Ducking and Weaving…

I’ve reached that time of the school year when I can’t sleep at night. Especially Sunday nights. Or it’s the damn hot flashes, because they’re back with a vengeance. Could just be that it’s been warm lately. Hard to say. Seems to be stress on some level though. I do all the things you’re supposed to do to alleviate that, but it’s not even enough right now. The quilt got done in time; that was good. I’m not done with grading, but I got a chunk of stuff done this weekend…not a big chunk, but a chunk. I do have a ton of meetings this week, so that will make getting more done a challenge, but it’s a challenge I’ll have to meet. No choice for that.

Even the puppy is cranky right now.

We’ll get over it. In about 9 school days.

So the opening of Indoor/Outdoor was Saturday night. Here’s my favorite wall…with Asa Kvissberg’s Girl in a Suit I, II, and III, my Bigger in the Outside, Helen Redman’s Monster Mama, Moya Devine’s Summer and Rootbeer and Snake Charmer, and Cindy Zimmerman’s Oklahoma Girl in California World…all the colors and shapes seemed to rock together.

I’ll post the rest of the show later this week. It runs through July 2 at the Athenaeum in Barrio Logan. My shirt matched my quilt…not on purpose.

This is Phil, waxing poetic about a stick.

Selfie with my art and a stick. At least we amuse each other.

That cleaning thing. This table. It’s driving me nuts. But I don’t have time to deal with it. This is me trying to calendar the week.

I think I got it sort of under control. Ha! Never say that. The universe hears you and comes after you.

This succulent has never bloomed. This year, it did. And wildly.

There will be more!

Too many dogs. We had a morning respite and then they were all back and in my personal space.

I like dogs. It’s OK. Except when it’s hot. It’s not super hot here, but I seem to be running up the temperatures with my own body. Ugh.

I drew this thing that stuck in my head the other day.

I’m going to draw a simpler version of it for an embroidery pattern, I think. MUCH simpler.

Sleepy cat.

I didn’t sleep well. Ugh. It’ll be fine. I’m just going to be tired until late June. Then maybe I won’t be. We’ll see.

Someone I know visited my show in Pittsburgh and took this picture to show me the subway station…so all these people walk past them every day.

I hope some of them stop and look.

I got the first email from a student this morning begging for extra credit. Ye who did not do your missing work? Oh hellz no.

OK week. You can’t get me. I’m ducking and weaving.

Going to the Canyon

We left Arches and drove through more beautiful rocks to get near the Grand Canyon in the next day…lovely Tuba City, to be specific. We knew we wanted to come in the East entrance, and do it early, so this made the most sense. The other thing we knew we wanted was a damn shower. So there was that.

We ended up driving through Monument Valley…we didn’t have time to go in and do the drive (always leave stuff for the next trip). But you can see some of them from the road that goes through…

It’s beautiful country…

That storm kind of chased us across the state, but without any real rain until we got to our hotel.

So making a plan to go back…

As it was, I think we stopped at almost every scenic overlook…

But didn’t buy anything.

Driving through reservations is always interesting. I taught near a reservation for a few years. It’s a different way of life, not always by choice. It’s interesting that we both thought Monument Valley was a national park, but it’s reservation-owned. So that’s a good thing. We white folks have taken so much away from the Native Americans.

The majority of what we drove through was Navajo Nation.

We illegally transported alcohol through…whoops. I’m impressed that they’ve taken this step toward managing alcohol abuse on the reservation. It’s drastic, but hopefully it works.

We finally made it to the hotel…and the most amazing thing in the world…a shower.

Too many hot hikes with no washing…this was a good thing.

Tomorrow, I’ll try to finish up. Another early meeting, though, so who knows.

Yesterday, we managed to get all the quilts shipped to where they were supposed to be going. Now they just need to GET there. That’s always the stressful part.

Meanwhile, after work, we walked the dogs…back to the routine! In the two weeks since we’d been there, the mustard had grown like…well…a weed. A lot of it was taller than me.

Certainly the path was harder to find.

Still new flowers popping up. We had a little rain this week.

The grasses are higher than I’ve ever seen them.

These grasses have purple heads of grain on them…

Tons of fire danger. Lots of foxtails to go in doggie feets.

Poison oak (not above) encroaching on the trail.

Flowers in abundance.

Ah, the boychild making the puppy run…

Calli and I are like nope. Not doing it.

This guy. Dude. Get off the path. Are you coming or going? Is the spike on your head end or butt end?

So many caterpillars this year…plus I’m pretty sure we’ve seen this hawk before…or one just like it who hung out on the same piece of wire.

It was a nice walk. Although then I came back and pulled things out of the fur between Calli’s toes (mostly not from the walk). Those curly things are a bitch to get out.

She was a very good girl and didn’t bite me.

OK, so I scratched her belly too.

I graded some stuff, and then settled down to try to get through more of the Wonder Under. Puppy helped.

Not so much.

I have that one piece on the top right of the second yard to do, and then a third yard. I have quilt class tonight, so I’ll try to get done there…if I can. Then sort them etc. I have a plan. I always have a plan.

I got into another show that will be local here in San Diego…it’s called Indoor/Outdoor (way too similar to Inside/Outside, whose opening is this Saturday). It will be at the Athenaeum in Barrio Logan, The opening is June 8, probably 6-8 (I don’t have an exact time yet). There will be a coinciding exhibition with our Swedish compatriots at the San Diego Art Institute…we did a show with this group in San Diego and Sweden previously. So more about that later.

For now, off to school to an early meeting, then labs all day long…cool ones, though. Hopefully it will all work.

A Lot of Art…

OK, well sleeping in is not a thing for dogs or the trash trucks or hangry cats or the weed-whacking neighbors. Apparently they don’t know it’s my Spring Break AND I stayed up way too late last night drawing because the inspiration finally smacked me upside the head, and I can’t show you anything until like July. So just know that I’m taking photos and there will be some pic-heavy posts in July explaining WTF I’m doing. Well, I’m entering a show I was invited to enter, and the jurors are all out there in my world, and they don’t wanna be swayed by seeing the stuff first, which I think is funny, cuz you’re totally gonna know it’s mine. But whatever. I’m willing to go along with it.

It makes it hard for the next two months though, because I usually post my entire process and that’s what I write about. I can still write about it, but it will be irrelevant pictures I guess. So I had a preliminary drawing I’d started for this piece a week or so ago, and then I cut the paper the right size the other night (that in itself is sometimes an issue!). Then last night, I started sketching for the final drawing and inked a good chunk of the structure of it. I still have a bunch of vignettes for it, so hopefully I’ll get those done today and tomorrow. I’m not really expecting to be able to start tracing Wonder Under before we leave, but I’d like it ready for when we come back. So drawing and numbering…

So here’s the rest of it. Today, I’m doing all the errands and shopping I need to do before we leave. I have to pack about 7 quilts to ship either before I go or right after I get back. I need to walk the dogs. I have a quilt group meeting tonight, if I can manage to get to it. I finished grading ONE assignment yesterday, so there are still 10 left to do. To be honest, that ONE was the biggest…and then I crazily emailed the 16 kids who didn’t turn it in and gave them a chance to not lose points…but they don’t check their email, so they’ll probably lose out. Oh well. I tried. Tomorrow will be about packing and food prep. Actually, there’s some food prep I’d like to do today if I can. We’ll see. The weather for the trip is finally looking bearable…no 18-degree temps staring us down for now! Still have rain and cold, but not as bad as it was going to be. We tested putting the new tent up last night at my parents’ house, and it was pretty easy. All good.

I meant to write yesterday, because we went to four different art exhibits on Saturday night, but I never got around to it. So here they are…first we went to Oye Como Va at La Bodega Gallery…the Flying Panther Tattoo family made all these. This is by Rob Benavides…here’s an article about him with some contact info.

In a totally different style, here’s one by Matt Howse…

And something different in the skull realm by Frank Chavez…

And this one by Thomas Fernandez…

Another by Frank Chavez…

I seem to like the graphic and highly colored ones the best…another by Rob Benavides…

And one by Marc “Beatle” Lindenmeier of Harry Dean Stanton in Repo Man. Good movie.

From there, we headed out to Bread & Salt for the opening of Warpaint, with Lynn Schuette’s work. A totally different vibe, but beautiful work…hinting at our trip that starts in a few days. I really liked this line of work…

She had a few different series of works in the building…

But the landscapes and this grouping were my favorites…

Beautiful work.

In Bread & Salt is the Athenaeum Art Center Gallery, where Alessandra Moctezuma was showing work with Hilary Paul McGuire in a show called Identity|Antiquity. I especially liked some of Moctezuma’s drawings and etchings…some political and more recent…

Some with kitchen implements…

And an older etching/drawing…a detail below…

Over by the print studio was work by Elena Lomakin…who did some collage with paper and other materials…

And then outside, there was this…Kenneth Capp’s sculpture, Rose.

You’d think we’d have been done by then, but there was one more, which would put us in a place where we could eat…at Visual Gallery+Design, an exhibit called Unfolding. I knew of two of the four artists…this is Sofia Silver’s Cosmic Eye…

And Laurie Nasica’s You and I, Highs and Lows, Down with the Current, and Le Tourbillon de la Vie…

Also Untitled by Melissa Walter…

I also liked Mary Juhn’s Memories…

And her Take It, My Love…

Then off to dinner, with this showing up on the walk…

Some people.

So what else this weekend? I delivered this, freshly ironed and with hanging hardware, for the Inside/Outside exhibit that will be opening at Art Produce on May 4…