posted: August 2, 2010

Last week, beginning July 26th, through Friday, July 30th, the 4-acre field next to our home here in Rhinebeck, was assaulted by huge chopping, digging and ripping machinery carried about the terrain on gigantic treaded tires. Muscular determined men wielding chain saws wove in and out among the machines, seeking out the trees marked with bright red spray painted Xs. We've known for years that one day these machines would arrive, but the economy and other factors has kept the builders at bay for more than a quarter of a century. Now the  time has come and the overgrown property that has been a home for songsbirds, wild turkeys, rabbits, deer, pileated woodpeckers, groundhogs and probably millions of insects and other small creatures.

Huge trees are coming down, too, A few remain along our property line, but even most of those sat on the builder's side of the property line and are gone. A lucky few remain in the field, scattered here and there. Ironically, we live on Locust Grove Road, but most locust trees are now gone, many of them very old. The property has been devastated.

We are heartbroken, but we realize that our property was, long ago, heavily forested, so we can't really get too high on our horses about this. However, we do feel compassion for all the creatures who have survived the onslaught and must now find new habitat. Last night, I saw two adult deer and three spotted fawns enter the field. They nervously wandered past jagged stumps and sawdust looking for food.

At some point during each day last week, I shot footage of the men and machinery. I edited it down into a short movie--a small homage to a small parcel in a small New York village that has been changed forever.


For the high resolution version, go to my Mac MobileMe gallery:
http://gallery.me.com/elwoodhsmith#100099

Or visit the YouTube version here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eP4oQIj4AY

posted: August 1, 2010

posted: July 13, 2010

Peter Morance, an art director at the NY Times (always a joy to work with over the years), called me for this assignment because he knows I spend most of my time in a world without gravity.

Click here to read article.

posted: June 6, 2010

Good news on the new Pelikan pen front. I haven't been all that happy with my used Pelikan 120 pen nibs, so I contacted Richard Binder of Richard Binder Fountain Pens and he suggested I buy a new Pelikan M200 body fitted with an M250 nib.  He said the M250 nibs are gold and therefore have decent spring with a fairly varied line under pressure. He cautioned that the M250 nib is not real flexible out of the box, but that he could custom tailor a more flexible nib for a fee. The basic price for the Pelikan M200 pen with a M250 nib (Binder fine-tunes the nib to assure good flow as part of the sale) costs $132.00 plus shipping. You can write to him via his site if you want to get a customized nib (click on Repair and Restoration on his main page).

Click for Richard's Site

I opted for a non-customized Pelikan M200/M250 nib combo and I love it! I got the medium and it's great for most jobs. I work on 90# Arches cold press watercolor paper and I can get a fairly heavy to quite fine line. I may eventually get a fine version, but one of my old 120s has a fine nib and, while it doesn't flow as well as this new one, it's okay. I'm sure if I send my 120 with nib to Binder, he could fine tune it for better flow. Or, better yet, maybe he could mate the 120 with a gold nib.

By the way, I've been using the Platinum Carbon Black ink now for a while and it's great. It's a little thicker than the old FW ink, but it flows well and doesn't seem to dry up quickly in the nib between jobs. I've let my capped pen sit for two weeks and the ink flowed without my having to rinse out the pen. I'm sure it'll clog up at some point and I may even clean the pen soon just in case, but things are almost back to the good old days.

Happy scrawling!

-ES

A sample of my linework using my new Pelikan M200 with the M250 gold nib. The ink is the Platinum Carbon Black Ink. Flows beautifully and the ink is nice and dark with good coverage. As Richard Binder noted, the pen nib is not super flexible, but it's just right for my needs.

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