Jiggety Jig

Well I’m home, as of yesterday at around 2:30 PM. 900 miles of driving in two days. It could have been worse. At least the landscape was gorgeous for most of it. Very little traffic. Some very stupid drivers trying to pass trucks unsafely…I’d like to see the death/crash statistics on that after making the drive. But southbound wasn’t bad.

I have a lot of photos I’ll try to deal with later…but here was our last dinner together…we went out to one of the two restaurants in the area.

We all got burgers; it was good. I think we all got along as a group, which is nice. The last night, we met in the Commons and talked about Playa and things (mice! birds!) and then went out on the Playa for stargazing. The smoke cleared enough to see shooting stars and the Milky Way, but also this weird yellow light that kept moving around that I apparently semi-hallucinated as moving. Sigh. It was moving. Then I stayed up too late packing the car and cleaning up. The mouse beat my trap one more time and met me on the stairs in the dark and then just disappeared (probably between carpet of stairs and wall, so sleep was not my friend. I left second, around 8 AM, and drove 9+ hours to Bishop, CA, through Oregon, California, Nevada, and then back into California.

My studio for the artist tours we did just for ourselves, because there were logistical issues. There’s four more pieces on the left wall and another one on the floor cooking and the last one on the table, just outlined.

We had a lot of smoke in the last few days from a fire in the Klamath Falls area. Honestly, we fought wildfire smoke most days. Coming back here to an air quality index of 43 is just weird.

There was a reservoir about 15 minutes away that was a daily afternoon trip for some. I went every three days or so…it cut into my afternoon painting time. This was Sunday…they’d been there longer than me and were staying…but I had one last painting to finish.

There was a water snake I kept seeing by the dock. The water wasn’t ever really warm, but it was refreshing and a nice break from sweating in the studio. It was just as warm and dry up there as it is down here (actually, it’s humid as hell here right now, at least for us).

I went out and collected some dried plants in the afternoon as well. There were a few that were really interesting and I never got a chance to do cyanotypes, so I brought a few home with me. See the smoky skies?

Yeah.

I finished painting this at about 7 PM or maybe 8. Some of my dyes were having issues; I washed it out in the hotel room and the brown is mostly gone. We’ll see if I feel like repainting it. I might.

I did bring all the dyes still mixed home. I might test the other brown out before I paint the whole thing again. The reds, oranges, etc are all fine.

I loved having a studio attached to my sleeping place. Very compact.

I mean, technically I have that here, I just don’t have that much room and I can’t leave things lying out like I could there. When I’ve dye painted here, it’s been down in the driveway, do it as fast as possible.

I didn’t sleep much the last two nights…some anxiety about leaving, plus mouse drama. Beautiful skies the night before though.

And in the morning as well…

So hard to leave.

I mean, I miss the animals and my people and being here, but getting that time to do what my brain always wants to do…that was a gift. And now that I’ve done it, I want more. And it makes me really irritable about how much time and energy my day job steals from me.

The Lakeview (no lake, no view) Cowboy, driving out of town.

Then lots of driving. My lunch stop was all burnt out…well the rest stop wasn’t…the surrounding landscape was.

No shade. This is the Bug Fire, which started by the side of the 395 and then joined another fire and has now grown immensely.

I saw CalFire and USFS fire crews cleaning up two fires by the side or in the middle of the 395. Thanks to them.

Eventually I got rain even.

Went up to 8000+ elevation. Saw the Sierras…always a pleasure.

Followed them all the way down. That’s definitely rain.

Spent the night in Bishop with a struggling air conditioner. Got up early and left. More Sierras.

It’s a long straight road for a long straight time.

But the views are expansive. This photo is just for the electrical thingies…three different types. They look humanoid.

Yeah, so I got home and the Man met me and helped unload the car and then watered everything as I tried to get everything put away, washed, cleaned, etc. I did not get it all put away. Then he fed me, which is good, because he has dinner plans today and Friday.

I finished the quilting on this.

I petted all the animals (Simba is already waiting for me on the bed)…

And I already had two phone calls about work, plus a ton of emails and texts, and I have the first three hours already booked in meetings this morning. Could do without that. It’ll be fine. Sure it will. I’ll be fighting for my time.

I have an opening this Saturday, 5-8 PM, at Techne Art Center in Oceanside. I have 6 pieces in the show, including some big ones. Here they are hanging two of them.

Come by; I’ll be there. I’ll also be there from 1-6 PM, sitting the gallery, on Saturday, August 29, if that works better for you. There’s over 150 pieces in the show…it is huge.

OK. I have to go to school for the first meeting. Kids start tomorrow. I have lots to get done today, if I’m allowed to. I have pilates for the first time in like a month after school, and then dinner on my own. Then trim the quilt I finished and get the binding on it…I bought that before I left, anticipating not having the time when I got back. Still processing, y’all. Expect some mind lag. But not in a bad way. Home again, home again, jiggety jig.

Winding Down

Every day, I write in my journal the day, the date, and the number of the day since I’ve been here. I know it’s a 17-day residency, and that doesn’t count the first or last days, and today is Day 15. So that means I have two more days to make stuff and one day to pack and clean before I leave. And I’m not ready. I mean, I don’t want to stay here forever. Cooking is a pain; food acquisition and storage is a pain. And the mouse/lizard team that wormed their way under my front door last night were not my favorite. I miss my animals and my person, but I will also miss all the time I have to just make. I have barely looked at school stuff, and certainly haven’t given it any serious brain power. I don’t have it to give. I’m fully immersed in art brain trying to figure out what she wants to do next…but also realizing that whatever I paint tomorrow I have to finish tomorrow…and although the dyes might keep until I get home (unlikely; I can’t keep them refrigerated, which is what I’ve been doing here every night), I won’t have any time for dye painting once I get home.

School started today. Just the adult meetings, mind you, and I’m not sad about missing those. Or having to wear the required shirt today. Or the rah rah. Or sitting in chairs and listening to the new versions for this year. I’ll read the slides and listen to my team. For now, I’m definitely winding down mentally. Trying to pack up a little (also to keep my fabric supplies out of the mouse’s stash) and eat all the food…it’ll be mushrooms and celery for breakfast at some point. Tomorrow we’re doing studio tours, but just for us. There was supposed to be a public event, but there’s been some logistical management issues that have popped up, so I think it will just be us. I’m looking forward to seeing what others have been doing. And hoping I can keep my mind clear once I go back, leave the school stuff to simmer and not bring as much of it home as I was. Not sure I can pull that off…it’s gonna be a running start.

I tried another glue resist piece, a more complicated one. The thing that’s different is that the glue will leave an inconsistent white line once everything is washed out, so I wanted to play with that. I’ve been consulting Ann Johnston’s Color by Design book, and I had read about the resists, but white glue was the only thing I had access to out here. She suggested corn dextrin to me, and maybe that’s the next playing period.

I also had this skinny piece of fabric from something else I cut, so I drew these.

Control of the line is an issue, but I’m going with the blobs and inconsistencies. I don’t NOT like them.

That night, I needed exercise and the smoke had cleared a bit. It’s been in the unhealthy range most of this week, unfortunately. But the Playa calls…it was a warm day. It’s been in the 90s, so I don’t leave until 6 pm. The sun flops behind the mountains around 7:30, but there is a breeze out there. And I just walked.

The grasses grow up between the cracks closer to the shore. There’s mud underneath the cracked dirt. You wander over all different textures and amounts of movement. The bigger plates of dirt, you would walk across the them, and the vibrations of your footsteps would move the dust and reveal the cracks between them. Some of the cracked dirt wobbles like crazy.

I found this shell, about 3″ long, WAY out on the Playa. My app says it’s a sage grouse, which can live here. But why so far out?

Pretty. But no, I could never find it again unless I retraced my steps on the app.

Walking back…you can see the smoky haze.

I came back and painted for a while, filling in faces.

I didn’t finish that one that night, but I did wash this out.

Love it. Totally will quilt it.

The next day, I painted this one…

And worked on this for a bit.

Just stitching things down. It’s brainless, but I was waiting for my dyes to warm up after being in the fridge all night. It takes them a while. Probably gonna do the same today.

We had a beautiful sunset that night, probably smoke related honestly.

My studio is definitely filling up with painted and printed things. They lie on the floor for a day until I wash them out. It’s bigger than any space I have at home, especially that I could leave set up like this. Cats would be traipsing through dyes.

That night, while making dinner, I saw this deer out on the lawn in front of my cabin…

Great photo, yeah? I went outside, got bitten by 17 large bugs, and got even worse photos, but I saw the baby following him too. I’ve seen a few deer by the edge of the road (not always alive), so it was nice to see them on the property.

The next morning, we were up early to go to the Wildlife Viewing area with a bird expert.

Totally worth it. Muskrat, lots of birds (and now I know their names!), coyotes…

Young and fluffy, totally ignoring us.

And three of these beautiful birds…

There’s nothing like being glared at by a Great Horned Owl. Or three.

I came back and painted the glue resist, which is very different than painting the other ones I’ve been doing.

Not sure I like it as much, but we’ll see.

A new fire popped up…I only knew because I saw…

this sky last night…

It’s miles away, lots of miles. But much bigger this morning and moving toward us. The ridge behind us burned some years back, in 2021, so there are some burnt out trees already. So much fire this year in Oregon and Washington. The wind picked up last night, which is probably why it grew, but it also seemed to clear the smoke out of here a bit. We’re down into the orange instead of the red or purple. No worries, weather apps say it will be back in the purple later today, and it will be 100 degrees. Ugh. So painting now instead of later.

The problem with trying to paint here is that I don’t function well in the morning, so that’s when I do laundry or do the handwork on the fabric applique piece or clean up mouse poops. Or space out. Or write this. Around 11-12, I have the mental capacity to color things in, which is what this is essentially. The drawing is the creative thinking part…and I can do that fairly quickly, for some definition of quickly. I did this last night while on Zoom with friends. It took about an hour. It’s the owl from earlier yesterday! And the fires…

And trying to exist between both.

I washed this out but think I need to wash it some more. They’re all going to get another wash at home, but not in our hard water. I’ll go buy some distilled water for that. I think last years’ paintings got really bleached out by the hard water and I don’t want that to happen again.

I have an upcoming show where everything has to be 12″ or less. This one fits. No border though. I think maybe no binding too. Just face it. I don’t usually do that. But I think it will work. And the owl one, I purposely measured it out (unlike the one above) to make sure it was less than 12″. I also brought drawing paper to do three drawings for upcoming shows. I started one drawing and will just enlarge what I started when I get home and finish it there. The other ones, well, I might just use the two skinnier dye paintings. We’ll see.

I’ve been embroidering every night. Skin is done. I was going to finish the artery last night and that’s when the mouse/lizard team came in and distracted me.

It’s getting closer to done. I’m probably just going to machine quilt the background. Originally I was going to hand stitch it, but I think I like the contrast between the body being hand stitched and the background not. There’s still a bunch of hand stitching to do though. No worries. I’m hoping to be done with it before I leave, but we’ll see. I have two pieces I need to finish within 5 days of getting home…and I can. But it will be a challenge. I’m up for challenges luckily, as long as they are art-related and my personal choice, and not because the education pendulum is swinging wildly.

OK, I have that long skinny owl piece to paint today. And maybe one more outline piece tonight…to paint tomorrow. I made a chart of all the pieces I’d done so far and whether I thought they needed to become a finished product or not. At least 10 want to be finished. TEN. I don’t usually do more than 6 or 7 total pieces a year. This is delightful. And no, they’re not done, but the headspace for them…a blessing. Considering next year…it’s hard to find residencies that fit the summer schedule I still have to follow for a few more years, but I have a few applications to look at. Certainly traveling farther, needing to fly instead of drive, that would be more complicated, but I could be more compact. If I had to be. Giving myself space to be an artist has always been important, but seems to be a fight these days.

Anyway, my laundry is done. I had to wash stuff because I didn’t have enough clean stuff you can wear when it’s 100 degrees out. Shout out to the fleece jacket I never needed and the pants I rarely or never wore. I’m going to fold stuff and pack up everything that I know I won’t need to wear (half of it), and then paint for a while. Probably going swimming today because it’s gonna be hot. And because why not. It’s my vacation from the real stuff. I rarely get those and this one is almost over. I’m going to enjoy the last few days of it.

It’s My Own Time

I do have time here. I mean, it will never be enough time, but it’s time for experimenting and thinking about stuff and sitting uncomfortably in my own head, although it’s really not that uncomfortable…I enjoy letting my brain just explore shit and think about how to do things without the pressure of shows and the day job and all the other stuff. I still have to cook and take care of myself and my trash and my dishes here. And as of last night, I’m now on mouse watch…other residence spaces have been the whole time, but a fast-moving thing with a tail came under my door last night, scared the crap out of me (and itself) and left again, so now all my food is shoved in the ice chest (I don’t have cupboards in my cabin…just open shelving). And we are definitely solidly in the second half of the residency, so it’s a different mindset. Also facing some yucky heat and air quality over the end of our time here…the fires north of us are going to send smoke down here starting today I think. I’ve never spent so much time watching air quality online (and in person).

So I washed this out and I love it. I think I can just quilt it and bind it as is.

I was in experimentation mode again on some day…I swear, it’s a good thing I write down what I did every day, because I can’t remember. Part of it is painting one day and washing out the next day, and these I think sat for two days before I washed them. I painted her Friday, trying to be less line-based.

And then I printed on this with a roller, put some plants underneath (probably completely invisible in the final piece), then masked with tape (which didn’t really stick due to wet fabric, but I didn’t have all the tools in the world available to me here), then printed again and painted a bit. Then drew.

I also finished pinning everything down here.

And finished the day as I have the entire time with embroidery on this piece…which I thought I could finish here and now know there is no way in hell I will be done with this before I get home.

Which is fine.

I washed this out on Friday night…also love this.

Could quilt it and bind it and it would be finished. Awesome.

On Saturday, I drove an hour each way to the closest grocery store. It was a lovely clear day, unlike the day before, when air quality was in the purple stage, over 400 here. I needed some food and took lists for four other people. Despite the sign, everyone was quite nice.

I took random photos out my (very dirty) windows as I drove back. It was lovely.

I also had a great burger in town, so that was also nice. I came back and was a little out of it. I had bought some washable glue in the store, so I did a quick glue drawing.

That night, we ventured out to the local saloon (oldest in Oregon). It was super quiet. Slow night. On a Saturday.

Came back and washed out the two pieces on the left. I think the bottom one needs some hand applique and maybe embroidery. Not sure the top left will be anything, but it was fun messing around with it.

Sunday, we went to the local hot springs…it was finally cool enough to sit in hot water (but only barely). The barn houses a cooler pool (it’s bathtub warm) and there are a few hotter pools outside.

This part was delightful.

The best part is that all my bites (and I had a million by then) no longer itched. At all. I need this at home. I’ve been mostly bite/itch free since then. Seriously. How can I install one of these at home. Or convert my existing pool. It would be worth it.

The ‘cold-water’ plunge in the bathtubs included a spider. Nah.

It was lovely. I am always a fan of a good hot spring experience.

I came back and painted and rolled over the glue resist.

Then rolled over some folded fabric, which was cool in its own right, but I kept seeing figures in it, so I went for it.

Keep it loosey goosey. Gotta do that somewhere. Don’t have time when I’m home. My art time is so limited, I never get to play around. I’m always on a schedule.

One of the artists here works with fungi and mycelium in her art practice and she had talked about some things; there’s a fungus show coming up for SAQA that I have on my list of ‘hey that would be cool to make something for’, but I hadn’t got my head around it. I watched some videos about fungi and the mycelium network and the artist gave me some other names to watch, so I did that and then came out to the porch (again, lovely day) and drew in the evening.

Binoculars for bird watching. Drawing is not done, and I have a few other ideas for it, but I think I can totally work this into the next piece.

Then I thought about trying to roll a print on fabric from the texture of the Playa…it was sort of a last-minute adventure thing, like how could I transport stuff out there. I’d seen someone earlier with the carts we have, which was an awesome idea, but I managed to just shove a bunch of things in a bag and wander out there. Picked up four rocks for the corners and printed on the surface (plastic layer, then fabric).

Coming back, I saw these crazy prints…the guess is pelican, because yes, there are pelicans here.

Y’all, I have big feet. Here’s the print experiment…and after hearing of the In ‘N Out shooting, I had to draw more bullets. This country and its guns.

Then back to the embroidery.

Monday morning, we got up early (for me) and went to Paisley Caves, which is an early human settlement. There are no artifacts there now, but it’s still amazing to imagine humans living here and thinking about all the little alcoves and the lake water lapping up against the base of these, with giant camels and American lions prowling…well camels probably don’t prowl. But CAMELS.

So we hiked a bit up, a little bouldering, not much, from the car. All that used to be under water. You can also see the smoke haze yesterday. It cleared up a bit in the evening, but today it’s back.

We found lots of little bones at the caves, but this juvenile deer on the way out.

And then I had an idea from the day before and I painted it for the next four hours. I think this is actually upside down. Or sideways. We’ll see when I wash it out.

It won’t be that dark. We had a potluck dinner last night, which was great. Everybody brought or made stuff and we were able to sit outside for a bit without getting eaten alive.

It’s been really nice here. Despite the bug bites and the air quality and the mice. One of the residents said that smoky skies during the Oregon summer had been a thing for some years now. I guess we’ve been lucky in San Diego. Definitely watching the Spokane fire coverage is terrifying…remembering that down in SD some years back. It’s not surprising that fires keep showing up in my work up here.

I washed out the glue resist piece, although I think it needs to soak in hotter water for a bit. It’s fun. I might try a more complicated version today.

Reminiscent of batik.

I did more embroidery…the face is close to done, but now there are all the details: irises, eyebrows, heart, veins…So yeah, not gonna be done in a week.

I’ve put 17 hours into the embroidery so far. Crazy, huh? Yeah. It is. Good crazy, what I want crazy, but crazy nonetheless.

I washed out the bullet piece…like it, but not sure what I’m going to do with it.

This too. Interesting experiment.

Oh yeah, so this was my midnight solution to the mouse under the door last night. So I could sleep. If I’d thought more about it, I would have put a towel or a blanket there.

I didn’t think more about it until this morning. I’ve got a trap. I’m getting peanut butter. I’ll block the access each evening when I shut up for the night.

OK, so I’m still tired from the late-night mouse shenanigans. I might go draw something with glue or embroider on the other piece for a while; let my brain get an idea for dye painting later. I feel like it’s OK to have a slow day after a busy, long day. The brain needs rest even when you’re doing the stuff you love. Read a bit, draw a bit. Then paint another big one. I think. Can’t hold me to it. My boss said something about wanting to hear about my ‘learning’ while I was here (I am missing the first three days of school, all adult-only stuff). Learning. Huh. It’s my own time. It’s not that I’m not learning, but that’s not the purpose of being here. I love this time, but not for the learning.

Every Night

When I was in college, I took art classes (duh, it was one of my two degrees), including a couple of painting classes. I don’t remember much about the one class except that the professor was really nice and I liked his work. The other professor (are they professors if they’re hired as working artists who taught us AND took time off to make their own work? Not sure of their official titles) was traumatic for me and I came away from it knowing I wasn’t a painter, never would be. I had a friend at the time who was an amazing painter as well, and it’s hard to compare yourself.

That said, I found my art way, it’s good, but also realized with ceramics, that here I was doing all this painting, but more to denote shapes. Dye painting though… it’s painting, and I’m still trying to find my place in it. Originally I thought I would be all loose and freeform, and I did a few of those last year, but maybe drawing, which is much more controlled, and then filling in the drawing is just how my art brain processes the world. Because that’s what I’m doing so far here. But now that I’m realizing that, maybe I can flail out of that mold in the next week and do some things that are looser, less about line.

So I washed this one out.

And painted this one Wednesday…

I also flipped one tray of colors onto the floor…whoops…in case you thought I’d outgrown my klutzy stage.

And yesterday, I painted this one after some unfortunate experiences with men in the big wide world.

Reminiscent of a smaller piece I made a while back that is part of a larger group piece.

Today, I mixed three more colors (was waiting on additional supplies being shipped here) and made more mixers. I’d like to try some looser stuff this afternoon.

We had some beautiful clouds the last two days, plus a full moon, where we went out on the Playa, drank some wine, hung out, cut a lock of hair, and threw it to the wind. Like you do. Seriously, it’s not the first time.

Wait, those are last night’s clouds. Still beautiful though.

The smoke from one of the fires (not sure which one) is really bad here today, so I have everything closed up. Tomorrow I’m actually going to drive an hour to the local grocery store, mostly for veggies, but we also have some potlucks coming up. Today, I’m still eating a weird mishmash of leftovers. Kinda over it. I also met with my school team on Zoom for a couple of hours…wondering how this year is gonna go…sliding start of some kind. Not ready, but never am.

Still embroidering too…

Every night.

Might Paint a Bird

Ok. Mornings are just not my good art brain time. It might not help that someone is weed whacking (not a huge deal; my brain will currently distract itself no matter what).

I have to write down the day and date every day at the moment. Helps me focus. I did three dye paintings that first day, but have branched out a bit since then. And filling in lines I painted last year is different from creating anew…and the ideas are mushy, and the brain is trying to process everything, so that makes it harder at times. So my goal is one dye painting a day. But also leaving the cabin sometimes. Maybe just to take the trash out. Definitely the heat and air quality affect my desire to go outside during the day.

Monday, I filled in one of the drawings I did last year…

And I washed it out yesterday.

The fires near us are still affecting the air on a regular basis…air quality was in the purple range midday yesterday. It’s better today, but makes you think twice about when you go walk. So she obviously came from that.

Yesterday I started a new one from scratch.

Definitely considering war with that one. She’ll get washed out later today. Sometimes the colors change drastically; sometimes they don’t. And they’ll get a final washout at home, which will change them again.

I’ve been hanging them up in the studio once they’re washed out, so I can see my progress.

I do need to see what I’ve done and document it for myself, but I am also resting my brain and letting ideas roll around in there. I started doing a freehand cutting/stitching thing too.

Both these things are looser than how I usually create, which is harder for me…and one of the reasons I came here. Stretching the process, the brain.

I’m also still embroidering this every night…

This is taking a while, but I like how it looks.

I finished the one drawing…

But haven’t done any more. I really wanted to sit outside yesterday but everything was so buggy. I removed a spider, a beetle, and a wasp from the cabin yesterday. One unalived because nope, big spider, ick, no. I’m still dealing with some crazy bites.

I also spent a couple of hours yesterday morning in the local wildlife viewing area, which is all about birds.

What’s funny about that is that I draw a lot of birds, but they’re all made up.

These are real, and I rarely knew what they were. This goose refused to move for a very long time, then ambled down the road (this is a driving tour, not walking).

And I think this was a Bittern…

Unfortunately, my rolling my window down scared it off the pole it was sitting on. It’s so weird to me to drive through this…I spent the whole time apologizing to the birds for disturbing them. Also did not know pelicans lived inland. And I think the big dark birds I keep seeing are ibises. I’m not really a birder, but I like birds. Honestly I think I’d rather drive, park, and then hike it, but even walking makes birds leave, and I don’t have the patience to just sit for an hour.

Ok, so a dye painting today, plus wash another one out, plus do some fabric/embroidery stuff. Sounds lovely. might even paint a bird…but probably not a real one.

Smoky Skies

I’m sitting here in the quiet morning (well, there’s birds). I’ve had most of one cup of tea, breakfast, a shower, went and refilled my water jug (issues with arsenic in the water) and got my dyes out of the big fridge…hoping they last longer, although last year, I painted one piece 10 days after I mixed them and there didn’t seem to be much color loss. I made sure there’s enough money for the mortgage (don’t get paid in summer). The skies are smoky again today from fires well east of here, so no danger, just hazy skies.

There’s a lot of sitting around and staring at stuff, interspersed with dealing with food (not my favorite and the kitchen is small and a bit of a challenge), and reading. I’ve managed to finish stitching the binding and sleeves on this piece from last year…

And I started the embroidery last night, which is gonna take a while…but it’s kind of rhythmic, meditative, and a little brainless honestly, so I do this at night.

During the day, I started dye painting yesterday. The first one was a line drawing I did last summer, so I just colored it in.

It’s gotta sit around for a day, and it will be much less bright after I wash it out. They all will. I aimed for pastels (some) on this one because the landscape here is more in that range. We’ll see what actually comes of it.

I’m a pretty haphazard dye painter. I don’t test things out; I don’t keep track (much) of what I’m doing. I just wing it and hope for the best. Like this one…

It won’t be that bright.

I started a drawing yesterday but it’s not what I meant to draw…

It’s also not done. I sat on my porch for an hour or so and drew for a bit, stared for a bit, read a little, repeat. Like this is what life should be like.

Here’s the three drawings I did on the way here…I think all the fire pix were blurry.

I also used Inktense pencils and fabric painting medium to color this drawing from last year.

It’s not all art, all the time though. I went swimming in the local reservoir with some of the residents.

I went to the Paisley Mosquito Festival…the parade…

And the quilt show in the church…

Voted for my favorite. Also had some BBQ for lunch and checked out the two local convenience stores, which have milk and some other stuff, but not much in the way of veggies.

I’ve walked out on the Playa twice, once just a ways out…

So many crazy ground textures out there.

The next night, I ate dinner earlier, then set out prepared with a wet washcloth for my feet, plus water and a headlamp. At 3/4 of a mile, I hit mud that was collecting on my shoes, sticky stuff, so I went barefoot.

At about 1 mile out, it was so slippery, I knew I’d have issues…damn knees. And the water was still not close! So I turned around and came back. I walked some on the dried stuff but it got to the point that it was too painful…

The top layer wiggles a bit as you walk across it. Eventually I got some of the mud off and shoes and socks back on. If I try again, I’m taking my poles. We have muck boots we can use, but the mud is so sticky, it just builds up on the shoes/feet and you lose grip. Not today…too much smoke. Even sitting here, it’s gotten worse. All these poor people (and animals) being evacuated.

Morning sky…

I can’t see those mountains any more.

Ironing view…

Including cute little iron my mom gave me. Hoping to track down another table today for a dry setup. Not enough flat surfaces to cover for me.

Today’s plan is to dye paint some more…I’ve got a couple more line drawings that need stuff, plus a ton of fabric ready to go. Maybe finish that drawing. There’s a resident dinner tonight, so that should be fun. I realized I barely talked to anyone yesterday, but I did a bunch of socializing the day before…so that seems to balance out. It’s cooler the last two days, which is also nice, and less windy. Peaceful. I miss my kitty, but I get a daily pic…

Sometimes with bonus animals. And the Man sends a daily update on how annoying my chores are 😂. Yeah. Well aware. Anyway, gonna go make more tea and check the dye temperature…and then make some more art.

Arrived.

I’m half-lying on a daybed (who thought these were comfortable for sitting? They are only comfortable for lying down…maybe that’s the point)…wondering how hard it would be to bring the nice comfy chair from upstairs down here. Do I want to end up in a cast in the first week of my residency? Not really. Hmmm. Will think that over. Right now, it’s in the mid-90s, I have a fan blowing on me, and I’m processing lunch in my normal afternoon lull of energy. I’m on a computer, but all my photos are on a different set of devices, so I’m going to write and then add pictures, I guess. Or I could go over to the device and add all the photos and come back here and type? I do not have the brain power for this level of decisionmaking at the moment.

It seems the app also has issues. Ah well…back to the smaller device that is more difficult to type on. I’m a few days behind my actual existence. Honestly, I’m not sure what day it is. Friday? I think so. So on Wednesday, we made it to Crater Lake and it was much cooler than the apps claimed it would be. Something about a big body of water and elevation seems to make that happen. We were OK with it…also flabbergasted by the size of the lake/crater/mountain that existed before the volcano blew.

Really that’s what we do…stare at the valley/crater/lake and imagine the size of the volcano that used to exist there.

There were a few hikes available, but we only did one…

Out to a version of pinnacles…we’ve seen a lot of pinnacly things in our time (Bryce, Chiracahua, Pinnacles), and these were definitely different.

Caused by geothermal things (shockingly). Cemented minerals from the inside of fumaroles…mostly hollow. Very bizarre. But cool to see. Hot out though, so the Man refused the hike to the waterfall after. Not a problem…just a reason to come back. I always need a reason to come back.

The next morning, we were up and out early to get the Man on a plane home.

We drove north to Redmond, where the smoke was bad; lots of fires going on north of here. Hope they are improving. We did follow this truck.

Definitely smoky. I worked on this bird. I dropped the Man at the airport, and then ran some errands (gas is cheap here, y’all), picked up one of the other residents, went shopping at a variety of places, and headed south to Playa at Summer Lake, where I will be for the next 17 days, which sounds like forever. So I just saw a group of residents heading off to the local reservoir to go swimming. I’m OK. I’m tired, honestly…water might help? But I think I need some quiet headspace more than I need to swim. There’s plenty of time for all that.

Painting from Bend.

It was hot when we arrived, and a lot of the stuff in my car is from the trip up, but I moved it all in and just piled it up in places.

Mine is the building in the middle. Bedroom upstairs, living area, kitchen, and bathroom downstairs, and the one-story bit to the right is my studio, which is bigger than anything I get to use in my house. I’m debating going and asking them for another table at the moment.

There’s a pond right across the grass from me. It hosts coots and grebes and a muskrat I saw last night (first muskrat ever).

Then way out there is Summer Lake…we’ll walk out there eventually. It’s too hot and windy at the moment.

I woke up around 6 AM and saw this out the upper window.

I breakfasted with a marmot.

Here’s the first, relatively clear version of the studio, with everything unpacked. It’s all moved since then.

I spent time today making print paste and urea water, plus doing my laundry. I’m waiting for the print paste to set up a bit and then I’ll start mixing some dyes. I don’t have a ton of fridge space in my cabin, but I can store things in the Commons, which is the building just to the left in the photo up above. I might need to store the dye concentrates there. It’s too warm here.

There’s the wind picking up earlier.

So yeah. I’m here. Doing different stuff. I have some commercial fabric with me, not a lot. I have two dye paintings that need embroidery. I have a few line-drawing dye paintings from last summer that need color; I brought some Inktense pencils to try, but also might just dye paint them. I have about 10 yards of prepared fabric that can be dye painted. I have paper for a few quilt drawings for upcoming shows. And of course, I have my sketchbooks (only 3?). A lot of the people here have admitted to just needing headspace for a while, and I’m with that crew I think. Prepping dye things is one part of the brain (mix this with that and label it) and actually making something with it is another part. That part is not ready yet, but it will be.

Short Week…

Woo Wee what a week. Short week. Kicking my butt. I’m currently on crutches, just scheduled another brain MRI, waiting on podiatry, and dammit, I need to go take my antibiotics…hold on…be right back. Luckily, it’s Eid, so half the school has been gone…a few more came back yesterday, and we’ll get a few more back today (and lose a few more because it’s Friday…certainly some kids are NOT gone for Eid, just based on their last names). A couple of kids I think believe school is already done, because I haven’t seen them in two weeks. Fun times. I wonder how they function as adults sometimes. I hope they figure it out…and I know sometimes it’s parents making those lovely decisions. Sigh.

Anyway, to summarize, on antibiotics for a UTI (haven’t had one of those since I was pregnant with one of the kids who are now late 20s, early 30s), then woke up in the middle of the night unable to put weight on my left foot (probably a really bad flareup of plantar fasciitis; haven’t had that for 20+ years)…here’s my cankle at urgent care Wednesday evening…

I don’t think it ever got swollen when I had it before. Not like that. That warranted crutches. Probably need a boot…found my old one and it’s definitely very worn and has way too much velcro and padding. Sigh. Acupuncture? Frozen bottle of water? Tennis ball? IYKYK.

Also, Wednesday morning, I had this weird visual disturbance (weirder than the one I’ve had for two years now) and ended up on the line with the nurse triage, who originally said go to the ER, but then the symptoms stopped, so she said, uh, contact the neuro-opthalmologist you saw before, so I emailed. Got to work, got a call from my primary doc telling me to go to the ER until I told her symptoms were gone and I’d contacted the eye doc. Eye doc called during Period 1 and scheduled me for the end of the day, so I went for 90 minutes of testing to find out I had a typical migraine aura without the headache (damn lucky there) and the retinas were still fine and there were no weird things that weren’t already weird in there. Then down to urgent care for the crutches (x-rays show bone spurs…woo! I think it’s the other foot though, different from 20+ years ago). MY GODDESS. CAN WE JUST NOT. Apparently my body is ready for summer break; it’s gonna take me out for the last few weeks. Dudes, we have 2 1/2 more weeks…14 days of actual school, 4 of those are not teaching days. I just need to be able to walk and make art and see. And pee when I need to. (UTIs are common for teachers…I’ve been lucky).

The foot was better yesterday. This morning was a little hinky, but I’m sure being on crutches to get to the bathroom is OK (really rather not, y’all. Really rather not.).

Tuesday night, I traced. The foot wasn’t as bad Tuesday night and I have a pad I stand on and I really lean on the light table when I’m tracing anyway, so very little weight on the foot.

I iced and elevated for 2 hours before that. I wanted to go to ceramics but there was no way I was getting my 25-pound sculpture off the shelf and limping over to the table with it. The Man just wants me to rest nonstop and I can’t deal with that.

Wednesday, I spent 3.5 hours at the doc, between urgent care and eye doc, so I was in a lot of pain and exhausted. Iced, elevated, honestly cried a little, very frustrated. Eventually cut these out because standing? Not so much.

Scribble was so helpful.

Honestly, I moped for about 2 hours and then I’m like, what CAN I do? I can cut out all the stuff I’ve already traced and get a head start on that, tried to have a good attitude, took pain meds, went to bed, and it was better the next day. Took pain meds all day…stayed off my feet (watching student presentations)…and I was able to trace last night.

I’ve made it halfway through the 1100s. Yes, there are over 1400. But hoping to be done this weekend. Slight slowdown due to stupid body making demands.

I also worked on this, the first flower of 16 in the border of Homegrown (Sue Spargo).

I’ll be done in 2035. Maybe.

I got this from the doc’s office (on top of all the other stuff).

That’s mostly because of my mom’s breast cancer (which is fully in remission). But you know, I breastfed my two kids for a total of about 3.5 years, and I want to know what my discount is for that…because they always said it would reduce your chances of breast cancer. But this damn risk assessment model doesn’t give a shit about that. Annoying. I want my credits.

And guys, here’s my residency location from another view.

Oh man, can’t wait. I’m in the smaller cabin on the left in the middle. That’s a dock on the left by that tree. There’s a person sitting on it. Can you see me sitting there? I fucking can.

Also, I’d be there, but the crutches are slowing me down. It’s fine. I can handle it. Today, we are hopefully getting most of the presentations done (in my rolling chair)…solar system, planets, gravity, mass. Then home to ice and elevate and then trace some more. All day tomorrow hopefully…canceling pilates again (sigh). Maybe. Grading stuff. That will go away soon too. Never too soon. And it’s Friday, so that’s a relief. Short weeks aren’t necessarily easier.

Friday Eyeballs…

It’s Friday. Pro. Con? We’re dissecting eyeballs today, which is cool, but I’ll have no voice by the end of the day and I’ll feel like I need a shower after touching all the gooey things. With gloves, sure, but it still gets old after all day. Also, the weekend sounds great, but I’m still buried in school stuff. It’s not fun. Trying to manage all the assignments for kids who were absent, make sure they have everything they need, make sure the kids who are in the classroom are caught up? The end of the trimester AND the end of a unit…make me want to scream, honestly. Sigh. Ah well. I will survive it, as I always do. It’s a frustrating job and becomes more frustrating when you have very little support. And as much as I appreciate days off (I worked during both though), it’s hard coming back. It’s like the work doubled while you were gone. Today will be nuts. I’m hoping to get to ceramics in the afternoon, but it’s entirely dependent on my exhaustion level.

Wednesday, I got borders on the littlest of the dye paintings I’m working on now…

Then pinbasted it…

And stared at it…and decided it needed some body parts in there to make it make sense. So I drew them out on paper…although, on the right, you can see my edit with my fingernail in the fabric below.

Then last night, I cut those out (edited) in freezer paper and appliqued by hand…

Better. Tonight, I’ll start quilting all of them. Mostly outlines and then the backgrounds and borders. Then hand embroidery after that. I might bind before the hand embroidery. Kinda backwards from what I normally do.

I also remembered that Stitchpunk (the SAQA exhibit) will be in Grants Pass, Oregon, this summer, and I originally had a plan to go see it. This is the closest it gets to me, at least so far. Fierce Planets goes to New Mexico in 2027. Also a plan (Winter Break road trip?). I’m planning my drive up to my artist residency, which is in Eastern Oregon this summer. We had planned on Lassen National Park and Crater Lake; and I think we can pull off Grants Pass too (just don’t tell my partner yet? He’s gonna be stressed about the driving I think). Bend is where I put him on a plane home before I drive southeast to the residency.

Busy trip. Gotta get up to Lassen too, which is no small feat. Gonna work on that trip this weekend, plus hopefully start my taxes…fun times. Plus grade shit and work on the burgeoning greenery of my yard in spring.

Today though…today is eyeballs and chaos and clay and fabric and maybe reading my book a little bit. I need to finish one by Wednesday, so I should get on that, but it’s an old actual physical book and the font is tiny and crowded and annoys me. Ah well. I’ll get through it, all of it, enjoy the sunshine, playing with fabric, petting a cat or two and maybe a few dogs and then realize there’s only three weeks until Spring Break and I might actually survive that. Maybe.

So Much Easier

I’m back home. Briefly. Like four days, then gone again. I seem to have squished all my travel into a two-week time period. Like it’s almost not worth unpacking before packing again. Different trips though. For the residency, I needed to take seven thousand modes of artmaking. For visiting my daughter, I can stick to a sketchbook and some stitching. I do want to finish up using the dyes today…I should already be doing that, but I got distracted by things. I am very distractable. Distracted. Possibly distracting.

So here’s the last bit of things from the week at Dorland…this is where I dye painted every day in the morning and the evening, when the wind stopped being a crazy dick.

Sometimes it would pick up again right at 9:30 AM; sometimes it wouldn’t even have died down at 7 PM. I’d get a random 20-mph gust and be holding onto everything. But that was part of the challenge. Get up! Get off the chair, out of bed, and go paint before the wind or the dark comes! I’m having that problem today…no wind to make me move my ass. But I will paint today. As soon as I’m done with this, I’ll go set up the table in the driveway and paint until I run out of prepped fabric and/or dyes. I think I can do another 3 or 4. I like it! I don’t like all of what came out of it, but some of them I LOVE.

This is the last one I painted up there; the dyes washed out a lot (but I don’t have a picture of that yet).

I still love it. I’m going to wash all of them this week in the washing machine, final wash. Then decide what to do with them next.

Here’s these two washed out…I love the different ranges of brown in the top one. It all looked the same before I washed it out.

And the bottom one is perfect! By the way, I finally got test results and contact from Sharp…the test results popped up around midday (yes, I was obsessively checking the goddamned app every hour). Benign! Damage from last year’s surgery, probably from the radio transmitter thing they put in, because it went in in a different location from the surgery. Probably next year’s MRI will show damage from this biopsy. Sigh. Thanks body for inflammation and necrosis.

I also finished the second leg on this thing…

Just needs arms and a head. Not sure when I’ll get to that. I like doing it, but it’s so freakin’ slow. Not that the other methods I use are fast really.

I also tested out some of the other mark-making devices I had around the house. I need to wash these out and see what survives.

Some of those line drawings need color or something.

This view is of the valley during the day.

Oh man, I killed so many spiders in the house, mostly littles, but some bigs. One might have been a scorpion and one was a yick ugh camel spider/wind scorpion, not really either of those. It was under my bag when I moved it, went under the wood stove. Then the leather chair. I was obsessively watching it because it was huge. Went to bed and it moved across the room, under another bag (or worse…there were TWO of them). It was moving sluggishly and then sped the fuck up, when I screamed and brought in the shoe. I was gonna put it outside, but fucking no, not if you are that speedy and aggressive. Apparently it doesn’t have venom though…it just wants to be UNDER. Blech. No pictures. You can google it if you want.

I think this was from Sunset Point, which has a similar view to my porch. Closer to sunset.

There was a need to see the sun set each night. I’m going to be honest and say I never saw it rise. Mornings are not my thing. I did do one hike, but didn’t bring poles, so I didn’t do the whole thing. Probably did a mile and a half. Was strangely paranoid about wild animals and/or falling. Anxiety is a fun thing. It manifests wherever the fuck it wants.

Here was the indoor space when I had multiple projects going. I was in a Zoom or webinar, one project on the porch, a pile of stuff under the table, sewing machine to the left, the beginnings of the woman on the right. It was chaos.

Probably a smaller space wouldn’t have worked for me. I didn’t play with everything, but I did play with a lot of things. It was good; it was nice that it was close enough for me to fill the car with things to try. A longer trip? I’d focus on one type of thing, I think, and probably not the dye painting. It is chemical/supply heavy and a pain in the ass, honestly. It doesn’t mean I won’t do it again. I just am aware of the time suck now.

Once a day, y’all.

Some things from what I was reading over the week…

Drawing boobies whenever you want to. Still Christopher Moore’s Anima Rising.

This is intriguing…

From Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark.

Terrifying to think of…

More about education…

It’s mind boggling. But true. As is this…

Not my Supreme Court…still.

On fire.

I didn’t consciously know about the poet Andrea Gibson…I don’t follow a ton of poets. Maybe that’s a problem. But their stuff is beautiful.

And the world is less full and rich with their being gone…although their poetry remains.

While I was gone, two artist friends of mine were at the Lubeznik show in Indiana…in front of my work.

Which was cool to see.

I got home and unpacked a lot (not all of it) and cleaned part of the fridge, ironically, because to check out of the cottage, I had to clean it to save the cleaning fee, and I probably worked harder there than I ever do at home. That said, there were some things I pulled out of the cupboard that were sticky and I cleaned them prior to using them. But my fridge at home is mostly gross and I needed to get rid of some stuff, so I did all that. Kitten is now full time closed up in my office, to avoid Bowie interactions. So I’m living with a litter tray and food and water. This will be a little problematic when I need to start ironing tonight, but we’ll manage. She’s seriously old and needs peace. She’s currently on an old office chair and can jump down for what she needs. What she really needs today is a bath. Maybe later.

I also sorted the Wonder Under I finished cutting out up at Dorland…

I was tired after that. I’ll need to do some cleaning in here to be able to work on the next step. I also need to go into the ceramics studio…not sure when that is happening. I’ve got three doc appointments in two days (and one is a root canal, fun times), plus pilates (my hip is looking forward to that). Still trying to figure out the patterns of my blood sugar. Oh! And I need to make a video for Quilt National…I should do that today. Maybe. Maybe I should clean first.

Nova was glad to see me yesterday…

Lots of love. The others too…

OK. Dye painting today. I should shower first. I have pilates later today, but in the middle of the day, like a freak. I need to eat something. Might go straight to eating lunch. I have a headache. Sleep related? Not sure. My hip really hurts for some reason. The weather is weird, all cloudy and delightful. I should take advantage of that. So many things to do! That’s why being gone was so much easier.