Monday, Full Steam Ahead!

Well, today the images wanted to pop up into the box for composing! So, here are some of the pages from my recently completed altered book Man's Fate. The entire book is featured on a mini-video that can be viewed on MySpace! Today, I finished another altered book: Life Everlasting, which nearly didn't possess it's title's attributes! It is still very, very fragile. Well, today I wrote the following as my blog entry:

After a post of UPs and DOWNs, Monday arrived. It is the start of a fresh week. With a new beginning, I faced some of the "downs" and conquerered them!


The "bird book" (officially, "Man's Fate") is currently featured on a mini-video on MySpace! It uploaded and was (naturally) approved. I wish the opening image wasn't "NSM Productions" but something that read "Man's Fate". So, I've learned something! That is: the first image is the one seen! (NSM stands for Ninja Space Monkeys. This is what Alex calls his "production company". I am the only client. I pay him $15 per video successfully uploaded onto MySpace!)
Alex is about to earn another $15 because I managed to finish the extreme fragile altered book, "Life Everlasting".


This is the one that I couldn't resist. The title was just too captivating. Yet, with every action came a doubled reaction of self-destruction! The binding was shot; the paper crumbles to the touch; the pages won't turn, etc. I was steadfast with determination to breathe new life into the text. The images are of gravestones and other highly suggestive "eternal" ideas from West Virginia to Moscow to Varna to DC to Birmingham, England. It is now complete; still fragile, but given a new "everlasting" life--or at least a couple more years!

I bought a new digital camera. It is better than the one I had and cost less money. It has a macro lens and better zoom capabilities. Of course, the staff at Columbia Photos is personal and very, very well informed--far better than a few high school students reading the descriptive signs in front of each demo model! The prices were nearly identical to Best Buy, too!

The web-cam is operational. This afternoon we carried on a totally hilarious conversation with Mathias. First we were both just typing. Then Mathias successfully hooked up his web-cam. We could see him but not hear him. I reminded him to stop biting the stubs he calls fingernails and asked what it was that he was eating--pizza.

We talked about the weekend's performances of Romeo and Juliet, about the company, about the casting, about all sorts of things. Mathias is doing very well in adjusting to this new life and to being at the bottom of a large company. He is working hard to be noticed, to perform well, to take class eagerly, and is totally comfortable about the work required to advance.Later, Steve and Alex managed to hook up our web-cam. Soon they were all conversing and no one needed to type at all. Mathias gave Steve a whirlwind tour of his apartment. They talked about the Ohio State football team, the upcoming BRB tour to Sunderland, and just about everything else.

The only real "down" for the day was a letter from the Fiberart International Exhibition of Contemporary Fiber Art. This is a very important biennial in Pittsburgh, PA. Well, almost 1500 entries from 609 artists representing 29 countries were juried by a panel of three experts. Only 93 pieces were selected. Obviously, I was in rather good company being rejected!

The South Carolina State Fair entries were posted today on their website. Of course, the competition isn't fierce at all, though a surprising number of pieces do manage to be disqualified each year. Neither of my two pieces were "unacceptable".

Another "positive" thing about Monday was the fact that I worked on one of the ten pieces I did for Vista Lights. HOPE IS INSIGHT! IMPROVEMENTS WERE MADE! This series was looked at by Jeff Donovan, Steve, and Alex. Jeff, an artist who does exclusively figurative work, thought the abstracted organic panels (each just 7" x 5") looked more like background, unfinished. Steve disliked them and thought they needed another dimension--too flat. Alex liked one or two but thought the remained were boring. Well, they will be used as "background" in a frame with 3D twigs and threads. I am almost excited--about the pieces, not the event!

The only thing hanging over my head is next week's South Carolina Art Educator's conference in Greenville. I AM THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER and am one of the workshop presenters. I must work a bit on this!