The Blog at Randall Cook Studios

Hello everyone, life has been somewhat busy for me lately. A few folks have contacted me about the lack of blogging on my part, so here goes a blog to update you on the last month and a half of my life.

Vacation

I took a very nice and relaxing vacation to Florida and then took a cruise. Friends from LA flew down and we all visited friends in Fort Lauderdale. The house we stayed in was very lovely and our hosts were superb. The 6 of us had a great time, just like we did when we cruised around the Baltic Sea last year.

Drawing Class

Here is the picture of my last drawing – of hands and feet, done in very early February. Because the start date for my new job was moved earlier, I was unable to take my final 2 classes, but the instructor has allowed me to put them on hold. I hope to make them up at some point (before a year is up).

Job

The new job is going very well. The project is a very exciting project and the project team has some great people on it. I am learning lots about library data and more about the reasons that this new software project is needed. It is a very complex situation. In fact, there are all sorts of initiatives brewing in the library world.

Pillows

These pillows are the last creative thing I have done, and again this was in early February, before I started the new job. Due to a snow and ice storm, my plans for the day were cancelled and I had a whole day at home. I probably should have worked on a drawing or a quilt or cleaning or any of a hundred other tasks, but I felt drawn to make these pillows via a little game I made up. My rules were as follows. Start with 2 squares of matching linen, each 18” square. Use one as the top and make only vertical slices (at least only have vertical slices that went from edge to edge). Do not draw out or otherwise plan the piecing, but just cut. These are what I came up with. It turned out to be a bigger project than I had thought and it took me most of the day to make the 5 tops. It took me half the following day to insert the invisible zippers and complete the pillows. And now the pillows’ new home seems to be on the floor beside the couch as there are far too many of them if you actually want to use the couch. Basically it was a bad idea all the way around and making a batch of cookies would have been more rewarding.

    

Houston 2008

I am very excited that I have been accepted to teach 3 “Stretching for Quilters” classes at the IQA fall Houston show in late October. The class will be a 1 hour class and will be timed in such a way that people can still take my class even if they are enrolled in half or full day quilting classes. I will primarily be focusing on stretches and breathing to make sewing and quilting time more enjoyable and less fatiguing to the body.

Quilting…argh!!!

I absolutely MUST find a way to get something made in time to submit to Houston this year. I have no idea if it would get accepted or not, but I have to find a way to get something made to submit….and I only have about 2 and a half months to do it in. My friend Hollis has told me that I had good success in 2007 and that I can’t just “disappear” because I am working full time. It will be hard, as I teach 7 exercise classes a week and am working full time, but I will try to find a way.Stay well and stay in touch and I will try to post again soon.

I have been enjoying my figure drawing classes and think that it will make my figurative quilt work much better.   This week’s class was on arms and legs.  Here is my best drawing of the week.  I think it is pretty good, but it was work to get even this much.  I wish I had more innate talent.

A quote attributed to Michelangelo is “If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”  I think it is worth remembering this quote the next time you see a wonderful quilt or other piece of art.  

I have not done any quilting in a while.  I have however painted another small piece.  I don’t like to show pictures of just the painted image as the quilting gives so much more to the piece.

On a personal note, the UR has asked if I would be able to start earlier than March 3.   I will now be starting my new job on February 11 but will be taking my vacation at the end of February as planned.   The reason for starting sooner is that the UR was able to hire enough of the development team to enable the project to move along sooner.

I recently started an 8 week figure drawing/painting class.  The first two weeks were spent on gesture drawing and human formulaic proportions.    I hate gesture drawing, partly because I suck at it.  Actually, I pretty much suck at drawing too so I am not sure why I am tormenting myself.    My instructor tells me I need to draw a lot.   Argh!  Who has the time?   I don’t seem to be able to ever get a drawing line in the right place.  I am always moving “this” or lowering “that”.  My kneaded eraser is my new best friend.

We just completed week 3 – The Torso.  Here are my homework assignments.  I had to do a torso from the front, side and back.   Have a look if you are interested in what I have done.  These are not final drawings and are done on newsprint but I am pretty happy with my attempts.

I have been cooking this week, but not really healthy meals.  Things like homemade macaroni and cheese, roasted Brussels sprouts with apple wood smoked bacon, cracked wheat, black eyed peas and tomato salad with pomegranate dressing, roasted chicken, beef with cabbage.   A new lunch sandwich I made up is to take Panini bread and spread it with a good layer of herbed chevre, a whole roasted red pepper, red onion and leftover roasted chicken.   Mmmmmm!  Do I have an eating disorder?   Look at what I have made this week and it is only Wednesday.

I have washed out my large dye painted figure piece and have just started drawing on another smaller figure piece.   The large piece is acceptable but I am not happy with it (but I seldom am happy with anything that I do).  I don’t think I will be posting anything from it for quite some time, at least until I get a section of it quilted.    I plan to paint the smaller figure piece in the next week or so.

With the new year came a new gym schedule.   I added two new classes to my teaching schedule and I now teach 9 classes a week.  I added two evening yoga pilates combo classes.   All the prior mind-body classes in this timeslot have failed due to poor attendance but so far I am very happy.  Attendance has been averaging around 25.    It is hard to drive to the gym twice in the same day, at opposite ends of the day, but the new classes and students are great and I feel awesome when I leave there.

I hope all is well with you.

I have been offered and have accepted a position at the University of Rochester that will start at the beginning of March 2008.  The position is for an 18 month Project Manager working on the Extensible Catalog (XC) project, a grant funded Library systems project.   The blog for the project is located at http://extensiblecatalog.info/ if you would like to learn more about the project that I will be working on.  I am very excited about the new position and think my talents and abilities will be put to good use on the project.

As most of you know, I have not recently been looking for a new position and have happily been working on my art projects for the past 7-8 months.  I have however maintained a weekly query with Monster.com for Rochester area project manager positions to stay informed about what is out there.  This position popped up a while back and it peeked my interest so I applied.  Happily, the project Principle Investigators liked me and thought I would be a good fit.

So what does this mean for my art?  Obviously it means that I will have less time for it, but I am hoping to still find some time.  I am going to try to get a couple of items dye painted before I start the new position and hope that I will be able to still squeeze in some quilting time in the evenings and weekends.

I will also be considering taking some art and art history classes.  That will be an awesome perk for me (it was also how I paid for my MBA).

It has been a busy year end and start of 2008 for me, but mostly all good stuff.   I hope your holidays were fantastic.

I have been busy finishing my newest piece, named “The Bee’s Knees”.  I have just completed the web pages to get it on my site.   A full image can be found there, but here are a couple of other detail pics. 

Many thanks to my friend (and professional photographer) Brian for his help with the photography.   My camera just doesn’t take sharp enough pictures, so we used his.   It is a bit nerve wrecking to use his multi thousand dollar camera and lenses.   Back in December he had suggested a nice camera to buy and I almost bought it as a Christmas present to myself but in the end decided I just didn’t have the money.  And I am glad I didn’t as January brought unplanned expenses.

Last week we had a cold spell here and my car would not start.  So I made an appointment for a new battery and to put a plug in one of my tires that had a slow leak.  I was expecting a 2 hour wait and a bill under $200.   Well, $1500 and 6 hours later I had a new battery, new rotors, new brake pads, and 4 new snow tires. 

The good news from the garage experience is that I was able to read the book “The Kite Runner” while sitting at the garage (cold and with no food).   This is a great book and movie.   And in typical “Randy fashion” when something sparks my interest, I have done some other reading/research and I now know a lot more about Afghanistan, Sunni vs. Shiites, Islamic beliefs, the Hazara’s and some history.  There is a long rich history in Islamic cultures and it is fascinating to learn about.

Yesterday, 1/7/08, we took the pics of “The Bee’s Knees”.  Last night and this morning I was frantically working on entry forms and making CD’s to enter my work in 2 different shows.   I finished that all up this morning, made my list of errands to run (gas station, Post Office to mail my entries, Lowe’s, etc.) and ran out of the house without my keys.   I spent a lovely 2 hours at my neighbor’s chatting and waiting to be let into the house.  First time for everything I guess.

Even though I have been busy with something everyday for the past several weeks, very little of it has been art related.   Time to get going again.   I think I am going to resume working on a figure piece I started a couple of months ago.  There is a good possibility though that it will “suck”…..in which case I will get another piece of fabric and spend another week painting it again.  It is a piece that I really believe in, but have not had great success so far.

Be happy, stay well and stay in touch.

Hello everyone.   It’s time for me to get serious.  If I am going to have a blog then two things need to happen.  I need to let people know about it and I need to post regularly.  Last night was a holiday party with the ASG neighborhood sewing group I belong to.   It is not a quilting group and indeed a large portion of the group has no interest in quilting, but they are a great group of people and always fun to hang out with.  Anyways, the blog topic came up last night and they suggested that I just start posting.  So here goes.

My current project is a honey bee leaving an apple blossom after a brief visit to collect pollen and to pollinate the flower.   Here are pictures of some of the quilting I did today.  Let me tell you…I have been at that sewing machine for about 9 hours today.   I am pretty much done with the bee for the day and am typing this with my bourbon glass at hand.  I will post a full image once the piece is completed.

On another topic, my piece “Escape” is hanging at Rochester Contemporary Art Gallery (RoCo) for the rest of the month and the first week in January.   So if any Rochester based folks are inclined, please check it out.  It think it is one of my best pieces so far and has a great location, it is visible from the front door.

On a personal note, my knee has been really hurting for 2 days now and I hope it improves.   I have no idea what I did, but I can barely walk.   My cycle class this morning was not much fun, and I have no idea how my total body conditioning class will go tomorrow morning.

Here is a picture of me standing in front of my quilt “I Remain” at the IQA quilt festival in Houston earlier this month.  The trip was great and was my first trip to a major quilt show.  My friend Jean accompanied me and I thank her for that, even though we were both feeling a little rough the day we left (she blames the wine and bourbon, but I am not convinced).

I also want to thank my friend Corinne for her work in getting both my website and this blog underway.  I am truly blessed to have wonderful people in my life.

Hi all. I’ve created this blog to let you know how my current projects are progressing. I can share with you my successful efforts and not-so-successful efforts. I hope you will enjoy it. Here’s a snippet of a project I have been working on. Please stop back and see it as it progresses!

Back to my dyes!

Randy