I Am Art

pot o' gold

Today, after thunderstorms the likes of which these California seesters have never seen (but you soon will cuz we made a movie), we followed a rainbow to a pot o' gold: Cracker Barrel 12 miles from our hotel in Albany. It was pure unexpected biscuit bliss. And Apple Dumplin' bliss. And macaroni and cheese bliss. And hashbrown casserole bliss. Ahhh...it's been 7  long and rewarding days of mosquitoes, humidity, beets, kale, tofu squares, unending laughter, unbridled creativity, unshaven men, unshaven women, flailing arms, mohawked braless women...and we only cried once. Really, seriously, that ALL happened. And we didn't even mention the tarot cards. It was great! An adventure! We loved all the people (the bosses of their own journals!) we met and learned from and created great memories and art with. We laughed so much. It felt really good to be gotten and teased and connected by and with our workshop participants. It was the perfect finale for our  I AM ART: Visual Chronicles workshop tour.
We're wanting to stay awake and appreciate the wireless internet, cable tv, and lightbulbs here in our hotel but we must get to bed so we can get up super early to plane hop our way back to LA. Once we're home and rested, we will share some of the funny things that happened from our trip. But, first, we must check each other for ticks one final time.

top secret

It's our last full day of teaching here at Omega and tomorrow we pack up and head back to Albany then multiple flights to get back to sunny so cal where our idea of healthy eating is anything from Trader Joe's.
We escaped the compound last night and found a grocery store. Since it's the last big day and since they put us in the room with a kitchen, we've decided to treat our students to OUR way of life. We'll be snacking on chips and salsa and baking cookies while we all rock out art style to songs from the 80's. Shhhh....don't tell on us.

Beet Burgers

Today for lunch here in the cafeteria at Omega it was Beet Burgers Day. No, that's not a typo: we meant BEET. We're all for trying new things but they lost us there. We had the cucumbers from the salad bar and some bread for lunch. Oh and tea- very good peppermint tea. We found out that we prefer Stevia to Splenda so there have been some good moments. Also, the rice milk was good. We are apparently the only people here who have not been on a Shamanic Journey. While we have had many power struggles with animals, we have not yet discovered our own power animals. After "lunch" and before our workshop resumed, we trekked up to the sanctuary which was too beautiful for words. This place is amazing and reliable internet access, tv, and sweet baked goods would make this absolute heaven. Really we do  have heaven in our own minds so we already are there... but ya get our drift. We have been eating in the cafe for some meals but they have now run out of the things we liked the best.
Our students are so open to everything and it is a pleasure to  not have to rush- ever -in class. There's plenty of time to sit and stare into space while pondering your next art move. Pure Bliss. This is so different than teaching at the big art gatherings where students seem more concerned about quantity than process. We have great discussions here in our class room late at night when all inhibitions are gone. We've learned about ego and sharing and how to approach a Lama without being shy. Very important lessons. Though we did not determine if the Lama in question really IS a Lama or that is just his name. Either way, his books are good. I'd link to them here for you to see but I am afraid we'd lose our connection while I searched.
Tomorrow we have a short class day where we'll be making personal flags (we LOVE this project). We've never actually done this project with a class before but we just made the flags here in our cabin and it was really fun. Pictures to come when we get home next week. After class, we're heading into Rhinebeck to see the sights and then maybe to Kingston to find Target and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

stuff we noticed

Stuff we noticed in New York:
*Everyone was wearing ankle pants. Not flares or bootlegs, ankles. Floods are making a come back!
*We never saw anyone eating a pretzel even though there are pretzels for sale on every corner.
*Lots of dogs but no dog poop. New York should tell Paris how to solve the dog poop problem.
*Black & White cookies everywhere (the sugar cookies frosted half chocolate half white sugary stuff). What is the deal with those cookies? Why are they so popular there?
*Line cutters. We'd be standing in line and some one would just cut right in front of us. This happened more than once. Are we invisible?
*Tourists freaking over the M&M store. Uh, people, you can buy M&Ms at the grocery store, gas station, and pretty much every vending machine.
*H&M stores right next to the Sephora and Starbucks on every corner. Like Sephora, H&M is hard to find here in So Cal, land of makeup and cheap clothes. That must be where everyone is getting their ankle pants.
*On every block there was at least one sad man playing a sad saxophone, just like on The Simpsons.

TB or OCD?

We can't believe so many people are complaining about being on an airplane with a guy who has what turns out to be a not really easy to catch case of TB. They have no idea how good they had it.
Yesterday, we spent almost 7 hours in hell. HELL. On our flight back from New York, because we are us, we were seated with 3 men with the grossest cases of bodily functions OCD we have ever seen. EVER. Seated next to Karen was a guy whose routine was pick his nose- bite his nails-blow nose on sleeve then repeat every 3 seconds for 7 hours. I'd show you a picture but it was too gross to even look with a camera as a barrier. Seated to my right was a guy whose routine was: take off shoe- put shoe on-take off shoe- put shoe on. Every few seconds there was a very smelly sock almost in my lap:

Seated directly in front of sock guy was a business man whose routine was: Twist piece of curly hair- pick nose - twist hair-pick nose-twist hair- blow nose- twist hair. How this guy was not totally bald amazed us.

The constant rapid flutter of hands and fingers and smelly socks and the nose stuff grossed us  out so bad that we spend most of the flight (and the 2 hours on the tarmac) like this:

We have more details and photos from New York to share but we are busy trying to recover from yesterday.  No need to send us hate mail, we know those guys are suffering, too. It can't be easy having those types of disorders. It's also not easy to sit next to it.

Day Two in New York Citaaaay

Before we get to all the events of the day, we must clarify that our new buddy Kyle Cassidy, author of Armed America, has lots of cats. He loves his cats, he's a great photographer and a funny guy.  He would never ever eat one of his cats. Or shoot one. A good guy, that Kyle.

Day Two was just as sweaty as Day One. We started the day with the required trip to Dunkin' Donuts. Blech. Sorry, people, we prefer Krispy Kreme. We experienced Global Warming at the glass convention center. Al Gore was right- items under glass really do heat up and steam really fast. It was like a day at the Stock Exchange. You have to dodge people  left and right, papers fly everywhere, deals are being made in the midst of the frenzy, and everyone talks at once. We escaped the circus for a couple hours with uber editor Jessica Strawser and had our own edible adventure. We love her. Her luck is just as bad as ours...we couldn't hail a taxi, we couldn't find the restaurant and we all wondered if the restaurant we were dining at really served baby goat. Rosa Mexicano is a vibrant oasis in the middle of a bustling neighborhood. They have the best made-in-front-of-you guacamole ever. Mind you, we never really had guacamole we liked before. This was a TREAT!! YUM! We laughed and talked and ate. It was a great escape.

We were happy to see people from our own neck of the woods here- it was great to see Lita Weissman from Borders and the folks from the L.A. Times. We also met new friends and publishers who generously shared their new books and products with us:
*Elizabeth Yarnell~ Glorious One-Pot Meals (she is soooo cute and nice!)
*Malonda Richard~My Life Isn't Perfect But Thank God My Baby Is (a single mom with great energy and enthusiasm!)
*Scott Francis~Monster Spotter's Guide To North America (Scott is a creative member of the F+W family. He's really funny and so is his book.)
*The Anticraft Girls~Anticraft. Too bad we don't knit, bead, or stitch because they are really cool and different.
*Michael de Meng~ Secrets of Rusty Things. We see Michael at every event we're at yet we've never really talked to with him. We finally did! A very nice guy and his rusty art is amazing!
*We got to see a preview of Rice Freeman-Zachery's book, Living The Creative Life. Very cool. It features art, advice, and inspiration from 15 artists, including Linda! YAY!
*Moleskine has fab new travel journals!

It is so fun for us to see our book becoming a book and to be able to spend time with other creative peeps who totally get the same feeling. And when we weren't bonding with other authors, we bonded with the city. There's a Sephora on every corner here. EVERY CORNER! It's weird because people in So Cal wear a lot more makeup and a Sephora is hard to find. The other weird thing is that most of the employees at the Sephoras here are straight men. And, the other weird thing, is that employees everywhere we've been are very nice and helpful and not all annoyed and irritated and eye rolling. Everyone here gladly tells you exactly the address of what you're looking for then ends up being wrong.

We're ending the night with room service and tv and are getting up super damn early for a special treat. Hmmmmmm......

fading fast but read this!

We've been awake for two days. We are tired, we are sweaty, we love the way New York smells like pizza, and we are so excited by the enthusiasm over Journal Revolution that we experienced today. We totally love meeting everyone who comes by the F&W booth at BookExpo to say hello. It's also so cool to meet other artists and authors. Today we met the coolest photographer and author: Kyle Cassidy.  Order his book,Armed America. Right now- do it. You may laugh, you may cry, you may recognize your relatives. Either way, you won't forget this book and the stunning photography. And, Kyle is so funny and clever...he's gonna be a big, big, big star. Check out his blog, too. How could we NOT like someone named Cassidy?! Linda's hairstyles always resemble either David or Shawn, especially when it is humid.
We're going to bed so we can be well rested for our signing tomorrow, taking pictures, making friends, and re-enacting Karen's fall in the pool for all interested editors.
And Sunday.......we stalk Rosie.

we're off to Frizz City

In a few hours we will be off to New York where the weather is the stuff we Jewish girls have nightmares about.  Oh man. Hot and humid equals bad, bad, bad hair.  If you are attending BEA this weekend, you can find us here:
June 1st  3:30-5:00 at the F&W Publications booth
June 2nd 9:30-10:30 at the F&W Publications booth

If you really want time alone with us, come on the 1st. The author of The Secret is also signing books at her publisher's booth at the same time and I am pretty sure the line to see us will be way shorter. And, we'll be giving out free books and shirts while supplies last. Pssst....that beats a secret any day!
While we're in Frizz City schmoozing with agents and publishers and editors, dearest editor Tonia and award winning designer Marissa will be getting Journal Revolution ready to send off to China.  How exciting!

We'll blog from New York Citaaaay.

dropping

We're back from a few sleepless days at  CHA, the big convention the entire crafty blogosphere is talking about. We were near a pool and an ocean and we're happy to report that Karen didn't fall in either.  And for a surprising change, all the printed matter with our names on it had both of our names spelled properly! We weren't even sure how to react to that and because we're us, there were many things that we had to react to over the course of a couple days. We both returned from the event with migraines so I think today we will name-drop and save the emotion-dropping for tomorrow.
Thanks to all of you who came to meet us at the F&W booth. It is such a pleasure for us to get to meet YOU. It really makes our day! We really appreciate that you made the trek to find us and chat with us. We also want thank the handful of really crabby people who-while wanting us to sign FREE books for them- felt compelled to tell us they really don't like us, our book, their own sisters, or making art. Ok. Those odd moments are always fun for us because the moment of wondering how the other is going to respond to those people is really quite exciting!
Some  highlights:
*Dawn Sokol : Best business card, ever. Best flippy hair, ever. Best temperament, ever. She didn't even get visibly frustrated when I kept trying to figure out which blog is hers and if I'd visited it. Not only did she not get annoyed, she told me what magic hair products she uses. As soon as this migraine goes away and the rain stops, I am going in search of Bed Head.
*Seesters Carol Wingert and Tena Sprenger have a new book coming out and we got a sneak peak. I am pre-ordering it right now, even before I go in search of hair products. Another wonderful and inspiring book by 2 of our favorite people and our one favorite designer.  AND, Carol convinced me to get room service breakfast at the hotel. I love her. I love room service.
*Tara Whitney didn't call the police when I interrupted her chatting with her friends to take a picture of her with her friends and she had no idea who I was or what I was doing.  What a nice person!  Celine Navarro also didn't call the police, which was good, but I did give her our book so I had a buffer. I love the Rouge de Garance papers she uses and if you are one of those people who hates scrapbook paper because it is called scrapbook paper, get over it. Their paper is fabulous and so arty.
*FiberScraps has new BLACK and WHITE inks in bottles with the spongy tops. Love it. Love them. I feel bad we didn't get to spend more time with the ink girls but we underestimated how much time other stuff was going to take and we kept stopping to talk and take pictures of people and before we knew it, we were home blogging.
*We were happy to see Claudine Hellmuth, Kelly Kilmer, Holly Dye, Suzi Finer (hey, did you hear that Suzi's book will be out next year?), Norman Dixon, Mary Smilove, Tanja Meduzia , May Flaum, The Crew from Stampington, and the guy selling Churros, even if was only for less than a minute.
* And, of course, we were thrilled to be able to spend time with our usual gang~ Tonia Davenport (hey, did you hear her new book will be out next year?), Marissa Bowers (hey, did you hear she's designing our next book which will be out this year?),  Josie Cirincione (hey, did you hear she has a new book coming out next year?), and Carol Wingert (hey, did ya hear....?).  It is always so nice to spend time with people who are so encouraging, supportive, and hungry.

After room service this morning, Marissa, Eileen (whose last name suddenly escapes me) and I headed to the beach in the rain. It was the perfect ending to the weekend except for the rain and being freezing.  Those feet on the sand with an entire country behind them belong to Marissa.
 

stealing books

This month is just flying by! We've got our schedules for The Craft and Hobby Association convention and we would love to meet you there.
Sunday, January 28th:
We will both be signing books and chatting at F&W Booth #1509 from 11:00-12:30. We will be giving out books and I AM ART shirts while supplies last (one per person).
Monday, January 29th:
We will be at the F&W Booth #1509 from 12:30- 2:00 giving out books and I AM ART shirts while supplies last (one per person). However, the we will not be me and Karen this day because Karen has to be in court defending her clients who were so very wronged. I am thrilled that the designer of  Visual Chronicles and Journal Revolution, Marissa Bowers, will be joining me so I don't have to stand there alone looking like a dork. I love Marissa. You'll love Marissa. She's the only designer I trust to make art with my art. I also love our editor, Tonia, who will  be there, but I suspect she won't want to stand there with me because she's got people to see and places to go (but I'll want her to).

When we aren't at the F&W booth, we will be wandering the convention in search of free stuff.  Ooooh oooh, you know who else will be at CHA? The Famous Suzi Finer and she's doing something BIG!  I hope that wasn't a secret. AND, seester Carol Wingert will be there. AND seester Josie Cirincione.  And of course Claudine will be there. One of the best things about having Josie and Claudine in the same booth is that as soon as they arrive, all the men who work at F&W quickly devote their attention to these two lovely ladies and it gives us a chance to steal books.