Feb. 20 cont'd. The Time it Takes
MAUS is the story of Art Spiegelman's father from the 1920's - 1946/ 7, his son using a present-day U.S. vantage point to flashback- explore Nazi Europe. The son was asked how MAUS, started 1972, was progressing.(...wd be completed 1986 approx. 200 pp as a 'comic book novel').
Asked this in 1979 Spiegelman replied: "What I'm doing now...so much more extensive" (than a 3-page preview) "...something else completely... different requirements, different rhythm, completely different work...."
Worth a repeat -- 1972-1986 for a comic book. CONVERSATIONS WITH ART SPIEGELMAN provoking this blog, contains more wisdom about art generally and marketing art than is likely to be absorbed from anywhere else.

A photographer expanding his reach asks: "If I use a scanner, is it photography?" and has a 2nd question: "...is photog more truthful than drawing or ptg?"
On p.102 of Yishu, Journal of Contemp Chinese Art, Evan Lee, 'post-photography generatn', undertakes "straight doc. photo projects, conceptual street photo projects, found still lifes and durational performances" -- like taking his camera apart.

And he's got superb draftsmanship.

Lee is "recognized as among the next group of Vancouver School Artists" but what intrigues me as set down by Charo Neville, is the comment:
"An exhibition of eighteen pencil drawings and two large scale-photographs is not a complete departure from photography, but rather, a further investigation into the medium as a tool for his (Lee's) practice and a means for understanding representation."

CONVERSATNS... its next page, Mouly and husband Art Spiegelman both commented on Gustave Dore (1832-1883):
"...started by being essentially a comic book artist...his History of Holy Russia...all this great stuff...people shd be exposed to...graphic ideas which were wonderful..."
"...ten little pictures on a page, and I think there's even balloons in some of them. There's text underneath the pictures and it flows from unit of time to unit of time."

see "hatching", last of pix this site
CONVERSATNS W SPIEGELMAN: p.26
In attempts of Francoise Mouly and her husband to redefine comics (their short-lived mag. RAW) - they met
"...a number of people who are gallery artists, filmmakers and so on, who did things which combined word and picture. They weren't necessarily funny and they weren't a parody of comics. They were thoroughly involved with words and pictures and what that meant for them."

Jan.2008 periodical. A reintroductn to Ching Ho Cheng (1946-1989) by Jonathan Goodman:
p.22 "...a final innovation realized by Cheng is a method whereby paper was treated with gesso, iron, or copper powder, which was then oxidized in a pool of vinegar water to create actual rust..."
"In an untitled piece from 1988, iron oxide and acrylic create a strikingly textured surface..."

Ching Ho Cheng p.21 cont'd
"By tearing first, before covering the shapes with such media as charcoal, pastel, and graphite, the artist emphasized the process and its uninfluenced accomplishments rather than a finished work of art (like many artists...at that time Cheng was deeply involved with procedures and methods of process)."

The work of Ching Ho Cheng (p.21)
...art historian Gert Schiff informed among other things that circa 1980
"Cheng's method of tearing paper came about after he ripped apart a drawing he was unhappy with. Cheng's forms of ripped paper, which give the sense of monumentality no matter what the composition size, do not necessarily reflect...landscape, an association...denied. Instead, he emphasized the spontaneous nature of the tear itself, which resulted in an open-ended composition ruled by chance..."

At Long March Space in Beijing are eight cement blocks. An artist Qiu Zhijie interested in archaeology has been working on them since 2000. He says of the fourth block inscriptions:
"...(they) include keywords 'tomorrow', 'moon', 'dream', 'love', from karaoke club song menus...
"In the self-loving atmosphere that is karaoke, the collective unconscious dances behind the stage, while on stage, the grand entrance of this theatre is made by that of the individual who imagines him or herself to be free."

Plse see info re online auctions, and...
There was a real five- and- dime located at top of the hill (from where the V.R.Timms fam lived on East 5th across from the school). I don't remember if another sch, Mt. Pleasant was my first of over a dozen - might have been. I do remember at that age, to take to a teacher, stealing tulips through a fence and being caught by my mother. Much later ca 1958, stole (one) wallflower which beckoned on long tiring walks (single mom of two) to/ from work nr. S. Burnaby H.S., and now infrequently in season will steal one lower- branch rose from Value Vill beds. Only one...Haven't cared who sees or about the ethics of the thing ever since - early - the awareness came that my society wd never be a planter of boulevard nut trees.

Here's Jen Adams Donnelly also on 'Design Team 2008'.
p.76. Who'd think that scrapbooking inspiratn cd come from or go to movie posters, DVD cases, movie preview style? Tucking into a wide pocket, an imaginary DVD case behind the explanatory Artist File Card?
DIGITAL SCRAPB section 'journaling how-to' gives momentum. And in the small- font materials sidebars where one must read the fine print, are evolving idiosyncratic 'kits'/ fonts.
Imagine, ideas one can't get to now carried fwd in styles of poster, DVD case, movie preview: (Startling possibilities for my 1992 -- 44 titles; blog, Feb. 06).

Next time in your video store, internalize TITLE, TAG LINE, PRODUCTION CREDITS with 'journaling' blocked in PRODUCTN CREDIT style.

Adds a fillip; makes one pay attn to credits.
"I consider scrapbooking with the computer to be postmodern storytelling for the digital age...":
Ann Hetzel Gunkel, a prof of cultural studies, and currently on a magazine's
'Design Team 2008'.
For the past yr I had been despairingly auditing DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING. Didn't realize I had to blot out the expensive eqpt ads, creatively adapt to my defaults, and settle to reread and reread articles in what's becoming intermediate betw Cutsy- Sisal Bow- Scroll- Pastel and what can be done. If not ready to focus, there's 2009.

About same time as 'titles carrying intention'.
Finished ANTIPAS novella 1986. Late spring '89 walking to mall found in vacant lot destined to be Metrotown library, a roaster pan. Skipped 1991, but summers of '89, '90, and '92 were devoted to fabric art (immersion dyeing using the roaster). Occupied 1991 writing, preparing visuals, rehearsing for Sept Fringe, one- woman- show CARA REINHOLD dramatizing Cara's two- summer roasting pan experience.

'Forty four Titles'
World Building 1992. Early mall: Was doing storytelling in a not yet leased N facing storefront, and buying banquet table paper (rolls) in Metrotown basement for my world-bldg, and discovering Viet Namese food, same basement.

Now filling world-bldg concession gaps using yellowing oversize spreadsheet. Memories: HIDDEN YIN in d4 confirms start of Game- Series- numbering 900, 800, 700 etc.;
attempting story of Boazo (f) g8: LAST STRING BAND OF BOAZO;
f6 sending spies to ENCHANTED MONKEY CAMERA SHOP;
a4 E.G. FLOWER SHOP became yr. 2006, EYE OF GOD DANCE HALL
In 1994 added laboratories and more artefacts. In 1995 glued onto Reverse, NAMES carrying intentions and prob. then, archetypal artefacts -- Moon Dog,The Gimelian, The Anchorite, Wolves of Nun,, etc.

Represented is "(tr.) ...knitting needles and wool slipping from her fingers..."
Her surroundings and dress don't imply poverty. Head slightly inclined; prepubescent, unlined face, eyes closed.
Questions, though:
what did the engraver have to look at?
iron needles look pitted. Plain stitches are hypnotic
are her arms/ hands developmentally over- used?
In engraving, are texture and flesh equally achievable?
Shimmer on dress folds.
Still, I resist the 18th cent. critic saying "(tr.)...a naive image of laziness and boredom with one's work..."

a mere two pages later he's serenading where direction of the wind will carry his love to Fermina Daza:
"One of his favored spots was the paupers' cemetery, exposed to the sun and the rain on an indigent hill, where turkey buzzards dozed and the music achieved a supernatural resonance...(he was) certain that his melody carried as far as it had to."

If from today for two weeks you read LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA at the correct incandescent pace, by Feb. 14 (page 68) you'll be sanctified. The passage is that in which a youth receives a long-awaited love letter:
"Delirious with joy, Florentino Ariza spent the rest of the afternoon eating roses and reading the note letter by letter, over and over again, and the more he read the more roses he ate, and by midnight he had read it so many times and had eaten so many roses that his mother had to hold his head as if he were a calf and force him to swallow doses of castor oil."

Standing w my foot in a pot thinking about Wed. Republican debate - McCain's round head (rarely) lowered. Stark white hair/ pink complexn contrasted to eyes w seemingly black irises in shade as he gazed up from under his brows.
On Thurs my insight was confirmed -- McCain's two sides: the affable one and his other, for more than one voice asserted, "...he can be mean ..."