To Salina today. Saw a great graffiti en route. Took some photos of it on my return. Luscious painterly shapes, a bit reminiscent of Guston? Or Morris Graves?
Had lunch with a friend who is an actor. Asian chicken salad. Iced coffee. So interesting to learn about the discipline of acting to be the art where one's body is the art; one's expression, movement, speech, affect, emotion. She made a beautiful drawing of a costume for a performance. Brave and brilliant. We talked about Louise Nevelson's fabulous eyelashes.

In my work I appropriate, circle round the image, editing and forming it to my own aesthetic. I react, recreate, respond, and putter. Yet when out taking photos, I am exposed, and possibly observed while I work- if a car or truck zooms by. I hide myself behind the camera, and peek into a world of my own making.

Tomorrow, make new DVD slide loops of my newest work and prepare to ship framed piece to a show.

My parents' wedding anniversary tomorrow, if they were alive.

Splash!

Visited the Kenwood Cove Water Park today to shoot peopled images of the Byzantine smalti glass mural designed by me! Wonderful to enter the wave pool, and float near the mural wall. The lifeguard whistled me away from the wall however- perhaps when the waves occur there may be someone who bumps their head? We swam the "lazy river" which has a current, circling the water park. We opted to go "tubeless" while hoards of people floated by. At one part of the part are a series of water slides, which looked like fun. I showered off the chlorine and the room smelled of lotion and dampness.
Yet I remember being little and being very scared of the long wooden slides at Steeplechase. I think I tried it once. I remember the "picnics" that my father's workplace offered to employees. A whole day at Steeplechase. I went wild. Funny mirrors, a caterpillar ride that had a top that came over the length of the cars, riding a swing that people sat in slings which were bound by centrifugal force so the arc of the circle became larger. And bountiful cups of vanila ice cream- I took a pack on the Ferris Wheel, while my sister and my father rode the parachute ride- which often got stuck at the top.


Earlier today I took some supermacro photos; but wasn't able to shoot for long.

Progress on the building continues. As I write the sheetrock envelope is being installed. I look forward to using joint compound!

Development & mothering

Went shopping today for building supplies: Sheetrock. Flooring. Purchased food for a guest. Apricots from Turkey. Medjol dates, mission figs, dark chocolate, hummus. Yum. Nice to anticipate fragrant olives, artisan bread w/garlic. Went to the summer reading program at the library, too. Won a 14" pizza from a contributing pizza place!
I am a developer, investing in my property as it slowly, methodically comes together. Great to say goodbye to the old cracked hazardous plaster walls that most likely have lead paint on them. They are full of blow in insulation now. The new "Cherry Island" flooring seems a good match to the mahogany wood trim and reveals and demising wall. I keep daydreaming about lime green paint on the wall and an 11' bookcase in the nook. Goodbye to being uninsulated; there is now a protective barrier of sheetrock on the walls and above the ceiling.
I am so very much enjoying the book The woman who fell from the sky by Jennifer Steil. I love that she bravely traveled to Yemen and took a job to do good work and manage a paper & help staff write with integrity and truth. I'm also struck by her comment to her staff that they do not deserve to be yelled at.
Yet my mom yelled at me all the time; I wonder what made her so angry and unhappy? It is a question I live with every day.
My friend spoke about her new baby; that she has felt the most love for her baby. She is tender and kind to her little one.
So healing for me to observe and get to hold the little person.

Within a vacuum

Yet another hot scorching day. Spent hours vacuuming up the errant insulation that had covered everything. Then I began a book by Jennifer Steil, The Woman who Fell from the Sky, about Yemen. Totally fascinating.
Vacuuming, removing dust. (I did photo a few of the taped over ports for the blow- in insulation.)
I remember my first time attempting to print a photo at Cleveland Institute of Art. I worked on that one print for 8 hours. I was unable to keep the negative clean. I concluded that the world was not dust free, and maybe my focus would not be on printing photographs ( because I thought the result was supposed to be dust free and speckle-less)- after all I had learned that Helen Leavitt did not print her own work. And after another famous photographer ( I can't recall the name) had died leaving hundreds of exposed undeveloped film canisters in his freezer. Hm I wonder if William Eggleston was thinking about that when he shot a photo of the open freezer door looking very glacial, in dire need of defrost, with beautiful cool light. And then that reminds me of being at UCROSS and someone recalled that they had heard about a man shooting his mother-in law mistaking her for an elk rummaging through his freezer and then I made a postcard about it; and then made another one in honor of the Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, by Oliver Sacks- who had also written about Dr. Temple Grandin, who despite her autism or because of it is able to design humane slaughter of cows.Wendy Jacob, one of the artists on the residency had designed a squeeze chair and was in contact with Temple Grandin.
And so it goes, and I vacuumed today.

Blow

Yesterday and today. ("Put your lips together and blow"?) Of course it is 107 degrees today with a heat index of 115. Amusing weather to be using the blow in insulation for the little apartment. So very very hot. Last night watched Nova about dark matter and dark energy. How to accommodate this information that we are tiny teeny specks of living organisms?

A term keeps coming up; static kill: BP plans on closing the leaking area- putting mud and cement to regain stasis- so BP can come back at another time to have access to that oil under the ocean floor. I think it was mentioned on Nova & also on The Daily Show. People also refer to what BP has done to the environment is "static". Yet Louisiana sea life : dying because of agricultural run off of poisons (lovely) and oil goo. I am reminded of Antony and the Johnsons' song about leaving this planet because we've ruined it. He sings goodbye to all things alive and beautiful.
The green insulation called green fiber & cocoon cellulose reminds me of papermaking with cotton linter! We're filling in the plaster wall cells. The machine that comes "free to use" from a building supply store is an auger and blower. It takes some babying & trial & error. When the blower shoots insulation out of an area that is open, it "snows" gray. The machine doesn't have a hose clamp & lets go. Ouch! more gray snow. On goes a hose clamp where there was none. Then it's time to shovel & scoop it up & start over, after making sure there are no more surprises. I feel a certain satisfaction feeding papery hunks & listening for the whine to signal the cell is "full".
Some drama getting 16 bags of the stuff into cells & returning equipment (in the truck that has no air conditioning) on a day that the heat index is 115 degrees! Argh!

En route to return of equipment, PBS is on. Obama states" the US will withdraw from Iraq beginning next month(?!)". Just precisely at the same time, a train hurtles past, with sand colored storage containers & trucks, jeeps & all sorts of equipment. Bizarre coincidence. Hmmm, headed for Afghanistan? - or to training camps here in the US (I live near an army base)? I imagine someday soon people will drive those vehicles & using ammunition & be in a hot climate - like it is hot today. And some of those people will kill & be killed. Tragedy.

I film the train, using movie setting on the camera for more than 100 " ( does this mean seconds?) Do I post this or would that be a breach of some sort? The train is bearing all sorts of vehicles in full view of anyone.

So that was all the art and photography I made today. Using duct tape to close the access ports to blow the insulation in. Adding a few more wooden holes to the window display- that were removed to put insulation under the display windows. I'm attaching a photo from the little apt. Not related to anything I've written but I liked the photo. It's an old roller shade on the glass entrance door to the little apt. Now to vacuum and clean and prep to put blue rigid insulation in.