academic for an hour
Feb. 21st, 2004 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ironymaidenmy sister-in-law Heather is in town for the College Art Association conference. we've been doing little tourguide things for her and her two colleagues while they've been here this week...drove them out to Chinook's and Fisherman's Terminal, up to Kerry Park, loaned out Best Places Seattle and marked up one of those ubiquitous tour maps with places that didn't pay for a listing (Toys in Babeland, Elliot Bay Books, the new Dilettante cafe on 6th) pointed them down the street to Top Pot, etc. so last night they gave us passes into the exhibit hall (they represent Penn State Press) for their reception. the book they're really pushing is called Work Ethic, so they had beer and pretzels, which disappeared in the first fifteen minutes - before we arrived :( the thesis of Work Ethic is that art in America stopped being about meticulous craftsmanship and more about ideas when other work in America stopped being about making things and started being about managing and services. interesting idea, still don't think a piece of paper with pencil scribbled on it deserves to be in a museum.
the exhibit hall was a great mix of scholarly, coffee table, how-to and textbooks combined with art supplies. i got a free oil brush from someplace, and Utrecht was giving out big goodie bags that included a tube of titanium white acrylic and a couple coupons for the store here. hope i can make it up there before they expire. i also had a great conversation about brush size ratings and got a catalog from some guys that make a fabulously tiny 0/20. i need all the help i can get to finish painting my Cryx battlegroup. C got me to agree to try Warmachine because the models are absolutely incredible. what i really appreciate is that the models are so versatile and even though they're all metal and the pieces are heavy, they fit together well enough that it takes a bare minimum of glue to assemble them and almost no holding/proping/clamping. and i can have an army without soldiers or man-shaped robots. oh, and most of the Warcasters are chicks wearing thigh-high boots. who can resist thigh-high boots?
the most interesting were a company from NY that make pigment sticks and encaustics. pigment sticks are livestock crayons in more than just orange or green...who knew there was a connection between marking castrated piglets and Jean-Michel Basquiat? encaustics are pigments in a wax suspension, so they look like bars of brightly colored soap, which you melt on an electric skillet, apply with a brush, and fix with a heat gun. i love art supplies. sometime after i use my lottery money to go to space, take the around the world cruise, and buy a house with a view and garden on Queen Anne, i want to have a fully equipped studio and an education in art. no conceptional stuff...i'd like to learn to grind and blend pigments, create surfaces, work clay, throw pottery, you name it. i love to make things, and i don't do it very often because i don't have a place to put them. sometimes i am angry that following an academic track in high school and a double major in college locked me out of visual arts classes. i become more confident and comfortable with my esthetic as i get older, but i continue to wish for more technique. story of my life the last ten years.
H was dying to escape from shop talk (otherwise she'd have to be at a GLBT performance art opening), so we tried to get into Marrakesh for dinner (no dice) and ended up at Panos Kleftiko for a few lovely hours. C managed to keep his hair away from the candle this time. we missed Creeping Time since H needed to be up early today; i hope to see them again soon. i wonder if they'll be at Folklife?
since we still had our passes we took a pink box of Nielsen's goodness in to her on our way to the Market this morning. next to last Saturday for Crystal Meats. it was incredibly busy. i still don't get it. but we got ribs and i'm looking forward to slowcooking them. we forgot to get veggies, but maybe i'll get some this afternoon. i also had my first Monorail espresso, and they are damn fine.
H's boss didn't really want to go to the conference in Seattle, but says she's enchanted now. her room in the Westin has a lake view, and she says she lies in her bed, looks out the window, and smiles. and she's become addicted to Top Pot. the mountains are out today. i worry when people visit that they won't be charmed like i was, but so far everyone that counts loves it.
i had to laugh after i called my sister to find out what my niece Andrea would like for her birthday, current clothes sizes, etc. Angela was out, so Pat told me to talk to Andrea and ask her. the first thing she said was that she definitely didn't want any clothes and she has enough Barbies! she certainly isn't her mother's daughter. i've got to get her out to visit.
the exhibit hall was a great mix of scholarly, coffee table, how-to and textbooks combined with art supplies. i got a free oil brush from someplace, and Utrecht was giving out big goodie bags that included a tube of titanium white acrylic and a couple coupons for the store here. hope i can make it up there before they expire. i also had a great conversation about brush size ratings and got a catalog from some guys that make a fabulously tiny 0/20. i need all the help i can get to finish painting my Cryx battlegroup. C got me to agree to try Warmachine because the models are absolutely incredible. what i really appreciate is that the models are so versatile and even though they're all metal and the pieces are heavy, they fit together well enough that it takes a bare minimum of glue to assemble them and almost no holding/proping/clamping. and i can have an army without soldiers or man-shaped robots. oh, and most of the Warcasters are chicks wearing thigh-high boots. who can resist thigh-high boots?
the most interesting were a company from NY that make pigment sticks and encaustics. pigment sticks are livestock crayons in more than just orange or green...who knew there was a connection between marking castrated piglets and Jean-Michel Basquiat? encaustics are pigments in a wax suspension, so they look like bars of brightly colored soap, which you melt on an electric skillet, apply with a brush, and fix with a heat gun. i love art supplies. sometime after i use my lottery money to go to space, take the around the world cruise, and buy a house with a view and garden on Queen Anne, i want to have a fully equipped studio and an education in art. no conceptional stuff...i'd like to learn to grind and blend pigments, create surfaces, work clay, throw pottery, you name it. i love to make things, and i don't do it very often because i don't have a place to put them. sometimes i am angry that following an academic track in high school and a double major in college locked me out of visual arts classes. i become more confident and comfortable with my esthetic as i get older, but i continue to wish for more technique. story of my life the last ten years.
H was dying to escape from shop talk (otherwise she'd have to be at a GLBT performance art opening), so we tried to get into Marrakesh for dinner (no dice) and ended up at Panos Kleftiko for a few lovely hours. C managed to keep his hair away from the candle this time. we missed Creeping Time since H needed to be up early today; i hope to see them again soon. i wonder if they'll be at Folklife?
since we still had our passes we took a pink box of Nielsen's goodness in to her on our way to the Market this morning. next to last Saturday for Crystal Meats. it was incredibly busy. i still don't get it. but we got ribs and i'm looking forward to slowcooking them. we forgot to get veggies, but maybe i'll get some this afternoon. i also had my first Monorail espresso, and they are damn fine.
H's boss didn't really want to go to the conference in Seattle, but says she's enchanted now. her room in the Westin has a lake view, and she says she lies in her bed, looks out the window, and smiles. and she's become addicted to Top Pot. the mountains are out today. i worry when people visit that they won't be charmed like i was, but so far everyone that counts loves it.
i had to laugh after i called my sister to find out what my niece Andrea would like for her birthday, current clothes sizes, etc. Angela was out, so Pat told me to talk to Andrea and ask her. the first thing she said was that she definitely didn't want any clothes and she has enough Barbies! she certainly isn't her mother's daughter. i've got to get her out to visit.
