Cars, Assholes, School, LIFE

WARNING: This post contains language that is NSFM (not safe for moms) and graphic menstruation art.

• I am car shopping. I've had it with the Sube, and it's time for it to make penance for all the trouble (not to mention money it has cost us) it has given me. So during my perusing, I've noticed that there are about a 1,000,000 Chevy Cobalts available in this area and in my price range. There are two top reasons I'll never own a Chevy Cobalt.

1. I am pretty sure there's an explanation for the million or so Cobalts available to me; I'm also pretty sure I don't want to find out what that explanation is.
2. Chevy Cobalts are not cobalt, and I have a problem with that. Even the blue ones aren't cobalt. I won't purchase a liar car.

• We are entirely out of that shit hole, also called North Street. Here's a huge "fuck you" to our white-trash neighbors and their little shit kids and the jackasses who own/"maintain" that place. You had it easy with us. Oh, and karma is a boomerang.
• My summer classes are making things really hectic for me, but I am enjoying them. I evenlove one of them. Plus, I'm doing a project on menstruation which is pretty much as good as it gets for me.

There's more news, but I'm tired now. I'll try again soon. In the mean time, enjoy some menstruation art by Isa Sanz, via Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health.

Shirin Sahba

Shirin Sahba is my new favorite artist, and this is my favorite painting, called "Feeding the Fish." I love it so much that I pined for it for months until a print was gifted to me for Christmas from Jesse, my parents and my parents-in-law.

From her blog:

Voila! My latest piece, & believe me it took me a while to complete! I must say it cheers us up on our living room wall. Everyone who has seen it so far has been completely riveted by it's (sic) almost mosaic pattern of fish. I have been influenced a good deal by Moroccan patterns.

My favorite part:

I am also in love with characters throwing things in the air, it's my way of capturing moments of utter glee.

I love that all of her paintings contain lots of miniatures, as I love tiny things.

Check out her other paintings on her website and her photography and even more paintings on her blog.

image via limonana

Craftsman and Artist, My Friend Tighe

What a coincidence! One of my most treasured wedding gifts was created, handmade, by one of my most treasured friends, Tighe James. Tighe and I go pretty far back, nearly ten years I'd say. We've been close and far in friendship and we've been close and far in proximity but he's always been exceedingly dear to me.

I have been remiss by neglecting to tell you all about him before now! Tighe is an amazing and talented artist and designer whose medium is a wide variety of wood species: American White Oak, New Zealand Lemonwood, South American Purpleheart, and more. He's got an array of items (furniture, chopping blocks, mirrors, frames (like the one J and I received for our wedding!) available at Tapwater Designs. Don't see what you like (you must be crazy!)? Send Tighe an email and see what great possibilities exist to make you completely happy!

Think of the possibilities: medicine cabinets, book shelves for your study, lamp tables for your bedroom, toy boxes for the nursery, key ledges to keep you organized. What about a bench where your guests can sit and take off their shoes when they arrive? I bet Tighe can do that. You'd like some sort of place to toss the mail into when you come in the front door? I'm pretty sure Tighe can do that. Maybe you need a kitchen table "crafted to resemble a Roche-Bobois Spinnaker table, with a Scandinavian influence." You'd like it made of Pennsylvania Walnut and Northern White Ash? Tighe did do that.

Tapwater Designs currently offers a collection of handcrafted original wooden goods, designed to simplify your life and continue to the next. Organic hand- rubbed finishes are used whenever possible, and the traditional joinery methods employed from my hardwood chopping blocks to the Lambda barchair are time-tested and reinforced for extreme wear and seasonal shifts. I am confident in this enough to back all my items with a wear guarantee. I personally handcraft each piece to the highest standards in a small shop in southern Maine. They are then signed and dated and ready for your good pleasure. All of Tapwater Designs products are customizable in species, sizes, and ideas.

Tighe is doing superior work. Every single thing I see is better than the last and the last was outstanding. I dream about the day when I'll have another piece of Tighe's work in my house and I couldn't go another day without telling you just what you're missing!

Oh, and Christmas is right around the corner!

Don't wait another minute!

Tapwater Designs

tighe@tapwaterdesigns.com

Community Art Project Goes Global

Lee Tracy is doing something awesome and she calls it World Rivers.

World Rivers is a global collaboration uniting people through the element of water. Individuals from around the world dip white fabric in selected rivers. The fabric pieces are embroidered with the name of the river, location and date and then sewn together into a magnificent curtain. International participants, like rivers flowing to the ocean, join together to form a larger whole. World Rivers reveals a story of water, through the personal experience of many. World Rivers reveals civilization's connection to water while documenting our time in history.

The World Rivers curtain is now 120 feet in length; Lee Tracy's current goal is 200 feet.


via The Lulu Bird
image via Lee Tracy

Talking to Myself

Lately, I'm working really hard on self-soothing. So, for instance, when I start to get all wound up about all the little things going on, and I do mean all, (awful job, not enough money, so sleepy, miss my friends, broken tv, need rear calipers, staying awake, getting along with people, need exhaust work, Prop. 8, the future, yiiiiiikes), I try to soothe myself.

Sometimes, it goes really well and works fabulously. But since I'm trying to teach myself this skill after 28 solid years of being anxious (worry runs in the Mastroberti blood), I often have already gone off the figurative edge wa-a-ay before I even realize what I'm doing. And if I'm not conscious that I'm reverting to my old habit, its pretty hard to implement efforts to bring the process to a screeching halt. As I said, I'm working on it.

Tomorrow, I go to BCC to register for classes and I'm nervous. I was getting all wound up about it and about chemistry, of all things.

J said, "do you even know if you have to take chemistry?"

"No... But I know I won't be able to do it (I'm also trying to stop "awful-izing." Apparently, I'm having a particularly unsuccessful night)."

In a few short hours, I'll know if I have to take chemistry and then the worrying will have been for naught or it will increase....

I'll let you know what happens.



On a side note, please take note of ashleyg's awesome artwork, "Its All Right," that is so perfect for me tonight as I try to reassure myself that tomorrow will go fine, going back to school will be good for me, a new adventure will be good for me, I'm smart enough for chemistry.... Well, I can't talk myself into everything. This print is available in ashleyg's etsy shop. Please check out her "Wonder Boy and Co" and "Even Superheroes Need a Break" and please support independent artists as often as you can. I try to and I certainly should be doing it more often.

David Shrigley

Recently, I've been interested in the cartoons and photographs by Glasglow-based artist, David Shrigley. I particularly like this photograph because this coconut says what I spend so much time trying to do.

I really love many of his bizarre, caustic cartoons and animations, as well. The following cartoon is about a sculpture.

I love too many drawings to share them all. Check him out and tell me which ones you like. We can talk about them!

I'm Pretty Sure Mikus is Good at Everything

You guys! Remember when I showed you the DIY ukulele and said it'd be great for Mikus? Well, that very ukulele was gifted to him for Christmas! He has assembled it and is playing. I dig it!

I just put this ukulele together. The varnish isn't completely dry, but I'm playing it anyway. Yay! I've never played one before. They're fun! Get yourself one! There's a bit of distortion thanks to my damaged microphone. I like it.

Mikus is great. He's always up to some tomfoolery. He's near the top of the list of my favorite people and I hope someday we don't live so damn far away from each other.

I Love This Photograph

This photograph comes from flickr user jonnyfixedgear and it makes me wish for spring and bike weather. Isn't it neat? I love it.

Its No Secret That I Love the Obamas

But, damn, I kind of hate how constantly photogenic they are. Sheesh.

From The Huffington Post:
The Obamas' Greatest PDA Moments and The Obama Anniversary Album

From Time magazine, Callie Shell's gorgeous, thoughtful collection of Obama candids.

Please notice her notes and comments on each image. The photographs of Obama enjoying a solitary moment are particularly poignant.

What DOES She Do in There?

If you ever wondered what goes down in a prep room at a funeral home, you should check out "How to Embalm a Body" written by Nicole Pasulka for The Morning News' "The Novice" column. For the article, Pasulka visited a funeral home in New Jersey and observed the entire process of embalming an elderly gentleman.

She writes:

For many of us, death is a grim prospect—facing it or dealing with it—but for embalmers, it’s in the job description. By learning how to embalm, I hoped to learn how these final portraits are constructed, and how those in the business view death and grieving.

Though thin and energetic, Carla, a funeral director in New Jersey, manages to project calm and control. Over dinner, as she shared stories of picking up bodies for a medical examiner’s office, it wasn’t difficult to imagine her methodically removing maggots from the body of young man who’d died days before from a drug overdose, or suturing the top of someone’s head back on after an autopsy. Well, it was hard to imagine, but only because it’s completely disgusting—not for any lack of projected composure on Carla’s part.

Pasulka breaks the proceedure into four steps: Clean the body and break down rigor mortis, close the mouth, open the carotid artery and embalm the body and, finally, visceral embalming and tying up loose ends. The article is really well written and, actually, made me fairly nostalgic for my solitary days in the prep room.

I often found some solace in being charged with the final preparation of someone's beloved spouse or partner or great aunt. Piecing together the shattered pieces of a skull damaged by gunshot is an arduous and time consuming project but it is important work. There's something special about the responsibility and the artistry of the embalmer; I kind of miss it (don't tell E).

Pasulka finishes:

As we were cleaning up, Carla and I chatted about the nature of the business. “I guess funeral directors are working with dangerous chemicals all day, but for some reason they typically live really long lives.”

She added that she definitely planned to be cremated.

image via The Morning News

I Love Old People

especially when they're all dressed up and ready to go, like they are in the photo blog, Advanced Style: Proof from the Wizened and Silver-Haired Set That Personal Style Advances with Age. They are sooo cute. Delight in their adorableness.

via Slog

“Z-Warrior Barbie in Battle with an Iguana”

From Reuters:

A piece by LaVonne Sallee titled "Z-Warrior Barbie in Battle with an Iguana" sits on a display at the "Altered Barbie" exhibition in San Francisco, August 11, 2008. Welcome to San Francisco's annual "Altered Barbie" exhibition, where the iconic doll of American pop culture is cut up, glued down, juxtaposed with all sorts of objects and transformed in a new mode of self-expression.

From SFGate:

For the sixth annual show, the theme is recycled and reusable materials, which many of the 60 artists have used to represent distorted body image, as well as to create everything from fashionable Barbie outfits to anatomically correct versions of the doll. The exhibition also includes quilts, print making, poetry, film, workshops on altering Barbie and "self-marriages," ceremonies intended to help people appreciate their capacity to control their own lives.

Check out more images of the peculiar and satirical art at Reuters and at SFGate.

Colin Finlay, World Renowned Photographer and Environmental Activist

I read an interview with artist and activist Colin Finlay and his photographs have left me speechless. He is documenting climate change on the Antarctic Peninsula, Peru, Easter Island, Cambodia, Romania, the Sudan and other extremely remote locations. He has been to refugee camps in Darfur and photographed starving and emaciated children in atrocious conditions.

Copyright(c) Colin Finlay 2008

From Treehugger:

Colin Finlay, a former photocopy machine salesman turned world class photographer may represent the tip of the spear when it comes to the public consciousness of climate change. Even the Queen of England is a fan: He's about to be knighted for his efforts to bring the impact of climate change to the masses. Finlay has the rare ability to capture images that sear an indelible mark on the soul of those who view them; his gift is a human face to the crisis at hand....

We need to see the plight of humanity and those children and our downward spiral. I’m there to make a difference by chronicling the tragedy of their lives, which is translated into spaces like Doctors Without Borders and the International Medical Corps where they are being used to the utmost. My reason for being there is because of this little girl and the other people you see. It’s a sacrifice of myself so that others may see through my photographs. Again, I’m just a conduit, and I understand my purpose. I don’t belong there unless I have that sense of purpose, that’s where the strength comes from, seeing and helping people who have strength that I will never have....

Read Treehugger's complete interview with Colin Finlay and see more of his extraordinarily profound and heartbreaking photographs on his website.


image via Treehugger

Art! Art! Get Your Art Here!: The Preview

A couple of weeks ago, I told you that Mikus is working on a limited number of handmade masks that will be available come fall. The preview is featured above!

"They are still waiting to be painted, stabbed, stitched, and stapled."

Details regarding designs, prices and how to get 'em while they're hot will follow. Mikus' art is incredibly innovative and eccentric. If you are interested in my unsophisticated opinion, the neatest thing abut Mikus is that he seems to always have a bee in his bonnet about his next fresh design, scheme, medium (he was recently working on thumb pianos). If you haven't checked out Mikus' art, get that shit done! Find it here. Some of my personal favorites include "Family Photo," "Snowman," and "royal owl." I hope some day to have a mantle and some Mikus art to hang above it.


via Studio Dormant

Art! Art! Get Your Art Here!

Mikus is working on a limited number of handmade masks that will be available come fall. Details regarding designs, prices and how to get 'em while they're hot will follow. If you haven't checked out Mikus' art, what are you waiting for? Find it here. Some of my personal favorites include "Family Photo," "Snowman," and "royal owl." I hope some day to have a mantle and some Mikus art to hang above it.


via Studio Dormant

The Art of Dying

The Stranger recently did an article on the death care industry and Seattle artist Greg Lundgren, owner of Lundgren Monuments. Lundgren makes incredibly beautiful and unique translucent glass headstones. I really appreciate non-traditional funerals and funeral accouterments and Lundgren is absolutely providing a service to those who prefer something less funereal than sand blasted Barre gray monuments fabricated from Vermont granite. Boring.

Lundgren's monument business is also part art gallery which showcases the glass headstones and a wide array of atypical urns, caskets, action figures, portraits and other memorial art. From the article:

One [piece], by Arne Pihl, is a polished piece of dark wood. Others, by Timothy Foss, look like Japanese ceramics glazed with modern, minimalist patterns. Stefan Gulassa made a small, white cupboard for mementos of the deceased—a watch, a fishing weight, some fly-tying scissors—like Joseph Cornell's evocative boxed assemblages, but with a discreet metal case in the back that holds the ashes.

Lundgren's urns, made of small slabs of glass, look like tiny modernist houses. "An urn is a house, a little house," Lundgren had said a few days earlier, while giving me a tour of his studio. "This is style. This is fashion. When 50 Cent and P. Diddy die, I'm going to make them big bling diamonds out of glass."

The funeral-industry people are particularly taken with one object on Lundgren's shelves: a ceramic pipe wrench made of human bone china. "Human bone china?" they keep repeating to each other. "Human bone china!"

Its maker, Charles Krafft, stands inconspicuously—as inconspicuously as he can, being the tallest, baldest, most bearded man in the room—by the front door, drinking wine. Krafft makes hollow ceramics from pulverized cremated remains, then fills the object with the leftover ashes. He has made a ceramic military helmet for a veteran, a ceramic dog for a veterinarian, and a ceramic bottle of vodka for a friend of his ("an alcoholic gay man"). He also makes ceramic rifles, grenades, and "disasterware," including kitschy Dutch windmills with swastikas for blades. Krafft is one of the only artists in Lundgren's gallery—one of the only artists in America—who has been working in the funerary arts for years.

The gallery contains no ridiculous, gimmicky funeral shit: LifeGem, for instance, manufactures diamonds made from the liver, yes, you read it right, the partially cremated liver of your loved one. In order to make this diamond, the crematory operator is responsible for scooping some molten tissue from the flaming corpse of your cherished family member or friend. Then, the tissue is simply dropped in the mail to LifeGem and they take it from there. Who doesn't want to wear momma's liver around their neck? This gross, imprecise scooping, by the way, is illegal in New York State.

The article is really thorough and profound; it covers many aspects of the funeral industry and discusses the Goliath conglomerates (Service Corporate International, specifically, which also contains Batesville Caskets, Dignity Memorial, the National Cremation Society, Advantage Funeral and Cremation Services, Making Everlasting Memorials, Memorial Plan Cemeteries and Funeral Homes and Funeria del Angel) that are crippling and absorbing the small, privately-owned businesses in Seattle and the entire country. I really encourage you to read the article; I think its imperative to have as much knowledge about this topic as possible. It is impossible to know when you may be faced with making funeral arrangements and going into the process armed with at least some basic information will benefit you immensely in the end.

Peter Callesen, Paper Artist

Check out this astonishingly intricate and beautiful paper art by artist Peter Callesen.

I kind of can't get over how remarkable Callesen's art is. On his website, he talks about his work and the medium:

My paper works have been based around an exploration of the relationship between two and three dimensionality. I find this materialization of a flat piece of paper into a 3D form almost a magic process - or maybe one could call it obvious magic, because the process is obvious and the figures still stick to their origin, without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is also an aspect of something tragic in most of the cuts.

I really wish I was an artist.

via mental_floss