i need reinforcements

So all week I've been plotting and planning and scheming about all the different ways I would glide into my train wreck of a studio and move a couple things and it would be sparkly clean and functional and inspiring.

As the week drug on, it went from simply reorganizing a few things to rearranging furniture and maybe destashing things on etsy and getting some projects wrapped up.

I was going to be happy and gleeful and fulfilled and the art would pour forth from me like a breath of fresh spring air.

I can feel you all laughing at me right now. (Its not unwarranted.)

Things did not go entirely well. I did manage to move some furniture around but there was so much cursing and growling involved that Dooley actually fled from the room and back downstairs. (I'm not making that up by the way.)

Its in a partially put-back-together-I-must-leave-this-room-before-I-set-it-all-on-fire state right now.

I imagine I will wander back up there to give it more dirty looks before the day is done and put some more things back in place. A couple boxes are being shuffled into the basement so that will make things feel less cluttered.

I'm going to win the battle with the studio. Oh yes I will, oh yes...I will.

fighting the battle against cancer through the power of fiber art

I've enjoyed being a supporter of Virginia Spiegel's Fiberart for a Cause ever since she started it. Even more so after cancer touched my family a few years ago.

This is the last year that Virginia will be fundraising for the American Cancer Society through Fiberart for a Cause (FFAC). The project has donated over $165,000 to the American Cancer Society during the course of the past few years. I am extremely grateful for her immense efforts and selfless sacrifice of all her time and generosity.

One of the biggest fundraisers for FFAC is about to kick off. The 2009Invitational Reverse Auction is nearing. I was incredibly honored to be a part of the 2007 Reverse Auction with my piece, At the Heart of It.

This is how it works: there are three days in which the artwork can be bought. Each day the price of the artwork drops but don't wait until the last day - you could miss your favorite piece! Each artwork is donated by the artist and 100% of the purchase price is donated to the American Cancer Society.

I am excited to pass on the announcement that this year's artwork is available for preview.

All of the artwork and all the minimum donations listed for each day for each artwork are now up on the Reverse Auction's website.

The invited, and generous, artists are:

Natalya Aikens
Gerrie Congdon
Marjorie DeQuincy
Rayna Gillman
Carol Larson
Linda Teddlie Minton
Susie Monday
Judy Coates Perez
Leandra Spangler
Roxane Stoner

On the Reverse Auction artists' pages, read about the artists' materials,techniques and inspiration and see full and detail views of the artwork. This is an incredible line up of talent!

Please join me in making this fifth and final Reverse Auction the best one yet!!!

Call for entries: Blurred Boundaries – Mixed Media Fiber Art

I’m very excited to announce a new exhibit, Blurred Boundaries – Mixed Media Fiber Art.

Juried by Virginia Spiegel, the exhibit focuses on new and inventive artwork created by mixing Fiber Art with other mediums.

The show will run in conjunction with the Fabrications Retreat in Kalamazoo, Michigan from August 31-September 24.

From the exhibit description: The definition of Fiber Art has evolved greatly over the past few years, opening a new range of possibilities to artists working in various disciplines. Fiber artists are incorporating more mediums into the work, creating unique art that reaches across previously defined boundaries. Blurred Boundaries seeks these artworks for a week long exhibition honoring the ingenuity of Mixed Media Fiber Art.

Artwork must have a minimum of 25% fiber content to qualify for the exhibit. 2D and 3D work will be accepted.

In an effort to streamline entries and conserve paper, every aspect of the submission process has been taken digital. The entry form is available as an online form on the website, images will be submitted online through a file transfer service, and entry fees will be paid through paypal.

Please visit the website for full details and guidelines.

Please email Lynn at BlurredBoundaries@earthlink.net if you have any questions.

I hope you will join us in creating an innovative and exciting exhibit!

what the heck is THAT?!

So today started out like every other average tuesday work day. Get up, swear at the alarm clock, drive to work (while grumbling at drivers that think they can drive half asleep while talking on the cell phone and not hit other things), drink a gallon of coffee and go about my most wonderful stimulating schedule of meetings, meetings, and...oh yeah...meetings.

I exited the building in the late afternoon to find a strange thing going on outside....

There was this gigantic blinding thing waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy up in the sky...

Making me hot...

And burning out my eyeballs when I looked right at it....

That my friends, was the sun. In all its 74 degree glory. I drove with the windows down. I looked like a windblown persian cat by the time I got home and I cared not one bit about it. I even stopped to pick up carryout looking like that, complete with the crazy gleam in my eye over the joy that it was warm outside and I no longer needed the 3,456 layers of clothing in order to avoid freezing to death in the matter of a millisecond.

Tomorrow the low will be 32 degrees with rain all day. *sigh*

Clearly living in Michigan is some sort of bizarre test of fortitude.

Where I Stand Sunday

It is the untold portions, smearing blankness across each new minute that causes the uneasiness. Behind me is rooted the shadow of things that can’t be altered, solid and stacked into a firm foundation. But before me there is no map, no telling, no plan. It is the face of uncertainty, bold and brash in its recklessness.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

photographing, archiving and twittering

It’s been a day. I’ll leave it at that.

But there were some fun parts. After I drug myself home from work, I set about pushing around the mess in my studio.

It’s graduated from being cluttered and unruly to resembling a toxic waste dump. I need to clean in there in a big way. And now that our weather is making friends with the 50-degree temperature range, its time to open the windows and change out the air.

My main goal for venturing in there today was to photograph some new work. One I’m going to hide from you because I’m submitting it for a show and I have this weird thing that its bad luck to show it off before you know if its made the cut or not.

But I can show you this:


This is “Vintage”. I made it for Art in Stitches and didn’t have time to take a good photo of it before the show. So I did today. This is one of those pieces I have labeled Stitched Textile Collages. There is just too much of assemblage vibe on it to call it an art quilt.

In order to take pictures today I actually had to strip everything off my design wall. Normally I bungee cord my tripod to my ironing board and shoot down on my work since my habit is to produce small pieces but I ventured (way) outside my comfort zone and made something much larger.

Which meant I had to make a choice on how to photograph it. I could 1) attempt to raise my ironing board high enough so that I could do my normal shooting down thing (in which case I would most likely need a step ladder to reach the camera since I am so stumpy) or 2) I could suck it up and clear off my design wall and hang it there.

Needless to say, we chose self-preservation and went with option 2.

But something strange happened. As soon as all that older work was taken off the design wall, I felt better.

Way better.

In a big way.

I kept thinking it was the cluttered mess in there that was making me avoid it like the plague, but now I’m wondering if it was that wall of unfinished work that was bugging the snot out of me. I need to archive away (aka stuff said object into my UFO box to never see the light of day again in my lifetime) the things I know I will never finish.

Sort of like a spring cleaning of the mind.

Oh, and I don’t know if you are all mind-numbingly sick of me gushing over Dooley but I have to show you this. He usually flees from my camera like I am trying to give him a root canal but he wandered into my studio today while I was taking pictures and I was able to snap this:



I think this is my favorite picture of him so far. (Be sure to click on it and make it big so you can revel in all his cute splendor. Go on. Do it, you know you want to.)

So my plan is to hopefully do a kamikaze cleaning attack on the room that has been my studio in name only for the past month or so. And starting with a blank design wall should be interesting, perhaps it will be a kick start I didn’t even know I needed.

Apparently I also do not have enough of an online presence and have now joined the rank and file of twitter users. If you look on my sidebar you’ll see the status widget for me.

If you look super close you will also notice that there was a two month time gap between my update today and the last one. Why, you ask? Good question.

Because for whatever reason (I was half asleep every time I logged in, the stars were never properly aligned, there was a conspiracy put into motion to defeat me, Dooley did a voodoo dance to prevent one more thing from taking attention away from him), I could not figure out how to use it.

It is painfully easy to use.

*sigh*

But I have unraveled the mysteries of twitter and am finding that there is a huge networking thing going happening there that borders on being viral. So if you are inclined, I can now be found there as well.

Tomorrow will be filled with art stuff. There are a couple of shows I want to enter (also another motivation for the photo taking today) and have some exhibit paperwork to finish up for a show I’m curating.

Should be a pleasant day as these are all things I can do while laying like a slug on the couch (back is hurting again). Laptops are the best things since sliced bread.

decompression

When it rains it pours.

Literally and figuratively.

Not only is Michigan being drowned at the moment (the rivers I drive by on my way to work are dangerously close to being level with the road. This makes me nervous in an entirely irrational way. I blame every single Japanese horror movie that was ever made that involved water and ghosts coming back for revenge for this.) but everything else in my life seems to be crashing together all at the same time.

Allow me to report on all the things that are making me twitch:

Work is insanely busy. My laptop from work won’t cooperate. It hates me. It wants to make my life difficult and its working.

My studio looks like fabric, paint and thread fairies had a puking festival in there. I wish they would clean up after themselves.

There have been coyote sightings in our neighborhood. Which makes me nervous for little man. I call him little man because he is…well… little. Which would be appealing, I imagine, to a coyote. The neighbor across the street had a stand off with said beastie in an effort to protect his kitty from a dreadful fate. I’m considering taking a baseball bat with me when I walk Dooley love in the evenings.

My new car is still in the repair shop from the unfortunate accident a few weeks ago (in which a jerkwad ran a red light and smashed in the rear axle). I chose not to talk about it because it annoyed me in a hugely pissy way and this is a PG-rated blog. There wasn’t much that I could say about it at the time it happened that didn’t involve foul cuss words. But now I’m getting annoyed by the fact that its been in the shop longer then I had it to drive. Bah.

Daylight Savings Time is the spawn of the devil. I don’t care how many reasons you throw at me for why it’s a good idea and blah blah blah blah blah…I want my hour of sleep back. {insert tantrum foot stomping here}

It seems everyone has their little habits that help them decompress in the evenings. In fact, they were talking about this on some news program the other day. Some people meditate, others go jogging, some journal.

What do I do?

I surf etsy.

There is such a wild variety of things on there its unbelievable. I pick through things and some make me giggle, some make me flinch and some really impress. The ones that make me smile get plunked in my Favorite Items category so I can admire them at will. (Yes, I am this easy to amuse. Don’t tell me how pathetic I am, it will ruin my fun.) So I decided I would share some of the things that I find amusing with you:

a handsome fellow

a very happy fellow

more people should do this

ever said you could use an extra hand?

a very pretty thing that I find intensely attractive

I hope to be this good one day

incredibly inventive

one of my favorite enablers

the most expressive declaration of bacon love I’ve ever seen

twisted but hilarious

me

I was also surprised to find that there is also a large amount of adult content on there. (And no, I did not intentionally search for such things, they just came up in perfectly innocent searches thank you very much.) But like I said, this is a PG-rated blog. You can do your smut searches on your own.

It’s a lovely mindless activity, etsy surfing is. Which is good because by the end of the day the thinking part of me is all thought out.

Here’s hoping I get to use my brain soon for more fun activities like art and writing. Good thing those are patient about waiting for me to return to them.

its better then nothing

I'm still in full on baby-my-back mode which greatly limits the things I can do. But spring cleaning fever has hit and I've been busy pushing the things around that are within reach (meaning I don't have to bend down or lift anything) to tidy them up. But I still don't feel like I'm making much progress.

So I spring cleaned Dooley instead.

Little man has strange fur for a terrier. Its incredibly soft, not wiry in the least. And curly and he has bad hair days like the rest of us. The current wet weather has him all frizzy and looking like he needs some conditioner.

The nature of his fur means he has to be groomed on a regular basis or he gets all tangly and snarly and resembles a miniature version of a wild lion. So when the weather started turning and I was becoming consumed by my all encompassing cleaning fit that I couldn't indulge to satisfaction, I turned my attention to the fur ball that was roaming around my house.

He was pretty shaggy. We had been reluctant to get him a good haircut because of the sub zero psychotic winter we've been having. But now that its bouncing all around into the 50's and 60's, we decided it was time to discover his cute little shape again.

We think he came out rather nice. By proof of the picture above, he is also quite pleased with the results. That and he got to take a long walk. Life is always well in westie-land.

Where I Stand Sunday

Wet dank puddle pocked mud. Salt bleached strained wood planks. Hollow thuds as steps strike layered ground. Sweet sting of half decayed leaves as they unthaw against the new air. Clear white pieces of square salt unable to exist anywhere outside of itself, unabsorbed, foreign. The new air holding itself close to the surface of the ground, hoping to go unnoticed. It is the mix of beginning and ending, all compressed into a single middle that struggles loudly for attention.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

Where I Stand Sunday

The extrovert in me is most happy when I put the paintbrush in my hand. She says everything that I can’t, that I am not even aware needs to be said. She and I have been struggling lately, trying to figure out who should have the most freedom. I have been censoring her, forcing her to be quiet, to be careful of the things that she lets out. But her complaining is growing louder, more insistent. I’m seeing the signs of her more and more and for the first time in a long time, a sense of balance is returning.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

just can't do it

I've been thinking about what to feed the blog for a few days now. I had finally gotten to the point that I figured I would just have to live with two Where I Stand Sunday posts in a row. But it made me kind of twitchy. Couldn't do it. So I bring you randomness that may help you to understand why I've not been blogging lately (translation: I'm boring right now):

1) When I drove to work yesterday morning at the unholy hour of 6:15am, it was 50 degrees and raining. When I walked out of the building in the afternoon at 4pm, it was 28 degrees and snowing. What does this have to do with not blogging? Not a thing, but I find it annoying so I wanted to complain about it.

2) I'm knitting. A lot. But they are all presents so I can't blog about them. The recipients know I'm knitting them but given that I knit at the speed of mud, I'm thinking that by the time I'm done with said gifts, they will have forgotten what they look like and they will feel surprised.

3) I want to clean. Everything. Now. Which is a sure sign that spring is approaching. But my back is not cooperating and I'm trapped on the couch again. I'm trying to figure out if its possible to tie a trash bag to Dooley's tail and just kick things into it while luring him around the house with a cookie. It could work.

4) I'm reading books like they are crack. I'm almost done reading The Host by Stephanie Meyer (the jury is still out on how I like it but considering its 600 pages and I'm almost done with it I can't say I hate it) and Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult and American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Needless to say my dreams have been a little on the odd side lately. Its the equivalent of eating a bowlful of sushi, macaroni and cheese and spicy indian food and wondering why you have a stomach ache afterward.

5) The number of potholes I drive over everyday are making me violently cranky. Probably because my back is going through a bad spell and this is not helping. I'm thinking that one of these days I'm going to hit one and disappear underneath the road. Seriously, they are getting that mammoth.

6) I have a list of about 1,349 projects I want to make. I have the energy for about 2.25. I bought a lottery ticket.

7) I've become obsessed with the IFC station. Tonight I watched a movie in which Kate Winslet played a woman who got sucked into an Indian cult and Harvey Kitel was trying to deprogram her. It ended with Harvey Keitel wearing a red dress. Most of what I see on that station is followed with the me saying, "Huh...now there's something you don't see everyday."

8) I am so boring that I can't think of more then 7 things to babble about. Blech.

So tomorrow I'm thinking I might hole up inside the house, do laundry and practice spinning. I'm feeling a little hermit like lately, maybe that will change once Mother Nature stops abusing us with her mood swings. I'm considering sending her a case of Midol.

Hopefully more interesting posts are lurking in the near future...

Where I Stand Sunday

I’m standing in the middle of chance, absorbing the randomness of the events that rush around me each day, wondering at how easily a simple everyday task can soar into something that imprints into your memory. The difference of a few seconds could have altered life into something unrecognizable, broken, torn. The ideas sit inside my head like a brick, stubborn and solid. I close my eyes in defense of them, working to push the soreness away.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

woe thy name is dooley

Dooley has reached the end of his rope. He has briskly marched past the line in the sand. He has tested his tolerance and pushed it beyond the breaking point.

He is done being ignored.

He is currently pacing around the living room, emitting a low mournful protest about how hard his life is. He has picked every toy out of his basket and proceeded to squeak or nudge them until they become uninteresting. He has pawed the sofas (I am laying on one, mom is sitting on the other) and chirped in complaint that there does not appear to be any room for him. (In the humans' defense, Dooley may be stumpy but he stretches out to an unnatural length when given a soft sofa to lounge on.)

Mom has a head cold from hell, I have...well...an insane job that sucks the life force from me. We are apparently boring in every possible way. (Of which I am totally fine with.)


So Dooley has requested that you give him full court sympathy as being the most woeful westie in the world. (And if you buy that one, I have a bridge in the desert I'd love to sell ya...)

Where I Stand Sunday

It’s the monotony that skims the surface and holds the cracks in place that I have become addicted to. A sleepy schedule and a set routine have afforded me a contentment I didn’t remember I was missing. For now it is enough, this haze that lets me walk between the splits without disturbing them.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

in awe

I know that it makes me somewhat of a geek that I list Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride amongst my top favorite movies. So its not all that shocking that I am bouncing in my seat all excited about going to see Coraline this saturday.

I am a huge fan of stop motion animation films because every single thing is constructed.

By hand.

One at a time.

No matter how long it takes.

HBO has been running a behind-the-scenes look at the movie and the people who shot the film talk about how in a good day they manage to shoot two to four seconds.

That's a big switch from the crazy standards we set for ourselves to get thousands of things done in a single eight hour day.

The behind-the-scenes special also talks about the ways in which the set creators take everyday items and use them in unexpected ways. Like popcorn kernels painted pink to make cherry blossoms and dog squeaky toys cut in half so they can be used for the centers of blooming flowers.

You can see part of the special here:




And of course there is the knitting, which I find fascinating in an outstanding way. Watch this video, its nice to know there is still productions being made where every detail is painstakingly made by hand.

a little weirded out

I’ve always known that no matter how much planning you do in life, you just never know what will happen every time you open your eyes in the morning and start a new day. (That’s not to say I don’t try to bend the world to my will and keep things on schedule but I’ve been smacked down enough times to realize sometimes you just gotta scream uncle and let things go their own way.)

Such was today.

My car has a long history of torturing me in the I’m-going-to-relentlessly-break-in-ways-that-can’t-be-ignored-so-you-have-to-fork-over-lots-of-money-NOW kind of way. So it was really no shock that as soon as I had finished paying off one repair bill, it decided to have some fun with me and kill its battery. (It’s a plot to drive me mad, I can’t be convinced otherwise, don’t try.)

Now a new battery doesn’t sound like all that big of a deal but this comes quick on the heels of a replaced fuel pump and a whole bundle of suspicion that the battery issue is a precursor for something that has far too many numbers in it to fix.

Add to it the fact that mom is about to turn in her car tomorrow (it’s a lease) and the whole complicated game of “I can drop my car off at the mechanic and drive your car to work and then I’ll pick you up and we can go take care of that thing we need to do and go get my car and then go back to the house and then leave again to do that other thing” just isn’t going to pan out this time.

So I had to waste a vacation day in order to take the stupid heap of metal in to get fixed. (It turns out that if you swear profusely at a car that with a stuttering battery, you may be able to scare it into starting. Worked just fine for me.)

I was feeling rather bitter about it all day and kept stewing about it. Then I saw a commercial on TV about leasing vehicles.

Hmmmmm………

My issue with getting a new car (which in all honesty would have happened the last time I was facing a four digit repair bill with my current car) is my back. The seats and the ride have to be comfortable or I will turn myself into a hunched over bundle of pathetic. My mom drives a Chevy HHR and I’ve driven it around many a time with comfortable results so it seems like a rationale line of thought to follow.

So I ended up getting this today:


I’ve actually researched this before so I was sure what I wanted. I always said that if I got one of these babies, I wanted a black one because it looks like something that belongs in the Godfather movies (which I think are the best movies of all time and really, the film industry could have just retired after making those because everything else pales in comparison.)

My brother said it is a Darth Vader helmet.

I’m still kind of in shock that I ended up with a new car today. It just sort of happened…but as Mary so aptly pointed out, they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

I plan to play the Godfather theme while driving to work tomorrow morning. I think it will like it.

an artful opening

This past Friday was the opening reception of Art in Stitches at the Northville Art House in Northville, MI. The exhibit was well received, many people attended the opening.


Artwork hung on both levels of the gallery, filling the entire space with art quilts. It was really thrilling to see this medium get such a positive reception.


I was one of nine artists in the show, you can see two of my pieces here. (The two smaller ones.) The show is hung very well and the gallery is very nice.

If you are able to make it out and see the show, I highly recommend it. Many thanks to the Northville Art House for this wonderful opportunity.

(Thanks to Jackie for two of the photos above.)

Where I Stand Sunday

The snow has slipped away just long enough to reveal the struggling ground beneath it. The rusted metal yawns orange and brown and blue into the random sunlight, punctuating the grayness with a sudden shot of awareness. The harshness of the season has pulled this reaction from the grate, forcing it into a riot state. It causes me to linger, pulling my mind toward the dates rapidly slipping from the calendar.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

sadly its true

Gisela sent me this the other day and I almost spit my coffee all over my keyboard I was laughing so hard. Its true in every way. I suspect that those who are close to Michigan also behave accordingly.

This is in no way a bash on anyone who lives in a warmer state. In fact, I am intensely jealous of you and wish that I reacted to cold temperatures the way this list described rather then having built up such a tolerance that I still wear t-shirts during the winter.

So in honor of the fact that we had 40 degree weather a couple days ago (and I drove with one of my windows down because it was so warm - and no I'm not joking) and is now only 9 degrees today with a wind chill warning below zero, this is an appropriate post.



COLD IS A RELATIVE THING

65 above zero:
Floridians turn on the heat.
People in Michigan plant gardens.


60 above zero:
Californians shiver uncontrollably.
People in Michigan sunbathe.


50 above zero:
Italian & English cars won't start.
People in Michigan drive with the windows down


40 above zero:
Georgians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, and wool hats.
People in Michigan throw on a flannel shirt.


35 above zero:
New York landlords finally turn up the heat.
People in Michigan have the last cookout before it gets cold.


20 above zero:
People in Miami all end up with pnemonia.
Michiganites close the windows.


Zero:
Californians fly away to Mexico.
People in Michigan get out their winter coats.


10 below zero:
Hollywood disintegrates.
The Girl Scouts in Michigan are selling cookies door to door.


20 below zero:
Washing DC runs out of hot air.
People in Michigan let the dogs sleep indoors.


30 below zero:
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Michiganites get upset because they can't start the snowmobile.


40 below zero:
ALL atomic motion stops.
People in Michigan start saying..."Cold enough fer ya?"



50 below zero:
Hell freezes over.
Michigan public schools will open 2 hours late.


I look forward to the day when I can stop complaining about how freakin' unholy cold it is this winter. (I'm sure you are too.) I promise to make an effort to suffer in silence from now on.

Oh...by the way...did I mention its cold here?

monday brain

It is Monday and I am entirely unable to assemble consistent thoughts so you get randomness. Here goes:

1. I took a spinning class yesterday at the prettiest yarn store in the world. I took my camera, I thought about using it, but I did not. I suck. But here is a picture of the yarn I made during the course of the lesson:



It is my best effort so far, I’m feeling very encouraged. I have decided to put myself on a practice schedule. Nothing rigid but I'm aiming for at least twice a week. I know what needs work and knowing what things to target is going to help a lot.


2. The groundhog saw his shadow today. I say we kill the bastard and eat him. Anyone have any good stew recipes? (I know that the calendar says six more weeks, I know its just a superstition but I have to blame someone for this wretched winter.)


3. I don’t care who won the Superbowl. I don’t even know who played. I think the game is silly. Grown men wearing tight spandex clothing hitting each other on the bum while chasing a ball covered in dead skin down a long field. I don’t get it. Move on.


4. I went to the Apple store on Saturday to get a new battery for my laptop (which we are extremely pleased that the ancient battery was the only issue, there would have been severe weeping if it was something more) and ended up walking out with one of these:


Its an Ipod Touch and I know its wrong to covet material items but I plan to marry this thing. I had not paid much attention to it since it came out because I already have an ipod and couldn’t justify getting a new one just because its pretty. But a guy at work showed me just how grossly wrong I am – I can use it as a planner too and an art portfolio and pretty much everything in between. Oh baby – we likes it. (I expect the next generation will cook, clean and go to work for me since that's the only thing that seems to be missing from this one.)


5. While at the mall, mom and I stopped in the pet store. There was a westie puppy. She was only three and a half months old and was the sweetest thing we’ve ever met. Mom fell in love with her (and named her Lucy). I spent half an hour explaining to mom all the reasons we shouldn’t get a puppy (even though I secretly wanted her too). (I’m convinced that while Lucy was extremely docile and soliciting only cuddles and hugs, she would have turned into a psychotic bundle of puppy the instant we brought her home and would have proceeded to kick the crap out of my Dooley love without a second thought. It was a ploy, I’m telling you, nothing but a scheming act. Besides, I could not bear to break Dooley dog's heart like that, Lucy is sure to find a nice home elsewhere.)


6. I hate snow. It is the devil. I think nothing but mean evil dirty thoughts about it (and I don’t feel the least bit bad about it either). Bugger off snow.


7. Dooley just ate a ladybug that was crawling across the carpet…do you suppose that means he is a good luck charm now? Maybe I should rub his belly and go buy a lotto ticket.


8. I’ve abandoned the idea of examining my art issues in public with a series of essays. Mostly because no matter how I wrote it it just sounded…dorky. Know that I continue to angst and torture myself fully. I still have no answers, the whole thing is a mystery, everything is humming along steadily.


9. Coraline comes out this weekend in theaters. Its from Henry Selik the director as Nightmare Before Christmas (one of my all time favorite movies) and its based on a book by Neil Gaiman (one of my all time favorite authors). I am wearing out the website by watching the trailer and listening to the music, I plan to go see it.

10. There is an odd magic to beginning a new year. No deadline seems too daunting, no exhibit seems out of reach. I have the uncontrollable urge to become a show whore again and submit to everything under the sun. Someone slap me please.

I've decided that I need to win the lottery. And when I do I'm going to build a fiber arts compound and we will all sit around all day making art and dyeing fabric and stitching things and knitting and spinning and we will have hot gourmet cooks to make meals for us and cater to our every whim. *sigh* Guess I should go buy a ticket...

Where I Stand Sunday

It is a monotony that wears heavy in a relentless lazy way. This winter is leaving its mark in my memory, it will be one that I measure future seasons against. At every turn the landscape is piled high with temporary white hills, distorted under the weight of the frozen rain. I am impatient at the calendar to turn over toward the upcoming thaw.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

the definition of irony

Not too long ago Mary showed me a new magazine she had just discovered. Its a funny and witty and very entertaining quilt publication. Its Quilter's Home from Mark Lipinski. So when she sent me a link to Mark's blog today, I was really surprised by what I found there.

In the most recent issue of the magazine, there is an article dealing with art quilts that have provoked controversy when they were exhibited at different quilt shows. Mark offers a very good description of the article on his blog. (You may have to click the blog link found in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts has banned the most current issue due to this article.

They are censoring a magazine because its discussing art quilts that have been banned or censored for one reason or another.

Does anyone see the irony in this?

I have to say that I am really appalled by this. Especially from a store that so many art quilters go to to buy their supplies from.

I may not always agree with the subject of an art piece or an essay or a debate or a movie. But what I will always agree with is your right to stand up and talk about it. I guess I'm still naive enough to be surprised by Jo-Ann Fabric's decision.

I say keep making the controversial art that makes people stutter and think. Rock on.

Art in Stitches exhibit - please join us for the opening reception!

I am very honored to be one of nine artists exhibiting fiber art in a new show at the Northville Art House in Northville, MI. Here is the description from the exhibit postcard:

The Northville Art House is proud to present an exhibit that celebrates the creativity of fiber arts. From traditional to non-traditional techniques using cloths, fibers and mixed media, this exhibit highlights the unique styles of nine Michigan artists. Featured artists: Ann Avery, Boisali Biswas, Juliana Cerra, Anne Hiemstra, Sidney Savage Inch, Lynn Krawczyk, Jackie Lams, Linda Larsen and Joan Potter Thomas.

The exhibit runs from February 6-22, 2009. The Northville Art House is located at 215 W. Cady Street in Northville, Michigan.


There is an opening reception on Friday February 6 from 6pm-9pm.
Please stop by and say hello!

Where I Stand Sunday

Its like looking inside a daydream, trying to see through to the other side. It is a temporary state, this fluid solidness. A pause in existence, a stutter before its full potential can be molded into something touchable. The sunlight becomes trapped inside it, pushing around auditions of what it can be, what it wants to be, what its meant to be.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. The ground we tread on has its own stories to tell.

fiber and ice

Its turning out to be quite the artful weekend.

Last night Mary and I went out to the opening reception at the 212 Arts Center in Saline, Michigan for our friend Kat's new solo show, Color Therapy. Kat has a very whimsical sense and all of her work is extremely fun. It was really exciting to see all her new work in one place. Well done Kat!

I, of course, forgot to bring my camera with me. But luckily other people were more together then me. You can see pictures of her show here, here and here. Really awesome stuff.

This morning when I left the house to run errands, I remembered that the Plymouth Ice Festival is on this weekend so I decided to swing by and take a quick look. I admit that I don't always go since walking around in really cold temperatures looking at things that are even colder then I am doesn't always thrill me. But I figured what the heck and went (and remembered the camera this time).





The sculptures were impressive - and a couple of them were a wee bit sarcastic (which I totally loved).


Its kind of hard to tell in this picture but this poor sculpture is attempting to make a fire. It doesn't seem to care that doing so would pretty much signal the end of its very existence, its too cold. (What does it mean when ice thinks its too cold? That might be a bad sign...)





Here is an attempt to deny winter all together and bring about warmer temperatures through sheer willpower alone.





A marriage proposal in ice...I thought this was sweet. It was at the base of a really huge sculpture, kind of hidden. (I took a picture of the whole thing but the sun did its thing when it shone through the ice and turned into a blinding spotlight of burning lasers so needless to say, it didn't turn out.)


I liked this moose, I thought he looked friendly.




And it was nice to see our new president in attendance.


I've not gotten out and about much to see different things since I hurt my back last July so it was nice to tool around and finally get to see some of the going ons.

But now I'm home where its warm and Dooley dog is snoring. So I'm going to go knit. Its warm and doesn't involve anything being frozen which is pretty much a bonus right now.