It’s 9:30 AM in the middle of the week and I have already showered and been to the chiropractor and I am not at work, because Veterans’ Day, random holiday in the middle of the week, thanks to the veterans, especially those in my family, although I’m distinctly not pro military or war or all that stuff, I realize they didn’t really always have a choice about their service. But certainly being under this presidency and watching the war people do stupid shit, it’s not OK that people are dying for that, on both sides. So maybe today is about that. I do appreciate the day off anyway, even though my to-do list is 8 miles long. It’s fine. At least I’m not trying to do all these things AROUND my day job for once.
I’m sans sewing machine for a couple of days…took it in for a cleaning and an adjustment and a ‘please figure out how to put this part back that fell out’ kinda thing. It’s OK, because I can sandwich the one smaller piece and I can trim the other one and find/cut binding for it, and honestly, I might be embroidering many hours on this one.
I do one thing and then it tells me to do another thing and then in the middle of the night, I think of yet another thing.
Yeah there’s no real plan. Just make it less flat.
The owl totally needed those eyes and beak. I may do the feet too. Who knows.
I like to do this stuff. I just don’t usually have time on a big quilt with a deadline.
These are little quilts with deadlines.
And they’re quite a ways out. So I’m good. Just looking at these pictures made me think of more things to embroider on it.
I made this pinch pot over a year ago with some leftover clay. I used some leftover glaze to put one layer on and started sgraffito and then it got set aside in a damp box forever. I rehydrated it in the last month, wiped most of the underglaze off with the wet paper towels I used to rehydrate it and the mold it was growing, reglazed, carved some things, and glazed some more.
I need to glaze a few more things and then clean up the lines and let it dry. Get it off my shelf! I love that you can bring clay back like that. So weird.
So my reminder to put the sewing machine in the car went a little wrong.
Luckily I figured it out.
I keep this in mind…although January and on will be the proof.
And this…still remembering this.
Start there and then go after the boss.
There’s been a lot of wildlife around these days. Here’s two mornings ago…
And then this morning…
I feel like the wolf urine I spread is not very effective at the moment. Also beautiful animal but stay away from my dog.
Obviously interrupted a conversation here. Been a while since I’ve seen these in the yard…heard them, but haven’t seen them. Right now, I’m listening to about 50 parrots yelling in my trees. It’s fun but loud.
OK. Today. Gotta deal with some stuff for the ex; the girlchild and boychild are both gone. He has plenty of food and becoming more mobile, hopefully a bunch more today, but we’ll see. I also have pilates and book club today, and about 60 tests left to grade, plus I need to order some stuff, buy some stuff, clean some stuff. And enter a show. And stand outside in the sun for a bit. Read my book. Be at peace for a bit. That would be cool.
That leaf from Friday? Hanging in midair? It’s still there. Some sort of commentary on life I think.
If you’re a sewing-machine person, maybe you know that part when you’re threading your machine, the skinny bar right above your needle that you put the thread behind so it will line up correctly with the needle? Mine fell off Saturday night. Granted, it was loose and I’d tried to figure out how to tighten it, then considered that the machine needed a cleaning and I would finish the stuff I needed to on this one and the next one and then take it in and all would be good. And then it fell off. Three parts actually. I did successfully continue quilting this…
Which makes you wonder if that little bar is truly necessary. I mean, I’ll call the shop today anyway (it needs a cleaning and the parts are now in a ziplock bag)…but if they can’t do it right away, will I try to sew without that part? I might.
OK, I finished the binding on this one…
Which looked a lot like this for a while…
And the owl angrily requested embroidery. So I started doing that…
Also needs eyes and a better beak.
I appliqued this onto the background…
It just needs sandwiching and quilting. Might embroider but probably not.
I also finally made it back to ceramics. The “fabric” she is holding bisque fired great. This one scares me because of the break. But I had fixed it before all the hospital/injury crap we were dealing with and then didn’t have time to go in. I fixed a bit more and then reglazed.
It looks OK, but IDK how to get it into the kiln.
So that’ll be in the next week or two.
I have a small piece I can work on until then, plus I have the neck started. If there’s room on the drying shelves, I could store that there. I’m scared to put this part on the shelves. One bump and I’m screwed.
I have two pieces at Quilts=Art=Quilts, but hadn’t seen photos of either of them until this one. That’s mine on the far right.
They might have sent some photos…I should look for that.
I was doing yardwork Saturday and found this china plate in my green recycling bin.
With half a croissant. Strange. I cleaned it up. Who throws away a plate? It’s not cracked or chipped or broken, and why my green bin? I suspect the pool person, but it’s still weird. Also the pool people do not understand the difference between trash and compost to save their lives. It’s mind-boggling. Or I’m just very demanding…don’t put trash in my compost!
Hiked with my brother, who’s visiting, on Saturday. Saw a single coyote.
There’s a lot of them in our yards at the moment. Kind of scary.
I got a cocktail on Saturday night. It was very pretty.
And my barn owl left me a gift Saturday night too.
And because it probably needs to be said…
Not entirely, of course. And things aren’t fixed. But they better be working on it day one.
OK, gotta call the sewing machine store. Hoping to go to ceramics today. The students are supposed to be finishing things today and doing one new thing. Some people were efficient on Friday and are ahead of the game. We had about 38 kids absent though…partially because FRIDAY and partially because of a shooting scare that diminished by Friday, but I guess parents were still nervous. Understandable, but also, bet more were out because FRIDAY and if it had been a Tuesday, probably not as many would have been out. Which reminds me, we have Wednesday out for Veterans’ Day…wanna take bets on how many kids will take a 5-day weekend on one side of it? Stupid timing. Oh well. Logistical issue for trying to finish a unit before Thanksgiving week off (excuse me, Fall Break) and giving two tests. I didn’t work enough this weekend, so I’m behind. Still. Again. All good. Will catch up. After school and staff meeting (oops, forgot about that) and ceramics, will grade some and embroider some or maybe attempt to find and put bindings on that other long piece? Or sandwich and quilt the little one? I could try. We’ll see.
Well the weekend was nice but also a challenge…good to sit in a chair and read my book or embroider, without thinking about school, but it rained and we forgot the pump for the air mattress, so my hips are sore from sleeping on the ground. The bed last night felt delightful. We did remember the popup though, so that was helpful for the rain. AND we got the tent up before it started pouring. Another plus.
Friday was Tattoo a Teacher Day…we didn’t get as many as last year.
My arm one is still there. The face one did not last all weekend, but most of it. It was a dinosaur.
We got out of here by 6 PM (we hadn’t really packed and it was a bit of a crazy shitshow after school). We managed a small fire with the rain and the popup…
Short drawing time too. We were tired. I think we ate dinner at 9 PM. It was fine.
The next day dawned glorious. We went on a short hike…
Saw some giant footprints…
Took a few breaks…
Saw a few sights…
Made it to the top…
The Man’s back has been bugging him; I’m sure sleeping on the ground didn’t help. We came back and he rested…
He’s the lump in the tent. I read for a while and stitched for a while…
I’m almost done with this bird I’ve been working on for months. I obviously don’t work on it much.
We then made the insane decision to go into town for dinner…forgetting that it is October, apple season, and the tourists are in full swing. Insane swing.
All the restaurants are tiny and had long lines, quoting 90 minutes plus for dinner. We went to one off the beaten path, somewhere we’ve been before, volunteered to sit outside in the chill, and only had to wait 30 minutes. All good.
Back to a blazing fire, a longer drawing…
Some staring into the fire void. Sleep. Up in the morning feeling somewhat refreshed (I was kinda done with the sleeping on the ground thing, honestly). Packed up with no issues except wet things, came home, made a grocery list, and then had to deal with a second family member in the hospital in the last week. Here’s me grading outside the emergency room.
It’s OK…everyone is going to be fine. Everyone will be home soon enough. I’m just not done grading (shocking) and a little (a lot) behind on everything else. I’ll get there.
Extra dog.
And this is NOT a dog…
That is my front yard early Saturday morning. Ah well. We knew they were out there.
So I am mostly unprepared for this week. I’m taking lots of ashwaganda, so maybe that is helping. My lunches aren’t made, my grading isn’t done. I think I have warmup posts for the week, but I’m not sure. Grades are due in a week. I think I know what I’m teaching today…I’m pretty sure Friday self set all that up. Good job! And I’ll figure the rest out when I get there.
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.
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.
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.
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.
