My Third iPod Case

Made from a wide woven ribbon, and a rectangular piece of cloth that would not fray. Hand stitched, windows reinforced with hand stitches, sides enclosed with a decorative stitch.

Marmoset Double

a journey and a destination

goupillez la queue sur l'âne

Happy Birthday to Raph

Bouquet

I am changing colors

I do not portray being; I portray passing...My history needs to be adapted to the moment...I may indeed contradict myself now and then; but truth, as Demades said, I do not contradict."
-Michel de Montaigne


fossils from fern like scrolls:
a beautifully marked high altitude crystal
elliptical
toothed
mass of feathers scattered upon glass
delicate background





















we are a beautiful example of two distinct types
one, graceful feathers with curling ends
the other, a design of frost from the land of pointed firs



















protein









the winter tabular hoar frost resembles
flesh becoming stairs, column, sky, and architecture


















As I grieve the realization that you can live without me, my relief is a wave (in the most general scientific sense). We are fossils made from the sediment of past crimes, and this hardness preserved us. There is a place where the past is unremembered, but that place is less a space than a moment, where living organisms breathe disbelief.

The Yellow Harlequin Frog: An Exploration Into Color

I wouldn't sincerely try to convince you that this is yellow. My range of blues is wider than my yellows, and yet not enough. The next color study I do will push the barriers of range, to make you believe some things are closer than they appear... others further. Something about shadow... more surprise, still convincing. Atmospheric perspective through value range, and temperature, then some shadow, more unity in blending, more use of the complements. Still, he's a sweet little frog, and the final addition to the sketchbook Everyone We Know project. The sketchbooks are going to Atlanta (Feb. 27), Philadelphia (March 4), Chicago (March 8), Brooklyn (March 13), St Louis, Boston, and Washington DC. For a list of venues and dates: go here

West Coast Lady: A Butterfly

A quick study
A long journey
An extended stay

Rifleman (bird)

The rifleman bird is native to New Zealand. In New Zealand, gun law is covered by the Arms Act 1983 and the Arms Regulations 1992. In essence, a person must have a license to have a firearm. The police issue the license. There is a test involved. In addition to the test, the holder of the license must also be a 'fit and proper person.' There is no apparent stipulation on what a bird is to do.

The nature of the collar

The collared dove reminds me that there are many ways to wear a collar, not one of them without a purpose.

The Credentials of the Secretary Bird

The representation of our ideas

The representation of what we think other people want of our ideas

Everyone We Know: Mammal

I am working on the sketchbook project 3 with the ArtHouse Co Op. I didn't know that, and for the rest of you who might not either, the two guys who started this are fellow SCAD students. They do different projects, all of which I love the convenience of. I am in love with the simplicity behind the whole scheme, in fact. If you're interested: arthousecoop.blogspot.com. I encourage you to try out one of the projects. Some of us are experiencing true winters for the first times in our lives, and this is a wonderful way to avoid idle hands, and sleeping for more than 12 hours a night, more than 3 times a week.

I am anticipating new direction; this means I am not making books. I want to focus on color, line, and economy with one medium, on a small, sweet scale. I want to draw, but I want thread to be my tool, focusing on the ways to use color theory in this medium, and the gestures required in making a picture.

The name of the ArtHouse project is Everyone We Know. I am sketching with thread, and there will be text involved (typewritten, not thread). The deadline for the project is February 15. So, until then, you will be seeing my relatively unedited thoughts on anthropomorphisms: human projection onto the categorization of biology, or personifications in nature

If i started from the beginning it would be

Specimen 1: The Mammal

Everyone we know can be qualified by one word.

meetings as memory and snow flakes

I played games as a child, where I was moving without touching the ground. We drove around in cars made from the tops of gift boxes, and we built bridges from books so that we could cross the hot lava without losing a limb. I don't know how we rationalized what 'counted' as safe ground, and what didn't. I just know that there was always a we, because these games were not fun without one, and you can't decide what really 'counts' without one. The rules seem permanent when there's a consensus.
I have just been thinking about staying in touch, and the impossibility of truly remaining there. People are splinters, aside from the words we use, and the sentimentality we prescribe to every person we make love to, or eat lunch with.
So here is to a good first impression, repeated like pi, or ground hog's day, to time spent reborn as memory, and to our mind's arbitrary reflexes:




"How many of these exquisitely constructed jewels do we heedlessly crush and shatter unconsciously during a brief walk in the snow and how crude and imperfect seem the productions of human minds and hands when compared to those formed by the blind forces of nature."
-Jean M. Thompson

We Are Not Leaving This Land and We Will Begin to Become Native to it When We Recognize This Fact

I wish for community through craft.


To you, I want to be what I create. Identity is so much more identifiable when there's a product to exhibit. My and your sole consistent characteristics could be what we do, and people would sleep easier knowing this about us. All the comfort in social situations comes from familiarity.

My onl y real plan for making that happen involves a vague concept for personal momentum.

A Drawing A Day

I hoped to create a good habit, starting
with this book. It's made from an old
book, and uses the buttonhole stitch,
linen thread, and recycled papers, left
over from past books, projects, mail, etc.

Rachel says it was part of a locomotive train

but she is famous for making things up out of thin air and stating them in a high, knowing tone


This book was found at an estate sale, for me by an old friend. It was meant to contain birthdays and other such information. It became a gift for a friend, and could not have served any other purpose. The crocheted piece on the cover was made by my grandmother, a long time ago and without this intention, but perhaps with another, of which I am unaware.

February 14, 2007: La Coste, France

Coptic bound. Title: Monsieur Jean (from the French market in Apt, France). Embellished by swan pin from Savannah, GA, hand embellished H for Haylie on spine. A sentimental reconciliation by the divine intervention of a secret Valentine's Day exchange.

The Damsel and the Sage: Coptic Bound

The Damsel and the Sage hails from Asheville, North Carolina. I believe from original form to deconstructed, it is perfectly suited for who it now belongs to.

a memento mori

In Memory of Mrs. Slater

Picture frame made from The Illiad, in memory of a friend's loved one.

To: Brittani

Avez-vous un peu de temps libre ce soir?

Patterns: Rules for Behavior

There are many types of patterns used for many different things.
flight patterns, dress patterns, instructions, direction, driving patterns, behavioral patterns, history has a pattern relevant to the present, time, the Roman calendar, days of the week, migration patterns
No matter what, they give us directions or direction.
I do not gain knowledge from following patterns, but I do gain know how which may be applied to other aspects of my life. If I weren't in such a hurry, and if time were of no consequence, I might make my own patterns...now that would really be something
We read them to find out the information that we need.
For fun I read Douglas Coupland.
Say you are making a dress or are building a school. You read a pattern- sometimes called a blueprint depending on your
occupation-and then you understand the next step that you should take.
Don't forget the last step you took, or even the first. Remember what you're working towards, but don't always look towards it.
In the same way you learn to read a book, you learn to read a pattern, and once you do, you read a pattern to learn.
No matter at what age you learn to read, there will come days when you can't remember the name of something, or it will sound very strange to you. At that time, you should appreciate your complete capacity to abandon instinct in favor of senility. There may be things that you'd like to forget, but can't.
Musicians read music-which is a pattern of notes- to know the right way to play an instrument.
Humans use patterns the most, while animals use instinct (which is reinforced by patterns).
You have to learn the rules before you can break them.
Humans refine their instincts through patterns. They build a foundation of patterns and climb on top of them because of ambitions to do greater things-more daring things that would surprise and inspire their contemporaries.
You want to be happy.
Pattern is not the opposite of creativity, but is the beginning of it. It is the explanation for our instincts and the decisions of our hearts, because it is based in math, reason, studies, tests, observation, hypotheses, and the immortalization of knowedge through publication.
Know the rules by heart. Remember where you came from. Leave a trail of motor oil as you feed your bread crumbs to the ducks.
You are guaranteed success if you find conviction in your calculations and numerations, and if you present them professionally with charts and graphs.
Tomorrow you may go to school, or to work, and you ill follow a routine to get there safely. Your habits are written by your history and your inheritance. Your habits are your patterns.
I often wonder just what I can blame on my parents. I don't feel responsible for my accomplishments.
Be rooted and firm in them until you find it's time to change them.
When it is time, act sure of your decision until you feel sure and have had the opportunity to act assuredly.
Consistence is an important virtue in a strong peronality, so take your time in everything you do.
Consistence is also an important virtue in the following:
Ideas expressed with actions imposed
Grammar
Sleep Habits
Showing up to class
Insistence is important when you are sure of the following:
Love for something or someone
You are a politician
There is a hurricane evacuation
You are right and have the facts to back you up
Your mind is made up
There is no time left
Your favorite song is on the radio
A pattern is a plan, instinctual or intentional.
If you take fifteen minutes to make a plan before you begin any project, you will save time while implementing intention and focus of reason.
I was once given a kind of shopping list for the reasons that anyone would do anything and there are only two things on it: vanity, and necessity. I tried to think of more because I found the candor disenchanting, but the only thing that I could come up with was a third reason and it is fear.
A list is not a plan, but you are not a Virgo.
Vanity
Necessity
Milk
Eggs
Fear
Bread
Once you've made a lot of plans, and followed a lot of patterns, there will come a time when you no longer have to do either (for the most part), but until then you should plan accordingly.Once you've made a lot of plans, and followed a lot of patterns, there will come a time when you no longer have to do either (for the most part), but until then you should plan accordingly. This book is bound in a concertina stitch. It folds out so that it may hang on a wall, height wise. The materials used in it are graph index cards, vellum, a flight pattern chart printed on vellum, and fabric. The writing inside was printed out on an ink jet printer. I wrote the instructions inside in anticipation of the birth of my nephew, Errol. He is now a year old, and owns the mock-up, and original copy of this book. This book became first in a series of what is now four. I officially call the series Rules for Behavior but, loosely, they are all just nouns to me.