MY GAL SUBU

I wanted to share the news and excitement about Subu.com and the wonderful blog Subu writes. ( http://suburose.wordpress.com/) Every Monday she posts a crafty giveaway that has been getting a lot of national attention and over a hundred (!) entrants to win. Last week a gorgeous necklace was featured; this week, an adorable wristlet. All the items are handmade by very talented crafters.

Not only does Subu write a terrific blog with posts about crafts, celebs (like Zac Effron!!) and wedding plans, but she also finds time to create some amazing handmade books which you can see here. My favorites are the earth-friendly recycled notebooks that can be customized with your very own colors and stamps. Inside the books are recycled papers with all different kinds of images on them. They are really cool! She recently completed an order for 250 of these great little books! Can you imagine! Here they are all ready to be shipped.

I also love her new folded travel notebooks with side pockets and room for a pencil. They are so new she hasn’t posted them on her Etsy site yet, but I bet she will soon. Actually, you can see some photos of them on her Flickr page.

She is a member of the Pittsburgh Craft Mafia and has been very involved in the Pittsburgh craft scene. Where does she get the energy, you might ask? I don’t know for sure, but maybe from her father. Definitely not me.

The photo above is of some of the buttons and doo-dads she keeps in a glass container to adorn those recycled books. Wouldn’t you know, the buttons are recycled, too. They are part of a collection she inherited from her grandmother (the original Subu) and great aunt. Some of them have also been rescued from old garments about to be thrown away.

Please check out Subu (aka Emily). She is a never-ending inspiration to me. Did I mention she is my daughter?

Content and photos copyright 2007 by Janet Towbin.

THE RED CABBAGE MUSE

It all started with a very practical and quotidian errand: I needed to go to the market and do some cooking. I had been away for almost a week and the cupboards were bare. It was raining, so I took my umbrella and walked the two blocks to Maxx’s on 20th Street. I bought as many veggies as I could carry home while balancing my umbrella to keep dry. In the two bags were an eggplant, some zucchini, a red pepper, an avocado, baby spinach, 3 onions, 2 tomatoes, mushrooms and a head of red cabbage. Oh, and some bananas and blueberries.

Putting it all away, I realized I already had a head of red cabbage in the fridge. At first I was annoyed at myself for my lapse of memory (another senior moment), but soon realized it was silly to be annoyed. I needed to be inventive and think of something to do with all that cabbage. My light-bulb moment occurred: I would make some red cabbage coleslaw. Yummy stuff…and I was in a cooking mood.

I sliced the cabbage in half to prepare it for shredding and was blown away by what I saw. No, I didn’t see an image of a religious figure…but I was filled with amazement and awe. Call me crazy, but I do see things in a rather quirky way. After all, this blog is called “Quirky Reflections” for a very good reason.

I could see the earth’s stratified layers, trees, wizards, animals, rivers, highways, dress ruffles, church domes, ocean waves…an incredible assortment of visual treasures! Like Proust, who experienced all of Combray in a teacup, I saw the world in a cabbage. Quite unlike Proust, however, whose memory led him to Combray in a teacup, my forgetfulness led me to experience a vast wonderland of images.

There was incredible beauty within those gorgeous deep pink/magenta leaves with glowing white centers! Layer upon layer of leaf edges formed a swirling, undulating pattern–a labyrinth of inspiration! I grabbed my camera and began photographing the beauty of that cabbage. I now want to make some drawings based on the forms within forms of those cabbage leaves.

You never know where or when inspiration will tap you on the shoulder. But here’s a secret: the next time you go into the kitchen, take your camera, journal or sketchbook with you. Your muse might be waiting for you!

The content of this blog, including all photographic images are copyright, 2007 by Janet Towbin

ARTIST V. PAINT: I WON!

Janet Towbin, from the Milano Series, mixed media on canvas, 2007, 24″ X 24″.

I think I finally hit my stride in the studio. Last night I completed a new canvas that I am very happy with. The square format works well and the colors turned out better than I had hoped. I think it’s a winner. Hopefully, this painting (and others) will travel to Santa Fe at the end of the month to be in a new gallery. It’s all in the works and I don’t want to jinx the negotiations by giving out too much information. I will post again when things are more certain.

It has been a struggle these past couple of weeks and it didn’t seem like I would win the battle of paint vs. artist. But I got over the hump of working in a small, cramped and horrendously messy space and found that ever-elusive sweet spot of creativity. Whew! Whenever I face a blank canvas, I am never certain I will be able to find my center of creativity again. It is like searching for a valuable gem put away for safekeeping, and then freaking out because you can’t find it right away. You know it’s there, you hope it’s there, but where is it??? Well, that was me, freaking out in my studio just days ago.

Now that I’ve found the “gem” again I am worried I will have to stash it away as classes begin in two weeks and I have tons to do to get ready for them. I need to plan my classes week by week, organize materials, books and projects, prepare syllabi, compile art supply lists and all the other organizational paperwork necessary to begin. I am also reading several books on feminism so I can properly discuss this topic in conjunction with a collage project I intend to assign my students. The project will be to read Herland (a book about a feminist Utopian society) written in 1915 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and to create a…. Ah, I don’t really want to say exactly what the project is, yet. I will eventually divulge the information, but not until my students hear about it first. But here’s a hint: it involves flags…

Bathed in War’s Perfume by Walt Whitman, 1900

BATHED in war’s perfume—delicate flag!
(Should the days needing armies, needing fleets, come again,)
O to hear you call the sailors and the soldiers! flag like a beautiful woman!
O to hear the tramp, tramp, of a million answering men! O the ships they arm with joy!
O to see you leap and beckon from the tall masts of ships!
O to see you peering down on the sailors on the decks!
Flag like the eyes of women.

Finding a poem that compares a flag to a woman is brilliant! I love Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. How serendipitous that I came upon it just now as I was writing this post.

There is a saying in medical schools and teaching hospitals about how to become proficient at a task: “See one, do one, teach one.” Teaching is truly the best way to learn anything. I just worry I might be learning more than my students!

Content and photos copyright 2007 by Janet Towbin.

INWARD TO ANOTHER LANDSCAPE

Well, I think I am getting back in the groove with my painting…even though I am not 100% satisfied with the work I made these last few days. I need to put in a lot more time and effort to really get my groove back. I will post a couple of my new attempts–so you can judge my progress for yourself. I feel more comfortable at this stage with my drawings and prints–the paintings just have to catch up to them.

I am reading a wonderful interview with poet Diane Wakoski in a book by Nancy Jo Hoy called The Power to Dream: Interviews with Women in the Creative Arts. Ms. Wakoski makes two wonderful comments I think are worth sharing:

“I love the color of things, I like the shape of things. I’m very involved with light and therefore the reflections and perspectives that you get from things.”

and this:

“I start with my eye, and my eye leads me inward to another landscape.”

I really like the way she describes her creative process–and how music and magic inform her poetry. She says that a physical life is worth little without a life of the imagination. One must combine the two to have a magical existence. I think that is such a beautiful way to look at life and creativity.

So here’s to magic…and our eyes leading us “inward to another landscape.”

Content and photos copyright 2007 by Janet Towbin.