Seamless Skin

Basketball, Art, and Breakthroughs

My weekends are anchored by little league basketball. Both of my grandsons, ages 3 and 5, are playing. Before it turned cold (although today it was 61 and sunny, reasons for it be damn, ya know I wasn't complaining!), I was taking the 5 year old to his bus stop in the mornings and after his bus arrived, I would keep on going (most days) to the studio.

I took much of December off and January's days were filled with more Nana duties in the day and evenings with the other 2 grand-delights.  As much as I love them, there is a very good reason for menopause...50something year old women should NOT have day in and night in care of small children.  But we now have daycare!!!!!!!! (and the crowd goes wild!!!!!!!!!!).  So now Nana and Papa just have the evenings with them. Ahhhh, much better.  

Last Friday was an art reception for Hope and Healing. Twenty-one artists donated work to a non-profit that serves women, men, and children who are victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.  I sent Urban Exodus (formerly Urban Egression) on "permanent loan".   (excuse the bad photography, it's the camera's fault ;D )

Carter and Anaya and my Mother went with me.  I could not have had two toddlers in tow without my Mama's help!!!  Here is Anaya saying "look look".  This is the only quilt she responded to...It is a Penny Sisto quilt.

Carter was going through the exhibit saying "wow, wow, wow".  It was mostly abstract work that he liked...the few he said he didn't like were realism in landscapes.  Here are snapshots of the two that "wowed" Carter the most.  

The work on top was created by Keith Kleespies and my apologies to not remembering or being able to find the artist who created the work on the bottom.  

Negotiating Territory is now hanging in the newest gallery at Mellwood, The Kore Gallery.  It will be there until the end of March or April.  

I'll be returning to some semblance of what passes for normal at the Studio.  I was there today for 6 hours...5 of which I hand embroidered 8 of the boats for a total of 13 completed...only 164 more to go.  I have to mentioned a breakthrough I had while stitching (Obama is going to beat the pants off of ANY republican candidate! okay, politics aside).  My breakthrough was this...I had been isolating embroidery thread colour within colour segments on the boats...and then I thought, why not use the thread across colour segments...use the thread to bridge the segments...here is my breakthrough in a picture: 

I'm a convert...

I'm good, I'm very good!  Peter has been on vacation for most of December.  It is wonderful to see him so relaxed and not carrying around work all the time, even though work does make life sweet most days.  

We've been enjoying coffee together in the mornings, and grandkids, watching tv, and listening to music.  I'm actually looking forward to him being able to retire if the "creek don't rise".  

The other thing I've been doing is reading like a mad woman! Thanks to the Kindle Fire Peter gifted me.  Some months ago I downloaded Kindle for the PC...it was okay and I like reading between surfing, but still was somewhat lukewarm on getting a reader, etc.  The best thing I enjoy is the back lighting which doesn't require lamp light for reading in the dark.  The 2nd best thing I enjoy is not buying a hard copy book of  books that will not get a 2nd read from me...there are some books that are real treasures to me, but there are some that once I've closed the book, it is over!  Not all reference books require physical space, even if they are art related.  This morning I downloaded Digital Art Wonderland and I just finished reading a book on African American Rootwork and Sacred Symbols of the Dogon.  Although informative, (Sacred Symbols was not quite what I expected), I was reading them to inform some visual ideas I had...somethings struck, most didn't right now...but 1. I didn't pay full price and 2. neither book will occupy space in what is already very limited space and 3.  multiple titles are portable.  So I'm a convert to book readers.

Its been about 2 weeks since I've been in the studio.  I did bring a study piece home to work out some hand embroidery on the "boats".  It boiled down to "yeap, the thread work and colour choices make the boats pop even more which translates to 'gonna take me more time to finish'.  

I'm considering trapunto, which I've never attempted, to make the boats stand out more.  The embroidery will only be through the top layer.  The blue section will be quilted by machine. Each boat is around 3 inces across...the actual top has about 150 boats.  This is what I'll be working on when I stay home from the studio (i.e. too damn cold).  

No further revelations have come to me about this piece in addition to it being my response to Troy Davis' execution.  

Honoring Valerie & Robert White

Our Police Chief, Robert White, is leaving Louisville for Denver, Colorado.  The 2.5 years before he arrived were horrific ones marked by vigilante police justice and poorly trained officers that resulted in 10-11 deaths of suspects...one while incarcerated, one while already handcuffed with his hands behind his back, one mentally retarded man, and so on.  When I think how I've used my own dogged strength (to reference W.E.B. DuBois) from being torn asunder and that my anger and outrage eventually succumbed to brief periods of feeling like my life, and those of my children, had no value in this city solely based on the fact we were a Black People, I understood once again how those with less resolve and survival skills and consciousness fall prey/victim to enemies and the powerful.  Even as I write this and reflect on those 2.5 years, my stomach has knots and my skin is crawling.  Chief White turned the police department around by holding Accountability, with a capital A, for members who took the oath to serve and protect.  He embraced ALL of the community and updated training and focused on community policing.  Still not a perfect system, but SUBSTANTIAL progress was made and it made a difference.  I can't say I'm not apprehensive about who will replace him.

dignified 

With his leaving, the other loss, is to the artistic community.  Valerie White is married to Robert White.  She is a supremely intelligent and talented and gracious!  She is a blessing not only artistically, but makes me, as a woman, want to nuture the best part of me more than I do.  For that, I know she will always be a part of my soul-circle, but the gift of peeking into her artistic process from time to time will be sorely missed along with her critiques and assistance in my own work.  Valerie has held several shows while here and her imagery and craft never fails to leave me breathless!  No one is doing work like Valerie and it is extremely refreshing!  One of my treasured memories is her riding shotgun to my first time at the Crow Barn where we hooked up with Juanita Yeager, another Louisville artist and treasure who no longer lives here.

story-telling

Valerie and Robert will leave huge holes in the soul of this city...

Meeting deadlines

okay, I have at least 3 coming up...one in October, one in November, and one in January.  I'm infamous for missing them because I can't work as fast as my head finishes a piece and secondly, because I don't hold to a strong dictate of what I'm going to do when in the studio.  Like last week, I had every intent of picking something back up when I arrived.  The world was feeling different for me the day after Davis' execution.   Also, I was in the middle of reading a enthralling travel book on a woman's journey to West Africa in search of Indigo and it's meaning, Indigo: In Search of the Color that Seduced the World by Catherine E. McKinley.   It was both of these I believe that came to bear on a change of plans.

Now what I had observed about myself that day was I was moving slower and quietly both physically and mentally. Shortly after I arrived at the studio a certain phrase came to me and held me spell bound and I chose to follow it in cloth and ended up starting a whole new piece, and thus far, I'm very pleased with it.  The size is large, for me, and I'm wondering if I can have it ready for one of the looming deadlines...maybe I should change deadline to lifeline...meeting it could mean a whole new life for a piece of art.  

This week I played around with video taping in the studio...I think I need one of those twisty style tripods.  So far my camera man (youngest son) hasn't been convinced of all the exciting things that I do while at Mellwood and hasn't jumped at the chance to film me.   I mean what 20 year man wouldn't want to party like this!?

 

 dye painted cloth wrapped in newspaper waiting to be steamed

It was a smoky black indigo day...

Yesterday was a really looonnnnnnngggg day...I was out for over 12 hours straight.  After taking my oldest grandson, Adrian, to his school bus, I kept going and a headed to the studio, (by 1:00 I was ready for a nap and thought about my comfy chair which I miss).  I worked on trying to redeem my bruised ego from last week's disappointments.  I started 3 new cloths and reached the point were I was ready to steam them before going any further.   Here they are wrapped in newspaper with the ones I did last week and forming a sculpture in the window...

While I was there Petra called me to remind me of a presentation at The Filson Historical Society that started at 6 which I thought was going to be on Thursday.  My shirt was filled with dye stains. Petra lives close to Mellwood and the presentation was also not far away.  Petra agreed to loan me a shirt to keep me from having to go all the way home.  So I stayed at Mellwood until 5 and headed to the presentation...Two Centuries of Black Louisville: A Photographic History.  These 3 authors are powerhouses alone in their respective fields and the book represents 15-20 years of research on their individual efforts and 5 years of working on the book collectively.  

After the presentation Petra treated me to dinner at Smoketown USA.  A place I kept promising myself to go to but have never tried, mainly because it is not in a high visibility area.  But the food was good, the joint was crowded for a Tuesday night, and the back room is a yard sale room where you can purchase other people's junk that you don't need.  Cool.  

I'm not sure if I'm going to the studio today...the spirit is willing but the body is weak.  I might just stay home and curl up with my laptop to read a downloaded book, Indigo: In Search of the Color that Seduced the World, by Catherine E. McKinley.  

 

The Birthday Boy

There is something about turning 3 that looses that baby essence and entering little boyhood.  He is shedding his baby pudginess and sprouting taller and fits less comfortably in Nana's lap...

Dinosaurs are his newest interest.  

We had cake and ice cream on his actual birthday and then Ms. Sharonda threw him a party on Saturday.  

The party crew...cause this is the way we roll!

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Shake dem Bones!

Maybe this is preparing me to go through a Georgia O'Keefe phase.  These are the beautifully unique to me gifts that I was given by Penny Sisto, artist-sistah-friend that she is.  For this city girl, these are like WOW!  

Penny lives in a rural area and picks these up on her walks and people bring them to her as well so she has a growing collection.  Okay, if I was going to pick up items where I live I guess it would be soda and beer cans because that is what people do who live in cities, right?  So not as interesting to me as these beautifully shapped old decaying cow and deer bones.

Adrian, my oldest grandson, said "cool" when he first saw them and Carter, my youngest grandson, said "ewwww, thats nasty"  A studio neighbor asked me what I planned to do with them...honestly, do I have to have a plan?  I don't think so, but I'm thinking about drawing them for awhile...I think Penny said she used a small bone in one of her recent pieces now showing at the Carnegie Center for Art and History in New Albany, Ind in a solo exhibit...Carnegie is the place that hosts annually Form Not Function.

I did make it into the studio yesterday and although I was productive it wasn't with intent...i finished the discharge.  It was killing me to stamp so orderly so I loosened up...but looking at the outcome, I wish I had forced myself to continue on with the more controlled pattern...ummm, process (right hand) vs outcome (left hand)...which will have priority next time????

That orangish glow is from a back light bouncing off a painting by Aimee, studio mate.

and this is me attempting to sketch directly on fabric...off and on for about a year or so I've been sketching faces...the seed hasn't developed wildly enough yet that any but I'm getting there...

this is the start...sketching from the photo in the collage below.

Okay, let's have some fun...

This will be a communal creation.  A collage I started yesterday while visiting a friend.  What I do well is creating backgrounds and I gravitated to the background cloth and I could have added some stitching and metal embellishments and some writing or lettering and I would have been satisfied...But getting satisfaction was not the way to go...pushing myself was the cause for the day.  We did a lot of talking which is why I didn't get any further than this... My first suggestion is to add color on the white geometric shapes surrounding her face.  Gimme some suggestions on where to go next.  As I make changes I'll post the updates.

My friend gave me the coolest gifts yesterday!  When I showed them to my grandsons, the oldest one, age 5 said "cool" and the youngest one, age 3 said "ewwww" and backed way back.  Look for a post over the weekend to find out what they are! 

 

For avoiding trains

I go to my studio.  This is what I did yesterday.

2 quarts of print paste, one for hand-painting the other for screening and breakdown printing, 2 different consistencies,

and soy wax resist. the wax is still on the fabric here.

The morning has started out stressful...I was so declaring my mother's move as an emancipation from stress and worry but we're bumping heads over the way she is handling some affairs and I'm torn between sitting back and watching the train wreck or trying to guide the train to another track.   I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to handling business...I like for things to be settled, neat and tidy, to avoid surprises and crisises.  My Mother is stubborn, I mean STUBBORN and is of the mindset that one doesn't discuss details of personal affairs especially with one's children.  I'm of the mindset that too much secrecy and lies causes confusion and chaos in intimate relationships.  I know the past year has been an adjustment for her but she has continued to live like my father's income is still there.  As much as I find him annoying, I think we all need one long Dr. Phil session.  Is 10am too early for bourbon on the rocks?

 

Stuff!

We, as in all of us generally speaking, have just too much of it! STUFF!  We, as in all of us generally speaking, are a disposable culture.  Capitalism depends on it.  But our saving, hoarding, collecting, keeping, whatever word makes you comfortable, of stuff is leftover from our days when individuals were inventive out of neccessity and some great grandfather made stuff by hand and made it to last through 10 generations and we inherited and utilized items of our dead relatives stuff.  But in this day an age, too much is too much...and how long do we keep hauling around our ancestor's stuff while accumulating our own stuff??  

All that to say this...tomorrow is moving day for my 80plus years young mother.  It has been long hard tedious road filled with stress, anger, relief, tears, and tempers...but tomorrow, August 1st is an what I hope will be true emancipation day for all of us.  Her new space is light and airy and I hope she will feel less burdened in it.  My brother managed to come and salvage his cassette tapes from the 80s and his primitive literary journals, my sister managed to salvage her graduation gown, drill team uniform with the go-go boots, and a beloved niece I hope will become firmly grounded as she matures into the new changes and using a 60 year old dresser drawers she is getting from my mother.  All the stuff that didn't get sold, salvaged, or reused, is going into storage.  and me?  well, all my sewing "stuff" is boxed, bagged, and rolled ready to go into storage tomorrow.   Although, I wish I could have come up with a better alternative, surprisingly, at the moment, I'm in a good head space.  

This morning I rose and got out of here before 8 and headed to the solitude of my wet studio.  I spent the time weeding out "stuff" to take to the next grab bag giveaway at the LAFTA meeting and throwing out "stuff".  I also, straightened and cleaned off my print table and just had to snap a pic, because it has never looked like this:

looks inviting, doesn't it?

But after leaving my mother's tonight I dropped off 2 boxes of "stuff" that came out of The Basement Workshop, so it doesn't look like this anymore.  But come Tuesday, I'm going to find places for the relocated "stuff" and get to doing something to some fabric heah!

Memory vs. Imagination

My mother is giving up her home of 46 years.  I've been thinking about my attachment to the houses I've know in my 50 years.  There have been four with deep roots and the art of Kristin La Flamme kept creeping in my head today...specifically her Homes and Roots series.  I'm not certain how I will address the sense of rootlessness.  Its hard for me to know when I should push back against the weight of memory or when to relax into imaginings for tomorrows.  I've not been processing too heavily though, just trying to stay focused on what needs to be done.

Much of her household things will be going into the garage sale this weekend and next weekend, plus I've listed items on CL.  My mother's home was her pride and joy.  She appears to be okay and looking forward to her move into a contemporary 2 bedroom apartment for seniors.  

The heat and humidity have slowed my roll but I'm still making it into my studio.  Mo has been dropping me off and Peter picking me up.  Today, I was there about 2.5 hours and washed out my two lastest fabric crushes and painting soy wax on this fabric.  My inspiration is African Kuba cloth.  There are no meanings I've assigned to these symbols but I do keep wondering about how language and meanings transform and are fluid and not set cultural icons over time...again it is that weight of memory/history vs the imaginations into the future thing happening.

Last weekend Peter and I went to shoot pictures at the waterfront.  I just used my Nikon S630 point and shoot.   These are looking over the Ohio River.

 

 

 

Slow Cloth for a Slow Body

I knew yesterday was going to be slow-going.  I was a mixture of doing with intent and off the cuff.  Off the cuff was throwing a bunch of fabric  off the clothes line into the bucket of soda ash for over-dyes because I got irritated by walking into them as I was messing around on the print table.  Intent was cutting more shapes from the contact paper to use as a resist and scrapping over the fabric with thickened dyes. Off the cuff was doing this screen of break down printing when I said I was going to wait until next week.  

Intent was stitching slow cloth.  Off the cuff was ordering pizza for dinner because I was too exhausted and in pain to come home and cook.

Today is a "Mama Day".  I'll be running errands with my Mother and then going to the wake for my great Aunt this evening.  This evening is going to be a big night at Mellwood with the Brewfest going on and the First Friday Trolley Hop in the NuLu district...I might attempt dropping by Mellwood for a short while to socialize but the evening is calling for chilling out as soon as I can get back home.

Out of the mouth of babes...

WHEW!  Let me tell you!!!!!  I was be-bopping and hip-hopping in the stu-dee-o to-day!  This morning while my two and half year old grandson was saying grace over his pancakes he also threw in a request to bless my strength.  We kinda chuckled as it seemed like an odd afterthought.  While in the studio I didn't even think about his prayer.  It wasn't until I was driving home that I remembered it and I got so tickled.  His request was granted because I just couldn't stop!  I amazed myself and couldn't explain the energy.  But her are peeks to give you some idea...

 

If you use dyes to paint, scrape, on fabric or do break down printing then you have some idea of the processes involved.  If this is foreign to you and you have questions about what the pictures represent, feel free to pose your questions in comments.  

I got there today around 2 and it wasn't until 7 that my body began to crash and it took me another hour to straighten up and I hobbled on out but I'm telling ya I feel great and I am looking forward to turning in soon and getting a good night's sleep!

 

Let the Work I've Done Speak for Me.

I've been rolling along since coming back from The Crow Barn.  I've joined the Y with Mo, my daughter, and am exercising 3 times a week.  Remember last summer it was me and Adrian, my oldest son going to the gym at the Family Life Center (affiliated with the church where my name is on the roll but my seat is vacant).  We did that for 4 or 5 months...well I'm back at it again and trying my semi-best (working up to my very best) to deal with diabetes as well.  

Dye painting has been my focus with the exception of a week spent to make traditional quilt blocks in felt to be used at the Speed Museum in their children's area to coincide with an exhibit of traditional quilts.  That was sweet to be able to do for them on commission.  

Now I'm back to the fabric.  The next piece in the Crowbonics will be The Sperichil (The Spiritual).  I'm listening to an interview with Joe Carter as part of my research for the piece.  The 2nd piece that I had going morphed into a study instead and where I'm at now is working with the image of the crow, a trumpet, an adinkra symbol and marks from African alphabets/syllabaries and my own writing and symbols to go into the sheer lamination and on the background fabric.  I'm still on search for a local source of very very sheer silk or polyester organza.  Claire and Leslie bring some from the UK that is amazingly sheer and now that we only have the chain fabric stores, I've been disappointed in what is available.  But I have one source to check in Shelbyville, up the road from Louisville.

I'm going to make a transition in the train of thought here due to my mother just calling me to tell me a beloved Great Aunt passed away yesterday.  Aunt Doll was married to my Grandmother's brother.  She was a well spoken, well coordinated, soft toned voice, strong opinionated woman with proper leanings (somewhat of an exception in my rather loud leaning, shut your mouth, sarcastic bent family).  The last time I saw her was last summer when she sang at my father's funeral.  

Directly related is that Crowbonics is about my ancestors and how we communicate.  I'm really trying to express the nuances of communication between and across generations.  It really isn't tangible and sometimes isn't valued and sometimes is suppressed to the point of invisibility.  Aunt Doll is apart of my cultural transmissions as a woman and artist struggling to abstract, cultivate, and manifest, (like some archaeologist digging in dirt 1000s of years old), these phenomenon.  I just want the work I've doing to speak for me.

WOW! will have to be sufficient.

This is the part where I'm suppose to write something coherent about my week with Claire and Leslie at The Crow Barn.  A very rare occasion that words seem insufficient.  

I have to acknowledge that all my fears and anxieties proved unnecessary!  I stayed well and am still well!  My stamina held until about Thursday when I began to slow down but still it was a full and amazing week for me! And every personal snafu that presented itself worked out smoothly for me which added to the joy and productivity.

I really don't even have adequate photos to convey the week I had because stopping to take photos was an inconvenience and using the camera rarely entered my mine but here are a few:

This is the beginning of a new cloth and a picture of my print table. The bottom photo on the right is me presenting my review to the rest of the group on closing day.  My 2 goals where to create a palette inspired by a painting of Barbara Earl Thomas and end the week with paper lamination.  I came very close to the palette and will continue to work with it here at home.  One of the paper laminations didn't turn out. I used too much medium and I think my print table was too soft...at least it was softer then my own.  The other is destined for greatness!  

I have to give a shout out to my girl Bev, who came to my rescue.  Over an hour from home and close to Cincy, Mo calls to tell me I left my silk screens.  Bev lives just east of Cincy so I called her to ask where I could pick up some screens...and Bev, being Bev, had a friend, etc.  She met me off the highway with 3 screens that she cleaned up for me!  Thank you for the blessing Bev!

Later in the week Bev, and Kel who lives 15 minutes from the Barn, came up Thursday after dinner and I gave them a quick tour of the Barn and then on Saturday Bev (an artist but not textiles (YET)) went to Athens to view Quilt National!  The treats within the treat was seeing Olga Norris' and Judy Martin's work in person.  I think Olga captures bodily gestures like nobody's business and Judy meshes hand work and philosophy so gracefully. I identify with it somewhat but moreso, am mesmerized by it.  However the one quilt that I would have taken home with me if I could was Vera Loves Her Gun by B. Michele Maynard.  The sole factor was it's ability to make me laugh out loud and the strong narrative it held.  I stood there in front of this quilt trying to concoct a story and laughing in between.

I've almost got everything put back in place in the studio but I'm also not waiting.  I've made up 8 quarts  of print paste,different recipes and varying thicknesses.  Soda soaked fabric was left on the line to dry yesterday and I'm going in later today to over-paint with thickened dyes.  My aha moment was being able to see where already dyed and over-dyed cloth still has room to take more dye.  It was most apparent to me while ironing the cloth.

In addition to painting, I'm hand stitching Primordial. The base is silk paper to felt.

 

Visitors make the Trolley Hop!

Last night's Trolley Hop went a long way in reviving my spirit.  For the woman who actually came looking for my demo on screening with thremofax machines, the 2 women who inquired about prices in their colorful jackets, the close to retired gentleman who is thinking about looking into Paducah's Artist Relocation program, to a friend of Nancy who previously purchased Sankofa Bird and has it hanging in her kitchen, I say thank you for stopping in.  Visitors really are challenged to walk through the building which is huge to find artists in their studios which looks sparse due to the size of the building and the number of spaces where artists select not to participate coupled with the vacant spaces.  I'm always trying to recruit artists to consider leases there, as it generates energy when working around other creative folks.   

Some of what I saw that amazed me last night was an artist who carves hummingbirds and butterfiles using wine corks, chopsticks and other recycled items.  I was stunned thinking about how his mind visualizes wine cork to very detailed and intricate hummingbirds.  I tend to think in broad strokes and fluid gestures so it leaves me in awe to think out another may see in small miniature details.  I can't recall his name and I've checked the Louisville Artisans Guild website looking for his work and its not there, otherwise I would share with you.  I'll get it today when I go over to my studio.

The first demo cloth was testing out freshly made screens and getting a view of how they might play together in a design.  

The second demo cloth was one that I immediately fell in love with and the screen will be one of my "go-to"s.   I drew the image in response to "branching out", the April theme for The Sketchbook Challenge (see button in the side bar).

My Mother came through the first surgery beautifully.  She will be having a second surgery on Monday and will need a little more care and support.  Going over to the studio will be "catch is as catch can".  Peace.

Does my sign look silly? (silly is a good thing)

I'm beginning to think there is no such thing as "routine".  Not sure if it speaks to an inability to gain some edge of control over my time and what I react to...or if "control" is a  myth that doesn't really work.  This morning was about excercising just the opposite of both of these.  I was drowsy, sleepy, and dopey all rolled into one but I went to the studio anyways.   Nothing intentional happened...did some breakdown printing with the screen seen in the previous post below this one.   Also, made a sign to hang in my window.  This is found embroidery from who knows where...I thought about making a quilted sign and at some point I might feel disposed to actually doing that. 

I might go back and wiggly waggly outline some of the letters to create more visual play.  Even though there is a cultural, social, and economic reasoning behind the name, it mostly tickles me when I say it so I thought why not add a little visual comedy to the appearance of it.  I thought about using burlap, lace and cheesecloth but thought it best to just keep it simple in time, appearance, and process.

Deb, my sister is on her way here to stay with my Mother for about a week or so and I am preparing to go over and spend the night as well if I can get the stationary 02 tank at her house I have one here and one there)  filled tonight.  I recently learned that the liquid tanks evaporate on their own even when not being used and the one there is on E.  My mother is having what we expect to be an out-patient surgery and has to be at the hospital at 5:30AM tomorrow!  I believe I just got sleepy typing at the thought of it!  

Hangeth in yall!

There is a poem with a line...

"I'm not waving but drowning...." by Steve Smith.  (title is for dramatic re-entry to blogging)

My art making focus is being interrupted by bronchitis, yet again.  I haven't even had the physical energy to take up another creative diversion this time which accounts for me not having much to yak about here.   You may know how much I dislike winter.  I've not been well through most of this season.  It was just at the end of January that I had "a bout" (throwback term there).    And sometime in late Dec./early Jan. my pulmonologist called in antibiotic and I was hospitalized in mid-December w/ pnuemonia.   Its been a very sequestered winter indeed!  My log book of ideas for quilts is jammed and I just wish I could have a long, I mean really long time frame to focus  not on ideas but making the ideas manifest.  

The unspoken threads that weave through the above are realizations that I'll capsulize: one, death is not something one "gets over"...instead it sifts through you sometime slowly and gently, other times with more weigh.  two, now that my mother is a widow, her need for support in many things is growing.  three, it is very difficult to watch young adult children get "seasoned" into adulthood.  (Deb, I really think this is what your neighbor, (was her name Mrs. Sweatt?) meant when she would say "watch a monkey bump his head").  A friend said our generation is the panini generation; slap it on, turn up the heat and we get it from both sides at the same time.  If you been there or are here now, then you know what is going unsaid; and it is possible that the frequencies of illness have not been solely due to winter (ya think?) 

On the good days I've managed to get my studio ready to continue on Crowbonics (languishing) but actual work has been going back in to re-do what I wanted to be finished pieces but in my heart knew better.  This isn't a diversion as my goal is to have 10-15 small pieces to hang in a coffee shop where I'm on schedule this Fall, so I'm calling this my coffee house period (insert low snickering chuckle).  I think I selected October.  Here are some recent desk top snaps:

both still pieces still advancing toward completion

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Annnndddddddddd, my really great news is I have a studio mate!  I started out in '09 with a mate, a sista-friend of over 30 years.  She mostly made her items at home and used the space for display, but since last summer when she moved out of state, I've been flying solo.  I had one serious contender but our combined needs didn't fit the space.  I looked at sharing larger space with 3-4 other artists there but then decided against it, looked at cheaper spaces there but the water source is too convenient and I have 2 entry doors which is a rarity for the price I pay, (I think 2 doors is a psychological comfort for people strolling through).  I gave up on the idea of moving or finding a art mate and then bam!  My new mate is Aimee.  She does daily paintings that are small enough to do on a table and wants to return to doing them now that she is close to graduating with a degree in history.  I felt very comfortable with her and she endeared herself when I didn't have to explain "Chitlin' Circuit".  Grant it, she didn't fall over herself telling me how brilliant a name it was,  but none of us are perfect, eh?  (a light snarky on my part)

Seems like there was more news I wanted to share....ummmmm, oh, the next Artist Interview is coming around the first week in April.

And now to close with an indulgence of being a Nana :) Here is the recent birthday girl!

 

time...travelling

Yesterday we (Ade and I) finally got my supplies back into the studio.  The weather improved over the weekend but its predicted to turn nasty on Tuesday.  The studio is a 240 sq. feet of MESS! but it felt soooo good just to be in the space even though I wasn't there even long enough to take my coat off.  On our way out I ran into a new tenant, Don, and chatted his head off.  I'm a fairly reserved laid back person but there is something that happens to me when I'm inside Mellwood...I have these spells where I become a chatty cathy...when it happens I'm totally comfortable, but it always makes me notice myself because it is out of the ordinary for me.  Anyway, Don is a painter, who has a corner studio with wonderful natural light.  Mellwood has started a blog.

I also made it to hear Jane Dunnewold give a juror talk (she juried the LAFTA exhibit there) at the Patio Gallery in the Jewish Community Center with Mo and Petra in tow.  It was a great crowd but not so much so that it prevented me from introducing myself.  I identified with her perspectives on art-making and I have my fingers crossed that this will not be Jane's last visit to Louisville.  She is teaching her second workshop today and tomorrow on lamination.  I didn't feel the need to take that since that is what I did last year at the Crow barn and that is what I've been doing since my return.  The exhibit itself is one of the most well selected exhibits I've ever seen and had me questioning my relation with colour...no answers...but it is a "bright" exhibit and I see my own work as "subdued".  But I'm always reaching for intensity in colour which I don't think I've achieved yet.

As for making a prediction to returning to doing what I do at either the basement or the studio, I'm refraining.  I'm going to try to be loose enough to go when the weather is less threatening to me health-wise and be satisfied with that 'til the season breaks.  I'm still collaging and sketching and working through some of the exercises from The Learning Curve Curriculum here at home.  Now that I'm home alone during the day I've been spending a lot of time travelling the 'net on all subjects that interest me, genealogy, furniture painting, junking, cooking, photography...whatever strikes my fancy for the day.   Here is a recommendation from my travels: The 1st Annual of Iranian Contemporary Art.   My personal favorites from this collection are the works by Hamed Behrozkar and Raheleh Filsoofi.

Peace,

"Art thrives in constraint but dies of liberty." - André Gide.

 

 

Lizzie's photo is highly prized.

I am blessed to have some old photos of family born in the late 1800s.  This is a rarity for African Americans but due to the traveling photographers and the interest in imaging oneself and working for income it was an important thing to do in claiming one's own identity and sense of self during the period of so-called Reconstruction.  Although this image was taken in the 1960's of my 2nd Great Grandmother I do have one that was taken in and around the turn the 19th century.  I only recall meeting her when I was around 5 and was frightened of her as she seemed to be sooo old and feeble and "witch-like".  When I met her she couldn't talk but loved to reach out and hug young children.  It was only in my young adulthood that I held appreciation for at least having meet her.  This is my sketch of the photo printed on heavy cotton fabric.  I think I'm going to attach it to a mail bag (that I've yet to make).

I concentrated on all the darker values to make this loose sketch.  I think this would be cool to free motion embroider on a white or unbleached cloth.

It is cold here today but daylight is stretching out longer and longer by the day and that is encouraging.  In a few hours I'll brave it to go gather my supplies for the workshop that begins tomorrow with Jane Dunnewold on Screen Printing at Univ. of Louisville.  She is speaking tonight at 6pm at the Chao Auditorium at the Ekstrom Library on campus.  I have every intent of going to hear her speak but since will actually make the judgement call once I'm out and about.