Captured: studio images, March 2011

This Sunday morning, before I go to work, I'm taking a moment to share some images I've captured in the studio this month. Some are captured in the wild, such as these 45s from a used record store in Brussels, and the yardstick from Jamba's Junktiques. Others were captured in pencil and ink in the pages of my homemade sketchbook.

 


Today I am inspired by numerals, the many textures and colors of grey metal, perfect squares, love lists, and by my mitten-clad faerie muses. How about you?

Record-breaking (snow) in Burlington!

I love records of all sorts. Breaking records is a little like making mixtapes: take previously recorded information and make a new experience! That's just what we've been up to in Burlington. Today is the second snow day in a row for the teachers and schoolkids; the snow stopped last night but the city's still scrambling to plow the sidewalks and you can't have the little guys walking to school in the road (especially after watching yahoos pull donuts all over your neighborhood at night!)

Here's what we've been up to at our snowfort:

Hope you're enjoying the great indoors as well!

That's so square.

One of my favorite things about the Diana-mini, our new family camera, is that it allows one to shoot either in the half-frame aspect ratio, or SQUARE! I think my love of square composition comes directly from my love of records (and cd's), and perhaps from a long love of simple patchwork quilts. Even in my collage work, I am devoted to the square. Here are a few recent shots from the Diana-mini and some older collage work. For the love of squares!

Tutorial: Goblin Crowns

pages 31, 32, 33, 34

pages 12, 13, 14, 15:

a life filled with:

My Second-Favorite Holiday

There are lots of reasons not to celebrate or support the practice of celebrating Valentine's Day. From it's deep roots in European patriarchy to it's current capitalistic expressions, it is full of flaws. But, so am I, and I just love an excuse to spread to love of craft! Round about mid-February, we Northerners need a little excuse to light candles and set gluesticks to scrap paper in the name of Love!

Halloween is the ultimate crafter's delight because the social expectations are low and there is as much room for costume, theater, and creativity as one cares to assume.  Valentine's Day is my second favorite, because it's social weight is light enough to leave folks with room to play around; a perfect excuse to open the studio stash of paper scraps for a free-recycling love-in! We invited a few souls over to open the suitcases of fiber mystery; gave them scissors, glue, envelopes, and stamps.

Of course I can't show any of the missives, but I do encourage everyone to take this late winter opportunity to light the candles, pour the wine, and mix the magic of collage with postal service in celebration of our human predicament!

Inside, Out

Wow! It's 4 above zero and w-i-n-d-y here in Burlington. I'm uploading MP3s of mixtapes past as Classic Hits and I prepare to record the next one. Here are some pictures from inside and outside the studio.

lesson one thumbnails

This project was made on 5 July in Burlington, VT with xeroxes, YES paste and spackling knives. The images were lifted from an album sleeve of a 1983 breakdance compilation.

paper mobile finished

The paper mobile project is finished! One is in the mail to Boston and the other is hanging over the kitchen crib, to help out when watching Mothertrucker cook isn't quite interesting enough...

The mobiles inspired me to share some other images of lovely things hanging in the studio, including this amalgamation:
and this piece of fabric which I knit from strips of torn cotton shirts.
A final photo for today's post:

This is my main work surface looking,as it often does, cluttered with projects in various stages of completion and chaos.

marvin and the paper mobile

here's our handsome mascot, marvin. he guards the studio so nobody steals my paper scraps and disco records. actually most of the time he's littlewing's sidekick at the farm.


i'm working on cutting out many many many 2 inch circles from colorful paper with which to make a mobile for the chicklets. it's been so much fun turning ephemera into, well, more interesting ephemera, and giving it a relationship with the wind.


this project may take a while. nursing the chicklets takes up most of my time these days. they don't call me mothertrucker for nothing! we did get in a bit of turntable time yesterday; here's an artist list of the set: eddie kendricks, roxanne shante, jurassic 5, shuggie otis, and malkit singh.

well, i'm mo-t and that's the news from the flying hen.