four walls, no walls, you and me.

Since my last post on the topic, I’ve successfully brewed one batch of kombucha. After the SCOBY got a little more solid, I put it in a new batch of tea and left it out for a little over a week. After a while, the pH levels seemed good and the smell was right so I decided it was time to bottle it. I got a little fancy and chopped up some ginger into a puree which I then strained into the brew, along with a bit of apple juice. Let me tell you, it was delish!

However, I did a lot of traveling toward the end of September and early October so I was unable to keep up with the process. I didn’t want to risk contamination since there was no one else to look after it so I ended up tossing out the mother and baby before I left. It was a sad day since I had been through so much with that first SCOBY and it takes soooo loong to cultivate a new one. BTW, SCOBY’s feel really weird, and are surprisingly tough. I can’t imagine how people eat them.

Now, I’m on round 2 of Operation SCOBY. I bought a new bottle of GT’s but this time, instead of dumping the bottle into a jar by itself, I mixed it with some sweet tea which is the recommended method, I think. I also used a different type of tea, which is not working out so well for me. This particular tea has an oil that once brewed rests on top of the tea like a film. I think this oil is bad for making Kombucha so I tried to get rid of as much as I could with paper towels. I think the best results have been when I used an organic white tea (which is a type of green tea) even though many people have said they did not get good results with white/green teas as opposed to black.

So far not much is happening but the weather has also been weird lately so I’ll have to be patient. I’m using a heat pad set on low to warm things up. I’ve read that during the colder months, a heat pad really helps so we’ll see how that goes. Not much to look at for the moment but once things get interesting I’ll post photos. Fingers crossed that this batch goes well!

Inspired by my friend Sheena’s new blog, Granola Tendencies, I decided I would do a post on eco alternatives in Art.

One of the big caveats with art is that it’s so damn expensive! In school, people would always comment on how lucky I was that I almost never had to spend the couple hundred dollars on textbooks for class. What they didn’t realize was that in the course of a semester, I would end up spending several times that amount on art supplies! One great way of being eco-friendly is to simply consume less. By this I mean ways you can use what you have around you to make art, as opposed to running out and buying new art materials every time you have a new project. This is very eco-friendly in that it reduces waste and doesn’t contribute to the enormous amounts of energy and materials used in producing new products, etc…

Chopsticks: Not only for eating noodles, they make great drawing utensils. You can also use forks or spatulas or credit cards to lay blocks of texture. In Learning by Heart, Sister Corita suggests an exercise where one makes drawings using only chopsticks and india ink. The combination of using something as simple as ink and a chopstick really invites a sense of play (which is crucial to any creative endeavor) since the way we feel toward a chopstick is not the same way one might feel toward say, a #12 Kolinsky Sable brush, for example. 

Spoons: A good spoon or ladle can go a long way. Use these instead of a brayer for small prints. If you have larger prints, you can use an empty can covered with cloth for the same purpose. In fact, many useful things can be found in a kitchen utensil drawer. A butter knife makes an excellent bone folder.

Glue: Why buy glue when you can easily make it? Wheat paste has been around for centuries and is a favorite among street artists worldwide. It uses just 3 common household items: water, flour and sugar. There are lots of different recipes for making wheat paste but here’s one if you don’t want to sift through google. They are all pretty much the same, and will be good for use for up to a week. Also consider this as an alternative to store bought Modge Podge or epoxy resins for sealing.

Buy used: Nowadays, a lot of the art you see is digital. This means digital cameras, software, tools, etc. Consider buying these things used instead of new. Technology moves fast and it’s important to keep up, but unless you are a pro and making money off your art, then it doesn’t really seem reasonable to buy that new $3K digital camera or $2k for that pen tablet. Remember, it’s what you do with the tools you have. Although I may want the new 5D Mark II or D700, if I don’t know how to compose a nice picture to begin with, no amount of vibration reduction, vertical horizon, autofocus, etc…is going to make it any better than if i shot it using a disposable camera. And think of all the plastic you saved from the dump by buying used! Also, many programs come with multiple downloads or users. Consider splitting one among friends or searching for a single user from places like craigslist or eBay. 

Notebooks: I LOVE notebooks. This is one area that’s really hard for me. Every artist needs a good notebook. I have a reserve of several nicer notebooks/journals for the stuff I want to keep or remember but for quick notes and to-do lists – the stuff that eventually gets tossed and recycled – I use scrap paper. At work we go through a lot of paper, and almost all of it is one-sided. I keep a pile of this on my desk for quick notes or things that I know I won’t need to keep around for a while. You can also gather up all this paper and bind it into a nice little notebook as well. 

Pens: Ok, so this is me on my soapbox for a minute. As much as I love notebooks, I also LOVE fountain pens. They are very eco-friendly in that you only need ONE good fountain pen and it will last you for potentially your entire lifetime. At the very least it will outlast your cheapy disposable several times over. Just think of all the plastic that goes into making disposable pens – and then think of your pen collection. How many of those pens are disposable? I would guess that for most Americans, almost all the pens they use are disposable.  All that ends up somewhere. Although I have several fountain pens, my favorite is a super cheapy one made by a Chinese company (Hero) that I picked up in Thailand for around $2 USD. Similar models (Hero 330) are available here for only $5. Noodler’s inks are also relatively inexpensive at around $10-15/bottle for 3oz which is more than enough ink to last. That’s a $15-20 investment, which I’m sure is around or less than what most of us spend in the course of a year on pens. Not to mention all the other benefits of fountain pens such as improved penmanship, less strain on your hand, etc… Fountain pens now come in many different nib sizes so illustrators have a variety of line widths to choose from.

Canvas: Yes, sometimes, you will need to go buy that huge canvas for that huge project, but sometimes, you don’t. Consider other materials that are readily available and free/cheap. Adam Neate made a career out of painting on cardboard. Consider this, along with wood, glass, vinyl, fabric, basically any surface. Many of these items can be found in thrift stores for cheap. Now, with the huge popularity of Street Art, the entire city is your canvas! Painting on an alternative surface also pushes you to think more about the nature of that surface. It engages your creative juices in a different way than painting on canvas or canvas board.

These are but a few ideas. Feel free to tweak these to suit your needs and resources. Also don’t be afraid to build your own tools. If you have any more ideas, let me know and I’ll post them here. More to come on eco-friendly art in future posts as well as different topics to consider.

So I haven’t really gotten used to this Indian Summer thing yet and it is very strange and more than a little disorienting to be in the middle of October and still have days that are in the upper 70’s or low 80’s. I mean, I know it’s California but I really do covet the autumn months, however short they may be. I keep hoping that tomorrow will feel more like fall and less like summer but this week has been so schizo weather-wise I don’t really know which way it’s going to turn. The news says that later this week can get as high as 90 which is so disappointing. One ray of hope however, is the 3.4 oz of awesome housed in the simple glass bottle of perfume I bought today. 

I usually NEVER buy a perfume unsniffed but on a whim I bought a bottle of Badgely Mischka’s signature perfume. My friend Alice had a bottle of their limited edition 2007 Fleurs de Nuit which I liked a lot so I knew I could expect something in the same family. WOW. I absolutely love this perfume and REALLY lucked out since buying a perfume unsniffed is not only a huge risk, but also a lot of money. I loved the FdN scent and thought it was perfect for the summer since it was so light. However, fall calls for something with a little more weight, a little more substance. This perfume definitely fits the bill. It is such an elegant and luxurious scent, evocative of how silk feels against the skin, or how tall heels can change your entire outlook. 

This summer I’ve been wearing a lot of M by Masaki Matshushima and Moroccan Rose by Body Shop (which is not only an absolutely lovely rose scent but also a steal at $25 for 50ml, I’m already on my second bottle!) which is great but after 6 months I am ready for a change. Badgeley Mischka’s perfume is the total opposite of my summer scents in the feeling it evokes. Some of my fave fall scents have been Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel,  Pink Jasmine by Fresh, and one of my all time faves Philosykos by Diptyque but none of them have ever evoked the essence of fall the way this perfume does. The top notes are a nice blend of floral and fruity which definitely drew me in. There is noticeably less floral elements as you get toward the middle and especially base notes, giving way to a more subtle, woodsy scent. 

If it wasn’t already obvious, I really like perfume. A good perfume can change your mood, make you feel like a million bucks, prepare you for the day ahead. I was already pretty ansty for fall to arrive (and stay!) and now I can’t wait even more. I usually have a few different perfumes I rotate and switch between for each season and also depending on what mood I’m in on a particular day but I have a feeling that this fall I might stick with just this one! I’m not much of a subscriber of the “signature scent” but I do have a few perfumes I love more than most and this I anticipate being one of them.

Available at Bergdorf Goodman, Saks, Nordstrom and various other online retailers. $45-90.

Yesterday I dragged my sorry self to LACMA despite the fact that I had been awake since 3:30 AM and completely exhausted. Why? To attend a panel discussion with Guerrilla Girls and Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries. Young Hae was M.I.A. but sent a message to those of us in attendance which was quite fun and funny and YHC Heavy Ind. also premiered a new work, which I liked a lot. The conversation revolved mostly around collaboration, anonymity, and politics and how that plays into their art. It was an awesome lecture and I left with a lot of things to think about.

I also realized that I become a total rambling idiot when it comes to speaking with artists that I completely and utterly admire. I got a chance to talk to both artists and was totally starstruck. Here’s a pic.

I didn’t get a pic with Marc Voge, the other half of Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries which was a bummer but he was so charming during the discussion and so nice when I talked to him afterward, I totally have an Art Crush on him now. I’m sure if Young Hae were there I would have an Art Crush on her too!

I’m super excited about the upcoming Baldassari talk next week and I can barely contain myself for BARBARA KRUEGER in October!

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to make my own kombucha. I had been buying bottles of GT’s from Whole Foods and at nearly $4 a bottle it was adding up. I googled several methods online but they looked labor intensive which was a bummer. Not to mention that online vendors were selling SCOBY’s for as much as $35! The whole point was to save money, not spend even more so that was a no-go. Besides, buying a SCOBY online kinda weirded me out. I also read that there were sites where you could get one from people who were already making their own kombucha but that also seemed sketch to me so I googled on. Finally I came across a post where people had successfully made their own bucha from the very same bottle of GT’s that I had in my fridge! SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast, btw.

I started by sterilizing an old glass kimchi jar. I filled it with boiling hot water and let it sit for a while. I rinsed it again with hot water and then let it air dry and cool down. Once the jar was cool, I poured in one entire bottle of GT’s that I had set out to room temp. It is important to let the jar cool before pouring in the GT’s or else the heat will kill the cultures in the kombucha. Also, I used the original GT’s and not one of the flavored ones. I’ve read that other people have used flavored ones with good results but that just weirded me out. Plus, I didn’t want the added risk of having fruit purees and juices in there that may increase the risk of flies or mold. I covered the jar with cheesecloth to keep out bugs and other nasties and then set it in a cabinet out of the sunlight.

A week later nothing happened. I think it was because the weather was so cool in L.A. despite it being mid August. I had read that the kombucha needs to sit out for a week or two before the SCOBY forms so I let it sit for another week. I was constantly checking it, several times a day, which probably wasn’t a great idea but oh well. Finally, the weather warmed up a LOT here and once that happened I could see that there was a very thin layer of stuff floating on top of the kombucha! It looked very thin and a little patchy which I read was normal for the first batch so I left it for a few more days. Eventually I saw that it had sunk a little bit and was now floating in the middle of the mix instead of on top, which I also read was normal. There were also a lot of stringy things which I guess is good. Here’s a pic of the half sinking/half floating SCOBY.

What was ABNORMAL, was that it looked like there were TWO growing in there! This was confirmed once I made my first batch of sweet tea and transferred it to the new jar. Here’s a pic where you can see that there is the round SCOBY but below it to the right you can see another thin SCOBY-like substance. WHAT IS THAT???? Is it normal?

Anyway, I made a batch of sweet tea and let that cool to room temp. I used organic white tea which is a green tea variety. Normally this is one of my fave teas but this was a bad idea simply because there are oils in there that once brewed left an oily sheen on the top of the tea. This is bad for making kombucha so I removed it with paper towels. I then poured the sweet tea and kombucha into a larger jar and again covered with cheesecloth and set back in the cabinet. It’s been a few days and I’ve resisted the urge to constantly check it.

I really hope this works…I’m a little worried about the double SCOBY thing. Also, I always assume the worst so when I read about vinegar flies I was totally worried I had them too. The problem was that there wasn’t enough liquid for me to be able to actually see anything clearly. Hopefully this brew will work out and if not, then I guess I’ll have to toss it and start over. I’ll post updates once there’s something more substantial to look at!

I’ve been in a funk (not the good funk) musically this summer. Not in the mood to search out good new music, not in the mood to listen to old faves. Most of this summer my radio dial has been tuned into NPR or KUSC or off entirely.

That is until recently. I went to the H.Bowl with Liz for a night of Mozart and it reminded me how much I love music and how much better it is live. That made me miss music and how it colors my memories. It would suck to look back on this summer and have the soundtrack be silence.

So, I started with Pheonix’s new album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix which I am in love with, albeit a little late. It has been hailed many a time over as one of the best summer albums and for good reason. It is perfectly pop and perfectly dancable. Love Like a Sunset Part 1 is not only amazing but also what my dream dance night would sound like if condensed into under 8 minutes. Starts off slow and builds up then ends with a sweet vocal that would be perfect as morning music (maybe they should have called it Love Like a Sunrise?).

That got me in the mood to put on my dancing shoes which inevitably led me to Tiga’s latest album Ciao!. Now, I love me some Tiga and his podcasts are great fun but when I heard the promo of Mind Dimension, I was put off entirely.  I think a large part of it was that I was feeling awful during that time and nothing could get me out of that funk (again, not the good kind). Anyway, I’m glad I gave it a shot because now I can’t stop listening to it! Especially the last track Love Don’t Dance Here Anymore which is amazing. Epic. It makes me want to cry every time I hear it. Just. So. Good.

Of course, that got me wanting some more old school disco/funk/soul which then led me to Love Has Come Around by Donald Byrd which is STILL such a great jam no matter where you are, who you are, or what decade it is. Although it does make me want to pick up, move to Brooklyn, and throw a block party just so I can play this song right. Just a more realistic option than me time-travelling to the 70’s.

Another fave is Private Number by Judy Clay and William Bell. I’ve also been diggin on the Supremes a whole lot ever since I got my hands on my parent’s record collection. Love that whole motown era. Check out this awesome video from back in the day!

Alright, enough for now. Hopefully I linked those correctly so you can read my blog AND listen to great music at the same time!

A piece of lino is still just a piece of lino no matter how many sratches and gouges and holes you put into it. Add ink and everything changes. Still can’t master the backward typography. Inking lino is deliciously satisfying. Finally seeing the fruits of your labor, for better or for worse.

Photos to come.

If you have not seen Your Bright Future at LACMA, go! GO NOW! Do Ho Suh is my new Art Hero.

It is 1AM on a friday night. I dropped of Sheena at LAX two hours ago and am really sad that our awesome day together is over. Pho and massages and boba and peeing in the ocean and being sucked in by the pull and power of 10 foot waves and home cooked thai food and interviews about her hair and a million photos are all now resigned to memory. 

Also, earlier this week, Hanna came over and we began our printmaking process. It was awesome to talk to her and I am so grateful for her belief in me as an artist. It is hard for me to think of myself as such so to have a voice that is not coming from inside my head voice these opinions is really good for me. She also brought up a lot of things that I am not ready to think about yet. The future still scares me and I am trying to put it off for as long as I can. It is really scary to have someone believe in you when you don’t yet believe in yourself. 

I had other thoughts but I am so tired.

I think that last post sent some negative vibes my way. I’ve been in a foul mood for the past week or so. Or it may have something to do with this insane heat.

I think my new summer past-time will be to stay indoors and be antisocial. More and more I have less and less desire to see people. There are a few exceptions. Sheena is coming in a week and I am very excited about that. Hanna and I are making prints next week and I am excited about that. I’m going to SF to see Bekah and Joel and Wonk and I’m excited about that. I’m seeing my nephews in 6 weeks and I am VERY excited about that.

I’ve also been seriously slacking in terms of going to the gym. I used to go on hikes with friends on the weekends but lately we’ve been swapping out fun outdoor activities for sedentary veg-fests, namely eating and foot massages. But really, it is WAY too hot to do anything outside. A few weeks ago Ho and I went on a hike in Malibu and both of us got sunburned. She got it worse than I did but I still have this awful tan line from it!

All of this is starting to take its mental and emotional toll. I know I should be doing more….but it is SERIOUSLY TOO HOT.

On an aside, a great way to cool off is with taco happy hours! I know this falls under the sedentary entertainment category but man, LA is the place to be for tacos. I’m not talking just the traditional taco, but rather the HYBRID TACO.

Who knew tacos could be the new gastro haute cuisine? Malo is by far the cult favorite. Mondays are Malo Mondays with $1, $2, and $3 tacos (the beef-pickle taco and potato-eggplant are a MUST and is only $3 for both!) as well as drink specials.

Another awesome taco, albeit a little over-hyped is Kogi. Kogi is the perfect blend of tacos and Korean BBQ. These tasty vittles are made fresh off the Kogi truck and are delish. The wait however, is the killer. Although it was a tasty little taco, I don’t think I’ll be waiting TWO AND A HALF HOURS!!! in line, until nearly 1AM for this taco again. I mean, I get it if it’s a Saturday night and you’re out late clubbing and need a tasty snack to equalize all the booze, but on a weeknight, couldn’t you move it up a few hours? Some of us have work the next day….

I was hoping to make this week taco week seeing as how I already kicked it off at Malo on Monday and had plans for Taco Tuesdays with Wonk at Cabo Cantina in Brea. However, those tacos sucked! Proving yet again, not all tacos are created equal. And, sadly, Taco Fest which was supposed to be this weekend in the LBC has been postponed until 2010! Sad day.

TGIF. The weekend is never long enough. Art walk and Coldplay this weekend. Yayee!

Maybe I’ve been listening to too much Public /Radio but seriously, what are these people thinking?

1. An unnamed radio psychologist once had a listener call in who voiced some dissatisfaction with the current US government and its policies. The radio psychologist then told the caller to get out…as in get out of America. I think she may have even hung up on the caller, but this was over a month ago so I’m not certain.

2. A blogger reports widely known rumors on Sarah Palin. Blogger receives several calls and messages from Palin supporters detailing the various methods in which she should be disposed of. Blogger then gets named in a defamation suit.

There are so many reasons why these two stories are SO WRONG but I’ll only focus on a few.

The first being, since when was it OK to excommunicate people for voicing their dissent? The last time I checked we still had the freedom of speech and if I’m not mistaken, CHANGE happens when people see a wrong and speak out about it. If we tell all these people to either shape up or ship out, can you imagine the state our United States would be in? What would have happened to Civil Rights? Women’s Suffrage? Slavery?

Sure, America does offer a greater amount of freedom and exchange than many other countries but resorting to this relativism to justify such awful  behavior is not the answer. Yes, we do live in a country that offers us many freedoms, but as such, we should be allowed to exercise those freedoms.

This whole tag line “If you don’t like it here, get out” really bugs me. I mean really, who is going to look at the Economic Crisis and think “I really like this. I think this is being handled in the best and most fair way possible. I think we should keep riding this boat until it sinks, and it won’t ever sink because it’s great!” Who would say that about health care? About the Middle East?

If you don’t like what I have to say, then perhaps it’s time for you to move to a country where free speech is muzzled so all you ever hear is the cotton candy goodness and basketball analogy free-styling skills of former Gov Palin in CrazyLand.

Which brings me to my second story. What the hell is this crazy of crazies thinking? Way back, when McCain announced Palin, I thought this is too good to be true. It was like the Republicans had a little pow wow, decided to sit this term out, and hand the Dems the Presidency on a silver platter. But then, all the other crazies came out of the wood works. And en masse. With cries of “Kill Him!”. And what did Palin do? Nothing. To quote Fr. Andrew Greeley ” How can she ever justify silence when she heard a cry for lynching?” I don’t know Father Greeley, I don’t know.

And now, Shannyn Moore is the latest  victim of the Palin camp (along with the Washington Post, and NYT among others) and their idiotic defamation suit. What is this all about? RUMORS. Rumors that have been reported for years. Rumors that are widely reported in the news and internet alike. I mean really, if your Gov. up and quits on you with little reason wouldn’t you be looking for a reason too? And Palin, if you don’t want rumors going around about why you left office, how about just pretending to care and make a little note in your speech to actually talk about why you are leaving instead of making ridiculous basketball analogies? All that serves to do is remind the thinking public about your misappropriation of public funds to build a gym!

As if Palin herself were not moronic enough, you’ve still got her supporters which is in need of a new class all their own. Somewhere below mental retardation and only slightly above dryer lint. I mean really, who else would think it was OK to make life threatening and offensive calls to a private citizen for something that she wrote on her blog. The same type person who thinks Palin is a qualified leader apparently. Maybe if they ever watched the news, or read the paper, or scanned the internet, they would realize that this isn’t the singular cry of an angry Alaskan, but rather a topic that the media at large is also reporting, and has been reporting for a while.

This reminds me of a story actually. Once, in elementary school, there was a rumor going around and it escalated very quickly. Someone had called me a Moosecunt, so I immediately called my lawyer and filed a defamation suit against the entire 5th grade class. And then all my friends called those sorry bastards and left life-threatening messages. Boy were they sorry.

Ok, so I lied, that’s not what happened. But if it did, it would be less ridiculous than this story.

Special thanks to Bekah for the subtitle!