I. Your 37 Seconds Start Now
"77 percent of Internet users report reading blog content, but most of them are just skimming. The average reader spends 37 seconds on a post." [--via (corporate marketing site)]BELOW: What I saw when I walked into the kitchen this morning.
They said they're ready to parade.
"It's tomorrow," I said. "The Fourth of July Mouse Parade to Celebrate Mice is on the Fourth. Scoot over so I can make coffee."
Okay, there's your 37 seconds.
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II. Linocut Printing
I’ve decided to try making my own Girlette Calendars for 2024, using a nontoxic method.
I was thinking screenprinting, but, wow, I didn't realize--there are a lot of chemicals in preparing the plate--the best emulsions etc. I found were "not very toxic".
Maybe there's a better way--like beeswax for batik--but the process looked too complicated and space-taking for beginner me.
Then I thought of the way GZ creates prints in a small space: she cuts linoleum blocks (like woodblocks). Her posts tagged 'Linocut Printing'. I know there are water-based inks. I will ask GZ what she recommends...
I've bought some of her beautiful little prints and love them! (Her Etsy shop is on break though.)
BELOW, in little dark-blue frame: Tree (sorry, I forgot its name—Update: GZ says it’s “Oak Tree with Crow”—thanks GZ), Linocut by GwynnethRixon
(Also Hana and Cricket, dolls from Japan)
Also--hey, a book title with the phrase I was complaining about. The Best We Could Do is a graphic memoir by Thi Bui about her family leaving war-torn Vietnam for the USA when she was a child.
I haven't read it yet--I just pulled it out so I will read it next.
(OF COURSE I know that sometimes we do do our best, or try our best--and sometimes we fail anyway. As Capt. Picard says, that is not weakness, that is life.)
I've finished the novel Pioneer Girl, which is related. The American-born daughter of Vietnamese immigrants researches her background and how it connects--or not--with the experience of Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Halfway through, I wasn't sure I'd recommend it (to Kirsten), but I do.
Anyway, I remember liking to cut and print linocuts in high school. I'm going to try it, to see if I could make twelve prints good enough for a calendar.
III. Camino, Week 2
Marz will have started her second week on Camino today!
(Hi, Marz! In case you see this at some albergue. . . I paid your deposit to Vermillion--I had to call--their computer had been down the day your application arrived, but no problem. Miss you! Love you! Walk good!)
BELOW: my sketches from Day 7, 2001.
On day 1, I was bandaging a blister by the Pass of Roland from the 700s . . . Here bink is bandaging a blister by a bunker from the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s.
