handstories

Swatches

    I’m working on a new book of blue. There are piles of blue scraps all over the table. It’s kind of like working in an ocean.

    We celebrated 41 years yesterday. Who would’ve ever thought?!

    I found this picture in my phone yesterday.  No idea when or where?  We spent time last night trying to figure it out… his glasses, the mustache, and I’m still wearing a retainer… 1987-89?

    K went to New York with his sister last week.  Jokingly, I told him to visit a fabric store.  He took me seriously and off they went to the garment district. Walking into the first door and completely overwhelmed, he noticed the swatches hanging off of the bolts. He asked the man if he could buy a few of them?  No.

    Three stores later, they were handed scissors!

    What a fun surprise!  (Acorn from Central Park.)

    Painting has been in swatches too. Choosing a red, blue, and yellow and seeing how many different colors I can make from them. This time it was pinkest pink, golden, and indigo (first three top left).

    There are so many things started…

    Happily, time and things keep on going...  (On our anniversary road trip last year, at the spot where two teenagers had their first kiss in the spring of 1980.)

Birds

    Begun at the beach.

    Often stitching feels like drawing, but these birds are more of a sketching process. Each stitch shaping the figure. They take time and consideration, along with some erasing (unstitching).  The surprise of them, the not knowing how they will look in the end, is fun. And I really like the couple of dark marks in the reddish cloth (dyed by Deb) and how they give the faint suggestion of birds coming through a portal. 

    And another bird in process, bigger (~8 x 6 in.), inspired by collage lessons in Carla Sonheim’s Creative Lab class.

    Both pieces traveled to the Atheneum down at Pike's Market today.  A friend and I wrote and stitched the day away looking out over Elliot Bay. 

    Much more to do here- around the bird and within.

Slowly...

    “Slowly, Deeply, Breathing it All In”

    We went through the trees to the Oregon coast last weekend…

    Great weather, a place with a beautiful view, and stitching on the small deck while watching the waves.

    Morning and late afternoon walks every day.

    And the sunsets…

    Life has definitely taken a turn toward relaxing.  Suddenly time doesn’t feel limitless anymore. I find myself being more thoughtful with how it’s spent. Trying to let go of the stress and urgency that most of life has been filled with.

    


    Even stitching has slowed some, making more time for reading, exercising, etc.  These are going into the shop today.  I have a routine of cleaning up the worktable after each shop update. It’s been a couple of months since the last one, so it’s very long overdue. Things are slip-sliding on top of each other and/or onto the floor constantly.  Maybe I should be a little less relaxed about some things?

Some recent things

    “Somewhere”

    “Hill & Moon Share Their Love of the Sky”

    Deb's dyeing made for a perfect sky and the patchwork scrap for the earth came from Jude, and it seems so full of story.

    I dropped the thread onto the piece and liked where it landed. It wasn’t until after I had stitched it that I saw the profile, which I also really liked. Especially the bird for an eye.

    “Unearthed”

    Working with the white muslin has been great. There’s a feeling of spaciousness in it that I’m really loving.

    Tomorrow, there is a regular check up with a new doctor. It’s been eight years.  There's sure to be a list of things that I should do more of and some things that should happen less frequently. Perhaps I will begin the meeting with a directive of her only being allowed to tell me two negative things?  The anxiety about the appointment has me leaning heavily into the "less of" side. I should probably talk to her about anxiety too.  Probably I won't need to say a word. Ha.

    Maybe I should get out some more white cloth?

She…

    The booklet that I mentioned last week. I suppose most of the things that I make our self talk. Everything is everything.
    Here is a link to the video. 

 

Friendly Ghosts

    "Floating into Being"

    A happy accident led to a lovely reunion. A couple of weeks ago, I sent a text by speaking rather than typing and hit send before realizing it was going to someone whose name sounded very similar. This someone was a classmate in those painting classes at the local college years ago.  One text led to another, until the two of us, along with a third friend from the classes, were sitting down for lunch this weekend.

    Not having seen either of them for more than five years, it was fascinating to me that my usual social anxieties didn’t kick in (for the most part). I rarely go back in time to meet up with people. It’s usually not about the person from the past, rather more of a fear of running into old, unwelcomed ghosts of myself.

    But this time, there was calm. Near the end of our time together, I told them so, realizing that being with them took me back to those calm, peaceful hours of painting in that classroom. I had forgotten how much I loved being there. 

    "Spells for Well-Being"

    In the Studio...  These two, they are like an old married couple, how they check in with, keep track of, and bicker with each other. And then there are moments like this, when he brought his drawing to show her, and she gave him sincere admiration.  It’s such a gift to be there.

    The Studio has moved to a new location (much further away, challenging my driving anxiety).  A new big room that is all their own, with no need to take down tables, pack everything away, etc. at the end of the day so that another class can come in afterwards. Happily, the artists all seem at peace with this shift.  

    "Into the Unknown"

    Working in the bigness of this (13 1/2 inches square), felt very good.  (With thanks to Jude, Deb, and Tina for their generous sharing in this piece and/or those above.)

    There is also a new book to share.  I will try to put it here in a couple of days.  Typepad was a struggle today. 

Thinking

    As usual, I’m all over the place. Stitching here…

    Practicing birds…

    A few words…

    Another ship…


    And today, thinking about practice and process…

   It may not look like it, but it's a purposeful experiment. 

   Somewhere inside of connection and story.

Start where you are.

        This place has become forlorn, sorry.  It took a while to get the photos to load today.  I'm also sorry to say that Instagram is so much easier.  I'm Here if you care to keep track over there.

        Things are good. Busy.  Trying to move towards healthier feels like a part-time job.  Walking or swimming every weekday morning takes up five to eight hours a week- a workday.  I do feel better.

    I'm all over the place with making.  Stitching moons, trees, boats, etc... and a few larger pieces.  Looking through unfinished things, I found these...  (Sorry for the bad photos.)

    I think they were meant to be pages.  Made a few more...

    Turned them into a booklet.  You can see it Here.  Remember that small series of books that I made ten (?) years ago?

    Books also happened at the Studio this week.  Every week, artist Brette looks for whatever is new and shiny.  This week it was pretty papers and a hold punch (I should write about the week she discovered a small set of old rusty carving tools. That took some fancy dancing with words to get away from her!). 

    She made a tiny book.

    And gifted it to me.  She rarely keeps things.  It's all about the process.

    The beginning of a new book.

    There are other things going on too, including more time reading, knitting, staring into space, and rearranging agates.

    I'd like to say that I'm going to do better here, but who knows? 

On the brink with pink

    Recently, I wrote a friend about feeling on the brink, and that I didn’t know why, but making a boat always seems to help. And it did.

Actually, I made two boats.

    Another “I don’t know why…“ is the reason that there is so much pink in recent pieces?  This one was actually started a month or so ago and put aside when I got stuck. There was a lot of heavy stitching in it. I finally got out of my own way, took out the stitches, and replaced them with so many tiny ones- to hold it together and echo the beautiful dyeing by Jude (moon) and Deb (pink fabrics). 

    Another of Jude‘s moons and Deb’s threads- a kind of remembering of how much small spaces can hold.

    July 1st, a third boat... without words. 


    Today’s.  I wanted a pink house from the get-go, and one thing led to another. There were a lot of thoughts about process.  Wondering if it was a kind of doodling- adding something here, there… But I think it’s more connected to writing for me. Starting with a “Once upon a time…” followed by the “and's…”

    Whatever it is, it feels good today.

Gatherings

    Moon’s graduation weekend was very swell- time with Moon and girlfriend, an unplanned visit with Deb, and a day in Vancouver, BC.

    This one made a while, looking at a fancy box of matches.

    When does the group of something become a collection?  I tried finding the collective noun for matchboxes.  Nothing.  Matches are a book or a box.  Boxes are a stack.  So maybe a stack of books?  A book of stacks?  A stack of boxes?

    Tried flowers.

    Went back to boats.

    And this was interesting to do. Using Jude's stacked stitches I filled in a mosaic printed cloth from Maiwa’s with shades of green, Deb’s threads, and a few tiny scraps. Tension is an issue for me. It was good to practice, practice, practice.

    “Magic Mountain”

    And then to relax, a small simple peace wish made with of more of Jude’s techniques- Seemingly Seams and Glue stitch. Both feel like magic tricks.

    It was left in a neighborhood Free Little Art Gallery while out for a walk this morning. I wonder where it will go next?