Happy Holidays From the Christmakkahdon!

Because the best way to wish everyone a happy holiday season is with dinosaurs. Yeah Christmakkah!

Songs:

Rock of Ages - Ben Kweller (HypeMachine)

Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town - Bruce Springsteen

Hello Etsy, It's Been a While

I've begun using Etsy again. I set up a shop last year, but didn't quite understand how it worked. Now, after seeing some of the best at the Renegade Craft Fair & the worst on Regretsy, I've decided to try it out with a little more of my work. It's a lovely way for artists to connect with each other and sell in a worldwide marketplace. People can even request custom items. This time I've added a lot of my senior work to my shop, It'll Glow On You.

A bioluminescent menagerie in my old studio space with works in progress. (The basket starfish would later become orange.)

Video: 

Carnival of the Animals: The Aquarium - Camille Saint-Saëns

They Draw & Cook... Matzo Ball Soup

One of my drawings was featured on the blog They Draw & Cook. They are doing a showcase of holiday recipes throughout December, and even though it's a Passover food, Matzo Ball Soup is a perfect winter dish. Here's my drawing (Click the image to make it larger): 

Here's one of the original sketches.

   

I highly recommend the soup!

A Song: 

A Million Matzoh Balls - Dean Friedman (Artist's Website)

"Rabbi, Is There a Blessing for a Sewing Machine?"

"There is a blessing for everything." - Fiddler on the Roof.

I recently bought a new sewing machine, and it is absolutely wonderful. It does 80 different stitches and comes with 8 presser feet. It's like upgrading from a basic drawing pixel software to Adobe's CS5. So far, I've only used one foot, but already can get an amazing range of stitches.

Test Pattern:

So to christen the new sewing machine, Sarah requested a Chanukah/Hanukkah decoration.

Check out the stitching around the star. Autostitch #09!

Needless to say, it'll keep me in stitches for quite a while. And I'll leave you with this:

"Never Underestimate the Power of a Woman With a Sewing Machine." - Rosie Geissler

Song & a Video:

Chanukkah Under the Stars - Fountains of Wayne (iLike)

How Do You Spell Channukkahh? - LeeVees from The LeeVees on Vimeo.

Olafur Eliasson's Daylight Map

Recently I've been perusing a copy of The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, which is a wonderful anthology that covers an endless variety of mediums and subjects. From purely visual aesthetics to historically and politically charged imagery, these maps use everything, including computer parts, souvenir t-shirts, fur, paint, glass, file cabinets, and even steamrollers.

One of my favorites (for obvious reasons), is Olafur Eliasson's "Daylight Map," 2005.

It's a map of the different time zones of the world, and during the daylight hours in each time zone, those particular pieces of neon on the map are lit. Kinetic light sculptures are fantastic!

Songs (YouTube): 

Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Reading the Map Upside Down - Canasta

Map of the World - Monsters of Folk