give voice

I watched a couple of Christmas specials and that got me to thinking. . .  there are so many songs for the various religiously derived holidays, but there are very few for the very secular New Year's. I can only think of one -- "Auld Lang Syne." Not exactly a roof-raiser.

And so I thought maybe "When You Wish Upon a Star" from the film Pinocchio might serve. Also not roof-raiser, but such a lovely sentiment. With or without carbonated wine.

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do

Fate is kind
She brings to those to love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing

Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true

 

Interim

I have always loved this week between Christmas and New Year's. For me, it is as though time itself takes a holiday, as though the year ends with the culmination of the giddy, frenzied run-up to all the big end-of-year festivities
and then a switch is thrown
and the glare dims
and the relentless jingle-jangle sound shuts off. . .
and then there are days of time-out-of-time, a kind of open, quiet, meditative time that can't be measured as go-go usualness, as the hurly-burly of dailiness.

Instead, there is
stillness and quiet.
Short afternoons
that sidle into the long nights of deep winter.
Stillness and quiet.
A catching of the breath
and an exhalation,
a slow gathering
of anticipation,
and then the new year.

And then, only then,
the clock ticks over
and time starts again.
Already, the night is shorter.

Go well, my friends.

now, where was I?

Been a long time.

Let's see, it's late 2012 and as the Cowardly Lion might observe, "unusual weather we're having."  September, tornado watch; October, hurricane; November, snowstorm (ish) then freakishly warm --which was a mercy, given the hurricane damage to so many.

I have been lucky. The house held and I had no ill effects from the weather. I didn't lose power, water, or heat but the phone comes and goes, as did the Internet which now seems reliably back. We lost several trees in the park across the street but they fell into the park not onto the street. Someone siphoned 3/4s of the gas from my full-preparedness full tank, but that was a small inconvenience and I do hope whoever did it genuinely needed the fuel more than I did. I got a locking gas cap as promptly as possible. 

My old computer quietly announced Blue Screen Failure. There was time to save all my files and such, but it took a long time to find my old software for the new one computer. I have found it, now I just need to load it so I can go back to business as somewhat more usual.

Before that just a long inward-facing stretch o' time and much clearing of three generations of stuff from this old house. Which, now that I think about it, probably contributed to the inwardness.

I hope you are well and thriving.

cleared the bench

I had a bench-clearing day in the studio on Tuesday. There were things pending for the guild show.The red & white button sampler:


12 x 18 inches

And
My piece for the art quilters' challenge, Forms of a Dress. This challenge was my own idea and it took me way too long to come up with an idea for my own idea.


10 x 14 inches

And
A piece for the silent auction that I started -- gulp -- last year and didn't finish in time. It's been scowling at me from the workbench for about 10 months, but I knew it's time would come.


forgot to measure, maybe 15 x 18

So those are all done and out of the house.

On the weekend, I had the idea that the line work I've been doing in ink might be interesting on discharged black duck, so I had at it with the bleach. I don't do this very often and I forgot how fast liquid bleach can be, so I ended up with black stripes on orange panels, rather than t'other way around. So I added some Soft Scrub and left it overnight.

Rinsed out, this is still not even close to what I hoped for, but evocative. Of what, I don't know, but something will come of it.

economies of scale

Last year, whilst doing my almost-one-a-day projects, I did some line drawings that I liked. I wanted to try them in a much larger scale so I made some studies in a more intermediate size.

Originally, at 4 x 6 inches (10 x 15cm), they looked like this:

At 7.5 x 22 (19 x 56cm), they look like this:



color smudged (unsuccessfully, I know) under this one






forgot I wanted to "reference the frame" here

 I have paper that's 45 wide, so I'm going to try that next. But I think I need to clear off the dining table and devote it to this higher (or, rather, bigger) calling.

ms. cogito

S: I've been thinking.

M: What about?
S: I've been thinking about getting back into my art.
M: And you're going to start by getting onto my art?
S: What?

S: Oh. I can't find my paper.
M: If it had teeth it would bite you.

S: Oh.
M: Well?
S: Maybe later. I need to do some more thinking.

resolutions

One of my goals for 2012 is To Get Out More. Since I rarely leave the house, I could hardly get out less, so this should be relatively easy to accomplish.

Last week, while in Delaware to see my family, my aunt and I went to the Brandywine River Valley Museum. They put up a new building since I was there last and the floor plan is kind of dumb and cumbersome, but Jamie Wyeth's pig always charms me and the garden sculptures (which I think are also new since I'd been there) included

this h-u-g-e bunny.

There were cows in the garden as well, but I was impressed by the rabbit.

Today I took a run up to Beacon to see the little paintings I did for the open call at the Mill St. Loft gallery.

Those are my Guardians (see post for January 5th, below) in the upper left corner. Immediately below them are three lovely fiber art pieces that are already Sold Out (note the lack of little white tags appended below them).

And never let it be said that I don't support young people in the arts. I bought a piece by an artist who is, I was told, 8 years old. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I'll do that and post it after I retrieve on Sunday.

This "get out of the house" thing seems to have a lot going for it.

on guard

I'm beginning to understand Jeanne Williamson's fascination with orange construction fencing. I'm getting some mileage out of some broken bits I unearthed while cleaning.

Guardians 4
ink and gouache on paper
18 x 24 inches (45 x 61 cm)

This is not quite done and the bright white bit at the top is glare on metallic paint but that may be a clue to how to finish it.

show time

Inspired by the Infinite Variety show at the Armory (March 2011), my guild is doing a red and white challenge for our annual show in May. I hadn't intended doing a button sampler when I started, but I'm always charmed when I see one, and now I have one.


12 inches high x 18 inches wide (30cm x 46cm)
Old and new buttons, embroidery floss,
variegated cotton thread, red tulle, white muslin.
Grosgrain rbbon as binding, canvas lining.

Detail

 Maybe this will be the year that I finally learn how to use my digital camera. I was pretty good with my film camera but this no longer newfangled stuff remains frustrating.

i've been away from you a long time

and undergoing more than my usual pre-holiday, holiday, and post-holiday gloom and ruminations.

But I have been making things and decisions and such. One decision is to take up the blog again. So here I am. And here are three small paintings (6 x 8 inches) I did for an open call to benefit a gallery in Beacon, NY:

Stuck for titles, I called them Guardians 1, 2, and 3