This time of year, signs of spring pop in and out of view
all over town. On Monday, my ‘Portraits of Trees’ exhibition at City Hall is
coming down. They have to hold on
until the Farmer’s Market opens next Saturday for spring to reappear. If you missed the exhibition, on Tuesday
the pieces will resurface at Meadowood Retirement Community for their peek
into Summer.
Meadowood is on the
north side of town, on Tamarack trail north of the Unitarian Universalist
church. It will be on display
in their gallery for a month, and I’ll be in attendance to enjoy an opening reception and
dinner on Friday, April 5th.
My art focus hasn’t changed much—I’ve been beavering away at
a very large format commission piece.
It is a giant weaving featuring a spring path with flowers—hints and
bursts of purple, yellow, gold and pink line the path.
I’m so ready for the full arrival of
spring that I have thoroughly enjoyed imagining the grass turning to some shade
of green and the colorful flowers to follow. I sifted through my stores and picked out all of my crunchy
green yarns to combine into leaf clumps.
I then dug through my dark brown fleeces to find one that I bought at
the Fleece Fair a couple of years ago.
I just washed it and it’s ready to needle felt. I love the contrast between the crunchy
greens and the dark earth tones when I lay my materials out in the art
studio.
The garden path and
the tree trunk contain more of Grandpa’s old army blankets in them. I just cut into the last of the
blankets, but I see it more as a rebirth than the end of an era. Grandpa’s old treasures that had
meaning for him provide a different emotional connection to me as I create my
art.
One aspect of the piece that I’m particularly pleased with
is how the green background gradient turned out. I wanted to have the path fade into paleness in the
distance, and you can see a hint of that in the background weave. The trees in the foreground and
background will anchor the piece and bring dimensionality and depth. Right now I'm waiting for the custom
frame to arrive so I can stretch the piece and start combining the dimensional
elements.
Despite my best intentions to get back to a weekly blogging
schedule, last week brought spring break and a trip to New Mexico to see Jim’s
brother Tim and wife Bobi (and Lucy the dog). We had an awesome time, featuring a ride up the world’s
longest tramway to an elevation of 10,378 feet on Sandia Peak.
It was an exciting ride up and even
more dramatic coming down with forty mile an hour winds buffeting the tram on
the last descent of the day when they deemed it too dangerous to keep
transporting people. We feasted at
the restaurant at the peak, watched the ravens take wild rides on the gusts,
and enjoyed searching for fossils on the top of the mountain. Unfortunately, the peak is an old
shallow seabed that became limestone, so we found the non-exotic crinoid and
geode mix that we find all the time in our back yard. Rock hounding at the base was more interesting because the formation
there is granite. I collected lots
of interesting things at the bottom, including some pretty green travertine that will be moss-covered rocks along a forest path, and
some bubbly, chocolate-y lava rocks that seem perfect for cross sections through dirt in some
of my pieces.
In New Mexico they
crunch up the lava rocks for winter traction on the mountain roads instead of
sprinkling salt. Tommie discovered
that some cacti have sharp thorns and can pierce leather shoes—ouch! The whole crew drove to Santa Fe for
dinner and shopping—what an amazing place for pottery and jewelry! Grandma and I had a wonderful time
poking around in shops looking at jewelry. I managed to find a delightful pair of very simple silver earrings. Most of the work is hugely ornate,
which I appreciate but know that it isn’t my style.
When we returned home, my sister Edita visited for a longer
weekend. That meant more dining,
more shopping, more wine and chatting.
It was a great spring break!
I even got a tart cherry pie!
It had been so long that I thought Jim forgot how to bake them! It was delightful, however. It was a little piece of summer to get
me ready for trips to the Farmer’s Market this year.
Until next week,
Martina Celerin
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