DRAWING FROM THE DAY
  • ...a blog on art, creativity, and mindfulness

Colors of Spring

3/27/2021

 
Let's face it:  I just don't have the photographic skills to do justice to the spring colors outside right now.  The crystalline sunlight.  The intensely clear blue sky.  And the spring flowers!  Oh my--absolutely no way to capture those colors.  Crocuses everywhere, and squill all around them.  I'm no gardener, alas, but I walk by this lovely garden every day:
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Ugh, sorry this is blurred.
It makes my heart smile to see these small flowery gifts rising from the soil after such a very, very grim winter.  Indeed, after this winter, I feel lucky to be alive to see these gifts from the earth coming back to us.

Yesterday I did some wool dyeing in order to finish the rug I've been working on for months.  Because I'm doing a major revision on this rug, I've been pulling out one color and substituting another--a color I hadn't planned on and so I ran out of it.  Thus it was back to the dyepots.  I surprised myself by getting an exact match.  It reminds me of the purple crocuses, even though it needed to be grayed down for the rug.
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A VERY grayed-down lavender.  But, it'll work!  Onward to finishing the rug.

                                                        And WELCOME SPRING.

Grand Canyon at Sunset

1/23/2021

 
Yes, it really looks this way. 

This exquisite photograph of the Grand Canyon at Sunset was taken on the Martin Luther King Holiday, 2021, by Michael Quinn, a fabulous National Park Service photographer who has lived at the Canyon forever. 

I think it speaks to his heart.

It certainly speaks to mine.
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Photograph by Michael Quinn of the National Park Service, January 2021. Grand Canyon Sunset.

Eating Fruit at the Grand Canyon - A song to make death easy


Since this great hole in earth is beyond
My comprehension and I am hungry,
I sit on the rim and eat fruit

The colors of the stone i see,
Strawberries of iron cliffs, sagebrush
melons, white sand apple, grapes

The barely purple of the stonewashed slopes,
And every color I eat is in my vision,
Colonized by my eye, by me and everyone

I have known, so vast, so remote,
That we can only gaze at ourselves, wondering
At our reaches, eat fat fruit while we

Grow calm if we can, our folded
Rocky interiors pressed upwards through
Our throats, side canyons seeming almost

Accessible, the grand river of blood
Carving us even as we sit, devouring
Color that will blush on our skin

Nourish us so that we may climb
The walls of the interior, bewildered,
Tremulous, but observant as we move

Down in, one foot, another,
careful not to fall, to fall,
The fruit fueling us in subtle

Surges of color in this vastly deep
Where birds make shadow and echo
And we have no idea

Why we cannot comprehend ourselves,
Each other, a place so deep and bright
It has no needs and we wonder

What we’re doing here on this fragment
Of galactic dust, spinning, cradled,
Awestruck, momentarily alive.”
― Diane Hume George

Foggy Mountain Breakdown

12/13/2020

 
This was the scene as I took a walk this morning.  I do not live on a mountain, but this reminded me of one of my favorite instrumentals, Foggy Mountain Breakdown.
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Such a lovely morning, and then in the afternoon, there was the sun and relative warmth.

Meanwhile, a good friend send me a greeting card I well remember from buying some of these myself in the 1980s.  I haven't seen them in years and loved getting this.  There was a whole series of these cards, based on flowers and vegetables.  Here is the lovely Eggplant Deva, painted by Azra Simonetti circa 1986.
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Some days have their own sweetness.  This was one.
Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called "the present."
--Bil Keane

Don't Know Mind

11/4/2020

 
"Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof."
- JK Galbraith
Ah, here it is.  The prime example of Don't-know Mind, that shocking moment of extreme uncertainty.  I write this the day after the election, during a time when we still don't know the results. 

Here we sit. 

It's not comfortable.  But that is the truth of this moment. 

Even once a decision is clear, we still will not know what happens next.  In fact, we never can know what happens next.  We are always in Don't-know Mind; it's simply more obvious today than usual.  Since we are wired to prefer certainty, it's so much more convenient to ignore the reality that Don't-know Mind is our continuous state. 
PictureTangles: Ixorus and Onamato. Black Micron 01, chalk pencils, Signo Uniball. On a previously-stained piece of watercolor paper.
Another thing I don't know :  who stained or painted the small square of watercolor paper I used to tangle on last night.  To whomever you are:  thank you.  The staining was faint but spread in lovely fashion across the paper and provided a wonderful smear-y background for linework and bits of color that I added.  I like the way the original background spreads out beyond the border here.

I rarely do either of these tangles, so every line on this square is a product of Don't-know Mind.

Thank goodness for Zentangle®, which is amazingly relaxing, even in the most uncertain times.

"So much of our difficulty with uncertainty is that we've evolved to survive by trying to predict the future. The seasons, the crops, where the animals will be, if we're hunting.

But if we can really take care of what's right here, this present moment, what else is the future made of, but this moment right here, right now? The future is just a continuation of this. So there's no point in worrying and being anxious about the future, if we take good care of this moment, breathing in, knowing our heart is still beating, and how miraculous that is.

Breathing out, and feeling the gift of our lungs. That's the present moment." 

- Kaira J. Lingo

I Did Not Make This

10/25/2020

 
And I don't know who did make it, but I love it.  Someone showed me this sign today.
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A sentence to live by, on so many levels.

Matisse erized

10/10/2020

 
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See description of this workshop below. This was the result for me; I ran my black & white photo of the cutouts I did during the workshop through the Painnt app on my phone, with this result. I used construction paper and then parked the cutouts in this arrangement on a sheet of white background. Painnt did the rest. I converted the photo to b&w in order to let Painnt do its job.
 
I am in love with the London Drawing Group, a trio of women dedicated to doing and teaching art.  When I saw this workshop on Matisse's cutouts--only £7 or about eleven bucks, and only 1 hour--I thought, what a great way to stimulate creativity.  So I signed up and had an absolute blast.  We made a number of cutouts in only 60 minutes, only a few of which I used for this photo.  Here's the black and white version from my phone before I ran it through the Painnt app posted above this paragraph:
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But I wasn't alone in attending.  There were people from all over the globe.  Two of them were good friends from my rug hooking groups--I had contacted them to tip them off in advance to the workshop and they both signed up.  We all knew it would have immediate uses for rug design.  And it certainly did.

Here is the work of one of my buddies, Kathleen K., who also attended.  Rather than cutting paper, she cut her shapes directly from wool fabric.  I love her results.  She gave me permission to post this:
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Cutouts of wool cloth, laid on a white wool cloth. One advantage to this technique is that these "templates" can be switched around into any type of display. Photo used by permission of Kathleen H. K.
And below is the contribution from Lynda F, another rug hooking buddy who also gave me permission to use her photo:
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Construction paper cutouts--they can be arranged in so many different ways. Thanks to Lynda F for allowing me to use her results and this photo! If you notice similarities between our cutouts in these photos, it's because we all worked from the same photo models during the workshop. Only our individual cutting techniques created differences. But the possibilities are truly endless.

"I wouldn't mind turning into a vermilion goldfish."

-Henri Matisse

The Incredible Gift

10/5/2020

 
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Marquetry Mirror (with most of the image masked), copyright 2020 to Paula Garbarino, all rights reserved.
This lovely lovely mirror (with a portion of mirror part papered over to minimize distraction) was designed and made by a much-adored and longtime friend of mine, Paula Garbarino.  The inscription, "Il faut fertiliser notre jardin," can be translated to mean, "We must pollinate our garden."  Thus the honeybees, a favorite of mine. 

That sentiment can be taken on so many levels.  The garden of friendship.  The garden of kindness.  The garden of interconnectedness with each other.  The garden of the Earth itself.  We all need to pollinate, to tend, and to care for each other and for the Earth. 

We all know how hardworking a honeybee is.  Indeed it often takes a lot of work to tend and care for each other, especially at a troubled, stressful time like the time we are in now.

Normally Paula designs and makes fine-art furniture, and marquetry--a form of "painting with wood," is one of her specialties.  She has been at it for decades and I hope you'll take time to go to her website and browse her luscious designs in the photo gallery there.  Her work has been displayed in museums and is owned and collected by numerous people.

She does not normally make small pieces like this, though she has made a few.  This mirror, about 17x10", showed up unannounced in my mail as a gift about two weeks ago and it took me a while to determine a place in my home to hang it so that I could see it frequently every day. 

I am one very lucky friend indeed.  Much gratitude to Paula.  You are yourself quite like a honeybee--incredibly hardworking, kind, and of course, always building something oh-so-sweet.

Deerfield 6

8/23/2020

 
The final photos from Deerfield's (MA) Memorial Hall Museum.  Enjoy.  See the previous 5 posts for the rest. 

This post has some additional textiles and some non-textile surprises.
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Dragonflies. I loved this one but I don't have the title or year. Probably late 19th or early 20th c. In the permanent collection.
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Another very large and amazing embroidery. This one is on the cover of the book I showed in a previous post (day 5).
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Another set of fabulous embroideries from the permanent collection. For their true colors, see the photo in the larger picture above; I'm not sure why the colors are so altered here.
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Wonderful design and execution of embroidery from the permanent collection.
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So much amazing blue and white embroidery on display. The permanent collection.
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These embroideries are so lovely and so well designed. All of them. Permanent collection.
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And last but not last, some arts & crafts style furniture with a trompe l'oeil effect. Wonderful!
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The final quilt photo from the August exhibit and some Arts and Crafts style furniture.

Deerfield 5

8/23/2020

 
PictureThis is one of the publications I forced myself to resist buying while I was there ogling quilts, beadwork, blue and white embroidery work, furniture, and antique sewing machines. Even the sewing machines are individual works of art.





More photos from the recent show which included pieces from their permanent collection, at the Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield, MA.


See the previous four posts for more goodies.


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I'm pretty sure this was called "The Last Rose of Summer," and is in their permanent collection.  Embroidered.
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Embroidered Tree of Life, with appliqué
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Another exquisite embroidered Tree of Life from the permanent collection.
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Linen on linen blue & white embroidered drawstring bag, acanthus leaf, circa 1900. Part of permanent collection.
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Even the permanent collection of early sewing machines are works of art, and this isn't even a decorated one. I just liked the shape. Most have elaborate gold scrollwork painted on.

Deerfield 4

8/22/2020

 
Beautiful textiles from Deerfield's Memorial Hall Museum continued.  This is the fourth installment--and there will be at least two, possibly three more.
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Iriquois bead embroidery. I believe this is a needle case. Late 19th or early 20th century.
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Another beautiful piece of bead embroidery.
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Not bad for a 7 year old...
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Quite tongue-in-cheek for the 19th century.
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This quilt (1885) was magnificent.

Deerfield 3

8/21/2020

 
And, here we go with more wonderful textiles and other goodies from Deerfield's Memorial Hall Museum.  Some are particular to this exhibit which I think is over by 8/31 but others (most of these today, I think) are part of their permanent collection.

If you want to see the first two posts I did on this, they are from yesterday and the day before.
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A typical stunning blue-and-white Deerfield embroidery.
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There was just no way to get a better photo of this. Arrgh!
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A basket of pomegranates (1911). I totally fell in love with this one.
PictureMy cheapo, mass-produced bedspread.
Last--and very definitely least (by comparison), here is my own bedspread.  It's mass-produced and frankly, cheap.  But when I was making my bed this morning, in between working on this blog post, I suddenly "saw" it for what it is--a pale imitation of these blue and white Deerfield embroideries that I've admired for decades!  And I never even made the association before.  DUH! 

It gave me a huge laugh.

Stay tuned for more Deerfield treats over the next few days.  I look a LOT of photos.

A lotta cats copy the Mona Lisa, but people still line up to see the original.
--Louis Armstrong

Deerfield 2

8/20/2020

 
More from the Memorial Museum's current exhibit in Deerfield MA.  For the start of this series, see the previous post.
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This may just look like a fussy quilt. But look closer. And look at the next 2 pictures (the white orbs are reflections of ceiling lights--the quilt is under glass). The closer you look, the more impressive it gets. Although I still wouldn't choose to own it, I can admire the EXTREME workmanship. See next photo.
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Yes, that is my index finger NEARLY but not quite touching the quilt. I would not touch a textile of this type and age at this point. The finger is there to show you the size of the pieces. Smaller than my much less than 1/2" wide fingernail. I mean, these pieces--all hand sewn together--are 1/4" or LESS in size. Now go back up to the first picture and have another look at how many pieces this quilt contains. Mind-boggling. Story of the quilt in the next photo.
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OMG. Enough said.

Deerfield--1

8/19/2020

 
Last week I saw some truly lovely textiles at the Deerfield Memorial Museum.  Here's a small portion of what I saw.  I'll post more when I can.
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But first, lovely flowers in bloom just outside the entrance.
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Embroidered and quilted crazy quilts, late 19th or early 20th century. (Sorry I didn't keep better notes on when and quilter's name)
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Since this is election season, here is an antique President's Quilt, made by a woman from Poland who came to the USA as in immigrant and became a citizen. All of her quilts have a patriotic theme. Early 20th c if memory serves me correctly.
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Modern quilt (2019) created by the Sisters in Stitches Joined by the Cloth, an African American quilting group in the Boston (MA) area. Details in the next photo. This quilt was the sole reason I went to the Museum, but I spent a long time looking at the other treasures once I got there.
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Erm's Lilacs

5/18/2020

 
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I am heartbroken over losing a good friend to COVID 19.  She had a long, gruesome struggle and it's finally over.  At some point about two weeks ago it became obvious that she was too damaged to come back to us, but the struggle went on.  And on.  And on.  Horrible.   She finally died last week and I have to say I was relieved on her behalf.  Now the grief sets in. 

But, there are still plenty of other wonderful people in the world.  One in particular--my 97 year old next door neighbor--called me last evening and told me she wanted me to come over to her property and cut myself a bouquet of her lilacs, "Since you don't have any on your land."  I went over this morning and did just that.  She even loaned me her garden shears.  I adore her, and she has absolutely no idea that I just lost a friend.  But somehow, she reached out anyway.  It just made my entire day.

You can imagine--I hope--the fabulous scent spreading through my home from her marvelous lilacs.  Thank you, Erm!  Kindness makes all the difference.
I've learned that people will forget what you said; people will forget what you did; but people will never forget how you made them feel.
--Maya Angelou

A Silent Spring

4/24/2020

 
This is indeed a silent spring, though not entirely in the way Rachel Carson envisioned in her book.  I mean the term literally:  traffic is down, people are staying in their homes, all due to Covid 19.  It's very quiet out there.  For all the suffering and misery it is causing, and the fear, the few benefits from this pandemic experience are mighty:  the lowering of air pollution, the increased awareness of our interconnection with others.  New appreciation for nature as many people are getting out on walks, not to mention sleeping longer, spending more time with kids and pets.

In honor of that I include two photos friends have sent me, of two marvelous harbingers of spring.
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Bloodroot, an early Spring flower in New England. Photo taken by Joanie B. Native Americans sometimes used this for medicinal purposes but it has a toxicity level too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanguinaria
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The name of this one, Dutchman's Breeches, always makes me smile. Photo taken by Nancy B. Another flower used medicinally by Native Americans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanguinaria

I always enjoy these wonderful reminders of Spring when I see them in the woods.  This year for a number of reasons I won't be in the woods, so it was lovely to get the photographs.

Yesterday I got a small package with something I had ordered from Etsy.  Inside were the things I had ordered, along with a slip of paper I found utterly charming:
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What a fun message.  And I'm sure it's true. 

If you, like me, are "Staying Home to Save Lives" during this pandemic, and if you're ordering things online I hope you'll consider buying from a small business when that is possible.  You know they need the help.

(And no, I do not sell online.  But I do like to buy from small businesses when I can.)

Pompy Rug and Fiber Arts Show 2019

10/16/2019

 
Two years ago I started hearing about this show, which is only run every other year.
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Because I was sick, I missed the 2017 show and was determined to get to this one.  I made it to Vermont today and am glad I did.  This show is held at the Pompanoosuc Mills home base in Vermont, a gigantic workshop building where their signature furniture is made and the location of their flagship showroom. 

Why a rug & fiber show there?  Because Ed O'Keeffe, the Showroom and Web Manager, is also a rug hooking artist.  Ed teamed up with Jennifer Davey, another rug hooking artist and a past president of the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild (GMRHG), to mount this show on an "off-year" from the big show that is put on biannually by GMRHG.  Because the Pompy showroom is simply immense, there is a lot of wall space.  It's the perfect place to hang rugs!  And hang they did--check out these wonderful pieces below.  Note that I did not get pictures of all the rugs, only about half of the ones on display.
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This is only a small portion of the floor space at the immense showroom. You can see 3 rugs hung on the walls in this space. It's spectacularly large, light and airy (two walls entirely of glass) and the perfect place to showcase not just their high-end furniture, but also hooked rugs.
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One of Ed O'Keeffe's rugs, titled Blue Desert. Ed is the manager of the Pompanoosuc Showroom, and also their Web Manager.
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I really fell in love with this rug, another design by Ed O'Keeffe titled M'Buti Graffiti.
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This is Betty LaWhite's rug, titled "Discovery #2." Wonderful colorist! She had two rugs in the show but I only got a picture of this one.
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"Simply Serene," a lovely rug by Biffie Gallant of Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild.
I should add here that all these rugs came from the talented members of the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild.  I'm thinking that Jennifer and Ed selected them from the Guild's bi-annual show and curated them for this display.
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"Planetoids" by Jennifer Davey.
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The fabulous "Toad Stool" by Jennifer Davey. An absolutely adorable footstool.
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"Shield from Illness and Evil" by Grace Collette. Charming indeed. This one made me smile.
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"Cross Words" by Susan Gault. The work that went into this! Ed told me that she normally hooks room-sized rugs. This was quite large, perhaps about 5' square.
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Eleanor by Barb Ackemann. Wow. Just, wow.
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"Mirror Mirror" by Nancy Thun. This one has to be seen to be believed. And even then it's unbelievable. Gorgeous.
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"The Muse," by Dana Psoinas, who never fails to astound me.
Another of Dana's astounding rugs, Red Riding Hood, was also on display here, but I have already dedicated an entire previous blog post to Dana. Her Red Riding Hood rug is so spectacular that an Australian rug maker did a blog post on it that's in-depth and quite good.  Don't miss it!  You can find it HERE.  And to see more of Dana's work, check my previous post about her HERE.

Despite these many photos, there were at least as many, if not more, rugs and wall hangings on display (and of course, the beautiful furniture everywhere as well).  If you are in the area, this show is well worth a visit. 

Details on how to get there and the duration of the show are on the postcard at the top of this post.  Enjoy!

Sunday Morning at Church

9/29/2019

 
My form of church, that is. 

I left very early today to meet a friend and fellow textile artist on a rural road 45 minutes from my home.  Each with rugs in tow.  Our goal was to drape the rugs we brought over the stone wall that looks over a meadow and then down, down, down into a huge reservoir (part of which is just barely visible over the tops of the trees and under the surrounding hills) and get a decent photo.  I ran the resulting picture thru an iPhone app and got this.  I'm pleased.  It's a mix of a few of my rugs and a few of her rugs. 
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This picture describes my spiritual life--the natural world plus a meditative form of craft such as traditional rug hooking.  

The light, the earth, the stones, the colors, the sun, the clouds, the wind, the water, the trees, the hills. 

I can't think of a better place to be on a Sunday morning in the autumn.

“The sun shines not on us but in us.”
― John Muir

Homage to Susan Riecken

9/14/2019

 
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Drawn on an Art Scratch tile with a wooden stylus. (The idea here is you scratch off the black coating and uncover the shiny colors beneath it). The image is ©Susan Riecken 1979. This was my interpretation. See below.
This image adorned the cover of my old 1979 calendar, one of the many I bought annually from rubber stamp artist Susan Riecken, who seems to have disappeared; I can't find any online presence for her and the last calendar I was able to get from her was in the early 1990s.  After that she closed her Cambridge studio and I couldn't find a trace of her.  Here is the actual cover of that calendar:

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I completely adored her work.  Each calendar was a labor of love.  She carved the stamps from erasers and in the early years I *think* she hand-stamped each calendar, though I'm not sure.  Pretty soon she had the hand-stamped pages reproduced so that she could produce the calendars in bulk, but that never interfered with the delicious colors or the funky marvelous designs.  She was/is an art idol of mine.  Wishing her well wherever she is, and hoping she's well and happy and making more art, even if I cannot find her.

About my interpretation/copy of her sunflowers:  I knew when I ran across this calendar the other day that I wanted to try making a "stamp-like" design by scratching away on an Art Scratch tile.  Using a wooden stylus would, I thought give the same chunky effect as a carved stamp.  I think I was right.

Experimental Play and A Gift

9/12/2019

 
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Tangles: Trinity and Balloya. Blue Chalk Pencil, Micron 01 and 08 in black, Gold Gellyroll, White Chalk Pencil.
First try at the Trinity (the Celtic-Knot appearing tangle) and Balloya (the one with the multiple lines).  I enjoyed doing both, and could certainly get better at both with practice.  Why did I choose these two?  Because they both began with triangles.
But never mind that.  Look what just arrived from my kind and unbelievably talented friend AE.  She MADE this.  Since I can sew but only very badly, this boggles my mind.  She sews like a pro, weaves wonderful things, beads exquisite pieces, does punch needle rugs, dyes her own yarns, and I know I'm forgetting other talents.  And all of it beautifully.

I love this!  Am I lucky or what?
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Drafts

8/23/2019

 
A good friend who is also a CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher) was here this week and stayed long enough for both of us to take the same online class via the TangledYogi--aka Romi Marks, a very good teacher.  I'd encourage you to check out her work, including her YouTube videos.

Below you will see our results.  The first two are mine--think of them as Draft 1 and Final.  Here is the draft:
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Romi refers to this as the "Aloha Waves" piece.  The design is hers, but drawn by me, and then the color choices are mine.  In a moment you can see the final result below, once I'd had time to mull this one over.  I hope you can see what I added. 
The piece was done on one of Romi's hexagonal tiles, which are available on her website (see the link at the top of this email).  She has them made from high-quality card stock and they are very smooth and accept colored pencil well.  They are also larger than the standard Zentangle® tiles (made from Fabriano Tiepolo printmaking paper, softer and tooth-ier).  The two most recognizable tangles here are Pokeleaf and Crest, along with a Zengem.

My finished piece is below, and then below that one you can see the gorgeous result of my friend's work.  Two identical tiles, drawn by two different people, with two completely different coloways.

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Above is the completed version of the one I did. Below is the tile done by AE in the same class. We were drawing together during class, hearing and seeing the same instructions. Yet if you look you'll see slight differences in mine (above) and hers (below). Zentangle® is just like handwriting. The same tangle drawn by two different people will always be a little (sometimes a lot) different.
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Drawn and colored by my buddy AE. This was her first-ever ZenGem! Didn't she do a terrific job on it and on the whole tile--and these aren't her usual colors, just the colors she had with her to choose from. Photo credit to AE, used with her permission.
But wait--there's more.  She also decided to take up punch hooking and got her equipment together while she was here, designed a piece, and began punching.  I can't wait to see what she produces.

The good news for me is that I think I'm about to start work on another rug and have something textile-related to show soon.  It's been too long.

Hooks and Punches

6/23/2019

 
A lovely calming meeting today with rug hooking friends Diana, Lynda, and Judy.
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A Liziana creations design, wool on linen. Diana was working on this and it will be for sale in November. It's 11x18".
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Lynda designed this and it should fit perfectly on the top of a footstool in her house. A simple design made even more lovely by the subtly colorful background. Wool on linen.
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This beauty is a Bea Brock design called "Rebecca Small," 27x37". Colors and hooking by Judy J. Wool on linen.
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Rug-Punched Pillow in progress; loops that are popped up will be pushed thru and trimmed on the other side. This is my current punch project. Wool on monks cloth.

Surprise Surprise

6/22/2019

 
Actually, make that utter shock.

I went to Elaine Huffman's studio today for a "Bitty BookZ™ maker event," thinking I would pick up a lot of tips from those more experienced.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered none of the other 5 participants had ever made a bitty book.  I was even more surprised to end up in the role of teacher for this group.  Without any planning or rehearsal. ("Planning" and "Rehearsal" are my two middle names.)

Elaine could have taught the class--but she gave us her studio for the day plus fabrics and all the other supplies...and while we worked, she was madly cutting things for us in the background.  Without Elaine, none of this would have happened.  So what did happen?  This:
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These are the finished FIRST-EVER BOOKS from all five participants, plus Elaine's. Pretty impressive!
And below is a view from the side, so that you can see them slightly open:
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These are just stunning. What a talented group.
See below for a couple of pictures of the books as they move thru the stages of creation:
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First stage with the tiles just glued together and clamped for a bit to dry. They are sitting on Chris Titus's helpful pdf of directions. See below for where to get her pdf if you would like to try one.
And yes, those are chocolates at the top of the photo.  Surprisingly, people were so absorbed that I never saw anyone eat one...
On to the next stage:
Picture Nearly finished books on the windowsill in the studio, clamped & "elastic-ed" in order to dry.






And here below we have the entire group after their books were dry and we got to un-clamp and un-elastic them.  From left to right are:  Janeen, Jane, Carolyn, Cheryl, Laura, and the scamp at the bottom in the violet shirt is Elaine herself.  Elaine deserves huge applause for enabling this to happen.

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Interested?  If you'd like to try it yourself, you can get Chris Titus's very helpful pdf describing what supplies are needed and how to do these from start to finish.  Click HERE to get the pdf ($10 US funds...well worth it).

You really CAN do this without a class, just from the pdf.  Take it slow, expect some mistakes along the way, and don't expect perfection from your first one.  But by the time you make the 2nd one, not only will it go faster, but you'll have it totally figured out.

Meanwhile, Janeen (a Certified Zentangle Teacher from Seminar 3!!!) filled her Bitty Book with ten of her own paper pages which she had made using the ever-popular "Shaving Cream" method of coloring and marbleizing the paper.  It's all over YouTube--just type in shaving cream + paper.  Here are a few of her tiles (now inside her beautiful book):

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Just waiting to be tangled!
Janeen had a funny story about wanting to show her grandson how to color papers with the Shaving Cream method.  Except, her grandson had been doing it for years in his school and HE ended up giving HER tips and hints.

Of course, you can use plain white or black or tan tiles for your own book, or you can take your already-completed tiles (ones you've already tangled) and use those for your pages.  The possibilities are endless.

There is a Facebook page for BittyBookZ (oriented towards people who do Zentangle®); it's a closed group but you can ask to join if you want to join the fun.

Labyrinthine.

2/13/2019

 
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Done on a ten-inch square tan Opus Tile with brown and black Micron 01s, General's colored chalk pencils, white gellyroll pen, and mucho graphite. Completed over several days for the #zenuari2018 project day 20, "Maze." (This is not a maze; it's a labyrinth--they are two different things but often incorrectly used as synonyms.)
It's been that kind of week--labyrinthine.  So many twists and turns.  We keep walking and we trust we will find our way in to the center and then out again on this challenging journey. 

I hope we are in the center now and will soon find our way out to resume our lives. 

I am still far from home, helping out my friend who is receiving daily treatments.  She is close to the end, however--only three more and she will be done and we will return to our respective homes.  A huge complicating factor has been the sudden illness of someone in her family; it certainly has increased the pressure on her to finish here and go home.  There is much uncertainty.

And yet, we know we just need to keep walking along on the path before us, and trust we will get where we need to be.  In fact, we are already where we need to be, and we just need to remember that.

It took me a few days to do this piece as it's so large.  I learned a lot in the doing and will try again for better results.

My friend also tangles and finds it therapeutic as she waits for appointments.  She is talented and here is one of her latest efforts, a Zendala done on a tile which she had pre-treated with a Fine-Tec paint gold wash.  Isn't this spectacular?  (I have her permission to publish this photo)

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This tile was done by my friend AE, not by me. I would love to claim it! I love it.
Those metallic Fine-Tec watercolors are so inspiring.
"A labyrinth is a symbolic journey … but it is a map we can really walk on, blurring the difference between map and world."
— Rebecca Solnit, in Wanderlust: A History of Walking

On Being Quiet and Other People's Work

1/31/2019

 
Away from home in this very cold midwinter week, I've been doing just a little tangling.  And watching a good friend do her weaving.  While yet another good friend sent me a wonderful photograph.  Below are my latest tangles, my friend's weaving, and my other friend's photo.  Enjoy.
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An experiment on a Strathmore tile. Both tangles are entirely new to me. The border is Qua-Sahnt by HKTangler; the center tangle is Spikor3 by CZT Jutta Gladnigg of Germany. Micron 01, graphite, white chalk.
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Another experiment with the XLNT tangle by Jody Genovese, CZT. Done on a Strathmore tile with Micron 01, graphite, chalk.
Below is my friend's weaving--two "mug rugs" for my coffee cups.  Love the patterns and subtle colors she chose, and I feel lucky to have these gifts!
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Finally, this wonderful Currier & Ives-type photo taken by a good friend who was out on a walk during a snow squall near our homes last week.  Is this not beautiful?
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"Silence is true wisdom's best reply."
--Euripides

Rug Rescuing Plus

12/19/2018

 
Here's another short post on OTHER PEOPLE'S WORK (not mine).  My buddy Cheryl is a Rug Rescuer--she takes partially completed traditionally hooked rugs from people who cannot complete them (usually due to age, illness, or unknown reasons) and finds a way to finish them.  She's a genius at it! 

Here are a couple of her rescued rugs, then a 3rd rug that she hooked NOT as a rescue but just for fun for a grandchild.  And finally, a rug in progress from another wonderful rug artist, Cynthia (not a rescue--her own design).
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I believe this pattern is an old McGown or Moshimer pattern called "Frost Oriental," (after Edward Frost, an itinerant peddlar in the 1800s who figured out a way to transfer rug designs to burlap). Cheryl rescued this rug and finished it--I've long loved this pattern and have often thought of hooking it, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Love what she and the original artist did with this!
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Also by Cheryl the Rescuer. Although I can't remember if she rescued this rug and finished it, or if she decided to hook it all herself and then ran out of wool part of the way through and had to scramble to finish. Either way, I love this rug. Both the pattern and the wonderful difference in values, giving it an antique look.
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Also by Cheryl the Rug Rescuer, but NOT a rescued rug. She hooked this in a wide-cut for her grandson. I forget whose pattern this is but I love it and love the colors she chose. This may be her first wide-cut rug.
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And last but not least, a rug by Cynthia (another traditional rug hooking artist in our group) of her own design. This isn't the first time I've featured one of Cynthia's rugs--she does all her own designs and dyes or recycles the wool she uses. The added bicyclist (lower right without any wool around it yet) and the boat (lower left center) both have special meaning for her family. She does wonderful work.

I got to see these lovely rugs, and others, at our meeting last Friday.  It was hard to tell which was more fun--the rug hooking, the conversations, or the fabulous groan-inducing foods.  We met at Cheryl's amazing and stunningly decorated old Victorian house.
"When life gives you hands, use 'em to make stuff."
--Anon.

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    ABOUT ME

     I'm a textile artist (traditional rug hooking, punch needle rug hooking, and other textile arts), a long-time meditator, a certified meditation teacher and coach, and focused on learning about the interplay of art, creativity, and mindfulness every day. 

    I am also a Certified Zentangle® Teacher (CZT 11) and a student of drawing and of the tarot.

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  • ...a blog on art, creativity, and mindfulness