November

Droughts are on the mind. I recently watched Ken Burns' "The Dust Bowl," and the drought that exacerbated the dust storms in the thirties, lasted almost a decade. And then there was the drought that polished off the Old Kingdom in Egypt. That lasted fifty years. Droughts are a fact of life...

There is a lot written on the topic of brain drought/creative block. I've read suggestions that you should plow through the nothingness-- that persistence will lead to a kernel of an idea, and it will take root.  Others say, get away from your work. It does no good to hack away at something that isn't there. What do you do when you have a drought of ideas?

Fortunately, I have several different projects going on. Like I mentioned in a previous post... being busy spurs my brain to work a little harder. The ideas I return to are hardly ever novel. The fun (though hard) part is taking a familiar idea and making it my own. Sometimes it doesn't work and I want to crawl into a hole and shrivel up/give up. Sometimes it does work, but someone already came up with the same genius idea so you can't use it because it would be copying (kind of). 

And once in awhile, you come up with something that seems to be unique and so you proceed tentatively at first. And eventually, all you want to do is work on your idea. Forget the bathroom, forget food or water, forget sunlight... Does the light table count?

Process

ordered chaos

night printing

edge printing- tools

ice cream sandwich

I proceeded to spray blue all over the clamps AND my left hand

almost finished goods

all done

a bit of October

A new sewing machine (love!), a baby shower, Disneyland and some fantastically fun custom jobs.

Here's a peek at C's baby shower invitations. 

Babies galore!

The invitations are done, but I didn't make one up for myself, and I realized I didn't photograph them until I had sealed up the package for shipping. Doh! She's asked me to design some other pieces for her shower, and I'm trying to keep my ideas within the boundaries of reason. I love the flexibility that comes with custom projects. It never gets boring because I usually get to use a lot of different processes/techniques... and I come out of these projects with a glut of ideas. My brain, I've found, is sort of a jerk. It comes up with all sorts of random ideas (some of them, pretty good) at moments when I'm incapable of implementing them. Must be some subconscious avoidance mechanism at work. Anyway, after working on C's project, I've some up with a couple brand new designs. Hoping to get these out before thanksgiving.

illuminati

My silkscreen stuff has been in storage for eight years, and I am so happy to get back into it. After spending a couple weeks getting screens made (and re-made), buying inks, setting up my system, and some printing failures, today was a great printing day. Drizzly and cool days are precious in L.A., especially for outdoor silkscreening. I'm using gold and silver pearl inks from Permaset and am pleased with the opacity and shine. 

ACHHH! How do people live like this?!

After I clean off this ridiculous desktop, I intend to keep Henry Miller's seventh commandment.

proud mama!

My new baby arrived today. I'm now the proud mama of a Rotatrim Professional M24. It's an understatement to say that I'm thrilled (for goodness sake, I'm blogging about it, and it takes a lot for me to blog about anything)!  Until now, I've relied on Kinkos' equally awesome Rotatrim, but no more. OH MAN, I AM SO EXCITED! 

A beauteous thing! 

I also ordered a custom rubber stamp from rubberstamps.net earlier in the week. I'd used them before for a custom stamp for my friend, Lois' wedding invitations, and I liked their fast service and good quality stamps. I ordered the basic wooden custom stamp, but for a few more dollars, you can also get it with a handle. It came in the mail today. I could hardly wait to try out my new gold stamp pad!  

August and September have been good months. I went on a weeklong camping trip with my parents and family friends to the Grand Canyon right after labor day. The time away from the computer and tv and the rest of the world was rejuvenating, as was waking up/going to bed with the sun. 

sunset from Yaki Point

I requested a last minute backcountry permit and hiked down to the river and back up the next day (6.8 miles down, 9.3 miles up). Aside from hobbling around on spaghetti legs for the next three days and not being able to look at a clif bar without feeling ill (and perhaps developing a slight peanut allergy?) there was no permanent damage done. I met many nice folks on the trail, and everyone was super supportive of the fact that I was solo-ing/on my first expedition. For the most part, I was hiking alone- just me and the canyon and the dust. Even if someone was a hundred feet in front of me, once they rounded a curve or went up a switchback, I could not see them. It was pleasant to be alone. The only thing that kills me is that I didn't take my camera because of the weight. Next time, I go lightweight. 

Anyway, it was good to get away, but even better to be back and ready to work. I'm currently collaborating with a customer on some Little Prince invitations for her son's first birthday, and thinking up designs for digital invitation kits. 

Also, lots of new babies on the way. Real human babies... YAY!

ETSY SHOP

At long last, I've opened up the shop I've been meaning to open for an embarrassing number of years now.  Hooray! 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MKLstudio

finalmente!

Yikes! it's been over two weeks since the last post.  I have been drawing though, so I'll post as regularly as possible from now.

So, between then and now, what have I been doing?
1) designed and ordered promo postcards
2) wrote "query"/cover letters
3) put envelopes together
4) MAILED my portfolio samples!

Here's a picture before a trip to the post office.

Based on the volume of file folders, envelopes, labels, paper clips and papers lying around, I could have opened a small office supply store. It's funny how all that matter condensed into these seven envelopes--they're considerably less meaty than I anticipated. (A good thing I hope.)

To sum it all up in one word: RELIEVED.

I don't know why I put off the mailing for so long, but I feel way better now that it's out of my hands. There's nothing to fret about. Well, the fear of complete rejection looms, but I can worry about that 3-6 months down the line if/when it happens... and fortunately I have good coping skills.  

For now I'm more than ready to resume a normal schedule and work on the stuff that's been put aside. 

Eurethra!

Scientists in Wake Forest have "grown" urethras from bladder cells. In the study, the engineered urethras were implanted into five boys with urinary tract damage.  The results are promising. Science changing lives-- I love it.

Read more:
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/08/134340350/scientists-grow-parts-for-kids-with-urinary-damage

Here's the paper:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673610623549/fulltext