Night Thoughts

Its nice to have a warm enough night to sit with the window open in the evening. I can hear the peepers and one of the pairs of Canadian Geese that has taken up residency on Spring Grove pond.

Spring has come a long way in the past week, all of the trees now have some sort of blossom or bud action going on.

I noticed this afternoon that my brunneria has flowers. I wasn't expecting that yet. Forgot to get a picture while it was light out so here is a blurry shot in the dark.

Still stitching on this one. I'm varying the thread colors. More haphazard, as in the thickets it is mimicing.

The Hill

This is my running program's Nemesis. The Hill. It is steep and long and just where you think its going to end there is a little more around the bend. Today I successfully ran up it for the first time ever! I didn't die or sound like Homer Simpson at the top either, in fact I ran for another minute afterwards.

This is a big deal to me. It gives me hope that I may be able to run the 5K I have scheduled in a couple of weeks.

Today was the first time my run didn't feel like a complete struggle this year after taking the winter off. I kept my breath and I was in the moment not allowing myself to get anxious about how much further or how much longer.

I wonder if getting more clear about what I want to prioritize art wise has anything to do with it? My gut says it does.

Time to stitch.

Regenerative Energy

Cool and blustery still, but spring is coming. My garden is reemerging from beneath the wrack. These species tulips have begun to bloom since the picture was taken.

I've repaired the front wall, it fit back together rather easily. I have a theory that I was a stone mason in another life, and sometimes I wish I was one in this life too.

The spirea is opening its leaves. Soon all of its skeletal branches will be clothed in a cloak of green and gold.

Resilience is everywhere, spring peepers are all thawed out and singing loudly in the evenings trying ever so hard to attract the ladies.

No matter how delicate the daffodils appear they are tough, withstanding cold and rain, sometimes even snow, to forge ahead into a new season.

I am trying to regenerate too. As I have been attending to other chores I have let this group of experiments languish, lately they have begun to call LOUDLY. If I don't start to spend some time on them they will dry up and blow away. Ideas are like that, they start out all juicy and full of life but if they don't get the attention they need they wilt and can pass on.

I'm listening to the call this time.

A Way to Delay

Not quite ready to start a larger project tonight so I played instead.

Adapting the woven boro to a vessel shape.

Oh the possibilities....

Other Side

So this is what the other side looks like.

Today I sent this piece off as an entry to The Pawtucket Foundation Prize Juried Exhibition.

This is sort of a big deal for me.

It included writing an artist statement, getting the piece mounted, photographed and generally putting on my big girl panties. I actually made the decision a couple of weeks ago before the piece was even finished and that means I managed some serious focus for quite a while.

Not one bit of it was perfect, regardless, I am feeling kind of chuffed.

I think that whatever the outcome tonight was a win.

Spring Cleaning

I spent the larger part of the weekend cleaning out my garden beds. Its looking much more respectable around here. Looks like next week I will have to repair my wall. The snowplows did some damage to it and my garden this winter, pretty unsurprising really, I expected worse. The snow was piled so high on top of it that it became a hazard to traffic visibility so they brought in a front loader to move some of it, moved my wall and a couple of plants too

I missed my girl while I was out there working. Last year if I was outside she was out there too, rolling in the grass, or eating it, or just shnuffling around. Sometimes she would stick her nose into the woodpile and snort so loud you could hear it across the yard. It was quiet without her.

As for the new piece I decided to try a bit of eco-dyeing...

At the end of the day I wrapped the new weaving into a bundle with some bark and lichens. Then I stuffed it into a strawberry pot with some compost. I figure I will check on it again in the fall and see what happens to it.

Just something fun

Seeing this, and this, and this has me wanting to play along a little...

I snagged some scraps from the bin and wove something a little hairy and wild looking, which fits right in with my plans for it!

p.s. I did finish stitching, next step is to get it mounted.

The bear went over the mountain...

The bear went over the mountain...

The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.

I do believe that I will finish the stitching on this piece tonight. I chose hand stitching because it seemed to honor the shibori best. Taking all of these little stitches has been like taking many little steps as I climbed a mountain. The next steps will take me over the top just like the bear...

Reflections

Back in the depths of winter I took jude's Contemporary Woven Boro online workshop. It was a fertile experience.

jude was generous with her teaching and created a place for us all to share our experiments and thoughts.*

The piece I just posted about was one of my experiments from it.

Shortly after the class began I settled on focusing on how I could balance the dyework with the woven format. Then came more graphic dyework, and colors that were all around me in the winter landscape.

Once I chose that path a hundred possibilities opened. Far more than I can explore at once, so I started a sketchbook to capture ideas that I want to explore further and a file to save scraps of paper with notes jotted down. jude leaves many open doors in her teaching, new paths to explore. This is a journey that will continue.

* if you are considering trying any of her workshops I recommend it they are both stimulating and friendly.

Emerging

I have slowly been coming back to the act of making things.

As tempted as I am to give long explanations of where I've been I think tonight I will just share the progress I've made on this piece.

I have been trying to get a little done each night, and slowly but surely I'm getting somewhere.

I have some special plans for this one when its done...

Something a little daring!

But for now I will snuggle up on the couch with Larry and stitch a little more.