Backyard Chickens: Its a good thing.

Almost a case
Originally uploaded by A.K. Miles

To all my chicken loving brethren, across the the world should you look west:


The Martha Stewart Show in NYC is taping a show on urban farming in March 2010 and are looking for urban chicken farmers (among others) to be in the audience.

If you're interested in being there, you have to request tickets and help them understand why you should be in the audience. The details are in Anne's email:

If you or someone you know have recently turned your backyard space into a chicken coop or turkey pen, we have a special show that's just for you! We're filling our studio audience with individuals who raise livestock in urban environments as we celebrate the backyard farming movement. If you're interested in attending this show, please be sure to tell us about yourself and your backyard farm, as well as why you'd like to be part of this special audience. Please feel free to spread the word and request tickets as soon as you can if you're interested!

The link to request tickets is www.marthastewart.com/get-tickets; scroll down to "calling all urban farmers."

Keeping chickens is quite a big deal these days, and thats cool: pets with benefits. We have a few girls ourselves: Diamond, Atilla the Hen, Crystal, and Chick Norris who we recently adopted having been found roaming the streets. We get 3-5 eggs a day, ranging in color between off-white, tan, a speckled one and a slate green. My kids love having them, like a petting zoo in our backyard. We bond over caring for the hens, they are messy and quite a lot of work. The coop was purchased, a modified rabbit hutch and the run/tractor was made by me. The majority of the wood was scavenged from an abandoned pile and cost nothing. A box of screws, a borrowed miter saw and some poultry netting. Also my husband putting on the side supports. Three of the chickens I raised from two weeks old and one free lost chicken to add an extra egg a day. Pretty good all around I'd say.

I first saw someone in the city keep a chicken about 7 years ago, my friend Eryn had a rooster. He lived in downtown Portland right on SW.5th Ave, it was a big red-orange rooster and he was gorgeous.

A full on self-indulgent post, Post.

I NEED these. For my inner Charlie One Horse Cowgirl Diva.
http://www.zappos.com/charlie-one-horse-by-lucchese-cowgirl-cherry-tooled?zlfid=111

I am going to start a change fund for myself. All the loose change that I save anyway will now be going towards Angela's boot fund. thank you, that is all.

The RAW Collaboration

Newly hung in my living room are the three remaining paintings of the RAW series. I can't believe that I haven't mentioned these before. I think they are easily some of the best work Dave or I have done. The photo to the left being my personal fav, I love Jacques-Yves Cousteau. It is part of a collection in San Diego, as is Audubon.

Anyhow the idea we had was pretty simple, and the inspiration straight forward: Morris Louis exhibit opened at MCASD (Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego) that Dave and I went to Downtown. When you see the stains or stain paintings or whatever in the books they look unimpressive but when you are looking at a painting like that, as big as the whole wall.... well that's is a bit different. Its like being directly in front of a rainbow. Minus the tiny Irish folk. You don't see the muddied or overly simplified color strokes. You see subtle colors blends created by the different washes of watered down acrylic.

Like Louis, we used unprimed canvas that was hand stretched and nailed by either Dave or I. When asked about the process people are generally surprised that Dave doesn't paint the face on and then I make splatters over the top. Instead we make it more of an exercise: keeping in mind who we are painting I mix my color stains and make an abstract painting that can stand on its own, then while that is drying Dave paints into the existing lines I created. He incorporates a lot and lets my painting insinuate the picture at times. For instance much of Darwin's beard was drawn in by my colorwork first, and much of Cousteau's hat and facial highlights. I don't tell Dave which way it goes so he looks at it in different positions for a while before deciding where to paint. I think that is my favorite part, the spontaneity. This had led to one painting that didn't feel right, and we each only get one go at it so we scrapped it.

For now it is all naturalists but we have a larger project in mind. I can't wait!

Top to Bottom: Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Charles Darwin and John James Audubon. I will have to get decent pictures of the other two, Desmond Morris and Jane Goodall.

Denyse Schmidt's String Theory

One of my favorite museums is the Museum of Contemporary Craft, here in Portland Oregon. I have to check out their website every on a fairly regular basis to see what is going on, seminars, podcasts etc. Today I checked out the podcast available on Denyse Schmidt, quilter extraordinaire.
It is interesting to hear her progression and process in both the individual quilt and how she got to where she is. I am very inspired personally by her move to the industrial warehouse and the business she has created there.

Denyse also makes fabrics for FreeSpirit and has some books out by Chronicle Books.
My favorite title is What a Bunch of Squares but her Quilts
book is full of tips, patterns and projects for the modern quilter.

Of course she is an American
Craft super star, I tend to glamorize those who make it to the pages of American Craft. My friend Michael Fields, exhibit designer of the San Diego Naural History Museum and maker with his son of Bagriculture Bags ( I absolutly love these bags and am a proud owner of one myself), was on the cover for one of his baskets. I have tried to find it with no luck, so if anyone has an older stash of these mags I'd love a scanned copy. My friend Cyan Bott was also splashed into a recent ( Dec./ Jan. 2008) article called Port to Port that looks at the two big craft meccas Portland Oregon and Portland Maine. I bask in their glory.



The podcast is here: http://www.museumofcontemporarycraft.org/media/2009_07_17_Denyse_Schmidt.mp3

Bringin' Spats Back

These are incredible, I encourage you to check out the details. The maker is Emma Greenwood, an Australian trained in leatherwork and custom made footwear.

Her blog is Aprons and Hammers and you can see some of the steps in making these gorgeous shoe/spat combo as well as other creations. She also has a pair of trainers called NYC Kicks that make me a bit tingly. The detail is what strikes you first, even the thread on the shoes themselves are multicolor mirroring the embroidery itself. The pure technique is beautiful, they are so well made. I love spats anyway but this pair is over the top cool.

Ink Calendar, Kinetic Fibers.

This calendar is incredible, a kinetic fiber sculpture that is not only cool but useful. Each day the dye permeates the the number path and each new month the dye is changed. The calendar uses capilary action to suck ink across the embossed numbers that are timed to penetrate the paper throughout the course of the day. Oh and by the way it was designed by Oscar Diaz as part of "Sueños de un Grifo" curated by Hector Serrano (http://www.hectorserrano.com) and Javier Estebanin Madrid, Spain. And now for my best Count impersonation: one, ah ah ah, two, ah ah ah, three...

"Dividing the Union is Illogical" or " The Art of Cross Promotion".

Being that this blog is a natural vehicle for self promotion, here I go. My husband Dave is an amazing painter, it seem only natural that I begin with him. Our best seller on our Etsy site by far is the ACEO, "Dividing the Union is Illogical". It is an oh so lovely meld of dear ol' Abe Lincoln and Spock. It's a hit with all the kids, and the resemblance is eerie.

The original painting was acrylics on hand stretched and tacked canvas. The aceo's were made by us, with the exception of the printing. That was left to more capable hands. The stamps on the back were designed by Dave as drawings that were scanned for sending. I loved the result, the stamps came out perfect and super detailed. We carefully cut the cards and added a backing for stability and the longevity of the print. It also lends a nice finish. Then they are stamped, signed and numbered.

Aceos are mini art pieces, so these would be mini prints. While we wanted a professional look, we also take great pride in the handmade aspect as well. We did this with our boxsets too. The overall cost of making what we want, how we wanted was very expensive. So some elements (printing, stamp making) were professionally made for quality purposes. Other things we felt we could do ourselves and not sacrifice quality.

I have my own collection of aceo's, small but growing. I like to frame them in cute, cheap black frames from Michael's and have them in groups. My latest two are by Paul Brogden and are men with magnificent moustaches. I adore them.