Tuesday, December 22, 2009

make do

Work and family worries conspired to keep us from buying a tree this year. My girl, bless her, hauled out the holiday box herself and set to hanging lights around the windows and doorways instead. Then she got out the wee Christmas tree, once a gift from Santa to the American Girl dolls, and began to set up an arrangement on the coffee table. This is usually my place to spread my paperwork and to-do piles. I feel much better about it, covered with lights, gifts, and the best, most loved ornaments of the past 30 years.

Today the goddess of abandoned treasures left a fresh Christmas wreath on top of someone's trash pile. So now we are all decked out, free of charge.

The day after Christmas I drive solo down to Lancaster PA. I've been on the phone with moving companies, guys who just haul stuff, and folks who help to haul stuff away. The consensus seems to be there's no affordable way to get one piece of furniture (adorable love seat) from Lancaster to Poughkeepsie if you don't have your own van to move it in. Not to mention some nice strong friends to carry it up and down the stairs.

I've spent phone time and paperwork, too, to track down investments made 30 years ago, when I was in computers. Back, back, before the internet, before CDs; back when floppy disks were hot technology, and the personal computer had a black screen with a green cursor. I feel simultaneously productive and old. Somehow I've become the person who mails boxes of fruit for Christmas and runs after the daughter with the almost-forgotten lunch box.

A few weeks before she died, my grandmother told me "I don't know how I became 80. Inside I'm still 25." Maybe after we die we get to meet all those 25-year-old selves of folks we loved.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Homeward

This piece is fabric mounted on stretched canvas. Increasingly I seek the image which speaks for itself. I feel nervous, stepping out into new territory, but eager to explore.

This piece sold over the weekend, so I will have to find another for the upcoming Loading Dock Gallery show, 50 under $50.

Today I go to two libraries to pick up books (about teaching and painting) and the 3rd season of Battlestar Gallactica on DVD. (My daughter and I have been waiting since August to watch this.) Then I drop off work at the photographer's and come home to mix up cookie dough.

I must also finish plans for my return to Lancaster PA in a week. My mom is moving to skilled care. I do not want to spend my holidays away from my family. I do not want to pack up, take or give away my mom's possessions. But that's what I'm doing after Christmas.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Show Time

Lowell Fiber Studio is all polished up and waiting for visitors this weekend. Our doors will be open from noon until 5, Saturday and Sunday. One amazing fact of sharing a studio is the ability to be in two places (almost) at once. I'm in Poughkeepsie this weekend, while my studio-mates hold down the fort in Lowell. People continually express amazement that we cooperate like this, but the miracle just keeps on happening.

Today I roared around, dropping things off, picking things up, and generally giving my credit card a workout at the Art Supply store. Lots of new journals to cover and frames to fill, but right now it's time to walk the dog (again!) and then head west to join my sister.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Re-creation

Today the Boston Globe offers a peek into the work behind one of those exquisite embroidered jackets from the 1700's. Click on the photo and check out that hand-made gold lace edging. This reproduction included research into hand-make gold sequins (did you know the Museum of Fine Arts has its own blacksmith?) and hand-stitching by hundreds of volunteers. For details of the process, browse the Plimouth Plantation embroidrey blog.

Time to walk the dog, then finish pins, then pack for Poughkeepsie.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

"O We Like Sheep..."

My daughter heard the Messiah in full this week for the first time and was blown away. So gratifying to see another generation discover beauty. I in turn accompanied her Latin class to the annual Latin Carol Festival in Providence, RI. This Virgil passage about the coming Golden Age was my favorite:

"No longer will wool learn falsehood by being dyed different colors, but in the fields the ram himself will change the color of his fleece, now with sweetly blushing purple, now with yellow saffron; of its own will shall scarlet clothe the grazing lambs."

I love that.

Must go wash out the next dozen scarves I dyed and see what they look like. Two shows this weekend: Lowell Open Studios and a home show in Poughkeepsie.

"

Thursday, December 3, 2009

SCARVES!

I painted and printed all last week.
The scarves are 72" long. The wide ones (22") make a dramatic statement tossed over a shoulder!
Half of the scarves went today to the Weston Arts and Crafts Association Holiday Show. This intimate (two-room) show is always a pleasure. The rest of my scarves now hang in Studio 512 at Western Avenue.
Doors open at noon on Saturday. With over 160 artists in the building, it promises to be a wonderful day.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Holiday shows


My work will be for sale this weekend in two locations. The Weston Arts and Crafts Association hosts a lovely show each year at the Josiah Smith Barn. They'll have some of my new scarves as well as Essential Bags and art for the wall.

Saturday and Sunday I'll be at Lowell Fiber Studios, room 512, for our Holilday Open Studios. Come by for hot cider and cookies; stop to make an ornament out of felt, or just browse our latest work.