The Lonely Robot

Morning Garden

It is that time of the year.  In the spring, I like to walk around my backyard garden to see what is happening there.  Spring hits early here in San Francisco - I saw the first daffodils pop up in mid-February this year. And this week the lilacs came out, so I thought it was a good time to take my new camera and get a few shots. I hope you enjoy them!

 

Here is the view from under our deck.  The bamboo plants in the big pots create a little portal to walk through into the greenery..

 

There have been some awesome days out here by the beach.  We set up a hammock to catch some rays and some zzzzs on those lazy weekend afternoons.

 

 
There is a fern in our backyard that I planted about 5 years ago, and now it is over 6 feet tall.  I think it is called an Australian Tree Fern.  But I'm not sure.  Whatever it is called, I love it, and I liked how my camera was able to capture this new sprout.  Growing up in Michigan, we called these fern sprouts Fiddleheads, as they look like the top of a fiddle. I once ate them sauteed in butter at a restaurant in Portland, Oregon.  They sort of tasted like walnuts.

 

California Poppies literally grow like weeds around here.  And I'm fine with that.

 

These clovers grow like weeds, too, and again, not a problem.  They remind me that the other owner of this garden is from Ireland.  

These are the yellow blossoms of the above clover plant.  Our friends Steve and Erica have a lovely daughter named Lili who picks these and then proceeds to chew on the end of the stalk.  She likes the sweet and sour taste.  I tried it once to humor her, but I didn't care for it one bit. The face I made gave her a laugh, though.

 

Succulents do really well in this climate.  I like all the shapes, colors, and variations.

 

I don't know what these little purple flowers are, but they look great.

I planted these bulbs years ago.  Which I seem to forget every Spring, because I am always surprised when these guys pop up.

 

I know what this is - this is my rosemary bush in bloom.  This is my go-to plant for many recipes.  I want to expand my herb garden this year, and add some vegetables, too.  I am thinking that will be a big project, so I am procrastinating a bit.

 

Calla lilies thrive here.  I enjoy their simple, classic lines. 

 

I don't know what this is.  I call it a Daisy Tree.  I planted it a few years back when it was in a 4 inch pot, and now the base of this beast is 6 inches in diameter.  I cut it back every year to next to nothing, and it comes back bigger and better. 

 

I love the look of the leaves from my Japanese Maple.  Here it is with a backdrop of my lavender bush.  The salty air here by the Pacific burns the leaves, I think.  By mid-summer they tend to look pretty gnarly - but right now they look great.

 

This is what I call a Butterfly Bush.  It draws those flutter-bys in all summer long.  I have no idea what it is really called.

 

And my favorite - the Lilac tree.  I love the smell of these flowers - it brings me right back to Michigan, where as a boy I would inhale their fragrance like a Hoover.  Annie got me this for our 2nd wedding anniversary.  Now it is about 9 feet high and has more blossoms than ever.

If you haven't figured it out yet, my gardening style is "plant it and see if it grows."  Sometimes I yank stuff out that takes but looks nasty. But more often than not, I let it all stay.  The garden is low-maintenance, too.  I never use any fertilizers or bug dope.  I just weed it every month or two, have my sprinklers give it some water 3 times a week for 5 minutes or so during the summer, and that is about it.

When we moved into this house 9 years ago, the back yard was an empty lot.  Check it out:

 

And now it looks like this (taken last summer): 

 

The garden is a treasure for both Annie and I. Barring bad weather, in the morning we sit outside and drink our coffee and get our head straight for the day ahead.  After work, we sit back there with a glass of wine, taking it all in while listening to the waves crash and fog horns blow a few blocks away.  

We are really grateful that we have such an oasis here on the edge of San Francisco. Happy Spring!

I Have Not Given Up On Blogs

Today it seems routine to go to the computer and get snippets of people's lives. But don't you think a blog paints with a broader and bolder stroke, with words for more expression, depth, and insight than a status update or tweet? I do.

I understand the importance and relevance of Facebook and twitter in 2010.  The vast majority of people who are interested in what I do keep track of me there.  But it is only part of the picture.  A really tiny part of the picture.

So I am going to commit to blogging more.  Why?  Because the people I know that still blog get a lot out of it, and as a result so do I.  And I like being able to go back and see what was on my mind on, say, August 9, 2005.

The short list that follows are the blogs I still find myself going to again and again to see what is going on in the lives of those who write them.  They inspire me, challenge me, humor me, educate me, enlighten me.  Here they are in no particular order, and I know there are more out there that I should mention, but heck, I can blog about that later:

Wexford Girl

Reading Annie's blog continues to remind me what a great writer she is.  Her sense of humor prevails in her posts about nostalgia for her early years in Ireland, enthusiasm for her art, and admiration of all things beautiful.  Several, but not all, of the reasons why I married her.

The Rossiters

My brother-in-law hit the blogging trail with all guns blazing, making it apparent from the very beginning that his keypad could produce just as good of a story as a few pints of Guinness.  (Methinks the two combined create his best work.)  I find myself going here a lot, to see what is going on in Wexford county with the cast of characters that have become my family, and get a window into the lives, wit and wisdom of a real Irishman.

Tweetage Wasteland

Dave Pell is my gold standard for blogging.  Smart, topical, and so well written, his blogs have always enlightened my perspective on current events while entertaining me with his razor-sharp wit.  His latest incarnation, Tweetage Wasteland, is his best to date.  

SFgirlbybay

Victoria Smith, aka SFgirlbybay, has an incredibly gorgeous blog.  It is filled with her images of the random, vagrant beauty of the everyday. What I admire about it is her eye - what she sees - and her enthusiasm and consistency in sharing it with her readers.  

Evany's Extended Cake Mix

Evany is running neck-to-neck with Annie in the "Funniest Woman I Know" race.  God Evany kills me.  Smart, irreverent, and laugh out loud funny, I admire this blog for the honesty and humor in how she tackles life's little (and not so little) curve balls.

The Adventures of Lisa and Wilfredo

Lisa Congdon is the coolest and hardest working artist I know.  Watching her art and her projects unfold on her blog always inspires me to do my best work, and keeps me thinking fresh.  In addition to admiring her artwork (we have a few of her paintings), her work ethic and humility in her success have inspired me for a few years now.  And check out her other project - A Collection A Day.  I really don't know how she does it all so well.

BA's Weblog

We are all grown-ups, right?  BA's sense of the absurd, married with his uniquely weird ability to find some of the oddest bits on the web, always give me a laugh. Or a shutter.  Or both.  

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Thanks to all of you for putting your words out there for all to see. 

A New Direction - Color Linoleum Block Printing

 
This last weekend, I spent Saturday and Sunday at the San Francisco Center for the Book, taking another one of their exceptional classes.  Over the years, I have learned how to do letterpress and book-binding at their awesome facility on 16th Street.  When I saw that Rik Olson was teaching a class on multi-block linoleum printmaking, I signed up in a heartbeat.  I am so glad I did.  A note to artists who teach: Thank you!  

Rik is a master printmaker.  I have always responded strongly to his work.  I have often daydreamed that someday in the future, Annie and I will be living up in wine country on a little plot of land with a big barn full of printmaking equipment, in a small house with a big porch.  From what I learned about Rik, that is the lovely life he gets to live everyday.  It shows in his work:

   

Gorgeous, right?  So I was stoked to learn from a guy this good.  I showed up on Saturday morning with this photo that I took recently of Sutro Tower:

I had fun carving out Sutro again.  My previous edition of Sutro Tower is close to selling out, so it was time to do another version. After transferring my drawing onto the linoleum, I began carving out the "key plate", the plate that will print black and have the majority of the detail on it.  

 

Once I had that done, I had to work on the two other plates.  We had blue and yellow inks in addition to the black, so I began to figure out what to print where.  It was much more difficult than I expected - thinking in reverse, AND in color, is really a challenge.  Here is my workspace as I did about a dozen studies of how I wanted it to look:

 

That book I am looking at is about William Rice, a California printmaker back in the 20s.  Looking at his technique was so inspiring.  I just ordered the book on Amazon so I can reference it any time I want.

I spent the first day, and the beginning of the second, carving the plates.  Here is the key plate on the press (we used a Vandercook, but I will be doing this on my etching press):

 

Here are all the plates ready for printing:

 The notches in the middle of the top and bottom of the plate are used to register.  Simple and effective.  We pulled some proofs to check registration and plate integrity.  He printed blue first, then yellow, then black.  Rik offered to print them, so I agreed.  Here he is pulling the blue:

 

And the black:

 Here is the first state proof:

 

Good, not great.  I wasn't digging the artifacts of the cut marks in the black plate, especially after spending all that time carving out the clouds.  And the yellow left me cold - I wanted to warm it up a bit.  My first step was to carve out those lines.  I did it on the press bed like this:

 

When that was done, I added some red to the yellow ink to make an orange.  Here is Rik handing off the first one after all three colors had been printed:

Winner!  We pulled an edition of 12.  

When all was said and done, Rik signed a certificate that he printed up:

 Check this out - I love it! 

 

Here is the final piece:

 I gave one print to Rik, and swapped with two more with other printmakers, and keeping one for myself.  I have 8 left.  If you want to get one from this series, I am selling them for $50 each on the 3 Fish Studios website until they are gone.

It was a great experience.  I can see how learning this technique will influence my work for years to come.  Thanks again to artists who teach.  You inspire me.

My New Gym

Having my body in better shape would make me feel even more grateful for all the good things that are happening in my life right now.  So this week I started to do the Couch to 5K program.  With my iPod, runners, and Pacific Ocean at hand, I hit the beach. For motivation, I kept telling myself I would feel great when I finished.

The particular podcast I am listening to is just audio prompts - the voice tells you when to start running, when to stop, and when to resume again.  Week 1 routine is a session that includes eight 60 second runs with 90 second cool-off sessions between runs.  Repeat every other day. Easy.  Running down the beach is great.  Not too many people - mostly surfers getting ready to tuck into a wave.  

No music while I ran, just the sounds of the waves crashing, and my breathing.  It was lovely.  When I was finishing up the last leg, I grabbed a stone from the beach to bring back with me.  I'm thinking if I do this every time, I should have quite a collection in a few weeks.  Annie says I'm weird. She's right.