This Just Occurred to Me...

but I looked it up and was proven wrong:

"There are two schools of thought on this word, in addition to one erroneous explanation. First, it is thought that gaudy comes from a color term from Middle English, gaudy-green, which itself originated because the plant which produced the dye was once known as weld, and weld, when borrowed into Old French, became gaude - hence English gaudy-green. It is said that gaudy soon lost its specific color connotations and came to refer to anything 'bright.'

The second explanation is that the term comes from English gaud 'joke, plaything.' That word was adapted from Old French gaudir 'rejoice,' a descendant of Latin gaudere 'delight in' (from which English gets joy). The word gaudy still serves as a noun in English which means "rejoicing, joy, merrymaking; a festival", though it has probably gained obsolete status these days.

The erroneous explanation is that the term comes from the name of the Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi (1852-1926), whose architecture some believe today is gaudy. This suggestion can be discounted by virtue of the fact that gaudy dates back to the 16th century."

from http://www.takeourword.com/.

In Case You Need More Gaudi in Your Life

Here's another version of my Sagrada Familia lithograph. I did those little paper lithograph transfers of the photographers, but they weren't doing it for me. So I played around, painted in the blue background and lettering.

It's fun to play and just see what comes up.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I like the mix of typefaces in this happened-upon urban canvas.

I have another picture of this from about a year later. The words are barely visible because of layer of graffiti over them. It's interesting the way the words all pile over each other, ceasing to be legible, to mean anything, and instead creating new shapes and pockets of negative space, so instead of saying anything, the layers of type information (two generations ideas of advertising) become a pictorial image.

Hmmmm...

"...Gaudí, throughout his life, was fascinated by nature. He studied nature's angles and curves and incorporated them into his designs. Instead of relying on geometric shapes, he mimicked the way trees and humans grow and stand upright...." wikipedia




This is a lithograph with gouache.

I am in need for some inspiration for some pretty pretty pictures. Nothing's popping out to me though except New Mexican sunflowers, taken in Truth or Consequences.

Sunday Morning Headache

I am glued to my couch waiting for a boy to call. How 1960 of me.

Had a very fun night hanging out with some friends from high school. Drinks, noodles and a very weird photo show.

Fears

Just got home from a night of printing. I had a new huge litho to work on. I like it, but I dunno. I don't know where it's going. I'm anxious that March is going to come and I'll have a bunch of random prints that are just sort of ok but that I don't love and that don't make sense as a whole. I want them to be great, but I don't know how to get there.

And what if I work and work and work and none of it really means anything, has any substance or guts, or I never find what I'm trying to say. It'll be like I'm just running into a wall over and over.

One of my friends told me this week that she's jealous that I have something I'm so passionate about, but I don't know if it's passion I feel for my artwork. It's more like I'm scared of it.

Shudder.

Truth or Consequences, NM

I was looking through some photos tonight trying to get inspired for a new drawing, and I realize I never posted many from my trip west this summer.

This colorful shot is a drive in burger joint in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. I know, weird name. The town used to be called Hot Springs for it's cache of mineral springs, but renamed itself after a TV show that was on a long time before I was born.

While it sounds very cheesy, my friend Sara and I had a really nice stay at this hippy-ish motor lodge of sorts with it's pools of mineral water over looking a serene Rio Grande. We soaked until we were prunes and then had dinner at the Denny's by the freeway.

Anyway, knowing as you do how I love old stuff, kitsch and Americana, this little place was right up my alley.

By the way, the pictured was NOT open.

Now that we've gotten Halloween over with, New York has decided it's Christmas time; or, at least, Duane Reade and Radio City Music hall have. So I've turned my thoughts to my Christmas cards, which I'm going to letterpress again this year. Here's the start of a linoleum block I'm carving for the card. I'm not experienced with linoleum cuts (I've stabbed myself three times tonight) but I love the dodgy, homemade effect once it's printed.

I use the blocks that are mounted on wood. They're mounted to be "type high" (the same height as lead type) so they can be letterpressed. If you were so inclined, you can also find linoleum that is unmounted and can be sent through an etching press.

Dios de los Muertos II

Here are my attempts at making silkscreens of my Olvera Street paper banners. (Made on my kitchen table)

Dios de los Muertos

Happy Day of the Dead!

File this one under "found art."

It's a paper banner I bought a few years ago in Olvera Street, one of my favorite places in LA. When I was teeny tiny, my aunt, Gramma, mom, sis and I used to take the train from Orange County to Union Station and spend a summer day on miniature Olvera Street buying paper flowers. We could have driven, but taking the train made it a special excursion, so it holds a special place in my heart.

One of the last times I was there was one morning with my dad. I bought a string of paper banners, flowers and a churro. OK, two churros. We were starting our public transportation tour of Los Angeles, the goal of which was to get to LACMA, and we finally did--after car, light rail, new metro, bus and a half mile walk down Wilshire.