QUILT ARCHITECT

I started another blog...

2010-07-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

http://snailcloth.blogspot.com/

I started another blog...actually two.
I have been doing more printing lately and this blog and another are connected.
I will probably still post things here also but for right now and working on building up the blog over there.
It has been cool here, in the 50's...and we have been wearing jackets to the beach. But we haven't had to use an air conditioner...more like wool blankets at night. lol.
Hope you all are staying cool and having a wonderful summer.

Lynn Stopped By Today!!!

2010-07-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

I feel very blessed with a visit from Lynn at Getting My Feet Wet.
Lynn and I have been blogging friends for almost a year. When we had an earthquake in January she emailed me to make sure we were ok. She is thoughtful and extremely creative.

Well today she came by for a visit. She brought her husband Fred. We had a good time having show and tell. She gave me a couple pillow cases that she had embroidered on her trip. I wanted to get them on here before she gets home.

They are so beautiful. They are the nicest pillow cases I have ever owned.
Thank you, Lynn.

Handcarved ATC and Gardening in June

2010-06-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of my garden now.

The fennel and kale have taken off nicely. There is an onion in the foreground and in the very back are calendula flowers that Catherine planted.

These are our broccoli plants that I bought at the farmers market in Arcata.

I havested some radishes, garlic and chives out of the garden. I used them in some potato salad that we are going to have on a picnic in the redwoods later today.

I have been doing some hand carved linoleum stamps. The face on the left is my attempt at carving Abby Sutherland's face. I think she is a hero and example to all teenagers. She is a hero because she dreamed and worked hard to make her dreams come true. Her dream didn't come out of some experts idea of what a teenager had the right to dream about. She was prepared and didn't take unnecessary risk. When it was time to throw in the towel she did. I totally admire her and her parents. Here boat was well equipped and it had five water tight chambers. She also had a crew monitoring her and keep up with her. I am glad that we live in a place where we are allowed to dream big and the freedom to pursue our dreams, provided we have the money and means to do so.
    I haven't finished carving her face yet. The picture is from the point of view that she is looking in the sun..
    Last night I decided to cut my Japanese carving tools down. I should have done it before now, but I didn't want to ruin them. They were to precious, more so than I guess my hand was trying to manipulate it to cut at a 30 degree angle. You can see in the picture how the man is carving with them. Also if you go to the link it has an article about how to use them and the other hand to control the cut. Well I cut off a half an inch and they are still too long, so I am going to sand them down till they are right. I will say they are much better now than they were and I really started enjoying carving a lot more than I have in the past.
   The board that all the tools and stamp are sitting on is called a bench hook I am going to modify that so that the cut out at the top is closer to the center. You can wedge your linoleum block in the cut out and then you are free to use your hands to guide the blade. Right now because I am doing ATC size blocks the bench hook makes the carving too far away to carve with out hurting my back.
I am thinking about doing the SKETCHBOOK PROJECT. I was considering the theme Face In The Crowd. It would be a book of my lino-cut faces. When I thought about seriously doing this I thought I have to cut my tools down...and it wasn't such a big deal anymore.
    I wonder if anyone visiting my blog has joined or thought of joining this? If so what is your theme and will you be blogging about it?

March - Vision Calendar

2010-05-26T16:15:00.000-07:00

March flag is about giving up coffee.

I had a very strong coffee habit. No, rather it had me.
The coffee made it where I did not sleep well at night and then I felt tired the next day,
till I had another cup of coffee.
If I stopped drinking coffee I would get a headache.

It was also causing me problems with my teeth and gums.

But I loved coffee.
DH and I had a date that involved going out for coffee on Saturday mornings.

I just thought I would show you my coffee pot collection.

Coffee was as much about making it and steaming the milk as drinking it.

March was also the month that I got my hexagon quilt 'Moonflower' basted and ready for quilting.

I was exploring personal symbols as well and so I included the symbol of the cicada.

I like the way I did the letter P and am going to go back and heavily fill in a satin stitch around the letters I and M of my other two flags.

IMPROVEMENT VISION CALENDAR

2010-05-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

This is February's flag on my Vision Calendar.
The theme is tea. I actually started to have more tea parties in December and January because of this lovely
tea cozy that Ancient Cloth sent me.
Well I had to be honest with myself and admit that drinking caffeinated tea was not good for me.
I love Earlgrey. We have had a love affair for a long time, to the detriment of the family and my head.
You see I get head aches when I don''t have the same dose of caffeine as the day before.
I start trying to manage my caffeine like a drug junkie.
It just doesn't work for me. I need more to get me "going" harder the next day. After a few weeks of this kind of yo yo managing I finally admit that I can't keep doing this...usually after I have also over ate (I don't know what they connection is but it is a kind of self medicating) then crash...with a migraine and nausea.
I decided in February to give up all caffeinated teas.
Migraine headaches are not the only thing that I have suffered from Earl Grey. I have also received gut wrenching gall bladder attacks.
I have been a pain slut too long for Earl Grey and I am not going to let him take advantage of me anymore.

To be honest this was one of the easier improvements that I have made.
Success breeds success...as you will see in my next Calendar Flag.

I wanted to keep the ritual of tea celebrations...but without the bad side affect.
There is a sprig of mint in the design on my flag, which reminds me there are alternatives...choices.
I grow two different kinds, spearmint and chocolate peppermint.
I also have a chia tea mix that I love to brew.

Becky's Chia Tea Mix
1/2c cinnamon pieces
1/2 c roasted chicory
2T Peppercorns cracked
3 T Fennel
2T whole cloves
1 t ground nutmeg
1/3 c cardamon in green pods.
3T organic orange peels
add 1 t fresh ginger

Bring a 2 cups of water to a boil.
Put 2 T chia tea mix and ginger in the boiling water.
(being careful because it make boil over when you add it...
so I wait for it to cool just a bit or add right before boiling)
Simmer for 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and strain.
Heat 1 cup of milk.
Add to the chia and sweeten preferably with palm sugar
which you can get at an oriental grocery store.

The Lady of Shallots

2010-05-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

Isaac finished his cage for the rabbit.

He changes the grass and rearranges the cage to make it interesting for them.

I have created a shallot garden.

It reminds me of this song when I see it.

Here are my strawberry plants.

I decided to keep them in pots to try to minimize the weeds.

My herb garden has mint, oregano, thyme, marjoram and rosemary.

Today I transplanted my cactus plants.

Two of these have won blue ribbons for Isaac in the Coos Country Fair.

Here is Catherine's wheatgrass.

We have been talking about going on a raw food diet.

It will probably not be 100 percent raw ...but just some additions to our diet.

Here are my new raised beds that I got a month ago.

Here they are today.

I have a lot of clean up work still to do...

but I am really proud of all the progress that I have made.

We have onions, fennel, calendula, radishes, kale and broccoli in the garden so far.

Last year my garden was created from pallots with cardboard boxes to hold the dirt. The above picture is from last year and is where my shallot garden is now.Right now we have been having some really nice weather so it is time to garden.

I have been working on my hexagon quilt at night...and shortly I will have some other surprises to show you.

Handcarved ATC

2010-05-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

Seems I have been very quiet on my blog. Thank you for those of you who have visited and even left comments wondering how I am doing. I have been busy...as you will see.

This is a print from a linocut of a rooster that I did last week. I thought it was funny that after I had finished my two ATC for the month...I am trading within a group... I opened my mail from them. One of the women wrote: "Faces are okay but they should look different. Are you doing any women? Why not?"

Well as you can see I did some different kinds of faces...but neither one was a woman. Why am I doing male faces? I like them. Why don't I do women...they are suppose to be soft and pretty and I don't want to do soft and pretty...hard and coarse from work and worry is what I enjoy capturing in faces. Also I don't think I have figured out how to do faces well enough...so the more I do the better I think I will get.
My daughter, Catherine, actually turned me on to doing faces. She drew faces for a whole year. Mostly just girls...or anemia ..which to me look unisex. One day, a couple years ago, Catherine wanted to do a hand carved stamp. She drew a picture of a face. I told her that it would never look like a face, it is just to hard to carve and that she should start with something easier. Like a red head she never let that kind of talk stop her.

Now for an eleven year old I was pretty impressed with these images. So I thought I would try to do some faces. I was pretty surprised how well mine turned out...even in the drawing stage because I didn't normally draw faces....so that is how it all began. Here are a couple of linocut of women that I did a while back.

The one on the right, her hat is shading part of her face. I may have to try to do women again...but you can see the old and the young. Maybe the young is looking into the face herself old....maybe this is why I like to do men I can distance myself from the fact I am aging.

One of the things I like to do is line up all the images that I printed and look at them like a Andy Warhol painting. I am not a consistent printer. Isaac is a better printer than I am and he didn't want to help me because I want him to print too many.

Flowers

2010-05-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

Here are two of my hexagon flowers.

I wanted the flowers to have the motion of opening up.

So I made the center a more solid looking small print,

then the middle section was a little medium size print

and the last row around the flower a large print.

The flower on the right is from material that my grandmother

sent me.

It reminds me of the beautiful flowers in Breckenridge, Colorado where

Joe and I went on vacation with her and my Aunt Aurie.

The Pink Pig flower, is a scrap from a short pant/ dress that my mother made me.

I think it is kinda funny that I picked out that fabric.

I wonder what I was thinking?

I know that I loved to smile and be funny...and so this fit my personality.

I wanted the quilt to have some pictures on it so that one could make up stories.

I really like this farm flower, with all the farm animals.

At the time that I put the large flowers together

I didn't have that many different scraps of cotton fabric.

Fortunately a friend in Alabama, had been sent a huge

box of scraps from her mother and she allowed me to pick through

the box and put together my flowers from the scraps in there.

I don't think I would have had all the flowers finished

in nine months if it had not been for her.

Isaac made us this wonderful loaf of Challah bread with rasins last night.

It was soo good.

How to make a hexagon quilt

2010-04-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

So far I have hand quilted nine flowers and all the hexagons in between.

I thought I would share with you how I made my hexagon quilt.

First my DH drew and cut out my hexagon template for me.

Then I traced the hexagon on recycled printer paper.

I laid the paper on my fabric and basted it to the fabric.

I cut out the hexagon leaving a one forth inch seam allowance all around the hexagon.

I folded over the seam allowance using the paper as my guide and basted the edges down to the paper.

I butt the edges together and whip stitch them.

This is what it looks like on the front side.

I might make a little sewing kit like this one to carry with me in my purse.
This is a great project to carry with you.
I like having my thread wound on a bobbin so that it is convenient to carry in my tin.

I am hoping that I can finish it by the end of July.

It is a full size quilt with a two foot hang on either side and enough length to cover the pillows.

I will talk more about the pattern in my next post.

Easter Rabbits

2010-04-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

Here is our rabbit hutch that we got off of free cycle.

This is Catherine's rabbit Athena.

This is Isaac's rabbit, Ms. Gray

This is Isaac holding his rabbit.

Here is Isaac and Catherine building a rabbit run so the rabbits can get some exercise.

OINK the Pig

2010-04-09T17:05:00.000-07:00

When we lived in Oregon, Winston was 3 and he wanted a elephant. We couldn't get him an elephant, so we got him a pig instead. We built a fenced in place up in the woods. But our pig was social able and wasn't used to being quarantined. As a result we were never able to keep him in the fenced in area for longer than 15 minutes. He laid around the yard and the chickens would follow him and clean up after him. He would run up in the woods and get muddy in the stream. We had a huge gas bottle and OINK would knock it over and turn it on and it would just spew gas. When we walked OINK went on a walk with us. It was kinda scary because it was a country road and there were a lot of blind curves. We were afraid that someone might hit OINK, and we would be responsible for it.   So one day Joe decided to tie OINK up. We had an old farm tractor and we chained OINK to that using a VW seat belt for a "leash" around his middle. Oink grew and grew.
     One day I was getting Winston and I ready to go to town and Joe started screaming. He was in the Pig pen getting it some food when he accidentally got the chain wrapped around his leg. I really didn't know what I could do because if the pig jerked one way the chain would probably tighten. So I just had to hold my breath and watch. Fortunately nothing serious happened.
     When OINK was really small he was adorable but when he got big, it wasn't hard for us to turn him into ham and pork chops. OINK provided the best bacon we had ever had. It didn't reduce in the pan but held it's shape. It was also totally delicious cooked on a wood cook stove. YUM.

This gives you an idea how big the hexagons are.

My goal is to quilt everything I can inside the hoop and move it over once a day.

I really enjoy quilting.

Last weekend I bought the new thimbles.

I really like the gray one, and I am going to go back and get one for my thumb.

New Tesla Video

2010-04-05T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hi Hope everyone had a great Easter.
We had a busy Easter...complete with a couple new bunnies...I will have to get some pictures.
It rained a lot this weekend.
However my husband and son had fun making this last week.
DH made this video last night. Hope you enjoy.

I have been working on my hexagon quilt. So nothing creative happening right now. "Rest Before Action" I am feeling like I need a creative break to just dream.

Moonflower Quilt

2010-03-31T16:09:00.000-07:00

This is a quilt I started for Catherine before she was born.

This is the center of the quilt.
The fabric was given to me by mother.
These are mother's favorite colors to wear.

It is for a full size bed with a two foot over hang.

I want to just show a flower at a time for now.

When I get it done I will show the whole thing.

I named it Moonflower because these flowers bloom at night.

The boys and I had been collecting and we had been researching moths that summer.

Isaac found a very large caterpillar that summer, we put it in a jar and it made a cocoon.

We went to the library to find out what it was, but we weren't able to identify it till it hatched out.

Winston had found a couple very large moths that turned out to be the same breed as the caterpillar.

One of the moths was a female and she laid all her eggs in the large gallon jar.
They are active at night.

Moths also pollinate the Moonflowers.

Not the same moth as the ones the boys found.

But I guess for me there was this connection.

Love this Quote from Winston Chruchill

2010-03-30T15:57:00.000-07:00

I love getting the Painter's Keys Twice-Weekly Letter. When I read the quote below I thought of our boy named Winston. He is going to love it when I share it with him.

In his remarkable little book, Painting as a Pastime, Winston Churchill said, "I have always had a curious nature; I enjoy learning, but I dislike being taught." Winston understood one of the basics of learning--self-direction--the way of the autodidact. He would have been proud to announce the triumph of independent curiosity.

I am waiting for the batteries to recharge to show you some things I have been working on.

You might like to visit my other blogs.

Hard Times Living More With Less

Art Swap Barter Trade

I haven't been doing as much on them as I would like...so I think I am just making a micro movement to posting more on them.

Not Feeling Well

2010-03-26T07:32:00.001-07:00

I have the flu so I am not going to be blogging or doing email till Monday.

PICTORIAL LANGUAGE - Valerie Jaudon

2010-03-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

To regard these paintings is to participate in an act of translation – to move from a map, a diagram, archaeology of overlapping circuits, into an experience. Jaudon is concerned with setting up the conditions of observation, showing the viewer how to look, not what to see.

This video has made me think about experience vs. our memory of the experience and how this relates to happiness. Not only does our mind spend a lot of time playing these memories over and over but we are also concerned with making future memories or avoiding unpleasant future memories.

Comparing one-week and two-week vacations in the same place:
“For the remembering self, the two week vacation is barely better than the one week vacation because there are no new memories added. You have not changed the story. Time is actually the critical variable that distinguishes our remembering self from our experiencing self. Time has very little impact on the remembered story.”

“We actually don’t choose between experiences; we choose between memories of experiences. And even when we think about the future, we don’t think about future experiences. We think of our future as anticipated memories. You can look at this as the tyranny of the remembering self, and you can think of the remembering self dragging the experiencing self through a set of experiences it doesn’t need. I have the sense that when we go on vacations, this is very frequently the case. We go on vacations in the service of the remembering self.”

Daniel De La Harpe Golden said:

Mar 6 2010: I believe training or modifying memories through safe recall, story telling, and interaction with a participant in the process forms a major part of many psychotherapeutic techniques.

I read this blog by Jane Schner, about a "found photograph" art project she did in response to "What anchors us in these situations?"

So I was thinking what anchors me? I wrote this to a friend:
My anchor has always been the memories that I am making...the more good memories the stronger the anchor. I would like to say that people are our anchor...but only in relation to the connections we are making with them. If we treat people like a fixture in our life then they become an object, we are probably not going to be thinking about the memories we are making with them any more than you think about the memories you are making with your tv...even though you may spend time with you tv. But if you think about how much time you are spending laughing and enjoying each other...that is the anchor part.

In reading this now I think that even in thinking about people in the context of being memories is somewhat like making them an object of my happiness....so I don't think that is necessarily true.
But I think what I was trying to say was that the emotional aspect of the memory is important. But wonder if one negative become the focus of an otherwise perfect memory? This would be like taking a beautiful picture and painting black over the whole thing...We could chose to put the black paint brush down..but how do you do this mentally?
The Ten Coolest Art Therapy Interventions
I am interested in Art as Therapy as a language to translate our experiences so that we can have control over how they will effect us rather than just letting them control our lives.

How can we gain better ways of seeing so that we are happier?
There was a poem that someone quoted to me one time....I can't quote it and I don't know who wrote it and haven't been able to find it though I have looked for it.

The poem is something about some cream someone had.
The flies got into the cream.
That totally ruined the cream for this person, until
he was able to look at the cream and ignore the flies.
The point being that there will always be flies in our cream and if we want to be happy we need to learn to ignore what we can't control, and be grateful with what we can.

So how do you do this with regard to memories or future memories? Teach me...if you have developed a way of looking at the terrain of your memories that will translate in creating more happiness. It may even be illogical as in Valerie's painting. Or as in looking at the cream rather than the fly.

I have just thought of the serenity prayer and this is a good place to start.
The secret is in the STORY.
I am sure that sometimes there are experiences that are painful and may never be "fixed" completely...and we have to learn to let go of our attachment to repeat the story line or believe in the shame of the story. The story is there to teach us to practice a different way of looking.
These are just the tailend of my thoughts after writing this, I am not a therapist and I cannot provide much more than questions as I am a pilgrim searching.

I love this commercial, it is so powerful

2010-03-22T15:19:00.000-07:00

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits.
The rebels. The troublemakers. The round peg in a square hole.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
They can change the world
Are the ones who do.

(in order) Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon (with Yoko Ono), R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson (with Kermit the Frog), Frank Lloyd Wright and Pablo Picasso. The commercial ends with an image of a young girl, Shaan Sahota, opening her closed eyes, as if to see the possibilities before her.

A Magical Garden

2010-03-17T16:33:00.000-07:00

This is starting to get a fairy tale quality about it.

I have a "story" in mind but I want to leave it up to the viewer to create their own interpretation

or story line that suits them.

Also this makes it where the story can continue to grow and change

and that makes it more interesting for me as I work on it.

An ancient video of a top that Winston made

2010-03-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

This was made about three years ago. Look at how small Catherine is? She is really going at it chewing her chewing gum. We didn't buy that for them very often so that was a real treat.

I thought I would share this because I don't have a lot to show in cloth right now. I have been cleaning house and cooking.

My Magic Garden

2010-03-11T16:13:00.000-08:00

"All the worlds a stage and we are merely actors."

I wanted to create a magical stage that I might add little pieces

that could be moved around and played with.

When I was a child I really enjoyed creating the scenes or props for my dolls.

After I had kids I enjoyed giving them props and

watching them in their environment.

I think this is just a extension of playing and having fun.

The Spiral - a symbol.

2010-03-11T14:13:00.000-08:00

(This cloth was made for me by Ancient Cloth. Thank you!!!)

The Spiral

For me the spiral mean Expansion.

It is a Unfolding of a seed.

It is Growth.

It shows a Journey and

a logical Progression.

It starts from Within and moves out...

But also what is out can also effect what comes in.

Ebb and Flow.

Yin and Yang.

It is not about speed.

It is not the shortest distance between two points.

It is about Digestion,

Assimilation,

Observing,

Creating.

Quilting in 3-D

2010-03-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

The Kids

2010-03-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

My husband just edited and put up this video of

Winston our son's homemade Tesla coil.

His hair was really long in this video.

He got it cut last month and donated his hair to Locks Of Love.

Here is Catherine and Isaac playing with a 1980's Tomy robot.

They have had a lot of fun trying to get it to do voice recognition.

Every time you turn it off it loses its memory.

The good old days. huh?

On the front of the table is an electric remote control boat that Isaac built.

He made it from an old electric car that he had.

He used the wheels shaft for the boats rudders so that it could be steered.

TEEPEE - Symbol

2010-03-04T10:15:00.000-08:00

TEE-PEE BY ANCIENT CLOTH

The teepee represents the family for me.

It represents a journey shared with others going through this world with God

(the tee-pee points up) as a guide.

It reminds me of Abraham who searched for a city whose builder and maker was God.

I have never bought a house, because I enjoy moving around.

I wanted to experience a lot of different places.

I have collected houses...different kinds of structures, and thus different living experiences.

A house is a stage we live our memories on.

There was a time when I wanted to have a baby in a tee-pee, but that didn't happen.

This quilt was inspired by
the year 2003 Feb comet ...the corrona of the sun looks like the eye of Ra and

Van Gogh's Starry Night. Did the star declare something to the earth?

I don't know but I like historical quilts and wanted to make one.

This is the "spirit cloth" that Ancient Cloth did for me.

I blogged about the Cicada,

The Eye

The Fig

This Video is for Lynn and all those that want to come and lend a hand.

Spirit Cloth - The Fig

2010-03-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

Ancient Cloth's Spirit Cloth that she made for me; blogged about here.

The symbol of the figs represents PASSION.

It means living a SUCCULENT life.

I like the fact that it is organized as a pointalism of the tiniest seeds.

The seed, to me, represent intentions followed by actions.

As those intentions and actions ripen

the fruit is sweetened and the aroma becomes fragrant.

To me this symbolically represents an authentic life.

A life that is connected through WISDOM and PURPOSE,

to be lived for the design that I have been put on earth for.

In my own art work of the figs I have put passion flowers around the edge.

Living life on the edge requires that you be flexible.

The catalyst for passion in creativity

represented the ELIXIR of life, THE FIG.

Figs are a small decadence that I give myself ever summer.

I love taking pleasure in the small things of life.

Spirit Clothe - The Eye

2010-02-25T09:31:00.000-08:00

This is the Spirit Cloth that my friend Ancient Cloth made for me.

I picked the Eye as a personal symbol because it represents the Window to the Soul.

The Eye also represents Vision.

I wish to see things clearly, and also at different depths.

'The White Wizard' is a beaded barrette that I did for 2008 Bead Art Journal.

(I just wanted to show you something that I made with the symbol of the eye.)

To have Vision is to be able to think for one self.

To chart ones own course.

To be intuitive.

Being an individual.

The Eye also represents a Seeker of the Truth.

The one who questions conventional wisdom.

One who questions authority,

when the purpose of authority is to remain in power.

And the best way for this to happen is to keep the people ignorant

and to not have the capacity to THINK.

A single eye is an eye with a Purpose.

An eye that does not waver to the left or to the right.

A Bulls-eye, one that is determined to hit the mark.

Maybe the eye has other meaning for you.

I hope that you will share them and

enlarge the meaning of the symbol of the eye for me and other.

Erosion Bundle

2010-02-24T11:18:00.000-08:00

This is a little Erosion Bundle that I made last week.

Inside it I put things that I had collected while cleaning up in January.

I hung it on the fense in our garden.

When the family was looking at it yesterday they were trying to figure out what it was.

Catherine guessed I had made a cat toy.

I enjoyed telling them about it.

Hopefully the cats don't see it the way my children saw it.

As I get older I realize we are each Erosion Bundles.

We need to tighten our strings

It seems what we have eaten or how we have lived starts to "tattoo" our bodies.

Quote:
"One must live in the middle of contradition,
because if all contradictions were eliminated at once
life would collapse.
There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions.
You continue to live them out,
making your life a worthy expression
of leaning into the light."

Barry Lopez, "Arctic Dreams"

Personal Symbols - a journey cloth by Ancient Cloth.

2010-02-22T14:40:00.000-08:00

In January Ancient Cloth asked me what my five personal symbols were.

I had not thought of them in a list before and it felt like I was playing The Cube Sufi Game.

The Cicada is a symbol for death and rebirth.

It has a special meaning to me because of what I learned one summer as my boys were observing a cicada.

The boys were 3 and 7.

They enjoyed watching the cicadas come out of their shells.

They would attach themselves to the side of the tree and then when their shell was attach they would disengage their body.

They would then emerge from the shell and spread their wings, drying them out till they were hard and fly away.

When the boys found one they thought they would just move the critter to the front porch.

Unfortunately the insect was no longer attached to the tree.

He could not break free of his shell as he used the tree or a wall that his shell was attached to to help him.

This reminded me of how we may not trust natural progressions of growing up.

I have had adults around me try to help me "grow up" my children.

I was made to do things that I was not ready for and then my report card was marked with

Becky would do really well if she would pay attention.

The wall that I was attached to was taken away...my questions and imaginations considered unimportant.

They put me in a box of their own comfort and then presented me with their own set of questions and views.

It work well for "school" but it left me stunted and in my opinion it was in humane.

Another thing that happened when the insect did not emerge from his shell, was that my son helped him out.

He took off the armour that the bug was encast in.

It didn't help the insect.

The Cicada died.

For me, I was helped out by working on my weaknesses.

By being put in the slow class.

It did nothing to improve my strengths.

They really weren't interested in those.

I don't know if they knew what they were or what use they would have been in their system of learning.

I felt "stupid".

I struggled to survive in that environment.

One day I went to coffee with a friend of mine and told her this story.

After we got through I went to the farmer's market.

There was a girl there that had set up a Poetry Store.

I knew that I wanted her to write a poem about Cicadas.

As I got closer to her I saw that on the inside of her arm was a tattoo....

of a Cicada.

How cool is that?

Here is the poem that she wrote

"To follow the course

Of a tune well aimed,

We turn our ears to thosse

Who settle on living below

the soil until their brood

hums them onward. This song

trumps all those made by metal

or wood or throat andin this

winding buzz we can hear

the wisdom of rest, of patience

and of onwardness to come."

Jacqueline Suskin

October 31, 2009

Cicadas

P.S. This was done on a manual type writer so I left in all the typos as that gives this poem some character...and adds to it's artistic value, for me.

Symbols

2010-02-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

AC and I have been talking about symbols for a long time. I am interested in symbols and trying to impregnate them with meaning so that in a way I develop a personal language.

Back in November I was dealing with a complete breakdown of my relationship with my mother. I was trying to understand where I was and how I saw my mother...both now and as a child. AC suggested that I do some collage work around it.

I had actually been planning to nearly two years before this and had collected a box full of images that appealed to me at that time. I think that I was still into too many words about she said, did etc. But in November I just felt but didn't have the words necessary to convey that in writing. Art Collage was a great way for me to see my internal world.

Today I was reading a post that Erika refereed to in her post about Facing Our Personal Walls: 10 Cool Links. In her first link she talks about Cathy Malchiodi, who started a new on-line organization called the International Art Therapy Organization. I was reading her article in Psychology Today called Cool Art Therapy Intervention #10: Magazine Photo Collage.

She talks about using images to convey your thoughts. It is a kind of play therapy because you can manipulate the pictures till they are where you want them before gluing them down. When I did mine at first I just picked three images that spoke deeply to me and glued them down.

I found a new blog this week Jafabit's Art Embroidery.
She has used her sketchbook that she took to Washington, D.C. and used one of the pages to make an embridery art out of it. Here is the first post that shows her journal entry that she has started with.

How have you found symbols or used symbols in your art? May be you know someone who inspires you with their use of symbols, I hope that you will include a link.

Page 14 of my Miro inspired Journal.

He confessed later that hungry hallucinations were his muse. “Compared to the use of ether, cocaine, alcohol, morphine, or sex, Miró’s hunger-hallucinations look almost like a monkish fasting.” (p.44 in Joan Miró. By Janic Mink. Benedikt Taschen Verlag. 1993)

Setting the Stage - Vision Calendar

2010-02-12T18:36:00.000-08:00

I have finished my January

While cleaning up I found these little triangles that

I paper pieced.
It was a fun way to make a stage for I .

flag of my Vision Calendar.

January was about setting the stage for improvements.

I worked on cleaning and organizing my house, so that

straightening up the house would not be so taxing.

I also created good habits of picking up everyday.

I made a grocery list that I had laminated so that

I could put it on the refrigerator and check off the items I needed.

I just picked up the list and was ready to go.

I wonder what February's flag will be?
It is like a treasure hunt for the month, trying to find improvements.

Aging Woman Hand Carved Lino

2010-02-10T16:11:00.000-08:00

I have been busy hand carving this bookmark called "Aging Woman".

These are some of the proofs.

Proofs are the prints that you do to get the images that you finally settle on.

This is a bookmark about a woman as she ages.

She tries to look young or act young by putting on a mask and putting on a role.

The mask could be literal or figurative.

She feels young, and she can't come to terms with the fact that their is a leak...

It reminds me of our resistance to change that creates a more unreal mask as we age. Some people do this literally and some do it by "acting as if" they were young and happy....when they are lonely and have not realistically connected to the dreams that they wanted and the realities they have lived. Some are so used to playing the part that the mask has become part of the psyche.

We all have to look and see the person we are, the person we would like to be.

The face we give to the world.

We all feel there is a leak. We feel young, but our body tells us a different story.

If only we knew what we know today and could begin again.

How we would live differently?

Soon I will have one of these bookmark posted in my ART SWAP, BARTER and TRADE blog.

Charlotte Gibson's Magic Folding Cube

2010-02-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

This is a hand carved stamped on wooden blocks.

Has to be the coolest thing I have seen yet.

Here is a link if you would like to make your own.

Thank you Charlotte!!

Feburary 1 What Is On Our Desks

2010-02-02T13:32:00.000-08:00

I am working on the I in my Vision Calendar prayer flags.
The little Select Tomato box came out of a box of tubes Joe got today.
I think it will make a cute sewing caddy.

Working on printing book mark, I have made a lot of proofs.

If anyone wants one of my proofs just email me for my address and send a self address stamped business sized envelope.

Isaac was building a "new" computer for his mom and dad.

This is Joe's antenna table.

Joe's project on his table. It is either a receiver or a transmitter or an amplifier.

Joe got a box of goodies yesterday. The large tube is a television tube for a camera in the 1950's. Joe said they would rotate these tubes. After a while the tubes would start to see through the persons clothes and they had to be given a rest. So the TV stations would have about twenty of them that they would rotate through like a snake in the box.

The other little boxes are television tubes that are also used in Ham Radio gear.

This is Winston's desk. He is learning how to program his new Micro processor design board.

I didn't get Catherine's desk....another day.

Low Tide

2010-02-02T13:12:00.000-08:00

It is dusk and Winston went out and took this picture.

As you can see when the tide goes out the boat just sink into the mud.

Reminds me of this quote:

Warren Buffett quote - It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked.

High Tide

2010-01-29T11:12:00.000-08:00

Today there is a high tide.

It is cause by the moon. The moon tonight is the biggest full Moon of 2010.

Astronomers call it a "perigee Moon,"

some 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons of the year.

The drainage pipe there is to let the water that is in the street drain back into the canal.

This could cause serious flooding if there were for example a lot of rain or

a wind surge.

I told you before Christmas that I was going to be adding a section I called Fossils.

I will be writing more about this in the future.

It is interesting how I started this before January and how much it looks like the cracks of an earthquake.

But it also resembles the cracks in the desert from a parched earth.

Today I want to finish up a hand carved lino book mark.

I will be printing it today as well.

Vision Calendar

2010-01-27T10:09:00.000-08:00

My word for 2010 is IMPROVEMENTS.

After looking at Erika's Vision Calendar

I noticed the prayer flags in the window.

I wanted a Vision Calendar that would some how be able to be worked in fabric.

I decided to make mine look like a this because our intentions for the year seem just a prayer.

I wanted a word that would convey something forward but also a word that would not be so big that I might feel overwhelmed by it's greatness and my smallness.

IMPROVEMENTS came to me in a couple different ways, and since it is twelve letters I thought it was perfect.

Each flag has the month of the year on it. I am thinking of doing these in a 'snail cloth' way that will reflect what I have improved over that month.

This is my table where I am working on carving linoleum stamps.

I am hoping to improve in making more lino cuts this year!!

The Tree

2010-01-26T10:33:00.000-08:00

The tree is one of my favorite symbols.

When I was a child I memorized this verse.

Psalm 1

¹Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

²But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

³And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The tree is rooted in a heart of unconditional love that is neutral in color.

The other cloth has leaves on it, and it represents the leaves of truth.

When the leaves fall off the tree they are things that have gone on before,

they make up the biography of man or our truth.

When the wind blows through the leaves they seem to be saying something...so

Then leaves themselves stand for the different ways of communicating.

In ways that assist finances and practical endeavors
Communication that inspires and evokes genius.
communicating from a philosophical, religious, or spiritual base;
Direct and honest communication that is well timed.
Communication that inspires vision which is articulated
Communication that is written
Promptings from our essence and is constantly being reformed and delivered.
The transformative power to communicate ones range of feelings.
To articulate ideas and thoughts clearly and succinctly
Communication that is flexible and aware of all communication lines we have executed both personally and professionally. (from The Tarot Handbook by Angeles Arrien)

I see Ancient Cloth as a communicator.

Ancient Cloth's Tea Cozy

2010-01-20T11:10:00.000-08:00

Ancient Cloth got her tea cozy in the mail yesterday. I was in a hurry to get to the post office so I didn't have time to write her a "proper letter" explaining all the symbols. I got that in the mail Tuesday. I told her to look at the symbols and see what they say to you. You might come up with things that I didn't think of.

So that is what I want you to do as well. While you wait for me to write the meaning that I intended, what are some more layers of meaning in the symbols that you see?

BACK OF TEA COZY

2010-01-16T19:05:00.000-08:00

Inner Healing of the Wounded Child

Before I sewed up the black and white fabric I cut this hand out of the red fabric that I got from Ann Johnson.
I have a problem with throwing anything away...even when it didn't work. When I put it on the black and white fabric it looked more like a war protest image.
So I decided to use the hand as a visual representation of something that I read in my journal.
I didn't write down where I got this and if you know I will be happy to give credit.

"GETTING RID OF BAGGAGE

When we have IT in our mind, break IT down literally into smaller pieces. With your mind, however it works for you personally. Take the rock or BOULDER that IT is as a symbol of IT and then make IT smaller in size. Continue to do this until IT is small enough that IT no longer over powers you or feels bigger than you are. Continue to do this until you can literally blow IT into the universe for her to now take care of with a breath, and watch IT dissipate into thin air and nothingness. IT feels really good when we do this. It allows us to take something that we once gave huge merit to and no longer see it in the same way. It totally changes our perception. This helps us to realize and recognize that we were the ones that was allowing IT to remain in a controlling nature to us. What is your relationship to IT? We were also the one that took IT down and CHOSE TO CHANGE IT'S NATURE. We have now taken back our control by taking responsibility for what we gave IT."

I actually did this exercise at a charged moment. I managed to reduce what I was reacting to...then I got a handle of how I wanted to respond. It was quite empowering.

I got the term "wounded child" from Dr. Margaret Paul, who

wrote the book Healing Your Aloneness.

The Gold Blog Award !

2010-01-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

A few days ago Erika at Every Days a Present gave me a Gold Blog Award. When you visit my page and you press on that star you will go to Erika's blog, which has been an inspiration for me.

I have been rather busy but have been wanting to accept it properly and to also pass out my own Gold Blog Award. Here is a list of blogs that have been especially inspiring to me in my journey.

Writing Up a Storm, because Kari has helped me to see writing as fun and enjoyable...and usually it feels stifling and tense. When I read Kari's blog I see it is just a relationship with words between friends. Being visually oriented I have had trouble with words. But Kari is multi gifted and she uses images to help us that are so challenged. I love her prose and pictures.

I have also enjoyed the prose of Iviva Olenick at Were I so Besotted. She reminds me of romantic love and the roller coaster ride that it can be. I also like the fact that she has embroidered these bits of prose on linen and made them immortal.

Lately I have been inspired by Textile Art Quilts by Lynn. What has really got me fired up is her gutsy attitude when it comes to making art. She says she just started making art two years ago and has had quilt shows and has made connections in the art and textile world that are helping and supporting her growth. I think she is a great example of what I want more of.

Ancient Cloth has been a real friend to me. Her friendship has been cultivated like the slow cloths that she sews. She has showed me how to take things as they come not to be so in a hurry. To trust more and to believe that all will work out if we exercise patience and love. She is a giver. She has taught me how to do the Slow Cloth technique. I love the way her cloth as a feel of grace and a human hand of kindness.

Arlee at Albedo Design Journal makes me laugh. She has such an incredible sense of humor and she knows just how to find my tickle bone. I can "see" what she saying...and I think that is a gift. I also love the same colors that she does. Vibrant, rich, exotic fabrics all inspire me. She is an experimenter, and an alchemist of color, a daring soul. Here is some more eye candy of Arlee's.

I don't crochet...much. But I really like the way Louise Bird at Science Crochet and Other Hypothesis thinks. I like reading "long thoughts" that have been worked out in solitude. I can tell that Louise has had a lot of long thoughts. I enjoy reading her perspective. She is a woman that is interested in science and math, and these were my favorite subjects in school. Would love to have a 'cuppa' with her in her crows nest.

Black and White

2010-01-11T15:49:00.000-08:00

When I see this now I can't help but thinking about the earthquake. But I actually made this last week and finished it Thursday, way before the earthquake.

I was really excited to use the black and white fabric. I wanted to make something you might see at the MOMA. But when I got through with the black and white piecing I thought the world was spinning around and around. I thought I will never get these lines and dots to hold still.

I am not sure that I have now either.

But going with the idea of modern art and a tea cozy I decided to create the cup and saucer theme.

After I got through with it I wasn't really happy with her expression. She just looks confused.

I think fitting that there is a question mark on the side of her head. But there is also a yellow spiral which seems to me to show that she is going to use her imagination.
She is going to get out of the

RIGIDITY OF BLACK AND WHITE THINKING.

I understand this kind of thinking. When I get looped into the duality of two different opposing forces I find myself in the SLOUGH OF DESPOND. I want the way I want things to be to match the way things are. I want the lines to be parallel...everything going in the same direction ...the way I want them to go.

when I get in this mode of thinking I stop treating people as humans. I start resorting to the more efficient method of treating them like machines.

I have to stop my self from REACTING and start CHOOSING MY RESPONSE.

Otherwise I will wear this dull expression and shut down emotionally. I am not able to connect to others and no one is on my side. I feel isolated, alone and miserable. This is the side of anger turned in.

To me doing this in a SLOW CLOTH METHOD IS A MEDITATION.

I am a rather deep thinker and doing these kinds of cloth are the kinds of conversations that I would like to have with a human...but it is so hard to get on that level because we lack time. But I desire, crave and delight when something has come up from the well that is really SPIRITUAL in nature, to me anyway.

I really feel it is a gift to me, to show me THE WAY.

2010-01-10T15:33:00.000-08:00

Traveling Art book!

We each make a page in what ever size we want using whatever media we want and send it to one person who adds a page of their own art, and in turn sends it to one person who adds a page and so on until it is returned to the owner of the book (you). You can have a theme for your book if you like or not.

If you are interested contact Lynn...here is her blog link with that post included.

Earthquake

2010-01-10T13:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was our family's first major earthquake. We do live near the beach and so we are in a tsunami hazard zone. We have talked about what we would do during an earthquake. We talked about what we would do if there was a tsunami. My husband said if it is big enough to throw you down then it is big enough to cause a tsunami. This one threw my husband down on his butt while he was going down the stairs.

I was running around thinking, "Well this is an earthquake, I will go to the bathroom and ride it out. They, (earthquakes) are usually not that strong." I went toward the bathroom thinking about it being the strongest point in the house. The earthquake started getting stronger not weaker. I thought this is too big just to hide in a house...I need to get out of the house. Then I came out of the bathroom and thought about going through the hall way to the front of the house rather than going out the back door, because the kids were in the front of the house. I stopped right in front of the racks that are in the hall that have food stored on them. All the sudden the big jolt came. The metal bowls I make kim chee in flew off the top shelf, the glass jars crashed on the floor and the whole house was rocking from side to side. I was looking across the cataclysm at Catherine. I thought I am not going to be able to go through the hall to get you. I can just tell you to get out of the house and that is what I am going to do and trust that you will be safe and do what I tell you. It was a very out of control moment. But I knew that it was more important for me to get out of the house and be safe than for me to get hurt and others to risk their life to help me. So in some ways it did feel selfish to turn around and save myself...it was a twisted logic that worked. Maybe it is part of the Serenity Prayer that I have tried to practice in other areas of my life that came into play here.

We all got outside. Joe was the last one out. He was looking for me. He couldn't hear me screaming for him to get out of the house and he kept calling me, believing me to have been knocked out. It is so scary to think that he was still in there and I had to just keep calling for him to get out of the house. He said it was very noisy and he couldn't hear me calling. I told him that even you going through the house and kicking the jars that were on the floor would be very noisy and I could understand. We decided that next time we all take care of our self first and get out of the house and then assess if anyone is still in the house later.

There was a power pole that had shorted and was smoking in the front of the house.Catherine and Joe both remember hearing it short and seeing sparks....I guess in the house? We were all gathered around and running toward the truck. Joe unlocked the truck doors and we all piled in.We raced off the island. We would have been the first off the island if it weren't for a car from Florida that pulled out in front of us on our way out. I think the people were sight seeing because they were not going fast enough...for us. If there had been a tsunami and it was that close every second would count. We saw other people were starting to get in their cars and get off the island as well. This was not dress rehearsal this was the real thing.

Last year the power company who has a power plant on King Salmon, replace the only exit bridge on the island. The old bridge we were later informed had sheered off 2 feet making it dangerous to drive across. If that had been out only bridge we would have had to stop the truck and either walk across or go back to the highest point on the hill behind the Power Plant. We would probably have done the latter as it was closer and would get us to higher elevation the fastest.

When we got off the island we went up the hill to a friends house. Joe had his two way radio in the truck and started listening to the traffic reports. We then learned that it was a 6.5 magnitude earth quake, but there was no risk of a tsunami. After about 20 minutes later. we went to he TV station where my husband is the chief engineer. They were also without power.

We got back in the truck went to the house ...saw that it was structurally sound and made plans to go back to the TV station. Joe got the boys to load up the generator and some electrical cords. We all went back to the TV station. There was another engineer there that was moving the live truck into place to do a live shot. They got the generator on the truck started and light turned on. Joe started working on getting the 1940's back up generator running. He had warned the manager that the generator was too old and was not a reliable back up generator in case of an emergency. He sent Isaac up to check and see what color the fuel was. Isaac reported that it was cloudy but not black. At this time they are all working with flash lights. They needed some thing and the other engineer had a friend that had an auto parts store. So they called him up and he went and opened up his store and sold him the part. The engineer said the store counter had fallen right on it's face. It was a mess in there...and yet the man helped us out.

The generator started and Joe started turning things on. They got the TV station back on the air.

The Camera was ready, the light was on and Joe went and found the news girl. She was new and this was her first earthquake that she had ever been through. He came to her and gave her the mic, she said, "What do you want me to do." He said, "Get on the air and tell them what you know." There wasn't enough light so Joe got his little flashlight out and shined it on her face. It looked like a movie. It was an emergency and she looked like she was reporting on and in an emergency. She had her news reporter notebook out that she was reading from and she was reporting what she knew.

   Catherine said, "This is so ghetto." Maybe but sometime it is the appropriate technology that works and is the right thing for the situation. I told her this looks right, this looks like the way it really felt. It would be neat if we could get a hold of that video...if we do I will try to post it.

   About an hour later the generator quit...died.

     All that we could do was to transmit on the air live but nothing from the affiliate. Since there was no electricity there was no way to get any live footage and edit it and replay it on the air. So they made a little hand made written sign that said that they would be back and taped it to the side of the new truck. (I wish I could remember what the sign said. I wish I would have taken the sign when we left, because we were the last ones to leave).

   When the DJ from the radio station, that shares our parking lot came over and told us their generator had died. Joe told him that he had a generator in his truck that they could use. This radio station was one of two stations that was keeping people informed. It is nice to live and be a part of a community. Joe said that the guys at the radio station couldn't have been more pleased to get that generator out of the truck than if you had said it was gold.

   The DJ said that there had been a lot of phone calls that came in concerning large screen TV's that they had gotten for Christmas all busted. Talk about the Grinch that stole Christmas.

    I was glad I had been keeping my house clean. My biggest tragedy was the laundry soap and come off the shelf. It was the kind that has a spout that you press. Well I had the lid off and it had poured all over the washer and dryer. I thought this is just a little inconvenience. It wasn't long till every thing was swept up and it was time to go to bed...at 1:30 in the morning. It was a long day.

Black and White and Red all over.

2010-01-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

Well this might be a good time as any to introduce you to a mistake.
I sometime get really excited about making something and only after about half way into it do I realize that it is going to be a flop. This was what happened with this tea cozy I decided to make for Ancient Cloth.

She had mentioned a special cloth that she bought from the New England Quilt Museum. Oh boy, I thought I have some 'special' cloth and I hadn't figured out what to do with it. I will make it into a tea cozy for AC. Right. Here is the cloth.

I got this fabric from Alma Stoller before she was featured on the cover of Quilting Arts Magazine.

I had entered a quiltie in a contest that she was having on her yahoo group.

This is called Emotions.

It is really my first slow cloth in the sense that it was done slowly...lots of hand work and I discovered a lot of wisdom in it. I explained this when I posted it on her yahoo group.

The orange lady is joy ad the green is fear but in between these two is the one that could either be anger or depression (anger turned inward).

When we are depressed or angry we are not really expressing our fears or joys.

We are stuck.

The other 'special' cloth is this nice red cloth.

couldn't really see it?

I took a class with Ann Johnson on Quilt Design.

She passed out a scape of her hand died fabrics to each participant.

I have never found just the right place for this piece.

I had just the motivation I needed to overcome all obstacles of fear.

But then realized this isn't going to work.

Will show you in my next post what I decided to do to "make it work".

To be continued in next post.

January has become a CLEANING month

2010-01-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

I know the new buzz is Clearing Space...but to get right down to it I have been wiping, washing, dumping, re-organizing and deep cleaning. Not only that, but I have been developing new habits, clean habits. The first habit that I put in place was that I wasn't going to wash another child's dish. In exchange for not washing them I have told them that they will have better thought out meals. Which I have been able to do since I am not behind the eight ball in cleaning all the dishes. (We have a dishwasher...but I have a religious objection to using it, which my kids do not understand. Plainly it is this; if I have to wash the dishes clean so that machine can throw soap all over them and rinse them, then why shouldn't I just go ahead and wash them. So I do.)

Today Louise Bird wrote in the comments about how important tea was to British way of life. I went down determined to have a cup of chia tea. I could nearly smell it. But when I went to look for the canister I couldn't find it. The water was boiling and still I couldn't find it. I started cleaning out the kitchen cabinets and wiping them down with a rage. I clean one shelf then another. Then I found a small bag of the left over chia tea mix that I had made. I had enough to make a pot of tea. I continued to clean and search for my container of chia tea mix.

I have done almost two cabinets and four drawers...and four hours later I figured out where it might be. It had rolled under a metal rack that we store jars and can food. Well I tell you that there is nothing that modivates me to clean than losing something. So I feel that I am headed in the right direction for Januaray.

Erika C. at Each Day is a Present has been writing a lot about creating a vision for herself this year. She has posted about making a Vision Calendar . I have been thinking about making one...but I have decided to devote 12 pages of my new journal, when it gets here to the task. She also talks about Choosing Three Qualities that you want to see this year. I have had a lot to meditate on while I am cleaning...and I think that cleaning is a great way to meditate. So I am going to be jotting down ideas, goals and qualities on as I work, to write into my journal.

I like to keep a journal. I don't write a lot about what I am doing in the journal. Sometimes I do but mostly I write about things that are important that I have read or that I heard that I don't want to forget. I also write reflections of what I think about a certain situation. I have been reading over my journal the past couple of weeks and have revisited some things that I had forgotten about. I found they hold some incredible truths and are like a time capsule of the year. I could just write in a blank book that doesn't have any date. In fact I do this when I am writing my morning pages. But I like the fact that it is a journal and that there is a sequence of time that keeps you going forward.

I usually buy a weekly planner. One that shows five day/ or seven days on a page and then has a few photos through out. This year I decided to try this Moleskin Artist Collection which is a blank page for each day. Perhaps sometimes there will be art or sometime a Mind Map for a page.

Have you been inspired by the New Year to make some changes, create a new habit, or change your focus by giving you some new direction for the new year. I wish you would share it with me. It feels like we are all starting again at the starting line.

LETS GO!!!

Having Tea!

2010-01-05T15:37:00.000-08:00

I have been slowly emerging from the holidays.

I have been cleaning and rejuvenating.

I have been rereading my journal from last year,

and contemplating the directions I would like to take in the new year.

To help with all this, I have been drinking tea every day.

Sometimes in the morning, and sometimes before bed.

Sometimes it has be a tea bag

but often it has been mint tea or chamomile tea out of my garden.

The best part of all has been having this tea cozy to help celebrate the ritual of having tea.

This tea cozy was given to me for a Christmas present by my friend Ancient Cloth.

How many different words are there for how much this means to me?

I love it!

It so represents my heart and my journey and our friendship.

She sent me a note with the meaning of the different symbols,

and a special note about the moon fabric.

She wrote, "The butterfly emerges from the pain and fears we face.

Of course the stars are all connected.

The moon fabric I used is from the New England Quilt Museum for In The Beginning.

(I thought that was kinda cool)"

So do I, as I have been thinking about this new year and each day,

as a New Beginning.

The book, Having Tea, in the photos, is my very favorite tea book. The middle picture shows a loft space with an artsy tea setting. I love the idea of an Alice In Wonderland Tea party and would love to have some funky tea cups and tea pot.
The third photo is titled Having Tea in the Country and features using old crockery with a cork as a thermos for the tea. Romantic to say the least.

Art Swap, Barter and Trade

2010-01-04T14:39:00.000-08:00

Today I have officially lunched my new blog:

Art Swap, Barter and Trade.

You will find three of my hand carved linoleum cut prints.

I have traded different kinds of art with artist before.

Some of the trades I have been involved in included ATC, art dolls,

quilted pages, tip-ins and postcards.

It is fun and inspiring to get art from other artist.

I am really excited about starting this blog this year!!

Happy New Year!

Miro Page 13

2009-12-30T19:38:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I posted any of my Miro pages from my study book.

I like the exagerated arms and gestures. I think it is very daring and shocking to have

the caracter sticking out his tongue.

"Gradually Miro became more and more disgusted with the commercialization of art, with "the guy who buys a canvas as an investment." He even burned some of his canvases, in part for "the joy of being able to say merde to people who see art only for its commercial value," he told the journalist Santiago Amon.

Through out his career, Miro had considered the artwork itself as being only the means to a spiritual end, "Besides," he onced asked, "do I have to remind you that what I detest most is what is lasting?: What is lasting, in this centenary retrospective, is more than indivual works; it is the evidence of Miro's uncompromising path toward self discovery."

from Arts and Antiques October 1993

Joe's Stocking

2009-12-28T10:25:00.000-08:00

I did this stocking our second year of marriage.

I started it in November and got it done in a month.

It wasn't easy either for the thread is wool not DMC embroidery thread.

Christmas Day

2009-12-25T15:05:00.000-08:00

With Nicole and Bree.

Under the tree.

Handmade ornaments hanging above.

A bird's nest long forgotten

Making memories that will last.

And remembering those of Christmas past

A visit from a Christmas mouse

Wishing you a Merry Christmas!!!

And a Happy New Year!!

Winston's Stocking

2009-12-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

I cross stitched this for Winston when he was an infant...but didn't get it finished till he was 3.

We were living in Oregon and so I thought a Douglas Fir would make a good motif for the back.

Mosaic Monday

2009-12-21T11:17:00.000-08:00

1. Abstrait, 2. White is White, 3. Soleil Rouge, 4. Untitled

I am featuring one artist today, Cecile M.'s.

You can see more of her work here as well

as visit her blog here.

Driftwood Tree

2009-12-20T15:24:00.000-08:00

Isaac is drilling out the crown of our driftwood tree.

Here he is putting on the finishing touch.

Here is our driftwood tree ready for decorations.

We are planning on making decorations out of drift wood and other found object through

out the year. I will show you the ornaments as we get them made.

Fossils

2009-12-19T09:06:00.000-08:00

Fossils

I wasn't really sure how i wanted to pursue the bottom of the quilt till this week. I knew that it is the next progression for me. This week I have been thinking about my dugout shelter and what might have gotten unearthed...both physically and emotionally. Because this quilt is a metaphor of a relationship of irreconcilable differences.

(If you want to read the rest of this post push the read more button)

I thought of the fact that in this desert of a relationship that part of what makes it so hard is the fact that it is so foreign to my needs. I need water and a desert lacks water. I have to haul the water. I have to drink more water and keep up with how much I am drinking so I don't get dehydrated. I have to listen to the winds howling for days and even months. I have to live with the forces of nature, and in this desert those forces can be brutal and even life threatening.

What can be life threatening in a human relationship? Perhaps losing your own identity for someone else. Having to consider the other person to the point that you cease to be a person. When you become a cartoon or an actor in the theater of someone else stage. This is life threatening as in a desert. Because in this type of relationship there is the lack of consideration that is the element of a contract whether social or physical.

At first I was going to take different alphabets and create and abstract art of a lack of communication, to show a lack of understanding. But this is not really entirely true of the relationship. Sometimes we understand too much and in that understanding there is contempt. So then I thought about how in building this area of protection from the desert, this earth shelter, we have unearthed a lot of dirt, and that in this dirt there is a history. Geologist look for the fossil record and archeologist look for the physical signs of people or animals that lived in the area. Sometimes these fossils or pieces of pottery are so small that they are unrecognizable as to what they are. Sometimes though they are plan to see.

This is a quilt about finding my own symbols. These symbols are within all of us. They may not be the same symbols but they represent the universal ideas of love, hope, fear, loss, intimacy, beauty, separation and expectation. When digging in our past we may uncover layers of meaning. At first these pieces may have no apparent significance. We don't discard them, but rather guard them. We have faith that at the right time they will become meaningful. That they are significant "object" lessons that we can use to leap to new understanding or enlightenment.

It isn't my goal to explain the symbolic fossils found here in my quilt, but rather to use this medium of abstraction to communicate "history".

Dolls from a special friend

2009-12-18T14:51:00.000-08:00

One of the best things about blogging is making friends.

Ancient Cloth has become a very special friend of mine.

She sent me these lovely dolls.

I love their sweet faces.

My little African American doll is so plump in my hands, I love the way she feels.

Her expression makes me smile. She keeps looking in the kitchen to see what goodies I have in the oven.

Look at the details. both have under garments.

The fabrics are so well chosen.

My little dolly is named Bree.

And the mother is named Nicole.

She has inspired me to make a doll.

If you have a handmade doll on your blog leave a comment and a link, I would love to see it.

All types of dolls welcomed!!

I fix tea and we can have a virtual tea party.

The cookies are cooling and will be waiting for you when you get here.

P.S. The dolls are sitting on my husband's antique Radiola 20. A tube radio from the 1920's.

2009-12-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

The Door of Fear

2009-12-15T13:57:00.000-08:00

Remember that I had all this fullness in the door and I was wondering how to "work" with it.

The first thing I did was sew it down to this card board so that it would lay as flat.

I took some basting stitches around in a circle so that I could draw the fullness up in a central spot.

I took it off the card board and sewed shisha mirrors over the circles. I made the shi sha mirrors from a laminar potato chip bag. Shi Sha Mirrors were believed to ward off evil.

I think that is very important when looking at our fears.

I sewed a back onto the door. Eventually I will attach it to the quilt.

I also plan to have the door open to another picture.

Catherin's Stocking

2009-12-11T16:28:00.000-08:00

Time to get out the stockings.

Here is Catherine's stocking.

It is a Alma Lynn design and based on the Nutcracker.

The dolls hair is Catherine's real hair. I thought that would be very Victorian.

The back is cut from a quilt my great grandmother made.

I think that you can see it is the wedding ring design.

It was falling apart and I wasn't interested in restoring it, but using it in this kepts it alive.

The Canal Like a Mirror

2009-12-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

Mosaic Monday

2009-12-09T16:14:00.000-08:00

1.seed-pod spoon set 2. 8.4.09 (153), 3. Mending and rag weaving in rural Japan, 4. cloak

The Door of Fear

2009-12-09T07:54:00.000-08:00

Well it is kinda interesting working on the door of fear, to work on one side is to also be in touch with the other side. When you say it is a door you can't help but wonder what is on the other side. I think I have come up with a few ideas. Here is one that I thought of doing in jest.

Becky's Gallery - Wool Quilt

2009-12-04T16:19:00.000-08:00

This weekend I am going to be tying my wool quilt. Right now it is held together with safety pins.

I made this quilt in 2004. A friend gave me a collection from the 1960's of shirting samples from Pendleton wool factory.

My goal is to have this done before Christmas.

Strategies through the Door of Fear

2009-12-03T11:26:00.000-08:00

I have to admit the door of fear was scaring me. I was really excited

about going to the desert and surviving a seemingly impossible situation

and living to tell about it. Where did my courage go? My goal is to

build memories and experiences for my family that are unique and will

give my children different perspectives on living. We lived off the grid

before, so I wasn't worried about that. In fact I welcomed it because it

forces you into a different rhythm of life.

My door has started to take on a little bit of a fun element in the
scorpion. I thought Yeah, she would definitely have a flashlight for eyes
so that she would be able to find me. In exaggerating my fear, I actually
was able to start laughing at it..I thought about people like Evil
Knievel, who thrive on doing things that people said couldn't be done. How
do they strategize when looking at the door of fear? I think they look
past it. I think they look at what they will gain rather than what they
could lose. I think too that they have had enough experience to believe
that there is always a way out. But I also think that they get addicted
to the rush that fear can create. It distracts them from a lot of other
things they may not be dealing with. They have an excuse, or at least a
mental escape while they are focused on the job at hand.

So I guess we should ask our self

What is our strategy when dealing with fear?
How do we dress it up so that we can go through the door?
How do we distract ourselves long enough to push past the feelings that would seem to overwhelm us?
How do we get "focus?"

Art of Symbols of Fear

2009-12-03T11:02:00.000-08:00

Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine's version of "America's Got Talent." She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

The Door Called "FEAR"

2009-12-01T11:50:00.000-08:00

The door that reflected my feelings about living in the desert was FEAR.

Fear of the unknown and fear of change, and fear of what I couldn't control.

We all have doors that are presented to us like this.

Sometimes we push past our fears and turn the handle and open the door and walk through.

Sometime we are forced to open the door and we are pushed through.

But we all have experienced that door of FEAR, metaphorically speaking.

So what would a door of FEAR, look like to you?

I am again reminded of Susan Sorrell's class for searching for our Personal Symbols.

So this is a quest, embodied in a story quilt, that is in search of Personal Symbols.

I did not at first think about the snake being blue representing my fear of running out of water,

But after I finished stitching it and looking at it as a flowing stream, I realized that this was

the perfect symbol to represent that.

The reason that I picked Blue was because it was a vibrant color that would be used in New Mexico, and Van Gogh said that blue cannot be blue without yellow.

The door frame was yellow and so I thought blue would be good for the snake.

Also I don't think of blue Rattlesnakes. So many of our fears are not founded in reality but in feelings, and feelings are often not rational.

I wanted the head of the snake to be where you put your hand to open the door. The place where you would least likely want to put your hand, just so you could experience the FEAR.

Because FEAR is an emotion, it is abstract, it is a fifth sense.

You can already see the outline of the scorpion.

Often it is the small things that become the larger issues in our mind.

Mosaic Monday

2009-11-30T13:16:00.000-08:00

Last week I showed you some pictures from my paper stitch book. I asked Maya, at Million Little Stitches, if I could share with you a picture of her embroidery on paper. Her art work showed me that I have a long ways to go and that paper has a lot of potential for the embroidery artist.
You can read about this piece called.My Allotment Garden here.

Flowers - A memory quilt

2009-11-29T10:23:00.000-08:00

I made this quilt in 2007.

The quote was taken off of a post card that I had written and sent my mother

after the death of my little girl, Sarah. She was 15 months old.

Sarah died in a tragic accident, that was a shock to us all and left a hole in my heart.

My mother sent me this post card back in 2006. I had not even remembered writing it.

I thought the words were so meaningful

that I wanted them to be on something that would not get lost or torn,

so I decided to put them on a quilt.

"Winston and I just picked some flowers and I put them in the rose bud vase.

I think how each one of us is like a cut flower one day we will perish.

If we stay closed because of coldness, God does not enjoy our beauty (walk)

or fragrance (prayer life).

It is only when we open up to Him that he can enjoy us.

Sometimes to preserve us God chooses to press us.

God's will be done!

June 5, 1992"

Becky's Gallery

2009-11-27T09:37:00.000-08:00

Exotic Butterfly - 2009

On fridays I like to show some of my finished artworks.

In keeping with the spirit of an article written by Arlee on Mr. Stitch Hippy Embroidery,

I thought I would show you one of my embroidery wall hangings that has a hippy influence.

Thank you Arlee for including my Dug Out wall hanging in your gallery for the article!!!

Loved It!

PEACE

Thursday Art Video - Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T09:29:00.000-08:00

This is a stitched accordion moleskin. Cool...just think of the possibilities.

Just for something fun check out this magazine...Just a little eye candy.
http://www.antlermag.com/index.html

The Door to Change

2009-11-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

It has been brutal being out in all this wind, so naturally I am looking for an escape.

The door to change is not the name of this door.

I will name the door after I have thought about what to embroider on it.

I used to live at the Piano Factory in Boston near Tremont and Mass Ave.

It was a community of artist.

In the artist spirit they encouraged you to paint your own door.

I had never thought about using my door for an canvas before, have you?

What would your door be like? What would it say about you or how you feel about living where you do?

What colors would you use? Would it be loud or soft?

Would you go outside the line and extend your painting to the walls?

Would it be exciting or tranquil?

What would your door look like if you were thinking about living in a desert with no water, or electricity?...except for what you brought in or made.

These are the thoughts that I am having as I work on my wall hanging, Dug Out.

A Stitched Paper Journal

2009-11-24T15:27:00.000-08:00

This is the cover of my Stitched Paper Journal.

I have not bound the book, because I find it easier to work with loose pages for stitching.

Abstract Page 1

Lynn wrote that she like the idea in my profile of using paper plates with holes punched in them to teach young children to sew. I told her that I would try to find one of the paper plates that I had stitched as a little girl, but I was unable to. Probably went the way of all things.

Sun Spot page 2

The idea for the book at first was to be a dictionary of stitches. Stitching paper worked well for single stitches but I felt it would be a challenge when it came to stitches that needed multiple holes and some ease.

My husband is a amateur radio operator and is always checking the space weather for sun spots.

Right now we are in a solar minimum and it should be getting a lot colder.

Spiral page 3

I was listening to music, which is what I usually do while I am working on this book. I was thinking about the rhythm of the music and the rhythm of the stitches. I was thinking about them being a beat either close together or far apart. I think it is neat that the edge on the right looks like a negative of a profile of a face. It wasn't intentional but it was appropriate, as I like to meditate while doing these pages..

Pomegranate Page 4

My son, Isaac loves pomegranates. My daughter does too, but when I buy one I buy it with Isaac in mind. I sat down one evening with Isaac and Catherine and we all drew together. I drew a few sketches to do in stitches with conte crayons that I had bought recently. I wasn't really thinking about how I would stitch these when I drew them. I just was drawing quickly and without thought of "making art".

Abstract 2 page 5

It was Catherine's idea that we all draw together. I wanted to do more stitching on my Dug Out quilt, but she reminded me that I really needed to work on drawing more. Catherine is a really good artist. She loves to do faces and the anatomy. I am hoping that one day she will put her work up on Flicker or create her own blog. Right now she is working on making a book of her drawing like I am doing these stitched pages. I think she has about 5 or 6 of them done.

This is the back cover. I got this fabric as a gift from Ancient Cloth. I like the two different fabrics in the same book. I am planning on using a Coptic stitch for binding this book. It will have 40 pages when it is done. I am hoping to have it done by the Dec. 31.

Mosaic Monday

2009-11-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

1. eye, 2. Clarke, Major and Heseltine, 3. Dreaming of a Small World, 4. Dressing the Crow marionette
How do these things relate....well they are my favorites for the week.
They show the hand of the creator...and eye of the master.
I am continuing to think about the marionette that I want to do with my son...so I am planting some images here for that. Jude at Spirit Cloth has been talking about eyes and seeing so I have been thinking about new ways of seeing.

Raining Cats and Dogs

2009-11-19T14:29:00.000-08:00

Catherine and I made these cute grocery/book bags.

On one side is a cat and on the other side is a dog. The background fabric has raindrops on it.

In the Pacific Northwest, where I live, it rains cast and dogs for 6-9 months of the year.

The pattern is a Sandy Bonsib design, from the book Folk Art Quilts.

Catherine made this block when she was 8. We won the rest of the blocks in a raffle from the Coos Sand And Sea quilting guild.

I designed the bags. I made the bottoms out of denim cut from a pair of jeans.

The handles are made from the waist band and the button is the button from the pants.

Catherine sewed the lining and the strips of fabric to the block.

I took a long strip of fabric and folded several times to make a tie.

Then I made a loop in the tie to go around the button.

I made one of these as a gift for my friend at Ancient Cloth.

We have been email each other for quite sometime and she sent me some fabric just out of the blue.

I told her that I would make something and put a piece of her fabric in the mix so that

it would remind me of her and the 'something' would remind her of me. Her fabric is beige.

These bags also remind us of another special artist that we have both been influenced by

and that is Jude at Spirit Cloth.

Here is Catherine.

Rattlesnake Ridge

2009-11-17T09:58:00.000-08:00

This is Part 2 of a Rattlesnake Fools Coyote.

You can see Part 1 here.

To read Part 2 click the Read More button.

Rattlesnake Fools Coyote

Coyote accept Rattlesnakes offer for dinner.

Coyote was relieved after Rattlesnake left. He couldn't believe just how incredibly uncomfortable he could feel and he wasn't going to let Rattlesnake get away with that, especially after he had gone to all the trouble of making Rattlesnake a Rabbit Stew.

So Coyote found an old dry gourd with seeds in it. He tied it to his tail and shook it with his paw. Perfect, he was all ready to go to Rattlesnake's den.

He crawled as low to the ground as he could, dragging his belly on the dirt. He got grass in his eyes but it didn't matter, he was going to Rattlesnakes den in style.

He knocked as Rattlesnakes door and shook his tail with his paw. Rattlesnake answered the door, "Come in, Coyote," he said with a ssssmile.

Coyote still crawling on his belly and shaking his tail slinked around the edge of the den. It was hard shaking his tail and moving but he managed as best he could. Eventually he was opposite from the door.

Rattlesnake rattled his tail and said, "Make yourself comfortable Coyote, I have made us some nicsssse rat stew."

Coyote shook his tail and said, "Well Rattlesnake, that's just the kind of food that I can't understand."

Rattlesnake hissed in a low silky voice, "Well, Wwwwhat kind of food do YOU undersssstand?"

"I perfer the pollen of the corn silk, now that's food that I can understand" and Coyote shook his tail.

Rattlesnake went out and got some pollen of corn silk and left Coyote in the Rattlesnake's Den. When Rattlesnake came back he slithering up the path and into the den. He was balancing the corn pollen on his head.

Coyote said, "Now if you will just put the corn dust on the end of my nose so that I can eat it I would appreciate it." Coyote crouched as low to the ground as he could and shook his tail with is paw.

Rattlesnake slithered close to Coyote and placed the corn pollen on the coyote's nose and rattled his tail while he worked.

Coyote tried to lick the corn pollen off his nose but no matter which way his tongue went he couldn't reach the tip of his nose. So he asked the Rattlesnake if he could put just a little bit more on the tip of his nose." and again he shook his tail.

Rattlesnake came closer, his tongue flicked right between the Coyote's eyes and carefully place more corn pollen on the tip of the Coyote's nose.

Again the Coyote tried to get the corn pollen off and again the his tongue went all around but without any success. Coyote shook his tail. "I think that I am very satisfied now." he said with a yellow nose, "and I think I will be leaving now."

"I am ssssso glad you came over," Rattlesnake hissed and then rattled his tail as he open the door for Coyote.

Coyote very carefully crawling close to the gound slinked out of the Rattlesnake's Den, shaking his tail with his paw and wearing a bright yellow nose.

When Coyote got down the path he lamented, "I am such a fool. I didn't get anything to eat and made myself look foolish in the bargin."

He went home looking for something to eat.

Mosaic Monday - DRIFTWOOD

2009-11-16T10:24:00.000-08:00

1. Driftwood ball sculpture, 2. Dr. İftwood having a sunbath, 3. Christus, 4. Driftwood Fish, nr. 2

My children and I have been collecting driftwood off the beach. So I thought I would show you some favorite driftwood art from different artist. Be sure to visit their flicker gallery and leave them a comment if you like. I am hoping to use our driftwood to make some things for Christmas...right now it is drying out.

Friday....gallery

2009-11-13T17:11:00.000-08:00

Today I wanted to show you a picture of some art dolls that I made. This is Crazy Owl and Frozen. They are made of silk. Crazy Owl is wearing silk sharara and Frozen is wearing silk ties. They are kinda funny characters, always playing passive agressive games with each other. One trying to control the other and the other wanting to thart that control. Who will win? It is a never ending drama.

Video Thursday - Paul Goodnight

2009-11-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

Part Two
Part Three

I am so excited to show you these videos. This artist...Paul Goodnight, was a personal friend of my boys when we lived at the Piano Factory in Boston.

Paul Goodnight would meet my children, Winston and Isaac in the courtyard. My son Winston was like Thomas Edison...in a lot of ways...but he used to be notorious for asking a lot of questions. One of the simple answers to Winston's questions was Scubba Dust....How does or how do you ...it was all attributed to Scubba Dust. He was so much fun for my children and provided a lot of laughs for all of us.

The children and I got to go see his studio. He was painting a large canvas at the time...and working from a small sketch that he made..

It was a privilege for my children to have lived there...and it really did change their lives and impact them.

Isaac draws very good, and who knows maybe it was inspired by visiting Paul Goodnight and other artist at the Piano Factory community. I will post more about the Piano Factory in my next post. I know for me I started seeing that artist were just human beings that keep creating. I just need to keep creating.

Coyote Mountain

2009-11-11T09:23:00.000-08:00

This is a fictious mountain that I made up for this quilt. I thought about how we used to go hiking around Lookout Mountain...and there would be different faces of the mountain that people would call a name based on what that rock face reminded them of. I read a folk tale about how Rattlesnake Fools Coyote, it so spoke to me about my own mountains in my life right now.

The story starts out where Coyote invites Rattlesnake over for dinner. Rattlesnake accepts the offer.

The next day Rattlesnake arrives for dinner. Rattlesnake comes up the sidewalk rattling his tail. He arrives at Coyote's front door and knocks on the door. Coyote answer the door and Rattlesnake rattles his tail.

"Hi ssss Coyote." Rattlesnake greets Coyote.

"Come in Rattlesnake,". says Coyote.. Rattlesnake slithers around the edge of the room rattling his tail. He slithers all the way around the room till the door is opposite to where he rest.

Coyote tries to stay just as far back from Rattlesnake as politely possible. Rattlesnake continues to rattle his tail, which makes Coyote very uncomfortable.

Coyote asks him to make himself comfortable. "I've made a nice pot of Rabbit Stew for us".

Rattlesnake rattles his tail. and hiss, "I don't undersssstand that kind of food"

Rattlesnake says, "If you could get me the pollen of corn flowerssss, thisss is the kind of food I understand.."

Coyote goes out to find the corn pollen, leaving Rattlesnake waiting in is house.

When Coyote returns the Rattlesnake rattles his tail, and tells the Coyote to just place the corn pollen on the tip of his nose.

Coyote very carefully tries to split his body into two parts...where his hand almost seems dislocated from the rest of his body. He then sprinkles the pollen on the snakes nose very quickly. Rattlesnake shakes his tail..

Rattlesnake asks, "Coyote could you put more on my nosssse ssso I can find it."

Coyote contorts himself yet again and holds his breath and puts more of the corn pollen on the snakes nose. The Rattlesnake takes his long tongue and licks all the pollen off his nose.

"Thanks Coyote I am quite full. You ssshould come to my house tomorrow for dinner." the Rattlesnake says as he slithers around the room, rattling his tail and exits out the door.

To be continued.

Catherine's Birthday

2009-11-10T09:25:00.000-08:00

Saturday my daughter turned 13. We had a lot of fun making crafts together. I will share what it was we were making later...because it is a surprise for someone and she hasn't gotten it yet.

Catherine has really enjoyed sewing on her Singer Feather Weight. We have had a lot of laughs around all the manual things that you have to remember to do. It sounds like a clock. Really reminds you of the Industrial Revolution this country was built on. This machine was found in a thrift store in Alabama for 15.00 before my daughter was born.

We finshed our day off with a game of Operation and Root Beer Floats. It was such a fun birthday!!! Here brother Isaac is hoping that she will not have a steady hand. He is so competitive.

Mosaic Monday

2009-11-09T15:21:00.000-08:00

1. juni09 026, 2. old stuff 020, 3. Daisy, 4. Twist and Shout, 2007-

It is raining here and so I needed some color therapy. These are a few of my favorite Flicker images. Hope you enjoy and will see other examples these artist have by clicking on the links.

I Missed Mosaic Monday...so here it is.

2009-11-05T11:37:00.000-08:00

1. A study with color, 2. Operation Guy!, 3. Expression libre, 4. Iris Dragon

These are a few of my Flicker Favorites this week.

I have been doing a little research on weaving and using these Weavette looms. I have one and have made a pillow out of the squares....I will take a picture soon to show you. So I was excited to see that others are reviving this craft.
The halloween costume I thought was just too creative. Love it.
The colors in the Expression Libre are magic. I like the denseness of this piece and all the texture as well. Makes me want to embroider.
The Iris just flows and is the most graceful Iris I have seen in fabic. This quilt is a poem to the iris. I love it.

Grooves in the Desert

2009-11-04T10:37:00.000-08:00

I have been studying rugs lately...on gutenburg. In this book on rugs it said this.
"The rug itself symbolizes Eternity and Space, and the filling or plan is the symbol of the world - beautiful but fleeting and limited." Because that is what a life is and what we put in it and what we take out of it...just like what we decide to put in our art and what we leave out. It is our story.

I think that this is what the Dug Out quilt has become for me. It was just a UFO project. ..Now it has become a metaphor of the emotional desert that I have felt like I have been surviving in for a long time, (not all parts of my life...just a parent relationship). I am beginning to see where I am and pick out the meaning of this place. This quilt is still revealing things to me...and it is kinda amazing to be able to "see".

The wind for me is all the things that my parents/elders said to me. Some of it was good and some of it was to control me to their liking. These ways of relating to me cut grooves in me and as a result created paths of thinking. I had to rethink and reevaluate these paths so that I could develop my own response or learn to behave responsibly. I know that it is a life long journey...learning what to keep and learning what to let go of.

I have heard that a habit is a groove in the mind that is traveled over and over. To break a habit you must traverse a different way. You must create new grooves. If you don't want the soil to erode from the wind in the desert you will have to set up barriers or grow things in the dirt. You have to be proactive. You must challenge the chaos and create order.

A Roaring In My Head.

2009-10-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

The wind is so strong

That it roars in your ears

A Very Strong Wind

2009-10-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

The Wind is all around you,

It burns your eyes,

It dehydrates your skin,

It is an intruder trying to get in

“I can't change the direction of the wind

but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”

Today was a great day to think about wind, as we are under a wind advisory. I went out on the beach and experienced a little of it myself.

Here are a few pictures of a sea lion in the back yard playing in a neighbors boat.

Mosaic Monday

2009-10-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

1. Random Embroidery on Felt, 2. the first traveler, 3. "SPRING FLING #6..." Flipped :), 4. City of Denim Close-up

The Wind

2009-10-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

The wind was constantly blowing.
It nearly blew us off the road on the highway.

It was a cold and steady wind.
As it got darker it started blowing harder.

Our friend told us that the wind blew constantly in April and May.
It never stopped,
it just kept blowing.
I am not talking about a breeze.
I am talking about Wind.

And I wondered could I get used to that?
The idea really scared me.

He said that when it stopped blowing you think that something has happened to your hearing,

because all the sudden you don't hear anything.
It just stops. Like an off /on switch.

Lighting the Candles

2009-10-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

It is getting dark outside so we lit some candles.

We are not on the grid (the electric grid). It is incredibly quiet here, except for....

Miro's Study Journal Page 12

2009-10-19T16:43:00.000-07:00

I like the different colored back grounds against the playful images.

It has been a beautiful day here. I went out and transplanted some strawberries into large pots. I am hoping

that I will grow more strawberries and less grass and weeds.

Miro Book Finished!!!

2009-10-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

"Escape From the Blame Game" 2009

The idea is that we get caught in a web of expectations and roles that cause us to react in certain ways. We have to stop and become "Re- sponds - able". Creating enough perspective or objectivity to be able to chose our own response. You don't have to stay stuck in something that can never be resolve or lead to love.

Grounding in the midst of a confusion.

2009-10-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

When I first did this applique I was discouraged because of all the business of this piece. After studying Miro and seeing how much he used black to create a sense of grounding...I decided to use it in this piece and see what would happen. I am enjoying the result.

Dug Outs.

2009-10-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

This is a small applique art quilt of a place that we visited in New Mexico. This is a house that is dug out of the desert sand near Socoro, New Mexico. My husband was interview for a job at the NRAO, when we went to look at these dwellings. We had been in contact with one of the builders of these little earth shelters for 2 years, so we were very excited about getting a tour.

    The dwellings are about 16 ft. across. They used standard dimensions that boards are cut in to make the construction easy. They are dug out about 4 feet deep and lined with plastic barrels filled with the dirt. Those barrels were the stability for the inside walls. Then the ceiling is a made of beams and boards and earth on top of that. The idea is to stay cool in the summer and to stay warmer in the winter. There was a wood stove for heat.
    If you wanted a larger house you could connect a few pods together with hall ways.
    This was a very interesting and alternative way to live. The people in this community had built their own houses...on land that they bought for almost nothing. But the real kicker for living here is that you have to haul all your own water from a community well. That became a little discouraging for me. Also it was to far away from work for DH to come home for lunch...I guess I am spoiled but I really like to have my husband come home in the middle of the day.
    I like to collect places to live but this was one that wasn't meant to be. Still I wish to persever the memory of it in this little quilt.
I will talk more about the little dug outs in more post as I work on this little art quilt.

Miro's Study Journal Page 11

2009-10-12T22:41:00.000-07:00

I think that this is another great study of balance. The shaddow adds some grounding to the white form. I like the texture inside the form. The circles and line also provide interest. But I cannot find this image on the web. I don't know if this is just the elements that I liked and the arrangement that I preferred or what might have been omitted. Read more to see how selective I was and how my images were a study and not a true copy.

Here is an example of what I am talking about.

Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893-1983)
Dutch Interior (I), 1928
Oil on canvas
36 1/8 x 28 3/4 in. (91.8 x 73 cm)
Does this look familiar? Here was my rendition. You can see that I left out a lot of elements and just captured what I found interesting and spontaneous at the moment.

I have to say that my goal in the beginning was to learn how to make a book. Filling the pages of the book was just a pleasure but not the main goal.

I have almost finished my book...I have to make another trip to the art store and pick up some special glue...I am getting very excited to show you my new cover for my book...and the finished book!!

Mosaic Monday

2009-10-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

1. Microscopic Image - Synapses, 2. Schumann Piano Extravaganza, 3. fireflies, 4. The Dreamcatchers (please bless me with sleep ...)

The first image really interest me not only because it was inspired by a class by Susan Sorrell...but also because it is done in a pointillism type of artist style. I find it really beautiful and inspiring.

I think number 2 would also lend itself to embroidery very nicely. I like the movement in this artwork. I can feel the music. I don't know why I have gotten on this embroidery kick lately. Well of course I do, when I decided to do this sketch book then i thought it would be nice to do the cover with an inspired embroidery piece. I have been doing to quilting but right now it is utarian type of quilting. I have been making a couple of jean quilts...have been tying this for the past couple of weeks. So I haven't been thinking too creatively in the quilt making direction except that doing embroidery is a small scale study of color and shape and form and will lend itself to bigger projects when I have more time...which means when I finish the minual task of tying these two quilts plus a wool quilt that I made and have sandwich together. I might say I feel like I got these done just in the nick of time as it is really starting to get cold. So much for global warming?? I will get pictures of these as soon as I can...and that might be a while as I need a place to spread them out.

The fire flies. I love the little fire coming out the back. I like puns like that. I also like doodles and really need to start doodling more. So this square is in my Monday Mosaic to remind me to doodle this week...warm up with doodles.

Number 4 is just intense. I love all the symbology. I think that this was the main reason that I wanted to study Miro...to study symbols. I really like this kind of art work, it is colorful and intense and solid. Again a type of doodle. Reminds me of the 70's and the kind of art work we used to draw on our jean 3 ring notebooks.

Miro's Study Journal Page 10

2009-10-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

Here are a few little motifs that I found in different paintings of Miro's. I like the fish and the little microscopic swimmer. I like the reflection of the bird and the feather that is in the bird's shaddow. The markings of black in the eyes, swan and fish really are dramatic and create motion.

"A modeled form is less surprising than a form as yet unmodeled. The modeling prevents any surprise and limits movement to visual depth. Without modeling or chiaroscuro, the depth is unlimited: movement can be extended to infinitude"

"A picture had to be right to a millimeter. It had to be in balance to a millimeter. For example in the painting 'The Farmer's Wife,' I found that I had made the cat too large: it threw the picture out of balance. This is the reason for the double circles and the two angular lines in the fore ground. They look symbolic, esoteric: but they are no fantasy, they were put in, to bring the picture into equilibrium."

I think that in this picture there are incredible use of Line. I had not thought about using lines to bring balance, in this way. There are also quite a few triangles in this picture. What do you think that this does for the chemistry of the picture. Does the large feet make the farmer's wife look grounded to the earth? I think so. The white triangle kinda disturbs me....maybe though it represents the spirit of the cat? What do you think? I noticed that the heavy line that angles down to the left would make an x in the v-line of the farmer's wife, if this v-line were extended upward. Did Miro use a long yard stick and see where other lines would intersect?

Is this part of his achieving balance in a picture?

Miro's Study Journal Page 9

2009-10-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

I love the feeling this picture has. He is singing his heart out. You can just feel him inhale as he looks as he has a lot of air. I like the frets on the guitar and how they run off the image. The keys are interestingly placed and provide more feeling in the picture than realism. One thing I would not have noticed before I started to draw this was that there is a little bird, it looks like a parot, that comes to get the flower out of his hat.

I used markers for this and it was kinda a new experience using them on this hemp paper. They kinda ran or wouldn't get a medium color that I wanted. What I learned? Just keep drawing and keep having fun. Experiment. Let go of expectation and learn from the markers what they have to tell you about themselves.

In continuing to our study of Miro One of the other artist that I want to highlight that influenced Miro is

Albert Marquet, who was born in Bordeaux, 26 March 1875; died in Paris, 14 June 1947. He was taken by his family to Paris at the early age of fifteen to begin a thorough training as an artist. Albert Marquet studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he met Henri Matisse in 1890. Matisse became a life-long friend; both artists were accepted in Gustav Moreau's painting class in 1897. In 1900 they worked together on the decoration of the Grand Palais at the Paris World Exhibition.&nbs

Here are some examples of his work.

Marquet early compositions were characterised by a clear and painterly Fauvist approach, in which he had a fine control of the drawing and responded to light, not only by intensifying the strongest tones, but also by seeing the weaker ones in coloristic terms. early compositions were characterised by a clear and painterly Fauvist approach, in which he had a fine control of the drawing and responded to light, not only by intensifying the strongest tones, but also by seeing the weaker ones in coloristic terms.

Dismayed by the intense coloration in these paintings, critics reacted by naming the artists the "Fauves", i.e. the wild beasts. Although Marquet painted with the fauves for years, he used less bright and violent colours than the others, and emphasized less intense tones made by mixing complementaries, thus always as colors and never as grays.

At the end of 1907 he stayed in Paris and dedicated himself, together with Henri Matisse, to a series of city views. The fundamental difference between the two is that while Matisse used strong colours, Marquet favored grayed yellows, greyed violets or blues. Black was usually used as a violent contrast to light colors for such forms as bare tree trunks or calligraphically drawn people contrasted with very light, often yellow or orange streets and sidewalks. Another difference is that Marquet used an approximation of traditional perspective, although his colors and compositions constantly referred to the rectangle and cut its plane with their calligraphy.

The human figures are much simplified, calligraphically drawn in a way related to Japanese Shijo style work. Matisse is said to have called him "our Hokusai".

Miro's Study Journal Page 8

2009-10-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

I love the use of the foot motif in Miro's work. It reminds me of the 70's and how they used to use this motif in decorating. I also like the bold black lines that Miro uses. He was really into the black line and the color black. I hadn't noticed how useful black was before.

I want to continue to explore the artist that influenced Miro. The next one on my list is Maurice de Vlaminck. Vlaminck along with André Derain and Henri Matisse is considered one of the principal figures in the Fauve movement, a group of modern artists who from 1904 to 1908 were united in their use of intense color.

In 1900 his exuberant paint application and vibrant use of color displayed the influence of Vincent van Gogh.

He did not attempt to probe the sitter's psychology—a break with the century-old European tradition of individualized portraiture.^[2] According to art critic Souren Melikian, it is "the impersonal cartoon of a type."^[2] In his landscape paintings, his approach was similar. He ignored the details, with the landscape becoming a mere excuse to express mood through violent color and brushwork.

In 1905 he began to experiment with "deconstruction," turning the physical world into dabs and streaks of color that convey a sense of motion.

Here are some examples of his work.

Le Pont de Chatou

Les Ramasseurs de pommes de terre

La Seine a Chatou

Le Verger

Portrait du poète

I think in these examples one can see a very strong Van Gogh influence. No doubt he became a student of Van Gogh just like I am studying Miro. I love the use of colors and the brush strokes. They remind me of stitches.

I did a study of Van Gogh in Artist Trading Cards one year. I really think that the heavy brush strokes of Van Gogh's paintings also examplify a tapestry or embroidery. I did these in cloth and with embroidery stitches.

"Miro Dreams a Circus" by jenclair

2009-10-08T13:42:00.000-07:00

Jenclair from Bayou Quilts did this wonderful embroidery inspired by Miro. There are other close up pictures at her blog. You can also visit her flicker page. Here is a link to a cute picture that mixes applique and embroidery that she did. I love the simplicity of it.

Miro: A Study Page 7

2009-10-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

One of the artist that influenced Miro was Henri Matisse.
Henri Matise first started to paint in 1889, when his mother had brought him art supplies during a period of convalescence following an attack of appendicitis. He discovered "a kind of paradise" as he later described it,^[2] and decided to become an artist, deeply disappointing his father.^[3]^[4]

The paintings of this period are characterized by flat shapes and controlled lines, with expression dominant over detail. The paintings expressed emotion with wild, often dissonant colours, without regard for the subject's natural colours. Matisse drew and painted from nature,
His Blue Nudes series feature prime examples of this technique he called "painting with scissors"; they demonstrate the ability to bring his eye for colour and geometry to a new medium of utter simplicity, but with playful and delightful power.

My First Book Cover

2009-10-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

This was the first book cover that I made for my Miro study handmade book. The image was too large for the cover so I had to start over again with another image. I really enjoyed working with line and images to create this Miro influenced book cover. It was also designed while listening to A Small Blue Thing.

I consider this art therapy for dealing with the feelings of being an only child and feeling bullied by adults. "When are you going to grow up" was a constant theme. And then the nit pick that would find the tiny ways that I didn't fit in and try to get me to fit. I just couldn't spend all my energy pleasing people and grow up at the same time. It made me feel shattered.

Miro's Study Journal Page 6

2009-10-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

"I subjected myself to the Cubist discipline in order to train my muscles. To me, painting is like the dance before executing 'entrechats,'(*) one must have good leg muscles. It was in this senses that Cubism could be useful to me....Since at that time I had the impression that I could not see form. I thought Cubism would help me learn to see."
Some believe that the roots of cubism are to be found in the two distinct tendencies of Paul Cézanne's later work: firstly to break the painted surface into small multifaceted areas of paint, thereby emphasizing the plural viewpoint given by binocular vision , and secondly his interest in the simplification of natural forms into cylinders, spheres, and cones.

(*) Entrechat
Interweaving or braiding. A step of beating in which the dancer jumps into the air and rapidly crosses the legs before and behind each other, usually jumping from the fifth position and landing back in the fifth position. Entrechats are counted from two to ten according to the number of crossings required and counting each crossing as two movements, one by each leg; that is, in an entrechat quatre each leg makes two distinct movements. Entrechats are divided into two general classes: the even-numbered entrechats, or those which land on two feet -- deux, quatre, six, huit and dix -- and the odd-numbered entrechats, or those which land on one foot -- trois, cinq, sept and neuf.
For example: in an entrechat-quatre starting from fifth position, right foot front, the dancer will jump crossing his/her legs and beating first the right heel on the back of the left heel, then at the front of the left heel, landing in the same position he/she started.

QUILT ARCHITECT

I started another blog...

Lynn Stopped By Today!!!

Handcarved ATC and Gardening in June

March - Vision Calendar

IMPROVEMENT VISION CALENDAR

The Lady of Shallots

Handcarved ATC

Flowers

How to make a hexagon quilt

Easter Rabbits

OINK the Pig

New Tesla Video

Moonflower Quilt

Love this Quote from Winston Chruchill

Not Feeling Well

PICTORIAL LANGUAGE - Valerie Jaudon

The Ten Coolest Art Therapy Interventions

I love this commercial, it is so powerful

A Magical Garden

An ancient video of a top that Winston made

My Magic Garden

The Spiral - a symbol.

Quilting in 3-D

The Kids

TEEPEE - Symbol

Spirit Cloth - The Fig

Spirit Clothe - The Eye

Erosion Bundle

Personal Symbols - a journey cloth by Ancient Cloth.

Symbols

Setting the Stage - Vision Calendar

Aging Woman Hand Carved Lino

Charlotte Gibson's Magic Folding Cube

Feburary 1 What Is On Our Desks

Low Tide

High Tide

Vision Calendar

The Tree

Psalm 1

Ancient Cloth's Tea Cozy

BACK OF TEA COZY

The Gold Blog Award !

Black and White

Earthquake

Black and White and Red all over.

January has become a CLEANING month

Having Tea!

Art Swap, Barter and Trade

Miro Page 13

Joe's Stocking

Christmas Day

Winston's Stocking

Mosaic Monday

Driftwood Tree

Fossils

Dolls from a special friend

The Door of Fear

Catherin's Stocking

The Canal Like a Mirror

Mosaic Monday

The Door of Fear

Becky's Gallery - Wool Quilt

Strategies through the Door of Fear

Art of Symbols of Fear

The Door Called "FEAR"

Mosaic Monday

Flowers - A memory quilt

Becky's Gallery

Thursday Art Video - Happy Thanksgiving

The Door to Change

A Stitched Paper Journal

Mosaic Monday

Raining Cats and Dogs

Rattlesnake Ridge

Mosaic Monday - DRIFTWOOD

Friday....gallery

Video Thursday - Paul Goodnight

Coyote Mountain

Catherine's Birthday