Halloween-y

I have not been that into Halloween this year. Usually I enjoy the fun of the season, and the reflection it offers me about the cycles of life and remembrance of the dead.  This year, there's so much else going on that is truly scary, I haven't known what to make of Halloween, or how to put it in context.  

I did do one new Halloween card, and really like it. I updated an old image from a card design I printed on computer a few years ago, to create this Bonehead card that I can hand print with Print Gocco. I printed up a few several weeks ago, crazy fast, half an hour before I had to go set up for a craft show! Yikes. I knew I was living the Bonehead Life, but it worked out ok, and I was glad I made them. I didn't sell many, but people laughed and thought they were cool. I appreciate their fun and the reminder that yes, I do get to be my own bonehead.  

Something unexpected snuck up behind me today during our Halloween party at work. Employees bring their kids, and there's a party for them with snacks and games, and trick-or-treating around the office. The kids were all so cute, and their costumes so clever! My favorites were the rotary phone and the red leggo. They were simple and brilliant, homemade (with good reuse of scrap materials). 

It made me wish that I had a kid myself. 

I told two of my coworker-friends that, and Ben gave me a "Lady, you CRAZY!" look. Then he said "You were really good with them." Becky agreed, "Yeah, you got up and talked to them all." 

Holy cow - someone told me I was good with kids. And they were right. It felt easy to talk to them. And they were all so beautiful, and their parents or grandparents so happy and proud of them.  

There's something so precious about children dressing up for Halloween and Trick-or-Treating. It's only a few short years that we put on a sparkly princess dress or a Darth Vader outfit and go around to strangers, asking for candy. 

The beauty and innocence, and knowing it will pass. Like a beloved ghost, made material for one fleeting moment. 

 

Barack Obama Postcards - Part 1 - Printing the Text

I just finished the most complex cards I've made, and it was a great learning experience! These are limited edition postards which I am selling as a fundraiser for Barack Obama. (Cards are $5 each, go to my website for more info - www.msstarryart.com.) Here are the details of the creative process:

8/28/08 - I am so inspired by Barack Obama's speech during the Democratic National Convention, I ask myself what I can do to contribute. I do not have the temperment for knocking on doors volunteering, and limited funds to donate. The thought comes to me "I can make a card and sell it as a fundraiser!" Yes! Contributing with art.  

I start sketching the card and look up photos of Barack Obama on his website to use - one is just perfect.  It takes about an hour. The design comes to me pretty quickly and essentially stays the same after these first inspired drawings. 

9/19 - After 2 weeks in Korea, I have time to work on the card again. I don't know how I will find time to get it done. Tonight I search for the right typefaces and sizes to say what I want, and start setting the first sections of type - "Vote Hope 2008." ~ 1 hour.

9/21 - I start printing the type, yea! I print the red back text "Vote Obama '08" in Red Pepper ink, Univers 65, 24 point type. There is no 2 in that typeface, so I go with '08. I appreciate being flexible with setting antique type! I set the type and print 200 cards. 2 hours and 15 minutes.  (I print at the IPRC in Portland, Oregon, by the way.)

9/24 - I run in late in the evening to the IPRC and print the black back text (the info block). I use almost the same text for my regular cards, but I rearrange and shorten it and adjust to left justified. The type is Spartan Medium, 10 point size. 1 hour and 45 minutes. 

9/26 - The night of the first debate, I am so angry at McCain's arrogance, dishonesty and disrespect, I start carving the first block. The block scares me and I have put it off. Portraits are intimidating, especially since I am carving away to reveal the features. What if it doesn't look like him? And my main knife is bent out of shape and I can't properly sharpen it. But I need to do something positive, so I put my anger and frustration to the block and carve away. ~1 hour. 

9/30 - I print the portrait block at home with waterbased ink to see how it looks. The eyes and nose are all wrong. I decide to look at it for a few days and think about what to do.  

10/1 - I go in after work and print the front text. I am determined to get it all done, and it feels stressful like I am on a deadline. I usually enjoy the repetition and mechanical quality of printing, but tonight I can't relax. 

I am printing the "Vote Hope 2008" text in red and the stars in black, and they have to fit together. I set both up, then replace the star lines with slugs, small flat pieces, of lead to hold the place while I print the text. After the text is printed, I put slugs of lead in its place and put the stars back in to print them. (Somehow I channelled Rebecca Gilbert of the IPRC to figure this out. Thank you!) 

The text is Franklin Gothic 36 point - I love it's simplicity and power. I had to steal the "Es" from other people's type trays; luckily I found them easily. The stars are sorts, non-letter decorative type pieces. (You know the phrase "out of sorts"? It's from typesetting...) 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Please see my 2nd post about this, Part 2: Printing the Blocks from Oct. 6th.

Barack Obama Postcards - Part 2 - Printing the Blocks

0/3 - This is it. I have to finish the printing tonight. I recarve the portrait block, willing my dull knife to work with me, praying for a steady hand to carve carefully around the eyes and nose. It works. 

I decide to carve out the face of the old block and use as the background. (I hate wasting blocks!) I was originally going to print one portrait block to save time. Really though, I always saw the image as 2 color, despite the challenges I knew I'd have lining them up. I know the extra time is worth it to be completely happy with the design.  And a big part of my focus in printing is staying on my learning edge - I know the practice of registering (aligning) the blocks will be good for me.

I take a big risk and cut off the block around the face, not even leaving a line. Now I have to line the blocks up well enough so that the red block forms the outline of the face. The heads of the two blocks are not the same shape, so I don't know exactly how this is going to work. I rush over to the IPRC to find out. 3.5 hours. 

Luckily no one else is printing this day, so I set up on 2 printers, knowing I am being a total hog! I need to see the alignment before I can print either block as I may need to carve more, and this seems the best way to do it. The background red block has to be square with the text, so I set that up first, run a few tests, then try to align the second block. This takes several hours, as I carve more, adjust more, print more. Thank goodness for lots of scrap paper at the IPRC! 

At one point I imagine Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and the unknown people involved in the civil rights movement. They fought and died for equality, and finally this amazing, inspiring African American leader has a good chance to be President of the United States. I have to honor this, and honor them, and him. I pray for patience, and a good eye to shift the pins holding the paper just that millimeter more that makes the image work. I keep calm and stay focused.

Finally, I am close. I print all the red blocks, yea! The friends I'm meeting for dinner both call that they are running late, so I print a few of the second block to show them. After a picnic dinner in the building lobby (long story, it's raining hard and we're all broke), and the art opening at Launchpad Gallery (the Dreams show is excellent), I come back at 11 PM to finish printing. 

11 PM is not my best time of night to solve registration issues, and it takes a while and a lot of scrap paper. I have to keep carving more off the portrait block - the shoulder needs to fit in the curve exactly. For some reason I am patient and trusting this whole day, and I accept my process as it is. It takes what it takes and I keep going. 

The BBC and I keep company. It's not as bad hearing about the American financial crisis from British announcers. Finally, just after midnight, I am done printing - 5.5 hours.  12:30 am, I head home, riding my bike in the dark after the rain. 

I love this print. It is so much better than I could have imagined - the heads not being the same size works perfectly and I wouldn't have planned it that way. I learned so much doing this, technically, and about trusting my creative process. I appreciate my commitment and focus. 

Senator Obama, thank you. I hope this honors you and helps your campaign. Godspeed, and of course, God bless America. 

Korea Part II - Seoul Sister! Sept. 14, 2008

Hi friends and family!

 

I hope you are all well and having/had a nice weekend!  Just dropping a line from Seoul before I leave - I fly back tomorrow, arriving home timewise before I leave Korea (I am not sure how that works out, but anyway...)

 

It's been a wonderful trip, and I have really enjoyed connecting with my sister and her husband, and experiencing Korea. More highlights:

• Biking in Guangju, the city where Maria and Ethan live. I have an even greater appreciation of Portland's bike friendly streets after riding the crazy sidwalks over here, dodging cars, motorcycles, pedestrians and street vendors! It was fun though and they have a great waterfront trail.
• Guangju's market - that was so fascinating! There is everything you can imagine in it and a lot of things I couldn't have imagined - manta rays for sale and fish on a rope.

• Super fun sister shopping! Especially for goofy socks and all the cool things in stationary stores!
• A Korean HAUNTED HOUSE!!! It was so fun - lots of glow in the dark painted mannequins jumping out at us. Korean zombies and skeletons are the best!
• A Korean folk village we visited yesterday - we got to see a tradit. wedding ceremony, lots of traditional houses, a beautiful Buddhist temple where a monk was praying (we didn't go in, just listened), and martial arts on horseback!!
• Eating at a tradtional Korean restaurant where they cook the meat right on your table and then you wrap it in lettuce leaves to eat it. Yum!! It was cool - we went with Maria's good friend Eva who is super nice.

Anyway, today we're going to the National museum of contemporary art, I can't wait!

 

Take care and see you back in Migu! (America - it means "beautiful country" in Chinese.)

 

Peace, Debbie

Annyong Hasseo from Korea! Sept. 9th 2008

Annyong haseo! (Hello!) from Korea!

 

I hope you are all doing really well back home!

 

Korea is SOOOOOO interesting! Maria and Ethan are great hosts and I am really impressed at all they have done living here. It's not easy to live and work in a different country, especially with such a different language and culture. They have really thrived and made a lot of friends, both westerners and Koreans. I am really proud of them!

 

The highlights so far, aside from hanging out with Maria and Ethan which of course if fun anywhere:

• Crazy rest stop on the bus ride to Gwangju - it was all brightly lit up and had Korean fast food  (and some western) and a convenience store.
• Maria's birthday party Saturday night, which was really fun and what a great group of people!
• Art street - and a cool gallery with paper box art.
• STATIONARY STORES!!!! With every kind of crazy notebook, pen or other school supply you can imagine. Most with crazy "Kanglish" sayings such as "You are my endorphin" and "Everyday happy."
• Getting accupuncture for $7.
• The folk museum about traditional life in this area. My favs. were the US $3 bill in the money examples - I hope they knew it was fake! And the dragon drum. Did you know Korea invented the printing press? That's so awesome!
• Learning and using a few Korean phrases - I forgot how much I like using other languages. I even got home today by myself in a taxi! Ne! (Yes!) and I said everything in Korean. Maria wrote me out a guidebook to help me - very cool!

Well, that's what's happened so far. I'm looking forward to more! I still am getting over the crappy virus I've had for several weeks so that's been the only bump in the road. Still, I got to go to accupuncture so learned something about that and it was pretty funny having Maria and her friend and myself all trying to point, gesture and translate via the phrasebook what was going on. The accupuncturist was a cool guy about my age with blue glasses. His one clear English phrase to me was "NO ice cream!" Dangit! I was enjoying the popsicles a lot, esp. Kiwi. Oh well.

 

Take care and I will see or talk to you soon! Peace to you all and esp. to my URS marketing peeps who had a major deadline yesterday. I hope it went well - I was sending you good thoughts.