gray or grey?

my favorite (not)color is gray. or grey? Spell-check says, "gray." I like grey. My favorite color? So hard to say, but yellow is often an easy choice, especially when paired with grey!

And now, the Grey Dress.

I've been working on this one since last weekend and it's gone through a major revision. The last time I used this (basic) pattern, the fabric was more pliable, and this being more rigid of a fabric - silk acetate blend, I'm finding little room for flex. Stubborn as I am, I didn't want to use a zipper and I think I accomplished that goal. The dress is for the Guggenheim show we'll attend in a few weeks. It's important to look our best and represent ourselves well through our dress am I right? Thinking I might have to go shoe shopping... a sweet dilemma.

So now, obviously, I'm off to work the hem.

replace

The road south of our apartment has been under construction since we moved here (3 months!) and today, the asphalt eater came through. I don't actually know what this million dollar piece of machinery is called, but it's truly a feat of human engineering. It slowly rolls along the street behind a dump-truck, its rear ripping and digesting the old asphalt, which then rides a conveyor belt to dump into the dump-truck. What's left is a perfectly cut away, single lane, tamped and ready for replacement asphalt. It's somewhat inspiring - maybe a long roll of paper with a bird's flight, the disturbed air of its flapping wings, a smudgy, erasure of mark-making following the flying bird form. A bit like Blu's animations throughout South American cities, where you can see the history of his drawing as he covers it up or smudges it away.
I've been working a lot lately... not much on the computer though. I think my lack of blog posts reflects that. The grid on rotated grid, gray tones drawing is still coming along slowly. I'm debating over whether to contact Prismacolor about the crappy quality of their pencils. I swear I'm getting about 50% of my expected use out of these pencils... they just crumble sometimes. Occasionally I wonder what other media I might use to achieve the look I like so much using the pencils to burnish the paper. Nothing else ever seems to promise the same or similar effect. Is this the price I pay? This is an expensive drawing! I'm saving all my stubs... planning to add up operating costs when this one is done.

I'm also working on the slip-casting molds for the ceramic birds (at Peter Kramer's studio up north of Denver). It's been hard to get myself up there because it's a long-ish bike ride and the weather has been poor on the days when I have time to get out there. I have to remind myself that there's no real rush to get this project done, so I don't have to worry about momentum. It is strange to be away from a project for so long - I find I'm not sure where to begin. I did take the opportunity to try silicone in one of the molds that's done already. I had the idea last Fall while using black silicone caulk on the Mod Fab that a black silicone bird would be beautifully opaque and transparent at the same time. I'm testing with some left-over translucent white here, as you can see. It worked! I'll have to work on the seam that's left and how to achieve best aesthetic. Overall, I'm glad the original idea seems like a real possibility.

There's always something going on with these creative juices... I did find a fabric store very very near my house here. I'd say it's the biggest, baddest selection of fabrics I've seen since visiting a fabric store in NYC. So, I bought some! Last weekend I started banging out a dress to wear to the Guggenheim in a few weeks (for the Frank Lloyd Wright and Taliesin Retrospective show opening!!!). It's coming along. Pictures when done...

Mira Schendel have you seen my breathing?

This is what I'm up to these days:
I was turned on to Mira Schendel today, thanks to New York Times article, Alternative Modernism via South America and the MOMA's show, Tangled Alphabets. Her series, Graphic Objects, evokes nostalgia and security in me as I recognize my own meditative repetitive writing and assembling of lines, letters, marks, and forms. A few images of her work at the MOMA: This untitled piece is such a simple albeit beautiful use of graphic text to form atmospheric texture and space. I imagine these letters as abstract and arbitrary forms evoking language and communication depicted here as form and texture relevant to time and space. Our human existence at once archived and forever forgotten in disjointed memories of communication. This next image is redolent of chaos as it suffuses all of our well meaning organization.
Yes, we will be attending this MOMA show in May while in NYC for the Guggenheim retrospective of Frank Lloyd Wright (including Christian's work!). ...can't wait!