What to Paint - Still Undecided

 New choices:

Top to Bottom

A  Blue Susan at Lake Cachuma

B.  Blue Blonde in front of the Blue House

C.  Flower Fantasy

Vote!

Favorite Books of the Year

 

Required Reading - Red Notice by Bill Browder

Well written page turner and one of the best books I've read about present day Russia.  Helps explain the Trump/Russia attraction.  I learned a lot and recommend you do too.

Farmstead Cheese and Sparkling Heidrun Mead Make for a Delightful Saturday

Since I began volunteering for the highly recommended MALT organization this year, I've been meeting more of the people that make the great food and drink in West Marin.  Yesterday, was no exception.  The cheese and the people at Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company are a fabulous new discovery!

Following CA 1 north of Pt. Reyes Station, along Tamalpais Bay, one comes to the Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co.  There one encounters a large herd of happy Holstein dairy cows eating good food, along with their little calves eager to grow up to be future dairy providers.  The fresh milk, flavored by a unique mixture of cow food, including rye grass grown in the hills surrounding the creamery, goes into a variety of cheeses.  All are delicious!!  Pair these cheeses with some sparkling mead from another new discovery - the Heidrun Meadery, also on CA 1, slightly south of the Farmstead Cheese Co.  The beautiful tree-lined drive to the Meadery is as sensational as their beverages.

Looking for a Book that will keep you up all Night?

Here's one!

Incredible Novel - Highly Recommended

Thought provoking and a tearjerker!  What if we are all clones??

Must Read

Powell's Books midyear roundup "best books of 2017 so far" says it all!

This is a Fabulous CD

Blackstar - David Bowie's Final Gift

One of the best CD's I've ever owned.  Highly recommended!  Bittersweet, because you know Bowie is no longer with us.  But, in his final gift, Bowie makes you want to dance and live life to the fullest before you join him in the great unknown.  What a way to go out!

Researcher/Writer Amy Stewart

Reading this book is fascinating, informative and culinary.  Great combination, great book.  Highly recommended!

How to Clean House

I just spent an hour cleaning out my bathroom sink drain.  Thank goodness I had Cheryl Mendelson's great book Home Comforts, with good advice on safe cleaners, so I could finish the job.

Want a Book That Will Keep You Up All Night?

Check it out on Amazon, buy it at your local independent bookstore.

I love Gillian Flynn's books and was delighted to stumble upon this similarly dark thriller.  It literally did keep me up most of the night until I finished it.  Now I'm sad I don't have it to look forward to.

Alien Skin Exposure 7

 I don't know of any other software company that gives you freebies, called "loyalty gifts," like Alien Skin.  I love them! I just downloaded my April Loyalty Gifts presets, which are added to a great collection of filters I can use with exposure 7 in Photoshop to play around with. The photo below, left,  is with the Corbijnesque - Anton colour filter, based on Anton Corbijn's work with Time-Zero film.  Now I can look like a 65 year old Queen of the river (photo shot by sister Elsa on the Hood Canal, Washington, last summer) whose photo was captured with Polaroid film in 1964, instead of me (below, right) captured on digital film in August, 2014.

I also learned something.  Anton Corbijn is a Dutch photographer, music video director and film director.  Here's a link to an interesting interview with him from Interview Magazine:  LINK.  And Time Zero film, I believe, is Polaroid film, which Corbijn liked to use.  Apparently, Polaroid stopped producing it in 2008, according to this interesting 2012 documentary:  LINK.  A true Polaroid, faded with time, is below, shot in 1964.  I am in the backseat of a VW bug, with sister Jean in the driver's seat, in front of our old house in Santa Barbara, CA.

Anwar Khatri Batik Designer

Thanks again to Judy Frater (see prior blog post), we met Anwar Khatri, owner of Baa't "the soul of batik" in Bhujpur, Mundra-Kutch, Gujarat, India, at his studio/home in January on our self-styled textile tour of Gujarat, India.  Here, instead of stamping fabric with dyes (as Mohmad Soyab A. Karim Khatri does, Anwar's team were stamping fabrics with wood blocks dipped in hot wax then dying the fabric in chemical dyes (natural dyes can't stand the heat).  The wax creates unusual textures that crinkle and crack, adding a new dimension to the block designs.  Above are some of the fabrics (and details) of the items I bought and brought home with the intention of using them in future textile art pieces.

Mohmad Soyab A. Karim Khatri Fabric Designer

I was introduced to Mohmad through a lucky encounter with Judy Frater on a recent trip to Gujarat, India.  Judy is an American textile expert, transplanted to India, where she is instrumental in supporting local artists through the Somaiya Gujarat Trust.  Mohmad lives and works in the village of Bhuj, Kutch, with his family (sister, mother and father).  Mohmad showed us his process, including designing original blocks (which are cut elsewhere), stamping fabric with natural dyes, often using a three-block process, and drying the fabrics outdoors.  Much of the dye making process was familiar, having taken an art class with Chester Arnold, where we learned to make black ink from boiled rusty nails and oak gall.  Mohmad explained his process in dye making, which includes making white with lime and gum; making black with iron water, sugar and the seed of some plant I couldn't identify; making red from mud and alum, etc.  His whole family is involved in fabric making and the experience of touring his work space, understanding his process, and finally buying his beautiful hand made cotton and silk products was a thrill!