Yesterday I rode the bus home and found myself wondering why I don’t more often. The group conversation in the front end of the bus was easily as entertaining and informative as most Radiolab, or This American Life podcasts I listen to. As my husband insightfully declared, that IS this American life!
Before our bus even pulled out from the downtown station a lively heated debate about where to find Eugene’s best burger was underway. Two riders were devoted fans of Five Guys, two others were equally enthusiastic about their hatred of the place, cardboard burgers, raw potato-tasting greasy fries... In the end it was said that Cornucopia made Eugene’s best burger. All agreed, though interestingly, no one conversing had ever actually eaten one of their burgers. (I was strictly an eavesdropper at this point.) The conversation briefly unravelled into a series of lip smacks and mmming sounds after someone mentioned California’s In and Out Burger.
New topic, superior food and weather of California. Two women, both hailing from CA, together launched into a sort of spoken word Eugene slam. Each comparison was followed up (like the chorus in a song) with “I hate it here, I hate it here, me too!”. You can imagine it, California was oranges, tanned thighs, coffee carts, and clean cars. Eugene was filthy dreads, moldy closets, grass seed pollen, and no where close enough to Disney Land. I couldn’t help myself, as I got off the bus, I turned and said in the most helpful tone I could muster, “Maybe you should move”. Both women responded emphatically, “We want to!”. Maybe I planted a seed.
I love sharing
These past few weeks I’ve had opportunity to talk about my art with several college classes. After each of these experiences I am a silk kite with no tether, soaring, twirling, grinning (not typical kite behavior, but still), feeling generally very high.
I know this is the human condition. We all love getting attention, but there is something else there too. I am invigorated by the realization that others are excited by the same things that thrill me. That moment of unity, when a stranger conveys their own enthusiasm about something I am obviously over the moon about, (writing words with my sewing machine perhaps, or melting polyester fabric with a hair dryer) is as charged and vibrant for me as speeding down a ski run or making the peek on a hike.
me and my dolly
Yesterday evening I was on a panel of four artists asked to speak about our careers in an “Art Survival Skills” course. I brought this admittedly odd deer figure (freshly completed work) as a bit of show and tell.
The panelist were Robert Canaga, gallery owner and Eugene arts community icon; David Funk, co-owner of a local marketing agency Bell + Funk (which I did just google and liked what I saw); Jon Cruson, who was making art and selling it before I was born; and me, with my deer dolly of course. I was clearly the inexperienced one of the bunch. Yes I was humbled, intimidated, awed, and invigorated. These three artists with their wildly different dispositions and divergent art career paths, were remarkably similar in a few important ways. They each conveyed their absolute determination to be artists, they each revealed a general willingness to embrace unconventional opportunities, and they were productive people (drawing, painting, experimenting, generating art). I can get behind all that. Look out world, I’m goin’ in, with or without the deer dolly!
for those of you wondering
Thursday’s mystery quilt close-up..... A fish.
my punch card
It is an odd feeling recognizing that the entirety of my work day is captured in the above photograph. Granted, it wasn’t a pedal to the metal sort of day. There was sunshine: I walked in it, sat and sewed and spoke with friends in it, dallied at the mailbox, chatted with the neighbor. But still, I sewed diligently and this is the little plot of textured surface I created.
I used to get Ranger Rick magazine as a kid. The back cover always had a selection of extreme close up photographs which readers were encouraged to guess at. What plant or animal are you looking at? Go ahead, make a guess.
I just hung work
At Territorial Vineyards tasting room on 3rd and Adams. It will be there through the month of March. Bring your honey, bring a pal, have a glass of wine, have a look around.
nervous me
I give my artist talk at LCC in one hour. You think I’d jump at the chance to talk about myself for a full 90 minutes, but really, I’ve been a bundle of nerves about it all morning. Last night I dreamt I decided to wear a monkey suit for the presentation. I couldn’t find the tail so I was in the process of hooking a black umbrella to my rear end when Josh woke me up. Hopefully things will play out better than that possible scenario.