It might sound like a broken record, but it was another very
cold week with lots of quality time spent in my art studio. I focused mainly on another piece for
my ‘Portraits of Trees’ exhibition this spring in the Showers building. The inspiration came from a walk I had
this past summer with my niece Haley, her new baby Arya, Grandma, Jacob and
Great Aunt Lois. We had a lovely
afternoon stroll on the Riverwalk along the Saginaw River in Bay City, Michigan. My memory now is just of a happy, even
emotional family time. We saw lots
of willows along the shore, with several leaning over the river and the rock
walls that prevent erosion. I
tried to capture the swaying willow branches in the piece that I’ll call
“Riverwalk Willow.”
I’m getting
close to having my target of twelve pieces for the show, but I’m going to keep
steaming on. My tree-based pieces
are always popular at summer art fairs, and I’m in a bit of a groove right now…
One highlight of my week was having lunch with my artist
friends Dawn and Cappi. I carved
out a little time around noon on Friday to see “Ed Bernstein: Almost Illuminated” on campus. I always have a fabulous time with Dawn
and Cappi, but sharing the art experience is a great way to get out of my usual
routine.
The exhibition was a
retrospective featuring a large body of printmaking with lots of riffs on a
common subject placed in different contexts. I was struck by the burning chairs placed in different
situations, where Ed’s use of light and dark was quite striking. His textures in the water were full of
detail up close that fell into harmonious movement from a distance. Very nice.
I have a new project in the works: to update my website. I’ve been working with Paul Smedberg to expand my interface with the rest of the world. The final product should appear in a
week or two. What’s most exciting to
me will be a link to my Flickr site that shows the images of all of my
photographed pieces over the span of twelve years. It’s so much fun to look back and see where I’ve been and
where I stand now as an artist. My
work ends up in the media more, and yesterday there was a picture of my
“Tethered Memories” in the Herald Times.
They published a very nice piece about the people in the Spinners and
Weaver’s Guild, where I’ve learned new techniques such as needle felting. In fact, I spend a lot of my time there
poking away quietly during the meetings, just taking it all in.
Yesterday we finally had a break in the weather, with
temperatures up to forty-five.
Wow, did that ever feel good!
But we’re back into the icebox today and Tuesday. We’re all expecting some school
delays. Sadly, the delightful
cherry pie from last week is gone.
Did I mention that I really
like cherry pie! I know there’s
another bag of tart cherry pie filling in the freezer, so I just need to figure
out how to get it out and into a crust!
Sometimes little hints in the blog do the trick—we’ll see.
Yesterday evening I waiting for my little
pumpkin Jacob to come home from his first ski trip to Paoli peaks. I kept busy as I waited and only periodically (not more than 6 times I'm sure...) asked Jim "how do you think that he's doing?" The word is that it was ‘epic!’ I *knew* that he has some Canuck in him!
Jim cut up and split a bunch more
firewood so we’re ready for family fires when the cold weather hits. We’ll hunker down and play card games
that the boys have been teaching us.
And if I just keep ignoring Winter, soon it will be Spring! And that’s when I have my art show
downtown—yikes, I better get back in the art studio!
Until next week,
Posts
You're stuff is so fabulous! I would love to learn your techniques!
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