Jennifer Zalewski Studio

Um…. Happy New Year!

I guess time has gotten away from me a bit. I don’t know why. I don’t feel like anything huge or substantial has happened, but, well, maybe we need a quick little 2012-So-Far-Recap? Here’s what’s been going on in Casa Z:

Jack

I don’t know if I mentioned this but Mr. Jackie passed his initial therapy dog evaluation and is now visiting an assisted living facility! He has three “trial visits” –one per month-before he ‘officially’ gets his wings. I’ve also been bringing him to rescue Meet & Greets to get him out, give him something to do. It’s hard because he can’t do the things he loves to do—go for long hikes, run with me, or play rough in the yard. I’ve kind of been putting off discussing it too much, but now we’re on Month—Nine? Ten?—of injury from the Iliopsoas muscle tear. Daily massages and motion exercises, weekly cold laser therapy.  Based on his progress, he’s been upgraded (downgraded?) from “acute” to “chronic” which means he will never fully heal and it will be something we probably have to deal with, on and off, for the rest of his life. Unfortunately we’re also dealing with complications from being physically unbalanced for so long- stress on his previously-broken hock ( a racing injury), possible nerve damage in his back and not only that, the shift in balance has resulted in a big honking corn on his right pad.  I can’t tell you how frustrating this is for the both of us. Therapy (cold laser, massage, passive motion exercises) have helped the Iliopsoas immensely but still, most of the time Jack is on 3 legs or limping significantly on 4. Last week we started using the ol’ Duct Tape method to smother the corn and that –along with a little hulling- has helped. Because Glucosamine and Omega’s weren’t doing anything, we bumped up to a non-prescription arthritis medicine called Duralactin, which hasn’t had much effect either… because of that… we’re now moving on to try Gabapentin, a prescription. I HATE to have such a young dog (4!!!!) on Gabapentin or other NSAIDs so early in life but at this point, I guess I’m willing to try anything.

Hopefully we can find some meds to help Jack feel better and then we can begin getting him ready for hiking/camping season and earning his CGC (Canine Good Citizen) certificate. I also think he could do Rally or Novice obedience for fun, to keep him occupied. I’ve bought a Clicker and am trying to brush up on Operant Conditioning and “Shaping” which is kind of hard for me to wrap my head around. Since he won’t be able to run with me anymore or do heavy hiking, I’d like to find something fun and easy-going to keep the lil’ boy occupied! Trying to stay positive about it all.

Lela:

It’s hard to believe Lee has only been with us 8 months- it feels like forever (in a good way, lol). She is SO ACTIVE and vivacious. The other day we had a playdate with my friend W and her French Bulldog—they rough-housed for 3 hours straight- then I took her hiking—then we did a trip to 2 different pet stores (looking for clickers, OMG they have tripled in price since they first ‘came out’ in the late ‘90’s!) then she did an hour of squirrel patrol in the backyard. Finally around 8 she went down for a nap. Yowser! After looking around and speaking with some local “dog people”, I found a highly-recommended Agility facility not-too-TOO-far away, and this spring she will begin Foundation Training! I’m hoping it will be a good outlet for her energy.

I also started jogging with Lela twice a week. It’s (emotionally) difficult because Jack can’t come along, and he used to be my running buddy. He cries and cries when we leave.  The weather up here has been relatively warm (we are 47” below normal this season, snow-wise!!) though and Lela could use the outlet, so I’ve started taking her along. She seems to like it a lot! Then I run 3 days by myself during lunch hour at work. I want to build her up gradually for spring.

Not to say it’s been all A++ fun. Lee’s really come out of her shell and in doing so, I’m learning to manage some of her more annoying habits. For example, she tends to get very amped-up and over-stimulated especially when trying to play with Jack (and ESPECIALLY if he won’t play back with her). At first I didn’t think there was anything wrong with her whipping herself up into a frenzy (“dogs will be dogs”), but a few weeks ago it led to a dogfight (their first serious fight!) where Lela ended up with a busted nose and two punctures between her eyes, and Jack had a ripped lower lip and tear on his front leg. Doing some reading, I found that YES, it is possible for dogs to get over-stimulated and to need “time-outs” if they are getting too rough! Just like children! I’ve never had dogs that required this before, but Lela clearly needs a bit of management/guidance when she gets super-duper excited, so she doesn’t spiral too far into the Stratosphere of Insanity, lol. Jack CLEARLY does not like it when she gets into those crazy moods and I need to intervene and calm her down before she thinks it’s okay to go apeshit on him and he decides to give her an A1 Ass-Kicking to take her down a notch. Not that I blame him for doing so. But still.

Art

I admit, I haven’t been doing as much art as I should be. I think that stems from a couple things. 1) this fall, I moved my art studio into the end living room of my house. Unfortunately this end of the house doesn’t get heat. Yep you heard that right! Now in all fairness, I should disclose that I have a small house- like- 700 square feet, if that. So the heat does move around, but there are no direct vents or anything in that end room. Plus the dog door is in there and it isn’t as tight as it used to be. I’m pretty hardy and enjoy being cold much more than being hot BUT after an hour or so of working your fingers and feet start to freeze and instead of putting on a fourth layer of clothes, it’s easier just to abandon the project and just head to the other side of the house to watch TV or something. 2) Second reason I haven’t been doing art has to be the Reading. I’ve been chomping some really awesome books lately including Van Gogh: The Life, which is about 1,000 pages of PURE slobbering WOW and Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend- A must-have for any dog lovers (especially if you grew up watching “Rin Tin Tin: K-9 Cop” on the Family Channel, lol).  Also, I Want my MTV which is great for reminiscing of the good ol’ days of the eighties when I would sneak around trying to catch Said Forbidden Evil Network when my parents weren’t paying attention. *Wink wink*.

I’ve also probably inter-library loaned every Colored Pencil and Pastel book in both the library and university (where I work) system so I could check out some new media. And I’ve read every one- page by page, exercise by exercise.  I love Monotypes but I need to find a nice medium to work with during the week when I don’t have 4 hour chunks of time for all the prep work and clean-up.  Something easy to pick up, put down. No mess. Something I will FALL IN LOVE WITH. I did a few Conte Pencil portraits for my brother for Christmas, and REALLY enjoyed them… well, except I’m not sure I want to work black and white all the time. Then I thought, “hmm. What about colored pencil? I LOVED cps when I was in high school and college.” So I’ve been playing around with them a bit. I have to admit, I don’t like “experimenting” much. I find it’s a waste of time. I want to jump right in, both feet, to a project and have it come out PERFECT. Colored pencils, especially when used with Turpenoid, were colorful and easy to handle (compared to painting with a brush) but require many layers to get those luminescent tones. Unfortunately I have bad wrists (beginnings of carpel tunnel?) and have been sleeping in braces the past few years—I noticed in a few days of using colored pencils, my wrists were really bothering me.  Around this time I happened to read Van Gogh: The Life and something about the book made me think about picking up my Oil Pastels again. Maybe it was all the reading about color and thick paint, and impasto… dunno… but that’s my next step. I’m starting out the year doing portraits of Jack and Lela for the art studio, Jack first! His sketch is almost done. Will post more about that soon.

I AM trying to work on some goals for this year. That’s another post. I’m sure I will be *HangingHeadInShame* when I look back on what I wanted to accomplish- and didn’t—in 2011 but oh well. Better luck this year!

But I do swear, I’m back to my regular blogging program and will have more stuff in a few days. Meantime, here are some photos from the last few weeks… enjoy!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend!

I’m really excited… this is my third “serious” monotype and definitely my favorite so far!

“Goosed”

11 x 14

Monotype

Lela –and her new goose stuffy- were my models for this one.  Surprisingly the sketch was super easy and poured out of my pencil within an hour. And I liked it (!!). Usually I struggle for a week or so (at least) over my first drawings but this one just came out exactly the way I wanted it.

(Lela was a bit concerned that I snatched away Goose for a little close-up work. She has thirty other stuffies laying around but LORD HAVE MERCY Goose was the one she wanted. Goose and only Goose). In the pic above, you can see the drawing taped under my large plexiglass plate. The paper is hinged with blue tape just above it. And there is Lela… giving me the skunk eye, lol.

“Don’t borrow him again, ‘kay?”

First order of business was working on the background. I actually used brayers to roll on layers of a nice grass green, covering the whole drawing. Then I used a paper towel to wipe the green away from Lela and Goose’s forms and Q-tips to add some lines and texture.

I had my paper (Seth Cole… it comes in a pad in the sketchbook section of the local art store. I LOVE this stuff. It’s not as thin as “eastern” paper, but not as heavy as “western” paper like Stonehenge… a great in-between)… I had the paper hinged on the top of the plexiglass plate. Once I was done working the green ink, I swung the paper over and onto the green, then used my trusty marble rolling pin to press the ink from the plate to the paper.

Wall-ah!

Next comes Lela. I use paintbrushes this time to block in her form. It was fun… her muscular gams, knobby elbows and little feet. So different than Jack’s physique!

Really happy with how drop 2 came out. Lela still needed a bit more, but she was coming along!

Third drop was an umber (very proud… I mixed it myself!!) for the goose.

After looking for this awhile, I decided to bring the umber more into Lela’s body too. Not a lot… just a few touches. Then I decided to try to mix a black for the rest of the goose and some final touches. I HAVE a black, but I didn’t want it so harsh… so I tried to mix. LOL. I ended up with a dark greenish-black:

To be honest, I was disappointed at first but the more I studied it, the more I liked that it was more green than black. I think black-black would have been way, way too much.

Here’s a photo (sorry for the blue cast to the paper… need to scan it for better results). I decided to call it “Goosed”.  I’m thinking to enter it in an upcoming art show, if I can muster up the nerve to enter.

Final stage… clean-up. Ugh! Monotypes are sooo messy. I didn’t take any photos of that anyway so no worries, won’t bore you with that.  But how about… the messy workspace?

“Catch of the Day”

11 x 14  Monotype

Akua Intaglio ink on Seth Cole paper

My newest monotype! I used brayers on the plexiglass for the first time  which pretty fun–led to the “roll” marks in the grass and sky.

More pics from the process:

My drawing taped under the plexiglass and hinged paper across the top. Jack is inspecting.

First colors painted on the plate, the paper flipped over onto the ink, and my marble rolling pin used to press the wet ink from plate to paper. The ghost is in the background. It came out REALLY light.

Second “run”… Pink tongue, Red toy! Sorry for the pinky tinge to the paper… bad lighting.

Next run was Jack’s brindling. Here it is painted on the plate. I used Pthalo Green and Crimson Red again to get a nice purplish-brown…

Here it is printed onto the paper.  There’s almost NO ink left on the plate!

4th run of colors…the green grass. I wasn’t happy with the way this came out at ALL. Hmmm.

Pondered what to do at this point. I tried to paint & drop another layer of green, but didn’t like that either. I decided to put the green and blue on the plate using a brayer, and print that way. I really liked the brayer (i.e. roller) marks! Will definitely utilize this technique more in future monotypes. Final:

I really miss this toy!!! I think it was called a “Squirrel Log” and we got it in the sale bin at Petsmart. It lasted a relatively long time (2 months or so) until Jack, for some reason, took a shining to ripping the plastic log into pieces and EATING them. So unfortunately, for the sake of his intestines, we had to toss it in the garbage. If anyone sees this toy around… please let me know!! I am dying to get another one (or 2, or 3)…

(Funny… I realized when making this monotype that the Squirrel Log had a striped tail… wouldn’t that make it a Raccoon Log? LOL!)

I’ve been having a lot of fun delving back into Monotypes lately. Previously, I was experimenting only with subtractive monotypes but after getting 2 great DVDs the past year (SAFER PRINTMAKING WITH AKUA WATER-BASED INKS and PAINTERLY PRINTMAKING WITH MONOTYPES) I decided to try additives. It’s been…messy… but so fun! I find I’m able to be as expressive and energetic in this technique as I’ve wanted to be for years but couldn’t achieve in other mediums (media?).

I decided to take one of my wrinkly Jack & Caterpillar lithographs from a couple weeks ago and use it for my first additive monotype. I taped it under a piece of plexiglass and hinged a piece of paper across the top.

I first decided to paint Jack’s base coat–using the taped lithograph (underneath the plexi plate) as my guide….

That hinged paper across the top? I flipped it over the wet ink and used a marble rolling pin to press the wet ink onto the paper. I do have a couple printing presses here but unfortunately their beds were too small for my plexiglass!!

The marble rolling pin is from a local restaurant supply company and only cost about $12! It’s a wonderful, cheap alternative to a press.  A tip I learned from one of the monotype DVDs… use a low table so that you can lean all your weight onto the rolling pin, giving you a better transfer. I used a coffee table that’s been storing my CDs. Worked great!

Here it is (sorry for the poor color… it gets dark soooo early now! By the time I get home, feed and walk the dogs and get started working… it’s black outside and I have wicked poor lighting in the studio. Must fix.)…

As you can see, there’s still ink left on the plate so I put another piece of paper on the plexiglass and burnish it with the pin again. This gives me one more image, much fainter, that is called a “ghost print.” Here’s the first pull and the ghost pull side by side…

Now I just start adding more colors to the plexi plate. I suppose I could have painted all the colors at once but I felt more “in control” doing a few at a time. First order of business was Jack’s brindling. Eek. Why did I get a brindle dog again, they are so hard to draw and paint LOL!!!!! And sadly, my Akua Ink set didn’t include any browns besides ochre (which I used as Jack’s base color). I’m a HORRIBLE color mixer, so this led to some anxiety. I decided to try mixing Pthalo Green with Crimson Red, in hopes of making a dark brown of some sort to use for Jack’s stripes. It worked… kind of. It was a dark brown with a purple tint, which I guess is not a bad thing.  I wasn’t trying to make an uber-detailed piece anyway.

More painting the plate, bits at a time. I use paper towels and Q-tips to add interesting textures into the ink.

Making monotypes is MESSY. Really messy!!!! This is one of the last stages (the grass).

Here’s the final pull… the monotype with the much lighter ghost image…

The final monotype!! It just needs to be signed, and then it’s ready to roll.

The model(s)… and yes, Jack soundly defeated poor Caterpillar!!! With Lela’s assistance, the poor bug is now in tatters across the house.  It’s always kind of a bummer to, you know, spend $15 on a stuffed toy that lasts, oh…. 4 days. LOL.

Here’s my newest Oil Pastel- so new, I haven’t signed it yet, LOL.

Haven’t figured out a title yet, either. Hmmm.

Some in progress pictures…

Please excuse the Desk of Disaster!!!  Sometimes when I get in the thick of things, it gets SUPER MESSY.

Jack is awfully cute, but his dark brindle face is really hard to paint! I wrestled with it for three evenings before I got it “right”.

Then came the Big Question that I always mull over when doing a roaching Greyhound. Do I… draw in the… um… you know. Do I draw “it”??? Do I leave it out??? Not to come off as a total prude, but … well… hmm. I finally decided what I always decide in this situation… Paint “it” in, but keep it as nebulous and camouflaged as possible!

I’m pretty happy with how it came out. Of course, I’ll be even happier when I have a super snappy title for it, lol!

Jen

“Coon Dawg”

8 x 10″

Oil Pastel on Canson Art Board

I am super stoked. For the first time in probably 3 years, I’ve finished a piece of art that I’m HAPPY with.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I’ve just been feeling so stinky about my printmaking lately that I decided to take a break and go back to my Oil Pastels for awhile.  Maybe a long while. Well, not TOO too long (already planning some linocuts in my head lol…) but I’m beyond that “‘Real’ artists don’t dabble and stick to one medium only” mentality now.

It felt good to pick up my Oil Pastels again. In fact, I treated myself and bought a box of Senneliers, the Cadillac of Oilies. I’ve always used Cray-Pas since that’s what is sold locally–they are considered middle-of-the-road. Trying to get my creative juices flowing, a few months ago ordered some Caran D’Ache and Senneliers to try…they are considered the highest quality out there… I liked both but I REALLY liked the Senns. They were so much “creamier” than my Cray Pas and the Caran D’Ache. So I splurged on a small set that made my heart flutter.

Yum, right?

A couple months ago I had tried to do a White-Line Linocut of Lela. It came out really crappy but I loved the picture and sketch–she was just ripping into a stuffed raccoon-  So I re-did it this week on a medium gray Canson Art Board.

“You’re working on a picture of me? Cool.”

I really tried to keep it ‘loose’ with this. I didn’t want to do “fur and feather” uber-detailed “I can look at the portrait of that dog and tell you who its sire and dam are, it’s so lifelike” kind of painting. I wanted my pencil sketch to come through in areas. I wanted to kind of do this Oil Pastel in a way you’d do a White-Line Woodcut, where the areas are separated by the color of the paper, accentuating subjects and shape. I wanted that color coming through to give some interest and excitement like White-Line Woodcuts possess- but maybe not do it as ‘strictly’ as a White-Line? I dunno if I’m explaining it right.

Anyway, I’m so happy with how this came out. Already working on some Greyhound Oil Pastels– stay tuned.

I’ve been neglecting my art lately. I guess it’s a natural ebb and flow, but I’m ready to get back in the saddle- even though it’s like 120 degrees out here. / And backswamp humid. Yuck-o.

I’ve wanted to work on a piece dealing with our loud feathered friends that roost in the back yard–European Starlings. They’re raucous, screechy birds that start up about 6AM every morning and continue carrying on all day until we’re ready to pull our hair out, lol. On the Annoyance Scale, they rank second only to Harold*, a crow that constantly (and I mean constantly…) “craws” at the top of his voice. For hours. Usually starting at the buttcrack of dawn on Saturday. Ugh. I love birds but Harold and the Starlings are a trying lot.

Sometimes I wonder if my dogs understand what the birds are saying to each other when they start up with that screeching and cawing. Is that how it works? Is animal language universal? Or are bird calls just background noise, gibberish, like it is to me? There are times I catch Jack and Lela peering at the trees like they’re listening in on a good piece of gossip, lol- and makes me feel, as a human being, very dim-witted. Like I just don’t seem to catch the joke. Kind of a world I’m not a part of. As I sat sketching Jack for this piece, out under the shade of the pine trees, I’d watch him alternate between napping (of course) and scanning the friendly skies.

Maybe he was looking for squirrels. Well of COURSE he looks for squirrels (and cats…) but I think he was listening in, too? Starling chatter. Neighborhood trash talk. Those birds never know when to keep things under wraps.

This will be a linocut with stencil, using some techniques I learned at my recent workshop in Massachusetts. Rummaging through my stack of blocks, I found an unused piece of battleship glued to MDF, and began sketching right away which felt great. Usually I draw on vellum first, but to lessen steps in the process I drew right on the block this time. More immediate, more rewarding. Patience- not my strong suit lol.

In order to minimize failure rates (which, sadly, are high around here… lol) I decided to do a very quick color sketch too. I usually don’t. I’m glad I did though, because I worked out a lot of mistakes that way. I’m worried about Jack’s brindling… it’s going to be a bear!! Lord have mercy!

Parked in the shade with my drawing, Jack and Lela munched on chews to whittle the time away. Yum yum yum.

A last note on Starlings and woodcuts… check out the website, blog and starling art of Jenny Pope.  I learned Reduction printmaking from her at the Ink Shop Printmaking Center in Ithaca several years ago. Her work is amazing!!

Jen

*Our loud crow ‘Harold’ is named after a neighbor of mine, growing up. He used to scream at his poor disabled wife constantly. I mean, he’d keep us kids up at nights, it was so bad. In the summers we’d have our windows open and just have to listen to it all the freaking time.  After he died a few years ago, I learned he was a child molester. C-r-e-e-p-y.  Double y-i-k-e-s. I like Harold the Crow better.

…or, something like that.

Jack and I just got back from an awesome trip to Massachusetts. One of my best friends (sadly, now living in Florida, *humpf*) made a trip up to Boston this past weekend, as her husb was attending a conference and she was tagging along, and of course being so close Jack and I had to drive out and visit her. Okay, maybe “close” isn’t exactly the right word for a 6 hour drive- or 7 -8, when you count in all the potty breaks–but suffice to say. Yeah. We threw all the camping stuff in the Scion, Rain-x’ed up the windshield- and were on our way!

I’d only been to Massachusetts once before, as a kid (except for a dog haul a few years ago, but that was just jumping over the border). I think I was maybe in fourth grade when I went on a trip to Salem with my cousin Melanie and her family. I remember crossing over the border of New York, and expecting the landscape to look TOTALLY different. We were going into another state, you know! I guess I thought the trees would be different, the grass and plants would be totally different… it wasn’t lol. Ah, being young and clueless…

Well.

We didn’t rush to Beantown right away, this past weekend. And I *did* plan ahead.  Zea Mays Printmaking Studio -which was located “kind of” on our way- had an awesome 2-day workshop on “Masks, Stencils, and other Creative Inking Techniques for Reductive Linoleum Printing.” Susan Jaworski-Stranc was the instructor.  I’ve been mulling over the idea of using stencils in my linocuts (because I suck at reduction) and Liz, who runs Zea Mays, was wonderful in letting me take only part of the class (Saturday) AND having Jack in the studio for the day.  Seemed like something I HAD to do! And I’m so glad I did.

It was a FANTASTIC workshop! And Zea Mays is really an awesome facility. I would definitely take a class there again! Jack behaved wonderfully. He did take awhile to settle and got a bit whiny around 2 o’clock, but for the most part just hung out and folks were very nice to complement him on his laid-back behavior.

After Zea Mays (and a brief walk though town, including photo op with Sojourner Truth), we began the haul to Wompatuck State Park, south of Boston, where we were camping.  It was POURING rain almost the whole drive, and I was nervous that we were going to have to sleep in the car (I refuse to set up a tent in the rain. Refuse) but thankfully the skies briefly closed up and we were able to get checked-in and set up just before dark… and the rain began again… lol.

We seemingly booked the smallest campsite at Wompatuck… possibly in the whole state of Massachusetts. I could barely wedge the tent in between the car and the fire pit.  And the whole site was surrounded by poison ivy, so you couldn’t even “spread out”. If the rain had let up at all during our trip (which really, it didn’t) I would have been afraid to start a fire because the tent had to be set up sooo close to it. I think, because it was so wet, the slugs went haywire and every morning, my tent would be crawling with them. And we leaked. The air mattress leaked, the tent leaked. Everything was flat, damp, and cold. I swear, I am NEVER buying Coleman camping products again!!!! Actually, I may never camp again lol.

Seriously though, I tried not to let the rain (or poison ivy, or slugs, or condition of our tent…) put a “damper” (har har) on things.  We did spend some time inside reading or napping during the hardest rain, but when it was misting we definitely went out. Wompatuck seemed to have a gazillion miles of trails, and Jack and I REALLY enjoyed exploring. It took me awhile to get used to navigating, though. I’m not sure if it’s just this way at Wompatuck, or all of Massachusetts state parks? But the trails AREN’T marked with trail markers. Intersections are marked with numbers, and you have to find the corresponding markers on your trail map to figure out where you are, and go from there. Kind of bizarre.

Our trip into Boston was really fun. Dogs are allowed on the subway during “off-hours”, so we drove to the Braintree station, near Wompatuck, and rode in Sunday afternoon. It was Jack’s first time on the subway and he did pretty well. The “rocking” of the train was a bit shocking for him, and he REALLY wanted to get up on the seats (I wouldn’t let him) but he took it all in stride.

Just have to say, as someone who lived in NYC for a few years and still visits regularly… OMG the Boston subway trains go so. freaking. slow. At least the two we were on? In the Big Apple, the subway trains FLY. They jerk. They scream around corners and seem barely controllable. On our two Boston subway trips, the trains drove slowly, gently eased into the stations and kept the herky-jerky to a minimum. That was nice because Jack was on board but I found myself getting a bit impatient. You remember the Seinfeld episode where Elaine is on the stalled train, and just squishing her face together trying to will it forward? That was me. Sitting on the Boston train gritting my teeth thinking GO! GO! GO!

So Jack conquered the subway. What else did Jack do? He rode an escalator (hopped on it like he owned it!), an elevator, and did one of those big glass revolving doors. He wasn’t phased by anything. I was so proud of him!

Of course, traveling with a dog means there’s stuff you just can’t do. That kind of puts the kabash on a lot of activities, but we had a great time anyway. One of the things we did was hike the “Emerald Ring” of parks through the city. We started at Boston Common, went up along the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, and down Fenway Park. It only drizzled a little bit, and was an amazing walk.

We also hiked the “Freedom Trail” –or part of it–which is a walking tour of historical Boston. This is Paul Revere’s house:

Pardon the blurry picture, but this moment was too good not to talk about. Much has been said in The Dog World regarding the intelligence –or lack thereof–of the Sighthound breeds. I don’t think Greyhounds, or Saluki, or the much maligned Afghan are ‘stupid’ dogs at all, despite some studies that came out a decade or so ago ranking breed intelligence. *I* certainly have never ‘owned’ a ‘stupid’ Greyhound. Lucy, for instance, was very cunning and used her agility training to get into trouble around the house. Clifford and Jack? Okay, they are SMART dogs but they are males, and male greyhounds can be… um… clueless. Smart, but maybe a bit too… happy-go-lucky?… for their own good.

Jack is a very smart dog. That didn’t stop him from seeing this donkey statue, touching noses with it (like it was a big dog), wagging his tail, and then sniffing the donkey’s butt. He also went up to a statue of 3 women on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, wagging and pinning his ears back, thinking the statues were real people and hoping for a scratch. Nice try, Jack, they’re bronze. ROFLMA!!!!

The next day, we took a trip down to the south end of the state to do some gardening at the Burial Site of my friends’ extended family. We cleaned up some weeds, planted hostas. The sun actually made a brief appearance! Along the way, we drove by the old Raynam-Taunton Greyhound Park, which is now closed to live racing (Massachusetts banned greyhound racing a few years ago). But Clifford spent a few months at Raynham Taunton back in ’00 or ’01, shortly before retiring. At least I think he did… now I’m wondering if I’m mixing it up with Wonderland?? Anyway, I got teary eyed driving by, thinking of Cliffie’s Glory Days.

Trace and I stopped in Taunton to get Chinese take-out and while waiting for our food… something very interesting happened. I was PUBLICLY HECKLED. Yes, that’s right. I got heckled. Now I’ve had strangers come up to me and challenge my environmentally-liberal bumper stickers, but this was a first. Get this. So we’re at this tiny plaza at an intersection in Taunton, waiting for our Chinese food to be cooked up. A pizza delivery “boy”, in his late 30′s I’d say, is making his way up the sidewalk to go into one of the plaza stores. All of a sudden he starts pointing at me and Trace, yelling, “YANKEES SUCK! GO HOME YANKEES! YANKEES, GO HOME! YANKEES SUCK! YANKEES SUCK!”

Now… okay. I’m confused, I admit it. Trace and I are both like, WTF? Is he talking to us?? Why yes, yes he is! The pizza boy continues yelling at us, pointing and skipping around, chanting “GO HOME, YANKEES! YANKEES SUCK!” At this point, it’s dawning on me that because he sees my New York State license plate, he must assume I’m a Yankees fan–?? So I tell him, “No no, I hate the Yankees! I hate ALL sports! I’m NOT a Yankees fan.”

But he keeps heckling us!

Trace ditches me to run across the street to CVS. I’m left with The Heckler, who by now is skipping over to the traffic light at the intersection, trying to get all the drivers there riled up. He’s going car to car, pointing at me and yelling. I see people rolling down their windows and looking at me. I wonder if I’m about to get beat up? The light turns green, and the cars drive off. The Heckler keeps skipping around, laughing, pointing, and heckling. By now I’ve gotten Jack out of the car (hoping it will scare the guy off, but it doesn’t) and we start walking down the sidewalk. Heckler follows us about 20 feet back, taunting. He’s obviously having the time of his life, but I’m still struggling between “Man, this is really amusing!” and, ” I’m two strokes away from opening my mouth and letting every obscenity fly before going over there and breaking this dude’s pizza box over his mother f*cking head“.

Eventually The Heckler, still yelling “Yankees suck! Yankees go home!”, dances across the street and on his way, disappearing into the neighborhood.

Wow.

(I learned yesterday that the “Yankees suck, Yankees go home” is a chant that Red Sox fans sing at baseball games? Honest to God, I don’t understand sports fans. It’s all ridiculous. A bunch of grown men being paid exorbitant paychecks to throw a stupid ball around. Give me a break).

Anyway.

I think the most exciting trip was to Fall River for a tour of Lizzie Borden’s house. If you like unsolved mysteries (check), are into the Paranormal (check), or have a morbid side (arg, I hate to admit this but…check!) then you will LOVE this place. Our tour guide was great and gave us multiple insights into the Borden family, historical Fall River in the late 1800′s, and the vicious killings of Mr. and Mrs. Borden. It was a really fascinating tour and I bought a book about Lizzie’s Trial at the gift shop–I’m eager to read more about this.

Our ride home was uneventful, except that I ran out of cash, and found my ATM card wasn’t working. This led to a panicky “OMG how am I going to pay the Thruway tolls?!?!” anxiety-ridden half-hour, but it all worked out. As an aside, I got a “Book on Tape” for the drive which was excellent:

One of my side-fascinations is  high-altitude mountain climbing, and this book was riveting. K2 is the second highest mountain in the world, and is a much more difficult climb than Everest. The book details everything about K2, from its “discovery” to first climbs, to most recent climbs- including detailed accounts of recent disasters. I think I read somewhere that 1 of every 3 people who climb K2 dies?? Or something like that? Anyway, highly recommend this book. Might be better reading in “book” format than on CD,  because it’s soooo detailed.

We finally pulled into the driveway about 9 pm. Sadly (dum dum dum…), we ended up turning around and heading off to the Emergency Vet almost immediately when Jack scared up a black cat that was sashaying through the backyard. Sigh. The cat bolted, but Jack was too quick and got it by the neck. He thrashed it around a bit, but lost interest when it stopped struggling. It was HORRIFIC to watch. Although Jack’s, uh, “technique” definitely improved hunting this cat–compared to the last one, sigh– the cat didn’t die and was on the ground drooling and attempting to drag itself away, but could only twitch her paws. Poor thing!!!! I had to bring her to the ER to be euthanized- she was gashed along the shoulder, and her back was severed. It broke my heart that this young feral cat probably had no one to ever love her, in her poor short life, and then died so violently. Jack, of course, was incredibly proud of himself. He hunts squirrels all the time but NEVER gets them… it seems he only succeeds against cats (which makes me wonder on the intelligence of cats vs. squirrels…) but I can’t be mad at him, he was only doing what his instincts told him. Why do they keep coming over the fence????

Well the biggest Kicker of the night, Cliff had been to this ER vet before, so when the cat was euthanized they put “Clifford-Euthanize” on the receipt. WTF? Why in the world would you do that? I was already all sniffly about the cat, and that just made me lose it.

Got back from the vet at 11. Crawled meekly to bed and passed out. So ends another exciting vacation in the annals of Jen and Jackhammer….aaaaahhhhhhh…

I am excited for summer. Not for the heat or humidity (ugh)–not for unrelenting sunshine which I hate (double ugh)– not for the 9 mile race I’m running in July and have to practice for in the aforementioned heat, humidity and blinding sun (triple ugh)–but for all the art projects percolating in my head!! (and the hiking and camping too, of course, but that’s a different post).

Now that May has turned the page, I can stop fretting about storm damage and sheetrock and contractors and start working on art, right?

At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

One of my presents to myself in 2010, upon moving into my new home, was a new Art Hutch. My old one was a, uh, ‘beautiful’ hand-me-down but very Swedish-modern in feel and not really my, uh, type. It was missing a couple doors and weighed about 500 pounds.  Despite living in the city, my new house is decidedly “eclectic country” lol and so I decided to invest in a new place to store my loads and loads of art materials. I bought a pine Hutch and stained it red.

Sadly, I have WAY too much stuff. And it gets crammed in. And eventually I realize I look like a slob (I’m not, really!!) and we need to ‘clean house.’

‘Cleaning’ and ‘organizing’, of course, are just code words for ‘shopping trip’. Coupons in hand, I careened off to Hobby Lobby, AC Moore, and the Joanne’s Superstore to invest in some organizing bins and trays. Nothing fancy of course, but pretty practical for the day-to-day.

Ta da!!!! All cleaned! What is the saying…

CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS, lol.

*adjusts VERY small halo around head*

I threw out a lot. All my old Daniel Smith inks, my Graphic Chemical inks… only a few years old but already gritty with gobs and gobs of dried out crap around the openings? Gone. I’m only using Akua now.

This was my favorite purchase, a handled uh, bin thingy from Hobby Lobby. It has compartments for storing all my block carving tools– my Flexcuts, my Grandpa’s chisels, my slipstrop and Arkansas stone (sharpening), etc etc. They didn’t have red so a nice muted purple sufficed.

Old phone books are super-handy for brayer and ink-knife clean-ups….

Ink knives, paintbrushes, brayers, and my marble rolling pin for those times I don’t want to use the presses. That Dick Blick baren needs to go, it’s worthless. Why did I keep it? Wooden spoon works MUCH better.

My parents found these really neat holey bricks while kayaking on Seneca Lake one time. They brought a bunch home for me–they make awesome pencil holders. I wonder what in they were used for? And why they were dumped in the lake in the first place (litterbugs!).  Well, they have been re-purposed and work beautifully.The Malamute mug was a remnant of my old life– you know how you hear about girls who’ve dreamed their whole lives about getting married?  Well I was the  girl who dreamed her whole life about having a team of Champion Alaskan Malamutes, living in Alaska and running the Iditarod (and winning, of course lol). I still have various malamute stuff around my house–books, rain jackets, figurines, etc. How the hell did I end up with Greyhounds again? ROFL.

Next comes organizing my tables and (gulp) the loft. Stay tuned…

It’s been a super-busy week. Work, vet appointments, running, doggie walks, yard-cleaning, and lots of art, art, art.  It’s keeping me out of trouble –that’s good.

My newest project is a woodcut for the Baren Forum Mythology Exchange.  I love Baren Forum- anything you could possibly want to know about relief printmaking is there! And they have an awesome Listserv. When I heard there were spots still available for the Exchange- well, I couldn’t resist, even though it wasn’t a project I had been planning on for the spring. Ah well, you have to go with the flow I guess. So- my interest piqued- I submitted my information. And I got put on the waiting list. And I waited. And waited. And then some people dropped out, and I got the official call- rounding out #29 of 30 artists! Yay!

Although my first (natural, ha) reaction was to do a woodcut based on some sort of dog mythology – Sirius, Goddess Diana and her hunting Greyhounds, one of England’s Black Dog legends- I decided to do something more personal.

Here’s the very odd, and very strange, story:

Back in June 2009, I joined my parents for a camping trip to one of our favorite areas of the Adirondack Mountains- the Northwest Lakes Region. Specifically Fish Creek Pond Campground (I HIGHLY suggest Fish Creek, or her sister Rollins Pond, campgrounds if you are ever in the area!). It was a wretched4 days of dampness, rain, drizzle, black skies- everything you DON’T want in a camping trip.  This campground is super-popular and usually packed to the gills, but was eerily empty as all the (smart) folk must have decided not to come.  However there my family was, surrounded by empty campsites- My parents in their 26′ foot long camper and myself (and Lucy and Clifford) in our Coleman tent. We tried to make the best of it. Anyway I -think- it was the second wet night we were there, I was woken up sometime in the middle of the night by the strangest sound- like someone was running back and forth behind my tent, and through the (empty) campsite next to us.  I could hear the footsteps *distinctly* through the drizzle.  It couldn’t be a person- the sites around us were empty, and it was raining. Why would someone be horsing around in the rain, in the middle of the night??  And although Black Bears do stand on two legs occasionally, they don’t *run* on them, and whoever was out there was clearly fast and bipedal. I remember straining my ears, heart beating wildly… WTF?? What WAS it? Lucy and Clifford –whose watchdog capabilities rank(ed) just above a blind & deaf cat– were sleeping RIGHT. THROUGH. IT. I remember jabbing Clifford with my foot, trying to wake him up.  The running would go. Then stop. Then change directions. Come back. Close to the tent. Far away from the tent. It was odd. I continued jabbing the dogs, and finally the two Groggsters woke up.. I fearfully slipped on my sandals… groped for the leashes… zipped back the tent flap…

And the running stopped. I couldn’t see anything in the blackness.

Lucy, Cliff and I carefully shuffled around in the dark, straining to see or hear something… but it was gone. Forever.

So when I got back home from our wet and creepy camping trip, I began researching whatever I could on Adirondack legends. Bears acting weirdly?? Hauntings?? Spaceship sightings?? Bigfoot?? Strangely enough, there wasn’t a lot. However… I did find something very interesting. The Adirondacks never had a permanent indigenous Native American population but the Haudenosaunee/ Iroquois- specifically the Oneida and Mohawk tribes-  used the mountains extensively for as hunting grounds. Legends tell of their encounters with Jo-Ge-Oh, or Little People- elvish/gnomey types that lived along the mountains and streams, usually benevolent but mischievous and apt to get into trouble (especially, it seems, while squirrel hunting). There were three clans of Jo-Ge-Oh:  Little People of the Rocks and Rivers (Ga-Hon-Ga); Little People of the Harvest and Grains (Gan-Da-Ya) and Little People of the Underneath Shadows (Oh-Dan-Was).

Was that what it was??

I don’t know if that’s what I heard that night, way up in the Adirondacks. Do they really exist? If they did, would they show themselves to a non-Native American? But if it wasn’t that… what else WAS it?

Anyway, that’s what my Mythology Woodcut is going to be about: Jo-Ge-Oh.  At first I tried to draw what I thought Jo-Ge-Oh might look like but nothing came out “right”. Then I tried some drawings of myself, Lucy and Clifford in our tent with Jo-Ge-Oh running around outside. Nope. Not feeling it. Too cartoony and silly. Finally, after scouring through my pictures from that trip, I decided to do a woodcut called Fish Creek, Land of Jo-Ge-Oh… based on this photo I took while kayaking (kayaking in the rain? Yeah. Don’t forget your FroggToggs). This totally looks like Jo-Ge-Oh territory, doesn’t it?

Or this??? Creepy, rainy, haunted camping trip! LOL.

Once I decided on what I was doing, the sketching, then carving, went easily. Of course, it’s much easier carving on your drafting table, with a Bench-Hook, than on the bed. Just a note for next time.

First color on the block was a light gray. I want to try to capture that dark, dreary, rainy, miserable camping trip WITHOUT making the woodcut too muddy looking. I’m horrible with color though, so I went light… thinking it would dry a bit darker? And maybe it would be less muff-up-able??  I had out the linseed oil to make the GC ink a bit easier to work… man, that stuff has gotten REALLY tacky on me. It’s a few years old now, whew. I think you’re technically supposed to use Burt Plate Oil, but hopefully Linseed is close enough. Seemed to help.

I’ve reached a truce with Blue Bomber (my etching press). We were at odds for awhile, but I realized that cranking the block through is MUCH EASIER if you put a block in front of your carved block, and another behind it. And then I used a piece of illustration board as my ‘blanket’.  By having so many blocks on the press, the roller has something to always ride along/sit on… so there’s no shoving the bed through, no “bump” when the block finally goes under the roller (and lemme tell you, that bump always wiggles the block a  bit, and leads to a fuzzy print). I’m very happy I was (finally) smart enough to solve the problem. Now if I can only figure out the Red Bomber, my bottlejack press! Sigh.

Ta-da! I love the Reveals! Especially when they come out the way they look “in my head.”

I’m very happy. And I feel successful- although the exchange has 30 participants, I printed 46 (48?) .  I always loose a few (or a lot) so I wanted to be *doubly sure* I would end up with 30 in the end.  They are safely drying up in the Loft, away from dog hair and muddy paws.

I’m not sure whether the second color with be dark gray, or if I should start the greens first. The way you layer colors makes a total difference. Hmmm… well, we’ll find out tonight. I have only a couple weeks to finish this up, so no time left to dilly-dally!

Jen