When: Friday, June 5, 2009, 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Where: Frame Up Studios, 3515 Fremont Ave N, Seattle (map)

If you want to see what else is happening at the Fremont art walk, here's their blog: http://fremontfirstfriday.blogspot.com/

(click to see the bigger image / clic pour voir l'image en plus grand)

Pink bunny or lucky underwear: never go to a job interview without your talisman.

The Easter bunny outdid himself and brought me a care package all the way from France! French Easter candy is definitely one of the things I miss from home (along with socialized medicine, but we won't go there).

Pâtisseries typically sell fancy Easter confections: large, hollow chocolate eggs, chickens, rabbits or bells (more on bells later), wrapped in ribbons and filled with smaller candy: little marzipan vegetables (I've always liked the little cauliflowers best!); "friture" (little chocolates shaped like fish, shrimp, mussels...); pastel-colored fondant eggs; little praliné eggs... They traditionally come in distinctive pastel, illustrated cardboard boxes.

So why the bell motif? In France, Catholic tradition oblige, it is church bells on their way to Rome that bring candy, not the Easter bunny. I've been told many times that flying bells that drop candy don't make sense, but personally I don't see how bunnies carrying little baskets make any more sense ;)

V.F.: Bon ben je traduis pas hein, tout le monde sait ce que c'est les oeufs de Pâques, ce qui va dedans, ce qui va autour... Merci les cloches, qui sauront se reconnaître!

Many thanks to the talented Eva for giving me this award! Check out her blog if you don't know it already, her work is a delight. It is now my turn to pass the award to other bloggers and share things I love.




So here we go, 7 things I love...

1. My family and old friends, and picking up right where we left even if we haven't seen each other for a while.
   
2. Cooking something nice and enjoying it over the course of a long, leisurely meal and good conversation.
   
3. Getting lost in art supplies stores and losing track of time.
   
4. Reading. I can't go to sleep, no matter how late it is, unless I've read at least a couple of pages.
   
5. Goes with #4... books. Made with paper, that is. I'm no technophobe, far from it, and I will read news online, but I can't get into the whole e-book thing.
   
6. Waking up to the sound of rain, warm in my bed and knowing I don't have to get up for a while!
   
7. Coming home after a trip.
   

• Kelly Murphy
• Artemis Wilde
• It's a whimsical life
• Kathy Hare
• Anja Boretzki
• xovika
• Adolie Day

Brought to you by the venerable University of St. Andrews: the face transformer (http://morph.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Transformer/), an online thingy that lets you upload your photo and visualize your face aged, as painted by Modigliani, as someone of the opposite gender, etc. Here's a sampling of the results... I'd make one cute dude, if I do say so myself.
The original photo, as a man, as a Botticelli, and as Asian:
VF: Voilà un programme créé par les gentils geeks de l'Université de St. Andrews, un truc rigolo qui permet de manipuler sa photo et de se vieillir, se transformer en mec ou en Vénus Botticellienne. Voilà ce que ça donne sur moi - oué enfin moi ya 3-4 ans disons, on va dire que j'avais pas de photo récente de face ;-) Et ben je dis que moi en garçon, on dirait le fils de Patrick Juvet et Björn Ulvaeus (mais si, le blond qu'était dans Abba). Enfin je dis ça, je dis rien...

I don't think it shows too much, but I'm trying my hand at slightly different things... I wanted to try and paint faster and a bit more spontaneously than usual, so I drew this one directly on illustration board with acrylic, then did a bit of digital doodling. Usually I sketch and plan meticulously, and hardly do anything other than trim in Photoshop.I think I'll continue working on it, add more highlights on the face, and maybe redo the background to make the pattern stand out some more.

Anyway, I'm not sure if she's poised or just uncomfortable :)

I made this for I.F.. I think I'll probably rework it, I'm not so happy about the contrasts; especially the stuffed animal's face, which blends too much in the background.

V.F.: Je viens de faire ça pour Illustration Friday, je suis à moitié contente du truc; les contrastes ne sont pas formidables, en particulier le visage de la peluche qui ne se détache pas bien du fond.

Still plugging away at my new series, and this one has been giving me a bit of trouble; I'm on the third iteration, no less. I think this last one's finally a keeper, although it still needs some work. Note to self: stop attempting to paint without music. #3, brought to you by Deerhunter's Cryptograms and Microcastle...

VF: Lentement mais sûrement(?), je continue d'avancer sur ma nouvelle série. Je coinçais méchamment sur cette image, il a fallu que je la refasse 3 fois, rien que ça. Je crois que je vais garder le troisième jet, mais y'a encore du boulot pour que ce soit présentable. Enfin bon, comme quoi peindre sans musique, ben ça marche pô pour moi. On dit merci aux grands garçons de Deerhunter qui ont réussi a me décoller la pulpe avec Cryptograms et Microcastle...

This is the kind of recipe that I like: quick, easy, full of buttery goodness, helps me pretend I'm a French culinary goddess.

VF: Voilà le genre de recette que j'aime... déjà y'a du beurre, ensuite c'est simple, c'est rapide et comme ça un peu de gueule, ça aide à perpétuer le mythe de la française qui sait ce qu'elle fait en cuisine.



Ingredients (6-8 madeleines):

Today E.K., purveyor of hope and ammunition for aspiring hipsters looking to fit in with the cool kids, compiled a list of sculptors worth checking out. So check it out! I'm adding a small selection of my own here.

VF: E.K. offre en général des cours de rattrapage de it trucs pour avoir l'air moins boulet avec vos copains qui sont trop haïpe. Aujourd'hui il a pondu un billet rien que pour moua ici (en anglais), avec des vrais morceaux de sculpteur dedans. Du coup j'en rajoute quelques-uns ici, des sculpteurs que j'aime bien, faudrait pas que je sois en reste.

Do Ho Suh
image credit: designboom.com
bio credit: pbs.org
Do-Ho Suh was born in Seoul, Korea in 1962. His sculptures continually question the identity of the individual in today’s increasingly transnational, global society. I was lucky enough to see his work twice in Seattle - all I can say is that photos don't do justice to the scale and grace of his work.

VF: Do-Ho Suh est un artiste coréen. Ses sculptures remettent en question l'identité de l'individu dans la société actuelle, de plus en plus globalisée et transnationale. J'ai eu la chance de voir ses oeuvres à Seattle deux fois, et franchement les photos ont du mal à rendre l'échelle et l'allure du travail.

Tricia Cline
image credit: triciacline.com
bio credit: bettchergallery.com

Charles Krafft
image credit: re-title.com
bio credit: RoqLaRue
A self taught American painter and ceramicist, Krafft is now best known for his notorious Disasterware™ plates, porcelain weaponry, and SPONE™ reliquaries made of human bone china.

VF: Charles Krafft est un peintre et céramiste américain autodidacte, connu pour ses porcelaines décalées: armes et munitions, lapinous à grenade etc dans un style classique facon Delft. Il fait aussi des reliquaires, c'est-à-dire des poteries faites avec les cendres de mémé. Un poil morbide quand même.

Cute silver and glass pendants seen on http://www.smallthingsdesigns.com/; lovely clean, simple design. I'm not sure if I want to wear them or just look at them...



En VF: Z'avez compris, ça brille, c'est jouli, j'en veux, c'est des pendentifs en argent et pâte de verre, et ça s'achète sur un site Etatsunien qui ne fait pas dans l'international. Donc effectivement pourquoi traduire hein, on s'en fout un peu; ben bicose j'ai décidé de faire mes billets dans les 2 langues, et qu'il faut bien commencer quelque part. Alors autant que ce soit avec un truc court, des fois que je me foule un neurone.

Bon, ben ze end pour aujourd'hui, c'est pas tout ça mais j'ai caté.

Today I tried the chocolate "cake in a cup" recipe from the endlessly entertaining Papilles Et Pupilles blog. I was a little dubious because you cook it in a microwave, which I'm not a big fan of. Anyway, I tried it - and it was so easy and scrumptious that I'm shamelessly lifting her recipe and posting it here. The original recipe (in French, and much more humorous than mine!) is here.

Ingredients (makes 2 cupcake-sized individual cakes):

• 1 egg
• 40g sugar (4 tablespoons)
• 25g cocoa powder (2 tablespoons)
• 20g ground hazelnuts (2 tablespoons)
• 25g vegetable oil e.g. canola (4 tablespoons)
  
• milk (1 tablespoon)

• I ran out of unsweetened cocoa powder and used an aztec chocolate mix (with chile and cinammon); that was a happy accident and turned out delicious.
• I didn't have hazelnuts and replaced them with unsalted pistachios. I ground them with the sugar so that they wouldn't turn into a paste in the food processor. That turned out very well, too.

1. Mix the dry ingredients together
2. Mix in the egg, oil and milk
3. Grease a couple of cups or ramekins
4. Pour the batter in, not all the way to the top as the cakes will rise
   
5. Put in the microwave for 2 minutes or so. It's a good idea to check the cake after 1 minute 1/2: if it's still soggy, put it back in for 30 more seconds. Don't overcook it as it will get dry.
6. Eat it while it's still warm
   

Nibbling my way through my next series... I usually work on one painting at a time and finish it before starting on the next one. For some reason this time I can't focus and have several in various stages of undoneness. The June deadline still seems pretty far away, but I just know it will creep up on me... (Yes, I know, my studio desk looks, um, "lived in"...)

Ok, I have to ask: what is it with the antlers? Not exactly a new phenomenon, but a bafflingly enduring one: the deer girl. Just google "deer girl" or "antlers girl" and start counting the paintings/drawings. Let's face it, it's been done to death; I've seen it on t-shirts, shopping bags, even children's books and horror flicks:



I guess trends, in art as in anything else, aren't exactly something new or to be puzzled by; the Pre-Raphaelites in their day were pretty obsessed with Ophelia and produced prodigious quantities of Ophelias pre-water, in water, floating, sitting, blond, red-haired...

I'm sure there are plenty of other trends (hey, kokeshi are starting to proliferate...); I find the antlers one particularly amusing though, because the only symbolism I'm aware of for wearing horns/antlers is the French one, where it means that your significant other is being unfaithful:



The obscenely talented Mark Ryden just opened his Snow Yak show. Could this be the start of a new trend? Can't wait to see the yak t-shirts and tattoos that one's going to generate...

Who cares about February 13 when the big fluffy day is tomorrow, right? Well I kinda do. You see, February 13th is my fête, aka the Feast of Saint Beatrice. That's right, Beatrice has a day named after her, like Patrick and Valentine. Henri, Robert and many others also do, for that matter; they just didn't have the right connections at Hallmark I guess.

The fête is a day that is supposed to honor the memory of a particular saint, whichever gruesome way they got to meet their maker; but like many French traditions, it is largely secular nowadays despite being rooted in religion. I've heard it described as a second birthday; it's a bit like that I guess.

Typically friends, family and coworkers will say "bonne fête!" to you; maybe you'll get a card, or flowers, or a little sumthinsumthin'. Florist web sites often have a fête reminder or let you look up fête dates; and after the evening news, the weather forecast guy typically announces whose fête it is tomorrow. Woe to who forgets!

Interestingly, I've noticed an anti-Valentine trend on French sites recently, and encouragements to boycott Valentine's Day and celebrate Saint Beatrice instead. I say bring it on!

Here's a French site that lists the names to celebrate each day of the year: http://www.saint-dicton.com/mois/fevrier.php . Makes me glad I wasn't named Adeltrude.

Clotilde from the Chocolate and Zucchini blog has been doing an interesting series of posts on food-related French idiomatic expressions... there are many of these, and they usually designate things that have nothing to do with eating! A few examples from her
"Edible idiom" archive:

• Mi-figue mi-raisin - literally "half-fig, half-grape", figuratively "ambiguous"
• Couper la poire en deux - literally "to cut the pear in two", figuratively "to compromise"
• S'occuper de ses oignons - literally "to look after one's onions", figuratively "to mind one's own business"