beautiful waste of time

Good morning, happy Friday to all. These crush posts are usually about people I love and admire from afar: musicians, trees, songs, painters, cheese, I know, I know, my love knows no bounds. However, today I am compelled to write about a real person, someone a little closer to home. All of my crush admiration this month without a doubt goes to Jenny Deller and her amazing film Future Weather.

I can’t remember exactly how Jenny and I met but I know it was while working at a job we have both since left. The whole time we were working there together I never knew she was going home each night to work on this script, Future Weather, the same way I was going home to make books in my studio. We didn’t really become friends until after Jenny left the job to pursue the movie full time. Since then it’s been countless nights of shared meals, stories and talking ourselves into the amazing wondrous scariness that is our lives as working artists. But here’s the deal. The entire time I have known Jenny she has been working on this film. It’s been close to 7 years.

This Sunday my car took a load of Jenny Deller fans to Manhattan to watch the Future Weather world premiere on the last day of the Tribeca Film Festival. We got to watch it on a big screen! We got to see almost 7 years of work right before our eyes. To say this was huge would be the understatement of the year. I still get goosebumps just thinking about it.

I don’t know if y’all know anything about making movies (I didn’t before watching Jenny make this one from the sidelines.) Um, it’s hard, pretty thankless, and mostly work that has nothing to do with actual film making for really really long periods of time. The fact that any films see the light of day seem like a huge feat to me now.

But let me tell you why this movie is so great. It’s a smart, beautifully told story of a family of women simply trying to find their way. They are each layered, flawed, interesting and struggling. The characters are unsentimental, honest, and funny. Somehow this movie manages to bravely champion girls, science, and the environment quietly yet fiercely and unapologetically. This movie is good, it’s so good. I’ve seen it twice and I just want to see it again.

When you are watching someone up close working as hard as Jenny does, for as long as she has been working on this project, you can’t help but want to work harder yourself. The sheer act of not giving up after this long is in itself a lesson in patience and intent. When you are traveling roads that aren’t necessarily mapped out for you, it’s nice to have a few friends who just sort of “get it.” It’s great to look over sometimes and see a friendly face who is still fighting the good fight. When I look over I always see Jenny so I know I’ve got to keep trying too.

My friend Jenny made a movie, y’all. A really good movie. That’s an amazing thing. And I couldn’t be more happy for her.

Help Jenny and her amazing producing partner in crime Kristin Fairweather (pictured above) finish what they started and share Future Weather with the world. Give what you can now until May 9th. We’ve only got less than 5 days left on Kickstarter to raise a bunch of money, but it’s possible, anything is possible. Thanks to Jenny Deller I know that now more than ever.

Psst… There are many perks for donating to the Kickstarter Campaign but if you contribute $250 or more, you’ll get a limited edition tree book made by yours truly in honor of Lauderee’s (and my) love of trees (not to mention a ton of other goodies like posters and DVD’s, you name it)

And one last note: If you are in Santa Cruz, Nantucket or Seattle, see Future Weather at the film festivals in your awesome towns. (Support good stories!)

It’s FAB Wednesday here at roughdrAft y’all! We’ve got this great sale going on over at Fab.com today through Friday. It was really fun preparing for the sale because I used it as an opportunity to make a bunch of one-of-a-kind books. I hadn’t done that in so long, it was such a nice break from the other work. I especially love the little graffiti books. They are the size of the palm of your hands and each one of them is completely different. I made about 15 of them from all these scraps of paper I had been saving from previous jobs. They really are like tiny little paintings. I made a few more special ones here for the etsy site as well.

Lastly, a huge thank you to Siobhan Edmonds who shot all these amazing photos for the sale! Check her out at Dollface Studios.

I met some amazing new friends in muir woods a few weeks ago which is right over the Golden Gate Bridge in the Bay Area of California (if you are happening to take a visit). When I was really little I used to draw redwoods and sequoias incessantly. This was maybe a tad strange considering I was living in the rural south at the time, where ancient oaks, moss-laden cypress trees and magnolias were the familiar trees of my childhood landscape. I was obsessed with redwoods though, and somehow even decades later when I would go back to visit my grandmother’s house, these drawings somehow managed to always be present, fading and curling from the edges but still holding on by the same piece of old tape. It’s sort of like my memory of them — still there in the same place, after so many years.. Well, I plan to make some new art about these old guys soon, they definitely deserve it, especially after spending the afternoon with them on an unseasonably warm perfect sunny day.

It was nice to get to hang out with these old friends high above me. They do not disappoint by any means. Walking what seems miles below their incredible reach, sounds muffle, light dapples and everything just kind of glows green.

It’s been so long since I wrote a crush post. I have had so many it’s almost impossible to catch up. First off, let me just say I know it’s not fair to group these crushes. They aren’t getting the extreme love and attention they deserve, but it’s been too long, I have to catch up in some way.

Since it’s been spring here in Philadelphia all winter, I have been usually happy in months when normally I want to stick my head in the nearest oven. Hence, the crush meter has been in overdrive since January. Of course ya’ll know the old steadies are still there keeping time, Amos Lee, cheese, redwood trees, people who try really hard, etc.. But these new ones have been chart toppers since the turn of the calendar in 2012.

Following in no particular order:

Caroline Chocolate Drops. (above, image from their website) What? This album. This song. Wow. And seeing them live in Wilmington was just stunning. I mean the instruments out number the humans on the stage and the sound, the sound just takes your breathe away. If you haven’t seen them live make haste people, make haste.

Citizen Cope. really? I mean could he be any better? Yes, yes he could, because he gets better every time he makes an album.

Pesto. I have been putting it on anything that will stand still. Definite pesto love happening over here.

Yo-Yo Ma. That Goat Rodeo Sessions album is a beast. I love it, it’s so great to work to. Windows open, sun streaming in, Yo-Yo and crew on the strings. Good day.

Also on the list, Flannery O’Connor, Downton Abby, my grey jeans, Julia Morgan, Ryan Adams,

Austin Kleon, his prints and this book.

…
and finally the entire Bay area (especially Oakland and Berkeley) all the way down to Santa Cruz which is my biggest crush of all. I know it’s a whole town. I have a crush on a whole town and everything in it. As my friend MecaJen would say love life hard. Go out and get some crushes.

I love getting jobs where cool companies like this are helping other people reach their full potential. KHR solutions is based outside Philadelphia and is aimed at helping people, namely women, become leaders. Kim Huggins, President of this awesome company, is running a series of coaching workshops and wanted some custom journals for the participants. Well done KHR and thanks for getting some handmade books into the mix! Here are a few pics.

so this was the scrap paper that was always underneath the boards when I was spraypainting these. Beautiful isn’t it?
Accidental art! I think I will use it to make new books, or maybe even fabric? Have a good week y’all.

hey y’all. I’ve been making these photographs of book covers I made this winter for the spring line at anthropologie. This was an interesting group of work to make and then let go of because even though there were 1000 or so made, every cover was completely one of a kind. I found myself making lots of images and scans of these books because I think on some level I didn’t want to part with them. Each drawing made led me to another I wanted to persue. I kept feeling like I needed to record them all, take notes, in case I was missing something I would need later on. There were even a handful of books I physically kept this time around because I couldn’t let them go. I just made more to replace them. Each one was individual and I couldn’t have replicated it if I wanted to (thank goodness I don’t). These little guys just are what they are and that’s why I always come back to making them. They force my brain to make all these tiny little decisions that lead to millions of other ideas. They open up the way for ideas to come in.

It was nice to make so many of these drawings at once though, to see such a huge group of them together. I love the idea of 1000 different ways to see the same thing. The books are online now here and here.

hey y’all, happy new year. I love the beginnings of things. I also love the ends.. The middles, well not as much, lol
Just a quick, albeit, tardy happy new year to everyone from the studio here. Still keeping my head down working til mid-jan. After that, be back with lots of updates and stuff. 2012, here I come. My friend POB says it’s gonna be a good one, in fact she always says that every year. It’s one of my favorite traditions because every year I believe her and every year she is right. Here is what I had to say at the beginning of last year..reflection is good.

Hey there y’all, I hope the holidays have been good to you thus far. A new year is almost here and I do love the possibilities that always brings. Clean slates on which a million and one new ideas, choices, thoughts and decisions can be made and experimented with. It’s kind of thrilling yet exhausting even thinking about it.

I have been working on a new series of small books for spring. In my head I have been referring to them as 1000 little decisions. In my everyday life, I usually hate making decisions and of course like most humans, have to make 1000 or more a day. But when making things I am a natural. I move through them so fluidly, like someone who really knows what she is doing. My brain doesn’t have much to do with it I think, it’s every other part of me that just knows. It’s nice to be good at this in some tiny area of life. The choices are small, manageable, perfectly appropriate and don’t affect anyone or anything but that one small space. Before they go out into the world I will document a few favorites to share, because once they are gone, who knows where they will land…

Hi yall. The holidays are upon us and I am working feverishly to keep up. Here is a pretty one I just did for a lovely customer on etsy. She wanted a book for her sister Bruna. These are the covers I finished painting…And happy belated thanksgiving by the way. I’ve been so busy I haven’t had nearly enough time to talk about all my crushes, and let me tell you they are piling up..