Mosaic Class at the Winona Arts Center

Last night I taught the first of 4 2-hour mosaic classes at the Winona Arts Center. I have 7 students, all women. I have provided 12" square pieces of Wedi board, glass tiles, Weldbond, and grout. I also brought in tile nippers for the students that wanted to purchase them. One student had her own.

I started the class with a brief bit about the history of mosaics and some mosaic terms. I then explained some general mosaic design considerations, as well as the various methods of building a mosaic and showed them the examples of my mosaic work that I brought in for them to examine. The students then started going though the books I brought, looking for inspiration for their work. Once they had an idea I had them draw it on the Wedi boards - they are doing direct method mosaics - and select the glass tiles in the colors they wanted to use.

I explained soaking the tiles off of the paper and demonstrated cutting the tiles using the nippers. Everyone thought it was easier than they thought it would be to get good cuts. I explained that with mosaic it does not have to be perfect - it's a fairly forgiving art medium. We talked about the various shapes they might need to produce, how to get curved shapes and thin slices and what shapes to avoid using in their mosaic. I explained that I did not want them to get frustrated with their first attempt at mosaic work.

Some of them got started right away and ended up with several tiles glued down before the end of class, others were being more cautious about diving in. I think that any of them that come to all four classes will have no problem finishing a mosaic.

Only one student cut herself on the glass. 

Today two of the students told me they really enjoyed the class and were very glad they signed up for it. One of them told Abelisto that they thought I was a good teacher. That was nice to hear.

Catching up on the mosaic progress

Thought I'd take a few minutes while I eat my lunch to get this blog caught up. I've finished the glass work on MacKenzie in the Garden with Bees. I also made a grout test - a 10" x 20" mosaic using tiles that represent the color range in this piece. Tonight it will have been sitting log enough for the adhesive to be dry. I will tape off parts of it and do grout color test strips. I think I will want to test blue-gray, light gray, medium gray and black.


On previous mosaics I've often skipped the grout test, but I've devoted enough time, energy and resources into this one I thought I would do it. I'm really bad about just doing things without this kind of prep. Most of the time it works out because I am good at visualizing. Sometimes I wonder if a test of this sort would have made a good piece even better. So with that in mind I'm taking the time (and committing the resources - 161 tiles) to do one.

When I was doing a lot of B&W photography I actually learned that I really liked making test strips for exposure settings. I would cut strips of glossy, matte and pearl finished papers; line them up in the print easel, and do a series of test exposures. It became part of my darkroom ritual - shoot a roll of film, process it; expose a contact sheet, process it, dry it; take it out into normal lighting and select which images to print; cut test strips, expose them, process them, dry them; take them out into normal lighting and finally decide which images and which papers and which exposures; expose images, process them, dry them, take them out into normal lighting and see how well I chose. If not so good, repeat process with other choices. If good, frame photograph (or whatever I was doing with it) and move on.

Supreme Court Arguments Today

This is being argued in court today.

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.
Hopefully NPR will give have information on air later today.

Mosaic Progress - Getting Close

Here is the most recent image of MacKenzie in the Garden with Bees. I will likely finish the glass work between now and Sunday. I have a bit of work to do on the edges, particularly the left edge, that doesn't show in this photograph. It needs to be trimmed about 1/4" so that it will fit in a 24" X 48" frame. I have to pull up about 25 tiles, shave off the 1/4", and replace the tiles, some of which will need trimmed themselves.

Next time I'm going to cut the substrate and build the frame before I start with the glass work. I won't place the substrate in the frame until after the grouting so that I don't have to worry about getting grout where it should not be - I just want to make sure I don't have framing issues like this one.

Mosaic Progress

Today I came home from work feeling rather ill. I think it's just stress. Eventually stress starts to mess up my stomach and I get digestive problems. I crawled in bed with the heating pad and slept most of the afternoon. That helped, somewhat.

Still, I only did a small amount of work on the mosaic - not enough to be worth the effort of photographing it and posting the photo (especially since my internet connection is so very slow tonight). I worked on the smaller sunflowers. I have all the greenery done - there's just the five bees and a couple flower blossoms and then the filling in of the sky, which should go quickly. The tile I ordered for it should be here on Monday.

Instead of working on the mosaic I worked on developing an events calendar that I can drop into a post or the sidebar of a Blogger blog. It's for another project I am researching.

More later.

Damn Ken Starr to the Deepest Hell

This breaks my heart.

I've signed the letter. I don't usually do this sort of thing. I don't know if things like this are effective. It often seems like just a feel good (like driving a hybrid) that really doesn't do what we need (like way less driving around).

This one I signed.

And I love the music.

Mosaic Progress - Part 10

I discovered this weekend that the color I wanted to use for the remainder of the sky is the one color I missed when I made the huge glass tile order last month.

Very frustrating.

So today I went online and ordered the blue-gray tiles, and some pure black mini-tiles for another project and the class I am teaching in March & April. I also ordered 6 pairs of tile nippers for the class. I already have 4 students and I think I might end up with a few more.

After my realization that I only had 25 tiles of the sky color, I decided to work on finishing up all the flowers and plants in the mosaic and the six remaining bees while I wait for the order to arrive. After about six hours of work this weekend I have five bees, the outer ring of petals for one of the giant sunflowers, the blossoms on the smaller Mexican sunflowers and a bit of greenery left on the plants left to do. I'll keep working on them until the tile order comes in. Once they are done, and the sky tiles cut to fit around them, the rest of this mosaic will go very quickly.

I am starting to get excited about completing this one. I am looking forward to grouting it. Adding the grout always pulls it all together for me. I usually love it while I am working on it, but become totally enthralled when the grout goes on. I think I am going to use a pewter gray grout. I think a black or slate gray would be too dark for this mosaic. It has a considerable expanse of sky that needs to fade into the background. Using a grout that is remarkably different than the blue-gray sky tiles will make the sky show up too much and pull the viewer's attention to it rather than the foreground elements.

I've started thinking about the frame. I think I will make a fairly deep box frame (my name for it - the actual frame type probably has a different official name) for this mosaic. I will drill the plywood back board and set the hanging hardware in from the inside before mounting the mosaic in the frame so that there is plenty of strength in the hanging system. This will be a heavy piece.

Tom Dispatch

I've added Tom Dispatch to my blogroll. It's a political statement I'm making by doing so.

I encourage people to read it, but I'll warn you ahead of time that it's not for the faint of heart. It can be scary, discouraging, infuriating, frustrating and more.

It is one of the most important things I read.

It's really hard to do it though.

Fine Arts Commission

Tonight I heard the most remarkable thing - a commissioner on the Fine Arts Commission actually said (paraphrased) - that piece has a function so it isn't art, it can't be called art.

I was appalled. Here was someone on the Fine Arts Commission - someone who is supposed to be supporting the arts - setting those kinds of limits on what art is...

It reeked of white male european hegemony to me... and it was a woman expressing the thought. Had I been a member of the commission, instead of merely a onlooker, I would have challenged the idea. I'm a bit dismayed that everyone on the commission just sat there as if that was a perfectly legitimate statement to make.

I live a life dedicated to blurring the line between art and craft; a line that I see as a historically arbitrary social construction. I believe in questioning the status quo. Every single day.

Tonight clearly illustrated that the battle is not over.

Mosaic Progress - None

I did not work on the mosaic last night - took a night off to do some research. I am doing a presentation next month for the Knowledge Acknowledged series at work. The library has four presentations scheduled for this spring. The first one was by Robin Wangberg, a professor of physics that runs Ironman Triathlons. The next is by Eric Heukeshoven, a music instructor here who plays the Winona steam calliope in the Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans every year. I do the next presentation after that and Abelisto, Chris Kendall and Gary LeMasters are finishing the series with a presentation on sustainable beekeeping.

Here's the promo for my presentation:
Monta May- accomplished artist, will share her passion for creating art that is bound up in the mystery of antiquity, the ancient artifacts, techniques, motifs, and imagery that allow us brief glimpses into the lives of our common ancestral pasts. Monta’s work reflects a fascination with things from the past. March 24, 2:00-3:00 p.m.

Now I have to decide what I am going to talk about.

I am fascinated by the ancient, the mysteries that surround us that we rarely acknowledge. This fascination informs my art practice, becoming part of the context I work within.

When I did my MFA I wrote quite a bit about inspiration and historic examples of concurrent inspiration. I realized then that most of the art I do is in media that use centuries old techniques. Fiber work, encaustic painting, and now mosaic, all have roots that are very old, very deep.

Mosaic Workshop

March 11, 18, 25 & April 1
Mosaic Art: Creating Glass Tile Mosaics
Wednesdays • 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Winona Arts Center
228E 5th St
Winona MN 55987
507-453-9959

Participants will learn how to create mosaics using vitreous glass tiles. They will also learn a bit of miasic history. Emphasis will be given to understanding and mastering techniques so that participants will be able to create mosaics on their own after taking this workshop. Participants will have the iption of signing up for either a 1 mosaic option (materials for a 1 sp.ft. mosaic to be created in the workshop) or a 3 mosiac option (materials for a 1 sp.ft. mosaic to be created in the workshop, plus materials to create 2 aditional mosiacs for further exploration). In addition, participants may purchase the tile nippers used in the workshop.

Tuition: $60
Materials: $25 for 1 mosaic, $55 for 3 mosaics
Tools: $20 for tile nippers (some will be available for use in the workshop)

Registration deadline: class may be canceled if less than 4 people register by March 1.

Instructor: Monta Gael May, MFA, montamay@gmail.com

This is the information for the mosaic workshop I am leading. If you are interested in registering for the workshop please contact the Winona Arts Center or email me.

Mosaic Progress - Part 9

Tonight's work was cut short by an hour or so. My right thumb met the corner of a particularly sharp cut tile. I did not even know it was cut until the blood spurted.

I did get some work done first.

I should be able to finish the glass work this week. After that it will be grouting and framing. I think I'll make a shallow shadowbox frame this one.

Restlessness

Abelisto & I spent most of the weekend cleaning and organizing the house. We've half decided to move our bedroom upstairs since Nova & Mike have moved out, leaving the second largest room of the house empty. It's a great deal colder room than the one we use for a bedroom right now. Running lengthwise down both sides of the room, the ceiling meets the walls part of the way up. Only the center of the room has a flat ceiling. There probably isn't a whole lot of insulation in the ceiling where it slants.

I like moving things around in the house. It soothes the restlessness I often feel. Having moved 19 times since I was 20, I seem to get anxious after living in one place for very long. Moving furniture and making things new and fresh eases it a bit.

Anyway, we're thinking of moving upstairs so that I can move the mosaic out of the front room. We don't really have a living room. We have a huge room that currently has several bookcases, two desks and my mosaic work bench. The parlor studio is totally crammed full right now, with no room to work. I've put the tapestry loom in there because the cats - or rather one cat, Finn - claws the canvas apron if it sits out in the front room, and it totally fills the empty floor space. If we free up the other room on the first floor I can divide all the art tools and supplies between the two rooms - perhaps mosaics and encaustics in one room, weaving looms and spinning wheels in the other. 

Mosaic Progress - Part 8

I spent most of the weekend cleaning and organizing the house. I did manage to get some more work on the mosaic done. I will need to get some more cutting wheels for my Leponitt tile nipper soon. I think they are beginning to get dull - it was getting hard to make accurate cuts, harder to cut the tiles straight. I rotated the blades this morning and they seemed to cut better this evening when I worked on the mosaic.

Mosaic Progress - Part 7

This photo shows my progress as of Wednesday night. I did not work on the mosaic last night because I went to the Winona Fine Arts Commission open forum. Interesting event.

Anyway, when I looked at the photos from Wednesday night I noticed a mistake that I am going to have to fix. It's in the lower right corner of the mosaic.

Lake Park Fountain Art Project - Update

Voting now open!

The Blue Heron Committee selected three finalists from all the artists presenting proposals and placed the choices online so that anyone can vote on their choice of artists and sculptures (that's not a hint or request for your vote, by the way - just an explanation of the process - but you could vote if you wanted).

My proposal for the project is a mosaic patio/floor showing a water scene (river or lake, we have both in town) with various water animals playfully but realistically rendered. The fountain would be surrounded with a papercrete form - a sandbar with reeds, cattails, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and insects illustrated in mosaic.

Mosaic Progress - Part 6

The background and flowers are really starting to take shape. The mosaic is laying flat on a table as I work on it. Soon I have to decide if I want to finish the left side of the mosaic, filling in the sky all the way to the top, or rotate it 180 degrees and work on the flowers and grass at the bottom right side before finishing the sky.

Did not get quite as much work done on the mosaic over the weekend as I would have preferred - the house was scary messy and a major drain on any creative energies one might have. So Abelisto and I spent significant time over the weekend putting it in order. Now everything but the kitchen and one studio room is okay, not perfect, but okay.

And the laundry got done, which was another absolutely necessary task. I'm still not sure the washer is working correctly, but I am in denial about it after the $600.00 bill for the furnace...

Mosaic Progress - Part 5

It's almost midnight. I had no idea I had worked so long tonight. I was listening to an audio book and laying in tiles and time slipped away from me.

Mosaic Progress - Part 4

Here is MacKenzie in the Garden with Bees as of last night.

 

 

It's always interesting to see which areas of a mosaic I feel drawn to work on. If I were doing a mosaic in opus regulatum I would pick a corner and work row-by-row; if opus vermiculum I would select an element in the image and work it first and then move outward; but this one is sort of opus palladium - crazy path - and I can jump around in it a bit.

Lake Park Fountain Art Project

I have been chosen as one of three finalists for the Lake Park Fountain - Artist Competition. For a few days next week people will be able to vote online for an artist.

Here is the proposal I sent to the committee in December, followed by a sketch of the proposed piece...

---

I wish to submit a proposal for the Lake Park Fountain project. I have attached the Design Submission Form with this letter of intent.

Mosaics are an art form that can last for hundreds or thousands of years. There are very fine examples of mosaics that are over two thousand years old. The most ancient mosaic artists used marble and stones from the earth. Medieval and Renaissance mosaicists used stones, marble, glazed ceramic and porcelain tiles, precious metals and poured and sliced slabs of glass – smalti – to construct their work. Contemporary mosaic artists use all of the above plus stained and other specialty glass, along with bits of broken pottery, found object and other mixed media materials.

The design I am proposing consists of a mosaic paved area around the fountain, measuring approximately 20 – 25 square feet, set into the ground so as to be level with the current concrete base of the fountain. The paved area would be irregularly shaped so as to be organic in form (like a lake or river), respect the nature of the park and disturb the roots of the nearby tree as little as possible. The actual shape would be guided by the findings when the digging is begun. The project would also include a sculptural base that would cover the current fountain supports and water pipes. This sculptural surround would be made from papercrete, and cast in two sections so that it could be opened to access the water line and drain for any future servicing. In addition, a discussion with the park service team would have to occur before any digging could begin so as not to damage or disrupt the waterline feeding the fountain. This and the need to be guided by the needs of the nearby tree make it impossible to present you with a totally illustrated concept in this proposal and is the reason I am including this narrative with my submission.

The construction would include excavating a 10” deep area, leveling it, laying in 6” of gravel, framing up and pouring a 4” thick concrete slab, covering the slab with a concrete binder, and adding a mortar bed for the tesserae (mosaic tiles) to rest upon. Due to the relatively small size of the project I believe this would mostly be done by hand, however I would make all possible efforts to hire local people/businesses for any outsourced labor.

The mosaic tesserae (tiles) would cover the new poured pavement and the current paved area around the fountain. I am proposing a mosaic that represents water, water in a river or lake, water that is full of living things – fish, frogs, water lilies, reptiles, flowers, reeds, birds. These creatures would be playful and unique – rather than realistically represented – but tastefully rendered.

The sculptural surround for the fountain would not rise above the fountain’s current bowl, so as conform to any ADA regulations (assuming the current fountain’s design falls within those guidelines). The mosaic work on this part of the project would continue the idea that our water is for all living creatures, depicting cattails and reeds and the birds that live therein. Papercrete is a very durable substance used in residential and commercial construction which can be shaped freeform.

Our Drinking Fountains, Our Water - Design Submission

Date:
December 12, 2008

Description of design, materials, and experience with materials:

Design:
Mosaic paved slab surrounding the fountain with a mosaic papercrete sculptural base for fountain.

Materials:
A variety of vitreous glass tiles, sea glass tiles, ceramic and porcelain mosaic tiles, gravel for substrate, concrete and concrete binder for pavement, thinset mortar for tile bed, paper pulp and cement for sculptural base for fountain.

Experience:
It has been nearly 20 years since I first worked with mosaics. In the meanwhile I have done a good amount sculptural work. This past fall I resumed working with mosaics and decided to offer up this proposal for your consideration. I have included a few images of my recent mosaic work as well as an image of some sculptural work I have done. I do not have very many photographs to offer because I have not been all that concerned about taking photos of my work and most of my mosaic work was years ago. I have provided three photographs showing recent mosaic work – two 2-D pieces and some small 3-D pieces. I do have a website that contains more images of my work – www.854w5th.com.

Images of work in the medium:

Sketch of proposed work:

---

Mosaic Progress - Part 3

Came home 90 minutes early today - well, now it's yesterday - worn out from fighting to breathe all day. Slept for a few hours and was wide awake. I still am.

Decided to clean house and work on the mosaic. Tonight's work:

And the entire work (so you can see how far I have to go yet...):

Mosaic Progress - Part 2

Last night's work:

Mosaic Project

I have started another Mosaic - MacKenzie in the Garden with Bees. I am using a 24" x 48" piece of tile backer board. Here is the drawing on the board, the guidelines for the piece. I follow the lines more or less. It just depends on how the tessarae go down.

I've started attaching tiles and stained glass and will post some more photos in the coming days as the piece progresses.

22 Below Zero

On this past Thursday it reached 22 below zero just before dawn. Our high that day was 4 below zero. While not quite a record, it was pretty damn cold. We spent the day doing two of Minnesota's favorite things - remarking on how cold it gets and congratulating ourselves on how well we do when it gets that cold.

Friday was when it all hit the fan, though...
Read more...

Friday evening after work Abelisto & I stopped by the shoe store where I purchased a pair of Timberline hiking boots since my Asolo boots don't fit since the foot surgery - well, it's not so much that they don't fit, but rather that the tongue of the boot presses right on the scar on the top of my foot, making it really uncomfortable to wear them. I am saving them to see if someday the scar will be less tender and I can wear them again. The Asolos are a really heavy pair of hiking boots and I would love to wear them again in the future. Anyway, after shoe shopping (always a taxing event since I have a hard time finding shoes that fit) we went out to dinner stopping on the way home at a new recycled clothing store here in Winona.

When we got home we discovered that the washer was not working. We have one of those computerized front loading LG washers that control water and wash time based on how much you put in the washer. It has a LED display that tells you what the problem is if there is something keeping the washer from working. The panel was flashing a code I had never seen before and instead of looking it up on the handy guide (which is conveniently magnetically attached to the side of the washer) I simply popped the door open. Out poured around 20 gallons of soapy water - right onto my new boots.

This was how I discovered that waterproof Timberlines are, in fact, waterproof.

I quickly shut the washer door, but actually at this point the water was below the door level and wasn't going to pour out any more. We found the shop vac and cleaned up the water mess and decided that since it had been warmer that day we would let it go until morning and see if it would thaw out. We also discovered that the waterline to the dishwasher was frozen too.

During the night Abelisto woke up smelling smoke. He got up and went over the house from top to bottom, and not finding any reason to be smelling smoke, tried to get some more sleep - but never managed to fully get back to sleep.

When we got up Saturday morning there was still some strange water issue in the kitchen and laundry room. Before I had much time to think about it the telephone in the front room rang. It was the land line phone - all our friends usually call us on our cell phones, so I figured that it was the usual telemarketer and didn't make a serious attempt to get to it before the voicemail answered it.

As I got to the phone I heard the head of the maintenance department at work leaving a message telling me that a waterline in my building had burst overnight and the office was affected. He also mentioned two other people whose areas are in the part of our offices that are across a rather wide hallway. I thought he probably was just calling everyone in the office, but that the damage was really in the offices across the hall. Besides that, I had water issues at home to deal with.

We went to Menards and picked up two ceramic space heaters. We put the insulation that one of the cats had torn down back up in the basement window, plugged the pipe heater back in (neither of us remembered unplugging it), and placed a space heater in the basement room with the pipes and in the laundry room.

All of a sudden we smelled smoke again. I was fairly certain it wasn't the space heaters, but we went on a search of the first floor of the house and the basement.

We found a gruesome sight. Sometime during the bitter cold of the week, a starling had come down in the chimney vent for the water heater. It must have been drawn to the warmth. It found itself in a bad situation, though, when the water heater turned on and hot gas fire exhaust came rushing up the chimney. The bird's struggles had lifted the chimney duct pipe off of the water heater - it almost escaped death, but not quite.

It actually was good that we found this - having the chimney vent almost knocked off could have given us carbon monoxide poisoning.

A bit later it seemed that the water lines were thawed. I had tried turning on the washer and it immediately started pouring water into the washing compartment. This washer has water saving controls and it never just pours water in. Even when I turned it off the water still came in. Abelisto and I pushed the washer sideways a bit so that we could reach the water valves and turned them off. By the time we got that done, water was pouring out onto the floor again so I got the shop vac and sucked it all up as well as sucking out as much of the water in the washer as I could.

At this point I figured that the washer's inlet valves had been frozen and were likely toasted. So I packed up all the wet soggy clothing and towels, and all the rest of the unwashed laundry and headed off to a Laundromat. Since I was out and about I drove by the university to check out the burst pipe scenario and discovered that my desk was part of the flooded area, but my coworkers were taking care of it, which was a good thing since it only took a few minutes of being in the room to trigger an asthma episode. The dissolving ceiling tile, or the debris or something was off-gassing some chemical that had my airways tight in no time. The water had splashed all over my laptop and new, 22" auxiliary monitor, but they both seemed to work alright.

I left my coworkers cleaning things up and went to do the laundry.

When I got home Abelisto mentioned that the furnace did not kick on during the entire time I was gone. We usually have our thermostat set around 60 degrees to save energy, but we had turned it all the way up earlier in hopes of helping to thaw out the frozen lines. At this point the temperature in the house was around 45 degrees so I went down and tested the fuses. None were blown so we called a service company.

Three and a half hours later we had heat. We also had $600.00 less in our checking account. It turned out it was mostly our own fault - if you don't change your furnace filters regularly it causes the blower motor to run harder which overheats the circuit board which will, in time, fry the furnace's computer.

While waiting for the service man to get the furnace fixed we decided to run the dishwasher and do some cleaning up. I was filling the sink and washing counter tops. Abelisto loaded and ran the dishwasher. I noticed that the sink drain bubbled up when the dishwasher kicked into rinse, but did not think much about it.

We stopped to make supper and I worked on the mosaic and finished cutting the tile order into sample-sized sheets of tile. Abelisto worked on his lecture for Monday and did some grading while I played with cutting glass tiles and building a jig for cutting better triangles from the 3/4 inch glass tiles.

At some point I went back in the kitchen and discovered that there was water pouring out of the washer AGAIN. Once more we got the shop vac and sucked it all up. I could not figure it out. We had turned off the water valves. I thought perhaps they weren't closing all the way, but that did not seem right since we didn't hear water coming in. I thought perhaps it was just trickling in.

I decided to open up the drain trap on the washer to completely drain any water that was in it. This, of course, made another mess which we sucked up again. This time, I was lazy and poured it down the sink instead of taking it outside and dumping it out.

I was sucking up the water on the kitchen floor (I did not do the best job lifting up the shop vac and some of the water missed the sink) when I realized that water was coming out of the washer drain trap again. Suddenly I knew what our problem was. Frozen drain.

I went downstairs to trace the drain pipe. I found a place where one of the cats (it was Finn) had pulled down the insulation from a window in the basement. This window was missing a pane and last summer when Finn decided he simply must be an outside cat we had half-heartedly covered it up with a board and leaned an old door over it to keep Finn from pulling down the board (the basement walls are old sandstone and mortar, no way to nail anything up to hold in the board). I had meant to fix it, really, but it slipped my mind. I don't go in the basement much - it makes me have to use my inhaler too much.

Anyway, the door leaning against this botched repair job was channeling frigid air right down the wall and onto the drain pipe. It took ten minutes to insulate the window, secure it with several layers of cardboard pressed into the window framing (another half-assed repair, I know, but I need some concrete anchors and a masonry bit to fix it right and I don't have any right now), and move the space heaters to where they would blow right on the pipe.

Three hours later the pipe thawed and the sink drained.

Las Vegas & Hoover Dam

Over the holidays Abelisto & I drove to Las Vegas to spend time with family. We also took Nova back to Vegas to live. She finished her bachelor's this past semester and her husband Mike had already returned to Vegas so she was anxious to get out there.

We made the drive an almost-straight-through marathon event. After the first 8 hours or so on the road there was usually one person sleeping at any time, preparing to take over driving when the current driver was done in. With three of us to drive we stayed on the road almost constantly, only stopping three times to sleep for around 45 minutes each time.

This meant that we reached Vegas about 10 hours ahead of schedule - but it just about did us in.

In Vegas we mostly hung out with family. I was working most days while I was there, so we did not plan any all day outings. We did take one afternoon and go to Hoover Dam. Abelisto & Taylor had not been there and Aluna hadn't been there in quite a while - neither had I.

I love the Gothic-inspired structures of the dam and all the art deco embellishments. Aluna was fascinated with the future bridge that is being built over the river downstream from the dam. She said she would love to be working on it. Thinking about working so far up in the air gave me sweaty palms and a fluttery feeling...

Tay standing on the Zodiac compass with Abelisto (behind her)

An example of art deco terrazzo work

Another example of art deco terrazzo work

And a third example of art deco terrazzo work

Abelisto, Tay (who is displeased about the sun in her eyes) and me
Lake Mead is in the background - you can see the white drought line

Tay & Aluna, with the future bridge over the river in the background

Back to Blogging - Hopefully

It's been quite a while since I published a post. Working 10+ hours a day on the university website doesn't leave me with enough creative energy (web-wise) to do more online after I finish for the day. So things here have slipped. I did redesign 854w5th.com, my portfolio website.

Tonight I finally took the time to redesign this blog. Not only did it need it because the design matched my old website design instead of my new one, but in doing the redesign of 854w5th.com I renamed a folder and voila! I created dead links to the images that supported the design of my blog. So for the last few weeks this blog did not show the images for the header and other design elements. And I was too tired of web work to fix them...

Funny how one simple change can mess things up.

The Year of Ideas

New York Times - 8th Annual Year in Ideas

My favorite so far - Snowball the dancing cockatoo.