Summer madness

I got back a few days ago from a whirlwind trip to Maui with Max, in celebration of our 1st anniversary. I am now off to San Diego for the opening of InSite, where my friend Chris has a piece in the show. Upon my return I will share some stories and pictures.

Thanks for being so patient with the poorly updated blog.

Ben's Audio

This month's audio installment from Ben is directly inspired by the movie Team America. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you rent it. This crass, tasteless puppet frenzy is hilarious and very entertaining.

To listen, click here.

New audio features

Through this blog, I hope that readers have been able to grasp a sense of who I am in the world, what I do and what my life is generally like. It initially started as a way of informing my family, who live so far away, what life was like in graduate school. It was easier to post things once, than to have to repeat all my stories each time I had a conversation over the phone. Obviously things have evolved, and there are far more reading this everyday than I could have imagined. I receive comments from people I've never met, living in places I've never been. As an artist who values conversation, reciprocity and connection above all else, this has made it a priceless project and experience. And inevitably, it means I will likely continue to do this for a long time to come.

I was an avid diary/journal keeper when I was younger. There were these ridiculous scrap books I kept as a child, with embarrassing spelling errors and comments like 'Big Tits' next to glued in pictures of Dolly Parton. Anal notations on back pages, stating: This book was completed on 10/25/87. I was such a NERD! In high school, the books were far more elaborate, including very detailed recountings of dreams, retelling of weekend adventures and lots of pining for my boyfriend Dave.

That process has evolved into my sketchbook, which is now far more honed in to the art-making process. I tend to leave all fun an factual information for this blog, and focus my time in the book on problem solving with art projects.

I will read a few blogs on a regular basis, but sometimes I wander around on the internet and look at new ones. Most often they are not that interesting if you don't know the person, but I am excited by the idea that people are basically putting their diaries online. And little nosey me can peruse these at will. It's all very voyeuristic when you think about it.

And so, I have been devising ways I could bring the readers closer to what it is that brings me joy. It is clear through past posts that food is a driving force. Not just edible things that keep me alive, but rather the exquisite gourmet experiments that Max tests out on me and some other fortunate souls. Another important factor are my friends. Two friends in particular (Ben and Katie) have always left me funny messages on my voicemail. Often there is singing involved, sometimes there is alcohol to blame. Either way, they are hilarious, and I attempt to save them on my voicemail for as long as possible.

Katie once called during the Olympics and recited the entire Greek alphabet while drunk. I kept it for months, but somehow the phone deleted it anyway. Ben and I went through a phase of signing to eachother and eventually started recording our voicemail answering messages for both phones simultaneously: renditions of Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart and Guns 'N Roses' Sweet Child O Mine. We could never get through the process without laughing hysterically. Unfortunately for Max, we did one during the year he was on the job market. Some important academic contact called, and left a message once, commenting on the funny message our children recorded.

So, I have made a decision. I want to share the magic that is Ben and Katie's messages with all of you. They will be doing monthly audio installments for the blog. You will need iTunes or some other audio player on your computer to hear them.

The first one is from Katie. She explains: i've posted very bad poetry set to greek music. enjoy!

To listen, click here.

Catalog cozies

I am currently knitting some things for the DRESS show at the Richmond Art Center in the fall. The curator, Anu, had asked some of the artists to make limited edition covers for the catalog. I am making knitted cozies as my contribution to this part of the project. I am making 6 of them for the show, and they will be for sale at the exhibition. At the opening reception, previous knitting sitting participants will enter the space and hang their scarves on hooks that I will have installed. Each hook will be labeled with the sitter's name and length of time their sitting took. There will also be a sign-up sheet for people who want to do one with me in the future. There will be two dates where I will be available in the gallery for a 1 hour knitting sitting. I am currently brain storming about what I can knit in an hour for someone. Things that will be functional. I would like to knit 4 options and have the samples there for sitters to choose from on the day. Any suggestions?

I fell in love with this yarn I found for the cozies, and it required #17 needles. For anyone who doesn't knit - this is pretty big. Most things I knit use between #8-10.

Max took these photos while I was making the 1st one.

LAME 2005

I don't even know how I want to write about what happened today. I could be witty or I could just be pissed off, but either way there is a small dark cloud floating over the Gordon-Auffhammer household today.

We woke up and decided to go have breakfast at our new favorite Sunday brunch spot, Herbivore. Before leaving, Max commented again that he still hadn't found his debit card. He called the bank and explained he had lost it, and arranged for a new one to be sent. When you do this, the bank immediately cancels your card and sends a new one out. After hanging up the phone, he walked into the kitchen and found his debit card.

I have had the same pillow for almost ten years, and realize this is not healthy. Anyone who knows me well, or has had me as an overnight guest in their home, is aware of my love affair with the pillow. I have taken it as far as Germany and Italy with me. It's just that awesome! I finally made the plunge and decided to buy a new one. And the hunt has been relentless. I started with the memory foam, and that didn't work out. Then it was the allergen free one, and that's no good either. I lay in bed this morning, trying to come to terms with the fact that there just may not be another pillow as awesome in this universe. That maybe I will never know the joy that mine brings from any other pillow. My aunt Dawn once made fun of my uncle's pillow, which she refers to as the stamp, and told me he just cannot part with it, even though it's wasted away so much. I remember giggling WITH her, and now I am one of the stamp people.

Max suggested we go to Bed Bath and Beyond after breakfast, where I originally bought my pillow a decade ago, in an attempt to find an adequate replacement. I put a pillow case over it, and agreed to bring it to the store with us. We left the building and headed up the hill to our car.

And that's where we saw all the broken glass. Someone had smashed in the back passenger window. This was shitty enough, but then, the irony of it all was to discover that nothing had been stolen. Not the iPod, not the printer.... nothing! It effects our insurance, it will cost a bundle to replace and it takes time out of our day to go wait for the replacement of the glass. It's just so annoying and unfair. And we all know how I HATE unfair.

We had to drive to a gas station where Max spent half an hour vacuuming all the glass out of the car. It was quite amazing how much glass there was and how far it spread inside the car. It was all over the back seat and both of the front seats. And I couldn't help but notice all the broken glass on the ground near the gas station vacuum. We are obviously not the first family to clean glass bits out of their car. And of course, my paranoid personality started to wonder about whether this is something the glass shops may be doing on purpose to further their financial livelihood.

Perhaps we should have stayed in and made eggs instead.

YASP

A few months ago I taught a computing arts class to kids between the ages of 11-14, for the Young Artist Studio Program (YASP) at CCA. Basically Junior High kids, which in my experience has always been the most difficult age to teach. Attention spans are limited, hormones are raging and attitudes are being modified to a level of cocky and carefree that is only recognizable because I too behaved the same way once. A LONG TIME AGO.

I was given a teaching assistant (a guy names Ash) and I was quite surprised by that. At first I thought it was silly and that there would be no need. But after about the first hour of the first day, I realized I needed this guy like a bee needs honey. Thank god he was there! It's difficult to be in ten places at the same time, and I usually had at least six students who wanted help simultaneously.

This week I was approached by Jon Rubin to be a part of the Independent School of Art. One of the things I like most about the ISA is that they include 'students of all ages, levels of experience, and disciplines'. This is an idea I have always been interested in, and I'm really looking forward to being part of a group like that.

It made me think of some of my students from YASP. On the second last day of the program, all students had an exhibition of their work. We spent all day installing projects in the gallery and then at 4:30 all the parents arrived. I said hello to some of my student's families and then walked around to see what other classes had done. In the back of the space was the black and white photography class. I walked from one end of the wall to the other, but I got to one image in particular and stopped in my tracks. It was an image of a young girl, bundled up in a blanket, lying on a couch. She looked very small in scale compared to the couch, and her expression was sad and distant. I looked to see who had done it, and it was one of my favorite students from my class. The image really moved me, and I felt I had a glimpse into who this student of mine was. I thought about how an adult couldn't have take a photo like this. There was a trust between the photographer and this girl on the couch that was palpable through the image.

I went looking for her, because I wanted to congratulate her on the photograph. I found her with her mom, and told how much I liked the image. She is pretty shy, and was really surprised but happy to hear me say it. She kept looking at her shoes and smiling. But I thought it was essential that she know she did good work. The next day in class, she asked me why I liked the photo so much, and I told her that it made me sad and I thought it was really beautiful.

I am thinking of her now, as I am about to embark on a semester with the ISA. I wonder if there will be people like that. People who will blow me away, and challenge the way I think about the world.

Me, Ash and my student

Grace Cathedral

Recently I walked past Grace Cathedral, and almost did a double-take because of the flowers. Whoever keeps the grounds at this church must really love their job. The colors and arrangement of the flowers is exquisite! I particularly love the purple African daisies.

August in Nob Hill

It is hard to believe this is the weather here in August. It is so foggy and cold sometimes, that I have to remind myself it isn't Winter. These pictures were taken on recent evenings and this morning.

My Mundane Journey

Today I attended a Mundane Journey bus tour, organized by artist Kate Pocrass. Melissa joined me, and we spent 4 hours participating in an extraordinary tour of the city's odd nooks and crannies.

It was very well organized, and offered more things to do than we had time for. All the participants convened at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and traveled around on a tour bus for the day. We stopped at three city locations: 24th Street, Taraval Street and Eureka Valley. On the way to each place, there were educational videos about some particular thing we would be looking at, such as the portrait drawings in the Wall Street Journal; the history of tea and the pay phone; and the double slide at Seward Slides.

We were given small trinkets to be used at certain locations, such as a small envelope with a quarter inside - adorned with a beautiful drawing on the outside that read 'Bounce' (to be used for purchasing a bouncy ball); a pantone color chart (to be used when looking in a tailor's thread-full window) and sheets of cardboard (for speed when traveling down the Seward slide). At each destination we were handed a map when exiting the bus. These maps included hot spots, with explanation blurbs for each. These were the mundane journeys, and we were allotted a certain time at each place, all of which were so much fun!

This experience was the kind of stuff I live for. On vacations and walks around a city, it's usually not the major landmarks that interest me. When I think back on a trip, it is an insignificant or fleeting thing that I remember most. Today was filled with these kinds of fleeting moments, and for that I am very grateful.

As Melissa and I walked around, we remarked on how much we love the city we live in. We snacked a lot and laughed a lot and just enjoyed each other's company. This would be an appropriate time to comment on how special I think Melissa is. I remember the very first time I saw her: we were at a meeting in what is now the PlaySpace gallery. She was writing some notes, and I silently admired her handwriting and the pen she was using. She then put her things down, sat up straight and took a very deep breath. I instantly thought to myself - she must do yoga. ( I later found out this was true, as well as the fact that she is a Virgo, which means that I will never be able to compete with the perfect handwriting, pens, notes, lists or organizational skills - I just sit back and enjoy that ride). Her toenails were painted an alternate color for each toe, in a dark blue and something else. I really liked that. And a few moments later, she turned around introduced herself to me. We have been friends ever since.

I have never had a lot of girlfriends. I tend to keep to myself and have just a few good friends. But I am still weary of telling a lot about myself, particularly the more private stuff. Some may scoff at this and say I'm a talker. And I would not disagree with that, but when it comes right down to it - I'm a very private person, and let very few in to the more layered aspects of my life.

Melissa is someone I share the layers with. We can be gross and funny and serious and sensitive with eachother. And I feel that she is very present when she's with me - which is something I secretly desire from people, but rarely ask for. And so, as I reflect on this day, I would say it was anything but mundane. It was more like a rich helping of good food: fulfilling, inspiring and always leaving you wanting more.

Photo album here.

Mr. Baker

Max took a bread making class. Beautiful loaves of fresh warm bread. Yummy!

Fried Food

Last night we watched the season finale of Hell's Kitchen with our two favorite foodies, Melissa and Erik. Max made an assortment of yummy snacks, all of which were fried. This is something he'd never tried before, and so of course there were new kitchen gadgets: a potato cutter and a special scoopie thing to spoon out the fried veges from the oil. Beer battered mushrooms, fried green tomatoes and french fries with sage. It was a very nice evening, with an end result that 3 out of 4 of us wanted. Congrats to Michael for winning the show - he definitely deserved it with a restaurant name like Lola Pop!

Another beautiful summer's evening in San Francisco

We sleep in winter pajamas under a comforter. However I am not complaining. The weather in this town is exactly how I like it: Cool mornings and evenings with sunny afternoons. Lots of gray and rainy weather, and very cold summers. Me likey.