Mixed Fresh Greens on Mother’s Day.

This week was such a mixed bag—a little of this and a little of that. I was tying up loose ends on a bunch of art projects, not all of which were expected. The most exciting news on the art front was that I was able to re-launch on a weaving I started last fall. It requires beautiful red gum leaves with a deep wine-red color. I had needle felted the leaves months ago, but this week I found just the right yarn and some nice thin steel wire to create the stems. I think they look delightful! Months ago I began to create a toad to live in the piece, but I never gave him any skin. This week I’ll focus on toad skin, trying to resist the temptation to lick it. And even though I spent huge blocks of time and energy on commissions this winter, I still managed to launch on the next request on my list. It’s based on an early piece I did called ‘A Walk in the Woods’. I began a search of my cord boxes to find just the right material. I was looking for some specific thrums that I know work well for the tree trunks, and luckily I found enough of the material. Trunk creation involves twisting one really interesting cord to give the look of bark I want. If you’re a regular blog reader, it may seem as if I always have just the right material for a project. My husband Jim can’t decide whether I’m great at choosing which materials to save (everything) or whether I decide that what I find is just what I needed. The answer is—both! To create my path through the woods I did some digging to find just the right copper and light brown yarns. And yes, I had just the right colors! This week I’ll start the actual weaving, a phase of each project that I really love to do. Because this piece lacks needle felting, I needed something to keep my hands busy while I watch my boys during their Taekwondo and sparring classes. I decided to begin yet another project that does involve a lot of felting. It’s based on a photograph I saw in a Turkish cookbook. The picture shows grouping of vegetables that are being prepared for a salad. Everything looks so crisp and fresh that it makes my mouth water. My version will involve sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, whole carrots and radishes, and chopped broccoli. And whatever else occurs to me that I think would look good! I invested a little time this week putting the outer skins on my cucumbers and tomatoes as the boys trained under the watchful eye of Mr. Scott at Monroe County Martial Arts. This Friday will be a big day for all my boys there as they test to advance in rank. The younger boys will be blue belts with a black stripe, the last belt before brown and Jim will advance to blue belt.

The diversity of my art projects was matched by the diversity of other family events that culminated in a special Mother’s Day. Sunday afternoon was our spring egg hunt, which brought bunch of kids to the house to search for eggs and screech happily as they ran around the back yard. Dinner was Atlantic salmon with a ginger-orange glaze. It has a little balsamic vinegar and a touch of honey and I really like it. We opened a nice bottle of wine, had some red new potatoes boiled to perfection, and topped it off with a rhubarb pie still warm from the oven. I received an elegant watch from Jim and two sweet handmade cards from the boys. It’s good to be a mom!

Until next week…

Martina Celerin

My animal self emerges among the herbs

This weekend I think I proved the axiom, paraphrased here, that one may not simultaneously create art and blog about it. And being a Mom only makes things more complicated! The theme of the week has been leaves, as everything around me seems to be leafing out as spring comes on. As I sat in the living room working on basil leaves, I was surprised to see that our lilac bush is leafing out. It seems undeterred by the recent cold snap and ready to embrace spring. Me too! To create my basil leaves I picked out about eight different green fleeces. I carded them into a match for the verdant color of my herb models from Bloomingfoods. My basil green is a rich, bright, crunchy spring-like green. I finished my giant basil leaves earlier this weekend, and yesterday I added the veins to complete that aspect of the project. Earlier in the week I had gone to my green boxes to create the right green for thyme, another component in my ‘Ratatouille’ piece. Thyme green is a deeper, richer green with more olive tones in it. Maybe even hints of pine needles. I can see that I’m not going to meet my goal of completing the two giant commission pieces by April first, but they should come together sometime during April. Art just doesn’t understand timelines.

My life was complicated and enriched by my cultural calendar for the weekend. Jacob took the family to see the IU’s spring ballet “New York, New York” on Friday night. We all enjoyed the three pieces, although perhaps not equally. I was particularly enamored with the first piece (Cloven Hooves), which I found to be the most cerebral. It’s really a statement about society and how we follow along in our roles, while somehow deep within us are bubbling animal instincts. They periodically surface and interject themselves in our otherwise socially constrained lives. It was well done by incredibly athletic dancers. The performance was really a fusion of ballet and modern dance, with animal interpretations slipped into the movements. It inspired me to release a little of my inner athletic and animal self. I did a two-hour Zumba marathon, taught in fifteen minute blocks by the eight instructors who teach at BloomZum. It was a wonderful sweat-fest. After watching the ballet, followed by two hours of my kids doing Taekwondo Saturday morning, participating in the Zumba had me thinking about the different styles of movement. The martial arts are very aggressive, with punching, kicking and kind of a classical macho feel. The ballet dancers are so graceful and elegant in their precise and practiced movements. And then came the Zumba dances, filled with real people and real sweat and salsa dances filled with an in-your-face sexuality. That took me back to the first ballet, with the animal instincts just taking over in the movements. What a day! After all that, I still had the energy to go out Saturday night with my friend Ruth to the Trashionista Fashion Show. That was fun to watch, although I really had hoped to contribute a dress made of Barbie doll legs this year. The sheer weight of the creation stood in the way of true fashion and sank the piece. I’ll be back next year, assuming Project Runway doesn’t call me first.

Until next week…

Martina Celerin