Wrap up of the week’s good classes and events

Posted on September 30, 2010 by ruthek

It's a dark, rainy, somewhat chilly morning and I don't have to be anywhere until 4 pm. I went back to bed for awhile, then read blogs and finally took a long, hot shower. Amazing what that does for all my aches. It doesn't seem to matter where the water hits me, usually on my back and the back of my neck, and all of the pains in my hip and legs go away. It's better than Tylenol, the only thing I'm supposed to take.

I've really had a busy week. On Saturday, Ivetta and I went to the SPF Expo–Small Press Festival. It was very nice to see all those publishers, but the best thing for me was the venue: AIR: Artist Image Resource. They have open studio time; I could go and make silk screen prints if I can work up enough ambition. Something to keep in mind, anyway.

We went to another festival: Little Italy Days in Bloomfield. As with most large city ethnic neighborhoods, identity is anchored more in nostalgia than in reality. It was fun, a little like a New York street fair.

Sunday night Robin served dinner in the sukkah–a Jewish holiday tradition. We had dinner in Dina's sukkah on Friday night. Miraculously it didn't rain either night–the usual sukkot event.

Monday I went to my World War I class. That one is good. We are not fighting each battle, but rather, examining possible causes. Excellent presentation. Tuesday was Japanese art history, then an open house at the Intel lab at Carnegie Mellon. I find I can understand about half of what they try to tell me.

Tuesday evening there was a lecture by Rev. Tom Johnson, Jr., who runs a school, the Neighborhood Academy, for children living in poverty. His goal, which he mostly has met, is to have 100% of his children graduate and go on to college. He explained his philosophy and his methods. I wish I had his talk written out. He's an amazing man.

Yesterday was infectuous diseases, another great class. I can't say I have any special interest in diseases, or in World War 1, but a good teacher can really capture me. That's the best part of these OLLI (Osher LIfelong Learning Institute) classes. Yesterday was also my next to last cardio rehab session. Friday is the end, but there are ways to continue and I may do it. First, I'll see if I can get religious about going to the health club.

In the evening I went on a walking tour of some of the art in East Liberty and in Mellon Park. I enjoyed the teacher and will be taking a class with her next month.

More food and more Gigapans

Posted on September 12, 2010 by ruthek

The African food class went to Kenya this week with a beautiful chef, Lydiah Wanyoike, who does catering and hopes to open her own restaurant here in Pittsburgh.

Lydiah made tilapia with rice, coconut beans and steamed cabbage for us.

We had a brief discussion about other foods from Kenya and admired Lydiah's dress, also from Kenya. I'll probably never cook any of this, but I enjoy watching the demonstrations and, of course, eating the food.

Friday afternoon, the Gigapan group, which I wrote about here, went up to the top of the U.S. Steel building, the tallest manmade structure in Pittsburgh, and shot some test Gigapans in preparation for the big one on September 23. I just went along for fun. It was awesome being 64 floors above the city. The roof is an acre in area with a thick, chest high railing all along the periphery. I never felt any fear or insecurity; just had to watch where I walked because of some things projecting from the surface and lots of cables running across the expanse. Here is the group rushing to the edge, then a few of my shots looking down.

The white structure is the David Lawrence Convention Center, my favorite place, because of the tunnel that runs underneath.

Two of the three rivers: the Allegheny flowing into the Ohio on the left.

Looking East, away from downtown with the Cathedral of Learning at Pitt rising above everything else.

PPG. I particularly like the way the other roofs are reflected. I'll have more about the Gigapan as I work on it.

Labor day labors

Posted on September 6, 2010 by ruthek

It's been a beautiful weekend, the best one all summer–sunshine, cool breezes. I walked about a mile on Saturday, then two and a half on Sunday. This morning I went back to my health club to work out. Rehab was closed, so you can tell how dedicated I am. Unfortunately, my afib kicked in; I was wiped out all afternoon, never got out to another beautiful day. I feel better this evening after taking a long nap.

I'm so inspired by the Japanese art class I printed out all the readings and I'm slogging my way through them. Most of it is way over my head. I vaguely remember something about Hegel from college, but never read any Foucault or the other two guys. The class is about space in Asian art. I understand a lot about space in art, but I"m not at all sure about the readings. I'm anxious to get to the class tomorrow, find out if anyone else understands this stuff.

After making several flag books and a few single page books I'm back to work on my garden book. I think I've got about 250 pages already, mostly photos. I'm thinking about another trip to Japan, probably April or May. I don't know how this will work with my afib or all the blood tests, but I've got a little time to work on it.

This week is Rosh Hashanah. I wish you all a happy, healthy, peaceful new year.

Two weeks, already

Posted on August 5, 2010 by ruthek

Spent most of yesterday with Renee. The chiropractor told her to do more walking, less sitting, so we went out for several walks during the day: grocery shopping, lunch out, finally ice cream. You can tell where our heads are at.

About 5:30 i left her and went down to the Center for Book Arts to hear artists talks about the current exhibition. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening; I guess you could call it talking shop. I was not Robin's mother or Charna's grandmother or a heart patient: just another artist. This is the kind of interaction I'm not getting in Pittsburgh. There probably are events like this. I just haven't found them.

Later in the evening Charna came from Chicago. Robin and Steve are driving in today. The party is tonight.

Report on book workshop

Posted on June 22, 2010 by ruthek

This was a workshop to learn techniques and make product. All of our materials were provided, mostly cut to size with only a few adjustments necessary. We began on Monday making four small books, using folds and tabs with no adhesive necessary. Signatures were stitched into the book creating different patterns on each spine. This technique really interested me; it’s much better for me than using glue. I plan to explore further. In the afternoon we made a soft cover Japanese stab bound book. This is the method I’ve been using to bind my books, although I never use soft covers. The interesting part, for me, was making book cloth for the covers. At the end of the day we had five books. I normally work very slowly. Just had to finish the butterfly stitching and stitching on two of the.small books. I went home completely exhausted and crawled into bed by 8:30.

Tuesday we began with a book with a butterfly binding. Again this is a stitch that becomes a decorative statement on the outside of the spine. Boards for the spine and covers were precut for us. We had our choice of bookcloth, endpapers, and linen thread for the stitching. Text block papers were provided precut. We folded and punched holes. In the afternoon we did origamizo, folding and dying papers. It’s an interesting process, but you never know exactly what will result. I can’t say I was happy with anything I made; maybe in time I’ll feel differently about it. I wasn’t so tired Tuesday night and was able to work on my unfinished books at home.

Wednesday was build-a-box day. Pam provided precut, thick boards for top, bottom and sides. We had to make size adjustments on the sides, giving us the opportunity to cut the thick board. Then we chose 10 different papers to cover the box, inside and out, top and bottom. We also received instructions and materials for making a half-size box. This is one of the projects I will work on when I return from Chicago.

Thursday we created a bradel book: an old-style, fully bound book with a curved spine. The text block was made from watercolor paper, eight sheets cut from three full size sheets then folded and punched for stitching. The book has that fancy tape on the edges of the spine, heavy board covers and beautiful end papers. It’s obviously too precious to use. This was another wipe-out day; I was very tired all day and also had afib all day, making me feel really awful. I’m still trying to figure out what sets off the afib; maybe tired had something to do with it. I doubled the meds in the evening and have been OK since. Again, I don’t really know if this is a fix or maybe a placebo effect.

Friday we began with some single page, folded books. You can download and print some artist designed papers here. Using the same fold we made pages for a journal in a box. The box was made from a recycled cereal box. I have all the folded papers but didn’t finish cutting and gluing; another project for when I return. We finished the day folding a blizzard book and a crown book. I didn’t do a good job folding so I have to try again. Both books really interest me.

I was really sorry when the week ended. I loved the workshop and would happily do it again. I was hoping for a little more emphasis on technique; my craftsmanship leaves much to be desired. But I think there are no secrets; I just have to be more careful.

Tunnel books

Posted on May 30, 2010 by ruthek

I finally made a tunnel book from my pictures of the tunnel under the convention center. This is the second incarnation; the first was terrible.

Here it is from the top:

It's OK, but it doesn't convey the feeling of the tunnel, which is long, cool, dark, and a little eerie. I'll try again with more space between each of the pictures; maybe that will work better.

Here is the tunnel book I made in the workshop.

We were given the handmade paste papers, so we worked with what we had. In two weeks I am taking a week long book making workshop with Pam Sussman. I don't think it will be this kind of book, but I'm hoping to sharpen my skills.

“What does your husband think about it?”

Posted on May 7, 2010 by ruthek

That brought me to a grinding halt, and I poked at it all evening the way you keep running your tongue over a newly broken tooth. There were so many assumptions behind the question. Aside from the fact that I don't have a husband, and I had already said I had no one to discuss it with, the tacit assumptions behind it: that my husband would know what to do, would make more sense than I did; I could go on and on. It's not the problem I started with, but it made my feminist heart beat madly. And it was a woman who asked the question.

It all began with one of my students. Once, he told me he came here to be free. Two weeks ago he said we didn't have freedom here. I thought this was connected with his work situation and just said yes, having money gives you more freedom. He seems to have had a lot of problems lately, most of them connected with money. Last week we filled out forms for his daughters' school, and he expressed concern about them possibly not being ready to move to the next grade.

This week he wanted to fill out a form for a passport. He already had completed forms (someone else did them) for his wife and kids. Again we talked about money. I asked why he needed passports, and explained that you only need them if you want to leave the country. He gave me several different reasons for needing a passport, none of which really made sense to me. I helped him fill out the form.

This is when I decided I had to speak to someone and really didn't know where to turn. (Because I have no husband?) Was I being silly? overly suspicious? had I bought into the paranoia that seems to be gripping our country?

I have been working with him under a very loose arrangement with one of the groups that help refugees here in Pittsburgh. They introduced me and left; giving me no guidance. I never hear from them unless I initiate the conversation, which I did, and got that wonderful question to mull over and no practical answers.

Where do I go from here?

I promised pictures

Posted on May 4, 2010 by ruthek

I've taken more than 300 pictures with my new camera, the Canon S90. Don't worry, you'll never have to look at all 300. Here are a few that will also give you some clues about what I've been doing the last two weeks (good things, that is).

These are just to show how beautiful Pittsburgh is in spring. The flowering trees are just amazing.

I think this is azalea, but I'm not good about plant names; just good at appreciating.

This one was in the orchid room at the Phipps. The long, snaky thing just enchants me. Maybe some day I'll make a pattern from it.

Taken through glass inside the convention center. I was very pleased with the result.

I still don't know how to use all the features of the camera, but it does very well for itself on AUTO.

This one I shot on manual (you can tell I don't understand it. Shot another on aperture preferred and got this result with both sky and cars as I wanted them. Don't ask me what I did.

Above and below were shot at the old Pittsburgh Brewery where there was a show called Art All Night.

Went to the National Aviary for Breakfast with Birds sponsored by the fitness part of my Medicare Advantage plan. They want us to love them. Above was color-corrected in Photoshop; too blue originally.

If I had a nest like this, I might just live in a tree. It's very small, about the size of the photo you are looking at.

The next two are from my walk in Frick Park. It was a hard winter; you can see where the tree fell; but spring is now well entrenched.

This is a print out of the Gigapan I spent so much time color correcting. I'm told this is only 3% of it's size: at 100% it would be 44 feet high.

Women’s Health and the Environment

Posted on April 22, 2010 by ruthek

Pittsburgh is fortunate to have retained the presence of many of the movers and shakers who, a century ago, made the city one of the wealthiest in the country. One of the most interesting, and influential, is Teresa Heinz (Kerry) who brought us the Women's Health and the Environment conference I was privileged to attend. Reports on National Public Radio talked about the presence of Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the EPA, Regina Benjamin, the U. S. Surgeon General and, of course, Teresa Heinz's talk about her personal battle with breast cancer. All of the them were interesting: Jackson, because it is the first time I have heard anyone from the EPA sound like they wanted to protect us or the environment; Heinz and Benjamin because both spoke very personally about their own experiences. The website promises to show videos of the presentations; I hope they will include all of Teresa Heinz's talk.

But the conference was much more than these three women. We spent the day at the convention center. While I have trouble sitting for long stretches, I found all of the presentations touched me, personally. I had no wish to leave. I wish you could have been with me; I think this was a very important event. When we arrived at the convention center, instead of the usual shopping bag and tables of literature, we were given flash drives filled with pdfs, to take home with us: information about the presenting organizations and speakers.

The focus of the conference was the number of manmade, probably toxic, chemicals we now have in our bodies. Even newborns have been found with 200 plus chemicals passed from the mother through the placenta. We don't know the effect of these chemicals but strongly suspect they are the cause of many cancers, asthma, autism, ADHD/ADD, obesity, diabetes, on and on. Many of the worst of these chemicals are found in the air and in ordinary things we have in our homes: children's toys like rubber ducks, canned food, packaged food, toothpaste, deodorants, receipts (those things you get when you use your charge card; chemicals enter the body through the skin), meat, chicken, cosmetics, personal care products like shampoo and body wash; the list goes on and on. Start here for more info; I'll put up a page of resources and links very soon.

Playing catchup

Posted on April 11, 2010 by ruthek

I apologize for the hiatus and promise I'll try to do better. Mostly it was laziness; to a small extent it was income tax. I got so little money last year I get a refund from the feds and only owe the state a very small amount. I use an online service called TaxSlayer. It's very easy and I was finished within a couple of hours. It would be even easier if I was more organized. I was waiting for one form that never came and the other envelopes got shuffled into a pile with lots of other stuff. By the time I found out I didn't need the missing form, the required ones were out of sight and out of mind. Then, of course, I had to find last year's tax, also out of sight and out of mind. It's a great relief to have it all out of the way.

So I'll tell you what I didn't write about: first, the Seders in New Jersey and New York. We were with friends in NJ. The hostess is from Israel, her family originally coming from Iraq. It was a little different from our usual ritual and very interesting. Our kids were still in Chicago–no holiday from college, but the two sons of the host family were there, along with one girl friend. This is very much a family holiday–these friends are just like family. Our New York Seder was with Steve's family on Long Island, again a little different and very nice.

I had my yearly mammogram last week, no results yet. I wasn't going to do it this year, based on someone's (a government health service) recommendation of every two years for women over 75. After Alice's experience, I decided to go ahead with the test. I should have a result tomorrow or Tuesday.

The snow is finally gone, the weather has been mostly wonderful, although not while I was in NYC. There I got wet and froze–didn't have proper clothing with me.

I bought the camera but have had it only two days. I promise a report in about two more days.

Here is the tulip tree welcoming spring.

One last bit of snow. This picture was taken on March 25 after many days of 70 and 80 degrees. The snowpile was created when they shoveled the snow off of the top of the building (parking garage at CMU). Originally it was almost as tall as the building.

It's finally gone.

100 Books Before I Die

Ruthe Karlin

Category Archives: Pittsburgh