Friday, March 14, 2014

out of time

I've probably packed more crap than I will even look at but then it's fun to share. What I'm really looking forward to is the beach, but I recalled that last time I was here it was also mid March and charging into the surf could provoke a heart attack.

If there is internet access you'll read all about it.


 "In reality, the woman belonged to sometime else as she was just here at this time by accident. A slip of the cosmic order had caused her to be born out of sequence, under the wrong stars. She had been overlooked by the universe. In the book of all names and beings she was unlisted, with no past nor future written down for her. She was invisible to the gods, the passage of time and the protection of the stars"

Thursday, March 13, 2014

like lightning

Inspiration is the most amazing thing.

Lately I've been empty as yesterday's basket. Several pieces I've been writing had no where to go and the damn epic I've been pecking away at for over a year has begun to get on my nerves and is heading for dismemberment.

On the pretense of packing for FL I was wandering from room to room, picking up something here and putting it down there aimlessly.

 For the twentieth time I ran my left foot into a pile of folders, papers and doodah on the floor in the bedroom. The “scrutinize and shred” pile; stuff like tax papers from 1991, report cards. That kinda crap.

I reached to shove the pile back out of my path and grasped the corner of a file envelope. Not tax stuff but Jim's paperwork from the Army. Stuff I'd seen before when we got the mortgage but I started going through it anyway. Tucked between other documents in the folder was a letter that I wrote Jimmy back when we were first getting to know each other. I didn't remember writing it and the lovestruck silliness made me smile and realize I have been writing this stuff forever. I tucked it away with the others and went about my aimlessness. 

Then I sat down on the bed and laced on my boots getting ready to go have lunch with Jake and while I was thinking of nothing in particular, the conflict, the characters - the whole story line that I have been groping for just wandered into my head like a hundred piece marching band taking the field at the Superbowl. 
I got names, dates, crimes and fates all in flash.

“Flourish” I will my darlin'. And thanks. Again.


Monday, March 10, 2014

a start, I guess

I'm supposed to be gathering my wits and stuff for the trip to FL. So far, all I've done is pile stuff in a heap and agonize about what I don't have and won't be able to get before it's time to go. So I'm winging it before I even go.

There was a lot of procrastination activity over the weekend, resulting in freshly mopped kitchen floors and finishing this long overdue gift.
When I put it through the final wash and rinse, several of the more garish pinks and reds oozed their excess into the white areas. Blush clouds danced across the snowfields. I put my trust in a dye remover from Carbona and put the whole thing through one more wash cycle. I should have realized that any chemical process would not be able to distinguish between what colors were wanted and which ones were not. Now it has the look of something from days gone by instead of a carnival side show banner.

I also got caught back up in a writing project. In order to do the work justice, I really have to become someone else in another time and place. It's completely absorbing and I love it when I'm on a roll.

The new/old phone got a good working over too. I sure HOPE my long distance is free.

Saturday, March 08, 2014

looking ahead

I pulled this out of storage yesterday and gave it a good wash and dry.

It was used daily and washed almost weekly from '85 to maybe '89 and looks pretty much like new.

Having learned my lesson by using cheap commercial cloth, which basically evaporated over the years, I spent solid coin on this cloth back in the day and glad of it. It's got a lot of miles left in it.


Friday, March 07, 2014

make ready

Had a great trip-planning lunch meeting with my FOF14 co-conspirators at La Madelaine in East Jesus today.  Good thing my phone has GPS or I'd still be wandering the desert.

The food was terrific, but they could have shoveled us tripe and offal because the conversation and plotting was far richer. 

It's time to start rounding up all the crap, I mean raw materials, that I want to have on hand.   Laissez Les bons temps rouler!   They give french lessons in the ladies room.


Thursday, March 06, 2014

TBT




This came in the mail today..I won it cheap on Ebay and it actually works! We still have a landline here because, although we are less than 20 miles from Atlanta, it's still cell phone hell.

I have to buy a loooong cord so I can run it upstairs and put it beside the bed. The ringer goes off like a bomb.

Let the prank calls begin! And heres to reestablishing some real communication.

Tuesday, March 04, 2014

do-over, again #2000

Somewhere, something keeps track and this is my 2000th post. An occasion for pause and consideration I guess.


Although I packed this up to NY with me, I don't recall lifting a needle to it once. Too much else going on.

I really let the text get away from me this time and a second pick-out left a mess so I'm paving the mess over and will most probably forgo any text. It's the Heart of Rock & Roll, still beating.






Meanwhile, the clock is ticking and I'm starting to marshall what-all will be taken to FL in less than two weeks.  A great spring churn is underway in the studio...who knows what will surface.

Sunday, March 02, 2014

home from away

This is where I am from. The power, elegance and solidarity of these creatures marked every day.

Patty & Robbie

We had dinner at the Blazer pub in honor of Poppy's birthday, the year and date  were still uncertain.

The next day  Robbie found a box with seemingly  every letter  Dad received while he was in the Navy.
His mother wrote him almost daily. There was one from his sister Vera dated Feb. 23, 1943 wishing him a Happy Birthday the next day. Now we have the date right. We may never find out the exact year and he would be okay with that.

Charlie Brown & Kitty
Deep thanks to my sisters Patty and Kitty and my brother Rob for putting me up and putting up with me for a whole week.

I spent  hours in the unheated attic claiming pictures from my mother's picture albums - many I've never seen before.. You'll see many over time.

Friday, February 28, 2014

ny country friday






Time for a little quick repair to one of my older utility quilts used daily in this busy household.



 This is my nephew getting ready for school. I'll be flying out tomorrow just ahead of another snowstorm.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

snow driving in NY


Kitty and I braved the ongoing winter to get the makings for a spaghetti dinner tonight.

 I always loved driving in the snow, especially when I had a '71 VW Super Beetle convertible; there was no stopping me.

Monday, February 24, 2014

All that's good


First thing this morning my sister took me to a crack house...oh, you know what I mean. Everywhere you turn, things to delight the senses and spark the creative juices.

A Stitch In Time
Needlepoint & Knitting Yarns 
276 Greenwood Ave,
Bethel, CT 06801

Fibers, knitting, needlepoint, finishing, custom work, accessories and much more.

Eva Donnelly, proprietress.
http://www.astitchintimect.com


flyover

I looked up from my book just in time to see this, which is NOT my photo, because I was sitting there grinning like an idiot at the spectacle. It was really much better than this picture - much lower and closer and I could see the green spike of the Statue of Liberty just to the left out of this frame.

This is the LaGuardia Airport approach to NYC on American Airlines. I've been flying into White Plains for some many years that I had forgotten how amazing NYC looks from the air.  Here in the suburbs an hour north, there is still a lot of snow on the ground. There won't be any time for a visit to the city this trip, but I will make time in the near future.  It's been too long.
(Reuters/Gary Herschorn)

Saturday, February 22, 2014

money laundering

That's right. You read it here. A new low in procrastination activities - someone call the Guiness book of records!

I'm supposed to be packing for NY but packing must always (in my house anyway) be preceded by a paroxysm of laundering the stuff that's been hanging around waiting it's turn.

I started obsessing about a misplaced wheat penny that Jake gave me last week and I peeked into the half full change pot that I keep on top of the dryer. Tips for the maid are always clanking around in there trying to drive me nuts.

I stirred the coins on top with a finger and was appalled to find that SOMEONE dropped a Jolly Rancher in there which melted and half of the coins were stuck together with sugary goo. <sigh> Yes, I washed them and will pick through them half heartedly for that wheat penny which is most probably in the desk drawer with other keepsakes.  I tell myself it was Ant Defense but I know the truth.

Friday, February 21, 2014

dreams afoot

I'm starting to imagine the kind of things I'll be working on at ACA.  This piece is six by twelve feet.. There will be some color too, but I wanted to stop here with just an impression.

I'm one of those artists who do not keep a sketch book. I rarely even doodle because I've found that once I've put a thought on paper, there it stays. I could challenge that, of course, but I woke up with this in my head and needed to keep it. The ones that come in dreams need to be attended to closely. All the designs I've been working on lately have fit within a seven inch circle.

Time to break out.

A question for my readers who dye their own cloth with Procion MX... Which is your favorite black and why?

Thursday, February 20, 2014

satisfied

These little projects are divided into three very separate parts. The design of the of the art itself (there is a secret around that part which I'll reveal in time).

Then comes the search for the text which mostly comes from listening to music which is ongoing and finally, the technical execution of the layout and stitching of the words.

Picking out letters on this one injured the base cloth so I excised the art and reset it onto a new piece of damask and started over. It's available here.

Here's the inspiration. I like the film rendition better than Buddy Holly's version.


Monday, February 17, 2014

the comfort of close focus


These two kept me occupied through a difficult weekend but I was daydreaming of larger work..arms thrown wide work, and making a list.

This is the Heart of Rock & Roll #1...yeah, there will be others.



I'm not happy with the way the text turned out on this one so I've digitally removed it here so I won't throw out the baby with the bathwater. I'll take the time to pick out the text and start it over.    "True Love Ways"

Sunday, February 16, 2014

B&W redux



Kline, Franz
American
1910-1962
Orange Outline
1955
Oil on paperboard mounted on canvas
38 x 40 in. more


I ran across this as part of a fashion shoot in the Sunday NY Times Style magazine this morning. I'm sure I must have seen it while I was in school in NY. Burnt somewhere in memory.



It reminded me that I'm not really finished with the Karma series.  I need to find a way to let the cloth be as spontaneous and energetic as this paint. I'm flat out of serious black cloth so I'll be researching black dyes  to take with me to ACA.

Karma I      27x36

Saturday, February 15, 2014

blankie practice

I've got to be about it now that the studio is 90% in order. Cleaned and oiled Big J and started building an overdue baby blanket for friends of the family.

That's actual sunshine pouring out across the lawn and I have to stop what I'm doing and get outside and get some of it. I think I have a deficiency!

There were no bids in the latest silent auction. I thought I might feel set back or humbled somehow. I don't. Later today I'll move "Winter Behind Us"  into the store..

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Winter Behind Us?



Just a reminder, midnight tomorrow night the bidding will be closed on

"Winter Behind Us"

(pray it's so!)

details here

or email me if you have questions.

pull up! pull up!

Unlike many others, we still have power, heat, water, food and we are safe and comfortable.

Time to shake it off and get busy before cabin fever and the blues get the best of me again. I won't find the sun laying on the floor with my eyes closed.

After I put in a little OT I'm moving the heater into the studio and spending the day in there, make some order and think about what I want to be working on when I am away at FOF14. There will be cloth and it would be a shame to not take advantage of the fabulous wet studio there, so there WILL be dyes, resists and more.

L'Heure Bleue

ice storm 2.12.14
So very appropriate to my mood for most of the day. Many thanks to those who helped me row through rough waters today.

A word of advice to all you young lovers out there. Turn off the electronic love lights and make it real. Sit down with pen and paper and turn your hearts inside out to each other. Share your worries, your passion, your hopes and dreams. Write them down. Sign them. Date them and most of all, send them.

 If you are very lucky, many years from now one of you  will find a box inside a box and take out a forgotten packet of letters and you will sit down and read them to each other over tea or coffee and you'll  marvel at that passion, the humor, and the wild, young love all over again...together.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

sweet fantasy




here's the reality








    but I have no trouble closing my eyes and being here

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

storm watch

We are tuckered out and hunkered down. Another Snowmageddon is bearing down on the vicinity but it's going to be ice this time and the potential for losing power is great which is worrisome because we keep cosy here with little room sized electric heaters. We cook with gas here but I no longer have a stove top coffee pot. I wonder if they still sell those squatty pyrex ones where you could watch the miracle unfold.

The Badges are all mounted and signed..many thanks to the collectors who snapped them up...there are more in the pipe if the lights stay on.

This writer is mentally wrung out. The last rewrite (I swear) was finished this morning. I feel like I've been on a trip which is a very inside joke. So, for restoration (even if the power goes) there are three new books, "The Glass Castle" by Jeanette Walls, "the Secret History" by Donna Tartt and "Dear Life" by Alice Munro. I pulled a new tarot card too, just for good measure.

Sunday, February 09, 2014

letting the badges go




Taking some time this morning to post the badges on the "buy art" page...

This one, all of them, will be stitched to a plain white 8x11 canvas.

I'm keeping "Breakdown" for myself.

 Sometimes, once these things are finished, I'm startled at how they can be both extremely personal and completely universal. I guess love is just like that.

Friday, February 07, 2014

writers write

I caught a break early morning. Voodoo decided to camp out in the chair instead of my lap which left me free to work at the computer without feline interference.

I pulled up the bones and hair of a short story I have been working on and all of a sudden it was after noon and eight pages were crying out for a rewrite.

I can't wait to paint this room stark, blinding white.

Faithful readers have asked if and when the badges will go on sale.
Yes, I hope to post the ones that will be for sale on the "buy art..."  page..tomorrow if the sun cooperates with this photographer.

Thursday, February 06, 2014

Heart of Life




Pain throws your heart to the ground Love turns the whole thing around 
No it won't all go the way it should But I know the heart of life is good


John Mayer

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

new silent auction

"Winter Behind Us"      2011
I picked this one "in hope" for much of the country..time will pass and so will winter. Hand appliqued and embroidered vintage hand dyed cloth, 11"x 14", faced and ready for framing.

 I will be taking silent bids via email (deborah@lacativa.com) until midnight on Valentine's Day 2.14.13

Please put  "BID" in the subject line and tell me if you want to be notified if you are outbid.

The opening bid is $81.39  US. Shipping included in the US. (International bidders are welcome but the cost of shipping will be determined at the time of sale and added to the winning bid)

Good Luck!

Tuesday, February 04, 2014

the valentine post




I wrote about these earlier today, but accidentally posted it here  which is where it really belonged in the first place. Funny how that will happen.

more gifts from the universe

I've been gifted a full scholarship to Focus on Fiber 14, an artists retreat at the beautiful Atlantic Center for the Arts  in New Smyrna Beach, FL.

The last time I was there was 2007 and I worked like the devil was chasing me from can't see to half past dark, almost every day I was there, but came away with dyed cloth that became the foundation of the majority of my larger pieces.

My way with cloth has changed a lot since then and since I wasn't anticipating attending, I still don't know what I will be working on; could be just my tan and my improv skills - there is always a crying need for camp fools.

There's plenty of time for me to think about it and bank some bail money..FOF14 once again co-incides with Daytona's Bike Week which always makes for interesting fun on the local highways. Mary McBride tells me there are a few openings in both the retreat and the workshops  so don't drag your feet if you were half planning on going. There will be art, good times and noodle salad!

Saturday, February 01, 2014

Romance is a slow dance


I've recently been given a great gift..a chance to travel, be away for a bit and be around some fabulous artists and amazing friends. Details when I know more and can share.

This series is clarifying itself to me. I'll have to back up and give credit to all the musicians one by one.


Romance is a slow dance    by Tim O'Brien