blessed hump day off

I love my day off.
The morning was given over to studio business - no art making but two Big Deals that I will write about as soon as there is more information.

I met my future daughter-in-law for lunch and handed over my contact list for the wedding. We only had a scant hour so I came prepared with a list of questions..check, check and check.
Missy is super organized which has to help minimize the stress. I've been tasked with making a set of garters in teal and black! I think I can handle it.



Home in time to enjoy the pool before the skies clouded over in preparation for the afternoon/evening weather event.

We beat it out the door for the trivia joint just ahead of a wicked thunderstorm. Pulled a few answers out of our hats (what the heck is a pollux) and came in second.



While I was looking for something else, this image popped into my brain. Dyepainted at my last session at EB's studio, I took a picture but forgot to set the colors with soda ash. When it came out of the washing machine, it was gone.  I may take a shot or two at recreating it when I have the next dyefest.

 

taking drastic measures, gleefully

The weather will drive you crazy if you let it. The sun is blazing down one minute and the next thunder rolls and smart people get out of the pool. 

Yesterday I tackled a mountain of hand dyes that had been heaped on the ironing table and after everything was folded and sorted I found an excess of INSIPID so  I took  a bunch of the worst offenders out to the dyedeck, doused them with vibrance and forgot about it all until this morning when I hatched these out. 

I've also been thinking about how to go about deepening the background of the Firmament now that it's scattered with stars and other heavenly bodies. Paint? Not. What I may wind up doing is treating each of the embroidered stars with hot soy wax and the submerge the entire piece in a deeper blue/violet dye bath.

That drastic step got me thinking about taking a similar approach  with one or two of my oldest pieces back when I was doing whole cloth screaming; treating a finished piece as if it was only half way there.

Bold? Blasphemous?  Time will tell...

It's not that I don't love you baby.
Let's just say you got a lot of untapped potential...

"Clubbin'"
2007

peer into the past

My scanner is back in service and I've tackled the job of scanning a small clutch of family photos from the late 30's and early 40's.

My mother left them with me on her last visit about ten years ago. The thing is, I have no clue as to who most of the people are. I suspect, by descriptions, the woman on the right is my maternal grandmother, Antonina Catalano Mercurio.  I never met her. No clue about the other two folks. I met the grandpa once when I was about 8 and do not remember his face.

Any RI or MA cousins who may have a clue (and they are legion) get in touch and I will link you to the archive of photos.

Some of the pictures are lovely










and a few will provoke nightmares!

some Saturday eyecandy

Some Saturday Eyecandy...first Clara Fialho...I love her work.

Australian painter, Tim Maguire

Joseph Bellacera

unwelcome guest

baby copperhead

After a week of daily thunderstorms the sun broke through midday and I was able to get in a swim which was mostly pool cleaning.

Just as I reached up onto  the deck for my float I noticed this little bugger hunkered down under it.

I knew him for the dangerous character he was immediately but, at only a foot long, no great threat if respected.

 With Colin's help I caught him in the pool net and we let him go over the fence into the woods where he should conduct his snakely business down by the creek.