This was at a station in Antwerp.
Voting
My roommate and I left Friday around 10:30am to go vote. It was the last day for early voting, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to vote on Tuesday, because I have a morning and evening class. I just didn’t want to chance it. So we went to the Adamsville Rec Center, got our paperwork and our number. They were calling out the 400’s of the yellow tickets, and we were in the 400’s of the orange tickets. There had to be 2,000 people there from when we first arrived to when we left. Fortunately, there was seating in the gym, and we could sit where ever we wanted. A group called “STAND UP” was there, handing out sample ballots and flyers, while providing coffee, water, and snacks. We waited seven hours to vote. On Thursday I had heard 20% of Georgia had already voted. Early voting must have paid off, because friends and family who voted on election day seemed to have done so fairly easily. The longest I heard was an hour. It amazed me how many people had been there that day, and willing to wait so long to make their voices heard. It has been so inspiring talking with friends and family about the upcoming election, about the hope, and the determination that we all shared. Yes we can, and yes we did. We have started a new chapter for history in America. The first African American president has been elected, and I am so honored to call myself an American citizen. We have proven once again that in this country, anything can happen. Congratulations Barack Obama. I know you will do wonderful things.
Asheville and Black Mountain
Bill and I went to Asheville just for the day today. We had a blast and wanted to stay a lot longer, but we were happy to go all the same. We started off in Black Mountain, NC, where I was hoping to take Bill to this great German restaurant I had gone to the last time I’d been. Berliner Kindl German Rest is a family owned German restaurant and I just remembered them being so friendly - and they sold goods from Germany as well. The restaurant was still there, but they were closed (until tomorrow!) for remodeling. We scoped out some shops and took some pictures while we were there though, before heading off to Downtown Asheville. It’s funny how some places change and yet stay the same in so many ways. The hardware store, the shop that sells the dulcimers, the iron works place were all still there at Black Mountain. Unfortunately the cute red and white 50’s diner was gone, but there was a new kitchen shop that seemed to go on forever with neat gadgets, and a children’s shop that had me thinking Christmas and Birthdays for Little John and Cate.
We found so many cool places to visit in Asheville, that we actually ran out of time. The Museum of Art was closed before we could get there, and we didn’t get to go to Grove Park Inn either, but we did manage to go to an art gallery showing incredible mixed media pieces by Gabriel Shaffer, many many shops, a smoothie place called Beans and Berries, and a great Bar-b-que place called Ed Boudreaux’s Bayou Bar-B-Que which offered 15 different sauces for your barbecue, we tried five. I’m still a mustard-based girl. That’s all there is to it. They also only sold RC Cola brand drinks, like Cheerwine, Sun Drop, Diet Rite. Bill had never heard of Cheerwine before. Strange guy. The food that gave us was MORE than enough. We actually took it back to Atlanta with us. After leaving, Bill said he’d actually like to live in Asheville. We had talked about how it was bigger than Little Five, East Atlanta, and Virginia Highlands put together, and I think it didn’t hurt that Asheville, and North Carolina for that matter, are so progressive. So who knows, but I thought it was kind of funny since he’s always talking about life in the Big City.
Random pictures of pieces of Asheville.
One of my new favorite stores, The Loft. Huge and amazing place. I can’t wait to go back.
I wish I could bottle this mid-sixties weather and enjoy it all year long. I know it’s not fall yet, and this is nothing more than a tease of the upcoming season, but I can’t help but revel in it anyway. If only it would rain though. This morning I woke up at 3:30am to join my dad and step-mom in Pickens, SC for the flea market. they close up shop early - 11am, and they begin at 6, so it’s pretty important to get there as early as possible. With gas prices at such an insane amount, and some misting, there weren’t as many people at Pickens today, but we were still able to find a few treasures. I wish Dad was able to find more, but they are planning a big trip soon, so hopefully that will be more fruitful.
The bluegrass band was there, and more puppies than normal - cocker spaniels, poodles, possibly beagles. Mums abound. You can do a great deal of produce shopping at Pickens. I bought some asiatic pears, okra, and huge cherry tomatoes…and though I didn’t buy any I did learn of another fruit - Osage oranges...that aren’t really edible, but apparently according to Martha Stewart, they keep ants and roaches out of the kitchen. They look like zombie brains or something and Dad had said when it frosted he and his friends would pelt each other with them when they were nice and mushy.
I didn’t find many of the usual people I tend to find things from, but I did find a new guy, who was selling Life Magazines from the 40’s, and old photographs. I’d also gotten some old postcard remnants from him and a small collection of someone’s family photos from the 40’s. I had gotten some other children’s vintage books as well, four of them that were collections of stories and poems, from the Quangle Wangle to Alice in Wonderland, from Wizard of Oz to Puss and Boots. I wanted to use them to make more books and boxes out of, but I almost don’t want to tear them out and I’m now torn between cutting them out and color copying. I like the feel of the real paper. We’ll see.
Tomorrow Bill and I are going to Asheville, NC. Bill’s never been before. I wish we could go to Biltmore. I’d love to show it to him, but I don’t think we’ll be able to go there this time. I do want to take him to The Grove Park Inn though. It’s so beautiful, the restaurant inside has a magnificent view, the fireplaces are huge, and so many important people of our time have entered it. I remember going one time with my friend Buffy when we were returning from the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, TN. I have a feeling this is more of a photography trip, which would be fine by me…I’ve been in photography withdrawal lately.
I’ve made two different accordion style books, these are probably easier to write on, and I’ve made one for Bill and one for me, and I think they’ve become our own personal honeydew lists. Only, for ourselves and not each other. Tonight I wrote in mine for the first time what I want to work on for the rest of my break. It reads as follows:
1. Watch Lynda videos on Illustrator, InDesign, Quark, and Photoshop.
2. Read Are You Ready! by Bob Harper (refresh that is)
3. Experiment with coptic books again, and try to make a few boxes
4. Visit my friend Anna, who is going to be induced Friday morning. I’m so excited for her an David.
5. Do some photography.
6. Go back to South Carolina next week.
7. Enjoy this week with Bill.
There’s bound to be a lot more sitting inside that little book soon, but so far I think it’s pretty productive.
EDA
EDA was my electronic digital applications class at PC. We spent two days working with Photoshop, two of InDesign, two of Illustrator and one of Quark. In Photoshop we played a lot with masking and different layer options. I think I felt more comfortable in Photoshop than the other programs… simply because I’d done Photoshop previously. Illustrator was a lot more challenging, with vectors and tracing, but in the end I think my wonder woman with my face super-imposed turned out pretty cool, once I figured out some easier tricks than what I was trying. Below are some examples of assignments done with Photoshop layer options and masking techniques.
Accordion books
Production mode continues…today I made three accordion books, though only two are shown. One will be for my grandfather (Winslow Homer’s “Nassau” and “Fishing Boats, Key West”), the magnolia, I’m not sure who I’ll give it to yet. I also made a gift for my brother the film student, but mum’s the word til he receives it. I’ll give you a hint. It’s not an accordion book.
Wordle
My blog on wordle.net - well, 50 words from it at least. Flickr.com has several wordle groups, one even being a “name that wordle” through song lyrics and other things. One person on flickr put in the script for “The Big Lebowski” and got a really neat effect. I like it. I like it a lot.
Jacob’s Ladder
In our Emotive Type class, one assignment was to create a jacob’s ladder that featured the alphabet and opposing sides. Through much experimentation, I decided on the below letter. On one side, I used oil pastels on rice paper and a few loose hairs to make a brawny/testerone/hairy bulky alphabet (well half of the alphabet), and on the other side, I embroidered in red violet these beautiful letters on oatmeal colored cross stitch cloth. This piece rests inside an enlarged and very fuzzy belly band with large pink ribbon. A tag will be put on it to link this jacob’s ladder to a “featured” fairy tale exhibit at the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia - where this particular jacob’s ladder is along the lines of Beauty and the Beast.
The vowels in my hair alphabet contain a lot more hair and are outlined, whereas the embroidered letters are consistent throughout.
A Messy Marriage
In my Emotive Type class at Portfolio Center, we had to write about our feelings on God in order to create a 20″X30″ god poster. This poster is a wedding invitation for the marriage of science and religion. The two birds above are the dodo bird and the dove, who have formed a nest together. Over time this has been a messy marriage, but still very beautiful. It’s done in the calligraphy style - both branch and nest…hand drawn and then scanned and put together through Photoshop and InDesign. It’s come a long way. In the beginning it was a contemporary kelly green and purplish pink invitation. I have other concepts that were drawn out: a Snakes and Ladders (Chutes and Ladders) game with virtues and vices and a Terry Pratchett quote…Wii Avatars that said “Wii God” - one with regular avatars, one with ancient gods…and much more. I love how this turned out though. I hope they like it at critique!
Edit: Highly concerned that my proofs of my poster are rough as opposed to the smoothness you see here. I’m having Imagers print the pdf (it looks smoother than the one in InDesign). Let’s hope. Otherwise I’ll need to take it to Kinko’s. I was devastated when I saw my proof. So I’m hoping it works out.
