Last week of "Graphic Design: Get the Message" exhibit at the Albany Institute of History and Art

Another artistically inspiring day! I'll keep this post short and sweet.

The (greatly underappreciated) Albany Institute of History and Art is holding an exhibit called "Graphic Design: Get the Message" about graphic design in advertising. It's been up for a while, and it ends next Sunday (June 12th).

http://www.albanyinstitute.org/z-%20AIHA%20website/4-Exhibitions/exhibitions.main.htm

I was saddened, but not really surprised, to find that there were very few people at the museum today, and those who were there were mostly senior citizens. Nothing wrong with older folks enjoying the museum...it's just that I wish that more people of all ages would check it out and not think of museums as a boring, musty old place.

A lot of the pieces in the show are related to local history and regional products, so if you're from or familiar with the area, it's interesting to see the way things were many years ago, and to find that some of the brands that are still on shelves have been around for a hundred years or more.

There are also amazing national and international pieces, both original artwork and prints, demonstrating a wide range of items from ads created with early movable type, hand-painted signs and posters, lithographs, war propaganda and video game design.

If you get a chance to visit, it's well worth the trip.

~Leela

Daisies on the roadside + funky bowls and jewelry = INSPIRATION!

Wow...It was actually gorgeous out today!

It was sunny and warm...not hot and humid, nor rainy and cold. (It was beginning to seem like those were the only two kinds of weather we'd have this spring.) So it was a great day to go out with Colin and a friend and hit the flea markets.

The Capital District of NY (Albany and surrounding towns and villages) may not be very big, but it's definitely got its share of flea markets, ranging from tiny to large. Some are simply once-a-year affairs (church bazaars), while others are seasonal and yet others are year-round, permanent places.

I love going to them and picking through the aisles and stalls. Don't get me wrong...many times it's quantity over quality. There's a big difference between displays of interesting old things and tables piled high with crap. There are some really... underwhelming flea markets out there. (For instance, the first place we went to today - an annual sale type of event) Let's just say it was... ummm, all shabby, no chic.

I don't mind looking through junk to find treasure; that's what flea markets are all about. But some places are just run-down and depressing, and others remind me of vendor stalls in a b-grade, post-apocalyptic sci-fi film, with people who look like character actors selling the most random and bizarre assemblage of run-down, "what-the-hell?" stuff you could imagine.

And then there are places like Aunt Katie's Attic (on Amsterdam Rd, between Scotia and Amsterdam, NY) which are an absolute pleasure. http://www.auntkatiesattic.com/ Today was their annual outdoor flea market, and although I've meant to stop there for ages, it was the first time we visited.

We had to park down the road a bit, as the place was packed and it has a bitty little parking lot. As I stepped out of the car, the roadside was blooming with daisies, waving in the breeze in the warm sunshine. I mean, how could I *not* feel happy?

There weren't a huge number of vendors, but the ones that were there offered a really great range of products and prices. Everyone seemed cheerful and considerate, and no one was selling soap on a rope or a half-empty bottle of Avon cologne shaped like a cowboy boot.

Today's Bonus: kitties! There was a local animal rescue charity there with 5 cats up for adoption, and (naturally) I had to stop and talk to them (the cats, that is)

Aunt Katie's Attic is housed in an old school building, though it looks more like a market. Walking in is like setting the "wayback machine" to happy-kitschy mid-century land, with a fantastic and well-organized variety of kitchen tools, jewelry, glassware, etc arranged in creative, colorful and inviting displays. Unlike a lot of antiques/vintage shops, it doesn't give the sense of being in a "no-touch" museum. The prices are very reasonable, and you know that the staff takes care to stock good quality interesting pieces.

After wandering all around the shop - 2 floors of smile-inducing goodies - we went to pay for our haul. We ended up with a "Peanuts" lunchbox (same design as I had when I was a kid!), some dice with cats on them and two honest-to-god Pyrex measuring cups.

Did you know that not only aren't the classic Pyrex variety no longer manufactured, but the "new-and-improved" glass or plastic versions that have replaced them can have measurement markings that are as much as 15 to 20% in error? (http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment/overview.asp?docid=28172) So make sure you're careful not tobreak your old measuring cups, boys and girls. And remember to hit those garage sales and flea markets to hoard the ones you find!

I finally met the shop's namesake, Katie, whom I've been Facebook friends with, but never actually met. She's a really neat lady and I can tell that her spirit and passion for her business is a lot of what makes it work. That positive energy shines through.

When we left, I was energized.

You know that feeling when you go someplace beautiful or fun, or see something that excites you, and you feel a spark ignited in yourself? That's how I felt when I left there today.

So now I'm in my studio and I'm making all sorts of goodies! Time to go...my supplies are calling me!

It figures...

That I would go to the trouble of setting up a blog, then not post for the better part of a year...

But I've been making a lot of changes in my life, including taking on new challenges and following through on things. So I'm going to make sure that I keep on posts...

Promise that the next one will be more enthralling than this.

The Phantom Post!

I just posted something...really I did...but it's not there.

I refreshed...no post.

Emptied my cache THEN refreshed...still no post.

So I'm (obviously) writing another post with hopes that this one won't disappear into the ether, never to be seen again.

The first post, though not exciting, was ironically about me needing to post more often.

Well, now I've caught you up...I'm sure that you're all thrilled. I'm going to post this, then head off to bed. I wonder if my vanishing post will turn up mysteriously in the morning, hung over and wearing last nights clothes...maybe sporting an ill-advised tattoo...

Onward!

I have all my paperwork in line, I have a bunch of artwork to show...and now, it looks as though I'll be one of the featured artists at the August Troy Night Out at the Riverfront Art Coop!! More details to come!

Inspiration

I have so many creative, artsy ideas that sometimes when I'm at work, I find my mind wandering to art projects that I'd be doing if I was at home.

The problem is, when I get home, get done with dinner, do laundry, etc, I often lose that feeling of inspiration.

I have a lot of projects to work on now, and I want to feel that passion and drive. I know damn well that I'm not always going to feel it, that sometimes I just have to push on and do it. That's life.

But what suggestions do you have to help keep that feeling of free-flowing creativity more often?

Sometimes you really *can* judge a book by its cover...

Being a visual person, and one who loves good design (subjective though that term may be...) I have often found that I will be attracted to a book by that first glance...something that pulls me in and makes me walk straight over to the book on the shelf. Something that makes me pick that book up and read the synopsis and reviews, and sometimes the first few pages to find out if the story contained within could live up to that fabulous cover.

On the other hand, there are books that I see that just hold no interest for me, and occasionally some that just plain turn me off. (I must admit, if its a truly over-the-top atrocious cover, I will often peek, pulled in by the glaring ugliness/weirdness/garishness. It's like how you have to look at that dead squirrel by the roadside. Eeew, but...)

So where am I going with this? Back in time, for starters.

Growing up, I was a voracious reader. I would go to the library and take out a stack 14, 15, 16 books high and read them all, usually before their due dates.

And yes, even back then, I'd find that certain covers would call to me, saying softly or shouting loudly "read me!" Such a book was author Irene Hunt's "Up a Road Slowly".

I was immediately taken in by the spidery pen and ink drawing of a run-down, yet inviting house, framed by birches and painted in a watercolor wash. The image itself suggested the story promised within: a run-down place, a little melancholy, yet somehow inviting. Who lived in that house? What happened there?

If you're not familiar with the story, the answer to that question is Julia, a bright, creative young girl, and her brother, sent there by their grieving father after their mother died, to live with an old, stern aunt...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_a_Road_Slowly

I loved this book. It took me in and gave me that wonderful experience of living in someone else's world, completely immersed. And my visualization of the characters, the locales, the whole mood of the novel were influenced by that cover.

Flash forward many years to after I graduated from college. My first job was working at a bookstore (I was an English major, after all...) One of the perks of the job was discovering new and wonderful books and re-discovering ones that you'd nearly forgotten about.

Thinking back to childhood favorites, I special ordered a few (OK, more than just a few) titles that I loved, including "Up a Road Slowly".

When the shipment arrived, I was excited. It was like waiting for an old friend to show up. Julia, the old aunt, the ramshackle house (my mental picture: it was a bit threadbare there, but the yard was green and lovely...)

So imagine my surprise when I opened the box and saw this:

(I know that this is a crappy image, but it was the only one I could find of this version online)

What?! Really? Where was the faded Victorian creepiness, where was the melancholy?

If I had seen this cover instead of the one with the strange house, I probably never would have picked the book up, and that would have been a damn shame. But this cover looks like a teenage soap opera, an early 90's teen-girl version of the movie poster for James Dean's film "Giant". A big Texas saga. This place looks dusty and dry, not damp and slightly creepy!

I know that the old cover was just that: old and therefore, "old-fashioned". To give older books new audiences, publishers periodically re-design the covers, and sometimes (many times) that's a good thing.

But what I'm getting around to, slowly but surely, is that I feel like this cover did a wonderful book a disservice. I can imagine someone picking it up, and, like me, judging it by its cover. they'd either put it down because it was unattractive or read it and possibly feel disappointed because the tone of the story doesn't match the image on the front.

I wonder how many good books people never consider reading (or bad books that they read due to a cool cover) because they made that judgement. I guess I still do judge some books by their covers - especially when they change the cover of a book that I have loved!