Thyme for Tomatoes

I had my felting needles flying this week as I worked toward completing my two big commission pieces. I continued on my herb mission by creating small thyme leaves, using the fleece I carded together last week. I’m always really busy, but this week I had to make a little thyme for myself. When I had the leaves made, I snipped little 2-4 inch lengths of thin wire that I wrapped with yarn to make the veins for the leaves. When it came to making the stems, I panicked a little when I discovered that I lacked just the right yellowy green yarn. I looked through all my light spring greens, olives and medium green boxes with no success. I was humming and hawing about what to do because I knew thyme was running out. Then the angelic choir sang when I walked around the art studio and saw just the right color material sitting atop my giant pile of yet-to-be-sorted yarns. I guess I need a brief bit of background here (no thyme like the present). When new yarns come into the house they first spend at least two days in the freezer to kill any potential pests or eggs. Then to go into a big pile in the art studio to be sorted into my rows of plastic storage bins. That happens when the pile reaches a critical height and spills over into the walkway, or when the boys need money for the latest toy and they offer to sort yarns for money. Anyway, I finished the three thyme sprigs this week and launched on the tomatoes. I carded together the fleece I need for the fleshy parts of the tomatoes and the seeds. That’s next week’s project, along with doing my business taxes. I’ll hand off the forms to my turbo-taxin’ husband who will put it all together.

The rest of the week mostly involved the usual running around town to support my family. But everywhere I went I was on thyme! I have a piece (Birch at Rocky Point) hanging in Columbus, Indiana at the recycled art show to celebrate Earth Day. Marilyn Brackney organizes the show, and the opening reception is this Thursday from 5 – 7 pm at the Hotel Indigo. I look forward hanging out and chitty-chattying with my recycled artist friends like Cappi Phillips and Chris Gustin.

On the home front, this morning Jacob decided to make scones for breakfast, which I encouraged. He served them in the lovely platter Tommie made in clay class at the Ivy Tech-John Walron Arts Center. Jacob also participated in Crazy Day at his school. He wore his pants inside out (the zipper was a special challenge) and gelled his hair. Actually, his personal stylist Tommie did most of the coiffing. The whole thing was for a fundraiser for Riley Children’s hospital. Now it’s Saturday afternoon but I feel like I’m ahead of the curve. The laundry is done and carried upstairs, two loaves of bread are baked for the week, and a new batch of tomato sauce is ready for pizzas and other Italian dishes.

Whew!

Until next, uhm, thyme…

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