Past Blogs

Merriam-Webster defines ‘ephemera’ as “Things that are important or useful only for a short time: items that were not meant to have lasting value.” In other words, disposables such as posters, greeting cards, paper shopping bags, magazines, menus, post cards, travel brochures, theater programs and packaging.

My own art medium has always been paper and my technique is paper cutting. I love the irony that all the greeting cards, posters and brochures I’ve designed through the years were meant to be thrown away. I also appreciate that change is a part of life, and that room has to made for the new. I am not a hoarder as anyone who has ever visited my home can attest.

But here is more irony. I do have a modest collection of ephemera…..disposables that I have not been able to dispose. If select pieces of ephemera are stored long enough, they turn into history. Highlights from my personal gallery of ephemera follow. None of these pieces were purchased: my elders and I simply saved them. I’m guessing you could create your own gallery as well.

I am surrounded by smarts. Almost everyone I know has a smart phone, I live in a smart home and most of the classrooms I visit have smart boards. The planetary invasion of smart electronics is up and running (most of the time).

My techie loving husband has been installing smart home devices for eighteen years now. His main focus is on lighting and our lighting has gotten smarter. Yesterday the kitchen lights were so smart they took control and turned themselves randomly on and off all day. Obviously, in addition to being smart, they have a sense of humor.

Smart boards can be a valued teaching tool in classrooms. Unfortunately, most of the classrooms I visit are so underfunded that they have no appropriate shades to darken the room so the smart board images can be seen. For the foreseeable future, I will be bringing quality art reproductions with me when I visit schools.

Despite these glitches, I know that future smart technology holds promise. While taking a road trip on wide open highways and seldom used back roads is a joy, being stuck in urban gridlock is not. I would love to drive a smart car (or, rather, have a smart car drive me) from Milwaukee through Chicago and Gary.

The Dutch are already testing smart highways that glow in the dark, have interactive road signs and charge electric cars as they drive. They have also created the first smart bike paths that light themselves up as the bikers cycle over them. This creates a beautiful experience as well as a safer one.

I am not as  excited about the smart clothes that a research team in Canada is currently working on. The goal is to turn rigid electronic parts into soft clothing material. Then, for example, you could brush your arm to adjust the volume of your sweater’s music device. But do I really want to turn myself into a radio, and how would I wash my new smart clothes?

On our crowded, polluted, resource limited planet, one thing is certain: if we don’t thoughtfully choose where to apply smart technology, smart will make us humans the new dumb.

My husband is calm, rational, caring and as grounded as the beloved electronics that are his hobby. In other words, a true gentleman or mensch, if you prefer the Yiddish word.

I only know of one pet peeve that he has, and this pet peeve gathers strength with time. Years ago, my spouse finished filling the car with gas, got back in the driver’s seat and announced, “I will never buy gas at this station again.”

“Why not?” I inquired.

His reply, “The screen on the pump did not say ‘Thank You’ when my fill was complete. THAT IS ONLY ONE LITTLE LINE OF CODE!”

It took me a second to catch on. He’s a programmer and was referring to computer code. In my husband’s world, gas pumps as well as people should be well mannered.

I can always tell by the look on his face if a gas pump has been polite or not. I now also look for the final “one line of code” when I’m pumping my own gas. “My husband would not like you,” I’ve been known to mutter at an ungrateful gas pump.

The other day we drove into a car wash. The menu inside lighted up as various operations began……Stop, Rinse, Clean, Rinse, Protective Coat, Air Dry, Thank You.

“Look”, it says ‘Thank You!’ ” I said to my polite husband.

“It hasn’t actually lighted up yet,” he replied. “Wait and let’s see what happens.” We did, and the sign lighted up as we exited. However, I did notice that four tiny lights in the sign were burnt out. We may not be returning.

The title of the book jumped out at me from the shelf in the art museum shop. “Geometry Makes Me Happy” it proclaimed. Math has always been my nemesis with the exception of geometry where I got to draw pictures.

I opened the book and found every page to be a delight and inspiration. A compilation of the work of many young artists from around the world whose art is based on geometric elements, the volume highlighted fine art, photography, graphic design, illustration, industrial design, street art and architecture.

I normally weigh purchases carefully, but this decision was instant. The book needed to go home with me. The books I add to my collection are all working books. I use them to develop art projects and gather information for my young people’s programs. Rarely do I leave the house for school without a bulging book bag. The quality of the reproductions in art books far surpasses those on a Smart Board……and the network doesn’t go down.

“You will love this art project” I told my middle schoolers when we began our geometric art unit. They did. Check out samples of their creations below. Geometry made us all happy. How sad that art is being eliminated from so many schools all over America.

The topics for my weekly blogs come by serendipity. When I posted about waffles last week, I had no idea that pancakes would follow. Life, however, intervened and presented pancakes on a platter.

My husband and I were staying at a Holiday Inn Express and went down to the breakfast room in the morning. The extremely cheerful and pleasant young woman in charge of the breakfast buffet noticed our indecision about breakfast choices and suggested that we should try the pancakes.

“They automatically come out of this machine,” she said pointing to a rectangular box with the name Popcake on it. “I wouldn’t want to work here if everyone were pouring those little cups of batter all over everything.”

I readily agreed with her. I’ve seen the breakfast buffet crowd, including unattended children, attempting to make their own waffles. The mess left behind is world class.

Loving all things tech, my husband decided to give this pancake printer a try. He pressed the OK button. A bar indicator starting creeping along measuring off the progress to the 90 second mark. And then, viola, a pancake came out of a slot on the side of the machine ( via a conveyor belt ) and slid itself onto a waiting plate. A second pancake arrived shortly after.

“Kids go crazy about using this,” our helpful lady added. They are not the only ones, I surmised.

Returning home, I did a bit of computer research on the Popcake. It is not a product of Yankee ingenuity. Created in Sydney, Australia, the invention took six years and many botched pancakes to develop. It came on the market in 2008 and is only sold to commercial food service operations. The price is a whopping $3,700.

I predict that in a while knock offs will be made, the price will drop, and the automatic pancake maker will turn into the hottest, must have Christmas item one of these years.