day one hundred ninety five 7.14.2010

cleaned up my habitat studio today. here are some of my daily postcards lined up on a ledge-

day one hundred ninety four 7.13.2010

Every day while at the HFA residency, I am making a repetitive motion drawing first thing, then I cut it up into a postcard, write "I am being an artist today" and mail it off. I've been thinking about all the different "hats" I wear and my peers wear, and how we decide what role we are going to be in our life each day, every hour, etc. So while I am at my shed, I am being an artist.

day onehundred ninety three 7.12.2010

today i finally started drawing on the outside of my habitat studio. this is a close up of the drawn shapes, inspired by the tracings i made from where the paint bled underneath the painter's tape when i was making a habitat shape where i have been writing my thoughts and ideas while i am at this residency. there will be 2 panels with these drawings on them, with the neoprene shapes hanging in an open space between them. the strings and pushpins are there to keep the drawings in a straight line (they aren't staying)

day one hundred ninety two 7.11.2010

turns out the cat isn't the only one who likes to sleep on the clean unfolded laundry-

day one hundred ninety one 7.10.2010

for my hfa residency i am creating neoprene links based off of an accidental shape that was created when i masked off something with painters tape but the paint seeped under anyway. the links will be hung and stretched in part of a wall, and i am drawing on the other panels with the shapes. hopefully it will look cool!

day onehundred ninety 7.9.2010

I wasn't really allowed to watch television or movies when i was growing up, so every once in a while Nate is compelled to play catch up with me. can you tell which one of his favorite childhood movies i saw for the first time today?

day onehundred eighty nine 7.8.2010

there was a workshop today at the HFA site. It was a writing workshop for kids, where they wrote poems about nature and whatnot and tied them to trees. this one was written by the instructor. i love the notion of a poetry moustache.

day onehundred eighty eight 7.7.2010

i started my residency at habitat for artists at philipsebrooke in garrison, ny today. the first thing i do every day is make a repetitive motion drawing on bristol, then i cut it up into a postcard, write "I am being an artist today" on the back with my name, the date and the location on it, and then mail it to the dorsky museum. this is the first one i made, in my outdoor studio extension (aka a board on 2 sawhorses).

day onehundred eighty seven 7.6.2010

did i mention it's been a bit hot here? with 80% humidity? we are not used to this in ny!

day onehundred eighty six 7.5.2010

spent way too much of the day stuck in traffic leaving the hamptons. if you look closely at this photo taken through the rear window you can see colleen in her navy volvo with kentucky plates. that and the clambake place-

day onehundred eighty five 7.4.2010

Happy independance day! Some more photos from Amagansett and the surrounding areas. One of the Colleens is here with us this weekend. I love a girl who appreciates the beach and a good homecooked seafood meal, because that's basically all I want to do when I'm out here. Today we went to Montauk, the easternmost tip of long island, in search of tacky souvenir jewelry. We both got small boat propeller earrings, and I felt like we were re-inacting a scene from a lost Judy Blume book. You can see Colleen here with the Ronjo man, which I used to play on while we would wait for a table at Bird on the Roof, our favorite breakfast joint when we were kids. Here's a token sunset shot, just so you can see what comes after the violet hour here. if any of you want to come over for a sunset glass of wine and some grilled scallops, you are welcome anytime! just let me know you are coming so i can give you directions-

day onehundred eighty four 7.3.2010

my absolute time of day is the violet hour. it's not quite sunset, a bit before dusk. it's early enough in the day when you can still get stuff done if you want or need to, but late enough in the day to open a bottle of wine and talk with a good friend until dinner if that's what your feeling as well. everything is cast in a pinkish purplish light, and amagansett does this so well. this is the view of our backyard there, which borders on protected state park land, so basically it's wide open space behind the house there until you hit the ocean on the far side of the fork. lots of sand dunes, dune grass, deer feed, and low pine trees (and ticks!). you can see murphy and nate in the photo for scale purposes!

day onehundred eightythree 7.2.2010

a piece of seaglass that my dad found years ago (i think in gardiner's bay. mom? elly? do you remember?) - it's most of a plate. i use it as a trivet now when we are at amagansett.

day one hundred eighty two 7.1.2010

six months down, six to go! i went to saunder's farm in garrison today to scope out possible sites for an installation piece i am proposing to make for a big group show/event this fall. one of the big challenges is that there are cows all over the place that will try to eat the art. I'm still not sure what material i am going to make my piece out of. if anyone has got suggestions, i'm all ears!

day onehundred eightyone 6.30.2010

as you can see, nate really likes it when i take his photo while waiting for food at a restaurant.

day one hundred eighty 6.29.2010

One of my neighbors asked me to help her build a chicken coop in her backyard today. it's not much different than building artist studios; just a bit more mesh. here is a portrait of one of the inhabitants-

day onehundred seventy nine 6.28.2010

part of a cup made by valerie, cast from a disposable cup form and using japanese decals. she and dan (another ceramics person) got married this weekend in michigan. i hope they have lots and lots of years of happiness. i toast them from ny in my valerie cup!

day one hundred seventy eight 6.27.2010

baby anna, daughter of my dear friends ben and sara. they were visiting from california, and anna was not used to the ny summer heat (she's only been alive for 2 1/2 months for pete's sake). she soon became quite fond of her new found friend, slightly damp wash cloth (as seen in the top right corner).

day onehundred seventy seven 6.26.2010

one of my favorite pictures of my husband, doing two of his favorite things; being outside and telling a story to friends.

day one hundred seventy six 6.25.2010

What's that you say? You want to see more pictures of my dog? I thought you'd never ask! These geese made quite a fuss when they saw Murphy swimming towards their youngins. Little did they realize he was just looking for the stick I had thrown that way.

day one hundred seventy five 6.24.2010

an accidentally paint dipped leaf from sheilah's hfa site

day one hundred seventy three 6.22.2010

susan putting the finishing touches on her wall of paint tiles, and a closeup of one of my favorite pancakes. the black looked like an ink swirl from a drawing. when i do my hfa residency i plan on making jewelry incorporating some of susan's scrap from this piece. should be cool!

day onehundred seventy four 6.23.2010

a cool three leaf version of those things you can stick on your nose at the habitat for artists site-

ok, in the interest of full disclosure i must confess: this photo is from 6/24. i know i took a photo on 6/23, but i think it's on my phone, which means to upload it i would need to switch computers, and frankly i am weeks behind on putting these photos up so i am cheating today. somehow, i feel like coming clean about it makes it somewhat okay! maybe one of these eons i will change this posting.

day one hundred seventy two 6.21.2010

back at habitat for artists at philipsebrooke, aka the hudson highlands land trust in garrison, ny. susan has been pouring these pancake-like tiles from leftover paint from her business and making panels to cover the side of her studio/shed. i thought they looked absolutely awesome with the shadows from the trees on them as she stapled them on.

day onehundred seventyone 6.20.2010

the plant colleen gave me when she moved from beacon to philly functioning as a tieback for the living room curtain-

day onehundred seventy 6.19.2010

some pictures from the bay across the street from our house out on the eastern end of long island (this is the beach Nate, Murphy and I met Sir Paul McCartney on last summer!) First one, a strange picture of Murphy that looks like a twisted, swirly, Francis Bacon or surrealist kinda thing. It doesn't look like it should make sense, right? This is what a floppy eared three legged dog looks like when shaking off water. Second, some of the rocks through the super clear water, and third, Murphy and Nate deep in th emiddle of a conversation (about deep deep things, I'm sure!)

day onehundred sixtynine 6.18.2010

went to the dan flavin art institute in bridgehampton for the first time. he installed colored flourescent light pieces in a converted former church/firehouse. this photo doesn't technically have any of his pieces in it, but i was really taken with the color wash affect in the space. i found it much easier to get a feel for his work in this setting, where you entered in an environment of his making. if you are ever in the area, i recommend checking it out. besides, it's free and the guy who sits there all day is very pleasant dude!

day onehundred sixty eight 6.17.2010

this was taken at one of my absolute favorite places on earth, affectionately called Asparagus Beach, on the Atlantic in Amagansett, NY. I spent a lot of weekends out here when I was a kid, and it is a place that always brings me peace and makes me feel re-aligned.

day one hundred sixty seven 6.16.2010

i noticed this random combination of patterns all riding shotgun together in my car today

day onehundred sixty six 6.15.2010

some of susan's paint pancakes drying in the sun at the habitat for artists site

day onehundred sixty five 6.14.2010

some more images from the Habitat For Artists space installation in progress. First one- in the foreground a studio that Sheila plans to cover in camo with the new tarp roof i just put on. in the background is the shed for River of Words, a kids writing group. Second one- the river that feeds into the hudson that flows past the site. Third- Simon and his son Aidan working on the 4th studio going up, taken from the amongst the trees. i'm really glad i've gotten involved in this project. i really like what simon is doing, what his vision is, and as a bonus i've been learning a lot of british slang. so far my favorite is the word gaff (it means awful).

day onehundred sixtyfour 6.13.2010

magical silvery looking rain on leaves

day onehundred sixty three 6.12.2010

some of the sights and sounds without the sounds from my mom's place. nate, annie, luke and i spent some of the morning covering my mom's walkway with chalk drawings. luke drew a lot of different kinds of boats, submarines, and the like. also, there is a swallow nest with 4 baby swallows outside her kitchen. it's pretty amazing how they make the nest out of mud and it just clings to the side of a wall. if you look you can see 2 of the babies in the nest.

day one hundred sixty two 6.11.2010

my niece annie (top) and nephew luke (right above these words) are moving to chicago this weekend. their parents, my sister and brother-in-law are planning on coming with. i am pretty close with my sister and i predict it will be hard for me to be in a different time zone than her, but she used to live in chicago in the nineties, so i feel like we have some previous experience with this. i've never lived that far from her kids before, however, and it kinda breaks my heart to think about not being on the same river as them. luke graduated from pre-school today and we went to our favorite kid friendly and adult friendly restaurant in their neighborhood (henry's on broadway and 105) afterwards. here they are making smiles with their orange french fries (aka sweet potato fries). perhaps you can see why i will miss them like crazy.

day onehundred sixtyone 6.10.2010

some of the shadows cast on one of the in-progress Habitat For Artist studios. it reminded me on a richard deibenkorn painting.

day onehundred sixty 6.9.2010

this is in my neighbor's front yard. when i think cactus flowers, i don't usually think this part of the world, but one house on market street would beg to differ.

day onehundred fifty nine 6.8.2010

i love this shadow, especially with the grid lines coming off of it. it reminds me of the drafting drawings i learned in college with the front, side and top view and the projected lines connecting them.

day onehundred fifty eight 6.7.2010

i started helping simon with the Habitat For Artists project today. in a very abridged nutshell, HFA is simon's ongoing project to bring small artist studios built from reclaimed building materials to different locations and faciitating a dialogue between the artists, the space, and the people that are also at the space. it changes the interface of public and studio, and i think he's got a really great idea going here. so he's putting a few of them up at the hudson highlands land trust in garrison and i am going to be taking up residency in one for a couple weeks later this summer. right now, tho, i am helping him build the studios and getting the whole thing going. these images are, starting from the bottom up, some cool splatters on a drop cloth i peeled open, the inside of the door to the studio for the kids writing group River of Words, and a tag bearing the slogan of the mission, "what inspires you?" with the postcard for the project above it. my answer to this on a previous occasion was "you do!"

day onehundred fifty seven 6.6.2010

nate and i checked out the annual open studio event in peekskill today. some of the spaces were cool, in the typical former factory building and whatnot. in between meeting artists and seeing their work we grabbed lunch at a new farm-to-table hole in the wall with a fantastic beer selection called birdall house. the place is only a couple months old, and we each had kick-ass food (beet and grain burger for me, duck prosciutto focaccia pizza for the dude). the beer list rotates. as a keg runs out, they erase that beer from the board and put something new in, so each visit is a new beer experience. as we tried to venture out to see more art, it was raining so hard the rain wad sideways. we went back in, had another half pint each, and i noticed this cool clock from the restaurant's former existance over the exit.