This is a drawing I did back in January, for a dr suess related project that I am no longer involved with. I want to expand my portfolio, so that I will actually get hired to do art, as opposed to very nearly hired, as occasionally happens. More often than you'd think. But I have trouble motivating myself to produce when no one else is relying on me.

posting

I can't get blogger to upload pictures today.

posting

I can't get blogger to upload pictures today.

PANTS!

I am working on a quilted masterpeice. And it shall be pants. I keep taking over Barbara's room to sew.

Landing gear

I'm tired and disoriented still from all the travel. Today was the first day in a while I've gotten an appreciable chunk of alone time. I've been around people almost constantly for more than three weeks. And today wasn't totally without people either. I need to better set aside time to do "alone things," like cleaning.

I think I put down the landing wheels, but I forgot to rotate my wings, to slow myself down. That's what I need to do now. Stop, get my bearings, then launch myself out again on a different journey. Hopefully a metaphorical, 4 dimensional kind, which involves actually doing the things I intend to do, artistically, organizationally, and... culinarily? And otherwise. I'd like to plant some food, for example.

And update this blog at the self imposed times. :)

post

I'm tired and lazy, and have decided to procrastinate on making a post until I have some photos I'm excited to post. There you have it. At least I've bothered to make excuses?

tangled lives

Traveling is just making my life feel confusing. Wonderful people everywhere, and I can only know people so much...

Here are some tangled iron... things. That I saw in Portland. They can represent my folks here in Portland: fairly solid, sweetly interwoven.


Here is a candle holder hanging from a tree over looking the bay. I like this tree a lot because it is a good shelter from the wind. Also because the objects are always changing. This can be like my Berkeley people in that there is a little bit of a constant element, but it is in a stage of growth, and will develop into something bigger. I don't know what I will find there, sometimes.



I'm feeling dazed and confused from the constant stream of a lot of people I don't know very well, and I don't imagine that will be amazingly better when I go back to CA, depending on what I do.

People

I've been in Portland nearly a week now. I am surrounded by inspiringly lovely and wonderful people all the time. I don't know any of them very well but I am getting to know them. It is surreal to be here where I know no one, and they have such established relationships. They all seem to like me though. I hope to get to know them all very well. There are also babies everywhere (a baby explosion happened within the last year, among many of the appropriately aged couples I know. Most of them are poly. I find this to be fabulous.)

Here are three of the wonderful men at this welcoming and strangely named house:

They are hugging. One of them is of another one's back. The one with the yellow pants is getting picked up in the process.

Right now I am sitting placidly on the couch while a couple different wonderful people discuss a coding project, some other people cook dinner, and somewhere the babies are probably sleeping. Earlier today, because I was jealous that a baby was riding someones shoulders, I got a ride on some wonderful person's should while I squealed and giggled with glee. And this morning, at 6:30 am, I made blueberry pancakes with a wonderful person and his baby-year-old son, and then accidentally went back to sleep. I didn't mean for this to be so much of a vacation; I meant to draw, and post more reliably, and get other important things done on the computer. But I didn't bring my own computer, so I can't follow my usual posting work flow, and have instead been very vaguely learning GIMP and the other ways of ubuntu.

Places

I go a lot of places. I talk to a lot of people. I have an experiance of the world that is quite different from a lot of people.

Right now, while in Portland, I don't know very many of the quirks, and I only know a handful of people. Because of that, I'm thinking of what it is like for people to visit Berkeley, specifically those who know me and ask me to show them around. Well of course I show them "MY" Berkeley, not the clock tower or naan and curry on telegraph. Or even people's park, because I've only been those places once or twice in passing, and have no emotional connection.

My version of Berkeley is often, in fact, Albany or Oakland. I don't care though. And some times I show people around who already live in Berkeley; they just know a different Berkeley.

The person on the left in this picture is Jim Bow the HoBo:


This picture was taken at in the library on the Albany Bulb, which I was showing to a friend. The library is made of old broken boats and things, and Jim Bow used to live there. He seems not to anymore. There is no longer a bed or cooking supplies.

I feel like in some ways Jim Bow was watching over the library. Now there are holes in the roof, and many fewer books. I should go fix the roof,and I have some books for the place. I just hope the little library can last. It is so peaceful. I had a favorite place at the bulb, a little house on a cliff, occupied by the hermit, and an arsonist burnt it down. Jim Bow told me that. He told me the other homeless worked together to get the hermit an apartment. The bulb has a lot of entropy, it's true, but that can work in it's advantage. I don't want to see unnecessary destruction.

Home. Love. Family.

I really like it here. These people are family.
Even the awkward boarder is such a part of this household. I like how when I bring people over, my family has something to say to them, a way to relate.

When I came home late last night, my heart flooded with wellbeing to see that everybody else was home. I am so lucky.

And the in/out board Barbara made is actually really cool.

Have a goat

They are pretty cute.

doing laundry

Today is a sleepy day. I did some laundry. I like going outside to hang out the clothes to dry. I see the pretty plants growing along the railing.

Camp

I spent this last week at a contra dance and music camp called American Week (it's over july 4th). It was pretty fabulous.

Among the things I did while I was there:

It's been a while since I made a sock creature. I don't remember if I've ever finished one. This is, obviously, a black squirrel with a monocle. I plan to give it to someone.

Redwood trees like music.

It gets a little cold at night though.

Still no post

I haven't posted for today. And then tomorrow I'm leaving for a camp, and wont be back until until next Saturday. I might get around to queuing up some posts for the week, but don't wait with baited breath.

however, I wont let you down for too long.

OOPS OH NO

I lost track of time. ... well... I'm going to go eat lunch. Updates will happen.

transportation alternatives

So. Here is this picture. It's from the basement of the art building at Sarah Lawrence, in the animation studio. It's been there for years. I'm not sure what it's deal is, but I like the apple and the yellow crayon. And, of course, the bike.



I'm pretty sure it is this non-profit NYC organization, seeing as this sticker was in NY.

makers gotta make

It's very true.

Purple Pollen Place (protected by pretty petals)

I imagine tiny invisible fairies could live here, in a complex and sophisticated village.

The flowers were huge. I tried to stick my head in but I sneezed.

NUTRITIONAL YEAST! (and buckweat)

sooo much NOOT. and a little cayenne and soy sauce.

Vegan banana bread

As always, I did not follow the recipe. The ingredients intended were as followed:

The king of quick breads, banana bread is always a welcome treat at breakfast or tea time. While most banana bread recipes contain dairy and eggs, this vegan variation uses neither but is still moist and delicious. Feel free to add walnuts, raisins or dark dairy-free chocolate chips to dress up your bread!

Makes 1 9"x5" loaf
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Ingredients:

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 3/4 cups white granulated sugar (I prefer unrefined cane sugar)
* 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
* 3/4 t. baking soda
* 3/4 t. salt
* 3/4 t. cinnamon
* 1/2 cup plain soy milk or almond milk
* 1 t. apple cider vinegar
* 2 cups mashed banana, from about 4 large very ripe bananas
* 1/4 cup canola oil
* 2 T. maple syrup
* 1 t. vanilla extract
* Walnuts (optional)

My Ingredients:

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/8 cups white granulated sugar
* 3/4 t. baking soda
* 2/4 t. salt
* 1/8 t. allspice
* some amount plain soy milk (I don't remember if I paid attention)
* some mashed banana, from my mother's over ripe bananas (I never buy bananas for ethical reasons.)
* 1/4 cup light olive oil
* some dribbles of molasses (yay)
* 1 capful vanilla extract
* Handful of Walnuts
* Handful ground flax seed (to hold it together since I'm not using eggs)


My logic was that things are always too sweet, and molasses and bananas are already sweet.

---

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly oil a 9"x5" loaf pan and set aside.

2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugars, baking soda, salt spice, and flax.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the soy milk and olive oil. Add the mashed banana, molasses, and vanilla extract, whisking until well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, adding slowly so it doesn't clump. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and forget the walnuts until last minute (alternately you could do that earlier). Bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center emerges clean. Allow the bread to cool on a wire cooling rack for 20 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.
---

I'm making it vegan because my friend Christine is awesome and it would be fin to share it with her. It's still in the oven. If it turns out badly I will update this post.

Edit: I made it again. I added 1 teaspoon of baking powder to the dry mixture. then I forgot to mix in about a half cup of the dry mixture, give or take a bit. I could math at it to re figure the numbers. Any how it turned out perfect. The first time it was pretty gooey and dense.

Breath of fresh air

I have a lot of faith in myself right now. Things have been really hard, and they aren't suddenly going to be easy breezy, but they might be a little easier. And I might go enjoy the breeze, have a little peace, and feel more able to breath. I love where I live, my life is objectively amazing, and astoundingly amazing.



And I need to be in a place where I don't have to struggle so much to enjoy it. I always appreciate it, of course. I don't appreciate my depression but I'm working through it. I made a change this week, to focus more on myself and take it into my own hands to be strong and compassionate and happy. And now I feel like I can breath. And I think I am determined enough to follow through and not remain stagnant.

My next step is to figure out how I am paying for things. I need a budget that includes rent, food, and my gym. hopefully even some dancing and public transit. I have faith that it will work out but I have to come up with a how or else I'll be a little, um, dissapointed in myself I suppose.

Missing Spoons

Apparently some people I know in Massachusetts use the phrase of "having spoons" as a metaphor for having the personal resources to cope with life.

This makes it pretty funny that my favorite spoon went missing more than a year ago. I've been aquireing spoons, hoping to find the one that fits my life. Someday I will find it.

But there does seem to be a correlation between having more spoons and doing better. as (t) increases, spoons and ability to cope both increase.

Doing art alone is really lonely.

These pictures are from Sarah Lawrence in NY, this fall semester before I up and left.



I actually don't know why I took a picture of these chicken strips. It's a mystery. Fun fact though: the food service workers liked me because I (and a handful of others) spent a lot of my time trying to protect them: getting them a union, health insurance, better pay, better treatment in the work place; ie not getting physically and verbally assaulted.... so they all gave me free food. I didn't have a meal plan at all. I'm facebook friends with the worker who always gave me these chicken strips.


The animation room was depressing, to the point that no one would keep me company in there. Not even Wilson, whose other option was the depressing basement that we live in. but at least it had a better couch?


And animation is really time consuming. At least Fiona sort of kept me company. :)

P.S. I never finished this project. But the half finished version is on youtube.

no post sorry.

We'll both live. My life is temporarily offline for reconstruction? Maybe tomorrow will be better. Maybe the next day will be even better. I suspect I will have a post for you on Saturday.

Contra Dancing

Folk Life


I don't remember how many contra dancers there were. So many. Contra dancing all day for four days, with awesome people from all over the country.

I don't have much to say about this. My cat is being cute in front of me. There is Berkeley Contra Dance tomorrow. Not as many people, but still wonderful, and less of a drive.

pancake recipe

This morning I made pancakes. I didn't take a picture cause there was nothing visually interesting going on.

I looked up a recipe and proceeded to not follow it at all. That's just my style. The recipe I looked up was as follows:

Protein Pancakes:
* 1/2 Cup Old Fashioned Oats (not instant)
* 4 egg whites
* 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/4 tsp salt
* Dash of cinnamon (optional)

I did:
* 1/2 Cup Baby Oats Like instant
* 2 large eggs
* some amount of bisquik, because I don't know why I have it, but it's made of flour and leavening. maybe 1/4 cup.
* capful of vanilla
* Some amount of molasses
* some sugar (not much)
* a little milk
* some milled flax seed. less than 1/4 cup
* maybe something else but I think that was it.

They were really good. And it felt like I was eating real food. I recommend them.

Cupcake Manor

This is the crazy house I stayed at while going to Folk Life in Seattle. It has some number of stories, maybe three? There are two kitchens and two living rooms. The topmost floor has a bathroom in the middle of the space with walls made of transluscent cubes, and one of the tiles in the shower is painted to be a half face of a man... looking at you. Between when I was there last year, and this year, someone taped up what I think is a Halloween picnic table cloth. The material is just covered in bats and makes the walls more opaque. Now there is a sign on the door that says "Bat room," by nature of some having put white out over the "h."

I really like this house.

my week has different days than your week.

Obviously.



My Emily is coming home again today. Is everyone's blog an "I love Emily blog"? because they should be. She is pretty awesome. I swear though, she has pretty much the most well documented life, next to that guy from the truman show if that movie were real.

craziness

There seems to be a bug with blogger, making my pictures too big and then cutting them off. I don't have time to fix it right now. you can always click the picture to see it whole. I don't think this problem exists in the rss feeds.

Kevin in Portland

This is the dude whose house I ended up staying mostly at for the weekend, as my back was in a lot of pain. He is good company, and, as you can imagine from this picture, has a great laugh.



Here we were sitting by a bike path (where it was closed due to flooding), watching people zoom towards to fence, stop, and turn around. One after another.

(also hey look, I made a shnazzy watermark-y thing for my pictures!)

oh right it's tuesday.

Sorry y'all.

Um. I rename tomorrow to be tuesday until I make a post. And then it can be wednesday again.

<3,
Mack

Sunflower eyes

Still in Portland but I am leaving tomorrow. I've been staying with a man with sunflower eyes. I haven't seen eyes like that in a long time. He is beautiful, and named Kevin. Yay People. :)

This is a lazy post, as I haven't dealt with getting pictures off of my camera yet. The picture above is one a took a while ago. But it still feels right; the same breath of fresh air you get from looking into the beautiful and friendly eyes of a good friend.

One of the prints I made. Apple.

I think I titled it "Barbed Apple" just by default of labeling it that.



I like having made prints but I don't know what to do with them. I want to make more but it is expensive. I need to make other art, and sell it. To fund further art making.

I love you all. All my readers. I've no idea. Maybe 13 of you? Tops?
But I wont have posts about this trip until I get home. for a few reasons. from lowest to highest relevancy.

one: Everyone has work or school during the day. And I'm not much of a city person. So if I have access to a computer it isn't because I have infinite library time, it is because I've gotten someone to let me hang out at their house the whole time they are out.

two: my hard drive doesn't work on windows thingys. And I have, like other things to do online. Like forget what I was doing.

three: I haven't bothered to get my own cable to my camera, so I can't get the pictures off it without the right cord (which is a pretty standard one) or a card reader/other camera and cable, which many people have. But since either everyone is gone, or we are out dancing, I haven't had much opportunity to obtain these. I feel really disappointed in myself about this.

But I think all thirteen of you can handle the suspense.

The print I made last week

I printed it out, huge, on really nice watercolor paper, for my final class project in digital printmaking at BCC.


Its pretty cool. And if you are reading this in real time, and not just going through the archives, then you will see, by looking to the right, that I also posted this picture on my photographer page, where I explain it in further detail. I'm trying to be cool like that. So cool that I have a facebook page.

This is a post.

In the technical sense. I haven't been taking pictures, and at the time of posting this really don't feel like making a post. I have pictures and things I could use of course, but I'm busy all day today, and don't have anything qued but this sad little post where I can't even spell que. Or am too lazy to remember. There are a lot of "u"s I think. Queue? Well that's ridiculous, in my attempt to make fun of the word I've managed to spell it.

-mack

Folk life

Last year I had an adventure. It involved traveling partway to Seattle in a blue hippy school bus.

I took pictures. I don't know where they are right now, so I wont tell you the story. Sorry. (this picture of the bus was taken by my Aunt Deb, one of the people who falls under my loving label "fake family." I've been told I should find a better name for this portion of my family of choice, but I feel the fewer syllables the better.

This year I've gone back up to Seattle, and it is a different adventure.

Not At Sarah Lawrence

As you've noticed, I'm in Berkeley, not at Sarah Lawrence. My friends there all got out of finals and are coming home. Some of them are graduating. I don't know when or if I'll see most of them again.

This is a typical Sarah Lawrence scene. On a sunny fall day, people swinging, one of them smoking a cigarette. Of course. SLC has the highest percentage of smokers of any small liberal arts college.



Some of them should be back in Berkeley now, I think.

have a flower

Here, this flower might cheer you up. I know it's bright and sunny outside, but maybe you're hiding in your room and haven't noticed.



The flowers around my house have all been blooming, and it is getting quite colorful. I love it. Flowers have always been really calming to me, I think. I don't know it it's the colors, or just the fact that it's a growing thing that draws attention to itself, and doesn't have thorns (roses are not my favorite...)

This one is on my upstairs porch, sunbathing and enjoying the breeze.

I thought I was too lazy to spell Rhamphorynchus... I was only barely wrong.

Barbara made this silk screen a long time ago. It's super awesome, but it doesn't exist anymore. She made a lot of awesome silk screen that no longer exist. I think partly because screens are expensive and partly because they take up a lot of space.

I've found a solution, at least for now, to the space problem. If Emily and I paint too many more screens though, we *might* need another solution. But maybe by then I'll have a for real income and can pay rent and get studio space.

hmm...

Chillin with the Billy (goats)

On Sunday Emily and I went over to our friend David's house. He's got two adult goats and a handful of kids. And they are, quite figuratively, a handful. Very inquisitive, and interested in eating everything.

They REALLY like napkins.

And salty chips. Check out that adorable tongue action.

This is David.

And this one girl was the cutest, and friendliest.

It's a sign?

Saw this when I was wandering around Massachusetts on April 18th. I have a friend whose last name is Babcock. I pretty much love that last name and think it suits her.

mmmm couches

We have a different couch now (as you might already know), one that doesn't splosh the sitters out onto the floor. I'm sitting on it as I write this, enjoying the couchiness of it. I like couches. They are important.

The cat there is Nora. She saw me walk out of my room and was unsure whether to flee or stay perfectly still in hopes that I wouldn't notice her. The poor dear. She's gotten so much better during her time living with us. I can just imagine her saying "Oh! Oh my Goodness! Oh Me! Oh My!"... pretty much most of the time.

The cushion behind the couch there are the remnants of the old couch. They are sitting outside at the moment, waiting more me to figure out how to make them less full of allergins, and then I will fix their old cover and do something clever with them.

Dactyl love

These Dactyls felt symbolic, warm, and fuzzy, as I arranged them on the book shelf. I had just gotten done rearranging and cleaning the living room, with Bob (This was on the 30th, also, the same day we got the couch). The Dactyls are so intrinsic to this family that people sometimes call Bob and Barb "the Dactyls," as a convenient way of referring to them, since their last names are different. I feel very at home among the dactyls, and felt especially at home after Bob and I worked together to make the home more homey. Home Home home.

Dactyls symbolize love and family. They especially symbolize Bob, but also Emily and Barbara, and this house. Here they are nuzzling. It just makes me want to nuzzle!

Green and Red

This is a haircut I gave Emily a bit ago, and the subsequent henna-ing. I've been meaning to post this for a while, and mentioned it some time ago, but subsequently forgot. I'm not great at remembering. But these days I have a little book in my hair so everything is easier to remember.

Cooking

This is Wilson cooking on April the 30th. It's not that great a picture, but I like all the yellows, and I especially like that he is cooking for me. I love when people cook for me, and I love cooking for others. Mmmmmm.

Rhubarb

Emily made some strawberry rhubarb pie, in spite of a bit of a fear of rhubarb. "Vegetable pie?" She asked. "And isn't rhubarb poisonous?" she added suspiciously. After I promised her she could beat me up if I poisoned her, we decided to make it.

I love my home.

Emily and Kevin are home for the weekend, for my birthday, and just generally to visit. They make me so happy. I was literally bouncing with anticipation the day they were going to show up, which was Wednesday night.


This afternoon we gave the litter of current foster kittens a bath. They are all so fluffy and precious, but they smelled pretty bad.

Predictably, Kevin was taking pictures. Since I had also decided to take pictures (kittens!) we were getting in each other's way whenever we saw the same good idea. It makes me smile. Kevin's camera is such a part of him, and it couldn't get in my way if he weren't hanging out with Emily and I in our bathroom, so it is obviously a positive thing.

I love them.

(Kevin's related blog post is here )