Laura Egley Taylor

Then a miracle occurs . . .

kazimir and me

February 3rd, 2010

It’s just that there was so much snow today! And that envelope was just lying there. . .

On the left, Kazimir Malevich’s “Suprematist Composition: White on White”  (1918).

On the right, my “Priority Envelope in More Snow than We Expected Today, When Everyone Else Got to Go Home But I’m Still Here Because I Can’t Seem to Get Anything Done” (2010)

OK. So much for today’s Fun with Art History. Time to put the camera away and get this magazine out the door. . .

white-on-white-redux

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rabbit!

February 1st, 2010

calendar

So there’s this thing we say at our house first thing on the first day of a new month.”Rabbit!”

Not sure why, but it has to do with good luck. Also not sure where I heard this, or even when I started doing it. Hadn’t really wondered where it came from til today, so I looked it up. Good old Wikipedia.

Apparently, we’re not the only ones with this tradition.

Nick, my nephew who is in the Peace Corps in Mali, is particularly good at remembering to Rabbit. It’s been a little surreal to get Rabbit emails from him on those occasions when he’s been able to get to an internet cafe on some dirt road in some sleepy village in west Africa. These emails don’t necessarily arrive on the first of the month, but we’ll not get picky, considering the circumstances.

OK. Must get back to the March-April issue. Almost done.

So, rabbit, everybody! And happy February . . .

Photo is of our kitchen calendar, featuring art by Rodney White, an illustrator whose positive outlook and dry sense of humor (in addition to the style of his work—love those textures!) I particularly enjoy. His tongue-in-cheek sayings, painted into each work, often cause me to do a double-take. This one: “I’d rather be. . .”

There’s some gorgeous stuff on his site. Check it out.

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today’s very important production aid

January 25th, 2010

beans

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Espresso Beans.

Chocolate, DARK chocolate. And caffeine. Just about says it all.

I can always give up caffeine again in February. . .
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when the going gets tough, the tough . . .

January 24th, 2010

.  .. sometimes, occasionally, in search of a surge of focus, might possibly try some off-brand so-called “energy” drink because the name sounds like what the tough might need.

Possibly.

go-fast

PS Take my word for it: you can skip this one. TERRIBLE. (Though the can sort of yells at you from the sidelines in a way that’s almost inspiring.)

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finspiration

January 24th, 2010

So many possible blog entries, so very little time this week . . . so, instead, I’m uploading an inspirational image I keep taped to my computer monitor, a postcard I received a couple of years ago from illustrator Tim Foley.

A belated thanks for the lift, Mr. Foley . . .
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in case you missed the memo

January 19th, 2010

popcornbackyardToday is Popcorn Day.*

It is also, around these parts, a snow day.

Which makes it very, very difficult to focus on the tasks at hand (i.e. the March–April issue of the magazine, should, say, we might want to have one this year). Gulp.

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*This, according to Mel’s very entertaining calendar, which none of the rest of us in the office have seen and might doubt the existence of except that it makes work much more fun if we believe.

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Photos of the in-honor-of-the-occasion Especially Buttery Popcorn Mel brought in today. And a chair in our back yard this morning.

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lovely distraction

January 16th, 2010

Yes, I’m here to work. On our March-April issue. Yes. BUT. I just came across an old postcard, mailed a couple of years ago, from illustrator Gwenda Kaczor, which led me to her website, which just provided some lovely, refreshing distraction from the tasks at hand.

Here’s a bit of a peek at her yummy portfolio.gwendakaczor

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Deadline Pressure meets Hat Day

January 15th, 2010

hat-day2Mel has this new calendar, see? And she told Melissa and me yesterday (which was Clean Your Desk Day, by the way) that today, January 15, is Hat Day. And we both forgot.

But, luckily, Melissa happened to have with her a multi-purpose scarf of versatility—which she was able to transform, impressively, with a flick of her wrist, into a sumptuous turban. And I had a pair of scissors and an old magazine from which I was able to fashion (ironic choice of words, considering the result) an almost-looks-beaded-if-you-squint-real-hard headband. And Mel was there, with her bona fide plaid cap, anchoring our Production Department Hat Day with haberdashery legitimacy.

No, of course, we don’t have time to be making and modeling hats. But we figure the endorphins from the laughter just might produce a surge in both creativity and productivity . . .
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Photo: Perhaps I should be a bit more reluctant to post this, but here’s a shot of the three of us on this very busy, very silly day.

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when the going gets tough, the tough. . .

January 13th, 2010

hoopsshoot hoops.

Don’t know what possessed me to purchase an on-sale Nerf basketball goal at Walgreens as I was picking up some Walgreen’s Extra Strength Headache Relief (i.e. acetaminophen, aspirin, and . . . caffeine. Serious stuff, but it does take the edge off the migraine without making me walk into walls), but I did.

And, even though we are, indeed, in the midst of production madness (March–April issue), I brought the new toy to the office, assembled it, hooked it over the standing screen by my desk, and invited managing editor Melissa Chianta and ad prodution manager/staff photographer Melyssa Holik to join me in some therapeutic basketball.

Delightful hilarity ensued, since none of us have exactly kept up our basketball skills over the years. (I’m not sure MC ever had them, though Mel and I both did, actually, yes, play basketball in high school.) We got back into the groove surprisingly quickly, each of us making baskets in quick succession—at which point we stopped for the day, knowing it’s wise to quit while you’re lookin’ good on the court.

Now we just need uniforms . . .

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a three sitting in a chair

January 13th, 2010

Another in the then-four-year-old (now 20!) Reeve’s Number Series: “A 3 sitting in a chair waiting for its friend Alex (It went to get some water from the stream. . .)”a-three-sitting-in-a-chair

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