December 23rd, 2010 talkingfox
Starting Dec.25th, 2010 ALL proceeds over cost from the sales of fine art and photographic prints from my online galleries will be donated to The Whittemore Peterson Institute for NeuroImmune Disease. NeuroImmune diseases effect millions worldwide and are critically underfunded.
http://www.wpinstitute.org/
My online galleries are here
I will say that I have a vested interest in the work of the WPI as I have been diagnosed with ME/CFS and have tested positive for the recently discovered XMRV retro virus that the WPI is diligently researching . This is why I’ve not been posting very much. I have been too ill to keep up on this blog and to add my voice in some small way to activism efforts. The activism wins when I decide how I’m going to spend what energy I have.
Hopefully, with continuation of the research, treatments and perhaps even a cure will be available to the approximately 17 million people worldwide that suffer, often with woefully insufficient medical care and without help for even day to day needs.
More information about what ME/CFS REALLY IS here
I consider myself fortunate to have done as well as I have in the past with periods of remission and a relatively gradual onset, but unfortunately there are millions, including children, that don’t share in my good fortune.
Let’s Help ’em out by funding the research!! C’mon…you know you want to…..
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March 22nd, 2010 talkingfox
Call for volunteers: Artists, Crafters, Activists, Event Organizers, People who know how to throw a good Party, Spare Hands with No Particular Skill but a Will to Help Out: If you’d like to give a little time to an advocacy project to be launched this spring. It’s to promote a vital health cause.
Folks who already volunteered: we now have a fabulous volunteer coordinator!
Help coordinate him? Put VOLUNTEER in subject line to : sockit2MEcfs@gmail.com so he will have your contact info.
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August 29th, 2009 talkingfox
I’ve been searching for years for GF beer that’s actually drinkable…and I finally found one!!!! Or many as the case may be.
Greens Beer has many different styles that have the same full body, texture and color as its gluten loaded counterparts.
I found it at my local Fred Meyer to boot!
YAY for brewers who think out of the box and with their tastebuds, rather than just an ingredient list!!!!!
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August 19th, 2009 talkingfox
Well after reaquainting myself with the SCA I think I’d like to do some portraiture as it comes available.
EVERYONE looks better in garb in my estimation. I think what has kept me from doing a lot of portraits in the past is the isistance of people that their portraits be visually synonymous with glamour shot photography or state portraiture type stuff.
How much more fun would it be to capture everyone’s inner Lord and/or Lady? Since I have a small talent for realism, I think this could be a fun exercise.
This idea tickles my creative fancy as well, since I have an abiding interest in both textiles and history that actually passes over into the perseveration zone…
W00T for multi-level creative itch scratching!
Hmmmm, now all I need is subjects….
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July 22nd, 2009 talkingfox
Ok let me edit that last post.
I utterly, totally, completely and royally SUCK at sewing.
Weird thing that…I can turn a double finished edge with less than a quarter inch tolerance without even pinning (let alone pressing) and machine applique in my sleep. But do you think I can figure out even basic piecing or manage to set a non- puckered gore? Nope.
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July 14th, 2009 talkingfox
I’ve recently decided to get reacquainted with the Society for Creative Anachronism. The SCA is a sort of medieval recreation group for those of you not familiar with it.
I was involved with the SCA many decades ago and haven’t gon to any events in several decades. Needless to say, my old costumes have fallen by the wayside and I decided I needed some new kit for my husband and I.
What started out as a simple Dark Ages mans tunic ended up as a 4 gore, inset underarm gusset tunic that’s about 4 yards around the bottom with approximately 20 yards of piping and 10 yards of tablet weaving that had to be top stitched . And I don’t sew well….
It turned out looking fairly nice as all the ornamentation sort of distracts from the little flub ups here and there.
Only 2 Gowns, 2 more tunics and 2 pairs of trews to go. Before the end of the month that is.
Ah well, as I’ve always said, anything worth doing is worth obsessing over.
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May 20th, 2009 talkingfox
I find that one of the hardest thing for me socially is how to gauge when to stop or start looking at a thing. Somehow there seems to be some sort of unwritten rule somewhere as to just how long that it’s acceptable to actually stare at anything…or more importantly anyone.
I find that I usually either don’t look at people at all or inversely I stare like I’m boring holes in them. The latter usually happens if I find them OR what the light is doing to them interesting. Just how do I explain that I’m bugging out on the series of planes that their face has become?
One thing that I’ll say for photography work is that the camera acts as a social buffer against my unabashed tendency to fall into whatever it is that I’m looking at.
Artism strikes again, much to the detriment of my social calender….
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April 7th, 2009 talkingfox
I have just recently been accepted to The Evergreen State College here in Washington State.
After 20 years of doing just visual art as a mainstay I’ve decided to expand my options and take on finishing my BA, adding a goodly dose of Art History to the mix. Ultimately my goal is to acheive my MA in Museum Science from University of Washington, one of the few in the country that offers that specific degree.
I’ve worked in museums as a day job before and I must say that my own work benefited from the experience. A good museum is more than just a warehouse…it can be a think tank, library,classroom,social hub and multi-media center as well. I found that the daily company of others passionate about art stoked my creative fires.
I truly believe that my experience as a working artist could be of benefit…and no, I’m not planning on stopping my own work. The prime word here is AND.
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October 20th, 2008 talkingfox
I hear a lot of argument on both sides about digital media. Galleries have been slow to accept it as a valid media and many analog purists dismiss it as somehow “cheating”. I’ve actually heard some say that digitally created works of art somehow “don’t count because you can just whip ’em up”.
As someone who has worked on both sides of the aisle on this issue let me start by saying that nothing is “just whipped up” in any working artists studio that I know, my own included.
I’ve been working with digital media off and on for well over 20 years. As of late I’ve been working in combinations of digital and analog mediums. Has the digital experience changed my approach as an artist?
Yes and No.
I work mostly with Corel Painter IX these days. It has a gazillion and fifty two nifty features that I don’t use, opting to work the digital format like an analog medium. Why don’t I just work the analog equivalences you may ask?
My reasons are as follows:
1. Pixels aren’t toxic.
I worked in oils for years, then switched to wax pastels due to toxicity issues. I tend to not pay attention to where my brushes and solvents are and also have an unfortunate propensity when rapt in work to stick my brushes in my mouth when I need a point or to wipe solvent laden brushes on my pants leg. *DOH*
Even though there are other mediums that don’t require toxic solvents I realized that most artists pigments are, in and of themselves, toxic. This includes the pigments in pastels, acrylics,watercolors etc. Cadmium anyone? And then there’s always the issue of toxic fixatives.
2 Pixels are green
No solvents, no minerals, no wasted paper in reworks , no waste in general.
3. Safety of Originals
I had a studio flood on me a few years back. I lost a lot of pieces. I’ve also had pieces meet a number of more unusual demises, some involving housecats.
Back up your files on disc regularly and your originals are safe
3. Space
it takes a whole lot less space to work on a Wacom Tablet than to work on an easel, as well as a drafting table and airbrush booth. That and one doesn’t have to pay for all of that equipment.
4. Versitility
See entry 3.
I tend to approach my digital works the same as my analog work ie with classical layering technique.
I also tend to combine scanned analog and digital, using the best of both worlds.
The only thing I really miss about analog is working with impasto, but then again a girl can’t have everything.
When I was in college , back in the earlier days of computer art, my instructor told me 2 things that have stuck with me throughout my career.
The first is that it doesn’t matter what tools an artist uses to get the effect that they’re going for. They STILL have to come up with the idea for the piece and make every call along the way as far as approach.
The second is that a computer is really nothing more than a fast pencil. You still have to be able to draw and be well grounded in artistic fundamentals in order to make it do what you want.
My challenge to you is this…look around the works posted on this site and My Imagekind Gallery.
I have a whole lot of pieces that are marked mixed media. Can you tell which are purely analog and which are analog/digital?
I’d be interested to hear which you think are which.
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August 14th, 2008 talkingfox
As I’ve been tooling around finding information on the Autism Spectrum I’ve noticed a startling lack of information on Adult AS/Autism. And even less about females who are adult and AS/autistic.
Why is this???? There are certainly adults along the autism spectrum, and the children that everyone seems so very single pointedly focused upon do tend to grow up when ones back is turned. And gee, they become adults. I truly applaud the efforts of parents to help their children and the network of information that has ensued. I guess what I’m grousing about is the dearth of stuff available to many adults that need it….and I know many.
While I understand that statistically speaking there are a whole lot fewer girls than boys that are AS/Autistic, I also understand that it tends to manifest very differently in girls and women than in the male of the species due to gender based neurological differences. Speaking statistically again, girls are far more likely to be misdiagnosed due to these differences in manifestation. I know that was certainly the case in my life.
I’d love to hear from y’all adult spectrum specters. Have you found resources? Diets that work? Coping Mechanisms? And how about the stuff that doesn’t work?
Inquiring minds want to know 😉
On a side note I had my first GFCF dinner party the other night…oh and add VEGAN to that as well.
I did a lasagna that was pretty darned good, if I do say so myself. BUT the crowning achievement of the nite was dessert…rich chocolate layer cake , filled with marion/raspberry filling, coated with a semi-sweet chocolate ganache and decorated with fresh berries. This was served with a very rich bittersweet coconut/chocolate ice cream that I whipped up. It was good by any standard, let alone gfcf.
I’m insufferably pleased with myself at this point.
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