June 7, 2011 – Kodachrome Explosion

It sounds like the name of a short-lived Albuquerque new wave band circa 1983. Actually it was just inspired by a vintage, souvenir booklet with lurid, colorful images of scenic New Mexico.

Ironically, actual kodacrhome images have held up incredibly well. Slides from the 1950’s have retained stunning color. When they are scanned, they sometimes look like brand new digital images. A friend recently started posting scanned slides of his 1950’s childhood. The images look new. It’s another example of how popular photography technology keeps changing and how some of the older images hold up much better than photos from the 1960’s and beyond. The concern is to make sure our current digital images are properly stored. One of the biggest faults with digital photography is that we will lose the opportunity to find random old photos in boxes and scrapbooks in the future.

June 6, 2011 – Red

The color for today is red. It starts with a scavenger hunt through the house looking for red things to cut up. It’s not long before have more than enough. For the 2011 Project today’s color is red. Over the course of the year I want to do a piece about each color.

June 5, 2011 – Prayer Flags

“The prayers of all good people are good,” were the words of Willa Cather spoken through the voice of the grandfather in her novel My Ántonia. Ever since I first read that, I’ve felt that if we are going to have religious sentiments on our currency, we should remove In God we Trust and replace it with The prayers of all good people are good. It’s a sentiment that expresses tolerance and respect for others as well as acknowledging the positive aspects of other people’s beliefs. Imagine a world where The prayers of all good people are good was a tenet of every religion.

While I am neither Tibetan nor a Buddhist there are things I find attractive about Tibetan prayer flags on many levels. Of course I go for pretty much anything colorful. And beyond the color, I like the sense that the flags are like temporary art installations. The prayers flags are admirable just from an aesthetic point of view. But it gets better — traditionally the flags are printed with prayers and the belief that the wind carries the positive message printed on the flags out into the world.

There are also traditions that respect the flags as sacred objects — one might question cutting them up for a work of art. But the flags I used are those fundraising ones that virtually every San Franciscan gets in a letter a few times a year. Those five little flags are as ubiquitous as a Bed, Bath & Beyond coupon. In themselves, they do not feel sacred. And even if some perceive these flags as sacred, wouldn’t it be appropriate to use them in art to spread a positive message? The mantra for the day is The prayers of all good people are good.

June 4, 2011 – International Drawing Day

Today the 2011 Project will include my contribution for Drawing Day. I am not sure if a million drawings in one day are possible. Now there are just 999,999 to go. And of course when I draw, an element maps and collage is always part of the work.

June 3, 2011 – National Donut Day

Admittedly it’s a silly excuse for a holiday, but what can be wrong about a holiday where the sole way to celebrate is to eat some donuts? I try to eat relatively healthy, but on National Donut Day we all get to be Homer Simpson. We can all take a day off from paying attention. This morning I picked up my “models” (see below) and had to resist while painting.

June 2, 2011 – Apricot Time

There are many ways to measure time. Fruits and vegetables can be nearly as accurate as any calendar. Just allow for a bit of variation due to weather. Any farmer’s market regular has a pretty good sense of the time of the year by what appears at the farmer’s market. It all depends on where you live. Here in the Bay Area we know it’s June and the year is almost half past when the farmer’s markets fill with fresh apricots. California grows over 90% of the apricots in the United States and they sure are tasty. I am not objective when it comes to apricots.

The apricots on my kitchen counter tell me it’s June. I’ll know it’s 5 o’clock when my home is filled with a wonderful smell coming form the oven. The smell is from the meeting of sugar, apricots and cherries in a summer cobbler. Some great recipes are right here.

June 1, 2011 – Cosmos Pliage de Papier

I know just enough French to know better, but not that much to know French.

On my most recent Japantown excursion I bought some groovy, outer space-themed, foiled origami paper. It’s the sort of thing that will always come in handy. Oddly enough all the Japanese is translated quite literally into English and French. The product is described as Japanese Folding Paper. Obviously the translator was unaware that origami is an English word now too. There are some important cautionary warnings on the package in Engrish. My favorite is, “No horseplay with the folded paper.”

What caught my eye this morning was the French translation for origami paper — Cosmos Pliage de papier. It stirred my imagination and I quickly imagined some dashing, aristocratic French playboy circa 1959. Cosmos Pliage de Papier would be the sort of jetsetter who’d be racing cars, hobnobbing in Monaco and training to be France’s first man in space. He’d finish a quick last cigarette. Then climb aboard the rocket that would blast off from a base in Nouvelle Guinée. I can imagine the black and white footage and I can nearly hear the Serge Gainsbourg tune about Cosmos Pliage de Papier. All that from a package of origami paper….