Alanna Risse:: artist blog

Dear Santa

alanna — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:00:23 +0000

I have tried to be a very good girl this year. I graduated with high distinction and a 3.97 GPA (damn you critical whiteness class!). I got married and I tried to be frugal with money and tried to make good art. I got a job so I can pay off my student loans as fast as possible. I’ve been eating better, drinking less, and have been trying to be a good wife. Please be nice to me this year for Christmas. Here is my wish list.

Macro lens for my D50 so I can take cool pictures of bugs
That bug illustration book I want so bad
A camping trip with my husband
A weekend trip to Chicago
A pro 600

Ut Oh, it’s list time

alanna — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:56:14 +0000

Wow, do I feel compelled to write lists when I feel like my life is out of control? I should make a list about that. But first, today’s list:
List #1: Woe is me

I am fat and out of shape
My desk is a mess
I’m not making enough art
I feel vacant at my job
I hate commuting 2 hours a day
I hate that my studio is so far away
I hate the parking situation in my neighborhood
I’m angry I broke my scooter
I want to spend more quality time with my husband by making music but I’m afraid of being a musical failure
“I just wanna go home and get knocked up”
I have complete control over my life and my happiness
I am making compromises in my life because it serves my long term goals
my dastardly impatience always gets in my way
If I feel fat, I need to exercise
If I want to make music with Tom, I should make time
I’m afraid if I don’t keep myself happy all the time, I will be a bad wife
I don’t think I can focus hard on getting out of debt and stay happy while doing it
If I need to make more art, I should stop making these gawdawful lists and go make a drawing

List #2: Suck it up

The economy is in the crapper and I should work as much as possible while I can
I will always have to make compromises to fit art into my life, so I better get used to it now
Many of my friends are out of work, and probably think I’m a brat
I think I’m a brat
When I was your age, we had to walk uphill 2 miles carrying huge bushels of rotten, maggoty meat, with nothing covering our feet but the crust from our own bloody tears
Find happiness in the every day
Tom thinks you are a great wife, just don’t screw it up
Clean your desk, you lazy slob

Latest article on CCD

alanna — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:34:45 +0000

From PA Farm News.

“Things don’t just happen to one species in isolation,” notes Frazier. “People are beginning to look at bees and their decline as an example of what we are doing to our environment. To some degree, the honeybees could be seen as an indicator species telling us what’s out there and what pollinators are being exposed to, as well as being a potential canary in the coal mine, if you will.”……

…..Despite all that is wrong, is there reason to hope? “Yes, very much so,” says Frazier. “Big agriculture is not going to easily change, but we’re beginning to see people become interested in locally grown, locally consumed food, with less pesticide. I think there’s a tremendous move in the direction of sustainable agriculture, and the bee situation is only going to help push this forward.”

Read all three articles about the state of CCD on PA Farm News

Shakin’ the cold

alanna — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:49:04 +0000

I’ve been fighting off a bug. It has given me a nearly unbearable headache and a very bad attitude. I’m downing vitamin C fizzy drinks like no one’s business. I think I’m winning this war. Fingers crossed.

Million miles an hour

alanna — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:16:52 +0000

I woke up this morning with all sorts of ideas in my head. Even though I’m exhausted and feel terrible, my brain has somehow switched into full speed mode. On the bus this morning, I dreamed of having a gallery store that also had books, magazines, prints, and music, and an online print sales component, and music and art events in the store monthly, like collaborative drawing projects, or music, or art and craft classes.

Then walking to work, with camera in hand, I started looking for nature in the city and I came up with a little narrative about how there are all these subversive people in the city who plant trees and flowers and bushes, secretly waiting for the plants to take over and break up all the cement. And I started looking for evidence of this subversion. You can always find things if you look hard enough. And I started thinking that this is what gives the artistic types their special powers. We’re able to consciously open our eyes and find things in the world that are usually overlooked. I wish I could spend my whole day walking around the city, looking for these things.

Photojojo and Spoonflower

alanna — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:21:02 +0000

Firstly, you should really stop what you are doing right now and subscribe to Photojojo’s email newsletter. It’s just about the best spam you could ever imagine. I love my Photojojo spam and you will too. Each week they send out amazing tips on digital photography and related items.

Secondly, this week, the Photojojo newsletter featured a little website called Spoon Flower where you can create your own fabric designs using digital photos or other digital images. Wow! And yes, that means, if you really wanted to, you could make a skirt out of your cat’s face. It’s a free country ya know.

Obama’s views on agriculture

alanna — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:28:21 +0000

By Kathyrn McConnell, America.gov

WASHINGTON - The Republican and Democratic presidential candidates
both supported lowering farm payment limits and limiting such
assistance to family farmers.

Payment limits were a focal point of debates in Congress on the 2008
Farm Bill, passed in June over President Bush’s veto. President-Elect
Barak Obama voted for the 2008 Farm Bill, saying it had more good
provisions such as support for hunger and conservation programs, than
bad provisions. His opponent Senator John McCain opposed the bill.

Now that Obama has been elected, here’s a look at his views on
agriculture as stated during the presidential campaign.

Obama wants to make a disaster assistance program permanent so
farmers would not have to wait for Congress to decide whether aid is
needed in the wake of individual natural disasters.

The Democrat supports country-of-origin labeling, which requires meat
and perishable farm products to indicate from where they came. The
Farm Bill expanded the list of products covered by the law effective
Sept. 30.

Obama would increase funding for a cost-sharing program for organic
certification to help farmers afford the costs of complying with
national standards for organic food, a fast-growing sector of the
American food market.

There are not enough young people entering farming, according to
Obama, so he would help the public university system and farm
extension service work with youth groups to identify and prepare
future farmers. He also favors tax breaks for landowners selling to
beginning family farmers and for people going into farming.

Obama wants to work to break down trade and investment barriers to
maintain American farmers’ competitiveness around the world. He would
broaden export promotion programs with training and through new
electronic transaction systems to help producers develop global
marketing networks. He also would work to ensure all trade agreements
contain strong and enforceable labor, environmental and safety
standards.
The Illinois senator says he supports efforts to improve food safety
by boosting America’s ability to identify, contain and prevent
outbreaks and to inform the public when an outbreak happens. He says
he wants the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug
Administration to have more authority to issue and enforce recalls of
contaminated food.

Obama would encourage the use of technologies to produce power from
animal wastes, and farming practices that reduce energy use and
maintain soil health. He also pledges to expand federal energy
efficiency and conservation projects and support for industries that
produce new value-added agricultural products.

The Democrat wants to use some of the revenue from carbon dioxide
emissions permits for investments in clean-energy development and
deployment. This would create jobs and stimulate economic growth,
especially in rural America, he says.

Incorporating more biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol, into the
national supply is another Obama goal - 7.57 billion litres (2
billion gallons) of cellulosic ethanol in the system by 2013 and a
requirement of at least 227 billion litres (60 billion gallons) of
biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel, by 2030.

Obama would create incentives for communities to invest in biofuel
refineries and also would provide a subsidy for ethanol produced from
new facilities.

Obama also wants incentives for forest owners, farmers and ranchers
to plant trees, restore grasslands, and use farming practices that
capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or engage in no-till
practices that retain carbon dioxide currently stored in the soil.

America.gov is a function of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of
International Information Programs.
________________________________________
This message brought to you by Bee Culture, The Magazine Of American
Beekeeping, www.BeeCulture.com

Dreaming about painting

alanna — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:15:44 +0000

The other day in the studio, I felt more free with my oil paints than I had in a while. I have no deadlines, no destinations, and no plan. I just know I have to been working up the canvas, and that it might take me a long time to get there. It felt so good to just add paint to canvas. It made me love oil painting again. I’ve been looking through my old New American Paintings books with a new sense of wonder and excitement. And last night I had a dream I was talking to one of my teachers from CCA. I said “I just a feeling so great about painting for the sake of painting… at just being in love with the act of putting paint to canvas”. Wish I could spend some time in the studio and just go crazy. I have so many ideas in my mind that I don’t have time to work through. I might be moonlighting soon and studio time will become more and more hard to come by. Deep breathe, deep sigh. I’m dreaming of grad school.

iPhone love and Gallery Crawl Podcasts

alanna — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:58:16 +0000

I am a woman in love. We got iPhones last weekend and my daily commute has turned from drudgery into delight. I’ve started finally making my way through the KQED Gallery Crawl Podcasts and intend on surveying all art related podcasts on the web. This morning I watched the podcast for CCA’s 2008 MFA show and learned things about fellow CCA students I hadn’t known. It got my little brain pumping away instead of experiencing my normal morning comatose blank stare. Thanks KQED!

Judy Wu CCA MFA 2008

Andy Goldsworthy’s Spire

alanna — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:45:51 +0000

I finally made it out the the Presidio to see Andy Goldsworthy’s “Spire” sculpture just past the Arguello gates between the golf coarse and the vista point. You can get there most easily from the golf course parking lot. The spire is an arrangement of 10 tree trunks that were recently cleared in the park.

The area is still under construction and there is red tape trying to keep people out but there were many visitors when I was there, all ignoring the tape. I can’t wait to see what they put in around the sculpture, seems like there will maybe be a sitting area? That would be nice. One the the best things I saw were the little sculptures people had made next to the fenced area out of wood scraps. I took a little hike and found more similar sculptures down a trail.

Read the SF Gate Article.