The Drama

Ah blessed extra day off. I am actually in a union; nay, I am a union representative. So I gladly take this day and thank those who had the brains before us to make good laws about labor. Will I be laboring today? Unfortunately yes; despite putting in about 4-5 hours yesterday, I am nowhere near done. I did spend a chunk of Saturday doing art things (while doing school stuff in between, when I was waiting for things to heat up). I had some art plans for this weekend that may or may not happen, and the next three weekends, maybe more, are a shitshow. So yeah. I’m thrilled about being back at the day job. It wants to steal so much time…it will take every moment you allow. And even those you don’t. Because you can’t be in front of kids unless you do some work. So on Friday, when I realized our TA didn’t show up and do the thing we needed done for tomorrow, I stayed and did it. Because I knew Tuesday morning’s self would appreciate it. I don’t have everything copied for next week, unfortunately, but planned? I think so. I finished one rewrite of a doc I’ve hated for probably 10 years…on Saturday…while waiting for water to boil. I also submitted for a residency for next summer…I need a backup in case I don’t get in (very good chance I won’t).

Why boiling water? I washed out four more dye paintings from the residency. They had some washing in the sink in Oregon, but not at the right temperature. So they are good now. Two of them are for a show I need to enter in January. Need to figure out how to finish them. When this big one is done.

There’s a haphazard pile of them. I have two more big ones to wash out and some glue resist pieces that will need even more hot water. I’m paranoid about using our hard water, although the final washout is in the washing machine. It seems to be holding up pretty well. Definitely washout, but not horrible. I still have the dyes I mixed in July. I did a test piece and they are still OK. I have one piece, maybe two, that I want to dye paint. I don’t know where to do it though. I had this great setup in Oregon and I don’t have that here. I was hoping to do that this weekend…not sure I can pull that off.

Because I’d like to go into ceramics today too…I’m almost done with the underglazing…

Just need to do the flower petals. And some red around the hole and on the fabric. I keep forgetting about that. I have meetings all this week, so if I don’t go today, it’ll wait until Friday. It’s not the end of the world…I’d just rather get it done and start working on the head. No breakages (knock on wood) on this one. It’s been solid the whole time.

I trimmed Wonder Under Friday…

Side view…

And Saturday I finished…

Last night, I sorted them all out by 100s…

Scribble observed.

And then I came in here and started cleaning up and putting stuff away so I could actually start ironing to fabrics tonight. It was a mess in here. It still kind of is. Too much stuff. I still need to put all the fabrics away from the last quilt I made; they are piled up by color on the ironing board. Next on my list. After breakfast.

Saturday night, we went out to North Park…but here was the eastern sky from the house…

The western sky driving through town…

And the western sky from the parking garage…

The hurricane remnants that are making it hot and muggy as hell here (supposed to be 101 degrees today, 102 tomorrow) are making pretty skies at least.

We went out for a drink and listened to really bad karaoke and then had a burger and fries at Crazee Burger…always a good choice.

We came back to drama.

Oh no!

Go mantis!

Freedom!

That is one weirdass bug there. But pretty.

Katie is still holding it together. Sometimes she’ll eat where the food is and sometimes we provide personal delivery service.

She’s having a hard time getting up, doing lots of sleeping. We’d like her to hang around until my parents get back. Meanwhile, I do a lot of cajoling and lifting. She’s still enjoying dinner; breakfast is not as exciting (no green beans…seriously).

Yup. That’s September for you. If you’re a teacher, you know what I’m talking about. If not, buy a teacher a drink. Probably caffeinated.

OK. Today. Yes, it’s a day off work. I have a test to grade and some homework as well. I got all the posts done for the week on Saturday (water boil watch!). I need to put fabric away. I’d like to go to ceramics. I’m supposed to do two blogposts for art groups. I’m going to do one of them. I haven’t even dealt with the photos on the other one. They just got sent to me with no info. Sigh. Whatever. Then ironing to fabric tonight. More color, more fun. Looking forward to spending time on that, although this might be the hottest room in the house at night. And my fan is failing. It’ll be fine. It’s just sweat. Drink more water. It works. Oh yeah, finally got the blood sugar to stop crashing at night. Not really sure why it took such a drastic change in insulin (down, not up) after a year of being on that dose. Weird shit.

You Will Keep Making Mistakes…

Hey. Halfway through the work week. Woke up out of a dream that I don’t remember, but I do know I wanted to finish it. That said, I want to finish the bad ones as much as the good ones, because I want to know how things end. This is how I end up reading the next book in a series even when I’m not really that into it. I’m not sure it’s a useful trait, but it’s the one I have.

I’m tracing Wonder Under this week. It looks pretty boring, but there is always a cat involved.

She starts out lying on everything and eventually gets annoyed with my moving her around and leaves.

Mostly I’ve been tracing a lot of big background pieces with the occasional burst of tiny mushrooms.

See? Side by side. The big pieces take longer to trace. I always like to get 100 pieces done in an hour, which is the amount of time I have most nights, but last night, I only did 90 because they were big pieces.

I’m in the 200s…I won’t be done until early next week. But there’s always progress.

Here’s one of the quilts that went to the photographer. It actually has a name, Interminable Wait.

Hand embroidery with light threads, so easy to photograph! Ha.

This one’s name is percolating. I have a potential…I’m mulling over it.

It’s coming. I’ll post both of them on my New Work page in the next couple of days with details of size etc. Nice to have real photos of them.

I’m exhausted from work and the heat…it’s so hard to sleep when it’s hot. The windows have to be open, so it’s light (full moon coming) and loud (cars and nature and the neighbor’s roosters…drive me nuts). I need to clean the kitchen and laundry room floors soon…here’s the natural detritus on the floor of the laundry room telling me how it feels about contributing to the dirt in there.

I did it right before I left on my summer trip. I haven’t done it since. TIME! I don’t have enough time. I come home and read a chapter of my book and then grade stuff and then deal with food. Yesterday I had a meeting that I thought would be 15 minutes go to an hour and then I had to drive to pick up my quilts, so I didn’t get home until 5:45 and I was half dead. I still feel half dead. Not sleeping enough. Plus we did a lab yesterday. Those are also exhausting. You know what else is exhausting? The world. One of my school board members and his wife do videos every week and last week, we saw a clip where she is claiming teachers are evil predator communists who turn kids into the opposite gender.

Lady. I just want your kid to wear deodorant, not lose all their papers, charge their Chromebook, come to school, and have a pencil. What the everloving fuck are you talking about? Please don’t vote for the two Project 2025 ignoramuses (ignorami?) in our district. Text me or email me for names. I’ll be canvassing against these sweethearts in September.

This was too true…and then Dolly Parton died. A good person. Instead of the other 80-year-olds who are performing evil predatory things on our country.

Reality is that we DO have to go to work and pay the bills and pack lunches. Plus this…

I made a quilt about that.

Meanwhile, this is me.

Always.

OK. Work. Finishing up all the lab writing stuff and starting to talk about how to write claim, evidence, and reasoning. Again. There was a minor bit of stupid behavior yesterday but no one was sent out. A couple people were told to stop touching things. Ever. Always. Never again. And the principal violated one of the safety rules. Good teachable moment there. Then pilates after that. It’s hot here; did I mention that? Then home to grade and cook and maybe clean a floor, if I have the energy for it (unlikely). Then tracing into the 300s. It’s all planned out. I need to make at least one video today…without my co-videomaking partner. Awkward. Bringing a tripod instead. Can’t replace her really, but it’ll have to do for today. Need to make some copies for later in the week too. Like maybe for tomorrow. Should really figure that shit out. Missing half my science teacher brain…I minorly messed up the lab in Period 1 and revised for the following periods. Glad I did that at least. Learn from the mistakes. Sometimes you can avoid making them in the future. But realistically, you will keep making mistakes all your life and you will need to do your best to fix them, and the sooner you become comfortable with that, the better.

Signed Up For…

Weekends feel so short. I mean, I work for 3 or 4 hours every Sunday, so that doesn’t help. But if I don’t do that, I can’t keep up. I’m already behind, and we’re in the 2nd full week of school. Welcome to the next 10 months. I did manage to keep Saturday work free, but then Sunday, I got an email about the upcoming school board elections and how I will need to give up 9 hours to canvassing in the next 2 1/2 months. Sigh. I signed up for that job. I know it’s important. Just losing those hours hurts my art self. My sleeping-in self! Which I need. I didn’t sleep last night. Too hot, too noisy (windows open due to hot). It was over 100 degrees yesterday, cooler today, then the surface of hell for the rest of the week. Fun times. Eventually I’ll sleep because of exhaustion. Rough way to start the week though.

So artwise, I finally made it to the ceramics studio on Friday; I’m going again tomorrow. I picked up these two pieces from the class I took in June. They fired well.

I’m just sticking them in the yard. They were fun. I might make more. Yes that’s a uterus.

I also did the 2nd and 3rd underglaze brown layers on this…

I really wanted this to go in the bisque fire before I left on the residency, but I spent 5 or 6 hours glazing those other two, so that didn’t happen. I also ran out of one of the browns and the local store didn’t have it, and it shipped after I left.

Surprisingly very few cracks, no breaks. Needs a lot more underglazing, but I’m getting there.

In new quilt news, I finished drawing this (although I added a spaceship later).

Saturday night, I numbered it…

I’d like to say that Scribble is helpful, but she really isn’t.

I thought it had 848 pieces but then I added the spaceship and found another chunk of pieces I hadn’t numbered, so I’m in the 860s somewhere.

And last night, I started tracing…

With the help of Scribble, who kept lying on the drawing.

She’s mostly easy to move. And then she left. But not until this happened…

I didn’t get very far. Big pieces take longer to trace. With a cat in the way. Not helpful.

I spent most of Saturday dealing with some of the dyed paintings, doing final washouts. I had issues with the last one…I washed it out in a hotel sink and the brown skin color completely washed out, and then I couldn’t get the blue to stop washing out. I’m not unhappy with the blue…it was meant to be lighter, less intense. The blue in the body was mixed in with the brown that didn’t stick, but all the other colors mostly did. I think the brown had been contaminated by the soda ash on the fabric transferring on the brush. So I’m going to redo the brown.

I ran a test on the dyes I brought back to see if any of them were still good. I forgot to wash it out yesterday, but I’m hoping these weren’t contaminated so I can just do the skin tones sometime this week…whenever that might be. Ha! Yeah. Work? or Art? Or whatever else?

I washed another out and there’s one head that needs more, so I’m going to try Inktense on that section…it’s pretty small. I have two long skinny ones I did on purpose for an upcoming show. So I spent a couple of hours dealing with dye paintings, which was nice. I have some blog posts I have to write for art groups; I started one. I’m a little annoyed by the other one, but whatever. Obviously I’m the only one who writes posts for them, even when I’m not there and didn’t get into the show. I did get into one locally in October though, so I’ll be there (more info to follow) and the big FIG show is still on in Oceanside; I’ll be there Saturday for 5 hours, so come visit.

While I was gone, Nova (probably) puked on a lot of things, including a ceramic frame I hadn’t hung up yet with a photo of my niece I liked…honestly, I might like it better like this.

I washed it. Yeah. The ceramic frame fared better than the photo paper.

The old man slept in on Saturday. Nice.

No boofing at me at 6:30 AM.

Saturday date night…

I did not buy any fabric this weekend. In fact, I haven’t bought any fabric since mid-July. No hiking Saturday…too hot. Miss that. Want to do that.

It’s OK; I probably will soon.

Good science meme; but my students won’t get it.

I did name one of my loaner computers Marie Curie.

As we get ready to go over appropriate AI use in the classroom (I’ve already seen a bunch of it).

Unfortunately, middle schoolers often don’t have the prefrontal cortex development to understand this graph. And why it matters. And it’s why all my tests are on paper now. Can’t use AI if you don’t have your computer. God knows they’re using it everywhere else.

OK. Today…is kind of a mess, but I think it’ll be OK. We’re doing an observation lab…followed by another more complicated observation lab tomorrow (am I nuts? I might be). Staff meeting after, but the boss has been super vague (which is kind of their thing) about the meeting after. He’ll tell us right after probably or ignore it completely. I have book club tonight but I don’t remember which book it’s for (whoops). I’m pretty sure I read it. Then I’ll be tracing on Wonder Under. I should grade somewhere in there too…in the heat. Ugh. Yeah. OK. I guess I have to.

Weird Wiggly Space

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.

Hard Reset

I knew it would be a hard return, coming straight back into school from the residency. All of a sudden, life is full of stuff you need to or have to do, and yesterday, I talked for almost 6 hours straight. Today I have no voice. And I was exhausted after Period 1 yesterday. So much interaction, so many moving parts. Kids already testing the boundaries (nothing new there). So many names. So many things on the to-do list. And after school is already full. Although today, I’m just coming home and sewing, because I need to finish two quilts by Sunday afternoon and there are a ton of things already on the calendar. I can go to ceramics on Monday…once these are at the photographer. No pressure.

Kids started at school yesterday. There are a lot of them, more than last year. Some of them are truly a joy and some are already a challenge. The biggest challenge is figuring them all out though…so more of that happens today. I make today easier so I can rest my voice, but also walk around and take every kid’s photo (they love that…or they don’t). This weekend already has work attached to it, depending on how much I can get done during prep. No matter what, there’s always Sunday work. That’s the joy of summer…no Sunday work. No stressing out because you didn’t do all the things you need for Monday. Yesterday afterschool me was exhausted, but I remembered to pull the papers for today, which is good, because I didn’t holepunch one set back in June. Whoops. It’s fine.

Here’s the team photo as of yesterday. We’ll retake it when the missing member returns in two weeks.

Tuesday night, I finished the quilting on the big piece I was working on before I left. Wednesday night, I cleaned the floor, trimmed the edges…

With Scribble’s help…

And got the binding machine-stitched on.

Last night, I put the sleeves on, drove to my stitching meeting, finished eyebrows and fingernails and did most of the phone.

Need at least one more icon, maybe two, then some background quilting (tonight?) and it’s going to the photographer on Sunday. Then I came home and started the handstitching on the binding…

I’m coming home today and finishing that. Hopefully. So it can go to the photographer. I gots deadlines. Sigh. It was nice not having some of those for a while.

I already have a pre-drawing for the next one…which has a deadline. And I dye painted two for the next deadline. So I’ll be doing a final washout on the dye paintings coming up and then I’ll start finishing those into things that may or may not need/want embroidery. All the while continuing to go to work and not letting that take so much time. Wish me luck on that one. Already looking at residencies for next summer.

I brought home some dried plant material that I really liked…but had to put it up high because cats.

But I need that residency because…

It’s harder to do that when you can only make for an hour a day. So many people say it’s a gift to have the hour, but really, the balance should be better. My kids don’t need me like they did when they were little. My job is something I’ve been doing for years…I know what I’m doing. Why can’t I spend more time on art? The demands on a teacher these days are insane. Over the top.

So I bought a new lunchbox this year. I was fighting it because I’m like, I only have three more years…I don’t want to buy a new one now. I’ve only had two lunchboxes the entire time I’ve been teaching…the first one was my son’s old astronaut one, when he went to middle school? And when that finally ripped, I bought one of those freezable ones…and that’s been going for 15 years? It’s no longer going. When you shake it, it sounds like rocks inside. So I bought a new one, the same damn brand. I guess just because I retire from teaching doesn’t mean I won’t need a lunchbox, that I won’t need a job where I have to take my lunch. So I got another astronaut one. Think big. Think far away. Think artist residency in space! Oh yeah.

OK, I have errands after school. I am doing a cover page for Unit 1 today. Calm and coloring hopefully. I need to set up the pencils and find last year’s cover page for an example. I need to watch the two-minute video I’m showing. I need to set up the class for next week, so it’s not so stressful. It’s gonna be stressful no matter what, but it can be less so. Then come home and stitch. That part is good, meditative. I’m actually kind of looking forward to that…some people try to design so they never have to do hand stitching, but it’s a good place to sit for a while.

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.