renegade 2010

my notes on this year’s renegade craft fair in san francisco (a little late due to comatose computer!):

^^^click through for biggerer!

gentleman fox knickknack wall

more fotoshoppe coloring practice. click. click. click. click. hunch. i like painting so much better!

sunset

sometimes i have to remind myself of things. like, skies don’t have to be blue. it’s a hard habit to break! also, people can be green or purple. meg hunt is very good at remembering those things. take a look at her work if you haven’t seen it already! delightful patterns and colors.

i might have to sit on this picture awhile, it’s a bit late in the season to make postcards (fall on the wane!) maybe next summer in time for september-october-november, i’ll print up some promos and a few to sell.

there used to be words on the ribbon, but i decided i liked it without. what do you think?

we went to the fair

my notes on the renegade craft fair, which took place over the weekend:

lauren & alexa woodward at the velo rouge

we have had traveling musicians, their Danes, and their vanagon around the last couple days. our old pal lauren a.k.a. linky (a gentle giant) has come through town on tour with alexa woodward. lauren plays the washboard, and alexa plays the banjo and they sing together. it is beautiful!

why does the virgin have 8 arms?

MAHARIA

esther was telling us about how in 19th century california, men from india were marrying mexican women. there were laws against brown people marrying white people*, but indian-mexican marriage was ok. they had similar material cultures (chilis, rotis, household altars, etc.) so one would think it would work out beautifully. but sometimes it didn’t, and we were picturing a terrible argument starting with “honey, why does the virgin have eight arms?”

*‘These marriages were more than a matter of individual choice, however, for the fact was that miscegenation laws prohibited marriages across racial lines in California until 1948 [<---OMG!! --ed.]. Most California county clerks saw the Punjabi men as colored, or “brown,” the word they used most often on the marriage license to describe the men’s race. Thus the women the Punjabis married also had to be perceived as “brown,” and that generally meant women of Mexican ancestry.’

julia pastrana: singer, dancer, & bearded lady

for my beards series… let’s not forget the ladies, eh?

Julia Pastrana
Charles Darwin described her thusly: “a remarkably fine woman – she had a thick and masculine beard.” a charming person and graceful dancer with a beautiful voice, julia toured the world as a bearded lady in the mid-1800s.

another beard: emperor norton

hmmmm, this may be a mite difficult to turn into a gocco print. simplify, simplify!

Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, with canine companions Bummer and Lazarus.

norton was this awesome san franciscan who, during the 1800s, went a little crazy and declared himself emperor of the united states and protector of mexico. people back then were totally into it! he wore a blue suit with gold epaulets and they would salute him in the streets. he printed his own currency, which tourists would buy and use in local restaurants. he declared that calling san francisco “frisco” (”which has no linguistic or other warrant”) was a high misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $25. he also made some prescient decrees which eventually came to be: that there should be a suspension bridge built from oakland to goat island to san francisco, and that there should be a tunnel built under the bay.

world beard champ

we were at the velo rouge the other day when in walked (according to the open mike acoustic guitar players) Jack Passion, World Beard and Moustache Champion 2007. the words streamed out of their mouths on ribbons. jack’s beard was truly lovely and luxuriant, a bright red with auburn undertones. he was wearing a green cardie that made it pop beautifully.