recipe box! at last!

I finally got a recipe box and I adore it. I can't believe it took me so long to figure out that I could just buy one of those plastic index card containers from Staples. I kept looking at cooking stores/cooking sections and coming up blank, but now I have this great box, with some helpful labels, and, YAY!

Pictures once the RPS show is completely installed.

RPS show

I've been installing at RPS yesterday and today. It's going pretty well!

We have a press release for the show with more details.

Cookbook will be for sale, starting next week.

Opening reception: Oakland's First Friday is July 3, starting at 6 pm.

Closing reception: July 24, 7 pm. The closing reception will feature a Starvation Seeds tasting.

today's workshop: liquid food

workshop went well, i would even say, best one yet! this is thanks to the space finally looking and feeling inhabited and productive (taking it down tomorrow, of course!) and also due to higher than normal foot traffic. Nobody came to the workshop on purpose, but more people came today than came to the previous two combined. Tripod & video were working beautifully, and it was overcast, so the video isn't as blown out and overexposed looking.

People sampled the tamales and the veggies, and i got the exact response i'd been hoping to elicit: "It's so weird to drink a tamale!" I also heard a lot of people productively imagining what it might be like to experience enteral feeding. I was surprised so many people even tried the food--I thought surely someone would require something sweet, but people were pretty happy with the savory stuff.

I'm leaving the installation feeling really happy with how everything turned out!

Next step, making a short video documenting the three workshops and the installation in general.

cookbook!

At last, my cookbook is in press at Lulu! I've ordered 30 of them. Ambitious? I don't know yet. I'll be selling them at Rock Paper Scissors during that show (until July 29) and then on the website after that. I'm not sure what RPS's markup will be, but they are a worthy organization so I encourage you to buy it from them. The cookbook will be in inventory next week or as soon as I get it, and for sale shortly after our show opens.

It's small but sweet: 40 tiny pages with recipes and stories excerpted from my thesis paper. It's a nice way to get some of the thesis paper out in the world, and a little more substantial than the recipe cards in the current installation.

Speaking of which, after like 5 more shopping attempts (I'm not kidding!) I have not found a recipe box that is neither horribly ugly nor outrageously expensive. The expensive part wouldn't bother me as much if all that money didn't always end up buying some sort of awful martha stewart color scheme, etc etc. !!

liquid food

Today's event involves either tasting or making liquid food. At last, I am moving my stores of liquid, bagged food out of my freezer! I'm hoping that because today is the last day of the show, there is more foot traffic than usual through the museum. I've noticed that people tend to use the sculpture garden as a chill out space with their kids--last time I was there people were breast feeding, letting their kids run around, etc., which can work well for these performance afternoons.

& I'll have my tripod today! which will maybe help the exposure problems I've been having so far. I wish I had a clever way of putting up a tarp for shade, but I tried it last time and was met with epic failure. I hesitate to use sculptures as anchor points!

btw, last workshop was not over when I posted that--several more people came out, & I think I got some decent video of one of them.

today's workshop

I guess I am actually liveblogging my workshop!

Here I am squinting at my computer on the roof of the sculpture garden:



On the roof today, Kathleen and Nada brought friends to sample bentonite clay in its wet, drinkable form, and in its yummy, oatmeal cookie form. I also brought the small cache of dirt from Chimayo and explained tierra bendita. Nada and Kathleen both sampled a finger's worth.

The bad news is, my camera works brilliantly indoors but horrible outdoors--my video footage is very washed out.

The good news is, lots of pictures!

After Nada and Kathleen left, I talked with a few visitors to the museum, a mother and daughter pair, and Lynn, the woman who waters and gardens up here.

30 minutes left, but I have a feeling I'm done for the day.

I'm sitting where the mud cookies used to be, then I'll move the dirt tasting stuff into the greenhouse before I leave.

workshop tomorrow: eating dirt

Tomorrow, June 19, I'll have a bunch of clay-based food and drink available to taste and experience. Sorry about my earlier, mistaken post--I had my schedule mixed up! Liquid food is next week, stay tuned. I'll be outside in the sculpture garden from 1-3.

Since I last posted, I officially received my Ph.D and less officially received my MFA. Here I am, the lone person standing in the Ph.D seating area to receive my MFA:

June 5 opening

I uploaded a bunch of pictures of the opening here. Some of them, especially the ones later on in the evening, are really great, if I do say so myself--I'm going to try and go back to shoot some video at night. Too many people last night (which was great! but not great for video).

Ivan took some pictures of me handing out my food samples. I will post those when I have them. I completely forgot to have myself photographed with my camera...

first workshop

Held the first of the three MAH workshops today.

A fairly large audience attended the tour, and I thought my presentation went well. There were probably 30 people there.

A smaller group stayed and we made and sampled pplumpiñon, which is still in the cuisinart in the greenhouse. I'll just leave it there, I suppose, take it away later tonight during the opening.

I'm afraid my video will be crap, but I did shoot the workshop. I can't figure out how to make the camera meter for light other than where it is situated, so with the camera in the shade and me in the sun, it's pretty washed out.

We shall see.

changes

I have made some changes in the installation.

I added two low shelves, which now contain piñon seedlings and blending tools.

I also added a landscape to the back wall, which I think adds a lot to the installation, although I meant for the edges to register with the landscape already in place and for some reason I was WAY off on that.

I've also updated the website with my recently-confirmed schedule of events. There is now an exhibition page, and links to the videos (cookies, liquid food, plumpiñon).

I want to add a recipe box, but I cannot for the life of me find one in the appropriate size (4 x 6--you'd think that would be common!). I've checked three stores. Will try BB&B tomorrow as a last resort...

eta: tried domus and sur la table. no dice...