Rubber Duckies, an ADD Ramble

Today we saw the cutest little dog and his person racing across the street. Scott and I gave each other one of those looks that says a million things, one of those looks that couples are famous for. A visual shorthand, a smile, and Scott said, “The dog is winning.”

I started to babble, as I do when I have had caffeine and there are tigers* around me and my ADD is acting up. I wondered out loud what kind of dog those are, are those Yorkies, or is that something else? Did you see the flashing and floating rubber duckies on the counter of Bartell’s? I wonder exactly what’s underneath those duck suits, and do they only flash in the bathtub? Perverts. There was water bamboo there, too, a planty impulse buy. And how does water bamboo survive in just water, when I’m trying to start a plant clipping in water and if I leave it in there too long, the poor plant just gets all freaked out and dies? Can you only put water bamboo in water, or are there other plants that it’ll work with too? I like not having to buy potting soil, I never remember and even when I do, I don’t feel like carrying it home on the bus. Could you carry potting soil on the bus for me, if I bought it?

At this point, Scott has probably already tuned out, in fact I can guarantee that if he reads this, he’ll only remember half of what I said. We’re a good team that way. In fact, I can’t remember half of what I said either! Did I actually say that out loud, or did I only think it?

There are so many things I want to know. It can be distracting sometimes, even though I’ve mostly learned to work around my ADD. I was never even officially diagnosed with ADD when I was a kid. Some classes that I got great grades in are just a blur to me, as I tuned out and let other thoughts stumble through my brain. Someone I managed to detach and yet absorb just enough to get my A. If teachers noticed at all, they worried that I daydreamed too much, or that I had a problem with my hearing, or that I was just having problems at home. Which might have all been true as well, but it’s really good for me to have realized that I’m not just being stupid, or lacking the ability to concentrate, or listen. I learned hot to purposefully focus, which I think is why they never caught my ADD when I was young.

My mom still gets really annoyed with me when I bring up ADD to her. I feel like she goes from thinking that I’ve just hit on another pop psychology disorder that I can blame her for, to just blowing me off totally. She shouldn’t be surprised, though, that I’ve discovered another pop psychology disorder to blame her for. It’s one of the things my family does best—we blame each other for things. It’s right up there with more than a touch of hypochondria, as we compare brain tumors and toe cancer and bubonic plague symptoms. We’re all pretty paranoid, it’s true.

By the way, Scott has ADD too. So when I was talking to him about water bamboo, he was using my own classroom tactics on me and tuning me out. We do have to sometimes really focus on focusing, but at the same time we can really understand when focusing is impossible. (Unless, of course, we don’t understand, but that’s another story…)

One of the reasons that I think that Scott’s cool is that maybe in a week or a month or in ten minutes, he’ll come back to me with some more of our couple shorthand. I imagine some time in the future, we’ll be somewhere and he’ll gesture to a rubber duckie with his head, in that almost imperceptible way he has of pointing something out, and mutter, “look: perverts.”




Rubber Duckie image "borrowed" from rubberducks.org.uk.

The Salmon (The Struggle) Totem Art Print by Kerrie CarbaryI

I was teasing you a while back about a new collage I was working on, The Salmon. Well, would you like to see?

There are actually two salmon collages. This one is The Salmon (The Struggle). I'll save the other one for later. :)



The Salmon is big for me, sizewise. I've been working small lately, but have been reminded that I love to work larger as well. So, there's no medium right now! Only miniature and XL. XL is 22 x 30 inches for me, I know that's tiny for some artists, but I'm still recovering from having a tiny space to create tiny art in.

For me, The Salmon relates to the tarot card, The Chariot. The Salmon will be one of the cards in The Totem Tarot. This is a good card for my life right now. I'm in the middle of a ton of transitions and changes and decisions. The Salmon is a fighter, creative, a creature of the cycle. What goes around comes around. The Salmon is also a symbol of creation and birth, death and rebirth. The Salmon finds home upstream to spawn, then dies giving life so the cycle may continue.

While you're (surely!) anxiously awaiting The Totem Tarot, I'm offering prints of The Salmon: Etsy :: kerrie :: The Salmon (The Struggle) Totem Art Print by Kerrie Carbary

First Thursday

As an artist, First Thursday is the best party around. Mainly in Pioneer Square, but also in many, many other locations, galleries and studios stay open late to bring some art to Thursday nights. First Thursday has been part of my life since I was in college, but I've taken long breaks from going out on First Thursday to view art.

But now I have a studio in Pioneer Square, so on Thursday, I had my studio open. For the first time since we moved in, I felt pretty good about the art I was showing. I had a few new things, some older pieces that I'd revised and reframed, and copies of some of my editions that I hadn't offered at First Thursday before, like The Grandma Deck.

I always say that artists are artists because we didn't get enough show and tell time in kindergarten, and for sure First Thursday makes me feel all exposed and show-and-telly. There were some good comments, actually quite a few attendees I felt really "got it," and there were a couple ambiguous comments (um, "nice birds?"). I did make a little bit of $ too, which was VERY helpful given our current state of economics here at the Taylor-Carbary household.

The First Thursday star of the Tashiro-Kaplan Building had to be our neighbor David Weed. He was showing his MFA thesis in his studio. His showing was amazing. He filled the space with his installation, "18 Signs," which were all pieces made up of light bulbs mounted on wood. They flashed at different rates, which made for a very effective emotional and physical response. The entire studio felt warm from the signs, actually! The glow could be seen coming out his door from down the hall. The titles made the pieces, though. One was titled, Made in USA, and was a checkmark created out of red, white, and blue bulbs. Very cool. My favorite piece was the series about terror alert levels. I tried to find some images to link to online, but haven't been able to find any. I'll keep looking and update if I find an article or review of David's show.

I'm a treehugger, it's true. I'll recycle to a fault (my husband screams, can't we PLEASE get rid of some of these plastic bags??!). So, I get a lot of joy out of reclaiming materials to use in my art.

Slabs of wood are one of those found treasures.

I love working on wood. It doesn't buckle, it takes tons of abuse, and it feels nice and hefty.

Waiting for My Imaginary Friend is a mixed media collage on wood. It's just under 12 x 12 inches. The piece of wood isn't exactly square. Its siamese twins became a bookshelf, I think... I got this wood from the scrap bin at Ballard Bookcase. I started with gesso, although I've also worked on wood as is, bare and ready for collage, paint, pencil and ink. This piece needed some gesso though, mostly because I like the way that the way I paint looks over gesso. I've also done carving on wood, pounded in textures and objects, sanded, scraped, and drilled. Really, it does take most any kind of treatment.

But, then, what to you do with it once it's finished? Originally I thought that my collages on wood could stand on end on a table , but gravity took over. (And, sorry for the bad poetry there.) So I've pounded a couple of nails in the back, strung wire or ribbon or twine across, and now they can hang on the wall.

Why am I posting this? To remind myself and maybe you that you don't need amazing equipment or frames or hanging materials to create a display for your art. Sometimes just a nail or two will do.

By the way, I am planning some art out of those plastic bags.

a little bit more about wolves

One month ago, gray wolves were delisted as an endangered species, leaving them open to hunting. And the hunting started.

Wolves that didn't happen to have calendars with them wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time and will continue to do so. Now, I don't want to meet a wolf in a dark alley late at night, and we all know that wolves have an irrational rage toward girls in red hoodies, but REALLY. There's somewhere around 1500 gray wolves. We have them a bit outnumbered. Yes, they kill elk and sometimes pester small wild animals and pet dogs, but so do the kids that hangs out in the part across the street from me. (Well, maybe they're not so into the elk...)

Oh, wait, elk are cool too, right? Well, sure. So are the other hoofed animals (ungulates is the vocabulary word of the day) that this law is protecting from those evil wolves. Guess who especially loves ungulates? Hunters. They're fun to hunt.

So, hunters win here. They get more elk and deer and other wild things to kill, and plus they get to kill wolves too. (By the way, I'm not necessarily against hunting, but again, they have the wolves a little outnumbered. And out weaponed.)

I've been thinking about wolves for another reason. I wanted to show you another card for the Totem Tarot: The Wolf.



As a totem, the wolf is a pack creature, reminding us to surround ourselves with likeminded souls. However, the wolf has a set role in the pack, so as a totem the wolf might be warning us not to break away from our role, or she might be telling us that our defined roles might be holding us down. Wolves are big communicators, using attitude, touch and sound to "talk" to other members of their packs. They are extremely loyal to the pack as well. If you think the wolf is your totem, you might be outspoken and good at communicating, but you might also consider whether your pack i sthe right one for you.

If you want to read more about the dangers that await wild wolves, check out this web site. And you can find art prints of The Wolf at my etsy site. I'll be donating a portion of wolf print sales to Earthjustice, or a better wolf rights group if I can find one.

what's faux postage, you ask??

After my post yesterday, I was asked what the heck I was talking about, when I mentioned faux postage. Sorry, sometimes I feel a little like I'm having a conversation totally with myself, and of course I understand what I mean! Usually, anyway.

If you haven't heard of faux postage before, it's a fun an addictive art form. Also called artistamps, these are miniature artworks in the form of postage. They're not intended to be used in place of postage, although if you do use them on an envelope and they get canceled, that can be extracool. Artists create them to use in mail art, to trade, to give away, and to sell. I was turned onto the fun of artistamps by my dear friend arto posto, who I miss greatly. I still treasure my collection of her artwork.

My sisters even were inspired to create their own faux postage, and I remember that arto traded with them in the mail. She was such a sweetie, sending them age-appropriate art in trade for their first attempts at mail art. Hey, my sisters' first attempts were awesome, of course! But arto never had children, and I think they befuddled her a bit. Hmm. I think the sisters were maybe 9 and 11 or so...? I do have one of baby sister's sheets, still, but middle sister took hers back a few years ago.

I have other sheets that I'm finding or working on finding, and I'll get them online when I track them down. Some, though, in the spirit of mail art, were sent out into the world never to be documented by me. Yes, some of that art is ephemeral in my mind and there is no record of it; it may only be remembered by the person it was sent to.

I've become more sentimental in my old age, and keep better records now. Or I try.

birds from the past

Look what I found! My sheet of Birds of Ballard faux postage!



Obsessed as I am with collectible tradable art, I made 'em into a trading card. I'm excited because I found my stash of faux postage/artistamps, so look for more here soon.