Wruth's Writings and Art

[Carol]

Post everything. I love it.

[Ruth]

Well I don't have everything scanned!

I started doing this series, done on the pages of old books, about 7 years ago. Haven't done much on them for the last couple of years. You see, I don't work on the actual paper. Old books are on crappy paper, which is already on the way to destruction before I get to them. They wouldn't last long hung in the light. Plus, the paper is the pits to work on.

So I bought a mucho expensive printer that uses archival ink and takes heavyweight drawing paper. I scan the book pages onto the drawing paper. Then I set at them with watercolors, inks, and metallic inks.

Anyway, I can't get my printer to work properly with my new Mac. (Thankyewverymuch, Apple.)

[Carol]

Can you scan with a laptop? I think you can hook it up to the printer with the right cables. I wonder if you can with an android tablet. I will have to ask my husband. If so we could use my android and a flash drive.

[Ruth]

I have a great many of these visual poetry pieces scanned. They're small enough that I can just slap them into my flatbed scanner instead of having to photograph them first.

But the rest of my work is all documented by slides. That's what you did in those days--send slides to galleries and shows. I can scan the slides in my scanner, but it's a job to do so many of them.

[Carol]

Sorry there is nothing I can do to help. I don't have a printer that is good enough.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I love these ones Ruth....have done them with my class a couple of times over the last couple of years.....sometimes challenging finding old books to rip up though!

[Ruth]

Debbie wrote: "I love these ones Ruth....have done them with my class a couple of times over the last couple of years.....sometimes challenging finding old books to rip up though!"

I buy them in used book stores. Tried the thrift shops but their books are always too recent. I want old ones because of copyright issues. But since your students won't be showing/selling/publishing theirs, I think you could rip up any book with impunity.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Think I'll just photocopy....

[Savvy]

Love this concept!

[Carol]

Savvy wrote: "Love this concept!"

Long time ,no hear.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Savvy Suz?! Where you been?

[Ken, Moderator]

I like the lonely "I" mid-poster. And Savvy Suz has been reading (of all things)!

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I find a diet of reading must be balanced with a healthy dose of writing :-)

[Ruth]

[image error]

Summer Smoke, paint and collage, 42x58, 1977

[Carol]

Which fire inspired that? I was trying to remeber. Malibu maybe?

[Ruth]

No particular fire, Carol. I made this first, thought up the name afterwards.

[Carol]

I like it.

[Ruth]

It hung over our fireplace for years. Then finally it fell apart. Taught me a good lesson about rubber cement.

[Carol]

Yep, it does dry out. I made a painting with tempra and glue, cracked and turned yellow. Then I tried egg and glue, didn't do something right.

[Ruth]

Here's another one. This was on the cover of RATTLE in 1999

Interrupted Afternoon
1995
40x42, oil/canvas
private collection

[image error]

[Carol]

I want to be there. I wonder what they are looking at.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I think she's reading....

[Carol]

Yes that tends to interrupt an afternoon. The sun , the dog and a good book will shoot a day.

[Ken, Moderator]

Where are the bugs?

[Carol]

It's a perfect afternoon remember. It is my fantasy, so there are no bugs. In your's maybe . :-)

[Ruth]

I think the perfect afternoon has been interrupted by perhaps something not so pleasant.

[Ruth]

This is one of the few paintings for which I used a model. She's a friend of mine, a fellow artist.

[Ken, Moderator]

Yes, my perfect afternoon has a weak link somewhere -- if not bugs, something else.

[Ruth]

Nasty holidays for me. Two weeks before Xmas I got a horrible cold. New Year's Day, still sliding off the end of the cold I came down with a super nasty stomach flu. I'm now past th point of barfing yep the soles of my shoes out, but still feeling pretty weak and nasty. Just lying around in bed with my iPad. Husband is down with it, too. Gack.

[Ken, Moderator]

Oh, boy. Sick stretches are only good if you aren't so sick that you can't get a lot of reading done. There's many a book I recall reading on the sick bed.

The papers say that this year's flu bug in Massachusetts has arrived earlier than previous years and has already brought down more people. I expect, working in a Petri Dish as I do, that I will come down with it later or sooner.

Rest, liquids, and sympathy your way, Ruth & Co.

[Carol]

You still have it, Ruth. That is a long time . Do you want some soup, I could throw it in the front door?

[Ruth]

Thanks, Carol. You're sweet. The daughter came over last night with Care packages. I had some jello for breakfast and a scrambled egg for lunch. Not up to eating much yet. Poor Leif is just coming down off of th initial 24hour barf binge.

[Ken, Moderator]

Yech. Careful he doesn't get a "D" in "hydration."

[Ruth]

Newengland wrote: "Yech. Careful he doesn't get a "D" in "hydration.""

Pushing ice chips, Gatorade and coke.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Hope you are on the road to recovery soon Ruth....sounds too yucky for words. Eat ice-cream and jelly (real jelly....not jam!).

[Ruth]

The latest edition of FutureCycle Poems and Flash Fiction has one of my drawings on the cover. Everybody Wants to Get in on the Act, oil pastel, 1984, 44x30. I did a whole series of these drawings with the little laughing trained dog.

[Ken, Moderator]

Awesome for you. Well done, Ruth. Such an all-American looking bunch (family members, mayhaps?).

[Ruth]

Newengland wrote: "Awesome for you. Well done, Ruth. Such an all-American looking bunch (family members, mayhaps?)."

Nope, total strangers. I came across a treasure trove of old family photographs in a second hand store. The dog (sans hat) was from a different photo. I added the wall.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Can't see it :-(

[Ruth]

Debbie wrote: "Can't see it :-("

Go here. http://www.amazon.com/FutureCycle-201...

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

That's great! Have you used the dog (with hat) anywhere else? I could swear I have seem him elsewhere....

[Ruth]

Debbie wrote: "That's great! Have you used the dog (with hat) anywhere else? I could swear I have seem him elsewhere...."

Good memory. I used him in a bunch of drawings.

[Carol]

I couldn't see it either, but I have my ways of viewing. The dog appears to be having a better time then the others.

[Ruth]

See you there today?

[image error]

[Ken, Moderator]

Please tell Tim to stop rejecting my poems (if he even reads them). Oh, and have a great time! Hope someone virtual shows up for real.

(My parents called in to excuse my absence, so it's legit. I have the Transcontinental Flu....)

[Carol]

Unfortunately it is a little too far for me to drive by myself at night. I have night visionitis.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

It's already the 4th here....I missed it! Sorry.....

[Ken, Moderator]

Well? Where's the report? Where's the video? Where's Tim's mea and culpa?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Guess what turned up in my Amazon recommendations! A marvellous little book of poetry with Ruth Bavettas artwork on the cover! Freight makes it a bit more than I can manage til I get back from Europe.....hope there are some left!

[Carol]

You might contact her directly through email, or her website to see if she has any .

http://ruthbavetta.com/