Exotica Botanica

Last Saturday we went to Seattle again for Saturday University at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. The talk was called "Circling the Center: Pilgrimage in the Tibetan Cultural World." We took with us Pratistha and Shweta, friends from Kathmandu. Pratistha and Shweta are both Buddhist and the day was also Pratistha's birthday. Our friend Pam joined us as well. We all learned so much at the lecture and then went back to the house of P and S to have amazing Nepali food and do puja for Pratistha's birthday.

We enjoyed the talk tremendously. And plan to go again tomorrow (Saturday). The museum is in the same park as the Conservatory, so we couldn't resist going in and getting a tropical blast of warmth and flowers.

Earth to Venus

The view of Venus orbiting the sun as seen from Earth, and likewise how Earth looks from Venus as it orbits the sun. The pattern is a beautiful five-pointed star. It takes 8 years for Venus to make one star pattern: like shown above.

A few days ago Venus went "retrograde." What this means is that from where we sit on Earth and look at Venus up in the sky, it appears to be going backwards. This is just an illusion created from the different speeds of the two planets and that they are passing. Historically this has been a big deal in many cultures and many myths have been created about this time. They are myths of underworld journeys when Venus goes "below" to face demons and returns reborn as a morning star. The pentagram became a symbol of this planet and this journey of transformation.

Interestingly, Venus will be retrograde this time for 42 days. It is always about that amount. So I learned how to draw a 42 pointed star. In my geometry group we draw only with a compass, a straight edge, and pencil. So this is how this was done. 6x7=42, of course. So if you look carefully you can see that the six pointed star divides the circle every seventh point.

Last night in geometry I showed a new way (to us) to draw a pentagon/pentagram, in honor of Venus. Bill filled his page and all day today has continued to color his page.

I also learned yesterday how to find 60 equi-distant points around the circle, using only our geometer's tools. I was pretty excited, as we have all been trying to figure out 30 around and 60 around for some time. So when I figured it out, I was pretty excited, so I demonstrated this to our group as well. 60 around is about time: 60 minutes and 60 seconds build our clock, and time is ruled by Saturn. Saturn is the furthest planet out that can be seen with the naked eye, so to ancient time-keeper/astronomers Saturn was used to mark time.

This may all make me sound like an astrology geek, but I am not. It is really astronomy and archeology. I find it fascinating.

Mother Time

"Every twenty-eight days the moon moves through all twelve signs of the zodiac to return to the same place in relation to the stars. Due to this lunar cycle, twenty-eight day months have divided the year in many cultures and still do in various Hindu, Islamic, and Hebrew traditions. Women’s menstrual cycles average twenty-eight days and have been symbolically related to the moon’s cycle throughout history. Interestingly, human gestation, the time it takes for a fetus to develop in the womb, averages 280 days. No wonder that the moon is often feminized and in many native cultures is called 'Mother' or 'Grandmother.'"

This is an excerpt from my new book edition project called Mother Time. I am working on 3 projects at once, all towards various deadlines. All the holidays are working ones for me! Billy has been a big help, cutting stencils and some linoleum for me, and cleaning the press in between as usual. I don't know what I would do without him. Shweta was also in the studio with me this weekend, helping me with excellent color suggestions and making multiple serious offers to organize and clean my studio. I could use some of that!

We were all pretty tired after having a lot of grandkids playing and climbing all over us, cooking, dish washing, and eating lots of pie. (It was all good.) We all had such a very good time. (The pies were 4: apple, cherry, pumpkin, and coconut cream. The grandchildren were 4, adult children were 4, Grandparents were 2, and the dirty dishes were endless.) There was even a snowball fight!

But we were tired the next day and Bill still worked so hard on a stencil for me to use for the print up top. Unfortunately, he cut a 42 pointed star instead of a 28, and we had to start all over again! I know I'll use it eventually, so it's nice to have it in the back file.

By the way, this printing style is done with stencils. The printing technique I learned from Kathy Kuehn, but designing and cutting stencils to make them I figured out on my own. I love it!

By the Skin of My Teeth

Well, I did it. It wasn't easy, but yesterday I got Erotica Botanica delivered to the gallery with one day to spare. I am not sure I had one day to spare, as I am exhausted.

This is the wrapper with the book inside. I should say the deluxe book, although the trade edition will also have a wrapper.

There are two blue flaps inside that hold the book in at the top and bottom.

I only printed a few butterflies (they pop-up) and a few blue flaps. My press started making a new noise, and I couldn't oil it away. It doesn't sound good. So I just wanted to print the minimum I needed to until I could stop and get Bill's help to work on the press. Actually, Bill suggested I leave out the butterfly so I could stop printing, he thought the book was beautiful enough. But I couldn't leave it out now. I was in do or die mode.

My favorite of the poems:
"Bandy-legged bumble bee
your furry belted belly
tickles me"

A week before the deadline I printed the poems on one half of the book and realized the next morning I had mis-registered them. I had to begin printing that half of the book over. This happened the day before my mother-in-law arrived. So I emailed the gallery and they were able to give me a few extra days. Phew! I thought I could still print and socialize and get the book done with plenty of time to spare.

I began printing on the second half of the book and printed the colophon on the wrong page. So now I also had to re-print the second half of the book as well as the first. I gave up on the idea of printing with my company in the house. My attention was too diverted. I was getting sloppy. The good news was that I could change a few things that were bothering me.

All the imagery for the book was printed from stencils I designed and cut. Except this flower which Billy made. I think this is the only stencil that was cut once. All the other stencils for the book were cut at least twice, and some (including the leaf pages) three times! There are four different flowers and they pop-up from the folds.

I have a huge pile of models from designing the book, a pile of used and unused stencils, and many proofs of the stencils in multiple colors. What to do with all this leafy color!

For now, I will focus on binding, finishing printing the trade edition and getting that out, and getting back into a routine that includes exercise, nature, and friends.

Come see the show!
23 Sandy Gallery, Portland Oregon
September 22 - October 30, 2010
Pop-Up Now! A Juried Exhibition of Movable Books