True North

Start Here

Remember, back in this post, how I said that in my book class this session we were making three editions of one design? And then I showed you how I had made the lino cuts and printed them on a press? Well, ta-da! they're done.

To create covers for the accordian-folded prints, we wrapped squares of book board in sheets of this beautiful book cloth, which is smooth on the back side, but slightly nubby and linen-textured on the front. Around the table on the days when we made covers, participants were working with bright lime, royal blue, and lovely hazelnut cloth. I chose this deep wine color because it seemed to best fit the mood I was going for with my prints. Getting a perfectly tight wrap is hard, as you can see from the couple of small bubbles in my cloth above, but it was a great learning experience.

I'm happy with how these turned out. I love the slight differences in how each one printed - some are more saturated with ink and some less, some have the three sections of the image lined up more perfectly than others. I love the color of the covers against the black-and-white of the print. And I love that they were finished on Valentine's Day, and dated as such. A labor of love...

One of this trio has already flown the coop, given as a wedding present to my dear friend, Mariza, and her new husband, Tim. For them, I wanted to add some kind of title to the front cover, both to mark the occasion and to underscore its bookiness. (Obviously this is not a traditional book with multiple pages. What makes it a book instead of just an image is the way it is read left to right, the folds, and especially the covers. Deliniating the front cover from the back really helps that along.) I didn't particularly want to add text, though, since I was pretty happy with "Start here" standing alone. In the end, I decided 2013 - both the year the book was made and the year their marriage was made, summed it all up more simply than any words could. So I painted 2013 on the front cover with white acrylic.

2013: Start here.

Indeed.

 

(As always, I welcome your thoughts and reactions in the comments! And for more of my (wildly dissimilar) endeavors in bookmaking, check out Dress, Rainbow Bright, Triple Spiral and My First Book.)

Weeks 7 & 8 at Home

Finally, an update about my 365-day project of home photos on Instagram. As I said in the last post, I took a bit of an accidental break from blogging - and from this project - a couple of weeks ago during the kids' school break and my trip to Oregon. These photos, below, are the week and a half's worth of daily shots before I went AWOL.

(Incidentally, that previous post on slow blogging got some pretty great, meaty responses, so be sure to check out the comments section there for the continued conversation.)

This week and a half was a special time for the project, since, as I talked about here, I had decided to rip off the band-aid and start taking pictures of... THE MESSES. There are folks all over the world playing along with 365 Days at Home on IG, and it's fascinating to click on the hashtag (#365daysathome) and see how differently we are all approaching this project. For some it is a home tour, others are taking photos of cozy moments with family members, and some are highlighting their favorite parts of their homes. For me, it is a chance to be vulnerable and brave, opening our home to eyes before we are done with all the renovations and improvements we've been doing for literally years now. So showing the messes seemed like the natural next step for me. (Not the dirt or grime because, you know, ew. But also because it's the clutter, and the things left out after they're not being used any more, that I really struggle with around here.) Since these weeks, I've somewhat gone back to just taking pictures of whatever captures my eye, but I know the #weekofmesses tool is in my toolbox now, to be used again if I find myself getting too tight-assed about this 365-day endeavor.

It was interesting to concentrate on the mess/clutter. There was still a strong desire to make things in the photo look nice, which I tried to work against, to differing degrees of success. The close-up of the green and red steamers in the dish drying rack, for instance--what was that about? Does that really count as a mess? Or the pink tulips: yes, there is some leftover crepe paper from Maeve's Valentine's Day party (more on that this week) bunched up on the counter underneath, but you can barely tell. On the other hand, the pic of the girls' coats piled up on top of their dollhouse garnered my favorite IG comment so far, from another woman playing along with this project: "I love it! Real life." Exactly. It's liberating.

Besides, do I really need to judge myself for whether I'm doing a good enough job showing a mess? I mean, is that hilariously human or what?!

What do you think - is there an area of your life where you've been just showing the pretty version and could start showing the truth instead? What might open up for you (creatively or otherwise) if you took that plunge? Leave a comment, I'd LOVE to hear what you're thinking.

And if you want to follow or play along with this photo project on Instagram, I am: @alisontruenorth, and all the project pics have the hashtag: #365daysathome

Wishing you all a wonderful week. xo, Alison

Slow Blogging

Somehow, I stumbled and fell into a bloggy black hole recently. The kids' school vacation + a solo trip away for me to attend a friend's wedding + a painting job that had to get finished + everybody getting the stomach flu added up to my whole routine getting turned upside down for a couple of weeks. On the one hand, I feel guilty about this, like: crap now I'm behind! Why is the blog always the first thing to be sacrificed when I get busy? How will I ever make this blog how I want it to be if I don't take it more seriously?? And then on the other hand I think: this blog is for myself - no one else determines its schedule but me, and I do not have to show up here as anything other than who and what I am. But that sure is a tough one to remember. If I say I'm going to do something, even if I only say it to myself, it can move straight from joy to obligation faster than you can say "own worst enemy." Once obligation's in the mix, the vicious cycle starts. I want to gets confused with I have to. If it's just because I have to then it doesn't feel authentic. How do I show up as who and what I am unauthentically? But the longer I go without doing it, the harder it is to start again. So then I REALLY have to. Rinse. Repeat. You know the drill.

I've been thinking a lot lately about an idea I've seen rolling around the interwebs, that of slow blogging. As with slow food or slow parenting, the basic premise is that if we could decrease the pace at which we blog, it would have more meaning for us and we would enjoy it more. To me, this doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't be posting every day--it means you shouldn't feel you have to. It's easy to get caught in the mindset that we must constantly be consuming, responding to, and creating blog content in order to stay relevent. Just being in the swirl of that way of thinking is exhausting, whether you're actually accomplishing it or not! And honestly, the blogs I love best are the ones that march to their own drummer and do their own thing. I don't read people's sites to stay abreast of the latest trends, I read them for each blogger's unique perspective, whether they're writing about politics or parenting, food or fashion. I don't want new and different all the time, I want something that feels real and that offers me a little relief from the dogmatic conclusions my brain comes to about How Things Are when it is left unchallenged. And if I value substance and authenticity over speed and constant content in other sites, then shouldn't I likewise value those qualities in my own site?

So yes, this recent blog break was unintentional, and there is a lot I now want to catch up on, but I am trying to remember that it's all okay. Life was not interfering the past few weeks, it was just... being lived. Fully. Loaded with spilled paint and long plane rides and rubbing my children's backs while they puked, and with parties and new books and drinking in the presence of friends I hardly ever get to see. Just because all that living wasn't documented and commented on True North doesn't take away from the fact that it was real and preciously mine, nor does it mean I have wasted the chance to ever mention any of it here. I believe wholeheartedly that it is never too late to reclaim your creative life, and I need to extend that same belief to blogging. It's never too late to post what you want, and your work may actually end up richer for the wait.

If you're interested in reading more about slow blogging, these are the posts that have given me the most to think about:

The Slow Web (Jack Cheng)

Manifesto (Slow Blog)

Begin Again, Blog it Slower (Wise Craft)

The Rebirth of Slow Blogging and a New Direction (Design for Mankind)

If you blog, I'd love to hear your thoughts about this... And if you don't, I'd love to hear your thoughts too! However we choose to spend our time and energy, I think we're all affected by the cultural premium placed on speed. Do you love the convenience of more, faster? Or does it leave you feeling like you're clutching the safety bar on the Tilt-A-Whirl crying, "stop, I want to get off"? Leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Week 6 at Home

My weekly 365 Days at Home update, including evidence of my littlest one's day sick at home and our family's day of going completely screen free (other than taking that very dark photo, mid-right, of the TV and its reminder note, of course!).

I realized this weekend that I need to start upping the stakes a little with this project. I'm still mostly trying to show the "good parts" - cropping out the mess to show the best possible version of things around here. It's fine, but given the purpose of the project, which is not a home tour so much as a vulnerability exercise, I reckon it's time to start taking pictures of the mess. It'll be interesting to see what comes up for me and whether I can take visually interesting pictures in spite of the subject. So for this week, the additional hashtag on all my project pics is #weekofmesses.

What do you think - would you ever take photos of the messes in your home, or do you think I'm off my rocker? I'd love to hear your thoughts - leave me a comment...

And if you want to follow along (or play along.. there's no rule that says you have to start at 365-day project on Jan. 1st!) with this photo project on Instagram, I am: @alisontruenorth, and all the project pics have the hashtag: #365daysathome

Kiddo Room Upgrade

Last summer we did a big reno in the girls' room, ripping up old carpet, fixing and sanding and staining the floor underneath, redoing some trim, and switching the wall color from an admittedly lovely pale purple to the even better cool mint you see above (before pic is in daytime, after is in night, hence the slight difference in color). One of these days (read:when the kids clean their room properly) I'll do a whole room tour. But for today, just a small recent upgrade for the blank section of wall between their closet and the door to the hallway. Since we were stuck inside during the snowstorm for much of the weekend, I worked on two little projects to make that wall more useful and inspiring for my girlies.

Project #1:The Clock

Since she was little and had the room to herself, Stella had this Winnie the Pooh clock with her name on it on the wall. When we redid the room, I took the clock out with the intention of changing the illustrated paper inside it, since we can't very well have something that just says Stella on it in a room that is Stella's AND Maeve's... But it languished as one of those projects I'd never gotten around to, until finally this weekend I made it happen. It was a pretty easy project, once I figured out how to get the clock open!
I'm sure every clock is a little different, but here's how this restyle was done: 1. Assemble materials. I got the pretty paper a while ago at a craft store. 2. & 3. Take apart clock. It took me a few minutes to figure out since I assumed the clear face panel would just pop out, but instead I had to take the (very stuck-in) battery compartment out first. Definitely thought I had broken it more than once in the taking apart process... 4. Using the original illustation as a template, trace the shape onto patterned paper and cut out. 5. Create a light box to trace number placement onto the new paper by holding it up against a window with original paper underneath. 6. Go over traced numbers with a Sharpie. 7. Insert paper into back section of clock, making sure to pull the tabs through the holes. 8. Reassemble hands and face panel, replace battery compartment in back, and voila:
Isn't it cute? It's going to make mornings so much easier. I can't believe we went so long without a clock in their room!

Project #2: The Quote Canvas

Unlike the clock, this was totally sponaneous. I was on Pinterest earlier in the day and repinned that great Diane von Fursterberg quote that I love whenever I see it: "I didn't always know what I wanted to do, but I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be." As I was pinning it, I was thinking about how this is exactly what I want to teach my girls... That as they grow up, and even once they're adults, what they want to do for a profession is going to evolve, making it a pretty terrible orienting point to to guide the journey. I've always felt uncomfortable that this question, "what do you want to do when you grow up?" is one we constantly lob at children to make them identify themselves. I think the far better true north point to follow is what kind of person they want to be, when they're adults AND while they're kids. It may harder to sum up in a quick answer but it's so much deeper, as it is a question of being rather than doing. So suddenly, reading this quote again, I thought, that'd be great to have up in the girls' room... One quick search for a spare canvas later and I was on my way.

It wasn't nearly as seamless a process as the clock, though. I spent hours measuring the words out on the canvas for placement, painting them in an ombre teal and then going crazy with brightly colored petal shapes, until I realized I... hated it. It was cute, but I wasn't really going for cute, and next to the canvas' bright colors, the clock looked dull. I tried whitewashing over the flowers to tone them down, which was a little better (you can see it in the pic above. I never got a photo of the brighter version), but still not what I wanted. So as soon as it was done I painted over it. The girls could not figure out what I was doing and thought I had lost my mind. I covered the canvas in layers of teal and green, then, quickly and without any guides, painted the words on with white. It's a little sloppy but I kind of like that. Overall, it's much better, and I like the combination of the canvas with the clock.

I am not usually one for decorating with quotes or words. I have a small framed Lisa Congdon message-y print in the hall (you can kind of see it in this post), but the Diane von Fursterberg quote is definitely anomalous. I think I confused Stella and Maeve a little by doing this, but actually I'm hoping that's a good thing, that it will make more of an impact on them because it's weird. That these words will be inside them as they grow. That they will know they can have all different jobs or even careers without needing to go through an identity crisis with each shift. That the kind of women they become is something they get to think about... and know... right now.

The final result: 

I hung the canvas off-center to accomodate the light switch because I didn't want the clock to be too high for little Maeve to see, and I didn't want the canvas so low that it interfered with the dollhouse that's on the floor underneath. At some point I might switch them so the clock is below and the canvas above, we'll see.. For now it's done. Feels good to get another small home project crossed off the list!

What about you? How did you spend the (snowy, if you're local) weekend? Any projects of either the spontaneous or finally! variety? Any other favorite quotes to share? Comment and let me know...

Class Notes

This past Wednesday was the 4th and final week of the most recent session of my class, Reclaim Your Creativity. These ladies are going to be a tough act to follow - each one of the participants was authentic and brave, and contributed so much to the larger conversation about the importance of creativity in our lives, both as individuals and mothers. Most gratifying was that exactly the kind of breakthroughs I hoped for the participants was indeed happening by week 4. Of course, the details of those breakthroughs are private to the women in the class, but the take-away for me is that I feel confident now that the design of the class really does work. So much of putting this curriculum together has been intuitive, based on the belief that what works for me in my own creative reclaiming process would be effective for other people, too. It was wonderful to see that that belief was - at least somewhat! - founded.

This spring I'll get the chance to offer Reclaim Your Creativity again to a new group of creative mamas. I'm also super excited to invite back the women from the first two sessions to participate in a next-level class, the activities and assignments for which are rolling around in my brain now... Got to keep a notebook with me at all times!

I was thinking the other day about what life was like 5 years ago... I had a three-year old and a new baby, and while I was completely in love with both of them, I was also lonely and overwhelmed much of the time. I had started to get some local commissions but they were rare and still seemed almost accidental. That just a few years could make such a difference in my creative life, let alone that I'm now able to offer my experience to others through this blog and the class, seems like nothing less than a miracle. It makes me wonder how different life could possibly look in another 5 years. Dreaming big over here...

Week 5 at Home

Just checking in tonight with my weekly round-up of daily home photos. Have a wonderful start to your week, everyone!

(If you want to follow along (or play along! there's no rule that says you have to start at 365-day project on Jan. 1st!) with this photo project on Instagram, I am: @alisontruenorth, and all the project pics have the hashtag: #365daysathome)

The State of the Reclaiming

A little snapshot of this moment in my creative life:

It's the last week of the session for my class, Reclaim Your Creativity, and I don't want it to end. It's been an incredible joy and labor of love to work with these women each week. Last Wednesday I had them each bring in a favorite palette (a metaphoric palette, if painting isn't their medium) and seeing the variety of what they showed, from certain rhythmic elements of song to particular combinations of words alongside repeating images, was enormously gratifying. These are women who know what they love and who know who they are as artists, whether they would agree with that or not... to me, it's so clearly true. It's interesting - when I started this blog and came up with the subtitle, "reclaiming a creative life," it was with the understanding that reclaiming something was like picking it up, dusty and long unused, cleaning it off, and figuring out how to use it. But now, after watching and assisting in others' creative recovery process, reclaiming feels more like a declaration. It has always been there, ready to go. To reclaim it just means to state it as your own.

I've been saying for a while now that the two groups of people I most want to offer my experience and assistance to are moms and girls. The mom piece is in play with my class, but I couldn't quite see how I was going to make the girl piece pan out. Then recently, two wonderful opportunities dropped in my lap. This month I will be painting - but mostly teaching the students to paint - a theater backdrop for an all-girls' Catholic high school in the Bronx. This month will also find me teaching a small series of painting classes in an all-girls' charter middle school in the Bronx. That the timing of these projects is so close, and serving such a similar population of girls, seems like an empasis: this. Do this. The girls' teachers in both schools have told me that the main artistic paths the girls are familiar with are fashion designer or graffiti artist. While I am all for either one of those careers, I can't help but be excited for the chance to represent to them someone living a creative life and making her art along a self-made, outside-the-box trajectory. I fervently hope it will make something new seem lastingly possible for them.

Having said all that, I know I am not making enough myself lately. I am so caught up with other projects that I have let the heartbeat of this whole operation - my own work - slide. It's time to refocus on the paintings I do for myself. The most purely happy I am all week is at my Book Arts class, working quietly, plugging away at my project. That is no accident.

Speaking of making more time - a time resolution update: overall, the schedule is going well. I was able to whip my studio back into better (not perfect, but better) shape, and by chipping away at the rest of the chores throughout the week, the house is maintaining at a more organized, less cluttered, level. It is definitely freeing up some time, which now I just have to get more focused about using. The one element that is consistently tripping me up is the grocery shopping. I cannot seem to proactively shop. So I am starting to think seriously about getting it all delivered each week through Fresh Direct or Peapod...

That's my news. What's going on in YOUR creative life? Any new projects? Any resolutions or hopes coming true, either through diligence or luck? Any sticking points? Do share...

Week 4 at Home

Another six days of home photos. (I posted late last week, which is why it isn't seven.) Four weeks down, 48 more to go? It seems crazy that this project will still be going on in December, but I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to stay the course. How interesting it will be to see all 365 photos together, in order...

Yesterday we had our friends, Jon and Faye, over to hang out in the afternoon, and it was the first time in a long time - maybe ever as an adult - that I felt proud of our home, flaws and all. It was fun to discuss the color swatches painted on the walls with Faye, rather than apologize for them. This photo process has already been very healing for me.

(If you want to follow along (or play along! there's no rule that says you have to start at 365-day project on Jan. 1st!) with this photo project on Instagram, I am: @alisontruenorth, and all the project pics have the hashtag: #365daysathome)

Printing Press Field Trip

This past week, my Book Arts class had the privilege of taking the work we've been doing this session out of the classroom (ok, really our teacher's cozy kitchen) and into the studio of artist and printmaker, Pepe Coronado. I love going to other artists' studios - it's like a fascinating and intimate peek inside their brains. Pepe's studio is moving soon, to a local warehouse that's been converted into artist lofts, but for now it is housed in the basement "mother-in-law" apartment of his home, which means that instead of just one room, he has an entire living space devoted to making his art. The studio is a drool-inducing, well-stocked, meticulously-organized labrynth of equipment and supplies and fabulous work on the walls.

But let's back up.

I've written about the pieces I've made in earlier sessions of this class here. I haven't shared any of this session's work yet because this time around, we are making a single piece (well, three editions of one design) and it won't be finished until the end. But with a long-term project like this, the process becomes all the more important, so I thought I'd do a post on getting to this point so far.

We started out about a month ago, sketching and writing ideas for the eventual book we'd be making. We knew that the basis of these books would be linocuts we would make, so much of the sketching process was about figuring out the what/where/how big of the blocks we'd end up carving. I circled around different ideas for a week or so before finding what felt right. In that circling, I touched on everything from feathers to Punnett squares to "tears for lost homes" (oh, the drama!). Finally, as usual, the motherhood element won out, and what I ended up loving the most was a sketch of an embryo surrounded by moons in different phases. (No political component here, FYI... I just continue to be obsessed with the wild magic of choosing to grow a human inside your body.) One line of a little poem I wrote along the way stuck: "Start here." And I decided that rather than do one print per page, illustration-style, I wanted to carve three linocuts that would sit flush with eachother and form one continuous image. It'll be interesting to see how that format works in the final book, when I'll be folding it into fours..

Once we had our drawings all sketched and planned out, we transfered them to the linoleum blocks with carbon paper, making sure to flip the image. Pictures and words have to be back-to-front on the linoleum in order for the eventual prints to come out right.

Then we carved the linoleum, both in class and at home. Carving is immensely satisfying - soothing and meditative, with just a dash of danger thrown in from the constant threat of slipping and carving your hand by accident... those blades are sharp! The trick seemed to be to soften the linoleum by warming it first, either with a hair dryer or by putting it on a radiator, or - my favorite - a heating pad on your lap.

At Pepe's studio, once we had checked and double checked placement, and made a transparent mock-up for the printing press, we were ready to print.

::Getting inked.

::Waiting for their turn.

::Carefully placing the paper on top.

::Getting rolled through the press. The layer of blankets on top help the paper really press into the cuts. One of my classmates, who was going for a crisper look with her prints, didn't use them...

::Peeling the print off the linoleum. In the background is Pepe's Carrito Grafico, a mobile printing press, which he takes into Dominican neighborhoods in the city and sets up like a street cart, printing people's work for free and as a form of performance, to highlight the lack of an art center or school in the community. So very cool.

::Mirror images.

::On the drying rack.

We each printed three times for three eventual editions of our books. Of course, three separate inkings and printings means that the final products are not actually identical - there are small differences in what the ink picked up or how saturated the sections are. I love this, how even though we used a machine - albeit a pretty basic one, and certainly not digital - the individuated qualities of handmade-ness are present in the final work. For my classmates whose designs include now adding handwriting or painting to their prints, that individuation will be increased further. For me this image is it, no additions feel necessary.

So, BIG THANKS to Pepe Coronado for his kindness and expertise. It was such a pleasure to learn from him and work in his studio. And now, we are on to making the books' covers...

Another post for another day...