Bumblebee

I posted a new bumblebee chine collé linocut in my shop


This is a first edition lino block print of a bumblebee on Japanese kozo (mulberry) paper with yellow washi chine collé (collaged fine Japanese paper). The term chine collé is from the French for "papier-chine collé" or glued Chinese paper (though fine Japanese is more likely); it's a way to get a different colour or texture in a relief print. The bee itself fits with 10 cm (4 inches) square and the sheet is 20 cm (7.9 inches) square. The print is one of only 12.



For the month of March, the Mad Scientists of Etsy are celebrating entomology! Even though, butterflies are the new pirates, I thought I would make a bee, and since Reynardin encourages me to carve fur, I went for the fuzzy bumblebee.

Actually, this is sort of Step 1. I am planning an entomology pillow (yes, really). Also, I have this New Year's resolution to submit prints to print shows and contests, and there is a mini-print show in Ottawa, I'm considering. Prints must be 10 cm by 10 cm (and can be on sheets up to 20 cm by 20 cm). My other option would be, the Hand-Held Harpy. Or to make something else, pronto.

Space Kitty Hover Pod

Not that she didn't already have it, but faunalia has secured herself a free electronics slave consultant with her BRONZE AND GLASS SCULPTURE - WITH LED - OF A CAT LAZILY FLYING A HOVERING SPACESHIP.

YES. I really typed that.

YES, IT'S MINE! Bwhahaha!

Yes, I would be very proud to be involved in any art show with faunalia's fuckin' fabulous work.


Did I mention the GLOWING?
A simple coin battery-powered LED lights the glass rod and in the dark the diffracted light goes all blue at the base to really give that hovering feel.

I know that this could not have come into existance without Reynardin so I thank you both very very much. I also love the brainstorming about using our respective skills together. Am thinking on it.

Thanks Blythechild for organizing brunch and scintillating conversation as always.

subway human anatomy map

Hey check it check it! Interior subway map:


Underskin by Sam Loman via see reqbat tumble



We should map everything with such elegance.

Mad Scientist (of Etsy)

I convinced the MSOE folks that what we need are some interviews on the blog. Who are these scientist-artists anyway? What do they do? Well, I've posted the fist interview. Check it out. We have tiger quolls. *the cute it burns!* Watch out though - that there is a carnivorous marsupial. In fact, it is mainland Australia's largest carnivorous marsupial and considered an apex predator.* Further, there are immortal jellyfish and beautiful needle-felted sculpture animals.

By the way, you (especially the Torontonians) should be reading the TESTy blog (I mean, basically, I write it) and the Printsy blog is stupendous (but dangerous to the wallet).

I think I should adopt Reynardin's accidental catch-phrase, "Hey check-it check-it!"

*I think of Australia as being full of dangerous animals, like spiders, snakes, sharks and killer jellyfish. I didn't expect the apex land predator to be so cuddly-looking. But perhaps Australians mistakenly think polar bears look cute (as opposed to lethal and stealthy) and I wouldn't even want to mess with an angry raccoon, so what do I know?

Reading is sexy XXXIII

{image: The Power of Books, by Bulgarian artist Mladen Penev}
10. Beautiful Evidence by Edward Tufte As you may have noticed, I, like many scientists interested in communicating results effectively and/or graphic design, am a fan of Prof. Tufte. He has created his own tiny self-publishing empire, filled with beautiful books explaining how to use words and images together to express ideas, convey data and results, show causal relations, avoid ambiguity, and foster deep -honest- analysis, with elegance and beauty. His books are something which should be on the shelf of any professional who uses graphic information - not just the scientists, but the social scientists, journalists, and in fact, I think the artists would appreciate much of this work as well. For instance, he draws his indeed beautiful examples from scientific classics, like the notebooks of Galileo, but he's as likely to use Leonardo da Vinci or Albrect Dürer. Arguments about time series analysis are made with allusions to an 18th century treatise on the choreography of the contredanse. He discusses diagrammatic presentations of schools of 20th century art, maps of cubist paintings and debunks a therory of mystical geometries inherent in sculpture. He uses a French art nouveau ski manual and mid-20th century map of the area surrounding a Kyoto flower arranging school. Concepts from his other books reappear: 'sparklines' for concise communication of rich time series; the evils of 'chartjunk'; Minard's famous, and heart-wrenching flow map of the advance of Napoléon's dwindling army during the Russian campaign 1812-1813. I enjoyed his comparisons of Feynman diagrams, circuit diagrams and John Cage's musical scores. I, as you may have gathered, love the idea of combining text and image and delight in the reproductions of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, an illustrated manuscript from 1499 in Greek, Italian and Latin, shown side-by-side with an English translation. He praises Galileo, but also, is never afraid to re-draw diagrams to illustrate his theories and philosophy of clarity, succinctness and focus in displaying graphical information. He devotes an entire chapter to the evils of Powerpoint (basically, it seems that a culture of sloppy presentations and associated thinking within NASA killed seven astronauts) and another chapter to sculpture pedestals. There is nothing, it seems, which can be seen and which communicates that he would not take on as a cause - to make more elegant and more beautiful, and allow the evidence to speak for itself. This is definitely a book for any lover of art, science and books, like me.

11. Winter in July by Doris Lessing This is a series of short stories, originally published in 1966, set in Africa (presumably Rhodesia, at the time). These are stories of English people and cultural collisions with Boers, the group dynamics of ex-patriot communities, interactions between colonists and indigenous populations (and wildlife) and how even the well-meaning, kind-hearted people can see their relationships go horribly wrong, and surprisingly, a couple of stories of ménages à trois. Lessing is and has always been a keen observer of people.

12. Mr Tompkins in Paperback by George Gamow. George Gamow is one of the giants of 20th century nuclear and astro-physics and his Mr Tompkins is a classic of the popularization of physics (both relativity and quantum mechanics). Known for his humour, Gamow famously once wrote a paper with Ralph Alpher but convinced Hans Bethe to add his name to the author list during the revision process so the paper would be known as Alpher, Bethe and Gamow. See, Lady Redjeep, Classics jokes are common in physics, if not always sophisticated; what, after all, could be simpler than α, β, γ? Much of this book, parts of which were first written in 1938, and first published in this form in 1965, are now quite out-of-date. So, it is unlikely to be read by people who are not physicists or interested in the popularization of science. But, it has its charms. Mr Thompkins - even dimmer than than your usual 'Watson' - is a bank clerk who attends a physics lecture and dreams himself a world where relativistic physics is everyday (i.e. where the speed of light is very low, and length contraction and time dilation can be observed riding a bicycle). He continues to attend the Professor's lectures (ultimately falling for and marrying his daughter, an artist). He continues to fall asleep during lectures, and dream about other worlds, where, for instance Planck's constant is very large, and hence quantum effect are seen in billiard balls or even elephants. The stories are illustrated by John Hookham, and upon his retirement, Gamow himself. Gamow's illustrations are both amateurish, but delightfully naïve, and somewhat surreal (and remind me of a less proficient Glen Baxter - see figure below). There is even music - including a chapter detailing an opera about the Big Bang versus steady-state models of the universe with a libretto featuring 'characters' the Abbé Georges Lemaître, "a Russian physicist, George Gamow, who had been taking his vacation in the United States for the last three decades" (a wonderfully post-modern trick) and Fred Hoyle. The character "George Gamow" sings "Gaily and drunkenly"

Good Abbé, ourr underrstandink
It is same in many ways.
Univerrse has been expandink
Frrom the crradle of its days.
Univerrse has been expandink
Frrom the crradle of its days.

...

and so forth. Clearly, this is a man with a sense of humour about himself. My favorite, the suave Maxwell's Demon, makes an appearance. The way he wrote his own colleagues and contemporaries into a sort of fairytale - and illustrated them too - is sort of hilarious, to the physicist. Though some cultural and gender biases, as well as particle physics from just before the conceptualization of the quark, now seem quite dated.

If you would like a similar sort of approach, with more up-to-date information, you might like the Alice in Quantum Land by Robert Gilmore.

{Series so far: books read, more books read, books read, books read continues, more books read, I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII,XIX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII XXIV, XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX, XXX, XXXI, XXXII}

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On the subject of books, Faunalia suggested I try to find The Artist's Way in the used book stores on Roncesvalles, so I go in search of The Artist's Way and yet come out with Salman Rushdie's Grimus, Salinger's Catcher in the Rye to re-read, Dawkin's The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing and Saramago's Blindness. I think this says something about me.

Giraffe and Swordfish

I also took some time to print some existing block. I made giraffe block prints (gold on cream kozo paper) to complete an edition. I made a very small edition of four prints of the 'X is for Xiphias' block in violet on turquoise feathered obonai paper.





I did this partially to avoid giving the Canada-USA gold medal men's hockey game 100% of my attention, because it was far too stressful, but all's well that ends well. :)

seahorse & jellyfish/butterflies, blossoms and feathers

It's my mother's birthday on Wednesday, but since we had planned to go to the OB's (post hockey game) we just ended up celebrating yesterday. She asked me, yesterday for a silk scarf to go with a new gray dress. I said I would choose red, but she mentioned salmon (as a colour). Here is what I came up with. I had some striped greyish silk. I printed it with the jellyfish and seahorse blocks in salmony pink.


I had some hand-woven Thai floral silk (oh, the wonders of the Sidney Thrift Store!), which I embellished with butterflies, blossoms and feathers in black, and tints of salmon, peach, orange and pink. Honestly, it's less busy than that sounds:



I painstakingly sewed the two rectangles together. Silk can be tough and finnicky to deal with.





I actually wear a lot of silk scarves* but have never previously attempted to make one.

*Ok, actually, it's a running joke: how many scarves does have on her person at any give time. But they are the solution to style + unpredictable weather: 40 million French women can't be wrong. I have um, several.