We started our day with a funeral. It was the backyard variety, a burial for Evenstar, one of the newer members of our chicken flock. Nonetheless, death is still shockingly final. We found her sick last night, a shadow on the lawn. I was skittish and a bit freaked out about picking up her hunched form in the near darkness. I think I was afraid of finding gruesome damage. My 10 year old, in her gentle certain manner, reached for her unhesitatingly. She slowly stretched each wing to check for injury, felt Evenstar’s belly, and then carried her to the house, all the while murmuring reassurances to the bird. I stood there in the damp grass for just a moment, awed by my daughter’s calm compassion.
pencil to paper
I am sketching women in various introspective situations for a series of small pieces I am making for Guardino Gallery in Portland. I may be skirting dangerously close to Hallmark cards with these, but I am thrilled at how a few drawn lines and well chosen words can potentially open the door to complex and divergent stories. What is this woman worried about? How did she build her boat?
Getting Noticed In The Art World
Here’s a snapshot of some of my competitors, working their marketing magic right here in my own neighborhood! We are born with the skill set it takes to get noticed. But yelling, singing, and jumping up and down somehow seem less appropriate when walking into a gallery interview.
Navigating the world of marketing
I prefer working with a drawing tool or my sewing machine, but so much of making a living as an artist is marketing myself. I am clumsy and confused when it comes to the virtual world. This post is hopefully the final in a long string of unsuccessful efforts to connect this blog to my facebook page. And, here goes....
Dyeing
Dyeing fabric for the ocean series I am in the early phases of creating. I like the splotchy mottled look I got with these fabrics. I applied my dyes directly to the hanging fabrics using squirt bottle and brushes, then rolled them up in plastic and let them sit for 24 hours.
from Lonesome Whistle Farm
These are just four of the incredible varieties of beans my friends grow on their farm. Yesterday we got the opportunity to help with harvest. It was hard, hot work but somehow calming: stoop, pull, toss, stoop, pull, toss, like a mantra to good food. I would like to do another series of these beans on quilted backgrounds. The first four I made I happily sold almost immediately.
