screening weekend

i have had the best weekends lately!  this past weekend beans drove down to visit.  it was the weekend of the wisconsin film festival and they were going to show handmade nation and we both wanted to see it, so we planned a whole weekend of fun together.

on friday night, we enjoyed dinner at sardine with another friend where we all enjoyed the best virgin mojitos in town and an amazing coconut creme brulee with carmelized pineapple on top (along with the rest of our fabulous dinner).

when we got home, beans and i spent some time cutting contact paper for a silk screening project.

on saturday, we had tickets to see 4 films.  the first one didn’t start until 11 a.m., so i spent the morning sewing up things to print (pillowcases from an old sheet, tea towels, etc.) and we also dyed some of the fabric.  our first movie was actually a series of animated shorts.  my favorites were probably chicken of god (which apparently has its own myspace page), sebastian’s voodoo (which is short, but moving.  you can see the whole thing if you click on the link), and yard work is hard work (which i couldn’t find any clips of online, sorry!).  as soon as the shorts were finished, we hurried to the next film — a documentary about chuck close.  it was fantastic, but the whole time i was watching it, i kept thinking how great his paintings would look as a quilt.  i think that would take even longer than the jasper johns one.  sigh.  i still don’t really understand how he does it–they are a mystery and a magic trick to me.

we had the afternoon after that free to do as we pleased, so we came home and got to printing.

can i just say again how much i love screen printing?!  i love how sharp the images turn out and i love that i can make multiple prints from a single cutting.  all of the designs shown here (except for the concentric organic rings which are beans’ signature) are from my own original sketches and it was such fun to see them come to life.  mr. happy stuff even ordered pizzas for dinner so that we wouldn’t have to stop to cook or leave to eat at a restaurant!

then, finally, it was time to see handmade nation.  what fun to be in a room full of crafters!  what fun to see some of the crafters that i’ve only known online or through their shops!

our last film of the night was a feature-length bill plympton animation called idiots and angels.  characteristically bizarre and somewhat dark, i must confess that it wasn’t my favorite of the day.  but that could have had something to do with the fact that it started at 10:15 p.m. and was the 7th and 8th hours of movies that i’d watched in one very loooong (but fun!) day.

on sunday morning, we enjoyed some baked oatmeal and then beans and i worked on a secret project which i plan to reveal here in a few days.  it’s very exciting!