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More cyanotype playing.
Some hauntings lately. Mostly in a good.
Merriam-Webster: "Haunting: visitation or inhabitation by a ghost. Having qualities (such as sadness or beauty) that linger in the memory : not easily forgotten."
Auditioning for the next moon cabin block. This one with a special center dyed by Deb.
"The Fullness of Light"
"The Poignancy of Light & Time"
So many swirls lately. I love their scribbling-feel. New thoughts about them came while doodling along in a Carla Sonheim zoom class. She began calling out kinds of lines to draw with- straight, round, etc. Which led to thinking of different ways to draw trees...
They look simple, but I felt my mind opening.
Everything really does inform everything.
The pin bowl has been filling up with things that float across the table- including flower petals, beads and crystals. After finishing this piece ("Connections in Light"), they were strung together and played with in the sunshine. I see now that this photo isn't focused. Letting that go...
Another beautiful sunset from Blue in Santiago.
Two posts in a row... I think three will make it an official roll.
Another pretty sunset with friends on a dock in Seattle.
We dined on Steph's tofu (really squish the water out of the tofu, and cook it until it's really brown (much longer than the recipe in my old stove), Emerald salad, olives, bread, Beecher's cheese, blueberries, spicy sesame capellini, rose, and cookies.
There is too much that I want to hold onto here, for remembering. To put it all in one post is just too much. So, I do nothing. Time slips, but still, I want to try. I don't know why. Anyhow, I'm going to try. Smaller bites.
Starting at the beginning of this week, but in reverse...
The cloth beginning above was stitched on Sunday, on the way home from a fun weekend in Bellingham. Stuck in traffic (thank you, Taylor Swift), I pulled out the handful of scraps that had been grabbed off the table on the way out of the house Saturday morning and puzzled them together. (Not too shabby for not wearing reading glasses, because it was too bright not to wear sunglasses.) Having to find a way to make random fabrics work together is a fun exercise now and then. Haven't touched it since.
Before the freeway crawl, there was a wonderful relaxing morning on Deb's porch (after petting two of the friendliest cats in the world). There was talking and talking, looking at all of her explorations with pigments, and giving her eggshells a crush. That porch is the best science lab that I've ever been to!
The day before was spent with Moon and his girlfriend (I.), in honor of his twenty-first birthday! (They are still in Bellingham, taking summer classes, and Moon is working on an internship researching space ethics.) He had asked us to come a while ago, to join him in a round of bar hopping. I couldn't believe he wanted to spend this particular birthday with his parents. "That's wonderful and weird!" I told him.
"I know!" he said.
We lunched, book shopped, walked along the waterfront, took a nap, strolled through campus, dined, and then decided to miniature golf at the college hangout across the street from his apartment. The plan was to golf before saying goodbye to I. (who won't be legal for a few months).
After the game (I got the only hole-in-one and won!), he decided to have his first drink there, so I. could be there. He ordered a sampler flight of local beers and experienced his first carding. We talked, took photos, and Moon went over to the game shelf and found Sorry, a family favorite. We all sipped, played (he won), and had a swell time. At which point he announced that it had been a good birthday, he was tired, and he was calling it a day.
Such a reasonable boy man!
Back to the present... Propped up on the watering can, to support the heavy drooping branch, with the blue potted plant placed to protect it from folks walking by and badly flung newspapers... I had just about given up hope, but today...
Hooray!
Started with a sienna sun print, with a bit of blue cyanotype, too. (Terrible at keeping track of processes, would make a terrible scientist.)
Blue's photos from Chile are wonderful to see.
These were taken on a day hike to Laguna Caren. He has become part of a group of young people from all over the world, who are also tutoring. They get together a few times a week- Sunday picnics, pancake party, Christmas dinner in June, bus trips to the beach and mountains... They find ways to have fun on next to nothing budgets, scrimping by together on adventure after adventure. All of this a far cry from the last couple of years that he spent mostly alone in Michigan during the pandemic. He sends photos of the gatherings and group shots with the words, "Friends!" underneath. So happy to see and hear how good he's doing.
This one is about home and memories.
Boats are back in the daily paintings.
A couple of evenings ago on a friend's sailboat, just sitting at the dock watching the sunset. There was an otter and herons, too.
Last night, with the same friend at Urgent Care (Or judging from the speed of service...semi-urgent care. We left at 9 and were home in bed at 2). Fortunately, antibiotics were the solution, nothing more serious. We passed the hours chatting, looking up corny jokes, I repeated past behavior by stitching an "x" onto her sheet again, and taking selfies because, "These are the times of our lives!"
Almost.
She keeps reaching, almost as long as my arm.
Things swirl along.
There are so many things with needles in them. It's dangerous to reach around on my table.
There are lots of ways to say "I'm working" without really getting anywhere. This was a half-start of sorting out the thread nest. I showed a photo of the basket of tangles and knots to a friend. "How did that happen?!" she asked. After explaining how I work, and that there are three other baskets of chaos, she just stared wide-eyed at me. "Do you need more corks?" she asked.
"Fortunately or unfortunately, no," I replied.
I've been experimenting with cyanotypes the last two days. Playing really is good for the spirit.
This boot (can you see that it's a boot?), with its cactus began in the late 70's. My uncle came home after four years of being stationed in Germany with the Army. Grandma took his boot and planted the cactus in it. Proclaiming that it would keep him from ever being able to leave again, she put it next to her trailer steps. I always enjoyed seeing it when visiting her, so when she died, I took it.
It has been at the foot of our front steps growing and multiplying for the last thirty-plus years. The toe of the boot is pretty much gone, it's rooted through its rotting sole into the grass, and a few sprouts have escaped the boot all together. It just goes along with no interference from me.
But THEN, two weeks ago, overnight... that growth/branch/arm on the upper left. Nothing like this has ever happened in all of its forty-something years.
Each day it reaches a little further, stretching thinner.
SOMETHING is going to happen.
Small things can make for such a difference in the days.
