My Las Vegas vacation is just about over. We've been here about a week. We've done some fun things and spent some great family time.
Tonight's wonderful surprise was Wayne's Sushi and Karaoke Bar. I cannot tell you how great it was. Total Food Orgasm. Period.
What we ate:
Appetizers:
Jellyfish, Bean sprout salad, Edamame, spicy Cucumber salad.
Wayne's Special Sushi Rolls:
Lost Wages - California roll wrapped with smoked salmon, topped withSum Young Gai sauce, baked and topped with tobiko and bonito flakes and eel sauce.
Mikey Mikey - Soft shelled crab, shrimp tempura and spicy tuna roll topped with spicy crab.
What Brah, Beef? - Shrimp tempura and asparagus, topped with beef tenderloin and ginger pepper sauce.
Snap Crackle Pop - Shrimp tempura and asparagus topped with baked tilapia and ginger pepper sauce.
Itsy Bitsy Spider - Soft shelled crab, crab mix, gobo, cucumber, sprouts, and massago. Served with ponzu and Sum Young Gai sauce.
Dragon Ass - California roll topped with eel and massago and eel sauce.
Brian & Marsha, Marsha, Marsha - Shrimp tempura, spicy crab, cream cheese and cucumber topped withspice crab, tuna, avocado and eel sauce.
And my very most favorite:
Mango A Go Go Hand Roll - Spicy crab with mango, served in soy paper.
The food was absolutely amazing. Fresh. Made right in front of us.
It's a tiny, small place - very intimate - owned/operated by Wayne and Heidi. We were sitting at the sushi bar and the food was prepared less than two feet from us. They have a few tables too, but if you go, be sure to sit at the bar. Wayne and Heidi have fantastic stories - tales to amaze and entertain, brash and silly, teasing and enticing. It's better than any dinner theater I've ever been to. The constantly running banter between Wayne, Heidi and all of us was such great fun. They make you feel like a welcome guest in their home, a long-time friend, not a customer.
If you're ever in Vegas, you've got to go to Wayne's.
Wayne and Heidi, we'll see you in December! We want to hear you sing next time.
10 August 2010
07 August 2010
06 July 2010
Radio Interview
My interview on KQAL played today. The editor did a good job taking nearly 2 hours of material and coming up with a good 25 minutes or so.
Produced by Terese Tenseth for KQAL fm Winona MN, made possible by the MN Arts and Cultural
Produced by Terese Tenseth for KQAL fm Winona MN, made possible by the MN Arts and Cultural
Heritage Fund.
29 June 2010
Sheba Mosaic
I have finished the Sheba mosaic. I decided not to trim the edge tesserae, but instead to let them hang out over the frame.
Next I have a house number mosaic to do. Once that's done I'm starting the large three dimensional piece.
Next I have a house number mosaic to do. Once that's done I'm starting the large three dimensional piece.
28 June 2010
Swarm Captured
Click the photo and take a look at this slideshow of Abelisto & me capturing a swarm (with the help of Joyce and Paul).
What a rush!
23 June 2010
It's time to get back to the mosaics
I've not been doing much work on the mosaic this month. I needed to redesign my website montagaelmay.com and apply the design elements to this blog. It still surprises me some when I come back to the blog and see the new design - I sort of forget that I did the update already.
I also just now - like 10 minutes ago - uploaded the newly redesigned Winona Arts Center website - winonaarts.org. Hopefully I've found all the issues with it. I'm using JotForms for the forms as an experiment. I've beefed up the member-artist pages and added a gallery feature. Hopefully more member who are artists will take advantage of this benefit.
Now I get to do the proofreading and the fretting... I know there's got to be some overlooked placeholder text in there somewhere... or some links on some child page.
I also just now - like 10 minutes ago - uploaded the newly redesigned Winona Arts Center website - winonaarts.org. Hopefully I've found all the issues with it. I'm using JotForms for the forms as an experiment. I've beefed up the member-artist pages and added a gallery feature. Hopefully more member who are artists will take advantage of this benefit.
Now I get to do the proofreading and the fretting... I know there's got to be some overlooked placeholder text in there somewhere... or some links on some child page.
02 June 2010
Sheba Mosaic Progress
I haven't posted about the mosaic in a while. Earlier this week I finished the face and the hair, trimmed off the excess mesh and glued the work onto a Wedi board.
I've been testing colors for the clothing and the background.
When I test colors I lay out the tesserae in a roughed-in manner. I try out combinations and andamento (flow of the tesserae) in a very loose way which helps me visualize how it might look. This was my final test for the garment colors for the Sheba mosaic:
You can see a roughed-in arrangement of color and andamento. Once I find an arrangement that seems to work for me I let it sit for a few days - checking it now and then to see if it still appeals to me. If it does, I start working with the colors and layout and then see what I think (I have been known to pull out large sections of a mosaic if I'm not perfectly satisfied with it...)
Tonight I started on the garment section of the mosaic. Didn't get too far - tonight was Skype night with the Las Vegas contingent of the family. Promised Aluna that I'd post a photo of tonight's progress on the mosaic after we disconnected, so here it is:
Only the blue/green tesserae along the right shoulder (left side of the mosaic as you are looking at it) are glued down so far. Hopefully I'll get more done tomorrow night. I don't think I have any mosaic students coming to the open studio so I'll be able to work on this instead of teaching.
I've been testing colors for the clothing and the background.
When I test colors I lay out the tesserae in a roughed-in manner. I try out combinations and andamento (flow of the tesserae) in a very loose way which helps me visualize how it might look. This was my final test for the garment colors for the Sheba mosaic:
You can see a roughed-in arrangement of color and andamento. Once I find an arrangement that seems to work for me I let it sit for a few days - checking it now and then to see if it still appeals to me. If it does, I start working with the colors and layout and then see what I think (I have been known to pull out large sections of a mosaic if I'm not perfectly satisfied with it...)
Tonight I started on the garment section of the mosaic. Didn't get too far - tonight was Skype night with the Las Vegas contingent of the family. Promised Aluna that I'd post a photo of tonight's progress on the mosaic after we disconnected, so here it is:
Only the blue/green tesserae along the right shoulder (left side of the mosaic as you are looking at it) are glued down so far. Hopefully I'll get more done tomorrow night. I don't think I have any mosaic students coming to the open studio so I'll be able to work on this instead of teaching.
17 May 2010
Portrait Mosaic
This mosaic's name hereafter will be Sheba. I think it looks enough like Sheba to be titled with her name... I have taken some liberties - the real Sheba's hair rarely gets this long before she does something interesting to it, and if it does get this long it is a mass of curls. The eyes are green enough, but they could have used an outer edge of brown that you simply cannot do in mosaic unless you're creating a larger piece of work or working with smaller slivers of glass - and the pieces for the iris are already less than 3/16th of an inch square. Sheba also has piercings and a beautiful tattoo on her neck.
But otherwise, this is recognizable as Sheba...
There's a bit of reflection in the lower part of the mosaic. I took this photo before coming to work and I did not have time to set up the lights as I would have liked.
But otherwise, this is recognizable as Sheba...
There's a bit of reflection in the lower part of the mosaic. I took this photo before coming to work and I did not have time to set up the lights as I would have liked.
10 May 2010
Portrait Mosaic Progress - Decisions Made
Over the weekend while working on the mosaic I decided that I would have the hair on the portrait's right side (left as you're looking at the mosaic) go behind the shoulder and the hair on the other side come in front of the shoulder. The slant of the head, and the fact that I wanted to cover the ears with the hair made this an obvious choice once I got down to the shoulders. I started with making the hair on both sides fall behind the shoulders and ended up taking off some tesserae on the portrait's left side.
I think this will end up looking much better.
I am also trying to decide what color to make the clothing and the background. I'm thinking about using colors 442 and 446 or 545, 456 and 546d.
I'm not certain about the background yet. Maybe a mixture of the colors 321, 323, 325 and 325b...
In any case it will mean another order from smalti.com - where these images of smalti colors came from.
I think this will end up looking much better.
I am also trying to decide what color to make the clothing and the background. I'm thinking about using colors 442 and 446 or 545, 456 and 546d.
 |  |
I'm not certain about the background yet. Maybe a mixture of the colors 321, 323, 325 and 325b...
In any case it will mean another order from smalti.com - where these images of smalti colors came from.
04 May 2010
Quick Progress Report on Portrait Mosaic
Spent the time I normally would have used to create this post before work discussing memorial arrangements for the wife of a friend. Very sad.
So this is just going to be a photo of last night's progress because I am at work and need to get busy with that:
So this is just going to be a photo of last night's progress because I am at work and need to get busy with that:
03 May 2010
Portrait Mosaic Progress - XXVIII
Okay, a bit of an exaggeration. I've only been working on this mosaic since April 1st, but I did have hopes of getting farther along on it over the weekend than I actually did... but you know - laundry, dishes, and the odd artist's workshop tend to eat up studio time. And it REALLY was my turn to do some of the housework. Abelisto often ends up doing far more than I in the care of the house.
Other than the amount of progress I am feeling pretty good about this mosaic. I like the way it's turning out (hint for looking at close-up photos of mosaics - squint your eyes up to the point where the lines between the tesserae are less obvious...)
I've started working on the hair. Since the hair is supposed to be nearly black I am using really dark blues, a dark mahogany brown, some random dark grays for the main flow of the hair, with slightly lighter versions of those colors as highlights.
You can see some lines that I've drawn in the process of thinking about the hair. After several tries at creating the outline for the hair I still was not satisfied with it. So instead of following some predetermined line - in which case I would have set the outer edge of the hair and worked inward toward the face - I've decided that when I work on the part where the hair is hanging downward, I would start right alongside the face and work my way down the mosaic in "locks" of hair. When it looks and feels right I'll stop. You can see the beginning of this on the right side of the face (left side as you are looking at the photo).
I haven't decided if I am going to show the ears or not. If I do I'll have to pull off a couple of the hair tesserae that I added last night.
Other than the amount of progress I am feeling pretty good about this mosaic. I like the way it's turning out (hint for looking at close-up photos of mosaics - squint your eyes up to the point where the lines between the tesserae are less obvious...)
I've started working on the hair. Since the hair is supposed to be nearly black I am using really dark blues, a dark mahogany brown, some random dark grays for the main flow of the hair, with slightly lighter versions of those colors as highlights.
You can see some lines that I've drawn in the process of thinking about the hair. After several tries at creating the outline for the hair I still was not satisfied with it. So instead of following some predetermined line - in which case I would have set the outer edge of the hair and worked inward toward the face - I've decided that when I work on the part where the hair is hanging downward, I would start right alongside the face and work my way down the mosaic in "locks" of hair. When it looks and feels right I'll stop. You can see the beginning of this on the right side of the face (left side as you are looking at the photo).
I haven't decided if I am going to show the ears or not. If I do I'll have to pull off a couple of the hair tesserae that I added last night.
30 April 2010
Portrait Mosaic Progress
Managed to get back to work on the portrait mosaic. There's a bit of a bounce-back from the camera flash, but this image is still pretty good.
I do like the way this is turning out.
And the next two mosaics are starting to take form inside my head.
I do like the way this is turning out.
And the next two mosaics are starting to take form inside my head.
To Flash or not to Flash... not really a question
More reasons to not use Flash on websites...
Steve Jobs - Thoughts on Flash
Actually, I look at Adobe in much the same way I look at Microsoft. Both companies are very protective of their brand, their products and their code... and that's okay. Both companies constantly buy up small companies, dismantle their small, inexpensive cool software applications and roll them into the hugely overpriced applications that they sell... and that's not okay.
Steve Jobs - Thoughts on Flash
Actually, I look at Adobe in much the same way I look at Microsoft. Both companies are very protective of their brand, their products and their code... and that's okay. Both companies constantly buy up small companies, dismantle their small, inexpensive cool software applications and roll them into the hugely overpriced applications that they sell... and that's not okay.
28 April 2010
Matters of Concern II
I've been reading about SB 1070 - the Arizona anti-illegal immigrant law.
It's very alarming, and it makes me no little bit sick to my stomach. This law is akin to the law that put Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans in labor camps during WWII. This law turns Arizona into a place where you have to carry your "PAPERS" with you at all times so that you can prove you are a citizen of the U.S. or that you are in the country legally - if your skin is brown that is... Very Gestapo...
Some proponents are positioning the law as a way to address the influx of illegal immigrants, claiming that individual states should have the jurisdiction to police the national borders. However border control is a task that the constitution grants to the federal government alone. These advocates of SB 1070 seem to feel that harassing Americans of Latino or Hispanic decent and those immigrants who are legally here in this country, is acceptable collateral damage, and they should just put up with it in the name of catching those who are here illegally.
They fail to realize that that is absolutely unacceptable. No citizen of the U.S. is supposed to have to fear the papers-police. All their ranting about Anti-American-this and Un-American-that seems to miss this very crucial point... In my mind there's nothing more anti-american than the loss of our civil liberties, of our essential freedoms. And one person's loss of freedom is a loss for all of us.
The supporters of SB 1070 fail to realize that much of the illegal immigrant problem is due to our government's mistaken policies. That NAFTA and other like-minded free market-based policies actually have worsened the illegal immigrant problem instead of being a part of the solution. In the 1980s and 90s, NAFTA proponents boasted that trade, not aid, would boost the lot of Mexico and Mexicans. By raising Mexican living standards and wage levels - NAFTA's intended goals - Attorney General Janet Reno predicted NAFTA would reduce illegal immigration by up to two-thirds in six years. "NAFTA is our best hope for reducing illegal migration in the long haul... If it fails, effective immigration control will become impossible..."(Reno, 1994).
Well, guess what, Janet - it failed.
Instead of increasing the living conditions for the Mexicans and benefiting the Americans, the flood of illegal immigrants to the United States is up, and the standard of living of the average Mexican is down. People don't leave their communities, their friends, their families and their cultures because they want to. They leave because they have to. NAFTA set the stage for the kind of poverty that drives people to break laws simply to feed their families.
NAFTA permits heavily-subsidized US corn and other agri-business products to compete with small Mexican farmers. This has driven the Mexican farmer off the land because they cannot compete with the low-priced imports of US corn and other agricultural products. Millions of Mexicans have been forced off their farms and out of agriculture, and many of those that remain are living in desperate poverty. These people are among those that cross the border to feed their families. Meanwhile, corn-based tortilla prices have more than doubled in recent years and will continue to climb due to, in part, the U.S. policies encouraging production of corn-based ethanol.
NAFTA's service-sector rules allowed companies like Wal-Mart to enter the Mexican market. By selling low-priced goods made by ultra-cheap labor in other countries, these discount stores eliminated tens of thousands of small and medium-sized Mexican businesses.
It's definitely a quagmire now.
I'd like to think that a move to fair market policies rather than free market would eventually fix at least some of the problems, but I think that the vociferous voices on the right would find a way to stigmatize the fair market movement with their cries of "Socialist agenda" and "Anti-American."
I also doubt that we've enough time to make it work before the meltdown occurs. It seems we're reaching a fevered pitch - at least as far as the rhetoric is concerned. I'm worried that we're going to see an increase in violence soon.
The bigots hiding behind the "States' Rights" rallying call are very good at working their constituencies up into a rabid spittle-spewing froth, feeding the immigrant-bashing mantra that is sweeping the country via their Tea Party pro-America, America-for-the-Americans platform, and playing on the fear of losing jobs to immigrants - the fact that those jobs are ones that no red-blooded Tea Party regular would ever consider doing is irrelevant.
egad... what's next?
It's very alarming, and it makes me no little bit sick to my stomach. This law is akin to the law that put Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans in labor camps during WWII. This law turns Arizona into a place where you have to carry your "PAPERS" with you at all times so that you can prove you are a citizen of the U.S. or that you are in the country legally - if your skin is brown that is... Very Gestapo...
Some proponents are positioning the law as a way to address the influx of illegal immigrants, claiming that individual states should have the jurisdiction to police the national borders. However border control is a task that the constitution grants to the federal government alone. These advocates of SB 1070 seem to feel that harassing Americans of Latino or Hispanic decent and those immigrants who are legally here in this country, is acceptable collateral damage, and they should just put up with it in the name of catching those who are here illegally.
They fail to realize that that is absolutely unacceptable. No citizen of the U.S. is supposed to have to fear the papers-police. All their ranting about Anti-American-this and Un-American-that seems to miss this very crucial point... In my mind there's nothing more anti-american than the loss of our civil liberties, of our essential freedoms. And one person's loss of freedom is a loss for all of us.
The supporters of SB 1070 fail to realize that much of the illegal immigrant problem is due to our government's mistaken policies. That NAFTA and other like-minded free market-based policies actually have worsened the illegal immigrant problem instead of being a part of the solution. In the 1980s and 90s, NAFTA proponents boasted that trade, not aid, would boost the lot of Mexico and Mexicans. By raising Mexican living standards and wage levels - NAFTA's intended goals - Attorney General Janet Reno predicted NAFTA would reduce illegal immigration by up to two-thirds in six years. "NAFTA is our best hope for reducing illegal migration in the long haul... If it fails, effective immigration control will become impossible..."(Reno, 1994).
Well, guess what, Janet - it failed.
Instead of increasing the living conditions for the Mexicans and benefiting the Americans, the flood of illegal immigrants to the United States is up, and the standard of living of the average Mexican is down. People don't leave their communities, their friends, their families and their cultures because they want to. They leave because they have to. NAFTA set the stage for the kind of poverty that drives people to break laws simply to feed their families.
NAFTA permits heavily-subsidized US corn and other agri-business products to compete with small Mexican farmers. This has driven the Mexican farmer off the land because they cannot compete with the low-priced imports of US corn and other agricultural products. Millions of Mexicans have been forced off their farms and out of agriculture, and many of those that remain are living in desperate poverty. These people are among those that cross the border to feed their families. Meanwhile, corn-based tortilla prices have more than doubled in recent years and will continue to climb due to, in part, the U.S. policies encouraging production of corn-based ethanol.
NAFTA's service-sector rules allowed companies like Wal-Mart to enter the Mexican market. By selling low-priced goods made by ultra-cheap labor in other countries, these discount stores eliminated tens of thousands of small and medium-sized Mexican businesses.
It's definitely a quagmire now.
I'd like to think that a move to fair market policies rather than free market would eventually fix at least some of the problems, but I think that the vociferous voices on the right would find a way to stigmatize the fair market movement with their cries of "Socialist agenda" and "Anti-American."
I also doubt that we've enough time to make it work before the meltdown occurs. It seems we're reaching a fevered pitch - at least as far as the rhetoric is concerned. I'm worried that we're going to see an increase in violence soon.
The bigots hiding behind the "States' Rights" rallying call are very good at working their constituencies up into a rabid spittle-spewing froth, feeding the immigrant-bashing mantra that is sweeping the country via their Tea Party pro-America, America-for-the-Americans platform, and playing on the fear of losing jobs to immigrants - the fact that those jobs are ones that no red-blooded Tea Party regular would ever consider doing is irrelevant.
egad... what's next?
21 April 2010
Matters of Concern
One of the online discussions I participate in has sort of ground to a halt over the perceived direction of our country. To me it seems that the discussion is focused on the financial crisis, fear of unemployment, fear of socialism, and other right-leaning fears.
This morning I posted the following (we'll see what comes from it - maybe there are some less-conservative lurkers on the discussion board)...
Other thoughts, anyone?
This morning I posted the following (we'll see what comes from it - maybe there are some less-conservative lurkers on the discussion board)...
I agree that the direction that our country (and our world) is going is a concern. I am not so concerned about the political direction, although the general unwillingness to consider coming to any worthwhile compromise is very discouraging. The disoriented polarity in our government is debilitating and will reduce us to a third-rate country eventually.
I am concerned that people are not trained to think critically, to weigh the worth of the information they receive. Instead they equate loudness, or repetition, as indicators of veracity.
I am concerned that we no longer have anything that could be considered a civil society. The callous, in-your-face screaming disdainful model of communication prevalent in public and private discourse can in no way be called conversation. Without conversation, nothing is humanly possible.
I am concerned that there are no credible news/journalism organizations now - only info-media entertainews. Without responsible, disciplined, respected public-minded news sources (rather than the corporate, news-for-profit sources we are now saddled with) democracy is not possible. If the populace isn't informed (as opposed to entertained) their decisions at the voting booth are meaningless.
I am concerned that people jump at the chance to trade their liberty and rights for security - and a false security at that. Why would any thinking person be willing to give up their freedom for laws and regulations that aren't going to do much to really provide safety and security?
I am concerned about the world's willingness to use violence, rather than diplomacy, to settle disputes.
Other thoughts, anyone?
18 April 2010
More Progress on the Portrait Mosaic
Yesterday I built handrails for the porch steps so that people coming to the art tour next weekend can come up and down on the steps more securely. They aren't pretty, but they'll do. They are just a temporary fix anyway, since I really want to have a new porch put on the house sometime this summer. Need to get a couple more freelance website jobs - then I could hire a crew to put a great porch on the house.
When I went to buy the lumber for the porch step railing I also bought some halogen lamps that will be the photography setup for taking pictures of the mosaics.
Today I was able to work for a good part of the day on the mosaic portrait of Sheba. I'm almost finished with the face. I've also started cutting glass for the hair, but I haven't glued any of those pieces down yet.
For the most part I am really happy with this so far. But I think I am going to rework the area under her right eye (on the left side as you're looking at this photo) .
When I went to buy the lumber for the porch step railing I also bought some halogen lamps that will be the photography setup for taking pictures of the mosaics.
Today I was able to work for a good part of the day on the mosaic portrait of Sheba. I'm almost finished with the face. I've also started cutting glass for the hair, but I haven't glued any of those pieces down yet.
For the most part I am really happy with this so far. But I think I am going to rework the area under her right eye (on the left side as you're looking at this photo) .
16 April 2010
Abelisto Dulcimer
I've resisted using Picasa even though uploading photos to a Blogger blog creates Picasa web albums with the images automatically.
Today, as part of my work I did some exploration of Picasa. I downloaded the application and installed it.
That was about 55 minutes ago. It's still indexing all the photos on my computer. I'm not surprised since I have over 500G of photos spread between three harddrives.
While it's still finding and cataloging things I played with it a bit. I found this photo of Abelisto playing the dulcimer on stage. I used Picasa's interface to adjust color, contrast, and fill light, and then applied a sepia filter to the image (hopefully all of this is undoable... I'm fairly certain it is - I actually know it is while you are still working on an image, but I don't know if I leave an image in an altered state and return to it later if it is undoable... we'll see). I then used the Blog This feature in Picasa to upload this photo and write this little bit about it.
I added a caption to the photo in Picasa but it does not seem to have accompanied the photo into this blog post.
Picasa is still indexing photographs... I'm beginning to wonder how many I actually have. Hopefully it hasn't gone out onto the network... I have access permissions to lots and lots of networked folders.
Maybe I should check on it. Now.
13 April 2010
Smalti Mosaic Portrait
Tonight's progress...
I reworked some of the shadows around the dark side of the nose and added more smalti for the shadowed side of the face.
I've sort of lost track of the hours I've spent working on this one... I think it's around 18, but that's just a guess. And I really have no idea if it's a good guess or not.
I reworked some of the shadows around the dark side of the nose and added more smalti for the shadowed side of the face.
I've sort of lost track of the hours I've spent working on this one... I think it's around 18, but that's just a guess. And I really have no idea if it's a good guess or not.
11 April 2010
Portrait Mosaic Progress
Spent all day yesterday cleaning the house, and only worked on the mosaic today. Not the best of photographs, but here is today's progress.
Should have done laundry... no clean clothes for the upcoming week...
Should have done laundry... no clean clothes for the upcoming week...
08 April 2010
Portrait Mosaic
Lest you think I am slacking... I am waiting on more smalti, which I ordered on Monday from smalti.com, which shipped yesterday, and should be here (hopefully) on Friday so that I can do more work on this piece over the weekend.
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