Art goes on, and orchids too

Sunday afternoon and Monday morning were about doing art obligations. The main job was to select the artwork to enter into the group show per invitation.

I decided on one of the ink drawings I did in July, the hibiscus. It's pretty good, and I feel it's appropriate to show what I'm making now, rather than old stuff. It's about forward movement, not history.

Then the hated task of finding, choosing, cleaning and taking apart a frame to use. A sectional metal one, silver color, was the best available choice. 

Then came the fun of unscrewing it, and removing the spring clips without getting one in my eye, and breaking the glass, easily done, ask me how I know, then cleaning the sections, then polishing the glass, then mounting the drawing on a backing, then finding all the tiny screws again, assembling it all and rewiring it with the wire hangers slid (needed pliers)  into the new position, and getting the spring clips reinserted under the sides. Then sitting down for a minute.

Then came the online paperwork, title, size, date, price and artist statement about the art group, upload of image.

The occasion is the 32nd year of the local artists group, which I founded and ran for several years before a staff member was hired to manage the gallery among other things.  I'm considered a legacy member, too funny.   

So the piece is official, chosen, 

There she goes. I also helped write the overall blurb for the exhibit, and that's done too. The current organizer did most of that but wanted a bit of support.

This took an astonishingly long time, and I don't exhibit now for a reason -- I need my time and energy for other things. But this was special.

I also needed to think what to take with me to Tuesday's knitting group, and ended up dumping out and organizing several project bags.  I plan to crochet together linen squares and pinloom woven squares somehow, to do my version of a fusion quilt.  

In the course of organizing I found my big sewing needles, crochet hooks, mixed knitting needles,  that cardboard lucet and several pairs of missing scissors. Also some little experiments, which I tossed.  

The thing is that I supply each project with its own tools then lose track of them, and end up using kitchen scissors because I can't find stitching ones. 

And there were balls of yarn, now untangled and bagged all together.  The crochet hooks are now with the project that needs them and the rest I put upstairs with their set.

There were bamboo knitting needles of all sizes everywhere. Now they're with their same size friends, wrapped with rubber bands. And with the needle gauge, saves guessing.

This orderliness will last long enough for one project anyway.

Meanwhile the orchid is quietly tending to its knitting. 

Look at those negative spaces. It's a marvelous shape, locking together background and positive areas. I need to draw it again.

The weather turned very wet and colder overnight, 60s in a couple of hours, down from 90s.  I ended up doing a few things outside but not walking for once. It was surprising to feel chilly. 

Happy day everyone, try not to get things so befankled that you need to sort before you can make. I'm a bad example.

Fridgescaping, art, ducks, fall copper

 Fridgescaping, my minimalist take. This is after shopping. Just sayin'.

In the container at the bottom is this, cooked Saturday from Yeung Man Cooking

Here the cartoon is nice, and the quotation is everything

Art is not to make a living, it's to make a life.

And in order for our lives to continue as planned, democracy work continues. I write a few cards then rest my hand a while, then resume. I've timed it to be done in time for the mailing date.

Today's art is setup, the latest color combinations chosen, ready to stitch.

Meanwhile I went for a walk, lovely sunny weather, saw fall copper, goldenrod and some white fluffy stuff 

And at the pond, the little flock of wild ducks is back. Briefly. As soon as they spotted me, one warning quack, and they were off 

Back at the ranch, the pioneer lady is ready to make a gallon of clothes washing liquid.

 

It suits my budget and I know what's in it, no scented additives or whiteners other than what I put there. This recipe gets the laundry as clean as the expensive stuff. The container at the back is empty. It's what I use as a dispenser, disregard the label.

So that's where I am at the time of writing.

I finished Clever Girl, and find that Tessa Hadley is the only writer I've found whose novel and short story writing both work well for me. 

Alice Walker, wonderful essays, but novels not for me. Anne LaMott, great nonfiction, oh dear on the novels. Hadley, more of both,  please.

Happy day everyone! You do you.

 

The unstoppability of art and other vital requirements

This huge and stunning work, a kind of sacred altar, created from all kinds of scrap and found objects covered in foil, was exhibited years back, I think in the Met, though now it's in the Smithsonian.

It's breathtaking seen in person. I saw it and have never forgotten it, the power and energy. The artist had no "formal" training. What James Hampton had was the great vision and insight of an artist driven by his own force.  A visionary  artist, he had no interest in the art world, nor in exhibiting for its own sake, and certainly no interest in making his mark in the world. Far from needing encouragement, he never talked about his art.

This fits in with a discussion I've been involved in lately, about art and the, I think groundless, fears that too many tech inventions and content discourage and suffocate new art.

It's similar to the complaints I used to hear from adult students that they'd been put off as kids  by teachers or relatives who discouraged them. They signed up  in mid life to learn to draw in my classes and did learn. They also repaired some of the damage to their self confidence from comments when they were kids.

I was glad to guide them into finding and enjoying their own art and realizing they didn't need to qualify in some way. But when they looked at the years they'd "wasted" when they could have been making art, maybe even making a life in art, I refrained from comment.

The fact is that you can't stop a real artist. I got plenty of discouragement as a kid from teachers who told me I drew wrong (!), no access to materials, wartime, poor family. Later prevented by school from art classes in favor of ancient Greek classes.  It would never have occurred to me to stop making art, anyway, from whatever I could find or hack, whenever I could do it. 

I need to make,  as much as to breathe or eat. This is situation normal for makers.  It's not special nor heroic or anything fancy like that. Writers, dancers, musicians, included.

I wrote tons of stuff outside of school, made up tunes, made clothes for dolls from any old scraps, drew and painted on anything I could find, with anything I could find.  

Artist friends agree that we'd do all this on a desert island, with no-one to show it to. Showing and selling just free up  space, mental and physical, to work. They're not the point of making art. 

So I never think we've missed out on a great artist, musician, writer, dancer, because their early life didn't pave their way. They'd pave their own way, really, if necessary.   You can have such a rich and happy  life, without any external supports, if you have the maker gene. It's not about getting famous, it's about making what you're supposed to make, or as close as you can get to it.

Very intense here today, must be the heat. Heat index well into three figures. 

I did some cooking,  making ingredients for various meals. Sauteed baby bella mushrooms and chard, steamed carrots, to be used in various ways.

Lunch was a mushroom chard omelette with carrot side. I think there will be pasties tomorrow with similar ingredients. Different ways of eating the same things! I must make yogurt, too.  I use it to make the pastry for pasties.

I did make potato salad using the new batch of mayo, with chives and scallions. Hot weather puts a dent in a person's appetite, important that what you do eat be valuable food. Sez me anyway! 

I'm very dogmatic today! Happy day everyone, have your say, because nobody else can have your say.

 

Indigo, money matters or does it

Tatter is offering a wonderful indigo workshop, probably a life changing event, wayyy beyond my budget but if you can get to Brooklyn in April, you may want to contact them.

They have a lot of good teaching online and in person, worth the fees, on fiber related stitching and hand construction skills. They help preserve valuable skills for all of us.

On a less elevated plane, the cost of home ownership continues to rise. I can handle it for now, but it's getting onerous. 

In the last week the monthly condo Association announced that monthly fees will be higher as of April, plus a large one -time special assessment fee to catch up on expenses,including insurance and water increases. This is on top of the fireplace and another small replacement costs. Soon I will be required to replace the water heater.

My water bill for the townhouse shot up this month, maybe related to the bathroom leak, maybe the same increase noted by the condo Association. This is on top of the plumbing bill.

I've rarely had a more expensive month that didn't involve fun! And  there's the personal amplifier cost, but I think that's going back, not useful for general purposes. On the good side, I can pay the raised costs, but I reserve the right to grumble anyway.

But I found a lovely artwork, always a good thing for a person's spirits

Happy day, everyone, Tuesday knitting group this afternoon, and Textiles and Tea, so there's that.

And moral support to  people who need it is always available.

Freecycling and the circle of life

The art I've been free cycling is part of my end of life planning, as you probably observed, seeing the winnowing around here to make it easier for Handsome Son after I die. The art falls into a different category, though, since free cycling is a way of getting good original art into new homes. 

The latest round went to the same person who took the last group, and we had a great exchange about it. Here are the pieces, from my black gesso, handmade paper and copper wire period.

it's a series of faces, where you can change the narrative by hanging them differently. Here it goes from realistic to abstract. Hung in reverse order, it brings the realistic out of the abstract. 

The recipient is hanging all my art on one wall, very happy with it. This series was bought from an exhibit, and I found the buyer left it to me in their will, so it eventually came back again! I hope it will stay put in its new home. The new owner has been an art docent at MOMA and the local art museum, so, good hands.

I'd far rather my work go out like this than have a  scramble to get it out after I've gone. People might as well be enjoying it. And I have three floors, so the upper stairwell, where these pieces were hanging, isn't a daily view. I won't feel deprived.

I'd offer choices to local friends, but I've found they're very reluctant to take pieces they like because it feels bad, pushing me off the stage! I don't mind, but they feel a bit weird. 

Meanwhile, the Izzy gang is growing

And the Christmas/Thanksgiving cactus is happy

While the rain has finally stopped, after days of downpour, leaving the Japanese maple wearing diamonds

Hard to see here, but a lovely sight. Take my word.

Finally there seems to be enough water in the ground, but I've been frugal with water ever since I learned from Jane Goodall about the lives of women and girls in Africa spending most of their days carrying  water for daily use. Girls can't get to school because they spend hours daily just securing and carrying water.

I don't live where this happens, but I understand why digging wells is important work for incoming helpers in those regions, how life changing it is to have water here, literally on tap. I assume the planet's supply must be finite, so I economize. 

I quit using running water to rinse dishes and wash fruit and vegetables, a bowl uses less,  finally started taking my doctor and a rehab nurse's advice to shower less frequently, and briefly. The showering is about aged, delicate skin, rather than water economy, but it fits into conservation.  I can see from my water bill how it's working.

I'm listening to the audio book of

Where Tey's detective Alan Grant, temporarily out of action from injury, detects a historical puzzle instead of current crime.

It's about the bad rap Richard III, the last Plantagenet king, has had, showing that the depiction of him as a villain is largely based on  hearsay and the writings of a later regime. 

The Tudors, with a tenuous claim to the throne, and much to gain by blackening Plantagenet memory, were the main perps. Shakespeare gleefully fell on the popular myths because -- more dramatic. More clicks. Sounds  familiar in this age of disinformation. And it's surprisingly timely to read this now, when people are still credulous and willing to believe what suits them.  

Happy day everyone, don't believe everything you hear, well, you don't, this is a self selected thoughtful group.

Cleaners, art, dance and potatoes

I got up my courage and drove to the library, getting more used to no glasses. I think I'm seeing as well without them as I did before with them, but my brain isn't so sure. Likewise reading is dodgy, and typos abound.

And in the  library gallery,  an explosion of happy color

Acrylic and alcohol inks. Perfect for a summer exhibit.

Meanwhile outside, probably a dance school doing the photoshoot for their fall classes.

At one point a passing yellow lab showed signs of wanting to join in.

And here's some great sidewalk chalk art 

In other news

This year's potato crop, first plant harvested

Like a lot of gardening this year, great foliage, meager yield. All hat, no cattle.

But the volunteer cherry tomato is flowering right and left, and I have a couple more potato plants coming along , so hope springs eternal, as always with gardening.

This afternoon Gary wants to com over and plant white potatoes left behind by a recent houseguest. He'd never dream of cooking them. He grows container vegetables to give away  My experience with white potatoes has been better than with yellow, so we'll see.  

Happy day everyone! Plant hopefully, dance outside, enjoy whatever's available.