Toilet Paper, Utilitarian Product or Artistic Medium?

Another sketchbook entry from the year past. Just going through and reliving the good times! Proof positive that:

1. A good artist can make the magic happen using anything available

2. Creativity is not bound by budget

Mithu Sen, Visiting Artist

Not long ago Mithu Sen, contemporary artist, visited us and offered this terrific lecture. Though there were some A/V problems, initially, it all worked out in the end. She was erudite, funny, smart, and showed amazing work. Plus, her visit prompted my colleague, Kathryn Myers, to invite us all over for dinner. Which is great, because Kathryn is an excellent cook. We took that opportunity to introduce Mithu to marshmallow peeps. Someone had to.

Betty Lou Starnes, art historian, serves up some peep goodness. Mithu Sen chooses pink.

Mithu Sen and Kathryn Myers, post-talk. All's well that ends well.

The DMV. Soul-Crushing Black Hole of Desperateness. But I'm Not Bitter...

Revisiting some past sketchbooks yielded this image. It makes me weep. And grit my teeth. (Not unlike that moment in which I discover that the DSW Shoe Outlet coupon I've been hoarding has expired.) On this particular morning the line to be admitted to the interior space of the DMV actually wound around the exterior of the building. We were let inside in waves. Once admitted, the inner sanctum yielded a vast wasteland of thinly padded chairs, cranky patrons, and crankier employees. Good times!

Embrace Technology: Future Editor

Sketchbook goodness. Just a little image that's been kickin' around. It seems to be an editorial comment, but, not really. Just a brief, passing thought on automation. Well, ok then! I guess it IS an editorial comment. Power to the pencil- right on!

Pity the Groundhog, For He Labors On February 1st...

So, today was Groundhog Day. As a Pennsylvania gal, I take a certain amount of pride in the fact that Punxsutawney Phil is our guy, and ours alone. But it's an awful lot of pressure on a hapless rodent. I can't help but imagine the pre-game jitters. So I did. Imagine them, I mean.

In this cover for Spider magazine a couple of years ago we see Phil in the wee hours, trying, rather desperately, to divine what may be. And, obviously, he's deadlining (that's a nod to my profession, for sure).

This was the February/March issue. The shamrocks on the tablecloth are a reference to March. The pressure's off by then and Phil can go back to relaxing. And randomly destroying people's gardens. Spring is (somewhere) around the corner. He knows that.

Grad Crits, Revisited

At semester's end, students and faculty gather together to reflect, ponder, critique, kick some serious ass and, apparently, sometimes confuse the graduate students. It's an entirely useful process, but also difficult and a rite of passage. If they survive they get to come back in the spring for more!

For my current UConn colleagues, and our students... can you find yourselves here?

Fuzzy Man

Calvin, our itinerant Cairn Terrier for these last 14.5 years, is "The Fuzzy Man" at our house. He's ever cheerful, a lover of life, a true companion. He never asks for much. Instead, he holds up his end of the bargain- companion, watchdog, friendly boy, kibble aficionado.

He is much older now. And, in passing, has had his share of health crises in the last year or so. Tonight was no exception. Rushed again to our ever-compassionate vet practice, at night, they set him right, to some degree. We continue to nurse him at home. So, as I lay with him on the kitchen floor (he, on a comfy bed, me on a smelly old carpet scrap next to him) I want to say, "Here's to you, Calvin. The Fuzzy Man. The Maitre d' of 147 Mansfield Road (houseguests, you know what I'm talkin' about))." God bless you.