2021

Happy late December! I’m going to start this series of posts by being extremely cruel and vicious. Fair warning, I rant about Covid and the economy. We are all still here (except for those of us who aren’t)* because the world can’t manage a mutating virus. In the US, Australia, Canada, and the UK, specifically,…

Read More Pandemic Year 2: In Review, Pt 1

PSA: Gotta blog? Use images in it? Be very careful about the images you use. Readers may discover some images on this blog might be disabled going back to 2012. The reason is one ‘professional litigant’ who apparently sniffs around blogs & websites for allegedly-stolen images. Claiming infringement even in fair-use cases, they use SLAPP…

Read More Some legal housekeeping

What defines ‘good weaving’? In this limited context, it’s basically size of thread, number of colors, and complexity of design. I buy textiles primarily to use in jewelry, book art pieces, costumes, or wall hangings. I’m finding more and more textiles that *are too good to cut up*. Shame on you, collectors. I should not…

Read More Four Woven Ribbons

‘Look but don’t touch’ was my mom’s commandment whenever we drove to the next biggest town to visit the mall. That mall, circa 1973-1978, had a department store and lunchroom on one end, a record store and Waldenbooks at the other, and in between stretched a dim, cobblestone-paved concourse lined with various odd shops. A…

Read More Art Glass in an Oilfield Town

This. Today. Right now. I have lost patience, understanding, and tolerance for people who won’t wear protective masks in public. Who *could* get a Covid vaccine, but choose not to for insanely stupid reasons. Immune system compromised? That’s a good reason. I want to protect you. But if your excuse is some fake medical news…

Read More The End Of My Patience

Tl;dr…Why ‘Outsider Artists’ *should* enter prestigious contests, and why many marginalized artists either give up or never even consider these opportunities. Every year I apply for every reputable art-related grant or show opportunity I might remotely qualify to enter. I usually don’t pay, unless the entry fees are modest (under $35 per entry). I do…

Read More Genres, Grants, and Outsider Artists

A record forty-seven days after I started the physical work on it, ‘Rivers Under The Sahara’ is complete. I’ve been designing this book since before I ever considered making weird book art sculptures out of fabric and beads. Since 1991-92, when I first heard Rush’s haunting anthem ‘Dreamline’ on their Roll The Bones album. The…

Read More Book Art: Rivers Under the Sahara

If you read this blog you might have seen my fabric panels for Ann Morton’s vast and amazing ‘Violet Protest Project’, currently on display at the Phoenix Art Museum. While building the first set of 8×8″ panels last year I was struck by how well the idea would work in book art form: red and…

Read More Violet Nation Book Art

…And hi, Filigree’s Rule! I’d hoped to leave all my Filigree’s Rule writing posts up on this blog, but a stipulation of Amazon means I have to privately publish them now. Effectively hiding them from internet search. I’ve taken those posts, condensed some, expanded others, and updated everything I could into a more-easily read book…

Read More Bye, Filigree’s Rule…

I’m spiffing up some older stories…foundational myths, if you will…from my Lonhra Sequence space-fantasy universe. One of the fun/infuriating things about hobby-crafting a universe for nearly 40 years, are all the small stories that make up those secondary worlds and their histories. Side-characters and historical footnotes who would very much like to tell *their side*…

Read More More Lonhra Sequence stories

Of cancer. At age 70. I’m going to more remember this day for two other images: the implosion of a defunct Trump casino in Atlantic City, and the utter failure of the deregulated Texas power grid. But all three news items are intricately linked into a larger problem: America’s self delusions smacking face first into…

Read More Rush Limbaugh is dead

Warning: linked content definitely Not Safe For Work, and includes graphic homosexual sex. On this momentous day, with the future of American democracy battered but still intact, I honestly can’t think of a better way to annoy (some) rightwing hypocrites today, than self-publishing a piece of *extremely gaaaayyy* erotic romance. After six months or so,…

Read More MAESTRO Reboot (Adult Content)