We are finally deep into spring and looking towards
summer. The trees are leafing out into
soft greens, the redbuds are on full display and the dogwoods are just about to
burst. The farmer’s market is underway,
and I’m looking forward to one of my favorite things about summer: the fresh fruits and vegetables! I’m sure that people all over the world feel
the same way after eating winter fruits that were picked early and lack the
rich flavors of summer. To celebrate
that approaching yumminess just around the corner I just finished a weaving
called "Twelve Forks of Summer."
I had
a lot of fun collecting the forks themselves.
Some are silver and others regular flatware that I painted and patinaed
to enhance the unique features of each pattern.
I intentionally painted them all gold to elevate the perception of the object. Traditionally, objects placed in and around gold
are elevated in value. A perfect piece
of watermelon deserves to be on a regal gold fork.
I also started work on a fun piece that came to me while I
was in Michigan staying with Dawn’s friends Angela and Rick. Angela shared with me her vintage salesman’s display
box of shaving tools that she inherited from her mother, which is an image that
stayed in my head. That sparked a memory
of a scrounging adventure with Nancy last summer at the Westbury Antique Market’s
yard sale, where I found a fascinating old gold razor.
That had me thinking about musicals like
Music Man and costumes, and all together you might understand how I came up
with one the next pieces I’ll make called "Barbershop Quartet." It will feature vintage shaving devices
embedded in a barbicide-blue background.
On the foreground will be attached four goldfinches singing in
unison. I warped the loom with silver
because many of the barber tools will be silver. I have already collected many of the things
that will go into the weaving and I’ve started to work on the goldfinches with
different vocal ranges. I’m excited because
it’s going to be a fun piece, but it also reminds me about all the places I’ve
been and the friends I was with when I collected the objects. Thanks Dawn, Nancy, Charlotte, Angela, Grandma, and
Jacob—and Jim for your patience while I scrounge through the oddest places!
I apologize for missing a couple of weeks of blogging, but I’ve
been on the road. In early April I participated
at the Ridgeland Fine Art Festival in Mississippi.
It was a wonderful success—I’m tickled that three of my pieces found new
homes. The people responded warmly to my
art and I’m excited to put it on my list of shows to apply for next year.
We stayed with cousins Martha and Dave, and
they took such good care of us. We
finally got to meet Amy and Harold, whom we’ve heard about for years. Amy Head is a make-up icon in the south and
has the eye of a visual artist. We had
wonderful conversations about the impacts of color and layering colors. I wished we lived closer. As we drove south we left the earliest
beginnings of Spring in Indiana and gradually watched as we drove through the
blossoming forsythia, redbuds, dogwoods and into the flowering wisteria in
Mississippi, where everything was fully leafed out.
My next weekend involved a drive north to Chicago with the
Sounds of South, which was the reverse weather experience.
We left the beginnings of spring to remember the
cold and snow of winter. The trip was
warmed by the people and the performances we saw, including seeing Hamilton and
A Chorus Line. The Chicago performance
of Hamilton was spectacular, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The staging was crisp, unexpected and
engaging. Combined with outstanding
performances the effect was spellbinding.
This was the first musical I emerged ready to take in again. It was just an extravagant visual display. Walking around Chicago and eating foods we don’t
find in Bloomington was a fabulous experience in and of itself.
The Sounds of South kids sang in a church,
and the performance was a feast for the ears because the acoustics in the
church was amazing. The right setting
always brings a new dimension to choral singing. The faces on the kids truly were engaged in
what they were doing, making the performance powerful and the memory one of
those bubbles in your brain that you tap into when you need to conjure a
feeling of joy.
The best part of traveling is returning home. I was
delighted to return from Chicago to discover a warm, blackberry pie. Jim was experimenting and did something
magical. The fruits were intact and the
flavors were bright, so it was unexpectedly delicious. He’s a pie magician.
Until next week,
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