of the most important interactions and experiences of my life, etc etc etc) Each photo I found made me feel the same way, and I realized I wanted to make a book based on them.

I started doing tracings of the photos. So far, I've only done three. These are them:






I want to print the photos full bleed, double sided. Not sure how I want to bind it yet. SMFA has an incredible printer that can do exactly what I want it to do, and will allow me to print on all different types of papers. It'd be fun to print on tracing paper, to almost exactly recreate the originals, but tracing paper is so hard to work with when binding. I don't know how it'll all pan out, but I really want to get this project done before I leave school, so I can take advantage of the facilities there. The title of the book will be In Her Presence.

THE FINK TAPES!

HEY! So I started a new mixtape blog, and everyone should check it out. I'm hoping to update it at least once a month with a new mix, if not twice. Right now there's one mix up there, and it's full of summer jams that you probably wish you were listening to. GO!!! LOOK AT IT!! LISTEN TO THE TAPE!! YEAH!!!!

THE FINK TAPES

http://thefinktapes.blogspot.com/

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Purple Calligraphy, Broken Nib

I have a bunch of pen nibs for doing calligraphy, but there's only one I really use often. It's really broken in and has the perfect amount of give - keeps nice thick strong lines unbroken, and while it's uphill is a little difficult, it's worth the struggle. I sat down today to do some writing, wanted to practice for a bit and then maybe do some free-writing in calligraphy, but my nib broke. So I watched Wife Swap instead, and started knitting a pot holder.