On the finding of obscure resources pre-Internet, an appreciative book review

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Alessandra

cover of the book The Whole Costumers' CatalogueKaren L. Dick, The Whole Costumers’ Catalogue, 14th Edition, CBTB Press, 1998

Listen up, children.

Once upon a time there was no such thing as the Internet.

In those dark days we had to scrape and scrounge what information we could find wherever we could find it:  public libraries, phone books, bulletin boards, the backs of obscure magazines.  There was no easy way to locate materials, instruction, or supplies.  If we needed to research something out of the ordinary, first we had to figure out where and how we could even find the information before we could learn it. Continue reading →

Posted in Art materials, Artmaking, Books, Clothing Design, History | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Achronal Reviews #1: “Astounding Science Fiction,” April 1952

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Alessandra

cover of Astounding with image of man's face, woman's face, robot cops, and bicyclist“Astounding Science Fiction,” April 1952, Vol. XLIXX No. 2

It was sixty years ago today …

Since I am a history wonk who loves to put things into context, here not only is a review of the old magazine, but also a little historical perspective. I may ramble a bit. And the review will contain spoilers.

So let’s find out some of what would have been going on on that cool day in mid-March sixty years ago when the April 1952 issue would have hit the newsstands, and then let us see what the magazine has for us.

Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, History | Tagged , | 6 Comments

The Aegis of Athena

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Alessandra

The Aegis of Athena, painted leather, 2011

I’m working on some art to do with Athena, a painting and outfit which echo off each other. Here as part of the outfit is the Aegis of Athena, the shield with the head of the gorgon, Medusa. It’s made of heavy leather, cut, curled, and glued into place, and painted with acrylics. Some of the paint is interference gold, which can only be seen from certain angles. The holes along the edge are to fasten it to the rest of the outfit.

Continue reading →

Posted in Art materials, Artmaking, Clothing Design, Mythology | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Remembrance of Zbigniew T. Jastrzebski, Illustrator and Teacher

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Alessandra

Scientific Illustration: A Guide for the Beginning Artist, by Zbigniew T. Jastrzebski

Zbigniew T. Jastrzebski was a scientific illustrator at the Field Museum of Natural History and a teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and other area colleges. I took his classes for three years while at the SAIC. He was demanding and precise and required his students to work to their utmost capacities, just as he pushed himself all the time. He was an immigrant from Communist Poland, a child of World War II. He had no relations here save his mother, but he had many, many friends. Continue reading →

Posted in Artmaking, Books | Tagged , | 11 Comments

Star Trek red shirt cookies, Happy 45th

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Alessandra

Star Trek "redshirt" sugar cookies

We actually baked these last Christmas, but since today is the 45th anniversary of the first broadcast of “Star Trek,” I give you the kids’ redshirt sugar cookies. The vanilla ones are humans and the gingerbread ones are Klingons. Note our children’s creative use of the cookies that broke during baking.

 

 

We made the gingerbread men into Klingon redshirts

Posted in Culture, Food | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Ars Ex Ovo: a quick, subjective history of egg tempera

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Alessandra

(This is an improved version of an essay I posted on my regular website last year.)

1920s woman reclining on a couch

Surprise! A Japanese artist painted this tempera portrait of a Chicago heiress in Paris. Tsugouharu Foujita, Japanese, "Portrait of Emily Crane Chadbourne," tempera and silver leaf (now tarnished) on canvas, 1922, Art Institute of Chicago

Egg tempera is a simple paint. Powdered pigments are mixed with egg yolk and a little water. That’s all. Laid down on a white, absorbent ground, usually plaster-based, they dry into a durable, brilliantly colored, tough film which can demonstrably last for millennia essentially unchanged.

Continue reading →

Posted in Art materials, History | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Why I believe Ludwig Bemelmans illustrated this book

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Alessandra

a small image of the book coverRecently the University of Chicago Press published three reprints from World War II, handbooks for American soldiers sent to Iraq, France, and Britain.  The U.S. Army  War Department produced them, and the authors and illustrators were anonymous.

When I picked up the manual for France (“Instructions for American Servicemen in France during World War II,” University Of Chicago Press, 2008), I was shocked and delighted to recognize a Ludwig Bemelmans drawing of a gendarme on the cover.  The beloved author of “Madeline” and lots of witty books for adults had illustrated the French handbook! Continue reading →

Posted in Books, History | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

1918 Red Cross Uniforms for Historians and Costumers

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Alessandra

In honor of the Independence Day weekend, here’s a bit of American history.

cover scan of August 1918 Red Cross Magazine

I chanced across an August, 1918 copy of “Red Cross Magazine” with photographs of the uniforms of women American Red Cross workers in France in World War I.  I thought these photos would be of interest to historians, costumers, and medical professionals, so I’ve scanned and cleaned up the pictures and present them here.  I’ve also transcribed the captions to make life easier, and included some context.

The clothing shown is simply and conservatively cut, with the high waist fashionable in 1918.  It follows generally fashionable lines.  Interestingly, the article claims the American Red Cross had just changed the uniform from white to grey  because of “the ever-present laundry problem in France,” presumably related to the blighted conditions in the country after four years of total war. Continue reading →

Posted in Clothing Design, History | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Modeling Chocolate Burgess Shale Creatures

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Alessandra

small image of the birthday cakeI thought I would share some pictures of our fifteen-year-old’s birthday cake. The decorations are Precambrian fauna from the Burgess Shale fossil formations, made out of modeling chocolate. Mostly it’s trilobites. There is one hallucigenia, a pikaia and the head of an anomalocaris hoving into the scene. Continue reading →

Posted in Artmaking, Food | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Wayland’s Principia”, Hard Science Fiction by Richard Garfinkle

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Alessandra

This is a plug for my husband, Richard Garfinkle, award-winning author of science, science fiction and fantasy books.

cover art of "Exaltations"cover art for "Wayland's Principia"

Now available for the Amazon Kindle, two novels by Richard Garfinkle: Exaltations, an allegorical fantasy about alternate histories and fictional realities, about the ways the channels of stories affect human thought, and about love, faith, devotion, and the tyranny of quests; and just-released Wayland’s Principia, a hard science fiction novel about human-alien interaction, interstellar travel, and what it means to be human.   I provided the cover art for both books.

Samples of the first chapters of each can be found online at Achronal Press, our small press.

You can find these novels on Amazon’s website. Exaltations is here and Wayland’s Principia is here.

Now here’s why you might care to read them:

Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment