Weaving blue skies…

This week I spent time in my studio working on my next commissioned piece.  After the long, wonderfully busy summer, I needed to take myself back to the beginning of the summer.  We spent two weeks on the beach in North Carolina looking at water and blue skies, and I’m delighted to report that the background of my commission captures those elements.  The foreground will feature a willow with its long branches swaying over the water.  I have started working on the tree as a traveling project to poke at while I wait for the boys at their activities.  I have been using army blankets to create the inside of the tree trunk and I still have one more blanket piece left.  Those of you who are regular blog readers will recall that I began using army blankets when Grandma gave me Grandpa’s old army blanket.   

She didn’t know what to do with it and didn’t want to throw it away.  I discovered that it was perfect for the core of trees I make.  It’s basically a felted, solid wool base that I can build on to form the trunk.  Over the surface I needle felted fleece that came to me by chance from a young woman raising Shetland sheep.  She approached me at Fourth Street a few years ago and I bought some fleece from her and I’m just now using up the last of it.  It’s the perfect color for willow bark. 

The Fourth Street Festival, my next big event, is rapidly approaching.  The image that I've posted is of this year's T-shirt design - a tribute to Jerry Farnsworth and his amazing kaleidoscopes.  Coordinating all the small tasks and making sure they’re completed commands a lot of my attention these days, but only for another month.  I made the difficult decision in late spring to step down as president of the Fourth Street festival committee.  I’ve been with the group for over twelve years, and I’ve learned an enormous amount from them.  

 I’m grateful for the experience and the friendships I’ve made.  Still, it’s time to move on after this fortieth anniversary art fair.  I’m excited about all of the artists that will participate this year—120 come from all over the U.S. to descend on the art-loving community of Bloomington.  I’m very proud to be associated with the event that is such an integral part of the Bloomington arts scene.  I do need to keep my nose to the grindstone and create a few new pieces for the Labor Day event.  I have had a very successful summer art fair season already, which means that I will need more work to fill my booth with a fresh display of my pieces. 

On the family front we are approaching the beginning of the school year.  Wednesday will find both of my boys in high school!  Amazing!  I will have to split my time between my studio and the costume studio at Bloomington High School South to complete thecostumes for Pippin.  One of the last elements of costume design that I’m contemplating is providing headdresses for circus performers.  I found a used copy of the “The American Circus:  An Illustrated History” online and it has plenty of inspiration. 

Yesterday morning Jim and Tommie went off fishing and Jacob and I headed for the farmer’s market.  We slept in a little longer than the fishermen and we found the market packed and rocking—it was full of people!  We scampered around to get the produce we wanted.  We got watermelon, corn, cucumbers, basil, plums and peaches.  We dropped our treasures off at the car and sauntered back to get delightful dainties from Maria at Piccoli Dolci.  Jacob and I relaxed on the grass and watched the world go by on a pleasant Saturday morning.   

Oh, and the best news of the week!  All is right with the world.  I found a warm peach pie after the last market that went delightfully well with decaf espresso in the morning for breakfast.  If that weren’t enough, Gwen Witten dropped off a warm Derby Pie yesterday evening for dessert! It was AMAZING!!  Life is very good.

Until next week,

Martina Celerin

More rain comes to Bloomington!

Mid April is a busy season for me.  April brings taxes and the major review of all the slides from almost 400 applicants to the Fourth Street Festival of Art.  I also serve as a reviewer for the Bloomington Arts Commission grants and this year, a juror for the NanoArt exhibit sponsored by Wonderlab.  The latter was something fun and new because I had to look through over 50 beautiful images from microscopes, usually from living things.  When I wasn’t poring over grants, taxes, and images of wee art, I kept my large format commission piece moving forward.  I finished weaving the background while my frame-maker, Tom Bertolacini, came through with the giant frame.  I’ve had some past experiences with the landscape format oak frames bowing from the stretching of the piece.  

 That meant a quick trip out to Kleindorfer’s hardware and some expert advice.  After some conversations with the fellows there, I picked up two slats of steel, six feet long by an inch wide and an eighth of an inch thick.  I cut them to size to reinforce the back of the frame and I drilled holes every six inches to merge steel and wood.  When the rains finally subside and the weather warms up I’ll get outside and paint the frame.  That will allow me to stretch out the background in the frame and move on with completing the piece.  I’ll know when the rains let up because the artesian spring in my art studio will stop flowing so robustly.  I capture most of the water with towels (the rug is rolled back) that I spin out and dry. 

 I decided that while I had a little ‘free’ time I should clean out the veranda.  It becomes a bit of a dumping ground over the fall and winter, and I'm just as guilty as the boys when it comes to stashing stuff out there.  My first big project was dealing with the mountain of fleece I inherited over the past year or so.  The first step is skirting the fleece.  That might sound elegant, but what it really means is that I trim out the sheep poo.  People who think art is full of all glamorous activities have no idea!  After I washed the trimmed fleece I leave it sitting outside in mesh trays.  I systematically pull apart clumps of the fleece to untangle it.  Normally that would be pretty tedious, but the last couple of days have been in the upper seventies with a slight breeze and birds singing.  Playing with the fleece and straightening things up is just a wonderful excuse to sit outside. 

The first fleece that I washed a couple of weeks ago was the darkest fleece.   I used that to create the foreground tree in the commission piece.  I needle felted that tree structure and found dark brown yarns in my collection that I'll use to create the branches for the tree.  I also did all of the crocheting to make the leaf clumps so I feel like pieces of the work are coming together.   

As I’ve described before, I create the inside of trees I’ve been making from Grandpa’s old army blankets.  Sadly, when I began this piece I cut into the last of the supply.  That's a problem because the flagstones that make up the path are also made from old army blankets.  Not to worry though—Karma has been looking out for me.  I have to tell a story to have this make sense, so indulge me for a moment.  A couple of months ago I took some of my pieces to the fifth grade class at Binford Elementary School to show the kids because one of the pieces was inspired by a drawing sketched by one of the kids (Tethered Memories).  During my conversation with them I mentioned that I had one last army blanket for my artwork.  One insightful student asked what I would do for tree trunks when that was gone.  I told her that something would appear—it always seems to.  Fast forward to this week.  I visited the Recycle Center and—lo and behold—what should I find but an army blanket!  I had to complete the circle so I told the teacher when I saw her at the Carnival last Friday.  She is looking forward to telling the students. 

I do have a few other events to report on from the past few weeks.  I have an exhibit up at the Meadowood retirement community that will be up until the end of April.  They invited me to a nice reception where I got to meet a large number of the residents who came to see my art.  I had some delightful conversations as they passed through the gallery and shared their reactions to the art.  That was followed by a lovely dinner on site, hosted by Jeune Baker and attended by some of her friends and my husband Jim.  It was a nice little date with the boys off watching the black belt test of a friend at Monroe County Martial Arts.  Their time to test is coming soon, likely over the summer.  I know life is good because I got another pie—this time it was blackberry from the summer farmer’s market.  The berries froze well and I enjoyed pie and espresso for breakfast for a whole week.  The sad news is that we only have apple pie filling in the freezer now, and I’m more of a ‘berry’ kind of person.  I guess I’ll settle for apple next, although I did see some rhubarb in the grocery story recently.  Maybe there will be some early rhubarb at the Farmer’s market!  A girl can dream.

Until next week,

Martina Celerin