Tofurkey and Mr. Butter

What can you do on the train for an hour?  

Read, write letters, pick your nose,  OR practice making funny faces and take pictures for comedic relief!

Mikel and I went to a puppet show in Iida last weekend.  It was the first time I have seen people with black bags over their heads that weren't either terrorizing or being terrorized (or executed...)  The performance was really amazing because it takes three people to make one puppet move and there is one or two people off to the side making music and speaking the dialogue.  The puppets seem to float and move on their own.  It's really spooky and lovely. It made me think that the puppeteers, the puppet-makers and the music/dialogue performers could be considered the puppets' souls.  I wonder what my soul would look like if it were outside my body.

"Overboard"  

This piece received special recognition along with, "Silkworm Castle" in the current show at Upstream Peoples Gallery.  Out of the five that are showing, I would not have expected this one to receive special recognition.  

That's the interesting thing about putting work out into the world.  

So here's some more I'm putting out there! 

"Radioactive Maggie"

This is my "Old Lady Baby" kitty who died last Spring.  Suddenly I have a streak of spooky, decaying, toxic paintings coming out of me, all of which are from photos and are mostly recognizable.  This isn't my favorite of all of the new pieces, but it gives an idea of what I have been making (and it is one of the only ones I have on my computer at the moment).  I like this one, though because it looks like there is a fairy or something magical sitting on Maggie's shoulder.   

"Toaster"

This was a totally happy accident and It makes me giggle when I see it unexpectedly.  I say it was an accident, but what I really mean is that I made it really quickly and was being silly and this is what I came up with.  I think it looks like it could be a children's TV show...  a future possibility? It is one of the illustrations I made for "The Scavenger Project."  The theme word is Toaster.  

"There, They're, Their"

The title of this illustration is also the theme word for this piece.  

These are so hilarious and so much fun.  I will be making more this morning during my much awaited free time.  Hopefully I can get these submissions in the mail in the next few days.  I have about fifteen so I need nine more to finish the project.  Here I go!

In case anyone was doubting that tofu can actually be made from scratch: 

Here is proof!  

1.  In the right pot, is a mixture of soy beans and water that were blended and then boiled until the smell changed from "grass" to "tofu."  (The fact that tofu has a specific smell is a good indication of the subtlety of Japanese olfactory senses.)  

2.  Then, we put a colander in a bowl (middle) and two pieces of cheese cloth.  When the mixture on the right is cool enough to handle, put it in the cloth and squeeze.  What comes out is soy milk.  Don't drink it even though it looks delicious and creamy!  The stuff left in the cloth is called Okara (I think) and we put it in the bowl on the left.  (It is mostly fibre and some protein.  Many people mix it with meat to make a kind of burger here.  Mikey and I mix it with veggies and spices to do the same burger-making.)  

3.  When this is finished (there is nothing left in the cooking pot) take the soy milk and put it in a pot.  heat it to a certain temperature and then take it off.  Add Nigari (which has an English name I don't know, but I DO know that it is made by boiling sea water for about 12 hours.  This process makes sea salt and Nigari, a bitter coagulant.  My students made sea salt and Nigari from scratch and used the sea salt to make Udon from scratch also.)  Anyway, add the Nigari to the heated Soy milk and quickly put it in moulds as the tofu starts to form right away.    

Magic!  

I was thinking about making a tofurkey from scratch for Thanksgiving...