She looked me in the eye!

Two Augusts ago I was backpacking in the Wallowas, moving fast along a flat stretch beside the Minam River, when a big blonde wolf loped across the trail just a few feet in front of me. My mind lept to dog then bounced off it as she turned her head and looked at me, wilder, more self possessed and critical than any dog would be. She was large and her fur was mottled, all the possibilities of blond across her lanky body. I was electrified! I was transformed for a moment into the naked, clawless, slow footed truth of myself.

When we got out of the mountains my encounter was confirmed by a woman at the Blue Banana coffee kiosk who showed me images and data on the Wallowa’s Bear Creek Wolf Pack. I saw her photo and I cannot stop thinking about her. I am slowly creating her image in cloth.

the possible merits of not knowing ahead of time…

I wonder if badger knows the shape of the hole before she begins the digging.

I am curious if bird holds a clear vision of the nest as he starts collecting those first twigs and bits of moss.

I notice in my own work, that lately I begin with very little vision, maybe just a curiosity about a shape or a texture. I think I used to start a piece with grander more fully formed outcomes in mind, but maybe that is a distortion of memory, a hindsight mirage. I recollect though, an agonizing with ideas, a striving and grappling at my mind’s work table that rarely happens these days. I don’t think I’ve gotten any better at finding ideas for what to make, maybe just more comfortable with letting those ideas find me.

A cup of tea

A cup of tea can be an act of love. Filling the kettle, turning on the flame, selecting a variety, opening the tea and inhaling the floral scents, dipping and pouring, stirring and dripping in honey or a squeeze of lemon or a splash of milk. Tea is ceremonial and one completes that ceremony by delivering that steaming, trembling cup, all hot and fragrant, as an offering, a gesture of attention to one you love.

Our Annual Sale

Coming up!

Onions

I just hung work at Morning Glory today. Go have breakfast there. Everything tastes better with onions!

small herd

I’m so proud of these girls! Stop by Morning Glory Cafe sometime this month to meet them in person.

the alchemy of slow

I just finished this one’s outfit. It was a stunningly slow process. Hand stitching each tiny panel, turning it right side out, stitching it onto her small stuffed chest. She waited placidly while I dressed her. I embodied patience, manifest new realms of patience within myself as I worked, a millimeter at a time, executing almost indiscernibly small movements with my needle, making hardly noticeable progress, dwelling at the apex of SLOW.

AI can make beautiful images, compose elegant pros, but can it go slow? Can it mull over many inconsequential things (gophers in top hats, paying taxes, eating popsicles…) while continuing the central work at a plod? What is the alchemy that emerges from this kind of two speed focus, the mind buzzing circles around the measured and deliberate march of the hands?