Monthly Archives: February 2006

The very gracious and talented Emily tagged me for the house door meme. Thanks Emily! It was my very first time being tagged. House doors are a funny thing. We have a front door and nobody ever uses it really. Except Earl when he goes out in the morning. If you click the picture to enlarge it, you can actually see sweet Earl better. Photographing that dog is like photographing a pool of black ink.

Hhhhmmm, whom to tag? I tag Laura (she is so multitalented) and I am also tagging kt. Yes, folks live in fear, there is more than one KT who knits. Go say hi and tell her to post more, she is a great writer! Tell her I sent ya!

Color really does do different things for different people. Take my dear sweet Hubbalicious, for example. He has a fantastic eye for color and yet it doesn’t really interest him all that much. Color doesn’t matter to him. I have learned to be okay with this, though it confounds me how anybody can not care about color. Makes me gasp for air. He is extrememly creative and his medium is technology. It used to specifically be writing code and has grown into all technology. And you can go check out his gadget blog.

When we moved into our home I had most of the interior painted. Did you know that Benjamin Moore has small jars of paint, enough to paint a 2″x2″ swatch on your wall? Well, I wish I had a picture – there were about 30 2″x2″ swatches on my walls. For several months. A color was chosen and as the final choice went on the walls, I was skeptical. I let it grow on me for a few days and decided the elephant grey color I had chosen was actually lavender. Once I had seen the lavender, I could not un-see it. The color, Smoked Oyster, was lovely just not the one for me. So the next time my husband went out of town, I had it all repainted. And did not tell the hubbalicious. For over six months. He did not notice. Of course, I told everybody we knew because well, it was hysterical. He walked into my study as I was changing some furniture around…

Hubbalicious: “Hey, you have moved some things around in here. See, I notice stuff!”

Me: At which point, I could keep quiet no longer and I replied: “Oh, like you noticed how I had two thirds of the house repainted about six months ago?”

Hubbalicious: “Right, from beige to the color it is now.”

Me: “Nope, from that lavenderish color to this Stardust Grey“

Hubbalicious:”You what? How much did it cost? You what? Prove it! Show me!”

Point proven. Eventually he could laugh about it, I have not stopped laughing about it.

Here is a 16 week course ALL about color. Free and online! Really, go there and read it. I have not read it all, what I have seen looks amazing. If you have any interest in just about any aspect of color, do yourself a favor and go there.

Color harmony completely fascinates me. Color theory is an area that I want to learn more about. There was a painting exercise I did a very long time ago that has stuck in my brain as the teacher pulled me aside after class and asked my why I wanted to paint. Ouch. Actually, I was being lazy and making it harder than it was all at the same time. The exercise was to pick three colors and make a painting. You could pick any three colors you wanted. I chose cadmium yellow, a violet and white. You will note, there is no cool color in the lot. That painting was the flattest thing you have ever seen. There was no Pop! And the Pop! is very important. Sometimes I do things that are all Pop! and there is no quiet place. Like this:

Othertimes, though more rare, it is all quiet and no Pop! Or very subdued Pop! Here is a quick oil sketch I did of myself (which looks nothing like me) a few (4?) years ago:

Someone who does color beautifully is Eric Fischl. Before you click some of his images are very explicit. If nudity bothers you, don’t go there. Anyhow, the way Fischl handles color makes me swoon. And his wife, April Gornik is also brilliant. And Delia Brown (More nudity! Beware, if you don’t like naked people!) really is wonderful. If you know anything about her, drop me a comment please. It is very tough for me to find stuff on her. Oh, and here is another drawing of hers. This drawing reminds me of just how much I love tone on tone. All this talk about color has me completely inspired, as do your very kind comments. Thank you. Have you seen project spectrum over at Lolly’s? Honestly, I had seen it and thought “Not for me”. Not certain why I thought that, but I did. Well, count me in. Painting is an avocation (I love that word) for me and I have not painted in almost 3 and a half years. I miss it terribly. It is the paint fumes I miss the most. Hah! For project spectrum I will do a one or a bunch of paintings and or drawings in the color of the month. I will keep you posted. Painting is someplace where I get lost, in a very good way. Sometimes in my own, and most often in other’s paintings. It is the color, the movement, the space created. We could all use a little bit more space and a quiet place to rest our eyes, couldn’t we?

Thank you again for the kind comments. Next up in the crazy color rantings…how color sneaks up on you!

Color. I love color. Each color has some element beauty for me. Color theory is extremely intriguing to me as are some philosophical discussions. A brief discussion of basic color principles and definitions can be found here. Color is a passion for me. It can take me up or bring me down. Color can quiet me or rev me up. We used to have a kitchen that was the exact color of my neighbors lawn, which we could see out the window, making the kitchen seem much larger than it actually was. The grass green was a very clean color to me, so even when the kitchen was a disaster it seemed cleaner than it actually was because of the Clean Green Walls.

Before there were small hollering boys in our lives, our house was a riot of color. Green kitchen, grape library, yellow family room. And it worked. It worked because they were all the same value. On another level, it did not work because they were all very vibrant and I found it difficult to relax in some of the more brightly colored rooms. If you ever want to skyrocket your productivity, paint your office or workspace red! My old home office had geranium red walls and the rest of the room was done in tones of red and pink. I got stuff d-o-n-e. Now, with the small hollering boys it would be unbearable to have all that color on the walls. There is quite enough energy here as it is, thank you. When we moved into this house Angus, who is extremely energetic to begin with, requested a firetruck red room.

As an aside, when I tell people that we have super high energy boys, most of the time I am met with: “Oh that’s how all little boys are”. After meeting them, I hear: “I thought you were exaggerating, but those boys are the most energetic I have ever met!”

Back to color…The request for the firetruck red room was denied and a compromise was reached. Robin’s egg blue walls and a red door. Thomas the Tank Engine Colors and yet oddly chic and refreshing when no trains are involved- good thing too as his old room is now my sewing room. And I find the blue invigorating and quieting all at the same time. Yes, the door is still red.

As much as I love color, sometimes it gives me fits. Rather, I give myself fits because I get lazy about color. Lazy about the process. I settle for good enough when with a bit more work it could be really striking. This really does pertain to all areas of my life, whether it be quilting, painting, knitting or what color my bathroom is. (More on this tomorrow).

Here are some fabrics I have gathered for a future quilt for Angus. This kid seriously loves red. In the past few months he has allowed that he might, just might, like blue.

So in the name of the process, I made this Courthouse Steps block to proof my ideas about how these fabrics work together. Very pleased that I did as it showed me several things I had not seen before.

I attempted to have the red based fabrics from the center go from light to dark. This was somewhat successful. The outermost red fabric and the one next to it need to switch. Looking at them alone, I thought the outermost was the darker red. That is what I love about color- how it is one color on its own and quite another depending on who its neighbor is. The white based fabrics were meant to go from the center, dark to light. The second (from the left) white based fabric, the dotted one, needs to be one position closer to the center and the floral needs to be second from the left.

To sum up about all this color talk, I wanted to publicly admire some people who I believe are masters of color and inspire me to learn and do more. Angry Chicken, Yarnstorm, Be*mused, and Six and a Half Stitches. There are many others that inspire and I will tell you about them soon, though you probably all ready know them. Thank you ladies!

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Yes, folks, there is lots and lots of good stuff going on over here- I am just a bit busy. I promise, next week, the phoning in of the blog posts will stop. Have a great weekend and pray for snow! Thanks for stopping by. Oh and I was all set to sign up for the Knitting Olympics and I, um, missed the cutoff. So go, Olympians go!

Okay, fellow bloglanders, you are the few, the select , the proud, and the truly appreciative. Only you are obsessed enough to savor the absolute geekiness of this. I have created what may be the ultimate ironing board. Do you find regular, store bought ironing boards lacking? Do they not satisfy you in a way that you want to be satisfied? Do you find them too small? Awkward? Too cumbersome? Not cumbersome enough? Geographically undesirable? How do you really feel about the ironing board in your life? You can tell me, it is okay- really. I am a vault and can keep you ironing board woes to myself. Confession is good for the soul.

May I introduce you to my new, yet un-named ironing board…

I intend to use him for ironing, pressing, blocking and general appreciation. He was VERY simple to make. One sheet batting, one sheet ironing board fabric (the silver kind), the top fabric and a kajillion copper tacks. Oh and he measures a whopping 32″ x 54″. It is amazing what can make a girl swoon, isn’t it.

You will sink in a mire. You like to think you’re
normal, but deep down you really just want to
strip off your clothes and roll around in
chicken fat.

What horrible Edward Gorey Death will you die?
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