Barbara Kingsolver: Pigs in Heaven
The sequel to one of my newfound favorite books, "The Bean Trees."
A few weeks ago, Mala, Mike and I went to the college in New Paltz to take part in the world's largest fingerpainting. It was disgusting, sticky and slippery. I loved it, although I finally got the last of the paint out of my hair a few days ago.
Here are some of the fingerpainters:
Check out more pics behind the cut.
I am so inspired by artist Lisa Congdon in general; her collages are so vivid and fun and beautiful. But I'm especially interested in her newest project involving Post-It notes. She has made a goal to do one drawing on a sticky note each day, including the date of the drawing in the picture.
Check out her flickr pool that includes all of her drawings to date. At left is a sample, one of my favorites for its rodential content.
I really want to try this ... it seems like a simple enough, but interesting project. The problem is, one, that I feel like it should start on some sort of significant date (which is silly, I know) and second, that I know I'll probably end up giving up on it way too soon. Still, I think I'm going to give it a whirl.
In other, non-stealing-from-good-artists'-work updates, I'm just recovering from the third bout of a mutant sinus infection that just won't die. Lucky me, this time included a 102-degree temp and the inability to stand up without complete vertigo.
I finally left my house for the first time in days today and decided to join a few friends at the Corner Stage, a local blues/jazz club, for beer and music. It was fun ... I am absolutely in love with the owners, Goshe, a pink-haired, bubbly Polish(?) woman and Mike, her guitar-playing, singing husband. They're youngish, probably around 30, and have created a fantastic hangout in the middle of a quite rundown city. The bar has more of a coffeehouse feel, with small tables and leather couches, and tonight with a $10 cover you got to listen to a down-south blues band and eat from a gigantic buffet. It was cute.
Tomorrow is productivity day after being a zombie for four days. Thank god for weekends.
A long time ago, I had a copy of "How to Draw the Human Head" by Louise Gordon. It was a pretty good reference book on the muscles that define facial expressions, but it was also frustrating, because the faces weren't drawn accurately. In what she deemed an anatomy book, Gordon drew faces with large, cartoonish eyes and long necks that didn't match the real anatomy of a face.
Still, though, it was a helpful reference while it lasted. But alas, stupid Elissa in her freshman year of college loaned it to the cute, artsy boy on the third floor of Bryan Hall (was his name Nick? Erik? Joe?). He never returned it, and I've been without a good facial anatomy reference since then.
Until now. This site is even better than Gordon's book and offers a step-by-step walk-through of the human face (the muscles and the skull) and even shows what happens to the muscles when different emotions are displayed. I've been playing with it for far too long, let me tell you. I'm just lucky that I happened to bring my sketchbook to work today.
Yay for anatomy.
