think think, stare stare

...blerg...

2011-03-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

it's finally happened. i've been called out on never updating any of my anythings.

this sad sad blog hasn't been touched in over two years. two years! so much has happened in two years. so much! and what's sadder than this sad sad blog is my sadder than sad, bluer than blue portfolio site.

on the one hand, there is this culture where people are posting stuff all the time. every day. multiple times a day. all the time, every day, multiple times a day on several different platforms. and it's great. ok, maybe 10% is great. 2% is phenomenal. and the rest is just noise.

i feel like i fell into the noise.

and not necessarily the noise of putting everything out there all the time, but the trying to attempt being several places at once on the internet and in my own life. and as a person who more resembles an outgoing hermit when i get overwhelmed i shut down. i just stop.

it's that and i've been crazy busy. crazy busy then crazy lazy.

that being said...

i am here now.
i may stay here, at this current blog, but tumblr somehow feels better on the brain. if someone could explain why to me, that would be super. i was going to post more today, but my scanner shit the bed. so...until that gets resolved...

also, i'm a part of this.
i can't wait to see it. julia, matt and jenny did an amazing job on 'the exquisite book'. i can't wait to get my hands on this one.

and really, none of this really matters. what matters right now is what is unfolding in japan. i reeled from that for a few days. some good places to put your money:

there is this.
and this.
and this!

and if you are the type that is all 'i don't need something for my donation' or 'i have far too much stuff as it is' there's the good 'ol red cross.

...coffee sippin, animation swillin...

2009-10-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

i love this. i love love love this.

...there once was a lady from nantucket...

2009-10-23T11:25:00.001-07:00

which is where you can find me and leonard these days. well, at least for one more week when my artist residency ends. i'm shaking quakers out of the rafters around here, getting ready to start a new body of work...that and drawing for the fun of it, which is crazy.

until then...if you are in/around/about los angeles this weekend, there is this. i have a piece in it, and there are many many other amazing pieces that are apart of this gargantuan show.

...i'm getting kinder country all over my keyboard...

2009-07-30T15:34:00.001-07:00

right now i am sitting in craftland waiting for artists and watching paint dry.

i got a text from deb last night who, while painting away in craftland, said that michael corrente poked his head in and said how excited he was that we would be opening up as a year-round store.

my response? 'hrm'

i was at home, collapsed on the couch...collapsed from working on the store that day and from my full serving of humidity, and i read her text and i thought 'hrmmm.' but in actuality it was more like a 'humpf!'

i thought about it moments later...wondered why i held some sort of subterranean grudge against a film maker that, on a day to day basis, i feel ambivalent about. and it occurred to me...well, it occurred to me this afternoon, not that i have been thinking about it for so hard or so long. no, it occurred to me today that, subterraneanly, i blame michael corrente for keeping me apart from my birthday twin, justine bateman.

see, a long time ago i worked at a gift store...a gift store where i first met deb dormody, which has little or nothing to do with this specific story, it's just information. i'm giving it out for free today. anyhow, the aforementioned store was selected by michael corrente himself, aka a location scout acting by proxy for mr. corrente, as a location for a scene in the movie.

i can't remember the ramifications of the situation, if we stayed open, if regularly scheduled workers had to show up, but i remember the lights being off in the store and i remember being bummed beforehand about the hassle of having to work around a film crew. that is until i was told that justine bateman was in the movie and that she was scheduled to be there that very day.

see, a long time ago, much longer before this time, my mind was blown that other people had the same birthday as you. it's a simple concept if you give it two seconds to think about the bajillion people in the world, but i didn't think about practical things. so, i'm super young, i'm grasping at the idea that not only regular joes have my birthday but famous people do too. famous people! which is when i discovered that justine bateman...along with copernicus, carson mccullers, smokey robinson, brancusi, steven nichols (patch from days of our lives! what!), seal, and benecio del toro...had the same birthday as me.

mallory. mallory and me. me and mallory.

i would sit and wonder how much we might be alike. we would get the same jokes and agree on really subtle things. she would just 'get' me. oh eight year old me.

so fourteen or fifteen years later this opportunity gets dangled in front of my face...to meet my birthday twin. while i am a relatively sane adult, the second grader in me sprang forth and tried to figure out what i'd say, how i'd try to play it cool and matter of fact that we have this one awesome thing in common...tying us together through the universe...through time even. it was going to go so smoothly.

(side note: in spite of being a relatively sane adult, there wasn't a part of me that didn't think that justine bateman wouldn't be impressed. it never crossed my mind.)

the big day came. there were trailers outside. large cables coming in and out of the store...as if we had it hooked up to life support. we, the workers who volunteered to be there that day, had to be quiet. i was maybe two hours into quietly hanging around in the dark, eagerly but nonchalantly looking around for my twin, when it was broken to me that justine wasn't coming in to the shoot. i can't even remember why. i think i stopped hearing for a few seconds.

while it probably has nothing to do with michael corrente there is no way i could put it on justine bateman. twins just don't do that to other twins...unless she's the evil birthday twin. hmmmm...

...pvd to nyc...

2009-06-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

a thing to know about me is that i love clouds. it's a serious problem...even more so now that i live on the east coast where clouds do not reach the epic, constant and ever-changing menagerie of the clouds in the pacific northwest. flying back into providence in september, looking out the window of the plane i sourly thought to myself...'look at them. they look like mashed potatoes squatting on plexiglas. harumph.'

this past friday i traveled down to brooklyn for my brother's going away party. it was the shortest, longest trip i have taken in awhile. you know...the kind where in less than 36 hours you descend upon a city, cram a late night and a full day of activity down your socialization hole, and swoop back out with a dazed and slimy feeling. it was a great time.

the east coast, weather-wise, has been bombarded with weeks-on-end, flat grey skies and rain. it's making a lot of people around here cranky. not so much me, i like grey weather, but i keep my mouth shut.

anyhow, on the bus ride down i got to experience this panorama of weather that formed and broke up as i traveled south. the biggest bonus: mammatus clouds (second photo from the bottom). i have a barometric crush on them, but have never seen them in person. they occur when the worst of a thunderstorm has passed. i quietly freaked out on the bus.

...playlist...

2009-06-24T21:16:00.001-07:00

songs stuck in my head today in order of appearance:

1. 'bret you've got it going on'...flight of the conchords; more specifically the line "that's the conclusion that i've come to, but that doesn't mean that i wanna bum you." over and over again. if you don't know what i mean...here.

2. 'maybe'...from annie; more specifically from "betcha he reads, betcha she sews" to " don't really care as long as they're mine." over and over in my head on a bike, how grossly twee is that? here.

3. 'nikita'...by elton john...which is unexplainable. but later on turned into 'la lupita' as that is where me and folks had dinner tonight. here.

currently and all day i have been transferring files from an old laptop to a new laptop...which is a long and non-elegant process.

WHOA...UPDATE:
i have never watched the 'nikita' video before...what is elton john bowling in?

...sneak peeks of future tuesdays...

2009-06-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

all i am going to say, is that come next tuesday you're gonna want to be here, 7 ish, eastern standard time.

...i tried to learn the drums, i tried to learn guitar, but it was my brother who tried to teach me, so i didn't get very far...

2009-06-07T21:13:00.000-07:00

friends of mine and friends of friends of mine are organizing girls rock ri...a rock camp for girls and women in the state of rhode island. hrm...imagine that i wrote a more stunning an non repetitive/overly self explanator second half of the first sentence.

anyhow, girls rock ri (grr) is being created as part of an already existing and growing network of similar camps across the country. in a nutshell, over usually a week-long period girls and women are instructed by women how to play an instrument, the members of the camp break into bands and at the end of their time at camp they perform a gig. it's an amazing experience where chicks get to come together, focus on being awesome as chicks, get some learn on, meet some new faces in a a women-run, supportive environment.

are you excited? i'm excited. i'm excited about two things:

one: deb, shea and i have been tossing around the idea of a three drummered band. none of us has any for sure drumming experience...but judging by our air-drum styles it promises to be a very eclectic experience.

two: new artwork (peek above and below) for the grr fundraiser this saturday at machines with magnets in pawtucket. so, if you are in new england/rhode island/pawtucket (aka the bucket) this weekend and you're hankering for some art and music, machines with magnets will be the place to be.

random bits i'm excited about, in no particular order:
bike rides, especially in groups
providence pretending to be seattle
leonard
well made brunches

...hiding in plain sight...

2009-05-20T12:58:00.000-07:00

presenting, my studio...cleaner than before.

i'm checking in to let you in on one thing and one thing only...limited editon prints of selected images are available over at art star. check them out. here.

other than that, i'm hiding from the sun. i'm a champion of cloudy, overcast, drizzly, snowy, and all around cozy on the inside days.

...bizzaro jen...

2009-04-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

who are you other me?

to be sure, we live very different lives. for instance...you know how to put on make up.
do you ever google yourself, find me and find yourself equally as shocked?

...i'm there...

2009-02-18T15:18:00.000-08:00

i've done it, i'm there, i've hit the wall...or i am starting to. i just realized as i started this post that the photo i put up in november, me with the headphones, is the same me as sits here today. headphones on, at my desk...four straight months (six really...i just didn't have the headphones in september or october) of sitting, thinking, staring, sketching, painting, listening to music all the time, getting irritated at music, getting new music, not listening to it because i'm not good at committing to new music, listening to audiobooks all the time, getting fussy about audio books, "watching" interweb tv all the time, becoming an interweb tv zombie, getting bored with all of my procrastination tricks. i'm starting to feel a little bleary-eyed.

and don't ask about my studio...because it is a hell hole.
actually, you don't even have to ask...i took a photo. see leonard on the floor...he's not sleeping, he's expressing shame.

but it's good. it's all good. it's character building. and come march...i'm taking some time off, doing a lot of good nothing, writing ridiculous posts and officially setting up my studio.

...don't call it a comeback...

2009-02-07T12:03:00.000-08:00

i've been out of the loop. m.i.a. a no show. it's true. i'm busted.

the fact of the matter is is that i have been working my ass off, all the time, around the clock, a slave to my desk. it's hard to prove this as none of my proof will peep its head out of the ground...not for a while at least. all of this is more vague than 20 groundhogs at different points in the country trying to predict the length of winter.

what i can tell you about is my solo show coming up at the end of the month. it's titled "clementine" and it opens on february 28th at art star in philly. i will be there, in attendance, as will be several members of my family and friends. they're all good people. really.

things to look out for:
1. any screening of handmade nation
2. i will never forget you (a group show i am a part of in seattle)
3. more books from me

...daylong downtime...

2008-11-17T21:41:00.000-08:00

i'm going to say it...nothing beats a good set of headphones.

i work late at night into the late-late night that some might call the early morning. and because i currently* cohabitate in a multi-leveled, multi-cohabitated building that gets chilly, especially at night, headphones are a necessary item. one reason is for the sake of others who don't want to listen to any of the various media i have going on cranked at 3 a.m. the second reason is that the sound of the space heater poses enough of a challenge for my already challenged sense of hearing.

until today i have only ever used earbuds. either they came with whatever i purchased or they were a quick and cheap replacement for whatever i had just broken. the problem is...everyone knows that after a handful of hours with earbuds the cartilage starts to ache. the bigger problem than that is that i work a lot more than just a handful of hours. i am also stubborn...so i will put up with a good deal of discomfort.

they're no buds of mine. or i should say...they were the buds whose bad behavior i tolerated simply because i would swear in the middle of the night to replace them w/ a decent set of headphones but then balk at the price of fancy pants headphones in the cold, harsh light of day.

but not today. i shut up and put up and i couldn't be happier, right now. in fact, i was so excited about my new headphones that i couldn't think of anything to listen to...i was too overwhelmed by all of the possibilities...of what should come streaming through my new best friends first. i wanted it all to be epic.

i did, infact, sit at my desk with headphones on, hooked into the computer, no music on, smiling. i was just happy with how they kept my ears warm. they're very comforting...unlike those ye olde jerks.

anyhow:

1. craftland teaser
2. our finest hour at my flickr account
3. family book review blog, reviewed: little pea, little hoot

(*unlike my year and a half in seattle in my working hermitude, 600 sq. ft. house to myself, not so many neighbors, much music and movies late into the night that some might call the early morning.)

...i should be painting the middle room...

2008-11-13T14:58:00.000-08:00

but i have to say/remark/point out/give out high fives/ and be thankful that places like whimsy & spice exist and that the interweb and all its glory can make it all happen for me. what the hell am i talking about? handmade marshmallows, people. that is what i am talking about.

that and hazelnut chocolate whiskey sandwiches...because if there is anything to know about me it's that i like to put whiskey in just about everything i can. chili...sweet potato homefries...kale...but in a cookie sandwich...that had never occurred to me.

as a follow up to what my brother has been up to in the previous post...more shenanigans.

...our finest hour...

2008-11-12T09:56:00.000-08:00

firstly:

"our finest hour" opens up this saturday at grsf. the show features 54 small portraits of small women in large finery. unfortunately, i won't be out for the opening reception...but if you can make it...make it between 6:30 to 10:00. Pieces will be up and available online sometime after opening night...i will give a heads up when it happens.

secondly:

i can't come out to the opening reception of my own show due to all of the creative mayhem going on around here. more books, more craftland, more specifically informative info when it becomes available.

in the meantime....

read deb's take on providence, ri.
take a look at the image i worked on for craftland.
take a gander at my brother's obit project.
look at old people.
read stuff by old people.

i hope to have some rambling posts up sometime soon...that's the thing about this blog lately...too much posting about events, not enough rambling.

...on the road again...

2008-08-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

in two days my year+ working hermitage ends and i head back to providence rhode island.

i'll miss seattle, i love it here but i love providence too and all that comes with it. i am also looking to relieve myself of my hermitude. hermitude being the slow and almost imperceptible decline of social skills and a steady rise of my already healthy surliness.

in the meantime...while i am flying out and settling in...here are somethings from me to you:

opening in portland: roots to fruits...a group show at together gallery featuring me, apak, justin "scrappers" morrison, amy ruppel, rebecca artemisa uriah, julianna swaney, theo ellsworth, daria tessler and the together family.
opening in brooklyn: we=trouble...a collaborative show curated by the punks at tiny showcase at secret project robot gallery. i teamed up with my brother on a project to end all projects. opening reception is on september 6th, 2-10 pm featuring bands, art and mayhem.
september is the release of my latest children's book hansel and gretel. rewritten by cynthia rylant it's a project i was honored and excited to work on.
november 15th is an upcoming/impending with giant robot san francisco. more info will come down the pipeline sometime soon.
also, i have added some process images to my flickr account...some before and afters for hansel and gretel, a peek into the individual piece that i am turning in for we=trouble oh, and i guess i will post the images that are in roots to fruits. why not.

...trubs...

2008-08-05T15:06:00.001-07:00

This here up above image is hard to read...so let me tell you what it says...it says that me and my brother plus a lot of other people are involved in a group show curated by Tiny Showcase. It opens up on September 6th at Secret Project Robot in Brooklyn. What it also says, if you are good at reading between the lines, is that the Coraces are going to bring some serious whoop ass to the doorstep of Senor Thibodeau and Senorita Dormody. It's on!

...grny...

2008-07-12T14:52:00.001-07:00

sooooooo...i am going to have a few pieces in the upcoming group show at grny. it's called 'crocodile tears', it opens up on july 19th and gaggles of exponentially talented artists are also involved. if you are in the area you should go and check it out.

another thing you should check out...all the art work for the upcoming fundraiser for handmade nation documentary. the silent auction is also on the 19th...so if you are stuck on the west coast and are all 'damn', i wanna go to the grny show', cheer up! there's plenty of artists and artwork to ogle at on your side of the country.

also, this sunday there will be a feature on me over at seven impossible things before breakfast.

...hot hot hot...

2008-06-11T15:49:00.001-07:00

three prints of mine are now available over at art star. i'm just sayin'.

...all the sound is trapped in my head...

2008-05-30T22:41:00.000-07:00

so...i can't hear for crap.

well, truth be told, hearing has never been a gold medal event for me...but these days in particular, the last three weeks, have been something. and that something is a whole lot of nothing. it's like i have a huge wad of wet cotton balls jammed up in my head. i do fine with an individual talking directly and clearly to me. headphones are particularly useful. but for the most part i am getting a lot of charlie brown adult feedback.

'whuh whuh whuaaa. whu whaa wnhuuu.'

most likely, and hopefully, it is just allergies. i have run of the mill seasonal allergies. this year seems like a particularly harrowing year, and it seems as if my allergies have been attacking in stages.

in march i had terrible sinus problems. april was watery, goopy eyes. may is dedicated to my ears. none of the symptoms have mixed...which i guess i should be thankful for. that this is all not setting upon me at once. i was just thinking the other day....while not hearing anything...that it hadn't been too long ago that i wanted to tear my eyeballs out and isn't a relief that i am not continually putting hot compresses on my eyes.

progress. i suppose.

the thing is is that losing the majority of my hearing has been particularly frustrating. part of it is that i have been allergy-sick for so long now that i just want to be done. i want it to be over but this pollen abyss known as the northwest keeps smacking me down. the other part of it is that besides all the small sounds that i am missing...the sound of the keyboard, leonard's constant noise making face, cooking sounds, just the general atmospheric sound of being in a place and not a vacuum...i am stuck with the dulled sounds inside my head. i listen to my heart all day...which may sound poetic or some sort of nonsense like that, but it's really unnerving after awhile. not 'the tell tale heart' unnerving...just always present, in an ultrasound sort of way. and then there's the chewing...god the chewing! abominable. and my voice...my stunted, blobby voice trapped in my head b/c i can't really hear it come out of my mouth.

ear problems cause me anxiety...more so than eye problems. they make me revisit my childhood with my chronic ear infections, hospital visits and surgeries. it was a routine...loss of hearing, doctor's visit, ear specialist visit, tubes in the eardrums, spending hours in the hopspital afterwards sick on anesthesia, fittings for earplugs, and day after day after day of eardrops. i hated it. i did everything to avoid starting up the doctor cycle. when the deafness set in i took up lip reading. but as crafty as i was my mom was craftier. there must have come a time when she saw me staring intently at her as she spoke. she would turn around, away from me, and would ask me a question. when i wouldn't reply...bam! a call to dr. houser.

so, i am crossing my fingers that it doesn't come to that...the ye olde days of tubes and drops.

i've been to a doctor. it took some doing on my part...some will to bend away from the anxiety. she prescribed nasonex. i balked at first...not because i would be snorting steroids but because of the ad campaign for nasonex. you know the ones i am talking about...a third rate cgi, antonio banderas-sounding bee flies around suffering third rate cgi, allergy afflicted people while silkily talking about the wonders of nasonex. anyhow, i am on nasonex. and zyrtec, and am using my neti pot and seeing my acupuncturist every other day. i've called out the guards on this one.

...the vauge ghost of corace future...

2008-05-13T14:35:00.000-07:00

so, just a quick few updates of what's going on, where you can find me...a lot of these items have no specific dates, but you can revel in the idea of "it's gonna happen! soon! sometime!" think of it as a nice surprise.

"uniform" is available as a print at a paper tiger. it's a good sized print...not as large as the original, but larger than any print i've had made.
three more prints will be available at art star gallery in philadelphia...soon! sometime! i have them at my house and just have to sign them and send them on their way. if you are interested i would contact the ladies and get on their email list.
two new if'n books journals are coming out...soon! sometime! we're doing things a little differently this time. so if you have been lulled into a comfortable zone w/ the usual corace journal and hate change, sorry. but if you have been looking to put the zip back into your journaling and sketching life then have we got something for you.
most importantly, i am donating a piece to the handmade nation silent art auction. it takes place on july 19th from 6-10 pm. at 510 south hewitt #506 in los angeles. visit the site, check out the trailer and get more info on this event that is sure to be amazing. i am so excited to be a part of this event and with so many other incredible artists.

i would also like to update that i think i have found a good substitute for my concentrated watercolor woes. thanks for all the support and suggestions.

...shitters...

2008-04-12T14:12:00.001-07:00

so, over the past year or so an unstoppable reality has been closing down on me. i am about to run out of my supply of luma and i am not quite sure what i am going to do about it.

luma concentrated watercolor has been my primary medium over the past four or five years. i found it during the days of 'little pea' and my search for the ultimate pea green and found that it was the perfect answer to all of my art making needs...concentrated enough to work as an ink, stable enough to be watered down and used as everyday watercolors. it also performed really well on rives bfk...that bitch of a printing paper i love to torture myself with by drawing on it.

about three years ago i found out that daler rowney who produced luma was discontinuing the line. panic set in and my hoarding began. first i cleared out the risd store...students drool, alumni rule...then the local art supply stores and finally i scoured the web. i even managed to eke out the last two bottles of coffee brown from an art supply store in portland, oregon. these were desperate times...but i was thinking ahead and my stash allowed me to live in a state of denial for awhile.

but here i am, years later and i am hesitant to count how many bottles i have left. i am too afraid to look.

over the past year i have been keeping my eye out for a suitable replacement. over the past few months my active concern has transformed into full fledged 'okay, what the hell are we going to do?' it seems as if concentrated watercolors are a dying breed. there are only two companies that produce them anymore: dr. ph martin and pebeo.

dr. ph martin's radient concentrated watercolors are an automatic no go. the colors are too concentrated...saying 'too concentrated' reminds me of a time when my brother and i cooked ourselves a vegetarian dinner at my sister's house for christmas and it was proclaimed 'too flavorful' by my brother in law.

so, yes, they are too concentrated and by that i mean when i have watered them down they are somewhat unstable when they dry...they get all uneven and weird. how's that for a savvy description? they are also too bright for my needs...painfully bright. i have seen other artists use them in their work and they are awesome at it. i end up feeling overwhelmed.

what truly seals the doctor's fate is that the radiant series aren't lightfast. their primary use is for reproduction work. which kills me. what's the point? lemon juice on paper is more permanent. my only hope with the doctor is a second series called synchromatic. it is primarily used for photos and film. i am crossing my fingers.

as for pebeo i can't find anyone who sells the colorex inks in the united states. the lie that is pearl art supply (seriously, we are on the outs. i am about to write them a break up letter) says they carry them but whenever i order them they are out of stock. i have come to realize that 'out of stock' for pearl paints means 'no longer carrying' since the last time i looked the list of 60+ colors has dwindled down to one lonely bottle of purple. i contacted pebeo via a british art supplier who is now referring me to their german supplier since they don't ship to the u.s. it's pretty ridiculously complicated. for some reason, however, i have a gut feeling that pebeo is going to be the answer to my problems...so in the end it might all be worth it.

until then i have all sorts of varieties of inks slowly making their way across the country to me. i spend a lot of my time in art supply stores staring at the ink section and pulling at my bottom lip, deep in concentration, trying to figure it all out.

...saturday nights in beacon hill...

2008-04-06T23:43:00.000-07:00

while this photograph totally outs me as a saturday night homebody it's the first and only evidence of interspecial harmony in this house...a family portrait if you will. there was no hissing, no freaking out, no pretending to be curious and loveable only to turn the tables with a fast swat to the dog's face. it was a good night of grandmaw sweaters, bed, blankets, snoring animal bookends and catching up on emails.

speaking of grandmaws...i am back from the cruise!

first and foremost, the time i spent w/ my family was awesome. i wouldn't trade it for anything. we had a great time cavorting and playing cards, and playing bingo, and snorkeled and swam and played shuffleboard and ping pong and watched all sorts of on board entertainment, drank and ate and all sorts of other cruise business. it was bright and sunny and hot which are three things that aren't up my alley...but i think i dealt with all of it very well...almost like a pro.

second and secondmost, cruises are totally evil and that is all i am going to say about that.

...what are you supposed to do with the sun and moon when you are a pisces?...

2008-03-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

this was said to not so much to me but the bus load that i was included in one day by a very loud, pontificating man. it was the number 7 bus. a bus i had long suspected of being the ultimate crazy bus of seattle. that day was the first time i had ever taken the 7 and my old preconceived notions proved true by that one individual. it's okay. every town has that one bus. in providence it's the 99. it goes to pawtucket.

before the 7 i swore the crazy bus was the bus that ran down aurora. i took it in the ye olde days when i was the display slave at urban outfitters. the aurora bus took me to the closest lowes/home depot...and i based my assumption on the fact that it was a triple digit bus. triple digit buses scream trouble. the aurora bus was in the three hundreds...so triple the trouble.

but back to the seven bus...

"what are you supposed to do with the sun and the moon when you are a pisces?" was professed by a man who seemed/admitted that he was surprised to be preaching to the bus. apparently he had no intention of doing so that day. funnily enough his words did not fall on deaf ears being that i was there and the day before was my birthday. i turned 34. i was a 34 year old pisces. i couldn't help but feel that i had an idea of what he was going on and on about.

i can't explain it to you. you wouldn't get it. if you are a pisces you already know.

anyhow, sooooooo much time has passed...unintentionally. that is the thing about time. it doesn't care how much of it you meant for it to pass...it just goes. and tomorrow, the 19th i am 34 years and one month. it's pretty spectacular. i love getting old.

i can't tell you where all the time went. mostly it would bore you. i've done some work. i have procrastinated on some work. me and mr. pants have made a lot of headway...so much so that he goes by leonard now. my super honey has visited me twice, my hair has grown, i've gone back to yoga classes, gone back to the y, gone back to crosswords, become addicted to scrabulous and scramble on facebook, kept on my new year's resolution, kept secrets, gossiped, finally got my lawn taken care of, eaten the most delicious, fancy version of vietnamese tofu sandwiches many many times at my local coffee shop several times, gotten back to letter writing and was thrilled to get back to 'lost'.

i have gotten a few emails about my lack of updates...which i apologize for. but what can i say...i am an a+ hermit.

irregardless of that here is a point by point update of what to vaguely expect from me in this year:

i have a few pieces in a group show at project: gallery in los angeles.
"little hoot" is out and about.
"hansel and gretel" makes it's debut in september via hyperion.
i am working on two other books that will be out in 2009...a book about darwin and the third installment to the "little" series..."little oink".
the april issue of o magazine has a piece on tiny showcase featuring the first print i ever did with them.
i have a series of illustrations in the april issue of real simple.
prints are available through project: gallery. more prints will be available through art star in the near future.
i have a feature in an upcoming issure of corduroy.
i have several shows tentatively planned for this year...one group show in portland, a solo show with giant robot...both dates tba and a group show with tiny showcase in september. the tiny showcase show is particularly exciting to me b/c i will be collaborating with my brother jason. i don't know how you all will cope with the power of two coraces at once. good luck.
i uploaded a bunch of sketches on my flickr account to keep you occupied.
most importantly...on saturday i leave for mexico on a cruise with jason and my sister's family. and if you know me at all you would say "you? on a cruise?" it's true. many capers and awesome photos will abound. i already have the cruise pants to get me started. they are what i call "uncle frank green". you might not know my uncle frank...but he is a man who is famous for his "go to hell pants." my pants aren't specifically go to hell pants...but for me they are the closest thing.

so that is my update for now.

i am hoping to have a cruise recap.

xo
jen

...i spy...

2008-01-29T11:19:00.000-08:00

i don't have a larger, singular image of this, but little pea has hit the big time: bake sale! i love a good bake sale.

...you should know...

2008-01-14T13:07:00.000-08:00

'little hoot', my second book with amy krause rosenthal and chronicle books is out and about in the world. i think it made it's way into the stores on the 8th. it semi-slipped my mind...because, you know, i am a little more preoccupied with teaching the dog his name and trying to remember the last time he went out...

...amazing...

2008-01-11T15:54:00.001-08:00

here is a better photo that fully encompasses the awesomeosity of my new bike. it's mind blowing. emily did an AMAZING job. she's an amazing person and amazingly talented in things and ways beyond bike building. and bike building is a pretty spectacular craft so imagine the above and beyond amazingness of one miss emily klass. you can't because it's too nuts. you'd have to be hospitalized.

my posts, like my brain right now, are piecey and spotty at best. someone/a lot of people/everyone in the world has said that having a dog is like having a baby. i have never had a baby. i have seen other folks have and care for babies. i have heard the unending conversations about stages and poop and diapers and potty training and possible mutterings of first words and what products are best for what and the newest baby book and the newest theories about rearing and on and on and on and on. i have seen and heard all of this with my own eyes and i have thought....what is up with THAT? no thank you.

well here i am on the other side.

i think about the dog and what it is doing and wait...is it peeing in a room where i can't see it and how am i going to structure my day and why isn't he eating and i thought we had a good 'going outside schedule' yet the pile on the bedroom floor is telling me different and i thought all dogs loved to walk and here are one thousand other things i never read about french bulldogs and who is the best vet to take him to and will all the learning we've already been done be lost after the big snip next week because he'll be so bummed and what kind of collar or leash or harness is best and on and on and on.

when people call, it's all i talk about.
my friend sarah came over last night and conversation kept coming around to the dog.
i have started refering to mr. pants and i as 'we'.
what is up with THAT?

i know it hasn't even been a week. i know it's going to let up and become everyday normal. i know i have nothing to complain about because he's a totally chill and awesome dog and we are all still transitioning. it's all good.

it's all good.

...wheels...

2008-01-08T22:01:00.001-08:00

corace head badge, originally uploaded by emilyallen.

my new bike...finished...not here yet.

more photos.

thank you emily.

...mr. pants...

2008-01-06T13:52:00.000-08:00

he's a spectacular beast. today we are becoming accustomed to a harness and what i mean when i say sit.

there are more photos of hamburger head over here...

...frontiers...

2008-01-04T14:55:00.000-08:00

tomorrow my life is getting turned on its ear. more information to follow.

...snoopy pt. 2...

2007-12-27T15:52:00.002-08:00

over at apartment therapy anh-minh did a piece on my living space for their 'house call' section. if you want to take a gander at what i'm livin' in go here...

also, york did a piece on me here...

...happy this time of year to everyone...

2007-12-22T00:16:00.001-08:00

above is a piece i did for a friend of mine of her recently born daughter and recently deceased greyhound. by 'recently' i mean in this past year-ish...give or take some time. just a pinch.

it could just be that i am out of sorts with my hare-brained sleep schedule that i am about to say such things...but this time thing is a crazy, abstract experience. last year i broke out of the conventional year and celebrated my new year on nov. 2nd. but popping back into the jan-dec calendar and looking back over 2007 all i have to say is that everything couldn't be more different and trying and amazing than i had expected from when it started. i am always impressed by this. a person can cram a lot into a year.

best wishes and hopes to a lot more cramming for everyone.

...scavenger hunt...

2007-12-16T02:17:00.001-08:00

it just occurred to me today to go snooping over at the giant robot transmissions page. the photos are up from the opening i had in november. there are a lot of photos to go through. so much so that it only seems appropriate to have a scavenger hunt.

find these:

1. four beardos
2. deb dormody with her coat on
3. deb dormody without her coat on
(if you don't know what deb dormody looks like, well, research is half the fun of scavenging)
4. my dad
5. tamson weston, my editor for an upcoming children's book
6. donna bray, my editor from a children's book i just finished up
7. the two dudes who came to the opening to hit on all the ladies
8. girls named sara, or sarah
9. the photo of me and my brother that is not as half as cute as the one that deb took
10. the dude who's reading books and not looking at art or rubbing elbows
11. 20 people in glasses
12. photographic red eye
13. paddy, one of jason's roomates (hint: she's canadian)
14. people looking like they are explaining things
15. cheryl, the manager at the gallery (hint: she's the nicest)

...to the point...

2007-12-15T20:12:00.000-08:00

i was snooping around my brother's site and found the above entry. i should consider booking him as my full time pr man...

...evolution...

2007-12-07T13:11:00.001-08:00

deb dormody took this photo of jason and me near the end of my opening at grny. it is the best.

after looking at it a bit i noticed two things.

1. jason and i are coincidentally imitating the image behind my head.
2. jason somehow looks like a young mr. roarke...which led to this chain of images on deb's flickr page:

the visual aid of mr. roarke:

and the photoshopped recreation of the photo, only on the island and not in the gallery, because after all...who doesn't want to go to fantasy island:

...one...

2007-12-06T00:59:00.000-08:00

it was one year ago today that i adopted the sneak.

well, technically, my friend emily adopted her for me as i did not have a rhode island i.d..

but all that aside, i realized that today was the day while organizing paperwork....i mean i knew we crossed paths in december, but the number of the day was a whole other issue...

the thing is, is that when i went in to the rescue leauge i had had an entirely different cat in mind. her name was patches and i liked her for her sturdy shoulders and that her nose was this sort of flesh toned color on her marbled face...she reminded me of the fella from the digital underground.

long story short, she was not available that day. a little bummed, a little concerned i was called by emily from a row back with a "come look at this one..."

or something like that.

"come look at this one" indeed. the image that came to mind was a cow polar bear. she was one of the only cats that occupied a large cage by herself. she was huge and stretching. done.

according to the ladies behind the desk the sneak, or "sneaky" as noted by her card on her cage, had been there the longest...seven months. they were happy as all get out that someone was going to take her home. not like relieved that the sneak was taken off their hands, but rather happy that she might have a home.

according to her papers she had been a returned rescue because she bit, clawed at rugs, and didn't get along with the previous owners' year old kitten. they checked off a box that said she was a 'loner'. they had had her for five days.

and i try not to be a person who judges, but it makes me mad every time i see those two words...five days. nothing, no one adjusts fully to anything in five days.

a year later we have the biting under control, her weight under relative control (her initial vet visit determined that she was a 10 lb. cat living in a 13 lb. body. in short, she was 30% overweight) and i can't keep her out of my lap.

happy anniversary.

...dear seattle,...

2007-12-02T00:12:00.000-08:00

you're one good lookin' city...but so much more so in snow...

the sneak thinking she wanted to be outside, but turns out not so much:

the sneak safe inside, but confused:

...wheels...

2007-11-30T00:58:00.001-08:00

one of the things i did on my trip back home was to sort out the remaining details of my bike.

i don't drive. i walk or bus most places and get rides from friends to fill in the gaps. but now it's time to bike.

in providence i was hesitant to bike...on the one hand, i have no peripheral vision and my decision-making timing is tuned to walking, which is slow...on the other hand providence is crazy-go-nuts with narrow streets and bonker drivers. it was in providence that i learned to look both ways crossing a one way street.

i have a better feeling about seattle.

and so i am having a bike built by my friend emily...and i am so excited. i felt like so many people invest in their cars, i could invest a bit in a bike that i would want to use all the time.

this bike is already knocking my socks off.

...thanksgiving past...

2007-11-30T00:31:00.000-08:00

the breakdown:

30+ friends
woodstove
3 tofu pot pies
mashed potato stuffing
green bean casserole
tater tot casserole
poundies
shepherd's pie
greens
salad
black eyed peas
five loaves of home made bread
figs
gingerbread men
stuffing stuffing
gravy
apple cake
cranberry sauce
fried green tomatoes
home made apple sauce
pizza strips
peanut chews
mixed nuts
pies!
late morning mimosas
many bottles of different things
and for some reason i am blanking out on the left hand side of the food table...
hm...

the photo was taken post eating melee...some folks went out on a walk and felt ill, some of us stayed by the fire and felt ill.

...my mistakes...

2007-11-28T13:19:00.001-08:00

right now i am sitting in logan airport, waiting for my flight back to seattle. i have three hours. three hours. it's enough time to get into a decent amount of trouble...drinking games at the wolfgang puck lounge, playing dead, illegal dice games in the ladies' room...instead i am occupying my time with a flashback post.

so, i have just finished up maybe three months of work. i am on a work-free island of time for a few weeks before i jump back in. in the three months of putting every body part to the grindstone i ran into very few snags...it was smooth sailing really. and the thing about working continually from project to project, making 60 or 70 odd pieces of work you have to assume that at some point things are going to mess up. but it wasn't happening, until....

i was maybe half way through finishing work for 'told you so' at grny...it was late late late and i was just going to finish up the night inking in a few more pieces...and halfway twice through one piece and once through another piece my croquill pen blooped ink right in the middle of the paper...in ways that could not be accounted for or covered up by adding leaves or other foliage.

the first time i was all "oh that's okay jen corace, it was bound to happen sometime, let's start over'

the second time "hm. really."

the third time was a short burst of explitives directed at myself, and in the interest and love of symbols for curse words it went something like this: "mother!@#!%&! @#!! you jen corace!!"

i surprised myself.
everything was all better the next day.

anyhow, i made the third misstep into my new motivational poster that hangs above me as i work. over at the ol' flickr account are better images of the other two blobs that happened and what the blob on the third piece became...it is definitely a french fur trapper who is certainly flipping off the girl in the foreground.

also, i know that at some point in my life i learned that there was a word for using symbols to replace curse words. i've looked it up on the interweb and it gave me "maledicta"...which sounds fine but doesn't seem to hit the memory spot. anyone else know?

...flick this...

2007-10-26T04:21:00.000-07:00

sometimes i like to troll around on flickr...just plugging in 'corace' and seeing what happens. above is one of my favorite accidental photos of an image of my brother, jason. accidental b/c the first time i did a 'corace' search i was happily surprised to find this. he's my best friend...and in this photo he just looks so damned hospitable.

this is my second favorite accident...they're coraces. no coraces i know, but there they are. corace isn't a uber popular name...so to find others, especially photographically, is inspiring in an alternate universe sort of way.

...snoopy...

2007-10-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

julia rothman operates a blog called 'book by its cover'. generally, it is a site that features smaller run, art-type books that are either part of her collection or a peek into another person's collection. it's a great way to set your peepers on books you might not come across easily and i really like the pared down nature of the site's design. all of the bells and whistles of interweb programmery take a hike and it's just you and the books.

julia has started a new series for sketchbooks. she's asked a group of artists, including me, to submit photos from their books to be posted for everyone else to get a peek. i'm excited to be a part of this series and, being one who enjoys seeing either the process of a person's work or their work's alter ego, i am excited to see the rest of it.

so, if you've ever caught yourself sitting around a train station, maybe picking somebody up or dropping them off or just loitering in general and totally picking kale out of your teeth and were unexpectedly struck with a need to see inside my sketchbooks...well, now's the time. jump on that wi-fi, warm up the iphone, crank up the blackberry and go here.

...kokeshi!!!...

2007-10-12T17:33:00.000-07:00

this is the piece i did for the kokeshi show coming up in november at subtext gallery. i have more photos up at my flickr page.

artists involved in the show:

Aaron Meshon, Alberto Cerriteno, Alex Noriega, Aline Yamada, Alison O’Donoghue, Ana Bagayan, Ana Juan, Ana Reinert, Annie Wilkinson, Audrey Kawasaki, Axel Honey, Bailey Saliwanchik, Blair Thornley, Brandi Milne, Calef Brown, Cameron Tiede, Camilla Engman, Catalina Estrada, Catherine Campbell, Celene, Christina Conway, CJ Metzer, Colorblok, Dan James, Dane Flighty, Fawn Fruits, Daniel M. Davis, Dennis Hayes IV, Edwin Ushiro, Emil Kozak, Evan B. Harris, Fiona Hewitt, Fiona Lee, Florence Pacho, Gina Triplett & Matt Curtius, Hicalorie, J Neth, Jasmine Worth, Jen Corace, Jeremiah Ketner, Joel Nakamura, Johnny Yanok, Joshua Krause, Joy Ang, Julie Morstad, Julie West, June Kim, Kate Wilson, Kelly Vivanco, Ken Garduno, Koralie, Leendert Masselink, Long Lé, Lorena Alvarez, Lori Joy Smith, Luke Feldman, Marcos Chin, Marjorie Ann Velez, Mary O'Malley, Matias Vigliano, Matte Stephens, Michelle White, Ming, Miss Led, Miss Mindy, Pamela Jaeger, Richard Wilkinson, Sayaka, Scott Saw, Shayna Yates, Stephan Britt, Stephane Tartelin, Susie Ghahremani, Tessar Lo, Tiffany Liu, Victoria Maderna, Yellena

...sneak peek...

2007-10-12T14:39:00.000-07:00

i stole this image from debbie deb's flickr page, and i am pretty excited about this. i don't know why i never thought of it before, but this is the first time i've worked with if'n books with just a plain old drawing. usually i am busying myself with creating a drawing, scanning it in and creating a vector drawing on top of it...and not with a stylus pen, no, with a mouse and these days not even a mouse...just my laptop's track pad. all of this is silliness. (not that i don't like making vector drawings...i do. it feeds into some sort of obsessive fine tuning and noodling aspect of my brain. i like the problem solving aspect of it. psst....vector, i love you).

anyhow, this image/product will be available next tuesday, here. that is what deb tells me. she also tells me that this is bosses day. now i am all up for hootin' and hollerin' for deb who is the boss lady around if'n books...but i can't deny that there is a side of me that wants to be booin' and hissin' it up for any of the bosses out there that give bossin' a bad name. and they are a dime a dozen, everybody has had them.

i should also add that originally we intended to release this item in september, under my own sort of vauge, dateless holiday of 'september morn.' but schedules on both sides got busy and it got all pushed back to october. and in a loopy email i wrote to deb, this is how i pacified myself:

so, no bleed on the smacker. that was my original intent as i wanted to be good to alec this time around...you know, after all these years. and yes, i would like to claim 'october morn' as the release date...the halloweeny/octoberfest version of neil diamond. maybe it should be like 'october moan' a neil diamond ghost w/ a hangover.

and that is an idea that is either genius or makes no sense like everything else i put into type these days.

september was a crazy, awesome, nonsensical month...

...procrastination...

2007-10-08T22:32:00.001-07:00

everyone deserves a skeletal system...

...school of fish and an underwater owl...

2007-09-24T03:12:00.000-07:00

...zzz...

2007-09-23T02:12:00.000-07:00

...feeling the burn...

2007-09-23T01:21:00.000-07:00

it's the season again where i am working around the clock and my hands and eyes get all cranky. i already have a series of hand stretches that keep me from cramping up. tonight i prowled the interweb for eye exercises as drawing line after line after line all day long makes them all crazy-go-nuts. i think i found a good series that i want to try out...namely, i was sold on exercise #23, the most inspiring line being halfway into the paragraph:

THE HOT DOG This exercise is done to improve the flexibility of the inside muscles of your eyes (called the ciliary muscles). It is important to keep those muscles flexible. Remember to breathe. Take two deep breaths. Either stand or sit with your feet, shoulder width apart. If you are standing, make sure your knees are slightly bent. Aim your eyes on any target in the distance. While looking at your distant target, bring your index fingers, tips touching about eight inches in front of your eyes and into your line of sight. Still aiming your eyes at the distant target calmly notice a mini hot dog has appeared between the tips of your fingers. Remember to continue to breathe easily and deeply. Do not let the awesome beauty of the mini hot dog to distract you and to cause you to aim your eyes directly at it. Continue to aim your eyes toward the distant target. Pull the tips of your fingers apart slightly and observe the hot dog floating in the air. Now keep the hot dog for two breaths, then look directly at your fingers and the hot dog will disappear. Do not retrieve the hot dog for two breaths; then look again in the distance and find it once again. Switch back and forth for two minutes.

...he's so craazaay...

2007-09-07T15:42:00.000-07:00

who? my friend alec, that's who.

i snuck on over to his site only to find a piece i hadn't seen before, this one:

and i thought, "DANG!"

for all of the talking i do about wanting to make wallpaper he just goes and does it. dang.
then i noticed this piece:

double dang!

...look what someone did...

2007-09-06T21:35:00.001-07:00

it's from this site: mayna's fotolog.
i think it's portuguese.

...peep show...

2007-09-02T00:10:00.001-07:00

so, what HAVE i been doing lately? that is a good question.

this year has been a much slower year compared to the gauntlet of shows and work of 2006. it's been a purposeful putting on of the breaks. after maybe seven shows over an eight month period i felt like i was teetering on the edge of burning out. not in a permanent sort of way, but in a way that my work that i love to do and the people that i love having in my life was falling out of balance.

it's also really hard producing new work for each show (they were pretty much all back to back so i couldn't just take one show and move it along elsewhere, a lot of work sold {many thanks, much appreciation}{and not to just the folks who purchased, but to anyone who made it to the show, stopped by on the internet, dropped me a line...}). i reached a point before my final show in november at motel gallery in portland where i realized that because i had no time to sit and stew, take new things in, i worried that the quality of the work would go downhill.

so while i haven't been as visible this past year i have been up to plenty of shenanigans. i've turned more of a focus on children's books. i finished one in june and am wrapping up another one at the end of september. i've taken on smaller illustration projects that are here and there. and most importantly i've taken a good deal of time to sit and stare and think and meet up with friends and on and on and on.

in november i have two shows....well, a group show and a solo show.

the group show is at subtext gallery in san diego maybe on november 3rd? the show runs in conjunction with/celebration of Bunka-no-hi, and will showcase artist designed Kokeshi dolls. I am looking forward to doing something a little different...and by 'something a little different' i mean doing what i usually do only on a three dimensional object.

the solo show will be november 17th at giant robot in new york. it's my first solo show in a year. it's true. i will post more info about it, you know, when i have more than lists and ideas scrawled over random pages of several sketchbooks.

and just so you know i'm not faking it, i leave behind some evidence of my noodling.

...here a pea, there a pea...

2007-08-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

so far 'little pea' has been translated into french, japanese, korean, maybe german? that's terrible that i can't remember off the top of my head. anyhow, here's pea in italian:

and in hebrew...which is pretty spectacular as the construction of the book works from right to left, spine on the right and opening on the left:

and what i love about this publishing house is its sweet character logo:

...1, 16, 17, 32...

2007-08-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

i have a new mouth. well, a renovated mouth.

over the past three weeks i have been getting my wisdom teeth removed...two the first week, two the following week, and removal of sutures on the third. the extractions were performed over a series of weeks because they were done by dental students at the university of washington. it's true. i had my wisdom teeth taken out by students. it's a decision that seems suspect at best, but it wasn't a decision i made lightly and in the end it was a really amazing experience.

the real kicker of this whole escapade is that i didn't necessarily need to get the wisdom teeth taken out in the first place. they were fully present like their second molar cousins, they weren't impacted, there was no infection, just a little decay. recently, however, my brother jason had a wisdom tooth of his removed that caused problems for the adjacent molar. and after his extraction he boldly claimed that wisdom teeth were the mouth's sleeper cells...and eventually they would wreak havoc on the rest of the mouth.

this rang true for me. i could see where he was coming from...especially from my vantage point of being an uninsured individual. and as an uninsured individual i like to be pro-actively preventive. i came to the conclusion that eventually my wisdom teeth would most likely cause me trouble in the future. in the long run it would be better to take care of myself now instead of something more complicated (secret fears of root canals) later on. and when i really thought about it i couldn't really see what my 'thirds' (as they call them in the dental world) were doing for me. they seemed like lazy, layabout teeth, not necessarily improving my food chewing. so out, out damn' tooths.

long story short, i ended up at the dental school after much research and many calls to other clinics and dental offices, folks on the other end of the phone asking me if i understood that i would have to pay for services if i was uninsured, me reassuring that i did, rolling my eyes. anyhow, the student dentists were the best...and that's the thing...i had two different teams of two over the first two weeks and then a fifth student removing the sutures...and there is nothing i like more than variety. i liked experiencing the different mannerisms, comparing and contrasting, creating rating systems...

the first duo consisted of dr. bling and shaky mc gee. unfortunately, mc gee was the extractor that day and lacked the oomph it takes to yank teeth from bone. but dr. bling was very conscientious and attentive to my suction and checking in on me needs. the second team was collectively called 'team handsome'. not necessarily my type of handsome, but there was something ken-doll seeming about them. anyhow, handsome one and handsome two were a tight team. handsome two supported my jaw as he was working on extracting the lower tooth, pulling way ahead in points and stars ahead of shakey mc gee who didn't have this technique in his bag of tricks.

did i tell you that i wasn't put under? that's how i know all of this. i have a long history of surgeries so me and anesthesia parted ways a long time ago...i opted out of it. it was just me and novocaine. anyhow, it was great being awake...i learned a lot, i got to see my teeth...but not keep them, it was like i was giving them up for adoption; they were out and whisked away out of my reach, never to be seen again...and being awake made me feel like a part of the team...maybe the most important part...cooperation.

so dental students rule in my book.

...the fourth...

2007-07-13T01:03:00.000-07:00

where i was on the fourth...you know, for photo's sake...

...secondary studio...

2007-07-13T00:37:00.000-07:00

reason number one why i and maybe you can't work in the kitchen: sudden urges to make sushi for dinner and bake cookies afterwards.

both are somewhat time consuming and definitely constructively engaging activities. and if you are me, and i am, you make an unthinkable mess.

this all came about yesterday when seattle cranked it up to the mid to low nineties. when it starts hitting the mid eighties around here folks get upset so you can imagine what the nineties might do to them. the news reports were all ablaze with heatwave headlines. weather.com reported the temperature at 92 degrees but that it 'felt like' 90 degrees.

i'm no sissy. i come from the land of heatwaves. they're 95 degrees +, with humidity and they last for a series of days and sometimes weeks...thusly a wave...not a one day slap on the hand. but my house is a tiny box of hot and my studio is no exception. i can't think when i am hot, i mostly want to lie down (which is secretly lesson number two...no working in the bedroom). but as i have things to get to and be working on so this wasn't an option.

here i am...sushi-fied, eating cookies and continually schooling myself on the folly of my ways.

(lesson number three: no coffee before an acupuncture appointment, and by coffee i mean a sizeable americano. just don't do it)

...dreams really do come true...

2007-06-19T23:45:00.000-07:00

so, thing is, is that i have had grey hair growing in since the eighth grade. nothing much...just a strand or two.

over the years the grey troops have grown in number. i like them just fine. it's a nice surprise to spy a new smattering when i catch a glimpse in the mirror. they have their own sort of pull because they're not really grey, they're silver...so they catch light in interesting ways...especially the cranky shaped ones.

a few days ago i noticed that up in my bangs a stripe was convening...which is something i have secretly wanted for a long time...a slick stripe in my bangs. it's covered by the top layer of bangs and it's sort of hard to see in the photo b/c of my shiny shiny hair...but it's there. now i just have to concentrate and have the column of grey grow forward. i think i can do it.

...where you been...

2007-06-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

so, the seattle move is finished in so far as all of my stuff has arrived, unharmed, uncrushed. and that goes for the pysanky eggs i made over a vermont weekend...one of the earlier photos of this here blog. sure, they're a little stinky, but intact. intact and stinky.

so yes, everything is here and now everything needs its place.

i haven't written anything in awhile b/c i have been running around getting necessities for the house and then working on projects. i had a post i was working on, about the virtues of proper interior painting techniques...and i might finish it, but really, there were a lot of paint fumes affecting my judgement that day.

but since all of my junk is here, including the cable that connects my camera to my laptop, i figure a photo post is what's called for. why not?

poppies on my walk...

towers on a sunny day...

towers on a stormy day...

towers at sunset...

underside of towers...just because...

my stuff's arrived...temporary crap out place for me and the sneak...

the sneak in the kitchen garden window...

going, going, gone...

2007-06-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

photo 1: space needle pinata, whole with ringgold st. pizza oven
cemetarily-esquely looming in the back ground.
photo 2: space needle pinata in mid-melee
both photos nabbed from shea's flickr account...thanks shea...and both photos for my going away party for my move to seattle...

...i doodled it...

2007-05-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

the amount of times i mix this up=preposterous

2007-05-22T20:12:00.000-07:00

whether...a sort of either/or all crammed up into one word, implying uncertainty between two choices

wether...a castrated ram

i just wrestled with those there homophones.

i generally pride myself on spelling while enjoying bad spelling by others...so much so that my friend joe and i had a thing going on where we would send emails back and forth to one another so terribly misspelled that they were nearly impossible to read. and the trick of the situation is that when i would write entire emails out in the worst possible spelling imaginable i had to work over time, retraining my brain to make mistakes and make assumptions on how a word would look based on the sound. during those months i undid years and years of basic elementary school lessons. it was bad. it was dark. it still springs up on me now and again.

...the sneak by day, the sneak by night...

2007-05-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

...day three...

2007-05-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

today can be summed up with this: brother jason jumping in on the scene, literally...he engaged the nieces in some serious taekwondo/wrestling action that ended in momentary tears, breakfast for dinner (apple/chocolate chip pancakes), ice cream at 'it's NUTS!', and one of those modern day computer animated movies that didn't seem to satisfy anyone.

...day two...

2007-05-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

today can be summed up with this: kids these days eat a lot of food coloring...super saturated, knock out your eyeballs, kick your liver into high gear food dyes.

there's something going on in the marketing of food to children that seems to say that the more removed from nature and natural ways of eating food the better. take personal enemy number one: gogurt. yogurt in a tube. or better yet, yogurt in a glorified, elongated, mini trash bag.

niece number two...two in terms of being born second, not some sort of cruel aunt hierarchy...ate a gogurt this morning. and 'ate' is an insufficient verb when it comes to the consumption of gogurt...and anyone who has seen a kid slurping down a tube knows what i mean.

anyhow, today's gogurt was brought to us by? sponsored by? shrek. it was some sort of swampy marsh flavor and it was some sort of swampy marsh color. murky. whitish. greenish. opaque. and there was no escaping it...every time she opened up her gogurt hole to chatter away her time before making her way to the bus there it was. completely gnarly. not something aunt jen can handle at eight am without any coffee in her.

something else to know about me: i'm a food label nerd. i like knowing what i am eating...good or bad. i get psyched about yogurt b/c it has on average 10g of protein per serving. i started to get half psyched about gogurt til i nerded it up on it's food label...2g of protein. 2g...what'd shrek do with the other 8?

...day one...

2007-05-09T18:37:00.000-07:00

today is day one of five of jen corace: pseudo parent. i'm sitting my nieces while my sister meets up with her husband in las vegas.

something to know about me: i don't spend much time with kids, let alone in a multiple day, contained setting. while i am lucky to be an aunt to two of the coolest kids ever i have an idea that by the time monday rolls around i will feel a particular level of 'spent' that my body has never known before.

at the moment i have set up a temporary internet cafe/winery of sorts in my sister's living room. i'm not too sure what i mean by that beyond making a snack, having a drink by my side, computer on my lap and 'the scarlet letter' on the all too huge tv plodding away in front of me.

wha? what! you say...'the scarlet letter?' demi moore's 'the scarlet letter?'. yes, that very scarlet letter.

i can't even begin to describe the strangeness that is unfolding before me. such an oddly star studded cast...such a paltry interpretation of the story. sort of, how do you say, much like a soap opera. oh gary oldman dimmesdale, it's going to be okay. i mean, not really, that's a total lie, but shuuush shuuush.

the funny thing is is that two years ago a portland trip of mine fell in the middle of a nathaniel hawthorne marathon. and as it goes when i am on one of these reading rampages...cue 'reading rainbow' music...it's all i can talk about. nathaniel hawthorne this, nathaniel hawthorne that. i talked it up so much that it seemed like a good idea to track down the movie and give it a go. i had no misconceptions about it being a good film. i was hoping to be surprised by how horrible it might be (and now here, in the future i can attest that it is indeed terrible...a fantastic terrible).

the only misconception i did have was that it was going to be an easy task to accomplish. how foolish. how naive. it wasn't that the video store didn't have 'the scarlet letter', it's not that they didn't have it on vhs...the format i was looking for...it was that SOMEONE ELSE HAD ALREADY TAKEN IT OUT THAT NIGHT!! ten years well past its prime...if this movie even ever had a prime...some portlander beat me to the chase. now that's a 'wha? what!

highlight of the day:
at my niece's softball game a group of boys under the bleachers were making 'boobies out of dirt.' i know this because they said it over and over again. not so much as an announcement but rather some sort of pre pubescent chant. they one upped the awesomeness of this event when caught by a parent and covering their deeds claimed that they were making hot dogs out of rocks. an interesting jump.

high five

2007-05-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

in case you are wondering how i do what i do...part of the recipe is that i have THE BIGGEST HANDS IN THE WORLD! seriously, i have huge hands. they're good for holding down paper, good and steady. thanks to if'n books deb...courtesy of her flickr account.

tick...tock, tick...tock

2007-05-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

for the past two weeks the muscle below my right eyelid has been pulsing, tic-ing.

fluttering.

it could be that i am on the computer a lot
it could be that i am in charge of a large move at the end of the month.
it could be that i have a lot of large work on my plate.
it could be that i am afraid of severing a tie to a wonderful community.
it could be that my snoring is keeping me up at night, denying me solid sleep.

christ, to the right of my left eye just started up...fan-fuckin-tastic.

now and forever...

2007-05-01T22:33:00.001-07:00

crayon crayola

2007-04-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

back in the day i was a color fascist. by "color fascist" i mean i was particularly anal to call each crayon by it's proper name. by "back in the day" i mean at the age of five or six.

i can remember spending time at friend's houses, whiling away the time with coloring books. heaps of books would be strewn about the floor. buckets of crayons were tipped over and scattered. i can remember how the pages and the crayons smelled. it's a particular warm smell that comes out of pulpy, cheap newsprint paper. the paper that filled the books was the same sort that wrapped around the crayon, only the paper was dyed.

i can also remember the particular feel of wrapper meeting waxy crayon...small fingers scratching at the side to peel the edge of paper away...the inevitable discomfort of colored wax jamming underneath my fingernails. coloring was the best. the best.

our hands would plow through piles of crayons in search of the right color. and as time went on we would become more rooted in our spots, less active in getting up and getting our own crayons. orders went out. requests. and that's where it would all take a nose dive for me. a flaming, spinning nose dive of being far too literal for my own good.

someone would ask for "red" and me being me i would give them the red.

"no, the other red" they would plead...a plea that would be answered with a face and a question. the face was a face that was deadpan, humorless. i was terrible.

"oh, you mean MAROON"

...oh, you mean 'brick red'
...oh, you mean 'burnt sienna'
...oh, you mean 'red orange'
...oh, you mean ' orange red'

a tyrant.
i started out a color tyrant.

...of all the days

2007-04-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

i had a lot of plans today. they involved a lot of walking. and as anyone in new england knows today, in a drastic comparison to the past week or so, is a terrible mess of freezing rain and bits of ice. so no risd museum, no letter writing in the jewelry district while drinking coffee and eating bagels, no art supply shopping.

instead i have been inside. i have been huddled away in my bedroom, space heater on, answering emails and fussing with this and that. the news was on at one point, which is when i found out that kurt vonnegut had died last night.

it's funny...there was this brief moment of sadness. kurt vonnegut, much like dinosaur jr., completely spun me in my tracks during those malleable high school years. he helped shape my sense of humor and gave me a new perspective on the world and personal experience. i wasn't surprised by the feeling of loss.

equally, i wasn't surprised when a few moments later i felt maybe pride but definitely a quiet happiness for him. he, like my grandmom who passed this summer at 94, was ready to go...beyond ready to go. if i could, i would congratulate him.