think think, stare stare

...on the road again...

2008-08-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

in two days my year+ working hermitage ends and i head back to providence rhode island.

i'll miss seattle, i love it here but i love providence too and all that comes with it. i am also looking to relieve myself of my hermitude. hermitude being the slow and almost imperceptible decline of social skills and a steady rise of my already healthy surliness.

in the meantime...while i am flying out and settling in...here are somethings from me to you:

opening in portland: roots to fruits...a group show at together gallery featuring me, apak, justin "scrappers" morrison, amy ruppel, rebecca artemisa uriah, julianna swaney, theo ellsworth, daria tessler and the together family.
opening in brooklyn: we=trouble...a collaborative show curated by the punks at tiny showcase at secret project robot gallery. i teamed up with my brother on a project to end all projects. opening reception is on september 6th, 2-10 pm featuring bands, art and mayhem.
september is the release of my latest children's book hansel and gretel. rewritten by cynthia rylant it's a project i was honored and excited to work on.
november 15th is an upcoming/impending with giant robot san francisco. more info will come down the pipeline sometime soon.
also, i have added some process images to my flickr account...some before and afters for hansel and gretel, a peek into the individual piece that i am turning in for we=trouble oh, and i guess i will post the images that are in roots to fruits. why not.

...trubs...

2008-08-05T15:06:00.001-07:00

This here up above image is hard to read...so let me tell you what it says...it says that me and my brother plus a lot of other people are involved in a group show curated by Tiny Showcase. It opens up on September 6th at Secret Project Robot in Brooklyn. What it also says, if you are good at reading between the lines, is that the Coraces are going to bring some serious whoop ass to the doorstep of Senor Thibodeau and Senorita Dormody. It's on!

...grny...

2008-07-12T14:52:00.001-07:00

sooooooo...i am going to have a few pieces in the upcoming group show at grny. it's called 'crocodile tears', it opens up on july 19th and gaggles of exponentially talented artists are also involved. if you are in the area you should go and check it out.

another thing you should check out...all the art work for the upcoming fundraiser for handmade nation documentary. the silent auction is also on the 19th...so if you are stuck on the west coast and are all 'damn', i wanna go to the grny show', cheer up! there's plenty of artists and artwork to ogle at on your side of the country.

also, this sunday there will be a feature on me over at seven impossible things before breakfast.

...hot hot hot...

2008-06-11T15:49:00.001-07:00

three prints of mine are now available over at art star. i'm just sayin'.

...all the sound is trapped in my head...

2008-05-30T22:41:00.000-07:00

so...i can't hear for crap.

well, truth be told, hearing has never been a gold medal event for me...but these days in particular, the last three weeks, have been something. and that something is a whole lot of nothing. it's like i have a huge wad of wet cotton balls jammed up in my head. i do fine with an individual talking directly and clearly to me. headphones are particularly useful. but for the most part i am getting a lot of charlie brown adult feedback.

'whuh whuh whuaaa. whu whaa wnhuuu.'

most likely, and hopefully, it is just allergies. i have run of the mill seasonal allergies. this year seems like a particularly harrowing year, and it seems as if my allergies have been attacking in stages.

in march i had terrible sinus problems. april was watery, goopy eyes. may is dedicated to my ears. none of the symptoms have mixed...which i guess i should be thankful for. that this is all not setting upon me at once. i was just thinking the other day....while not hearing anything...that it hadn't been too long ago that i wanted to tear my eyeballs out and isn't a relief that i am not continually putting hot compresses on my eyes.

progress. i suppose.

the thing is is that losing the majority of my hearing has been particularly frustrating. part of it is that i have been allergy-sick for so long now that i just want to be done. i want it to be over but this pollen abyss known as the northwest keeps smacking me down. the other part of it is that besides all the small sounds that i am missing...the sound of the keyboard, leonard's constant noise making face, cooking sounds, just the general atmospheric sound of being in a place and not a vacuum...i am stuck with the dulled sounds inside my head. i listen to my heart all day...which may sound poetic or some sort of nonsense like that, but it's really unnerving after awhile. not 'the tell tale heart' unnerving...just always present, in an ultrasound sort of way. and then there's the chewing...god the chewing! abominable. and my voice...my stunted, blobby voice trapped in my head b/c i can't really hear it come out of my mouth.

ear problems cause me anxiety...more so than eye problems. they make me revisit my childhood with my chronic ear infections, hospital visits and surgeries. it was a routine...loss of hearing, doctor's visit, ear specialist visit, tubes in the eardrums, spending hours in the hopspital afterwards sick on anesthesia, fittings for earplugs, and day after day after day of eardrops. i hated it. i did everything to avoid starting up the doctor cycle. when the deafness set in i took up lip reading. but as crafty as i was my mom was craftier. there must have come a time when she saw me staring intently at her as she spoke. she would turn around, away from me, and would ask me a question. when i wouldn't reply...bam! a call to dr. houser.

so, i am crossing my fingers that it doesn't come to that...the ye olde days of tubes and drops.

i've been to a doctor. it took some doing on my part...some will to bend away from the anxiety. she prescribed nasonex. i balked at first...not because i would be snorting steroids but because of the ad campaign for nasonex. you know the ones i am talking about...a third rate cgi, antonio banderas-sounding bee flies around suffering third rate cgi, allergy afflicted people while silkily talking about the wonders of nasonex. anyhow, i am on nasonex. and zyrtec, and am using my neti pot and seeing my acupuncturist every other day. i've called out the guards on this one.

...the vauge ghost of corace future...

2008-05-13T14:35:00.000-07:00

so, just a quick few updates of what's going on, where you can find me...a lot of these items have no specific dates, but you can revel in the idea of "it's gonna happen! soon! sometime!" think of it as a nice surprise.

"uniform" is available as a print at a paper tiger. it's a good sized print...not as large as the original, but larger than any print i've had made.
three more prints will be available at art star gallery in philadelphia...soon! sometime! i have them at my house and just have to sign them and send them on their way. if you are interested i would contact the ladies and get on their email list.
two new if'n books journals are coming out...soon! sometime! we're doing things a little differently this time. so if you have been lulled into a comfortable zone w/ the usual corace journal and hate change, sorry. but if you have been looking to put the zip back into your journaling and sketching life then have we got something for you.
most importantly, i am donating a piece to the handmade nation silent art auction. it takes place on july 19th from 6-10 pm. at 510 south hewitt #506 in los angeles. visit the site, check out the trailer and get more info on this event that is sure to be amazing. i am so excited to be a part of this event and with so many other incredible artists.

i would also like to update that i think i have found a good substitute for my concentrated watercolor woes. thanks for all the support and suggestions.

...shitters...

2008-04-12T14:12:00.001-07:00

so, over the past year or so an unstoppable reality has been closing down on me. i am about to run out of my supply of luma and i am not quite sure what i am going to do about it.

luma concentrated watercolor has been my primary medium over the past four or five years. i found it during the days of 'little pea' and my search for the ultimate pea green and found that it was the perfect answer to all of my art making needs...concentrated enough to work as an ink, stable enough to be watered down and used as everyday watercolors. it also performed really well on rives bfk...that bitch of a printing paper i love to torture myself with by drawing on it.

about three years ago i found out that daler rowney who produced luma was discontinuing the line. panic set in and my hoarding began. first i cleared out the risd store...students drool, alumni rule...then the local art supply stores and finally i scoured the web. i even managed to eke out the last two bottles of coffee brown from an art supply store in portland, oregon. these were desperate times...but i was thinking ahead and my stash allowed me to live in a state of denial for awhile.

but here i am, years later and i am hesitant to count how many bottles i have left. i am too afraid to look.

over the past year i have been keeping my eye out for a suitable replacement. over the past few months my active concern has transformed into full fledged 'okay, what the hell are we going to do?' it seems as if concentrated watercolors are a dying breed. there are only two companies that produce them anymore: dr. ph martin and pebeo.

dr. ph martin's radient concentrated watercolors are an automatic no go. the colors are too concentrated...saying 'too concentrated' reminds me of a time when my brother and i cooked ourselves a vegetarian dinner at my sister's house for christmas and it was proclaimed 'too flavorful' by my brother in law.

so, yes, they are too concentrated and by that i mean when i have watered them down they are somewhat unstable when they dry...they get all uneven and weird. how's that for a savvy description? they are also too bright for my needs...painfully bright. i have seen other artists use them in their work and they are awesome at it. i end up feeling overwhelmed.

what truly seals the doctor's fate is that the radiant series aren't lightfast. their primary use is for reproduction work. which kills me. what's the point? lemon juice on paper is more permanent. my only hope with the doctor is a second series called synchromatic. it is primarily used for photos and film. i am crossing my fingers.

as for pebeo i can't find anyone who sells the colorex inks in the united states. the lie that is pearl art supply (seriously, we are on the outs. i am about to write them a break up letter) says they carry them but whenever i order them they are out of stock. i have come to realize that 'out of stock' for pearl paints means 'no longer carrying' since the last time i looked the list of 60+ colors has dwindled down to one lonely bottle of purple. i contacted pebeo via a british art supplier who is now referring me to their german supplier since they don't ship to the u.s. it's pretty ridiculously complicated. for some reason, however, i have a gut feeling that pebeo is going to be the answer to my problems...so in the end it might all be worth it.

until then i have all sorts of varieties of inks slowly making their way across the country to me. i spend a lot of my time in art supply stores staring at the ink section and pulling at my bottom lip, deep in concentration, trying to figure it all out.

...saturday nights in beacon hill...

2008-04-06T23:43:00.000-07:00

while this photograph totally outs me as a saturday night homebody it's the first and only evidence of interspecial harmony in this house...a family portrait if you will. there was no hissing, no freaking out, no pretending to be curious and loveable only to turn the tables with a fast swat to the dog's face. it was a good night of grandmaw sweaters, bed, blankets, snoring animal bookends and catching up on emails.

speaking of grandmaws...i am back from the cruise!

first and foremost, the time i spent w/ my family was awesome. i wouldn't trade it for anything. we had a great time cavorting and playing cards, and playing bingo, and snorkeled and swam and played shuffleboard and ping pong and watched all sorts of on board entertainment, drank and ate and all sorts of other cruise business. it was bright and sunny and hot which are three things that aren't up my alley...but i think i dealt with all of it very well...almost like a pro.

second and secondmost, cruises are totally evil and that is all i am going to say about that.

...what are you supposed to do with the sun and moon when you are a pisces?...

2008-03-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

this was said to not so much to me but the bus load that i was included in one day by a very loud, pontificating man. it was the number 7 bus. a bus i had long suspected of being the ultimate crazy bus of seattle. that day was the first time i had ever taken the 7 and my old preconceived notions proved true by that one individual. it's okay. every town has that one bus. in providence it's the 99. it goes to pawtucket.

before the 7 i swore the crazy bus was the bus that ran down aurora. i took it in the ye olde days when i was the display slave at urban outfitters. the aurora bus took me to the closest lowes/home depot...and i based my assumption on the fact that it was a triple digit bus. triple digit buses scream trouble. the aurora bus was in the three hundreds...so triple the trouble.

but back to the seven bus...

"what are you supposed to do with the sun and the moon when you are a pisces?" was professed by a man who seemed/admitted that he was surprised to be preaching to the bus. apparently he had no intention of doing so that day. funnily enough his words did not fall on deaf ears being that i was there and the day before was my birthday. i turned 34. i was a 34 year old pisces. i couldn't help but feel that i had an idea of what he was going on and on about.

i can't explain it to you. you wouldn't get it. if you are a pisces you already know.

anyhow, sooooooo much time has passed...unintentionally. that is the thing about time. it doesn't care how much of it you meant for it to pass...it just goes. and tomorrow, the 19th i am 34 years and one month. it's pretty spectacular. i love getting old.

i can't tell you where all the time went. mostly it would bore you. i've done some work. i have procrastinated on some work. me and mr. pants have made a lot of headway...so much so that he goes by leonard now. my super honey has visited me twice, my hair has grown, i've gone back to yoga classes, gone back to the y, gone back to crosswords, become addicted to scrabulous and scramble on facebook, kept on my new year's resolution, kept secrets, gossiped, finally got my lawn taken care of, eaten the most delicious, fancy version of vietnamese tofu sandwiches many many times at my local coffee shop several times, gotten back to letter writing and was thrilled to get back to 'lost'.

i have gotten a few emails about my lack of updates...which i apologize for. but what can i say...i am an a+ hermit.

irregardless of that here is a point by point update of what to vaguely expect from me in this year:

i have a few pieces in a group show at project: gallery in los angeles.
"little hoot" is out and about.
"hansel and gretel" makes it's debut in september via hyperion.
i am working on two other books that will be out in 2009...a book about darwin and the third installment to the "little" series..."little oink".
the april issue of o magazine has a piece on tiny showcase featuring the first print i ever did with them.
i have a series of illustrations in the april issue of real simple.
prints are available through project: gallery. more prints will be available through art star in the near future.
i have a feature in an upcoming issure of corduroy.
i have several shows tentatively planned for this year...one group show in portland, a solo show with giant robot...both dates tba and a group show with tiny showcase in september. the tiny showcase show is particularly exciting to me b/c i will be collaborating with my brother jason. i don't know how you all will cope with the power of two coraces at once. good luck.
i uploaded a bunch of sketches on my flickr account to keep you occupied.
most importantly...on saturday i leave for mexico on a cruise with jason and my sister's family. and if you know me at all you would say "you? on a cruise?" it's true. many capers and awesome photos will abound. i already have the cruise pants to get me started. they are what i call "uncle frank green". you might not know my uncle frank...but he is a man who is famous for his "go to hell pants." my pants aren't specifically go to hell pants...but for me they are the closest thing.

so that is my update for now.

i am hoping to have a cruise recap.

xo
jen

...i spy...

2008-01-29T11:19:00.000-08:00

i don't have a larger, singular image of this, but little pea has hit the big time: bake sale! i love a good bake sale.

...you should know...

2008-01-14T13:07:00.000-08:00

'little hoot', my second book with amy krause rosenthal and chronicle books is out and about in the world. i think it made it's way into the stores on the 8th. it semi-slipped my mind...because, you know, i am a little more preoccupied with teaching the dog his name and trying to remember the last time he went out...

...amazing...

2008-01-11T15:54:00.001-08:00

here is a better photo that fully encompasses the awesomeosity of my new bike. it's mind blowing. emily did an AMAZING job. she's an amazing person and amazingly talented in things and ways beyond bike building. and bike building is a pretty spectacular craft so imagine the above and beyond amazingness of one miss emily klass. you can't because it's too nuts. you'd have to be hospitalized.

my posts, like my brain right now, are piecey and spotty at best. someone/a lot of people/everyone in the world has said that having a dog is like having a baby. i have never had a baby. i have seen other folks have and care for babies. i have heard the unending conversations about stages and poop and diapers and potty training and possible mutterings of first words and what products are best for what and the newest baby book and the newest theories about rearing and on and on and on and on. i have seen and heard all of this with my own eyes and i have thought....what is up with THAT? no thank you.

well here i am on the other side.

i think about the dog and what it is doing and wait...is it peeing in a room where i can't see it and how am i going to structure my day and why isn't he eating and i thought we had a good 'going outside schedule' yet the pile on the bedroom floor is telling me different and i thought all dogs loved to walk and here are one thousand other things i never read about french bulldogs and who is the best vet to take him to and will all the learning we've already been done be lost after the big snip next week because he'll be so bummed and what kind of collar or leash or harness is best and on and on and on.

when people call, it's all i talk about.
my friend sarah came over last night and conversation kept coming around to the dog.
i have started refering to mr. pants and i as 'we'.
what is up with THAT?

i know it hasn't even been a week. i know it's going to let up and become everyday normal. i know i have nothing to complain about because he's a totally chill and awesome dog and we are all still transitioning. it's all good.

it's all good.

...wheels...

2008-01-08T22:01:00.001-08:00

corace head badge, originally uploaded by emilyallen.

my new bike...finished...not here yet.

more photos.

thank you emily.

...mr. pants...

2008-01-06T13:52:00.000-08:00

he's a spectacular beast. today we are becoming accustomed to a harness and what i mean when i say sit.

there are more photos of hamburger head over here...

...frontiers...

2008-01-04T14:55:00.000-08:00

tomorrow my life is getting turned on its ear. more information to follow.

...snoopy pt. 2...

2007-12-27T15:52:00.002-08:00

over at apartment therapy anh-minh did a piece on my living space for their 'house call' section. if you want to take a gander at what i'm livin' in go here...

also, york did a piece on me here...

...happy this time of year to everyone...

2007-12-22T00:16:00.001-08:00

above is a piece i did for a friend of mine of her recently born daughter and recently deceased greyhound. by 'recently' i mean in this past year-ish...give or take some time. just a pinch.

it could just be that i am out of sorts with my hare-brained sleep schedule that i am about to say such things...but this time thing is a crazy, abstract experience. last year i broke out of the conventional year and celebrated my new year on nov. 2nd. but popping back into the jan-dec calendar and looking back over 2007 all i have to say is that everything couldn't be more different and trying and amazing than i had expected from when it started. i am always impressed by this. a person can cram a lot into a year.

best wishes and hopes to a lot more cramming for everyone.

...scavenger hunt...

2007-12-16T02:17:00.001-08:00

it just occurred to me today to go snooping over at the giant robot transmissions page. the photos are up from the opening i had in november. there are a lot of photos to go through. so much so that it only seems appropriate to have a scavenger hunt.

find these:

1. four beardos
2. deb dormody with her coat on
3. deb dormody without her coat on
(if you don't know what deb dormody looks like, well, research is half the fun of scavenging)
4. my dad
5. tamson weston, my editor for an upcoming children's book
6. donna bray, my editor from a children's book i just finished up
7. the two dudes who came to the opening to hit on all the ladies
8. girls named sara, or sarah
9. the photo of me and my brother that is not as half as cute as the one that deb took
10. the dude who's reading books and not looking at art or rubbing elbows
11. 20 people in glasses
12. photographic red eye
13. paddy, one of jason's roomates (hint: she's canadian)
14. people looking like they are explaining things
15. cheryl, the manager at the gallery (hint: she's the nicest)

...to the point...

2007-12-15T20:12:00.000-08:00

i was snooping around my brother's site and found the above entry. i should consider booking him as my full time pr man...

...evolution...

2007-12-07T13:11:00.001-08:00

deb dormody took this photo of jason and me near the end of my opening at grny. it is the best.

after looking at it a bit i noticed two things.

1. jason and i are coincidentally imitating the image behind my head.
2. jason somehow looks like a young mr. roarke...which led to this chain of images on deb's flickr page:

the visual aid of mr. roarke:

and the photoshopped recreation of the photo, only on the island and not in the gallery, because after all...who doesn't want to go to fantasy island:

...one...

2007-12-06T00:59:00.000-08:00

it was one year ago today that i adopted the sneak.

well, technically, my friend emily adopted her for me as i did not have a rhode island i.d..

but all that aside, i realized that today was the day while organizing paperwork....i mean i knew we crossed paths in december, but the number of the day was a whole other issue...

the thing is, is that when i went in to the rescue leauge i had had an entirely different cat in mind. her name was patches and i liked her for her sturdy shoulders and that her nose was this sort of flesh toned color on her marbled face...she reminded me of the fella from the digital underground.

long story short, she was not available that day. a little bummed, a little concerned i was called by emily from a row back with a "come look at this one..."

or something like that.

"come look at this one" indeed. the image that came to mind was a cow polar bear. she was one of the only cats that occupied a large cage by herself. she was huge and stretching. done.

according to the ladies behind the desk the sneak, or "sneaky" as noted by her card on her cage, had been there the longest...seven months. they were happy as all get out that someone was going to take her home. not like relieved that the sneak was taken off their hands, but rather happy that she might have a home.

according to her papers she had been a returned rescue because she bit, clawed at rugs, and didn't get along with the previous owners' year old kitten. they checked off a box that said she was a 'loner'. they had had her for five days.

and i try not to be a person who judges, but it makes me mad every time i see those two words...five days. nothing, no one adjusts fully to anything in five days.

a year later we have the biting under control, her weight under relative control (her initial vet visit determined that she was a 10 lb. cat living in a 13 lb. body. in short, she was 30% overweight) and i can't keep her out of my lap.

happy anniversary.

...dear seattle,...

2007-12-02T00:12:00.000-08:00

you're one good lookin' city...but so much more so in snow...

the sneak thinking she wanted to be outside, but turns out not so much:

the sneak safe inside, but confused:

...wheels...

2007-11-30T00:58:00.001-08:00

one of the things i did on my trip back home was to sort out the remaining details of my bike.

i don't drive. i walk or bus most places and get rides from friends to fill in the gaps. but now it's time to bike.

in providence i was hesitant to bike...on the one hand, i have no peripheral vision and my decision-making timing is tuned to walking, which is slow...on the other hand providence is crazy-go-nuts with narrow streets and bonker drivers. it was in providence that i learned to look both ways crossing a one way street.

i have a better feeling about seattle.

and so i am having a bike built by my friend emily...and i am so excited. i felt like so many people invest in their cars, i could invest a bit in a bike that i would want to use all the time.

this bike is already knocking my socks off.

...thanksgiving past...

2007-11-30T00:31:00.000-08:00

the breakdown:

30+ friends
woodstove
3 tofu pot pies
mashed potato stuffing
green bean casserole
tater tot casserole
poundies
shepherd's pie
greens
salad
black eyed peas
five loaves of home made bread
figs
gingerbread men
stuffing stuffing
gravy
apple cake
cranberry sauce
fried green tomatoes
home made apple sauce
pizza strips
peanut chews
mixed nuts
pies!
late morning mimosas
many bottles of different things
and for some reason i am blanking out on the left hand side of the food table...
hm...

the photo was taken post eating melee...some folks went out on a walk and felt ill, some of us stayed by the fire and felt ill.

...my mistakes...

2007-11-28T13:19:00.001-08:00

right now i am sitting in logan airport, waiting for my flight back to seattle. i have three hours. three hours. it's enough time to get into a decent amount of trouble...drinking games at the wolfgang puck lounge, playing dead, illegal dice games in the ladies' room...instead i am occupying my time with a flashback post.

so, i have just finished up maybe three months of work. i am on a work-free island of time for a few weeks before i jump back in. in the three months of putting every body part to the grindstone i ran into very few snags...it was smooth sailing really. and the thing about working continually from project to project, making 60 or 70 odd pieces of work you have to assume that at some point things are going to mess up. but it wasn't happening, until....

i was maybe half way through finishing work for 'told you so' at grny...it was late late late and i was just going to finish up the night inking in a few more pieces...and halfway twice through one piece and once through another piece my croquill pen blooped ink right in the middle of the paper...in ways that could not be accounted for or covered up by adding leaves or other foliage.

the first time i was all "oh that's okay jen corace, it was bound to happen sometime, let's start over'

the second time "hm. really."

the third time was a short burst of explitives directed at myself, and in the interest and love of symbols for curse words it went something like this: "mother!@#!%&! @#!! you jen corace!!"

i surprised myself.
everything was all better the next day.

anyhow, i made the third misstep into my new motivational poster that hangs above me as i work. over at the ol' flickr account are better images of the other two blobs that happened and what the blob on the third piece became...it is definitely a french fur trapper who is certainly flipping off the girl in the foreground.

also, i know that at some point in my life i learned that there was a word for using symbols to replace curse words. i've looked it up on the interweb and it gave me "maledicta"...which sounds fine but doesn't seem to hit the memory spot. anyone else know?