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...