Larissa King

The Copeland Block weathered Irene with its usual aplomb.  There was a small amount of seepage in the mechanical room, but that’s normal behavior for this building in any big storm.  The rest of the basement was dry when I checked it on Monday.

A friend stopped by the building Sunday evening and took this photo:

The water is maybe a teensy bit higher (and a lot muddier) than in this photo from October of 2005:

I don’t think the water ever got anywhere near the basement windows.  At this point, I am more worried about the excessive vegetation than about the river!

These stickers are vinyl, and easy to remove.  They came from http://civiccenter.cc/i-wish-this-was/.  The idea, which I think is a spiffy one, is that anyone can slap them on an empty storefront and voice their opinion about what they’d like it to be.

I’ve been feeling pretty burnt-out about the Copeland Block.  I could have covered the front of the building with stickers saying things like “I wish this was A PARKING LOT” and “I wish this was someone else’s problem.”  But I was actually curious about what other people might say.

Here are some highlights:

Make me one with everything!

A “super friken awesome” anything would be okay with me.

Where would you park all the tractors?

Me too, buddy.  The folks who ran Kam Ming were great tenants!

This one represents several popular themes: wifi, coffee, and alcohol.

I don’t know that it’ll change anything.  Ultimately, what happens to the storefronts is not entirely up to me.  It would take more time and money and energy than I have to force them to be anything but vacant right now.   But I’m glad I put the stickers out there, and I can’t wait to see what the window looks like next week.

If I were a contractor, I’d call it substantially completed.  I’d tell my clients that they could move in, and I’d start asking for a final payment.

But I’m not a contractor.  So I’ll just leave it on the IV stand and contemplate it for a while before I hang it up on the wall with the others.

I finished a bird I that I like enough to make it part of a larger sculpture.  It only cost me three fingernails.

I keep thinking it (he?) should have a name.  There’s a point in most of my sculptures where they come alive for me.  With this bird, it happened when I put the eyes on.  And then it happened again(!) when I added the feet.

Today I started working on his cage, which will (of course) be a human female torso.

While I was working, I discovered a plastic tub of buttons.  It had probably been on my workbench for years, but I had forgotten about it.  So then I had to sit down and pick out all the white and beige buttons, and arrange them around a crocheted flower that I made a couple of years ago, and dream about how it all might come together someday.

The dark felted center of the flower was made from Maxine‘s fur, when she was still very much alive and shedding all over the place.  I miss that cat.

I’ve been having the best time in my studio, making ridiculous little wire birds.  This one is a little smaller than a robin.  I started it this morning, and worked on it for almost five hours.  It still doesn’t have wings or feet or a tail.  Those will have to wait until tomorrow.

Eventually, I’ll make one that will be part of a larger sculpture.

(ETA: I love that this is happening in my parking lot.  I also love that I have no idea who’s doing most of it.)

Here is the latest piece of graffiti from the Copeland Block parking lot.  I think it’s best described as chaotic.

We adopted two new-to-us cats.  They are both female strays, approximately six years old.

Miko smells funny.  She loves mohair and catnip mice, and she greets us at the door when we come home.

Tiki often looks as if she smells something disagreeable.  Maybe it’s Miko.  She has giant oven mitt paws and is my sofa buddy.

It has been good to have a sofa buddy.  I have been sick for two weeks with a nasty cold.

I’ve started a huge collaborative project.  There’s not much more to say about that at the moment, except that it involves the printed canvases I’ve been working with for the last couple of years.

The office is a bureaucratic quagmire.  There’s not much to say about that either, except that it does not involve any tenants.

It has been two months since I last updated this site.  Although I’ve been busy (sometimes even in the studio), I don’t have a lot to show for it.

I went to the Galapagos Islands (click on the iguana for more photos).

While I was away, my cat died.  Here she is in the tree I’ll bury her under, when we are finally able to see the ground again:

Life is starting to get back to normal again.  I’m having an Open Studio on Friday, March 4th.  Maybe I’ll see you there.

Recently I bought a new mannequin.  She arrived with a foam mask protecting her face.

Her head is freakishly small, and her hands are positioned oddly.  Even so, she is perfect.