Holey Scary Scarves!

Halloween week started on a high note for me. I drove my mother-in-law to the airport on Monday morning after a wonderful visit. She headed back home to the pouting cats and falling leaves, both demanding her attention. There was still fresh apple pie for a few days, but now that’s just a fond memory. I threw myself into scarf-making one more time, bringing my inventory up to forty-two. That’s the good news. The less-good news is that I had to spend a little quality time with the iron to get them pressed into shape. I shipped the first of my babies off to the Holly Market in St. Joseph Michigan midweek. Then I had two patrons stop by, one intending to look at scarves and one just innocently coming by to pick up her son. Five scarves went out the door, so I was back designing and felting a few more this weekend. The sales would have called for a celebration dance all by itself, but I also sold two pieces from the Bloomington Playwright Project show. My ‘Transplant’ and ‘Among the Ferns’ are off to new homes! What a great week for business! There’s still time to see what’s left of the show until Thursday of this week. I’m also going to hang a show at the John Waldron Art Center tomorrow, which you’re welcome to come see. Even better, stop in at the reception this Friday, November 5, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. The show is titled: “Fiberology: a Study of Textures and Colors”, and I’d love to see you there. If you can’t make it Friday, I’ll be in Columbus Indiana on Saturday the sixth at the Déjà Vu show at the Yes Cinema on the corner of Fourth and Jackson.

In other art news, this week marked the beginning of the end of an era. The weather turned warm enough to allow urethane varnish to cure, so I finally got to seal the four giant BEAD panels. These are the pieces assembled by the fairgoers at last year’s Fourth Street Festival and have been sitting in my living room all winter, spring and summer. I’ll gave them one more coat of varnish yesterday and will send them off to their new home in City Hall. At least I hope so—I expect I might have to remind them that they agreed to hang the BEAD panels there. You might not be able to fight City Hall, but I think you can persuade them to display art.

I’ve got to run—it’s Halloween day, and there’s lots to sort out. I’ve got the candy hidden (I hope) for tonight and the kids have a friend over. The pumpkins are carved and the costumes are ready, but I need to press more a few more scarves and I hope to lay out a couple more. Can’t. Stop. Working! The boys have been off from school for four straight days thanks to fall break, which means the house is a disaster and I’m feeling the pressure to get everything re-set for a new week of school, meetings and adventures. I also hear it’s traditional to make pumpkin pie—I’ll have to be sure Jim knows!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

The Pulitzer Prize for practical writing goes to…

This week my artistic side has taken a back seat to my business persona. What she’s doing back there, well, I don’t know, but I’m sure she’s dreaming up some new pieces. It is spring, though, so you never know. I put on my Fourth Street Festival hat this week and, along with Cappi Phillips and Dawn Adams, put together a presentation for the City Elders to try to expand the festival layout. The goal is to expand along the remaining segment of Fourth Street toward the University, and to capture a little of Dunn. We met with the Chief of police and the Fire Chief, as well as the person in charge of Engineering for the city. The committee members did a lot of legwork before the meeting and I think our plan was well received. Then it was off to lunch to celebrate with Cappi and Dawn to Samira for their excellent lunch buffet. We took advantage of the nice weather and strolled through some of the art venues. I picked up my ‘Tomatoes’ piece from the Wandering Turtle for the ‘Inch by Inch and Row by Row’ show in the Showers building atrium, meant to coincide with the opening of the Farmer’s Market. We also admired the new abstract pieces at Gallery North. It’s nice work, but it’s a little weak on the abstract fiber art in my estimation.

The other big projects this week all involve writing. I wrote a grant proposal to the BCAC (Bloomington City Arts Commission) to request support for our proposed Children’s booth project. Last year we had a great time creating the Community Tree. Amy Brier carved a limestone trunk for us and I made branches and leaves. Throughout the year I collected materials that children could use to decorate the leaves. We got some great pieces that ranged from painted leaves to mosaic pieces with glued-on materials in all colors and styles. It was great fun, and the piece now stands in the Showers building. This year we’re going to create a huge Community BEAD (Bloomington Entertainment and Arts District) mosaic in four pieces. I also put together a press release to announce the show I’m doing with Cappi Phillips in Fort Wayne. To fill in the gaps I was needle-felting ornaments for the upcoming holiday season—I finished number 25 this week! They’re rather time intensive to make, so I have a target of ten each month to get ready for the winter season.

On a last note, we’re well into the spring bloom in the yard. The deer food—oops, I mean tulips—that are in protected areas near the house are just opening (hooray!). The rest are munched down the ground. The darn critters come right into the back yard and graze through the gardens. I’m also watching a huge tangle of foliage emerge that will soon send up a purple trial balloon for the rest of the garden to see if it’s really spring. OK, it’s actually just an allium with a big flower, but that’s the way it seems.


Until next week…