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August 31, 2005

...hurricane...

I came from wildfire and earthquake country. I can't begin to fathom hurricanes.

But this.......

I see the pictures, but imagining the truth is hard.

I cannot wrap my mind around it, the destruction is so great. So immense. Amy has a really great entry on what is happening and links to more information.

My heart is reeling.

Posted by wendy at 09:23 AM

August 29, 2005

...fields...

One of the things I love most about California are the fields. The repetition of color and line. From a very early age would fly from my mother's house to my father's house (divorced when I was one) and I loved looking out over the valley and the patchwork of colors. Watching the earth rush past so slowly from the high vantage point.
I also loved when I would drive with my dad from the coast to the valley and watch the trees line up in the orchard out of the car window. How if you looked one way the trees looked like they would go on forever and then if you looked another way the space would shift down another lane. He would quiz me about what was planted in each of the fields and then explain why. Explain how the farmers watered such large fields. Explain why they would change what was being grown. I loved it. It was peaceful - the smells and sights of agriculture.

This is from a trip to California with the Boy. Look at how the field seems like it could go on forever.

Posted by wendy at 02:44 PM | Comments (2)

August 25, 2005

...bring your pet to blog #2...

So those amazing girls over at port2port are taking a vacation this week (but a work vacation not a fun vacation, not like the lucky Johanna!). But they started the 'bring your pet to blog' and I am getting sucked in. I am turning into one of those ladies that take millions of photos of their cat. Which is even more distressing because I would not call myself a cat person. I always wanted to get a dog (but the apartments in New York are way too small). The Boy on the other hand has a soft spot for cats. And now I love her, she is the sweetest thing in the world, plus she is beautiful.

Recently she has taken to chilling in the bathroom sink. I guess it is cool, and she can just curl up in the bowl, but I yesterday morning she was just laying in the sink and I had the work camera so I took some photos. She is a little photo whore. I think she understood what I was doing so she posed for me! No really she kept on tilting her head giving me coy eyes. She knows what the camera is and she works it!

Our building is pre-war so that means a funky bathroom. Over the years, the super has fixed things in the bathroom and replaced the original tiles with white ones. The originals are these swirly green tiles. Now I love green (hello green girl) but my problem is that the replacements are so haphazard. So the bathroom is half green swirl and half white, but with no rhyme or reason. Not until I took a look at this photo did I begin to soften to the old tiles. They match Trixie's eye perfectly. Take a look:

Also does anyone have any tricks for getting warm water, when you have a separate hot and cold facets?

Posted by wendy at 08:00 AM | Comments (8)

August 24, 2005

...more photos...

I have been thinking for a while how that for an art site, by blog doesn't have lots of pictures. mav called me on it yesterday, so here we go. More photos. More pictures of my stuff, even if it is half finished. I have two in progress robots, and another two robots that are just piles of fabric. My main problem is that I don't have a digital camera (work does though and I borrow it all the time - hence the photo above). I know in this day and age, but I could never get around to getting one. I love my camera, and the Holga is amazing. I love proper film, but the digital takes great things as well.
My excuse for the Holga is that I got some pictures printed and they were crap. I know that I can do a better job, but I just need to go down and print them at ABC No Rio. I haven't been in a dark room for like ten years and I am a little nervous (maybe a lot). But it has been on my mind! I am trying to remember how it goes, printing.
Plus I have to get supplies and I am more than poor right now, so I am saving up for paper and the like. I want to print over full frame, so I need to file out a negative holder. See how many excuses I have! Baby steps and everything, but I will do it. I look at the envelope of negatives everyday. I promise I will make an effort to get all my supplies so I don't have anything else standing in my way (besides myself of course).
The photo above was taken with a digital photo. There is this amazing building on Thirteenth Street and this wild flowing plant grows all over it. Its like a secret building, I feel like one day you'll have to crawl under to get to the door, like the prince in sleeping beauty. Very magical.

**Hey aiko did you get a job?**

Posted by wendy at 09:27 AM | Comments (6)

August 23, 2005

...new york night...

Oh the perfect New York night. The kind you hear about. The friend with an amazing garden, candles, dinner from the grill, lots of wine and laughter. It was amazing.
I think it was just what I needed, to be surrounded by people doing wonderful and amazing things.
I saw some twinkling stars, just a couple but they were beautiful.

Posted by wendy at 01:45 AM | Comments (2)

August 22, 2005

...books & horses...

I love the library. I can have a love affair with books, far beyond what my pocket book will allow.
I don't feel guilty if I don't like the book, I can just stop reading without consequences. I only want to love my books, especially if I own it. The library gives me that chance. The chance to know if the love affair can last, or if it is just some flash in the pan. My happiest moments as a child were going to the library after school or on the weekends. Sitting in the dark quite nook of the young adults section and picking out books to read. It was a haven. The place in the world where no one could get to me, where I could escape.
I love being drawn into the world created by an author. To spend my day sitting in bed caught up in the life of someone else’s words. I love sentences that create an image in my mind.
The Boy is a reader, and actually the first guy that I dated that was really into books (maybe that's why I married him). Before him most of the guys I dated were jocks. I know I am a weird anomaly of jock and art. Although not much athletic happening lately. The last athletic thing I did was learning to ride horses. I know riding horses in the city is pretty out there, but it can happen. (You can even ride horses in Central Park.) Actually I learned at Claremont Riding Academy. I went to a summer riding camp when I was a girl, but when I moved to NYC I was up for trying new things. (I sort of forced myself to do new things) And riding horses was one of them. I even worked at the stables for a while in exchange for lessons. It was a great deal & full of some crazy rich people. Like the little rich girls you see on television that think money can by them anything, they ALL take riding lessons. And they do think that money can buy them anything. (one of the girls would use her riding crop on her instructor and then told her that she was take her to court, because the instructor stopped the lesson) It was wild too see what happened in that stable office. And working behind the desk I had a ringside seat.
I haven't been riding in awhile. I stopped working at the stables and the lessons where way out of my price range, but there is another stable and I have been meaning to check them out and get back into riding. Riding is one thing that makes me live in the moment. You can't be thinking about anything but what is happening between you and that horse. Wow, I forgot how much I loved it.

Posted by wendy at 07:10 AM | Comments (3)

August 19, 2005

...days like this...

Do you ever have one of those days were everything is off?
I got to work in the morning a little before nine like I always do and there was a client waiting at the door as I was coming in. She wanted to look at some backdrops, but didn't call to warn us, so everything on the floor was wet because we were trying to get five backdrops shipped out to LA & Chicago by that afternoon. The fans were already on, so we just had to wait and the client picked out about five different backdrops to look at. Three of her backdrops where at the bottom of the piles. One, I was looking for the wrong number for at least fifteen minutes.
Then when lunch came, while everyone else was eating I was in the back of the studio packaging up the drops ready to get shipped and by the time I was finished so was everyone else.
Sarah had to go to the doctor and Johanna is on vacation (LUcky), so while I was gessoing more fabric (six backdrops have to go out on Monday) tons of people called on the phone. When I finished no one called and then while I was doing the second coat it was ringing off the hook again.
As I was leaving a client called that I had talked to at least ten (way more than necessary) times the day before wanting to take care of some pricing issues. (Which really isn't what I do if it is custom work, so I told her we'd call her back in the morning. - she, the client was not happy with the idea).
Then when I got home because I was feeling especially low I realized that I only have a couple of people that live in the city that I could call friends. Most of my friends (and family) live in California (where I am originally from). After that all I could do was crawl into bed and call it a really early night.

Today has to be better. If anything its Friday.

Posted by wendy at 06:35 AM | Comments (5)

August 18, 2005

...bring your pet to blog...

Those wonderful girls over at port2port started this little group - bring your pet to blog.

The Boy and I are relatively new pet owners. You could say we adopted her. Or even better she found us.
Basically on a stormy snowing day (ah the snow - coolness - sweaters - I don't even love the winters, but the idea of not always being sweaty seems so far away!) back in March someone left a box in the outer lobby of our old building. (In the city you have two doors to get into the building. Usually the first set of doors is open to everyone and it is where the mailboxes are, and then you have a key to the next door to let you securely into the building)
Taped inside that box was two - TWO kittens!
How could they dare!
When I came home that evening they were in our lobby just sort of chilling. I only saw one of the kittens and thought someone had accidentally let her out. So, I brought her up to our apartment and the Boy said the super had someone picking them up soon. So I though all right and brought the little one back downstairs even though it killed me. That was one cute kitten, but it wasn't Trixie.
The next day as I left I looked around for the kittens and they were gone and I was glad that someone came to take them. Around noon the Boy called and said we were the proud owners of a new kitten. I guess the super's friend never came, but people did like I did and took the kittens into their apartments. One lady had taken in the Trixie, but couldn't keep her, and the Boy had told himself that if he saw any of the kittens he would take them in. (I was pretty destroyed the night before - I could not fathom taping up a box of kittens and just leaving it in some building! I was pretty much a mess of tears the whole night. I even went to take the trash down to see if they were gone a couple of hours later and they were, so I figured they had been picked up.)
He called me because we had no pet stores near by and we need supplies. Food, litter, litter box, food bowl, and some toys...so Sarah let me go early and I went and bought a gaggle of stuff for the new kitten.

Now Trixie is amazing. You can just be NEAR her and she purrs like crazy. She is very polite and wouldn't go up on the bed or couch until she got invited, once she is invited she'll come up when you ask (or when she is taking a nap). I love her! So again with no further ado this is Trixie in the morning peering up:

Posted by wendy at 10:32 AM | Comments (4)

August 14, 2005

...new website design...

I created a new website design and I was hoping for some feed back. It there are any broken links, does it make sense?
Also I am using layers and I am not sure how to make it so that you don't see each one loading. Any advice on how to stop this?

Aiko, I am working on your site. We have to talk about how you would like the title bar to look. Look for her blog coming soon (we'll as soon as I get my act together!)

Posted by wendy at 09:39 AM | Comments (7)

August 12, 2005

...five idiosyncrasies...

five idiosyncrasies...
(lisa tagged me!)

one:
I hate to make the bed. If the boy leaves before I do in the morning it stays totally crumply. More than making the bed with sheets on is putting fresh sheets on the bed. I have gone for about a week without making the bed. Oh I had clean sheets, they were even on the bed, but I just spread out one of my blankets, put on a pillowcase and grabbed the other blanket for warmth.

two:
I watch horrible television. The smuttier it is, the more I watch. Right now I have two such show, both on the abc family channel – wildfire (which I really really love) & beautiful people (this just started, but the funniest thing is the green screen shots are soo bad. There is no way they could be in New York City. really funny)
Not only do I watch bad shows, I have the TV on all the time. It comes from being a latch-key kid. I would turn on the tv as soon as I walk in the door, I still do.

three:
When I photograph things I like not to be observed. The boy says I “thief the pictures”. I take pictures on the sly. It is especially easy when I shoot with my regular camera because I have a 70 – 300 zoom lens. I could be a spy.

four:
I never said I was angry to anything or anyone until about a month ago. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been angry but I never ever used anger to label it.

five:
I love to give presents, but I always forget the card. Which might not be that strange unless you know that I used to have a card company on the side called crabbcards. (still deciding the fate, since I took the summer off)

I would love to hear Martha’s and Johanna’s idiosyncrasies (no pressure though)

Posted by wendy at 05:10 PM | Comments (2)

August 11, 2005

...someone call for a cheerleader...

After an email from Lisa I came to work and thought about what I was going to post today. And then I remembered these wonderful tear sheets from an old cheerleading magazine.
When I started working at Oliphant things weren't super organized, and I couldn't deal. Stuffed in a portfolio case were tons of magazines from the early 80's until now. That is 20 years of dust and paper with samples of backdrops that had been rented. No one had organized them, but just keep adding to this mess of paper. It was all crumply and folded with no rhyme or reason. The case would just opened up and papers would come tumbling out. Finally I had enough and bought a bunch of portfolios with sleeves and started organizing. It was wild. I found some crazy images from the 80's. And some really great images. I am more attracted to the cheesiness so in honor of my 'conversation' with Lisa take a look at this (I think it might work - what should my colors be?):

The one good thing about the 80's were the models. They looked like real people. (Look at that hair though!) I mean these girls don't look like there 12. They look so much older than models nowadays. It is sort of refreshing, but what is UP with the hotdog?

Both of these photographs used backdrop #138. Fun in the city.

Tonight I am heading over to Brooklyn to check out Johanna's art at Last Exit. I am really excited to see her images up.

Aiko (aka KC) is going to be starting a blog about her life in San Francisco being a teacher and planning a wedding. Aiko is funnier than all get out! We've been friends since brownies. (If you need any dirt on me she the go-to gal!) But, I am inspired by the friendship coming to life (for the readers at least- its already there with mav & arc) with port2port. Look for it soon.

Posted by wendy at 10:34 AM | Comments (4)

August 10, 2005

...slipping into the fog...

After two days of really annoying people on the phone at work this is how I feel.
Wish I had a little of arc's fog rolling over me.

Posted by wendy at 10:10 AM | Comments (3)

August 08, 2005

...around the corner...

The Plush You event at Schmancy is around the corner. There are so many amazing people participating, it's wild. And this list is only the people who have websites. Kristen has a blog and here are a couple of the people without websites and here is another.

Kristen is amazing. She is putting on this great show with people all over the world participating. (Although I am proud to say I'm the only one from New York!!) Just getting everyone organized is crazy. I can't imagine what stress she must have been under. Glad it wasn't me! I only wish that I would be able to make it out to Seattle and see all of the amazing things that are going to be there.

I don't even know what inspired me to join up. I had never made any sort of plush thing before. And the great thing (for me) was that Kristen didn't ask what we would be making. When I signed up I had no idea what I would be making. And then I thought of robots. I thought robots aren't soft and I did a tiny little sketch and voila Felix came to life. Good thing I planned on making him kind of patchworky, because I was working from nothing. No pattern, no sewing machine. Just my two little hands. And I loved it. I loved the way he turned out and I love what is happening with new guys.

Although I am going to have to put them on hold for awhile, because Beck Wheeler is helping with another show down in Australia called "life’s a stitch..." and asked the Plush You people to join up. They are having a Festival in Newcastle. They are building little sets for the plush creations. One of the set is a teashop and the other is a lab with all white creatures. I started my sketches and I am excited about working with a theme!!

Check out all of the really amazing and talented creations:

• Amy Proff Lyons / Texas
• Amy Rue / Georgia
• Ariana Marinelli / California
• Beck Wheeler / Australia
• Camilla Engman / Sweden
• Claire Robertson / Australia
• Clarity Miller / Washington
• Corinne Dean / Kentucky
• David Huyck / Wisconsin
• Eireann Lorsung / Minnesota
• Emerald / London
• Erin Shafkind / Washington
• Faythe Levine / Wisconsin
• Heidi Estey / Washington
• Heidi Kenney / Pennsylvania
• Jenny Harada / Ohio
• Jeremy Read / Washington
• Jess Hutchinson / California
• Kate Sutton / U.K.
• Krissy Harris / California
• Lisa Congdon / California
• Lizette Greco / California
• Lori-Lyn Hurley / Texas
• Maria Samuelson / Indiana
• Mark Hundley / Arizona
• Melissa Lound / Washington
• Mai Le / California
• Mia Hansen / Canada
• Minoji / Japan / Two
• Monique Duke/Moki / New Mexico
• Mr. Eyeball / Taiwan
• Rebecca Kaufman / Illinois
• Renetta Sitoy / Washington
• Rhya Tamasauskas / Canada
• Rita Volpi / Ohio
• Robert Hardgrave / Washington
• Sara Lanzillotta / Washington
• Susan Kelly/Luminant Studio / California

Posted by wendy at 08:39 PM | Comments (3)

August 05, 2005

...day three...

We did it.
I really don't know how.
No of us do.
But the client called and he loves the backdrops. Everyone does. Hopefully it will be on the cover of October's issue of Interview magazine. More often than you would imagine the story gets trashed. Don't like the hair, make-up is wrong, photos too daring and everyone's work never sees the light of day. Interview is a risk-taking magazine, so hopefully this one will stick! We have had a couple of magnificent backdrops that we painted for one of the big magazines and they didn't like the hair, so no story. All of that work, all of that money and nothing to show for it!! This business is pretty strange. Sarah tries not to really know what we are painting for, but I like to know so I can keep up our portfolio up to date and keep changing the front page of our website.

Here is a photo of the studio after chaos has left. We are painting at the far end of the studio.

Now Johanna and I are sitting in the office, tying to stay cool and recuperate from the two crazy days and what comes in the door, but the mail person a package for ME. And it is from the incredible and amazing Martha of Naive Knitting. I am in awe of her. She has a series called "Boxing Monday's" that is coming to a close, but you must watch her slideshow. The boxes are only four & a half inches square, but packed with incredible words and items. Delicate, marvelous and thought provoking.
Love them.
Thank you so much Martha.
She deserves a prize back, I'll have to wait and see what creation of mine she is interested in!
Here is a picture of 'my' amazing little boxes. There is a great little finger print under the word clue. LOVE THEM!!!!

Posted by wendy at 01:17 PM | Comments (3)

August 04, 2005

...day two...

Folks it looks like me might make it!

Sarah putting starch on the backdrop. (Starch instead of gesso, so the photographer can backlight it) We use a push broom because it works so much faster!

The clients came by this morning and checked out the almost finished (because they have changes) tunnel drop that we started yesterday. The second (and larger drop is in the very beginning stages underneath.

They are discussing the colors and I thought these feet were great. Sarah has the lovely string coming off from her. (Sorry about the blurriness, but I was trying to be inconspicuous)

Here is Johanna mixing some yellow or orange for the fireball thing. Check out the stack of buckets that she has been washing.

Here is beautiful Shadow. Sarah is speeding to the finish on this second backdrop. She is really really amazing.

How cute is Buddy? He is Sarah's other dog. This is right after he had his afternoon greenie. (Shadow is waiting for her greenie in the photo above.) Pretty much like crack for dogs.

***addition...we are working in obsense conditions. It is crazy hot here 95 degrees with the humidity making it feel like it is over 100 degrees...which wouldn't be bad except we ONLY have an air conditioner in the office. That means in the studio were we WORK it is a million degrees. Our eyelids are sweating, YUCK!****

Posted by wendy at 01:18 PM | Comments (5)

August 03, 2005

...day one...

It has been dead at work. No one calling, no one coming by and then wham, an hour after my post yesterday we began the slam!
I said that we can paint fast and I meant it. A client (who we like, thankfully) called to order two custom backdrops by Thursday night. Mind you it is one p.m. on Tuesday afternoon and he isn't going into a production meeting until five p.m. That mean we can't start until after a morning meeting. One of the backdrop is 12' x 30' and the other is 16' x 30'. These are big, even for us. The physical possibility of getting this done by Thursday night is cutting it close to say the least! It is going to be pretty much impossible to finish by normal closing time. The job is for Interview Magazine.
Yesterday we ordered some fabric and Johanna put one coat of gesso on it before we left. Otherwise we would be in a world of hurt. Because the thing that takes the longest, is actually the drying time. I wasn't there for the morning meeting, but they filled me in when I arrived. The smaller image is this sort of lighted underground tunnel.
Here is Johanna and Sarah working on measuring it out.

The other image in a flame-like thing. As of writing we haven't even started on it.

Now as fun as that is I get to deal with some fun corporate bank stuff. We eat at FoodWorks pretty much almost everyday and they called to let me know that they had not received my check for last month. I knew I had paid it because that is one (of my many) jobs to do! I looked at out returned checks and it was cashed BUT to a totally different company. I had to walk over to Chase and talk to our account manager who is like 12. He was super great though, we had to talk to two different claim departments. Regular fraud is different from Endorsement fraud. Who Knew? They are supposed to call me back tomorrow. I have never had any experience with this sort of fraud before. (I did get the stolen identity thing and that is pretty awful. They tried to buy a computer!! - another story - sorry, sorry sidetracked) I am looking at it as kind of an adventure through Corporate World....

Here we are frantically trying to dry the base at 4:30pm. Time is not on our side, but we will win the battle! (hopefully)

Posted by wendy at 04:30 PM | Comments (3)

August 02, 2005

...the workplace...

I work at a painting studio, but we paint backdrops. Huge ones. Well, large scale at least. Usually their 10’, 12’ or 14’ high and can be pretty much any length. We paint almost anything. From generic “backyards” to single colors to cartoon city streets to blue skies. The studio has about 1200 backdrops in stock. And that is the main part of my job. I handle the rentals. When people call, I answer the phone. I get the backdrops where they need to go, be it downtown or Los Angeles.
The people that call are the photographers themselves, art directors, stylists, and photo editors. They all ask the same first question, “Do you rent backdrops?” I think it is hilarious, but that is because I hear it at least once a day.
We do things for fashion designers – for the runway shows. mav’s Gary Graham actually called us up to rent a backdrop for his invite. (He is super nice byt the way!) The photographer, Christian Larsen did a superb job. See:

And here’s what the backdrop looks like another way, publicity shot by Jeremy Leibman for The Pages:

We paint fast. Which is surprising because there are only three of us that work in the New York Studio (Sarah’s business partner Adelaide works in Vermont). Sarah has been doing this for over 20 years now. So she is pretty quick. And Johanna is an awesome assistant. We can turn out anything in a matter of days, although we would prefer a little breathing room. Sometimes the jobs are crazy last minute and we work our asses off.
I am going to do a little photo essay of the studio for a about a week. So you can see how we work (we’re pretty messy). And see how strong we are (we carry 10’ backdrops like no ones business). If you have questions let me know. Email me or write them in the comments. I’ll try to answer them, because I have a habit of assuming (and you know how that turns out) people automatically know what I am talking about!

Posted by wendy at 12:20 PM | Comments (5)