Carrasco Studio

What's Black and White All Over?

Jennifer Carrasco — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:06:35 -0700

In this case, it's fairly straightforward. ZZZZEEEBBBRRAAS!

I dug this out of my files to send to a friend who loves zebras. It's from a job I did last year for a room for a very young client. In fact, he wasn't born yet.

The room was 20 by 16 feet, and 9 feet tall, and the mural covered all walls. On the West side was the jungle in twilight, and on the right side was dawn on the veldt.

The excited parents traveled in S. Africa and were in love with the country, and wanted their baby to share some of their visions. Here baby and I are in front of his new zebra friends. He doesn't look very impressed, but I'm sure he'll grow into his parent's (and my) African dreams!

I am finally starting on my next big project....a 7'x12' mural of a magic forest.

I was getting very tired of working small.

Walking Lessons

Jennifer Carrasco — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:58:16 -0800

Today I had walking lessons. I am to do these in VERY SLOW MOTION and carry my cane because it helps me regain my gait. I just wish it had a silver dolphin on the top like Inspector Poirot.

Oh well. Tracy told me it is also useful for whacking miscreants.

Heel Toe. Heel Toe. Heel Toe Heel toe, Heel toe.......heel toe......

Anna Akhmatova Swimming

Jennifer Carrasco — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:03:30 -0800

"......Anya had grown tall and graceful, with long, thick, straight dark hair and beautiful white hands. Her gray eyes looked out of an almost unnaturally pale face. Swimming in the dark, still waters of the ponds of Tsarskoye Selo, she (seemed) like some mermaid or water nymph and Gumilyov was...entranced by this image.(Amanda Haight, Anna Akhmatova: A Poetic Pilgrimage" pg. 8)

Conversation Sandwich

Jennifer Carrasco — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:21:44 -0800

This all started with a conversation I had with my friend Eric. He dropped by to visit and we talked about a number of things. He is fun because he is so quick and well read and doesn't get nervous about leaping from subject to subject.

When he got up to leave, I laughed and said we discussed the world like we were skipping pebbles across the lake....hitting just the surface of ideas before we sink the concept.

Later I wrote Eric and said that it would be interesting to build a conversation like an edifice. Since he can think in a more linear and rational manner than I, he could build the foundation and basic architecture of the building, while I contributed flying buttresses, gargoyles and decorative borders.

Years ago I read Magister Ludi by Herman Hesse and I was intrigued by the book's concept of communication. In the story, men got together to have dialogues where they consciously shaped conversations into beautiful structures that grew increasingly complex and dazzling. I read the book more than 30 years ago, but as I remember, when the group became very old, they created a conversation so arcane and metaphysical that they became one with the dialogue....disappeared into it.

It got me thinking about visual metaphors for conversation. They are endless....rivers, trees, a Dagwood sandwich, schools of fish. Different types of lines coming out of people's mouths like the drawings of Saul Steinberg. (When I taught junior high, they thought it was hilarious to use lines all smudged and chaotic coming out of people's mouths..."talking dirty," of course.)

My friend Julian came by a few days later, and Phil got me out in a lawn chair in the sun so I could talk and soak up a few rays. Julian stayed for about an hour and we discussed a wide range of subjects. Later, I thought our discussion could be interpreted by images of birds.....sparrows for everyday thoughts, wrens for the cheerful, house finches for the melodic , western tanagers for the beautiful, crows for bawdy talk , gulls for soaring thoughts and honking of Canadian geese for debating. No eagles in this diagram. Too severe and judgmental.

Spring, tra la

Jennifer Carrasco — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:20:15 -0800

Today Phil is going to help me get out in the front garden so I can coo over my tulips and daffodils. O frabjous day!