I find it difficult to throw things away that I have a feeling will be come art some day. On occasion that has created a bit of a storage problem. Recently I had to make the decision about putting a few design annuals on the street for give away or or carry the 30+ pounds up three flights to my studio.

I’ve moved these hard cover books printed on substantial weight paper several times. They really were never very good books – I got them as part as a professional membership. I think I thumbed through them quickly once maybe twice and then they sat on a shelf. I’d pull them down to use as weights to flatten papers or let glue set;  they were very good for the purpose. But, was it worth moving them again?

Something in me kept saying: I can make art from these.

Before that walk to the for free box I decided to take one more look, one last assessment. I had kept the dust covers on the books to protect them from fading and now I peeled them back to reveal the cloth bindings. They were immaculate and the colors were so vibrant! The endpapers too were dense solid color. There was a reason these volumes had been spared so many times. How could I toss away these beautiful rectangles of color? Luckily too the titles hadn’t been stamped on the covers, only on the spines.

A new series of works has started.

View larger map The

drawings were here at 4 am.

yesterday.

Finally after numerous conversations with suppliers and fabricators — thank you all — I was able to frame the five selected drawings for Songlines.

I carried the framed drawings to our local UPS Store and the staff protected them.

The selected egyptian waters drawings weighed in at 25 lbs. They are sitting in a lovely box at the UPS Store in Old City waiting for the nice driver wearing brown to take them on their journey to pointb studio. Have a nice journey my friends.

Happy to get some time in the studio again this weekend. It was al because of my hard ware not arriving for my framing for Oregon in Songlines. More about that in another post. It was a bit difficult to get focused while all I could think about was framing and shipping and my little book if I can get that ready too,

This work is the beginning of experimentation with language, glyphs as marks and is connected to my other work as a designer. The love of typography and the structured relationship with visual language as a designer comes head to head with my internal, totally empty mind marks in my drawing.

It is an interesting experiment and I look forward to the experience and the discovery.

One of the two new pieces. Transparent inks and pigment suspended in water and gum arabic.

A bit more recognizable typography.

So far. The sisters. Unsure exactly where they will go from here. not far.

I have completed the second series of egyptian waters. The first series point of reference was the shoreline. These new drawings series two come from the area beyond swimmers.

I have tentative titles for the ten drawings 5 of which will go to Oregon for Art in the Information Age in opening in September.

waiting for a wave
northern breeze
early tides
high tide
nearer the shoreline
winds
horizon
midnight
quiet moonlight
stay in the boat [tentative]

I’ve been working on the framing that can be shipped and be ready for hanging. I’ve made a couple drawings for the manufacturing of the frames. The drawings will be floating between two pieces of lexan and there will be small holes drilled to hold the lexan sandwich together. Here’s a look at the manufacturing drawings. The lexan will be 18 x 24. The drawings are on sheets that are 11 x 17 and the drawings are 6 x 12.5

The Egyptian waters series is one of the few situations where I am seated when I draw. They require an immaculately clean space to work in. The pens require enough ink to complete the drawing without any waste. It is drawing of an exacting posture and state of mind.

It takes a considerable amount of time to prepare the area where I will draw. The table is emptied of everything, every tool and scrap of paper. The table is wiped down three times and the tools are cleaned. Then the paper is laid and the simple grid is drawn in pencil.

I put on my tiny iPod with some minimal music to block out the sounds of the here and now. I light a small candle. I bring objects from the seaside to the table and I select ones that seem right for these drawings I hold them and turn them in my hands. I place them near the candle a beacon.  All the while I am traveling to memories of the ocean tasting the salt on my lips and feeling the wind in my hair — the stinging sand on my cheeks and the salty mist on my sunglasses. There is foam at my feet. I can hear the gentle lapping of the water and the crashing of waves. I can see the water. I am [t]here.

When I no longer feel the surroundings of my studio is when I can fill my pen with ink. As I squeeze it into the pen it is the roaring ocean, the undulating waves, the sun shimmering on the surface.

Now I am neither here nor there. I cannot say I think of the ocean as I draw. I have no memories of it. I just begin to draw. Mark by mark, line by line, until the grid is full.

I was watching my twitter stream this week and saw a post about Artist and @Platea founder An Xiao heading to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena from NYC. The tweet was humorous and I tweeted to An wishing her a safe journey… A joke response. She smiled. Then another post… I direct tweeted @joanie_s_c who asked me if I wanted to play too. Play? Of course I wanted to play. That lead me to being part of this live no rules twitter performance.

One of the collective members had made an Flat An-vatar and shared it with us. We would take Flat An on a journey. It was a whirlwind adventure and a circuitous route. It was great fun, spontaneous, and loosely structured; performers were from both side of the ocean. I was thrilled to participate in my second piece with @Platea.

Enjoy Flat An-vatar’s circuitous route to LA.

These are photos from the flickr group. You can relive the performance by searching twitter for the hashtag @FlatAnvatar

I look forward to the next chapter of @Platea.

@Platea is a global collective of individuals interested in the power of public art carried out in the digital megacity of social media.

@Platea is founded and directed by artist An Xiao (New York, NY), a photographer and digital media artist exploring issues in contemporary social media. Recently listed in The Guardian’s “who’s who” of the Twitter art world, she has shown her social media art projects with the Brooklyn Museum, Yale/Haskins Laboratories, The New York Times, ARTNews and others.

I rediscovered the image of this drawing while archiving some files. But finding the actual drawing has been a bit of a challenge. I was thinking of revisiting some of these processes… especially for the larger drawings. Scaling some of the vocabulary to 4 times the size.

Thinking about how to make the tools to make these large marks. Photos of tool making next week. Looking at industrial felt. Many sketches of these ideas. Now to try them.

It was 9 am and already 82° when I headed out to my studio sunday morning. It’s a two mile walk or so. I usually break it up with a stop for a cup of coffee or breakfast on the way.

This sunday Margaret walked with me to Philadelphia Java Company. We had coffee, tea, and some breakfast buns and I ordered a sandwich for lunch. It was a refreshing stop — I headed the rest of the way to my studio alone. The sun was beating down on South Philly a place bereft of trees and almost impossible to find a sliver of shade.

I arrived at the back of Factory 1241 and came up the loading dock fire stairs. I walked up to the third floor.

Opening my huge sliding door let some heat escape, I walked to the fridge and took out a bottle of water. Looking a the thermometer it read 90°. Time to turn on the Vornado and the air-conditioner, put my feet up a bit, stop dripping and change into my studio clothes.

It was really wonderful how quickly my mind emptied of any thought but the series of marks I was making on the bright white rag vellum. Making the marks continued almost nonstop. Just a break for my sandwich. I made three new drawings.