working

A  number of things have been percolating along agreeably from winter into spring. I picked up a class at the Hudson Valley Writers Center in Sleepy Hollow. I had forgotten how much I love teaching. The class has been going really well -- largely because of the talent, diligence, and enthusiasm of the students -- and I'm on the calendar through the end of the year. In the unfailing spirit of "work begets work" they asked me for a second class and that's going into the next catalog. This tiny job doing something I love is so much nicer than sitting in the house nursing the fear that I'll never work again.

I recently saw a call for entries on the theme "How Simple Can you Get?" I can get pretty simple. There was some confusion about the date that the call would close. I was ready in time, but decided not to enter. I'm enjoying this free-form embroidery in a scroll format and I want to make a few before I start thinking about sending them into the world. One day I will learn either to focus the camera or how my software works (or both) but clearly this day is not that day.


Time and Tide
9 inches x 34 inches /23cm x 86cm
Muslin, lace,tone-on-tone commercial prints.
Hand embroidered, machine constructed.
(monks cloth background)

 

 

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.