the view from here

Presidential Cross-Stitch

Remember that Obama portrait I stitched a few months ago? I liked stitching it so much that I decided to stitch portraits of all the US Presidents. It's a good way of combining my love of craft and passion for history.

I had to make some key decisions up front. First, I had to decide what color floss to use -- blue was too partisan, and this exercise is about celebrating the entirety of US presidential history. Black seemed too severe. I hit on dark brown as a good compromise -- it lent each portrait a warm, somewhat nostalgic feel.

Second, I stained the hoops -- they were originally just plain, unfinished wood. I thought the Golden Pecan stain would add a little more gravitas to the enterprise.

Third, I decided to base all my cross-stitch portraits on each president's official portrait -- you know, the one that hangs in federal offices during each president's tenure. Because of this decision, I actually had to re-do the Obama portrait I had stitched in 2008 because it was taken when he was a senator. I'll post that portrait later -- I have some finishing work to do on it.

My mom introduced me to cross-stitch. I don't remember when exactly -- I think she was just waiting for me to get old enough so I wouldn't stab myself with the scissors. She taught me and my sisters how to stitch properly. She didn't teach us out of some notion that this is what girls are supposed to do -- she taught us because it was a fun activity we could do together. During the summer my sisters and I would sit together, quietly working on executing birds or flowers, pixel by pixel, color by color. Once Ellen complained that her bird looked weird; Effie took a look at her work and consulted the chart and figured out that Ellen had skipped two rows of stitches around the bird's neck. "You're bird has no neck -- that's why it looks weird."

Stitching can turn into a pretty haphazard enterprise. My mom taught us how to do it methodically, planning what portion of the image to stitch next, saving thread and time. She always said the back should look as much like the front as possible. It's a good thing to remember in conducting one's daily affairs -- our outer actions should reflect our inner selves. It's called integrity. It's something to aspire to, at any rate.

I'll make these patterns available at my Etsy store where I've been selling Obama patterns. I think it's time to introduce some of the other presidents into the mix.

It's been quite a challenge trying to stitch likenesses of these presidents working with only one color, one x at a time. I have no problem resisting the impulse to make caricatures of any of them. In fact I've gone out of my way to show each man in the best possible light -- as far as reality will allow. If there's one thing I've learned from West Wing, it's to always respect the office even when you don't agree with the occupant. Thanks, President Bartlet.

Steel Ring Cozies

This past weekend I was walking down West Newton Street from the South End to the Prudential Center when these cozies caught me eye.

There were 7 steel rings sticking out of these concrete traffic barriers at the Southwest Corridor. The rings were covered with cozies -- for lack of a better word. It's absurd, impractical, and totally fun. The person who did this had fun going through their stash of yarn and designing each cozy. I like the fact that it is easy to miss if you are not paying attention to your surroundings. I feel like I just got a gold star for for having my wits about me. 

No, this isn't one of my hare-brained schemes. I wish it was, though. 

If you know who did this project -- let them know it brightened my day.

Shy Spring

I wish Spring wasn't so shy about coming to New England. The trees are ready to bud and some flowers are blooming. I guess I shouldn't compare the Northeast to other parts of the country like the Mid-Atlantic and the Northwest where Spring is in full swing come the middle of March.

In the meantime, I'll make do with what we have.

Though meagre, what we do have is lovely in its simplicity.

To call these beauties harbingers seems like an insult.

They are not harbingers of glories yet to come. They are their own glory. 

Many thanks to the Arnold Arboretum -- your efforts are not going unnoticed.

The Soviet Style

I was recently approached to design a poster for the Thayer Street Grand Opening here in the South End of Boston. The client wanted a Soviet-style poster with a fist -- because the event was on May Day (May 1). I also provided an alternative.

Here are the results of my labors:

and

I used my own hand to model the fist -- notice the slender wrist in an otherwise sturdy forearm. It was fun illustrating this poster. I looked at a bunch of Soviet Era posters to figure out how to deal with the type. I decided on something bold and big. I used outlines on the type to make them more defined. 

For the second poster, you can view the Soviet original here. I pulled a Shepard Fairey on this one. 

You know that communism and socialism have been totally de-fanged when you can use the visual language of those ideologies to illustrate a capitalist enterprise. I wonder how many people will pick up on the Soviet influences in these posters. It seems so long ago when Cold War was in full swing, people were getting hauled into HUAC, and someone could get blacklisted for having communist/socialist sympathies. Say what you will about the evils of communism, but those Soviets produced visually striking propaganda -- they were on the cutting edge of photography, typography, and design. There is something sensationally original about the graphics from that era. They really owned their look. It is hard to imagine the people who designed these fantastic posters did so in the midst of Stalin's Purges, famines, forced re-settlements, and mass executions. 

Anyway -- new stores and galleries will be opening on May 1. Only the graphics are communist -- the party is pure free market capitalism.

Happy Vernal Equinox!

Spring is officially here -- and I want to give it a hearty welcome.

I know I'm jumping the gun by displaying these particular photos but I am so looking forward to buds, blossoms, leaves and fruits. Actually these photos were taken last April at the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain. This is such an inspiring time of year for me as I love rendering plants and flowers.

These images are from my 2009 Floral Calendar. It is the third flower calendar I've done. This is the time of year when I get the images ready for the next year (2010). How could I not?

The Ga Llardo Code

This is a page from my notebook that I carry around in my purse. The numbers look so mysterious, don't they?

If I were the victim in a police procedural drama (God forbid), I hope the detectives who find these numbers on my person would not spend too much time on it because it would turn out to be a red herring. No, these numbers do not correspond to contacts and paymasters in an espionage ring. Nor are the numbers dates, locations and casualties of past and future disasters. These numbers will not lead them through a high-speed chase through the capitals of Europe and the Middle East in search of The Holy Grail. (So the cops can rule out an assassination backed by the Vatican.) Did I become a bookie and are each set of numbers a person who owes me money and I just got "mixed up with the wrong kind of people"? Bernie Madoff's Swiss/Cayman Island bank account numbers? The by-product of late onset schizophrenia?

The truth can be so prosaic. 

These numbers are International Standard Book Numbers -- ISBNs. Starting in February this year I embarked a de-accessioning program with my personal library. I wanted to find good homes for my books so I started listing them on Amazon.com. My problem was, and is, that I have a 10-year-old Mac at home and it takes several hours to upload 20 ISBNs. So I decided to write down the ISBNs of the books I wanted to sell and upload them on my computer in my studio where uploading 75 books can take as little as 15 minutes to do. 

I'm not getting rid of my entire library, just paring down. I want the books in my personal library to be there not just because of content but also as an artifact. I think I'm done buying paperbacks. I am hanging on to my art/photo books. As well as reference books. In the meantime, I have been patronizing the Boston Public Library which is a civic treasure. I look up what book I want on their database, request it online and then they send me an email letting me know that my book is waiting for pick-up at the Copley Branch.

(Boston Public Library Inner Courtyard. January of 2008)

In case you were wondering, the letters next to numbers are a personal code that I am happy to share with you:

ULN - Used Like New

VG- Very Good

G - Good

PY - Pages Yellowing (due to age)

WOC - (Some) Wear on Cover

These are shorthand notes to myself regarding the condition of each book. I try to give an accurate description of each book to avoid unpleasant surprises for the buyer later on. Managing expectations, after all, is key to good customer service.

Depression Era Chic

I want to introduce my latest venture: an online store called The Great Depression. It's another one of my hare-brained ideas. I don't mean to trivialize the severity of our collective economic predicament, but it's either this or have a total, massive freak-out. This is my version of lashing deck chairs together while the Titanic sinks - not optimal but it might just keep me from freezing and/or drowning until the rescue ship  arrives.

The beauty of this enterprise is it requires no capital up front from me. I just upload my images onto Printfection's site and then I chose what items I want to apply my designs. I get a small royalty with every purchase.  It think it's a great way to test out new products. My only complaint is that they don't have mugs -- I really wanted to do a mug. So I can sell pencils, too. 

I'm going to order a few items for myself so I can actually see the quality of the merchandise. If I'm satisfied, I'll set up a photo shoot and show the results here. If the products stink, I'll have to re-think this whole thing.

Please visit The Great Depression. You might just help avert the total destruction of the global financial system by putting money in the hands of people who actually make things. 

Brother, Can You Spare $3.00 (plus shipping)?

So the economy is tanking. The stock market has taken a precipitous plunge and the recent gains are so reminiscent of the fluctuations that marked the Great Depression, that it's hard feel optimistic about the future. But I'm no economist -- just a small fry  trying to eke out a living in these scary times.

Unlike the Thirties, though, I don't think there's a real threat to democracy. I mean, bad as things are, I would be hard pressed to find any serious player espousing communism as an alternative. Yes, our system is in need of major adjustments, if not outright resuscitation, but communism? Please. Even China is barely communist -- totalitarian, yes. But as afar as communism as Mao and Marx envisioned it -- that train has left the station. Oh, by the way have you seen the Louis Vuitton ads with Mikhail Gorbachev? Do you hear a high-pitched, whirring noise every time you look at this ad? Don't worry, you're not coming down with tinnitus -- it's just the sound of Vladimir Illyich Lenin spinning in his tomb.

Getting back to eking out a living -- creativity is my stock in trade. I tend to find inspiration everywhere -- nature, art, history, current events, etc. Feeling particularly down in the dumps about the economy, I designed "What would FDR do?" buttons. Now I've designed "What would FDR do?" postcards -- an old-timey way to commiserate with friends and family about our economic woes. They are available at my Etsy store for a mere $3.00 plus shipping (you get 3 postcards -- 2 to send out and one to keep on your bulletin board). In the next few days, I will post links for other "What would FDR do?" merchandise t-shirts, mugs (ostensibly from which we can all sell pencils), etc. I think this is what it really means to "never let a good crisis go to waste" -- I'm talking to you, Jonah Goldberg.

I'm infuriated by the recent talking heads who are presuming to rewrite history by claiming that FDR did not pull us out of the Great Depression, and in fact prolonged it. While I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, they are not entitled to their own facts. Some claim that WWII pulled us out of The Great Depression -- not FDR. And who exactly foresaw the threat of Nazi Germany and quietly started gearing up the industrial base to prepare for the war? Some say that the government did not produce permanent jobs to which I say -- exactly. That's the point. It produced millions of temporary jobs so people wouldn't starve while waiting for permanent jobs to come back. These temporary jobs kept body and soul together. Permanent jobs are the domain of the free market.

The answer to "What would FDR do?" is WHATEVER IT TAKES. Let's save ourselves by re-building our infrastructure so we can have energy efficient buildings and safe bridges. Let's modernize our schools so we can graduate more and more students qualified to meet the demands of a complex and technological future. Let's figure an equitable healthcare system so a medical catastrophe doesn't equal financial ruin. Let's do it together. And that's just for starters. 

A Love Letter to Billy Friedkin

These past two weekends I was treated to a series of movies by William Friedkin at the Harvard Film Archive. I had heard of his movies (like The Exorcist, The French Connection) but had not seen them. In fact I had no idea who William Friedkin was until two weeks ago.

I have been very late in coming to appreciate this master director, but I'm so happy to view his films for the first time as an adult. I don't think I would have appreciated the grittiness and the rawness of Sorcerer as a thirteen year-old (Sorcerer was released in 1977). At the time I was more interested in idealized depictions of reality as found in historical romances and not the almost obscene depictions of poverty and squalor. Sorcerer is in essence a road picture where four men in desperate circumstances sign up to deliver 6 cases of nitro glycerine via truck through the Central Americal jungle. There is very little dialogue, but every scene communicates volumes.

In The French Connection, which was shown in Blu-Ray -- Billy Friedkin explodes the police procedural genre. It is essentially about the cat-and-mouse interplay between the cops and the dope kingpins, and also about the thin line that separates the two. The car chase scene with the subway train holds up very well, even in comparison to modern standards. And to think that it was all done mechanically -- it boggles the mind.

 To Live and Die In L.A.  captures the 80s zeitgeist. During the 80s, LA was the cultural capital of the world and LA style was ubiquitous. The movie was drenched in LA style. To Live and Die in LA is at once psychologically probing and at the same time highly action oriented. I also loved seeing William Peterson in his youth -- what a bad-ass. My one bone to pick with the movie involves the choice of offset printing as the means by which the Willem Dafoe character counterfeits US currency. From what I've seen in other movies, the highest grade counterfeits are produced by engraving, which is how real US currency is printed. I'm just saying.

In addition to seeing these movies, Billy Friedkin was also present to talk about his movies and take a few questions from the audience. He is quite the raconteur. His behind-the-scenes stories are so rivetting. For instance he openly talks about his failure to get Steve McQueen to play the lead in Sorcerer because he would not accommodate Steve McQueen's demands/conditions. I think it's just as well that Roy Scheider got the part.

I intend to get Billy Friedkin's filmography and spend a few afternoons and evenings marvelling at hitherto (at least in my case) unexamined gems. Thank you, Billy Friedkin! I love your work!

South End Holiday Stroll

This year, I'm participating in the Holiday Stroll here in Boston's South End. It's a unique holiday event where you can stroll around our neighborhood block, do some holiday shopping, warm up with fantastic food and drink, and engage in unabashed merriment. Among the participants are retail stores that will be open a little later for your convenience, but also artists and designers who are opening their studios for this one night event. 

I want to thank the Flynn sisters of M. Flynn who have really spearheaded this effort. I did my little part in designing this year's postcard which I also turned into a poster. Click on the image above to see it in full size and check out the participants.

By the way, Santa will be making an appearance from 4 to 5 pm at the 46 Waltham Street location. He's available for pics so bring the tots if you have 'em.