Roz Wound Up

Diane Wesman's Utah Travel Journal

Readers of my blog may recall my post on Diane Wesman's Utah Travel Journal on October 16. Diane is a landscape painter who has recently returned to working in oils (a medium she hadn't used since college). (My post also had a group shot of the small oils she made on this trip.) Well last week Diane posted about her travel journal on her blog, and I thought I would mention it here because it is always fun to read what an artist is thinking about her own work, her own methods, her own trip. So take a moment to check out Diane's blog post on her travel journal. She shows you many journal pages I didn't include in my post, including a great view of the nifty pocket she made at the back of the journal to hold brochures from the trip. You'll see how she incorporates images from some brochures right on her pages as well.

I always smile when I get to look through Diane's journals because she manages with minimal strokes to capture the essence of landscapes she passes through—zooming by in the car (with someone else driving of course). And always there is a remarkable sense of light in her sketches, which she translates into her final paintings. Take this opportunity to see how one landscape artist sees and thinks.

Profile Friday: Diane Wesman—A Switch to Oil Painting and a Peek in Her Travel Journal

Above: A plein air oil painting on gessoed board, somewhere in Utah, ©2009 Diane Wesman. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Yes, I profiled Diane Wesman in the fall of 2008. No, I’m not repeating myself, because Diane is not repeating herself. Diane is doing something exciting—breathtakingly exciting. She is branching off into a new medium: oil painting. (She did work in oils briefly when she was a young student, but oils were replaced by acrylics and then later by watercolors and pastels.)

Another Great Vacation Location

Above: American Bison in the parking lot at Old Faithful! Click on the image to view an enlargement, then imagine millions of these in a herd, filling the vista as far as your eyes can see, moving, a large living organism, deafening. That's what it used to be like, before the U.S. Army carried out a mass extermination plan as part of their attack on the Native American tribes living in the Plains (who used these herds for food, clothing, and shelter). All photos in this post are ©2009 Nan Cochrane.

I'm catching up with all my friends after their summer adventures. Well Nan brought back photos from Yellowstone. I'm smitten. I've got to go there. I mean, anytime you can get this close to this large an animal without a fence, that's something to aim for. (And don't worry, I've read Tim Cahill's essay where he talks about the French Tourist and the Bison.)

A Walking Tour of Japan

Above: Page spread from the souvenir journal kept by my acupuncturist on his recent walking tour in Japan. (All the images for today's post were taken in low light.) Click on the image to view an enlargement.

My acupuncturist is Japanese. Each year he returns to his homeland for study, family visits, and a long walking tour. This September Kaz spent four days walking 30 miles a day, visiting 88 Buddhist temples. He was walking on a small island (I'm sorry I didn't remember to have him write the name down.)

Gratitude: The Luck of Geography

In case you haven’t noticed, much of my blog is about gratitude. I’m grateful my work involves design, drawing, and making stuff. I’m grateful I can afford to buy artisan ice cream—and paper. I’m grateful I live in a beautiful state where being outside most of the year is sheer pleasure.

But today I’m really grateful because I just read part two of Ian Frazier's article on traveling across Siberia (New Yorker, Travels in Siberia part II, August 10 & 17, 2009 issue) and feel downright lucky. I thought mosquitoes in Minnesota were bad…

He writes

I have been in mosquito swarms in beaver meadows in northern Michigan, in boreal wetlands in Canada, and near Alaska's Yukon River. Western Siberia has more. On calm and sultry evenings as we busied ourselves around the camp, mosquitoes came at us as if shot from a fire hose. Usually  mosquitoes cluster in a clouds around their targets, but as Volodya made dinner I observed a thick and proximate cloud surrounding him head to toe, and then a whole other sort of candidate swarm around that inner swarm, and then more in all directions, minutely enlivening the sky.

With such astronomical numbers, Siberian mosquitoes have learned to diversify. There are the majority, of course, who just bit you anywhere. Those are your general-practitioner mosquitoes, or G.P.s. Then, you have your specialists—your eye, ear, nose, and throat mosquitoes. Eye mosquitoes fly directly at the eyeball and crash-land there. The reason for this tactic is a mystery. The ear mosquito goes into the ear canal and then slams itself deafeningly back and forth—part of a larger psyops strategy, maybe. Nose and throat mosquitoes wait for their moment, then surf into those passages as far as they can go on the indrawn breath of air. Even deep inside they keep flying as long as possible and emit a desperate buzzing, as if radioing for backup.…

Frazier goes on to describe how they had to wear net-draped hats, gloves, and tuck their pants into their socks and boots. Each morning some of the mosquito swarm would be overcome by the breakfast fire fumes and fall into their oatmeal. He came home with dead mosquitoes squashed between the pages of his journal.

We don’t have any of those mosquito problems here in Minnesota. Sure, we have West Nile, but the mosquitoes seem willing to leave you alone if you don’t live primarily on sugar, or if you wear a little repellent. Picking berries in the northwoods at the height of mosquito time is still a doable and not totally unpleasant task.

So as summer ends I’m also grateful for a long, cool, and mostly dry summer. The shady yard with mature trees, has put my vegetable garden days behind me so I don’t mind the cooler temperatures. The dryer weather meant fewer mosquitoes. The warm days did stop precipitously this week, but even that is great in the battle with mosquitoes.

If you get a chance, read Frazier’s two part article (part one is in the August 3, 2009 issue) to learn about the vast landscape of Siberia and some of its history, from an observant writer. Then count your blessings.

Profile Friday: A Peek into Justin Terlecki’s Travel Journals (and Prints)

 Left: A street scene in Mumbai, India, from Terlecki’s 2008 travel journal. Tradio marker. ©2008 Justin Terlecki. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Twin Cities artist Justin Terlecki keeps travel journals. Some of his travel drawings have inspired new prints. His newest print “Bandra, Mumbai” (which appears at the end of this post) and five other prints from the last three years will be displayed at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking Cooperative Exhibition. The opening is July 31, from 7 to 9 p.m. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Justin is one of the working artists on the sales staff at Wet Paint. He has helpful suggestions and information for artists shopping in the store, because he works with the materials sold there. While I knew that he made wonderful prints, I first learned that Justin kept travel journals when I happened to walk into Wet Paint one day shortly after he returned from a trip—I got to see the travel journal in person. Few things are as enjoyable as looking through someone’s travel journal, seeing the sights through the artist's editing eye.

A Great Honeymoon Journal and Some Tech Stuff

You have to go and look at Urban Sketchers (I know it's in my blog roll and maybe you already go and see it regularly, but if you don't, you have to go and see it right away) and check out the travel journal post by Lapin. You want to scroll down through the rows of page spreads to the end of the post and find the entire book in a flip-through variation using Flashbook at Issuu. (That's the techy-bit.) I've seen people do their web posted journals with Flashbook so that you can "turn the pages," but this links to a site where you can find lots of publications and post your own. So check that out.

But look through Lapin's honeymoon notebook because there is great fun stuff in there. (You can also get to the Honeymoon notebook by going to Lapin's blog, posted 14/07/09; maybe you should bookmark that site too!)

More on Pigeons

Above: My friend Tom took this photo of his wife Janet standing next to this giant pigeon statue in Pisa, Italy (©2009 Tom Nelson). Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Remember how the other day I was saying Paris, France had the best pigeons? Well I might have to rethink that. My friend Tom just showed me his trip photos of Italy. He and his wife made a quick stop in Pisa where, along with the Leaning Tower of, they saw this gem!

Minnesota is filled with larger than life ducks, prairie chickens, Paul Bunyons with Babes (as in his Blue Ox, not Barbie wannabies). I didn't know Italy went in for this sort of thing. My that's a handsome pigeon. Add Pisa, Italy to the list of destinations to visit before I die. (Tom assures me there is also an amply supply of live pigeons!)

Any interesting oversized wildlife near you?

All in this Tea: A Movie

Above: A journal sketch of mine made while watching the documentary listed in this post. I consider it practice if I ever get to visit China! How could I resist such a lovely rooster? Pentel Pocket Brush Pen (my old worn one), on Nideggen paper with gouache.

I want to go to China. I have been to Hong Kong and that’s a wonderful experience, but I want to go to China. I’ve been interviewing people who have gone there to teach English. If it weren’t for bird flu I’d probably have left already. OK, then there was my summer of biking, but you get the idea, if I were focused I’d be in China right now.