Here we go again

Having just linked my E-How articles to fb in hopes of garnering more reads, I remembered that E-How switched things around a little last year, and I left myself out of the loop. Apparently, people love to read about bakin' bread and makin' babies, but potty training is a long-distant choice for passing the time and having a good laugh...now if I write an article on the foibles of potty training, people would line up to read what I've been through! Anyway, I don't consider myself a professional writer, but it certainly is one of my favorite means of expression, and I like to think I can write a mean zinger if and when it's called for. My friend Judy is similar in this quick wit-slinging style, and I think I might mention the opportunity to write articles for E-How to her as well...
My current creative projects here at home are a bit fragmented - I'm knitting a scarf for Chris (with plans to monopolize it ruthlessly upon its completion). The first and last item I've ever knitted for Chris was a sandy colored "sweater" sans pattern that hasn't amounted to much - other than some hilariously funny faux Etsy pics that we posted on fb for laughs (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36906&id=1650505117)... Just this morning, I cut one of my potholders in half in hopes to create a new pair of slippers for my little EB. This child has Huge feet! I picked the potholder for the rubbery material (great for keeping little feet from slipping on hardwood floors), and since it's silicon, he could walk on coals with nary a scorch. Maybe he'll go for shaman training someday. Chris has been playing around designing some fabrics to make purses and cell phone holders, and I'm hoping he will share so I can make these booties spiffy!
Oh, have I mentioned how thankful I am that Winter Break has come to an end? I may have a family of 8, but I'm still an only child at heart...haven't resorted to locking myself in the bathroom for solace these past few weeks, but I did come pretty close. It's just amazing to me to think that we have arrived at the year 2011... How does time keep passing when I continue to live in this perfectly lovely 17 year old body? Well, I'll never know. I have been making some great discoveries these past few days - including Julia Rogers Hamrick's Choosing Easy World: A Guide to Opting Out of Struggle and Strife and Living in the Amazing Realm Where Everything is Easy. I downloaded onto my iphone and read it from start to finish in two days. Having been obsessed and blessed to thirst for spiritual growth, I've read masterpieces from such authors as Neale Donald Walsch, Esther and Jerry Hicks/Abraham, Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Napoleon Hill, Jane Roberts/Seth... and many more (and daily worship the world-spanning influence of Louise Hay!). Hamrick's book is so easily accesible - I recommend it to anyone who would like to switch over into Easy World and make it a habitual home of the heart.
I'm off to work on that scarf I mentioned - or maybe just sit around and eat bon bons. Heheheh...

A Test of Character

I left my latest copy of Computer Arts magazine lying around, and Nico, our 8-year-old, grabbed it. She quickly found the article on tips for creating a character, and decided she wanted to make her own character. So I told her to make a small sketch, and I would work it up in Illustrator for her.

She must have been in a literal mood, because she returned about fifteen minutes later with a drawing approximately 1/4 inch high of some small, cute animal. It was a black and white ink drawing, which, after some prodding, she told me was named Superbear.

So I began making the character in Illustrator, using basic shapes to imitate her drawing as closely as possible. Or, at least I thought I was doing it as closely as possible. "No Dad, the head is an oval, not a circle." "The body is a square, it's not a circle." So, multiple adjustments later (and making sure the hair, in particular, was exactly to her specifications) I asked her what color she wanted Superbear to be. Keep in mind that what I got from the beginning was only that 1/4 inch black and white ink drawing. The real fun began when she told me she wanted the body (which I had made from several merged shapes) to be half black and half pink. Let's just say it's the weirdest gradient I've ever had to make.

So, without further ado, here is Superbear:

Fabric and Family

My great-grandfather on my mother's side was born in Germany. He died when I was in the seventh grade, but I've always felt close to him somehow. I think it might be because of all my relatives, he is the one I most physically resemble.

In high school, we had to complete a family history project, so I found all the information I could about Poppet's family, which wasn't much. But what I did discover is that when Hitler came to power, my great-great-grandfather shipped both of his sons out of Germany--one to America and one to Australia. My great-great-grandfather owned huge textile factories; my great-grandfather was sent to America to learn more about American textile manufacture. This didn't happen, however.

Maybe it's some errant gene, but I've always found myself fascinated by textiles. Not clothes, per se--mainly the highly patterned types of textiles that go into furniture, wallpaper, etc. Last summer I found myself creating patterns that would make interesting fabrics, but then I had absolutely no idea what to do with them. I started learning about screenprinting, but that seemed more suited to single images, like t-shirts, and not for repeating patterns. I gave up, more than a little frustrated.

This summer, as I began to prepare for a new course I'll be teaching this fall, Digital Illustration and Typography, I wanted to make a side-by-side comparison of drawing in Illustrator and in Corel Paint. But I couldn't think of anything to work on, so I grabbed one of my oldest son's books--a collection of drawings by anime artists. I worked on a couple of figures, but I kept getting drawn to the work of one artist in particular, who placed his characters against these highly patterned backdrops. I abandoned the characters and starting working on the backgrounds instead.

About the same time, I stumbled on an article in ReadyMade Magazine about an illustrator who had been commissioned to design printed fabric for the furniture in a children's art center. Unfortunately, the article didn't include any information on the manufacture of the fabric, and I found myself getting frustrated once again.

Luckily, I had to revise my book order for the fall. One of the texts I had chosen had gone out of print in the US, and the publisher sent me a pdf of a new title. I didn't want to search through the pdf for the ISBN number, so I went to Amazon and did a search there. And after I got all the info about that book, I saw the list of recommendations. Among them was a book on digital textile printing. I don't know how I didn't stumble on that particular combination of words during my previous search, but plugging them into google produced a mother lode of useful returns, including some great companies for outsource printing, Spoonflower in the US () and Stoffn in Germany ()

And now I am eagerly awaiting a test swatch of my first fabric from Spoonflower. Here's a peek at the pattern:


Needless to say, I can't wait.

Explosions in the Sky

What a weekend! It began on July 2, which was Isobel's 12th birthday. After years of having everyone be out of town on her birthday, we decided to postpone her party for a week. But in place of the party, we brought everyone over to our friend Sandi's house. Her neighbor puts on the biggest fireworks display in the county, and we more or less had front row seats. I spent the hour running up to the fireworks taking pictures of the clouds and the sunset. Haven't gotten around to doing anything with those images yet. But I did have fun taking images of the fireworks themselves. This time around I used my telephoto lens, so things are a bit crisper than last year.

July 3rd took me out of town to Oswego, where Isobel and I attended the bon voyage picnic for her trip to Australia. I'll post some of those pics closer to her departure time.

July 4th found us at Trout Lake, as Ginger's family's camp. Between the two picnics I've really gotten in touch with my inner George Hamilton. Or should I say my bottle of aloe is now my bff. The Norwood fireworks display was a bit anticlimactic, especially since all the kids were way overtired by that point.

July 5 has found me in either a heat-induced stupor or torpor. Whatever word best fits lying prone on the breezy front porch all evening. I did manage to muster up the energy to process some of the fireworks images. I've been thinking for a couple of weeks now about contributing to an art project being run by some of my colleagues. They purchased an old cigarette vending machine and have turned it into an art vending machine, featured during the summer Artwalks in Saranac Lake. Nifty idea, but the art pieces have to be small enough to fit inside a cigarette box. My original thought was to use my Superman leaps image, as I already have a screen. It would have been easy enough to print out a run of twelve for the machine. But the dimensions would not have worked without rotating the image into portrait orientation, and I just didn't like the composition.

So instead, I'm processing 12 images of the fireworks into small art pieces I'm calling Skylights. Here's a preview of all 12 together in a collage:



Each segment is 2X3. I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to print them--I'm going to try some giclee prints and some color laser on black paper first. All for now.

Erma and me

Hello my long-lost friend...
Having recently learned of people making a mint by blogging, I've decided it's time to expand on my facebook stati and get a-pecking here on our very own BB&B. Trying to keep posting upbeat was somewhat of a challenge - plus I'd run out of steam/ideas for what to write about. Now I'm just gonna let it all hang out, considering our ongoing experience with comic writing, thanks to the Norfolk Hepburn Library. Among the 10 or 20 books I took out earlier this week is "Aunt Erma's Cope Book" by Erma Bombeck. It's retro, about 3 decades, and for lack of anything better to do (hehe), Chris decided to read it. This morning, I awoke to what sounded like sobbing, only to find that it was - Chris was laughing so hard he was crying. He's been reading sections of it to me all day, and it clicked that perhaps reading about our crazy life, foibles and all, would be kinda fun. At least it's fun for me to write about how there's something in the toybox that talks - but only when you are far enough away that it's impossible to find it.
We have an ongoing battle these days in the Sweeney household - it rages on weekdays between the hours of 3:30 and 4:30. It's the battle of the scentses, meaning that for some reason, the god who gave me the ability to smell cigarettes from a mile away is also the same god who gifted me with Nico, Sterling, and Troy - 3 human beings who, individually, can put another human into a coma with the stench of their feet. I wish I was that human, but alas, I am awake to endure the hour-long accusation, denial, and subsequent relenting and foot-scrubbing that is our collective reality during said time period. If it were not for that damn PE class, I would have thrown away every last pair of sneakers, but as it stands now, I may resort to throwing all the sneakers and newly purchased sandals away. If only I didn't fear being labeled and uncaring, cruel mother for sending my children to school shoeless... My next tactic involves an aerosol can of antiperspirant for the offending feet and a bleach-dip for the shoes. I sure hope the battle is won and I can focus my energies on what to make for dinner when there's no food in the house - even though it's Friday, and on Wednesday we spent $300 on groceries for the week.

Retro Five

So here is the last of the Sister Mars 2009 video retrospective (unless I manage to stop fighting with Flash long enough to make another.)

Of all the video work I've done in the last year, these three connected videos are my favorites. They were all made using Blender 3d for the character modeling and then Final Cut for the editing.

The first is entitled Ink. I modeled this sort of abstract spaceship vessel and let it loose in a brightly colored flashing world. Although the silver surface of the vessel reflects the happy colors of the outside, the object's inner alienation is revealed in the clouds of ink it releases:


The next video moves from the loneliness of Ink to the beginnings of a courtship dance. The Path of Flowers Lights My Way finds two abstract paper cubes floating in a world filled with flowers while we look in, as if through a lens:



The final segment of the trilogy, Behold! continues as our two abstract objects, this time spheres, welcome a third into their expanding universe:

Retro Part Four

In today's video retrospective installment, I first offer Panorama. This video was made one warmish early spring day when I went out to our front garden to take some macro pictures of the dead flowers. It had been perfectly still, and of course as soon as I got out there the wind started. After a couple minutes I gave up trying to focus, but I was intrigued by the twitchiness of the flowers in the breeze, so I decided to capture it on video. I used the splitscreen because the song features several interwoven melodic lines:

Retro Part Three

In today's installment of the SMA video retrospective, I'm posting three pieces that use stop-motion animation. The first is Translucent, which has been featured on this blog already:
Beads Beats & Bytes: World Premiere, Sister Mars Atrocity's "Translucent"

The second is a short one called Popcorn. Ginger says there is insufficient lighting in our kitchen; this video proves it:


The third is one of my favorites from the last year, Habanero. It features dancing habanero peppers, all of whom were sacrificed for a celebratory meal after the video was completed:

Retro continued. . .

Next up in the video series is To Face the Dying Sun. I had originally planned to make a video layering piles of wood and shots of flames in the woodstove. But when the time came, it was too warm to light a fire, and there was all this fog lurking about our front porch. So we get a sort of abstract moth circling. . .

Retrospective

Well, it's been a while. A whole semester in fact, where so much happened neither of us had a spare second to post. But now that the semester is over, and the year is coming to an end, we've decided to revive our humble little blog.

So I thought we'd start anew by looking back a bit. Over the next couple of days, I'm going to post all the music videos I've made in the last year, in sort of reverse order.

First up, Neptuna. This was an experiment with using the 3D functions in Photoshop to make an abstract environment:

THIS is the life...and those were the outtakes

Another day at the beach - why do we always ask each other where everyone else is? Hard to believe that we have so much freedom...so much time. I can only assume it was my (teenage) passionate wish to be retired (those dreams of becoming an anthropologist and architect aside). That's right. I worked in the mall, and so envied the old Italian men, sipping coffee and chatting in the middle of the workday, that I decided being retired was the key. Well, some people retire to go to work like our friends at White Pillars B&B...(thee place to stay if you're visiting the Canton/Trout Lake area http://www.whitepillars.com/).
About lakes and lounging at the beach, we'll find ourselves in Lake Placid tomorrow, Saranac Lake in the evening... Hmmm. While I dream of my house by the ocean, I certainly do love Visiting the Adirondacks (yes, that's a big V). My Mom and I spent many-a-vacation at the Golden Arrow on Mirror Lake, and I'll never forget the July 4th fireworks and how they "Set The Night To Music" (choreographed fireworks/radio). Good times...Anywhoo, it's late, little ones are asleep, and "Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter" has Finally screeched to a halt on the flat screen. Time to sleep now - night night angels ;)

Life is like a bowl of...

It's really true. Picking wild blackberries with Lochlan this morning, i thought about how similar berry picking is to the process of life. Telling Lochlan to pick only the dark, ripe berries - like accepting and appreciating the juiciness life has to offer right now, and having faith that there is much more to come. Fortunately, admitting that i have an addiction to berry picking is't so bad. Who doesn't appreciate that feeling of suddenly spotting the perfect object - waiting just for you...your mind races with all the things you could do with it (berry pie? berry cobbler? berry scones?).
Yesterday we went to Watertown, and before we left, i happened to spot a bunch of black and white t-shirts on a display table. Now i should mention that cheap, black and white, v-neck t-shirts have been "my thing" lately - so it was just meant to be that these shirts were there waiting, with their $2.99 price tags. Yes, i'm thanking the universe for these gifts, along with all of the really big gifts in my life ;) ...which reminds me, Isobel and Troy will be home in about an hour!

T-shirts

Maybe I'm hopelessly addicted to t-shirts. I've certainly had a number of untoward comments this week when I wore a t-shirt, and--god-forbid--a baseball cap. Two people remarked that I looked unprofessorial. Isobel had a sleepover at a friends house last week and left her Nintendo--when I went to pick it up, her friend's stepfather thought I was her brother. Apparently wearing a baseball cap subtracts 20 years--I'll have to remember this!

So with the extra free time I've had now that Isobel and Troy are on their trip, I decided to make a Sister Mars t-shirt, based on a still from last weekend's video shoot. So here it is:



A bit reminiscent of Gorey. My first version was a little less cartoonish, but Nico said I made her look too old, so I scrapped it for this one. Can't wait for our trip to Michael's tomorrow for t-shirt transfers!

Only four - it's like a vacation!

Amidst our week without Isobel and Troy (off visiting NYC with Grandpa Noble and Maryon), I've had the occasion to appreciate some of the finer things in life... One of the things I've grown to love about Norwood, is neighborly banter - in all it's blatant honesty. Sometimes people share info. that is truly stunning to the unsuspecting populace. You have to love it though - there's something so endearing about just letting it out - saying what you have to say without pretense. Thomas Moore's advice to look at life and our stories as poetry really helps me appreciate others, and even recognize humor where I truly least expected it.
Yesterday I had my first real berry picking excursion in our yard...now my appetite is whetted, and I'm anxious to find a u-pick farm and go wild!
Well, I wouldn't want anyone thinking that there's no work to be done in the Sweeney household, so I'm off to clean something - oops! Guess we'll be driving Sterling and Nico in to their summer program at the beach. How did it get to be 10:00?

World Premiere, Sister Mars Atrocity's "Translucent"

So, here it is, the first video from the album "Nocturne." Nico was very cooperative, even if the weather was not particularly good for shooting. This is the compressed version of the video, so it isn't quite as crisp as I'd like it, but the next size up is slightly over the limit for the blog.

Short post tonight, preparing Isobel and Troy for their trip to the city and finishing grades.
Enjoy.

Songs in the Key of Dark

Wow, it's been a busy week! Ginger's been keeping the blog fires burning while I've been working on finishing up a couple of projects. This has been the last week of my summer term class, and I just have to do the last couple of grades. I've also had to get one of my fall online classes ready for review, which took forever.

There is also a new Sister Mars Atrocity album, coming out this Tuesday. I'll be selling it on my artfire site: studiomacsuibhne.artfire.com. The album is called Nocturne, and it is definitely a nighttime album, inspired largely by David Lynch, the Cure, the Twilight Series, Concrete Blonde, Massive Attack, and Roxy Music. I think it sounds dark, moody, and dreamlike. I'm putting together a promo video for one of the songs, Translucent, which is probably my favorite song I've ever made. I'll be posting the video here as soon as I complete it.

Other highlights of the week: taking Isobel and Troy to see Harry Potter (the most amazing clouds I've ever seen in a film), starting a little campaign to get local organizations to use local photography studios for things like school pictures and team pictures, and last but not least, celebrating Troy's ninth birthday. Here he is at cake time:

Does anybody really know what time it is?

Yes, it's bedtime, but since I'm the adult, I have to wait until the kids go to sleep first. But wait, we have 3 Netflix movies to watch before that's going to happen...I'm just a slave to entertainment. Regarding entertainment, I get a daily e-mail from my "friend" Neale Donald Walsch, and today he was asking me what kind of entertainment I give my attention to. Boy would Neale be shocked. Instead of drowning our brains in mindless television (like we used to), we spend most of our time entertaining ourselves with creative projects and creative ideas. I'm using the term ideas, since it would usually be called conceptual art - in snootier circles. For example, today Chris and I came up with what we would call "Contemporary North Country Lawn Ornaments." Expertly handcrafted of quality chipboard and the blackest black paint, various silhouetted forms would bring a "North Country" feel to any lackluster lawn...Examples would include Dude Trio - three guys with beer guts standing around an ATV, deep in conversation, Large Lady on Lawn Tractor (pretty self-explanatory), and - for a driveway in need of "action," Two Pickups Stopped in the Middle of the Road, Talking. Amazingly, one of our old ideas has been realized by one of Dave Beck's students in Clarkson's digital arts and science program. We thought we were pretty cutting edge with our "Amish Action Figures," and apparently it was floating around in the collective unconscious...
Ahhh, most of the children are upstairs. You know what that means...we get to eat a treat and don't have to share (except with Lochlan, since he never stays upstairs unless he falls asleep right away). Tonight's treat is what I've dubbed English Popcorn. I put Worcestershire flavored pepper in it - voila!

Christmas in July

Really...it's not right to need slippers in July - but apparently, when it's 50 degrees inside, that's all I can think about.
Lochlan is wearing Nico's backpack - he's ready to go to the "summer" rec program with everyone...little does he know we have Bigger Plans! Canton Farmers' Market, here we come! Oh, and maybe a stop at WalMart since I made the mistake of telling the kids that we should get them mosquito netting to cover their beds at night...doubt they'll have it, but there's always hope.
Worked on some jewelry pieces yesterday - I made four bracelets, which is pretty prolific for me! I'll have photos up on my sale site soon (gingeralyce.artfire.com). Speaking of prolific, Chris is making some fantastic music these days. I'm so lucky to be the first one to hear his new stuff...pure genius.
So far, so good, these last few days since attending a mini retreat with Linda Potter on living a succulent summer. Anyone know of a good place to test-drive convertibles? How is it possible that I've always loved them, but have never ridden in one? Guess I can wait till the storms and frigid weather are gone for my other "succulent summer" plans...

Bubblemania!

Here are the pictures of the kids encased in bubbles! They each got two times in the bubble, except for Lochlan, who decided he was done after only one. I was surprised--I would have thought he'd love it.

Monday, Monday

Oh, life is soooo sweet! My two little boys are smiling at each other...Izzy, Troy Boy, Nico Deeco, and Sterly Wirly have all gone to summer rec, and I've been checking e-mail. What to do today? Watch a movie (Fool's Gold, again), read Martha Stewart magazines and plan to make her featured recipes, make some jewelry...? Sometimes I can't believe how easy and lovely life is (usually those times when running away seems like the only sane option - like when the kids fight!).
We had an interesting trek in the woods behind the school yesterday afternoon - there were actually more mosquitoes there than we have in the livingroom - and I doubted that was possible... There's nothing like the serene scent of full-grown evergreens.
I was thinking about the fact that we travel (well, Norwood, Canton, Massena!) a great deal as a family - when we do things, we usually do them together. I'm so grateful that for the most part, we all behave pretty well. There are so many amazing surprises awaiting us all in the great wide world. One recent unexpected joy was our trip to see Bubblemania in Potsdam - it's this guy, trained as a clown (I think?!) who makes all kinds of bubbles with soapwater and wands. My two favorites were his popcorn popper bubble and the disco ball. Who knew beautiful bubbles could be even more beautiful? Oh - of course there were the children in the bubbles - our own! I'll see if I can get Chris to post those pics - fantastic!