Seamless Skin

I need to go see a man about a horse...

My mother says this when she is asked about her destination when she heads out and it is her way of kindly saying "none of your business".  Carter has picked this up from her and says it sometimes when he is getting his coat on to go out.  Carter is 2; my mother is 83.  

I'm a babysitting Nana...yes I am.  Its me and Carter these days.  Mo is looking for another child care center and in between time I'm filling in.  He is spending the night with us and Mo is here after classes each evening.  He has tons of toys here and I'm once again evaluating children's programming.  I find myself singing without reason "there is an animal in trouble..." and I think the Backyardigans Rock!

In the photo you can see one of my  "highly prized" cups that I showed as a sketch in the post below.  The set up above is my sequestered winter art spot on the kitchen table.  When I need to clear the table, I turn around in my chair and pile it in the corner behind me...

The winter has warmed up in the last few days but I think ice and snow are being predicted again this weekend.  I'm sketching and collaging away here.  Strathmore selected the collage, Finding Peace, (post below) to feature in their eNewsletter, blog, and FB page.  Only 4 were selected so I'm pretty happy about that.  Here is the one I started this morning...

It is keeping me half way sane to participate in the Sketchbook Challenge and the Visual Journal Workshop.  I find the collaging much more intuitive and didactic in process than sketching.  I mentioned this on Liz Plummer's blog and she shared that her reaction was opposite.  Anyone else care to weigh in on this?  I'm curious to know.   I'm also going to participate in this year's One World One Heart Event for Bloggers.  I've never participated before but have always enjoyed the blog h0pping in previous years...if you're curious, click on the logo in my sidebar under "Dig This".

So, What Do You Do?

Have you ever gone back and randomly read your old blog post?  I did. The majorest (yeah I know its not a word) difference is I no longer share as much of my day to day thinking and doings and, also, I almost never discuss my family and friends unless we merge in some way on the art making trip.   I don't know from reading my blog that you would know I've been partnered to the same fine man for 25 years, that I have 3 grown ass adult children and 3 intelligent grand-children, or that I worked as a social worker for 21 years...you know, all that social-demographic identifiers that people use for introductions and getting to know one another.  Whenever I found myself at a social gathering of strangers and was asked the question, "so what do you do?", my standard response was "in relation to what?".  I believe that a better intro would be to ask someone what they think about something you care deeply about.  For example, "what do you think about mountain top removal?".  Even if I don't have a clue, I can say in honesty that I don't know enough about the issue and then here we have a teachable/learnable moment.  I tend to remember people who have taught me something more than by what profession they hold.  Before I got around to finding out what you did for a living, I would know how you spend your precious time in tending to the heart and soul of you...if that happens to coincide with what you do for a living, then I know its going to be a great conversation because you'd be one of the very fortunate employed people who happen to spend the majority of their time engaged in their passion.    I'd like to know first, what you dream about, what gifts are you holding on to until the "perfect" time comes for you to use them before I know about your job and what zip code you live in.   

I had no clue that the above was even on my mind until I started typing.  What I came here to write about was my participation in 2 online visual journal projects.  One is sponsored by Strathmore Journals and the other is The Sketchbook Challenge working alongside 16 groovy (I love it when I can use that word) artists.

Although both are about visual journaling, they are two different pieces of fruit in the same bowl.  Here are the 2 pages I started for the Strathmore workshop taught by Pam Carriker.

I plan to add more colour when I can get out to get my watercolours.  (Woke up yesterday with a soar sore throat and upper chest inflammation, on another antibiotic and back to staying in).  Pam's workshop is about recycling your own art work for journaling.  The woman's face I sketched some years ago and the red paper came out of a LAFTA workshop by Debbie Levine on making Paste Papers.

This is my 2nd one in process. This is all paper but the border was a remnant from Penny Sisto's  tepee that she replaced.  It had been painted and what not, but the actual fabric disappeared into thin air some years ago and all I have is the image I had scanned. 

The Sketchbook Challenge is assigned a monthly theme for participants to sketch as often as they wish for the entire month on the theme.  January's is HIGHLY PRIZED.  I spent a day thinking (really over thinking it) until I realized  I don't have to go all esoteric on the subject and just sketch something I place some value on.  When that light bulb came on I went to the kitchen cabinet and gathered my 4 favorite cups for drinking coffee, tea, and hot cocoa.  Here is the first one that came from Korea in a Ya-Ya exchange with a female solider close to 9 or 10 years ago.  I don't remember her name or her Ya-ya name but I adore the tea cup with the lid.

Here is my sketch...

My goal was to focus on lines.  Ade thought I should do the shadow so I added it for the 2nd sketch.  I bet you'd like to see the actual cup, uh?  I'm going to do all the 4 cups and then I'll get photos of the real cups up later.

Peace,

Unity in Schisms (what the what am I talking about now?!)

 The Beauty of Holiness Studio, my art making sanctuary

Odd, ... I cannot recall ever being this excited about Mondays when I was employed.  Sundays now are a signal to re-engage fully as possible with my creative mind.  Sundays are filled with thinking about the different pieces of cloth and quilts in their variuos stage of development and what needs to be stitched and the hows and wheres of it all. 

Last week I dye painted over previously painted cloth.  The cloth was not treated with soda ash and I used Afterfix on it which is used to set dye.  I've used this before and was fairly pleased with it...the colours appear to me more muted and toned down then with soda soaked fabric.  I keep returning to this method because I do anticipate, possibly, at some point I may not be able to physically handle low-water immersion dyeing.  This is the piece I'll rinse out tomorrow if all goes as planned:

 
Over the weekend I attended a state meeting of SDA members that Jennifer Reiss and Mary Nehring coordinate.  This was the 2nd meeting but my first.  My membership in SDA has lapsed but renewing it is on my goal list for the coming year.  Being around other artists and diverse minds gets me spinning like a whirling dervish and I left there thinking that its not so much the lack of opportunity that seems to describe this city/state (although the description can be dead on) it is the fact that I cannot attend to all the possibilities. 

In my own art I can say that I now have a focus, sense of purpose, and a vision...a "Karoda" way of working...but I'm also fertil that when I see the art of others my mind automatically begins to push, combine, play, stretch, mix, mingle, and so on, ideas and what ifs and I'm flying or whirling and it feels fun in the moment.  I've learned to reel myself back down...took me a couple of years but I'm good to go and can now say to myself "okay, Karen, settle yourself down".  I think many artists experience this and in turn are faced with juggling the solitude activities with communal activities and how both impact creativity. 

I also attended the tenants' meeting at Mellwood last week and Planet Janet and I will be coordinating demos and activities by the tenants who want to participate in November's Trolley Hop.  Studio spaces are getting new tenants and I hope this is some indication that economically people are feeling more daring and confident.  Many of the new tenants seem to be more retail/service oriented.  A fitness center, photographers, martial arts, florists, etc.  I hope this will not eventually increase the dirt cheap rents for the artists like myself who are solely using the space to create in, but overall, it is good to see fresh eager faces and more activity.

Speaking of solitude and communal, I figured out why I'm not partial to listening to music on an iPod.  I like my music to fill not just me but the space I inhabit.  I want the essence of the sound to rock the cobweb in the corner of the ceiling...I want the vocals to ooze down the walls...I want the rhythms to cover the floor.  This just doesn't happen using an iPod.  I can listen to podcasts on my iPod, no problem...but the music is too big to fully enjoy it that way...and I'm not talking about the volume of the music but the experience of it...listening on an iPod diminshes the experience of the music, the artistry that went into it.  Playing a cd is much more inviting for a shared experience and much more open experience.  I mean would you rather go to a museum or look at the art on a toy view finder?

Peace,

 

 

 

Touching down on earth

No way did I envision all the fun and joy the past weekend held during open studios for the Mellwood Art Fair!  I mean I knew I would have fun because Bev was coming from Cincy to do some art playing with me but she was actually the mortar that held the weekend together between all the smiling and talking and laughter and just overall good vibes that visitors streaming through brought.  Some where old friends, like Yodora, who has been a best friend since junior high school and some were new friends, like Nancy, who really got me going with her excitement for textiles.  It was just a super fabulous weekend!  Bev's departure on Sunday after a meal at Lynn's Paradise Cafe signalled the close of the weekend that is just now hitting me.  The studio was left in disarray after introducint Bev to laminating sheers on Sunday.  And for the last couple of hours after she left I could only sit and smile at the mess and laugh to myself.

Since Sunday, I've been home rotating myself from the bed to the computer and I'm sitting here now thinking about the wisdom of trying to return to the studio or either my workshop today.  I could prolly bear to do some hand beading or hand stitching (although stitching through laminated cotton, a piece I've got going, is more than a notion).  I think I'm going to stay home...tomorrow will be a long day filled with errands, studio time, and a meeting. 

Link Love:

African American Fabrics Blog

My favorite place to 2nd-hand browse

A photo of Selma Burke, my curiosity was peaked about her after reading about her owning a yacht in a bio of Beauford Delaney 

found, stitched, and dyed

I've been thinking about faces and looking at the faces as well as studying the layers in the art of Kerry James Marshall

Crystal, my SIL's blog, Write With Your Spine

Mudman, my brother's blogs: Abstrack Africana and More Than Mud

FAITH RINGGOLD HAS A BLOG!  

Grooving...

(The back ground music for this post is any song from Laura Izibor's Let the Truth Be Told cd)

The last couple of weeks have been great for being in the studio.  If I were to make a complaint it would be being there gets the pistons firing so fast with ideas and there is no way I can work fast enough to attempt them.

(auditioning threads) 

Crowbonics: The Scroll came home just as I was nearing completion of Crowbonics: The Hymnal which morphed into something that I had not intended due to being excited and getting carried away with the scissors.  After a couple of sleeps I'm okay with now having 2 new pieces instead of the 1 and I'm welcoming the opportunity to start over from scratch with The Hymnal.

(auditioning beads)

The past couple of weeks I've also been finishing up "studies" that have been hanging around, some for over a year.  Now they feel less like "studies" as I'm working with intentions towards a vision for them versus "let me see what this will do".

(stuff I do when I take a break)

  My stamina has been fueled by a new med I'm on for PH.  I started on it over a month ago and my ability to take stairs has improved and I attended the art car parade with my daughter and 3 grandchildren (it was a very short parade of about 20 cars) and was able to walk a couple of blocks and back to my car.  I'm still contending with mild to intense muscle inflammation caused by fibromyalgia but when I'm in the studio or the workshop I am successful at ignoring and working around the pain and making accomodations by pacing myself.  It helps that I'm good at tuning out distractions.

(Paula Cundiff's Art Van Go)

 The flip side of distractions is having interesting people visit in my studio.  Two watercolourists visited who are also in the building and I learned there is a life drawing class in the evenings and the price of admission is usually a bottle of wine (or diet coke if thats your flavor).  Michael, the artist behind me, brings his young daughter, prolly around 2yo, to his studio daily and she has the cutest voice and I love hearing what sounds like endless q & a.   Since Janet, a neighbor, has moved in, being at the studio has the added bonus of socializing...after conversations with her, I'm dizzy with fresh ideas.  She starts me down the path of brainstorming and I have to reel myself back (but its a super-fantastic issue to be faced with).  And yesterday, I had two seperate visits from old friends that I had not seen either of them in six years.  I was flooded with memories yesterday of things I had forgotten.  But with good friends it doesn't matter the time or the distance...the rhythm of the heart returns and re-connects.

Taming Listlessness

While I'm typing this, Ade and Peter are intensely discussing NBA players and teams...they are always on opposite sides of the argument when it comes to sports, each one talking rapidly and overlapping speech...some father-son bonding ritual that gives me a headache.  In earlier days this would take place on some nearby street corner or neighborhood pub or some garage...but at the kitchen table over coffee and cereal seems invasive to my head.  I'm recalling a lecture given by bell hooks to architecture students (i crashed the lecture) that theorized to what extent outdoor and indoor spaces where claimed by gender. 

I woke up very early and sat on the balcony surrounded by Peter's tomato jungle and watched a teeny tiny spider bounce up and down, little by little, off of a vine, but I'm feeling listless.  To settle myself I printied on the fabrics that were soaked in the Bubblejet and Golden Digital Grounds that I mentioned previously...as I sip gulp my coffee I"ll upload the comparisons...hold on.

Visually, the difference is negligible .  The Digital Ground image is a little sharper and it makes the paper feel and behave more like art paper instead of cloth, stiffer but breathable, unlike using a gel medium.  Between the 2, my perference is the cloth with the digital grounds for the feel of it.  These are on cotton.

Last summer, sister blogger Marie, shared her results. (Click on her name to see.)

Daddy's service and beautiful and a sweet but short family gathering.  I loved two of the stories shared by one of his CB buddies, a Rev. Woods, who has lived in Michigan for the last eleven years and just so happened to be in Louisville for a family reunion.  He shared how my father, some decades ago, got him started with his CB passion and how much he loved talking to my father, Groundhog, via the radio.  The other older gentleman, told a railroad story and its what he left out that made the story even funnier for those who knew him.

I dreamt about him last night...he was dressed in the suit we buried him in but was in front of the casket carrying it with the 6 pallbearers.  He was walking down Broadway and when he passed 26th street he turned into this huge rugged field of gold and green patches of grass.  It was midday and my father was taking firm steps and said "people need to understand that patience is needed in times like these".  There was a huge, huge crowd waiting for him and cleared a path for him to enter a white building that sat back and off to the side in the field.  I arrived in a limo but had gotten off of work and into the crowd and was hoping that no one would recognize me.  I fell in step behind the casket after my father arrived.  I remember having the feeling that I wanted to blend in with the crowd but I wasn't a part of the crowd. 

When I awoke I thought, its just like Daddy to find something to do to keep him busy. :) 

The hugs and prayers are appreciated very much. 

Meet my youngest son

He is the spitting image of his father!

Ade, Mo, and Carter were in The Basement Workshop with me yesterday.  I worked on a design project and did the stitching and fusing on it today.  It will get a few seed beads and a stone (when I can find the ones I'm looking for).  This is the 2nd one...I'm calling it 2304:2...or thats what I'm calling it today.  If I stick with the title, then the previous one will have to be titled 2304:1  I could call it *therapy work.   

Ade took this picture of me working at The Beauty of Holiness Studio on Wednesday.  My art making time is regular sporadic snatches of time.  I walk in and look around and ask myself what can I do...I think I'm getting more done this way or at least if feels like it.  Today before I left the basement I soaked fabrics in bubble jet and another few pieces in Golden digital ground and hung them to dry...if I was actually working on "goals", taking the time to soak these fabrics or doing something like 2304:2 would have been pushed to "another day".

He signed up to enter into the Nature category in photography at the state fair.  You go man!  Okay, I'm off to dream land!  Go out and do something fun thhis weekend!

 

Wiggling and jiggling ;)

Here are 2 more fabrics that put more wiggle in my jiggle, yes m'am!

 

 

This dyeing session I've been obsessed with blacks, greys, greens, and blues.

 

 
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Big Mac, my father, will be coming home on Monday or Tuesday.  The OT/PT staff showed us how to use the transfer board to assist him with transfering.  Daddy was able to bear his weight using his arms and hands which he wasn't able to to for most of this year.  My mother felt that as long as he could do what he showed us today that she/we would try to make a go of his return home.  The OT/PT will continue at home and this time there will be a home health aide coming in to help him.  Of course insurance has to approve all this.  The other issue once my father is home is his willingness to stick to his diet.  He has been on a restricted diet for at least 25 years and in seems in the last 4 or 5 years he has just been horrible with sticking to it.  Now he is on a restricted amount of fluids he can take in each day.  Two visits ago he was trying to play the sympathy card as he kept dreamily requesting a "nice cold coca-cola".  :)   He and my mother have had a rough past 12 months which is the root of my apprehensions which have lessened since this morning as I "let go" and trust that all is in order.

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Look at that bottom fabric above...do you see a man's face emerging?

Can I Get Cute?

It was so humid today I didn't even want to walk across the parking lot to go to the studio today.  My substitutes were to drop in at my favorite quilt shop to see the quilt exhibit by quilter's who are men...I wish I had taken my camera in because I would have showed you a quilted scupture that made me laugh...I can't recall his name but this dude LOVED LOVED LOVED bead embellishing!  His work had such a strong sense of play and fun to it!  There is group of art quilters that meet once a month and he is one of the members.  His work tickled me so much that I'm feeling compelled to attend the next meeting just to meet him and let him know.

The other substitute for applying myself toward quilting was to move my sewing table around in the Basement.  I've been caught up with thinking about a "cute" space due to being under the influence of My Desert Cottage's 2nd Annual Blog Party called Where Bloggers Create.  I've looked at about 10 studio spaces from the blog list party and mostly they were cottage/vintage/cute and lo and behold I'm riding down Bardstown Road today (not while looking at the website though) and bam, what do I spy but a vintage looking body form and just briefly tapped the breaks when I my voice emerged and said "thats not you" keep moving.  Thank God for voices, eh! 

At the moment, I'm washing out dyed fabrics that have been sitting in the car for a few days.  I used Linda Johansen's Fabric Dyer's Dictionary as a reference.  Even though I did not use the exact dyes she did, I'm pretty satisfied with her formulas she offers for colour mixing.  Here I was messing around with creating greens...

Speaking of green, I seem to have 3 times as much green fabrics then any other colour! I always thought it was purples/blues but after really sorting through, purples and reds are the least in my humble stash.  After greens, comes blues, warm yellows, and oranges.  Also, of late I've been vibing with a turquoise acryllic by Liquitex...Turquoise says summer to me and so far everything I've put it on, it becomes the pizzazz, the pop!  Juanita always says "a little bit of yellow goes a long way", but I'm thinking Liquitex's turquoise is the new yellow.

Also, another new find I discovered from a blog of a member, Pat, of the local calligraphy guild is this gem for writing, Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen.  It writes well on fabric and I'm going to use it in the next Crowbonics piece.  I picked up on in silver and tried it on a gray fabric.  Pat shows more examples of how she used her pen here.

My studio/basement time continues to be hit and miss, catch it where and when I can.  Tomorrow my mother and I have a meeting at the nursing home...he has reached a "plateau" with his physical therapy which translates into end of insurance coverage...we're in the midst of applying for Medicaid which I'm preparing for this nursing center to say they have limited number of beds available.  He has adjusted very well at this facility and the staff have been great and treat him well.  He has kept a positive attitude and his humor has returned. When my head hits the pillow it will be with prayer that it all works out for the good of both him and my mother.

Peace,

I should be cooking, but you know how it goes sometimes....

I don't know if any of the great grands are old enough to remember great grandpa not being in his "riding chair"...they all step up and know they can get a ride and some (Miss Z) even knows how to work the controls.  My father stood 6'4" and was always as long as I've known him, been a big man pushing 300lbs or so.  My father, by observing him ONLY, introduced me to foods that I didn't even know people consumed...pig snout and beef tongue.  He loves people and food which is making his rehab at the nursing home a demanding and challenging experience for the rest of us.  Did I ever mention that I also considered being a gerontologist.  My first jobs out of college where in nursing homes for a few years as coordinators in admissions, social services, and activities. 

Seeing the above photo, I think of my paternal grandmother, Lizzie Pearl, at the time my children where small...she nicknamed them based on something about them that she found entertaining...my oldest son, AD, had "frog blood" because he ran like a frog...my daughter, Mo, was "miss school teacher" because she liked carrying a "pocketbook" on her arm at a very young age...she was  barely potty trained and walked around with a purse on her arm with an attitude that it was suppose to be there.  One of the things I wanted to research back in the days when I thought I'd be a budding academician, was nicknaming patterns of African Americans in the South.  It was my great-grandmother who gave me my nickname that if I told you I'd have to cut out your vocal chords. 

Mo is handling herself with grace and mature composure. The nurses tell us that Anaya has a good disposition also inspite of the pokes, prods, tubes in and out.  We were given a diagnosis yesterday of Intertistial Lung Disease...I'm not sure how this works in newborns as I know ILD is kind of an umbrella diagnosis for various issues with lung tissue...I've had it as a secondary diagnosis for about 10 years and more than likely it has been the contributing factor for the PH.  My prayer for her is for a miracle...for not another generation to suffer through any pulmonary issues...for a healing in her lungs.

She has gone a few days on 1 litre of O2 and is doing well at the reduced level. 

 

Peace and Resurrection of Spirit to you an yours!

 
 
 

Did you hear me howling????

Why didn't someone tell me just how good The Book of Eli is!  It has to be that once rare blue moon that I take a hankering to go to the movies but on a spur of the moment Peter and I decided to go Saturday night...the intention was to see Avatar but it only showed once and we had missed it.  I sat there for most of the movie asking myself "where is this going?"...the story line is not new (hero set out to save the world) but OH WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LAST 10-15 minutes of the movie had me howling!!!! (okay, i didn't really howl but surpressed it...although i had great difficulty understanding why the audience was so sedate because it definitely should have been a communal howling experience!)   In my surpressed howl, it was one of those howls when 10,000 ancestors show up and raise their glasses to toast!  Timeless wisdom came through and the story found its soul!!!!!  The story has stayed with me...issues of commitment, faith, education, sight, power,...I awoke Sunday morning with the movie on my mind after dreaming about interviewing Denzel on why he took the role.  In the dream he said something about his own career being a walk of faith and he wanted to remind young people including his own children about what it means to be committed.  (My nephew Eric may not know how to choose a college basketball team but his recommendations for movies has improved greatly!)

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In The Basement last week I kicked in a few hours...practiced fmq and fme as part of The Learning Curve curriculum and on Friday, just before leaving, I painted this cauldron.  It was a photo printed on fabric that didn't print well due to ink heads needing to be cleaned.  Its been in the scrap pile for weeks.  I picked it up and taped it to the table and selected paints and started playing...not too much forethought (less damage that way)...but looking at it this morning I'm thinking my Crow piece might morph into Crows and Cauldrons.

Anaya remains in NICU.  If her respirations stay down for the next couple of days she will come home. She is filling out and looking good.  She only weighed 6lbs and 2ozes when she was born...I'm so use to 8 pounders that 6 sounded small to me.   Deep down, I know that everything has its place and is in order.  Hugs to  those who have sent blessings and prayers. 

Counting Crows

I haven't had much time to be at either place, The Workshop or the Studio.  For a second (a short second) I held the thought to sale my spot in the Benn/Morgan workshop next month at the Crow Barn. I will follow my own advice and not let single moments define my whole reality and future.  I've heard Nikki Giovanni speak several times and she tells a story of a visit somewhere in Central Africa and going to a village and a group of men identify themselves as "warriors" for the village...she asks "what wars have you fought?" and the reply was there hasn't been a war in over 100 years.  Giovanni's point was how can you call yourself warriors if you haven't fought in any wars.  I haven't been feeling like much of an artist of late and began to question the "what" as in what do I call myself doing?  These supplies are just wasted on me, yak, yak, yak...  The upcoming week with Leslie and Claire at the Crow Barn will be an opportunity for my mind to settle back into the processes of making art, (God willing and if the Creek don't rise)

I have a new granddaughter who was born last weekend.  Her name is Anaya which means God Answered.  She has been in ICU since Tuesday morning but the meaning of her name is not lost on her...everything has corrected itself and the last miracle we are waiting on is for her respirations to slow down and the water to clear off her lungs. 

Also, my father had a hospital stay and has transitioned into a nursing home for rehabilitation.  My mother and I have been trading off days to care for my 18 month on grandson, Carter, (named after Carter G. Woodson) big brother to Anaya. 

I'm settling into the head space where I can allow Grace to enter.  Patience is following and I have forgiven myself for not burying myself in art making and accepting this is the season to be and do for my family and accept this as the blessing it is.

With Carter in and out of my lap, I painted this Crow on a 6"x8" scrap of fabric.

On Children...

Mo helped me pull the last bit of straightening up The Basement today.  (Thank you so much!)  I have an 18 month old grandson who isn't showing any understanding that Grandmama's art supplies are sacred territory...unlike my great-neice who very well understood that Aunt Karen's supplies were not to be messed with unless she was there to give permission and guidance. 

Yesterday I was at The Studio and started another scarf on the needle felt machine.  I felted together dreadlocks of wool together and plan to lay it over a silk scarf or shawl.  Adrian, my oldest son, hung out with me yesterday while there...he likes the feel of the place.  I spent the time bouncing ideas off of him about what he sees for his own future.  One of the ideas I threw at him was up-cycling furniture into art furniture...he turned it over but I don't think he quite caught the vision.  Its my prayer that he settles himself down and focus.

Ade helped Mr. Williams, an award winning retired photo-journalist, photograph a wedding last weekend.  Ade is a laid back and cool, calm, and collected young man when not around immediate family, but he was hyped and excited and nervous in a good way before and after working with Mr. Williams.  We love to see him excited...of my 3 children, he carries the artist spirit.

I don't know why I've interjected tidbits about my family other than creating a partial recollection of the past week I've shared with them...or possibly sharing the creative connections we've had this week.  I don't know if Khalil Gibran had children of his own...but some years ago, a sistah friend introduced me to his poem, On Children and when I'm contemplating healthy boundaries with my children who are young adults, I reflect on Gibran's poem. 

As I typed this Martha Stewart demo'ed how to make felted soaps.

One of my favorite tunes that Cheryl Lynne Skinner use to sing when she performed locally had a line that said "i'm sitting in the house with everything on my mind, looking at the clock and can't even, can't even, tell the time". 

dig the gold by Liquitex!  

Amazingly, I'm calm and cool and relaxed even though I've not left my domain since coming home from the hospital.  I'm even letting the fingernails grow...(a little idiosyncracy about me, I clip them short because I do not like the whites of my nails to show and have never been a fan of long nails even when I had regular manicures done at salons...nail techs found me odd that way.  But this obsession with clipping them short as I do started about 3 years ago when I was going through some BS with my daugther and I just never stopped.  I also found short nails to be better for handling paints and dyes so it just made sense to continue.)

 beginning a new "design writing"

If I'm honest with myself, it will be March before I return to either The Basement Workshop or The Beauty of Holyness Studio.  The comments in the previous post boosted my spirits.  The idea to start "design writing" came intuitively without any preconceived ideas of where the lines and values would go.  I just kept changing up pens and writing anything from what I heard on tv, what the doctor said to me, something I recalled, or a slew of emotions.  The idea Mai-Britt offered to make copies and experiment with colouring them was like "a duh, why didn't I think of that" moment.  Thanks Mai-Britt for the idea.  I haven't been in Photoshop in so long that I didn't feel up to taking in sharp turns in my brain by trying to recall how to do layers, but when I do feel up to I think I'll try working them with colour that way. 

  

i got carried away

Deborah's idea to start a study made me go "wow! i'm going to do an entire journal, page after page design writing"  I dig this!  Then Acey suggested seeing them stitched and I thought "ummm, did she mean stitched paper quilts...thats cool, I've never done one...or did she mean print them on fabric, ummmm saw a quick layout in my head...then I thought a paper and cloth quilt!"  I dig this also.  The art of holiness and the holiness of art is that it is regenerative on soooo many levels, one being that it draws community, and out of community, one finds their tribe.  So thank you to all who commented, one love!

doodling faces to mimick Ethiopia artists.

Scene: i'm singing and skipping down candy lane where the flowers are loppy-pops and the trees are cotton candy

"my brother has a blog my brother has a blog my brother has a blog my brother has a blog"

(smiley face sun shines brighter and brighter as it sings along with me and dances over my head)

 

One step forward, two steps backward, one and half steps forward, and hold...

I really wanted to start this post by reciting Langston Hughes' poem, Mother to Son.  You know the one...Well, Son, I'll tell you, life for me ain't been no crystal stair...or his The Negro Speaks of Rivers...I've known rivers. I've known rivers ancient as the world...but, that would have been overly dramatic really...but the emotion in them could capture the holding patterns with the basement as well as provide some comic release. 

Did you play red light/green light as a child?  You run to get ahead only to be caught in motion and have to return to the starting line.  The Beginning Again photo album has been updated and as of today this is the progress we've made.

I did get to bask in the sunshine of Crystal Wilkinson, (Mud Man's partner) who received this year's Sallie Bingham Award from KFW.  The award recognizes a feminist artist's contributions to social change in Kentucky.  Its pretty damn awesome and the state is fortunate to have Kentucky Foundation for Women and unbelievably, since its inception, its sad to note that feminist philanthropy of this statute has not developed in other states.

Here is Crystal giving her words of acceptance followed by other photos from the event.

There were 4 quilts hanging in this room...please note the one in the next photo.  The first name of the artist is Terry (or Terrie) and the last name, if I'm recalling right begins with a D, but I don't remember it.  The man on the couch is Muddy, my brother.  Sallie Bingham is at the other end of the couch.

Crystal and her beautiful twin daughters.

Crystal conversing with the Wild Woman and long standing feminist artist Mary Craik.

This is not the house were the celebration was held...but this house is sooooooo out of place with the landscape and the older homes and land reminiscent of once prosperous farms.  Even the pockets of new subdivisions do not infringe on the landscape the way this home does.  On the few occasions I've been out this way this house always catches me off guard.  I'm driving along and the city begins to give way to acres and acres of prairie (or what feels like prairie to me) and I'm mellowing out and my imagination begins to soothe down and zen out and bam! this house rises out of nowhere and throws me for a loop!  It would be a beautiful home if surrounded by other homes of this kind of opulence, but as it stands now, its just a blight in the hood.

 

Oh, did I happen to mention my niece in the postcard contest here?  I think I did...anyways she did very very well receiving the most postcards and the furthest or is it farthest away and won a 20 dollar gift certificate to spend at the book fair.  She was on cloud 9 so I heard.  Unfortunately her whole class didn't do well enough to win the pizza party.  But 84,000 thanks to you if you mailed her a card.

It seems like there was something else I wanted to share but its not coming to me.  If I remember, I'll be back.

Peace,

Oh, yeah, Sonji Hunt is blogging again!  Yea! I've missed her chatterings.  And I've signed up for GUT ART, an online class taught by Mystele...I'm in need of a diversion but with some focus so I thought GUT ART sounded like it would be the prescription I need.  Mystele's art makes me think of favorite songs and stories and 2 other favorite artists, Jonathan Green and Brian Andreas. 

Moving right along....

The basement redo has been in a temporary stall pattern but will pick back up tomorrow.  My youngest son will get in on the act by painting the basement floor and my mother and I will make another big box store run.  My father is kinda eager to reclaim his garage space for his man-cave activities but not half as eager as I am to reclaim my basement space for my woman-underground art making!

I backed myself into a corner meeting a deadline for today but with the cooperation of friends it will be met.  Saving the information for what I hope to be a winter annoucement.

A gallery in Yellow Springs, Ohio will be hanging some of my pieces in October and Bev and I will be going up sometime that month to do a demonstrations (of something, I'm not sure what yet).  Although, I came late to knowing who David Chappell was, maybe we'll bump into him while in Yellow Springs and we can have coffee and he'll purchase one of my pieces.  Now wouldn't that be off the wall, on the hook, off the chain, over the speed bump, under the tree, fly the sky fantastic! 

Three things made my day yesterday!!! E. called to say she had takent her last radiation treatment and together we shouted and went ahead and claimed the victory over cancer.  This propelled me out of bed and I went out to mail the Iraqi Bundle of Love feeling good from my head to my toes.  I was imagining what the impressions of an Iraqi woman would have to the fabric selections...where they hip enough, too dull, too bright...would she be an urban woman, rural woman, young, old, etc.  I closed my day out with an email from the woman who will become my youngest son's piano teacher.  He has expressed an interest so we're going to let him get on the bus and see how far he rides. 

 gelatin plate printing

Friends and Family

Acey asked to see the beads I purchased in Athens...here is my lot along with head shots of the fantastic women I shared the trip with.  We've kicked around art collaborative ideas for years and one of these days despite the hundreds of miles that seperate each of us, we'll pull something off and it will be first and foremost FUN as well as a unique project that reflects each of us and our shared friendship going on about ten years. 

 

While in Athens I purchased af book written by Zakes Mda, a South African and a professor at Ohio University.  The title, Cion, a novel, involves a South African who relocates to Ohio, USA and travels history by way of learning about quilts.  Ron and Crystal heard him speak at the Antioch Writer's Conference and knew I would be intrigued.  After seeing the cover of the book I realized I had this book in my 45 page Amazon wish list simply because the art that adorns his books is strongly appealing.  Rudy gutierrez is the illustrator for what appears to be all of Mda's novels which I haven't started on yet.  My current fiction read is A'mercy by Toni Morrison and I'm not sure which I'll dive into next. 

We (Peter and Ade) did an impromptu drive today to Utica, Indiana along the river to go to Hidden Hill Farm and Nursery.  It was our first time there and it is a great place to hang out and chill.  It is owned by retired journalist from our local paper, Bob HIll...he was kind enough to dig up and give me flowers that have mystified me for about a year or more...they are called "naked ladies" and are in the amaryllis family.  I'm going to plant them in my mother's yard. (ssshhhh, she doesn't know it yet).  When ever I see these flowers they always get my attention and make me smile.  I'll get a photo after I plant them.  I also picked up a new mug for tea (I use smaller mugs for tea...coffee demands a heftier mug).  I think we'll return, there was so much to take in and absorb.

Groovy People

Recall Lou Rawls singing that song, Groovy People?  It describes my time spent in Athens, Ohio and an impromptu visit into Yellow Springs with 3 good friends.  My brother and his partner, Crystal, have been telling me about Yellow Springs for a few years.  I left here on Thursday for Athens thinking that Yellow Springs was on the opposite side of Cincy and out of the way.  I picked my friend Bev up and the first thing out of her mouth was "would you be interested in going to Yellow Springs?"  A quick flash of Thelma and Louise in my head and the answer was yes.  Yellow Springs was too short but we did make a couple of gallery connections thanks to Bev come what may marketing style.  Bev is not a fiber/textile/quilter but she is a highly imaginative artist who works in several mediums.

We arrived in Athens Thursday night and just chilled out.  On Friday, Kel, clay artist who is currently working in precious metal clay, and Dee, masterful story teller and poet joined us on Friday.  Whenever we're together there is always plenty of gab and laughter.  Family, art, health, politics, movies, tv, work, books, the usual.

Friday's highlight was the bead shop Kel took us too and it was a pretty damn awesome shop with wonderful customer service (the shops here leave me cold when it comes to customer service) and the diversity of items this bead shop has is lacking in Louisville shops.  I'd have to run around 3 shops locally to find half of what this shop had in inventory. 

Saturday morning we spent hours at The Diary Barn oohing and ahhhing...After the first round of viewing Bev had us go back around and pick our favorites for 4 catergories...of course I took notes but since then, they are lost...but from what I'm recalling, I had selected these 3 for the 3 of the 4 categories (can't remember them either):  Tunicates 1 by Andree Fredette, Nothing to Fear by Susan Else, and Architectural Squares by Christine Tedesco.  As a group we spent a considerable time in discussion on Africa Scarified IV by Sue Ackerman, Ruffled by Jessica Jones, Communicating with the Past by Aaron McIntosh, Little Fish in a Big City by Kathy York, Nothing to Fear by Susan Else, Quilt Drawing #9 by Daphne Taylor, When Nature and Industry Collide by Christine Milton, and one that I thought was entitled Eating Roses that made a direct feminist statement but I do not see it on the QN page.

Bev most frequent question was "what makes this a quilt?" and pushed the question about what materials she could use to push the definition further from the center and toward the edge.  Sunday morning Bev posed the question to us about which quilt was still the most memorable and for me it was Nothing to Fear by Susan Else (at the base of my memory lies humour), for Kel it was Ontario Quest Triptych, for Dee it was Ruffled by Jessica Jones, and for Bev it was Quilt Drawing #9 by Daphne Taylor.  

I did not buy the book but I'm trying to recall 3 quilts...one was done in shades of gray and had a pyramid and a cross as motifs and the other was a close-up portrait (small size) of a friend who passed away from cancer and another portrait (large size) done in yo-yos that had been painted over...if anyone can tell me the names of these 3 pieces it would be appreciated.

The bead shop is in a house in a residential looking neighborhood off the path of downtown Athens but close by a church turned art center.  Another must stop gallery is Passion Works Studio which is a studio/gallery of works by disabled and non-disabled artists.  Having been intimately involved with the start-up of a similiar group in New Albany, Indiana, I'm always most interested in artists who are disabled as well as how arts programs reach out to non-traditional audiences.  The highlight of dining was The Star of India which was right across from a Mexican restaurant that we ate at the day before.  This is the only photo that immediately struck me for a blog post since photos are not permitted of QN. 

This is turning out to be a season of opportunity...I'm considering an invitation to do some demo'ing at a gallery in Yellow Springs along with showing some of my work during gallery hop night...just have to weigh the initial investment cost over exposure and potential sales.  Also, Lisa Engelbrecht, author of Modern Mark Making will be here in October leading a 2 day workshop, and I'm going to be a resource artist for Kentucky Foundation for Women August 6 in Elizabethtown, Kentucky...for more info, go to their website at www.kfw.org . 

As far as taking time to rent studio space to dye fabric for a month, I'm now undecided...just have to repriortize.  Is this the time to place my resources in process and materials, education, or exposure???  I'm giving myself 10 days to weigh it and will then make my decision.

this is what I'm talking about

Our weather has been really nice the last week...humidity not as high and temps in the 80s with dipping into the 70s at night.  Some spots of rain but nothing troublesome...even the gray overclouding we had I found relaxing. 

I can actually say now that going to the gym is habit.  I don't feel right when my routine breaks as it did on Saturday.  For those who know how I feel felt about exercise CAN I GET A WITNESS?!  Last week I went up to 30 minutes on the reclining bike with the programmed hills.  The exercise aggrevates the fibromyalgia but not to the point that I can't move or don't eventually feel better on the days I don't go.  And it really all boils down to my philosophy of "if I'm going to be uncomfortable or in pain, I might as well be so while doing something I want to do or have fun anyways".  That waiting for the perfect time or when things are just right or all the lights are green just doesn't happen...

Congratulations are in order to MudMan, my brother.  But I can't say why because there is the need to keep it hushed for reasons personal to him.  I've been bursting at the seams wanting to share it here since it relates to his life as an artist.  pssst, family and friends, email me for the news on the downlow ;)

As for me, I'm working into a groove but not quite there yet.  I've made this cover for my iPod and was proud of myself for figuring out how to put the snap on.  Its a project from Alissa Burke's book, Canvas Remix.  It (the case, not the book) is coated with polyurethane which makes it feel coarse.  I'm going to make another one without the coating.

I'm still playing with the graffitti look on canvas and the combining of techniques from the online class, Graffitti Chic, taught by Alissa.  I love the Ning format for taking online classes compared to the other formats I've taken.

Taking this class has got my eyes tuned to graffitti as I drive around town.  Yesterday I found myself wanting to make a sudden spontaneous stop to get out of my car and walk across a large gravel parking lot of a industrial business, cross train tracks to get a closer look of some very ornate lettering on parked train.  I didn't.  But I experience that urge daily whenever I come across graffitti now.  I like to think of graffitti artists as calligraphers who think really big.

I cut this stencil out from a photo of Peter when he was a young fierce teen-age warrior for the revolution. ;)  (incoming divergent thought:  we already know that the revolution will not be televised...but, will it be blogged?)  I might do another stencil of him as the now aged fierce tomato grower.  I get a daily tomato plant report with such detail and passion.  He is so cute with his serious passion for his tomato plants.  Reminds me of the days when we spent hours sitting in the Afro-American Reading Room solving all the social and political ills of the world when I decided he wasn't as square as I thought he was.  Oh my words, I'm cracking myself up here.

This piece has gone through some changes.  The base is silk paper.  Its been beaded 3 different times.  Yesterday I removed the beads and painted inside the squares with pearl-ex powders mixed into a textile medium.  In spite of really liking it just as you see it here, I'm leaning toward making it a cover for a journal.  It is 3 layers, but the edges of the silk paper which I didn't want to tame extend beyond the bottom 2 layers which end at the sewn line.

Right before leaving my workshop yesterday I sat and took in the space that I've been in now for a little over a year.  I sat reflecting on the on-going challenges of health, finances, deferred dreams, family conflicts, etc. and felt thankful for the Grace which is allowing me to have a space and abundance of materials to explore my imagination and artistic heartbeats.

To top it off, I came home to Kyra E. Hicks' new book!!!! I waited patiently to open the package while I listened to Peter's tomato report but just as soon as he finished I ripped it open and was like "look, look, look"!  I had to explain who Harriet Powers was to him and why the book was signficant and then I saw the pink sticky notes...couldn't contain my excitement...Kyra is kind enough and gracious to have blessed me by mentioning Seamless Skin.  Seeing myself and my blog referenced gives me an ethereal feeling.  Do you ever ponder humanity from a soul-physics point of view?  My mind is too small to grasp it but I do ponder it often...even tring to conceive how each individual small inhale and exhale we take effects change across the globe and if one breath has impact then what can be said of our breaths compounded.  Have you ever seen the African cylinder sculptures of humans interlocking to form a tower?  Maybe this is the way that particular culture or artist(s) understand what I ponder...how our small individual lives connect to form spiral cylinders that increases our humanity for the greater.  Lord know that scholarship on Harriet Powers is not exhausted and I never could have imagined or envsioned that my small breath would ever be of assistance.  But we can only see what we can see and living life larger means keep trusting the process and stepping out on belief (i.e. what I cannot see but know to hold truth).

I'm going to commune with some trees today with a grand-sistah-poet and tomorrow will be hanging out with Juanita, my quilt guru, who is here teaching some classes! All praises to the Most High!

Peace,