juicy days

Yesterday was a fine day in the mines! They's choking at Chucky's, puking at PF's and boffing in the bathrooms at El Toadies. (The names are all changed to protect the guilty, of course) . I may never eat out again! All this goes on and on and I get to be the electronic priestess listening, nodding, murmuring agreements and keying it all into the void and all the while struggling to keep a straight face and not bust out howling with laughter. I'm sorry but tales of guests stabbing one another with forks for dibs on the waitress is right up there with Craig Ferguson's best stuff. If you can stay up that late, you deserve giggle fits. I kept my self-promise to wallow more in the music and wore my Ipod headphones on the drive over to the office (arrest me) and got a great dose of Box Scaggs and John Mayer, both live. Add a dash of Joni Mitchell and for dessert, some Sting. Music like that makes me miss a longer commute. Things were slow when I got there - the river of Whining was running slow as sludge so I was able to get a new small piece of hand work underway and it's developing in a very satisfying way. If you've ever worked in a cube farm you know how it can be very self-contained and isolating but I've chosen a seat in a corner lot that no one else seems to want, the southern light filters through pines and a wall of glass over my right shoulder. It's not like working in a dungeon when I can sit there. It's interesting working on a piece when you are sitting on the corner of Main and Exit. Folks pass by, watch for a moment. Not the place or time for discussion but I can tell they are wondering what I am up to. With a tip of my pointy hat, I'll call it "jude scratchin'#1". Until I can work arms thrown wide again, I'll have this personal investigation into the nature of cloth, the grid, of course, and the spaces left where the warp and weft do their dance. So's not to rush a good thing, I set it aside at the stall point and started a new book."The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy that appears to have been written with the artist's eye in mind. Just wonderful visuals at every turn and I've hardly gotten to know the players. This day has been a feast for the senses. Not bad for a cube rat.

camera woes

There was a lovely box of inspiration on the doorstep this morning including some lightweight cottons bound for the dyepots as soon as it gets warm enough. I was inspired to root around in the studio and start rounding up everything and anything that will take color and found quite a pile! Now all I have to do is grind my teeth and wait a month or two. I mounted "Alligator Dream #1" on a 9"x12" canvas and finally got this one trued up and stitched down tight but spent two wasted sessions trying to get it and few others photographed. I'm going to take my CanonA95 someplace and have it cleaned or whatever can be done for an aging and well-used digital camera that is just not doing what it used to do. I wasted another hour online looking at what's new and reasonably price in the way of digital cameras but looks like I'll have to go back to school to catch up on all the latest jargon since '05 when I bought the one I've got now. All suggestions, reviews and wisdom are welcome.

brewing

With the clock ticking I was able to cobble together this little flag yesterday. Must be the anticipation of the weekend spurring me on. There were lulls between calls last night and some notions actually made it into the sketchbook. I'll have to force myself to drag them out of it this time. Good ideas have been few and far between for me lately. Winter blahs without any snow or ice are insidious. One thing I'm sure of...I have to bring music back into the studio. TV is beginning to sicken me. In the break room at my job there is a set that seems locked onto CNN with the volume set at impending disaster level. There seems to be no relief from the perfect idiocy of most of the human race. I am absolutely sure that good, purposeful people everywhere who are working to help or make a difference come home from work, kick off their shoes and yell "you STUPID @!*&$!!" at the ceiling. Then, I hope they can have a dish of ice cream, smile and get a good night's rest before starting all over again the next day. ADDENDUM ((beeep)) " Thank you for calling the Common Sense Hotline. I am not a doctor or a lawyer but I wasn't born yesteday and I have been paying attention...what is your issue?"

new cards

I finally took the time and money to order some new business cards. Graphic design is not like riding a bicycle. If the analogy was true, I'd be dead in the street about now. I decided I wanted more art and less information and this snip from "Up on Wheels" and all of "Hopped Up" remind me what I like best about what I do with fabric dye and paint.

Yes! Spring!

Can't you just hear him complaining about my dirty, empty birdbath? ( A word of warning about the sound link above - two of my cats rushed the monitor and speakers!) This charming fellow is one of Nellie Durand's fabulous creations. And for a little more delight for your day, try here: http://www.adobecards.com/ Thank you, Tristan!

Spring?

What a great combination - the Ace of Cups and a nearly full moon. After what seems like weeks in the deep freeze, the house is open to a blazing sunny day that may see 65 degrees. Eastern Bluebirds are everywhere here, on their way to someplace else but chowing down on whatever they can find while they are here. I stitched on this through the first four new episodes of LOST yesterday. Finally I've starting to cast about for a new direction for some large work. Makes you wonder if being able to stand up straight without shivering figures into creative output. Supplies are low and I'll have to scrounge for stuff but what else is new in the life of an artist? I'll bet batting is 50% off in JoAnns any minute now. And Jinx know what to do with a scrap of batting in a sunny patch on the sewing table.

handwork

A little hand music maybe but I doubt there will be time tonight. We suddenly busy and I'm in the middle of two good books. Reviews when I get a minute. Hail Friday! Last night I found out that I can sign up for Weeks off from work (without pay of course) but still... how civilized!

Scootch closer and hunker down to

"Tales From the Cube-a-torium" ...."Your race please?..... ...What?..... 5K, 10K?....What ? training? ...No, no. I mean, who are your people? I mean.... ...The Dinwiddies of East Toadholler?? No, no I mean your ETHNICITY. ...No, no, I don't need to know about your bedroom doings, I need your ETHNICITY... you know, what COLOR you are. " ....No Ma'am, Summer is not an option here. Are you white? ....Ma'am I'm sorry about the tanning salon incident but can we... ....No ma'am "drowned China man" is not on the list. Are you Caucasian? ....No, not your religious persuasion, I don't need to know about pagan rites and such, I just need to know if you are African American, Hispanic, white, brown ...you know, RACE? ....thank you Ma'am. I'll include your suggestion to the people who write the questions. No, Ma'am. I don't think it's unreasonable to offer Extraterrestrial as an option but for right now...." OK....so it was funnier in person and late at night. Try this

The Bloody Shoe & The Quilter's Prayer

For lack of anything artistic to report this morning, I'm going with News of the Weird. Some time ago I posted this photo-shopped image of a shoe. I bought them online and sadly, the fit was wrong for me to the point of pain but it wasn't quite this bad.

Nothing like a little drama and blood to draw a crowd. There's a huge group of folks out there who seem drawn to this picture like it was an image of the Virgin Mary on a Dorito. Go figger. Have a ball guys!

And the runner up in the hit parade? My Quilter's Prayer, which, btw, didn't prevent this particular piece of hand dyed cotton from winding up in the recycle bin in my studio. Bits of it are in pieces all over the place. As a whole piece, the prayer failed it but I have often snatched up a chunk, cut off what was needed and given thanks.

Cold 'Lanta

It's sixteen whole degrees outside and not a whole lot warmer in the house. Even the furred folk are happier under the covers. To provoke Spring, I've started the handwork on my latest garden quilt. At the new job we don't have assigned seats so, gypsy style, you squat where you can when you get there. Yesterday I had a bad chair, a flicker-y monitor and bad lighting so hand work was out of the question. Pray for a window seat today.