It's WAY too late for me to be up right now

. . but I justed to get my latest finished piece of self portrait work out on my blog. So. here it is, the self portrait based on my 1973 Greenwich High School portrait.



Hopefully,this will be the start of something great. Enjouy!

Hello World, for the 55th Consecutive Year!

And here I am, flush with pride at having dodged the bullet long enough to celebrate my 55th year since alighting to the planet.

That's just a fancy way of saying happy birthday to me, again!

My day started in my beloved, soft bed, surrounded by my two little fur boys! Ah, the joys of sleeping (something which I once disdained as only for 'dead people')

How life does change, eh?

So, upon alighting from my queenly bed (ahem) I promptly fed the fur boys (who were more than happy to exit the comforter) and hung around waiting for George to wake up because he promised to make me a big breakfast the night before.

Another one of my life's passions is FOOD!

He made a wonderful scrambled egg and toast breakfast-thoroughly enjoyable-and then I proceeded to fritter away the day in my favorite red bathrobe and flannel PJs.

A person would think I had nothing on my agenda!

Oh, I forgot to mention, while I was laying in bed this morning (before 8 a.m.) I heard all kinds of sirens and fire horns going off. Apparently one third of downtown Alfred went on fire this morning un-housing about a dozen AU students and destroying a couple of businesses.

Fortunately, no one was hurt. But, a couple of businesses went up in flames.

There was news coverage from both the Buffalo and Rochester stations. The building that went up on the small block downtown were probably well over a hundred years old.

Here's the news link from the Hornell Evening Tribune:

The one business loss that was most deeply mourned by the students (apparently) was Alfred's only liquor store. I'm sure the alcohol helped the fire just a tad.

Anyway, back to my b-day news.

What did I accomplish today?

Not much.

My called me this morning and did their birthday song into my voice mail. This is the perfect start to ANY birthday for me! They always sing together in harmony-which is such a kick and my most favorite birthday present (honestly, no money or card could ever replace this) and then I got FB b-day wishes from my niece, little sister and another VM from my little bro Larry and then lot of FB wishes from friends near and far!

Oh, and yes, I got the birthday card from my parents. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Then, I basically frittered the day away until George took me out for a good Chinese food dinner.

To top off my evening, Franner called from CT to wish me a HB.

Now, how could I possibly top that?

Thanks and love to all (both near and far) that made this a wonderful fifty-fifth B-Day!

I am truly blessed.

Now, Beezer and Tai-tai, let's go off to bed . . . zzzzzzzzz

Happy Birthday to Me!

O.K., so that's my own bit of shameless promotion.

Yes, today I am officially (well not actually officially until about 12:45 p.m.) fifty five years-old! OMG, now there, I've said it.

I'm sitting right now, in my favorite red bathrobe, between my two cats, (Beezer and Tai-tai) in the blessed silence of a birthday morning.

And, it is good to be 55, or whatever ever age I get to be.

Today I plan on getting some reading and writing done for art history, and a bit of studio time at the foundry (dipping, dipping) then off to painting studio, my happy place.

Tonight George is taking me out to dinner at a Chinese-Japanese place in Hornell called, "Rainbow Heaven."

Oh, I've got a couple of pics I took at the studio yesterday, works in progress.



The one above is from an old 4X6 photo of Dad and me shortly after I was born. The picture was taken on Pemberwick Road, looks like it was taken in front of the old shoemaker's shop.

This other picture is of my 'studio mate' Madeline with one of her unfinished paintings.



Oh, and we couldn't leave out the boys . . .

Tuesday, Works In Progress

Today was another packed day.

George succeeded in getting me out of bed this morning by appealing to my cat-maternal nature, ("come on Beezer, Mommy's going to get out of bed and feed you.")

My cat was ecstatic. I was not. But oh, what the hell, I got out of bed and within forty-five minutes was dressed, washed, made up, fed breakfast by George and out the door to my art history class. Yes, I know, that in itself is a miracle of God.

After class I drove over to the foundry to dip my wax bells in ceramic shell. Here's what they look like in this in-process state.



If you look at the picture (sorry, it's not very sharp) there are seven (count 'em 7) wax bells on the sprue and vent system. If it all casts I'll be cutting off and grinding bronze bells like a fiend next week to make it for the November 3rd crit.

Here's what the room in the foundry looks like where the wax is dipped (first in the giant mixer on the right, then in the stucco bins on the left.)



After the 'quick dip' at the foundry, I stopped home for food (one of my life's passions) and to pick up a picture I'm going to use for my next painting.

Then, I headed to the painting studio (my happy place) and started working on V. 2 of my self portrait (from a 1973 High School photo.)

It's taking me FOREVER to get the likeness right, but, I think I'm finally getting there. Ya know, you would think that after looking at my puss all these years I'd get it down.

So, here's what the painting looks like right now (before I head out the door to the studio again).



"And, that (as Walter Cronkite once said, on network T.V.) is the way it is."

Good night from Almond, N.Y.

Too Pooped to Post

But I am anyway. Just a short one.

Today I spend about six hours sitting next to the wax pot at the foundry. And what, you ask did I accomplish? Did I get some waxes all ready to be coated in ceramic shell and ready for a metal pour (a special metal pour that I requested) on Wednesday evening?

And the answer is . . . a drum roll please . . . .

NO!
But I did get most of the way through one that I think will be acceptable enough to coat and get ready for Wednesday.

The other one (there were two sprue and vent systems I made to cast a bunch of stuff) got (politely, helpfully) squewered by our resident graduate sculpture student who just happened to be hanging out in the foundry and wanted to let me know that he wouldn't 'bother' putting one of my wax thingies into shell becuase he just thought it wouldn't fill with metal.

And, he was right.

So, I was going to take pictures of the stuff I'm working on but it was getting to be close to eight o'clock and I was just starving.

So, I went home.

And that, for all you boys and girls out there, means that at some time tomorrow I'm going to have to shimmy my little butt back to the foundry to get it done.

Oh, and on top of that I put some investment molds into the burn out kiln (to get the wax out of the molds) and hope they will work, because the investment just looked like it was all bubbly and it should be smooth.

Blah, blah, blah. . .I am fascinated by metal casting but it is just so time consuming and frustrating. I just can't wait till the semester is over.

I think it's going to be 100% painting for my senior show.

Gotta go. I've still got an annotated bibliography to finish so I can hand it in at art history tomorrow morning.

Last train to Waxville

So, I just got back from the foundry.

I am continuing my wax insanity and realized tonight that I simply have too many wax bells to cast next Wednesday. So, I have to limit myself to just six more, because besides the wax bells I have small items (the ones I put in last night's posting) and I really don't want to lose my sanity again in the same semester.

I worked for about six hours today on my second version of the 1973 self-portrait. I thought I had gotten the face just right when I took a good last look and realized my nose was too long! Sh(*$!

So, tomorrow one of the things I'll be doing is shortening my face, getting another canvas ready for the next painting, running to Walmart (my favorite and almost only place to shop) for one of my favorite staples; cat litter.

After that thrilling trip it'll be back to the foundry to assemble stuff so I can start dipping it in the lovely green-yellow-phosphorescent slurry and get it ready to cast next Wednesday evening.

I didn't take any pics today of my work. That will have to wait until tomorrow.

G'night world.

Paint, Wax and Ice Cream!

No, I'm not mixing them together and eating them!

On Thursdays I don't have Art History, so, I have more time for studio work.

So, since I got a late start, I had a late end. But, I did accomplish some things so. . .wutevah!

I went to the painting studio first. I'm working on a second pass at a self-portrait based on my 1973 High School photo that was never actually bought. I'm working from a digitized copy of the photographer's proof. The original copy has holes punched across my bust and I don't know where it actually resides right now. But with a little help from Photoshop it's now a digital memory and my bust doesn't look like swiss cheese.

Funny, I was talking to someone in my studio who had the funkiest home-made, tacky digital watch, so I complimented him on it. Then I went to show him mine, a good old watch with hands AND numbers, and he said, "I'm sorry" as if he was taking pity on me for wearing an 'old fashioned' watch! So, I told him I live in my "own time zone."

And, if you know me, you know that's very true. Time (or rather, being on time) has always been a challenge for me. The only place I have to be on time on a regular basis lately is my art history class, three times a week I have to be there by 11:20 a.m. That's not too hard to take.

So, here's the work in progress self-portrait from earlier today:



I've been having a really difficult time getting a likeness. You would think that after looking at my face all these years I would have that down. But then, my face is changing anyway so I'm looking at past history here. I know when I was in high school I didn't appreciate my face. I thought I was ugly.

Time and distance sure does change perspective.

While I was painting, my studio partner came in and started working on one of her paintings. She tends to gravitate to paintings of her friends and zombies. Hey, who am I to judge? Just a month ago I was painting my tits on a canvas.

After painting for a few hours I headed down to the foundry to work on wax. I was able to get the foundry teacher to schedule an extra metal pour next Wednesday because I would never be able to make it for the next group crit on November 2nd without the extra pour date.

So, here are some pictures of the depth of my wax-insanity.



This WAS my wax bell-bowl. I put in back into the wax pot tonight because:
1. It would weigh a ton if it was actually cast
2. I am sick of looking at it
3. I couldn't get the stupid thing to attach to the wax sprues last time so I'm done!

But I had to take pictures of it before it went to its waxy grave in the wax pot. Oh, what a cruel fate! Who knows what creatures exist at the bottom of the primordial ooze?

And, here is more wax insanity. I'm not sure I'm going to cast all of this stuff.



These are little pendants. When my professor saw that I was going into 'production mode' she discouraged me from pursuing this commercial line of thought. This, after all, is 'art school' and we aren't supposed to be thinking about things like eating and clothing ourselves. We are supposed to be making ART!

I don't know, I guess I've worked for so long (and made a living) that my brain keeps on thinking, what am I going to do to make a living when I get out of here?


I suppose I ought to suppress those thoughts for now.

So besides the pendants I've gone absolutely gah-gah over producing bells. Now, when I took a good look at all the wax positives I've produced tonight I decided that I'd better draw the line somewhere or I'll be cutting off sprues and grinding metal until god-knows-when!

So, here are just some of those wax bells.



When I got home tonight I had ice cream (mmmm, deep chocolate) cookies and a banana.

One of the main benefits of being an adult is that I CAN eat ice cream if I want for dinner.

Yes, it is good to be me.