I am definitely missing the residency space this week. It’s the first full week of school, and I sort of fell into my routine finally yesterday. I’m sure something will fuck that up at some point, but for now, it feels OK. Except it doesn’t. I still haven’t put all the mixed dyes away…even though they’ve been out of the fridge for over a week and are probably gone. I just want to try again tomorrow. We’ll see. What I really want is that daily feeling of freedom to do art all day. Or not. Honestly, I did make art every day. It was kind of a compulsion. Hours of how I really want to spend my time, and I’m trying to be OK with just an hour every night. Or last night’s 56 minutes. Because I graded until 9:30 PM. Because this day job does that to you.
I’m still drawing. Scribble starts out on the drawing every time and eventually I persuade her that I need to draw right where her butt is and then she gets offended and leaves. Sorry kitty.
She does like a good mechanical pencil. And the paper bits I cut off. And the eraser. It’s just playtime for her.
Wednesday night’s drawing…
And then last night…
It can’t be too complicated (she says, after drawing a fairy ring with like 40 pieces in it). I’m probably close to done. I cut it down a little bit. I’m trying not to add ALL the details I normally would. It’s a tight deadline. I have all deadlines for the next 6 months. Hopefully I can turn some of them into the things I wanted to make anyway. That’s how I like to do it.
I’m supposed to hear today about two shows I entered before I left on the residency. Hopeful but not assuming. Both are local, which is nice. I need to get my head around some upcoming entries too. That’s also a tomorrow thing. Tomorrow is art and a hike…even though I think I broke my pinky toe. I think it’s better today. Black and blue and sore, but not as painful as yesterday. Good times. Can’t start a school year without fucking some part of the body up.
OK, I’m hoping to finally make it to ceramics today. I have to be strong and brave and drive there even if I’m tired. Even if I only make it for an hour. Make fresh tea, brought a change of clothes in case it’s hot (it’ll be hot), got my headphones so I can listen to the rest of the weird book I started on the way back from Oregon. It’s my plan. Back into a routine of making, despite the day job. The day job…I graded 1/2 the tests last night…interesting who is already coming out as having language issues. Some I knew about and expected, and some I didn’t. Today we talk about observation and inference, and set up for next week’s labs, and maybe get some other shit ready to go. We’ll see. Complicated. High needs day…so many of those. Yesterday was less of that…it was nice to have a break from it.
That’s for anyone who needs it. Me and all of you. I sent an email to try and get back some of my stitched pieces I had loaned out. I suspect they’re a loss…it’s not the first time I’ve asked for them. So frustrating. Hours spent on them. Wish people would respect that type of work more. Some do, some don’t. OK. Work. I gotta go there and figure things out. Without that face that fish thing has. Learn some more names today. Grade some more things. Take a breath and figure some more stuff out. Go do clay things. Come home. Do drawing things. Make Saturday mine. Because the other days apparently aren’t.
Oh hey. When you come home from school on a Monday and it feels like a Thursday. That. I noticed last year that the first two days of the school week felt like four. And then you’d get to Thursday and it would be better. Kids have to relearn routines after a weekend off. Three-day weekends are worse. Some of this is learning the kids at this time of year. I had to chomp down on one period on the first day. They had one good day and the others have been a stretch. The work refusal thing…groupwork does not mean you hand the worksheet to one person and make them do it. You do that and I have them do it on their own and hand you your own. Four people equals four brains, not two. Or one. There seems to be some shock with that. All in the one period. It’s fine. Things will move around. That might be my best class in a month or two. You never know. The rest of it is upper management making it harder to do my job. And some of it is other teachers. There is one group who feels put upon, but to solve their problem, they want to revive a system we had some years back that didn’t work, that put the onus on another group to manage this group’s needs. And we got rid of that. But these two teachers weren’t here and they’re trying to revive it here. Nope. Uh uh. We’re not.
So I spend a ton of my day texting, talking, and emailing as a union rep, trying to get everyone to consider the needs of everyone else, while getting told to be a marigold (a flower that protects other flowers). I guess I’m a marigold with teeth? Or a cranky marigold. I don’t know. It solidifies my decision to retire in three years. And to say no a lot to all the unnecessary extras. And to push back on the thing you told me today that you want me to incorporate into tomorrow’s lessons. Nope. I need more warning. Bitchy start. And it’s hot here, which doesn’t help. My A/C at school is finally working well…no more crazy 84% humidity, where the papers wilt.
Artwise, this is always an adjustment as well. Monday, after a 2-hour staff meeting that made no freakin’ sense, I did not have the energy to go to ceramics (I wouldn’t even have gotten there until 5:30), so I came home and worked on rosters and time capsule photos, fighting my printer. I need a new printer. This one is too old and has connection issues, but I don’t have any money until October. Some unexpected pool and car expenses did not help this summer, so we’re doing that thing where I don’t get paid until the 31st but I’m working and I haven’t been paid since June. It’s been a stretch. It’s going to continue to be a stretch in September with the house insurance being due. Makes me rethink retirement, except no, it doesn’t. I can work somewhere else with less stress, less work to bring home. Less management of other people. So Monday night, the next real art step was drawing, and there was no way I had the energy for that. So I cut out 24 freezer paper circles, ironed them to three different wool fabrics, and cut those out, and pinned them down to the borders of Sue Spargo’s Rooted Block of the Month…
Now I just need to sew them down and embroider around them. Sounds simple. It is. I used to be able to do these every night instead of working every night. Nah. Aargh.
Last night, I finally got the headspace to draw. I had let my brain percolate for the last two days…what did I want to add to the drawing I started at the residency? Where was that going? How big was it going to be? I have limited time. I have to remember that. I had already taped the enlarged drawing together…I just needed to add some paper around that. Scribble was a lovely paperweight.
The pro is that she does not fight back as I slide her all over the light table. She did eventually get irritated and leave though, which is good, because I needed to add even more to the edges.
It got really big all of a sudden, but I may end up trimming some of the extra off. So yeah, I’m drawing. It’ll be OK. I like to draw. I’m not always sure what I’m drawing, but that’s also OK. This is a good headspace for the end of the day.
This stuff drives me nuts. Let’s not give the untrained, power-hungry crazies any more tools for destruction.
We already have people pretending to be ICE and attacking people. Why did we need to make these? They should be illegal.
Yesterday with the kids wasn’t bad. They followed instructions except for a few lazy butts in that one class. I had my first detention yesterday, but I think I might be building a relationship with that kid. Pros and cons. Today is a bit more of the chaos…sometimes that’s all it is in here…but it’s chaos I know, chaos I’ve done before for years. That helps. Next week’s chaos is an unknown…new stuff. That’s harder. I’m sure there are some guidelines somewhere; I just haven’t found them yet. I created a new homework assignment last night too. I may be the only science teacher giving homework at the point. Oh well. It’s good for them, good practice. Makes them think independently. Schedule stuff. Good life skills. Honestly, the paper itself would take about 10 minutes to do well, so it’s not a huge time suck. And most of them don’t do it at home.
So we finish up safety stuff today so I can test them on it tomorrow; then they do their time capsules, so I’ve been dealing with photos. Hoping I have enough yarn to measure their height. Then pilates after school. Then drawing later. Gonna do some schoolwork before that though. Get stuff graded before the weekend. I have a lot on my to-do list for the weekend that is NOT school-related. Hopefully a decent night’s rest…between the low blood sugar every night at 3 AM (ugh, make it stop; need a solution for that) and the heat and the crankiness and the dog, sleep is not coming easily. At some point, exhaustion hits though and you sleep no matter what.
I’m still in a weird wiggly space, although this is more about relearning the routines I forgot on purpose over the summer. Remembering that school controls everything, however much you try to control it back. Ultimately, if you don’t do the work, you’re not ready to teach, and that’s a problem. Your problem. So sure, you can say, oh I’m going to take this weekend off, but if you didn’t do the work Friday for Monday, then you just fucked yourself over. That said, I’m not ready. I did some work but not all of it, because I didn’t have time to do all of it. Hoping to do some of it actually AT work today (what a concept). We’ll see how that goes. Two-hour staff meeting at the end of it. Could do without that. Apparently not an option.
I did do art things this weekend though. I finished two quilts, went to an opening, delivered the two quilts to my photographer, and started another one. Not a bad progress report.
I finished the binding and sleeves on this big one…
And then took a really crappy night photo of it…
Saturday, I ironed it and dehaired it and packed it up for the photographer, who will do a much better job. On Saturday, I did the last little bit of embroidery on this, on the phone…
Had to add the mail app. And then I quilted the background with the machine…
I did most of this embroidery at the residency.
Smaller, but not less time-consuming when you do this to it. So I also ironed it, dehaired it, and packed it up for the photographer. Two in two days sounds impressive, but the other one was almost done before I left. I just didn’t take it with me.
And now on to the next one…which I started as a drawing at the residency, after listening to/watching a bunch of videos about fungi and mycelial networks…
I enlarged what I’d drawn so far…there will be more. So there’s the next one.
I also put this together, Rooted by Sue Spargo…
I’d finished the embroidery a while ago. I also put the borders on, but there is some stitching on the borders, so I’ll need to prep that. Didn’t get to that last night…I was doing other artsy stuff instead.
Saturday night was the FIG Master Glitch opening at the Techne Art Center in Oceanside.
It’s a big space and we have a lot of work in it.
I have 6 pieces in the show, mostly big pieces, and they’re all upstairs.
Some of them are older and haven’t been out for a while. But if you’re one of those weirdos who is always looking for the penis in my quilts, that’s a legit penis in that one. Meant to do it. Not hiding it.
My work is surrounded by the ceramics of Linda Litteral.
There’s lots of reasons to go to this show, even if you didn’t make it to the opening.
There’s a lot of art.
There’s some great burger joints in Vista, which is pretty close.
And I will be there Saturday, August 29, from 1-6 PM. It’ll probably be less crowded then.
The Man did an admirable job of trying to get photos of me with my work…which is hard when it’s spread out along a balcony basically. That guy wouldn’t move. So he’s in my photos.
And you get a good idea of how big some of my work is.
There’s a small one! Anyway, check it out, open Tuesday-Saturday, 1-6 PM, through September 30.
Busy weekend. Busy upcoming week. I’d like to make it to ceramics today after a month of being away. Not sure what I will be looking at. I know the glazes I ordered came in, but I don’t remember what I was doing before I left. Should take better notes. Glazing, yes. Be more specific. I’m hoping I’m not completely knackered by the end of the 2-hour meeting. What are the odds? But otherwise I won’t be able to get there until Friday. And I’ll be tired then too. Gotta get up, despite the tired part. I don’t have to cook tonight, but I suspect I have to empty the dishwasher. I think there should be a rock, paper, scissors thing for that, because I didn’t have a dishwasher where I was…I just had to wash them all myself. So I think there are some assumptions that might need blasting.
Speaking of blasting, is it true that the dumbass government I didn’t vote for is thinking about using nuclear weapons on Iran? Like WTF? Are they idiots? I mean, I guess I know the answer to that.
So much incompetency. So many bad decisions. Not even sure where to start.
Except I need to go to work and (ironically) teach about safety in the lab (don’t set off a bomb, any kind, especially a nuclear one). Then sit through two hours of yammering. Then hopefully go to ceramics. Then come back and discuss the dishwasher. And hopefully get to drawing at some point. That’s the plan anyway.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I don’t know if you’ve seen those bad National Park reviews made into posters; the girlchild got me one that said something like all there is do to here is walk around, which kind of defines all our park experiences, and we’re totally fine with that (you can find them at this website). That said, Lassen Volcanic National Park has some seriously nasty biting bugs and we both have some serious welts from them. I’m not sure where we saw this comment, but it seems relevant.
We left Sacramento Saturday morning and headed to Lassen. We couldn’t camp on this trip because I needed to carry some art stuff, and the car is full when we bring the tent and everything, so we sort of are glamping. We waited too late to get in the actual park, but were 15 minutes outside in a cabin with a bed, fridge, tea kettle, but also an outdoor picnic table and fire pit. Not big enough to really hang out inside, hence the bug bites.
I’m writing this in the car as we leave Lassen, but don’t have enough bars to add photos yet. So I’m adding the photos this evening at our cabin in Oregon. Not the one in the photo above.
We drove through the park on the way in but didn’t stop except at the visitor center. Also came to the realization that my height-induced anxiety has not improved. Don’t look down!
We did dinner, a fire, and drawing in the dark. My favorite.
The next morning, we had decided to at least hike TO Cinder Cone, although probably not UP it. We got to see the lava beds, which did not look like I expected them at all.
Plus a deer and a lot of people in inappropriate shoes. Hiking on cinders is a challenge. I did go part way up, and realized the bigger issue for me (and my decrepit knees) would be coming back down, so I quit. I was right…the down was painful. Sliding rocks galore.
See where the trail curves? I got maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the way up from the curve. We did about 4 miles total at 6300 feet elevation, in the heat, and that pretty much was the day. That and 12 miles on a washboard dirt road. Nice lake though and beautiful view of the cone. I think I had it a lot easier than the Man…his ears weren’t popping like mine the day before, but the elevation seemed to affect him more.
We also saw some cloud iridescence near the cone…
Showered (lovely), read, embroidered.
Drew by the fire…
( I really need a better picture of that one).
The next day was Monday and we were hoping there’d be fewer people (there were) than when we drove through on Saturday. When most of the park is closed except for the summer months, everyone comes in the summer. So we did the west drive through, after meandering through the countryside for 90 minutes to get back to the beginning. We saw (and smelled) Sulphur Springs…
Then headed out for Bumpass Hell…this hike was harder and felt longer than we’d thought, mostly again probably elevation related (8300+), but was definitely worth it.
Fumaroles, bubbling mud, stupid tourists stepping off the trail…all the good things.
Loud too. And then we hiked out to Cold Boiling Lake, which might be bigger and more impressive? Some time? Unsure. But we saw another deer and a chipmunk taking a dirt bath, which was cute as hell. Plus a baby chipmunk.
And a lot of burnt trees. The Dixie Fire did a lot of damage.
We skipped another hike (gotta leave something for next time), but did do the Devastated Trail for info about the 1915 eruption. You know, I used to teach volcanoes when I taught 7th grade, and we labeled them as active, inactive, or extinct. All through the park, there’s nothing about the status of the volcanoes. There’s obvious geothermal activity everywhere…
Then we walked some more (the Man under extreme duress) but we saw a fawn and mom…
And then got most of Lassen Peak with Manzanita Lake…
Apparently the extra 1/4 mile (plus round trip) to get a better photo wasn’t happening (next time!)…we had been gone 8 hours at that point and needed to stop. Back to camp, shower (bliss!), reading, stitching…
Although I missed 2 1/2 lines of instructions, tried to find them online, failed, and made shit up. Then found the instructions and ignored the fact I used the wrong thread (it’s still green; it’ll be fine), then drew again.
(Another blurry photo).
We left this morning for areas north…more on that later this week. We did things today too. Can’t handle that right now. It’s hot and humid and I’m in a house with A/C, a bathroom, and no bugs. Life is good.
Kathy Nida 