In The New Yorker,Nick Paumgarten describes the fascinating process by which the names were arranged for the The National September 11 Memorial in New York:

Arad arranged the requests using index cards. Each pairing set off a chain reaction, the strings of connection growing ever more tangled and frayed. There were two thousand nine hundred and eighty-two names. The deeper he and his staff got into this puzzle, the more complex it became, especially in light of the aesthetic requirements: for example, he didn't want names lining up evenly atop each other, lest there be gutters between them. He had to factor in the number of letters in each name. He had to consider the leading.

Even if you are not a typography nerd, it is a pretty good read.

Yarn bombing, knitted graffiti, crafty tagging... Maybe you've heard of it. Maybe you've seen it in the wild. This street art has been around for at least a decade (possibly earlier) and is now getting notice in The New York Times. The article is brief, but very interesting and informative.

I found three things to be particularly worthy of note. First was the contrast between the male dominance of traditional graffiti and street art, versus the traditional feminine orientation of the yarn-based work.

Next was the degree of "I'm better than that because I've been in galleries" attitude from one of the knitters profiled:

Olek, whose work has been shown in museums and galleries worldwide, considers yarn bombing to be the trite work of amateurs and exhibitionists.

"Lots of people have aunts or grandmas who paint," she said. "Do you want to see that work in the galleries? No. The street is an extension of the gallery. Not everyone's work deserves to be in public."

Deliciously snobby, neh?

Finally (and not entirely surprising) was the fact that was started out as DIY, crafty, underground, etc has been co-opted by a number of Fortune 500 companies for advertising purposes. Certainly not the first time for such a thing.

Ryan Novelline has constructed a exquisite, couture ballgown out of Golden Books. The link not only has some great photos of the dress, but excellent documentation of the process. Showing your work: not just for math class. I love it!

I want to pass the word along on this, as well as making something of a bookmark/reminder for myself.

There is a call for artists for the Habitat Restore Annual Salvage Art Show and Auction in October of 2010.

The Salvage Art Show will be juried by professional artists. Interested artists will submit three examples of their work, which will be evaluated on such elements as originality, design, composition, subject matter, choice of materials, and skill of execution. Submissions to the jury will be due by May 22. Artists will be notified of their status during the week of June 1.

Worth a try, I think.

Since December, I have been working on a painting for the wall of the nursery for the new son of my good friends. We have been referring to it as "the mural", though we decided to paint it on masonite and mount it to the wall, rather than paint it directly on. That way, if they move or he outgrows it, the painting can be moved.

Just getting the board home from Menards proved to be quite a trick. It was too big to fit in the car, so it had to go on top. M. and I had enough rope to tie it down, but we didn't have enough rope to make it really secure against gusts of wind at the front. So we rolled down the windows and drove really slowly, each of us with one hand out and up, hold the board down as the wind tugged at it. We laughed at our own ridiculousness pretty much non-stop all the way home.

The painting was a copy of a scene from Trina Schart Hyman's Saint George and the Dragon illustrations. N. had wanted a scene with actual dragn fighting, but we decided that it might be too scary for a really wee one, so we picked another interesting scene.

After gessoing the board, I traced the picture with the help of a projector.

Then I began the long process of turning that drawing into a painting.

Since I was using acrylic paints to copy a watercolor, I decided to mostly use washes or color, with only a few thicker areas here and there, and to let the pencil lines remain part of the finished look.

The last step (for me) came this Sunday, as I painted a bright red border around the edge to frame it.

Now all that remains is to get it mounted on the wall in the nursery. I'm looking forward to seeing it up, and I'll post a picture when it is. Both M. and N. were quite pleased with how it turned out.

I must admit, I was quite nervous when I started. I haven't really painted much since college, which was ages ago, and even then I was more of a photographer than a painter. My paintings tended to be very stylized and abstract. But Trina Schart Hyman is one of my favorite artists, and M. and N. are two of my favorite people, so I couldn't not do it.

If you care to, you can also see a slideshow of the photos above.

A friend of mine passed me the link for this video, a 5+ minute rough cut "teaser" for a series called In the Room.

I don't know much more about it than what you can find on the Vimeo page, but it looks really neat and I'd love to see the finished product. The one thing that I do know is that my friend's step-mother is the composer in the 4th segment.

Check it out!

In my inbox, passing along to you Madison-area folk:

Hello All-
One of our very talented members, Taya Kuklina, is offering up her expertise to you. Beginning this Friday, she will be offering the following classes. There is no cost for the classes, but a suggested donation of $5.00 to help the collective keep going and the ability to offer these classes in the future. Interested parties should e-mail us right away as they will fill up very quickly. Here are the days and times of the classes:

Thanks again, and happy art making!
Kurt Rossbach
Evolution Arts Collective

This is what my nephew said when asked what he wanted for a birthday cake this year. (He turned 3 in January.) My sister and I were very amused at this. At the last minute, he changed his mind and wanted a happy snowman. It was excellent, just the same.

Cake making/frosting is a skill I am still learning, but it is fun to practice.

Step one: trim the cakes.

I had two round chocolates and a round of lemon (which turned out very thin, hence the stacking.) Trimming cakes = yummy snack time!

Another view of the trimmed cakes.

Step two: apply crumb coat.

The cakes were just from store-bought mixes, but the frosting was homemade. I must admit, frosting is so easy to make that I doubt I'll buy it again. So much tastier, too. Plus, I'll take butter over partially hydrogenated whatever oil any day, thanks.

Step three: spread the rest of the frosting in a nice, thick layer, joining the edges of the cake together.

Another nice thing about homemade frosting: I had just the right amount for the cake, without running out *or* having gobs and gobs of extra.

Step four: give snowman chocolate chip face, chocolate-covered peanut buttons, and pretzel arms. He is a happy snowman, indeed.

When the birthday boy saw the cake, his first comment was "Snowmen don't have pretzels for arms," since he is will aware that their arms are made of sticks. He is quite the connoisseur of "Frosties." I assured him that it was ok, since these were pretend sticks for a pretend snowman. He seemed mollified at that.

Step five: light candles, sing "Happy Birthday" and let the child blow them out.

He did an excellent job of getting them all out, and without spitting on the cakes. Then my brother introduced him to the joy of licking the frosting off the ends of the candles.

It was a delicious cake, and I was very happy with how it turned out. Nothing fancy, but exactly what the occasion required.

Ok, I really need to get these finished, as they have been left at this state for well over 9 months now. I really don't have a great reason for that, other than they got put away and forgotten about for a while.

These bags are made from some of the many, many pieces of scrap decorator samples that I have acquired. They are a nice, heavy-duty cotton. The inside and the outsides of the bags don't quite match, being from two different sample sets, but they do go together quite nicely.

I still need to sew the handles on, and perhaps give them a snap or button of some sort to close them. I might put them up in the Market when I'm all finished. We'll see.