Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog

Stitching

It’s been quite a few months since I’ve pulled out the old sewing machine. Unfortunately, it was being cantankerous and not switching over to the regular functions after winding the bobbin thread. After about 15 min of fiddling, it magically went into regular stitch mode. I “doodled” over the paper using red thread. Not certain if it’s a winner yet, but I’ll keep moving this through the process. It’s all an experiment right now.

Tomorrow is the big MRI day. I wish it could be scanning both feet/ankles, but they are going for the original injury site. My therapist and I are keeping our fingers crossed that something productive will come out of this scan. With my luck, it will be nothing conclusive. I just wish I could function without pain. Maybe someday soon!

Trying something new

My hands are complaining about cutting paper. This time, it’s not just the right hand that was damaged by all the wire work back in 2014. Sigh…. so what can I do? Well, not much right now. I’m already swamped with physical therapy for my feet and trying to solve those issues (MRI on Thursday!). The hands need to wait a bit more.

Tuesday I was looking for backing paper for a couple of maple leaf lamps and discovered the above paper. I must have purchased it during one of the ArtFest retreats in Port Angeles, Washington (and that was many years back). The paper is very thin and probably won’t hold up for direct application, so I’m attaching it to mulberry paper before a few more steps. Mmmmm…. this could be something interesting….. maybe. Stitching, wax, and maybe more. The lamp will certainly be very unique!

A couple more lamp fronts to go before assembly. Time to purchase more wood. Somehow I never have enough supplies to finish projects.

Loss

This morning I got up and went looking for Nigel. He wasn’t around, which was unusual since he loves his food and doesn’t miss out on a morning feeding. I went to the front door and called his special call. Nothing. I went out back and called. Nothing. Dread set in as I pulled on my shoes to check the main road. I didn’t have to look very far because he was there. Dead. There wasn’t any suffering.

He was my favorite of all our cats and we have so many fond memories with the big guy. He loved our dogs, especially Mocha, our first pointer. When Moby came into our life, he resumed his long lost pointer friendship with him. I was looking forward to spending lots of quality time with him this winter, cuddled on my lap. He had been with us for over 11 years and outlived both of his siblings.

I really won’t miss all the mice, voles, rabbits, birds, flying squirrels, and other critters he would bring in our house (as I smell a dead one right now, location yet to be determined).

I was going to write about honoring my mother’s spirit today, since it would have been her 85th birthday and we did tons of work out at her coast house this weekend. But I’ll save that for another day. One loss at a time.

Fixing Things

Last month I was asked to contribute a work for our local arts center fundraiser in October. I’m a sucker for helping out this particular group since having been a volunteer and staff member. When the request came forward, I tried to pass along one of the camas plant sculptures, but they wouldn’t take it. Instead, they wanted one of my papercuts. So, they are receiving a smaller version of “A Walk in the Woods”. When I initially created this work, I had issues with one panel, the blackberry vines. The boarder wasn’t perfectly straight and detracted from the overall appearance. After several days of work, I managed to get one to meet my standards. Each square is 4″ x 4″. The overall dimension is 17.5″ x 16.5″ x 2″.

Once the panels were back in place, a photo was needed for publicity. Urgh! I don’t have a designated photo spot, nor a great way to deal with a hanging piece. Fortunately, I have been working on the garage walls and happened to have a large enough space cleared to attach a big sheet of grey fabric to the wall (stapled), set up 3 lights and run a piece of mono filament line to help stabilize the work (removed via photoshop). 2.5 hours of set up gave me the below image.

Stroll in the Woods, Gale Everett, hand cut paper, hemlock, spruce, metal

This is what the garage set-up looked like…. not a pretty scene, nor easy to maneuver through!

I’ve been super quiet of late due to numerous things surrounding my health that I’ve been trying to fix. Let’s just say my brain was sucked dry and creativity/art/life went out the door. I’m slowly adjusting to new medication and hope to get back to creating again once my brain settles down. Philomath Open Studio tour is coming quickly and I’m so behind with creating and also trying to do anything for their blog.

I’m hoping to regain some blogging momentum again, but it might take a few more weeks!

The Zen of Nigel

This morning Nigel happened to be stretched across the back of the couch, sleeping on Dave’s shorts. I wanted to do something to capture his zen happiness. The sketchbook was downstairs along with all my tools but the ipad was already in my grasp. So I went with it. Happy cat and a very quick sketch using my fingertips on the screen. He didn’t remain there for long.

The baby bunnies have left the nest. I saw one out hopping around this morning. Moby saw it too, but couldn’t catch it! Boy, they sure grow up fast!

Rabbit Friday

Can you see me?

This morning I went to check the new brood of baby bunnies. Every 6 weeks or so, we have new guys hopping around the yard. Certainly not a shortage of bunnies this year, in fact we have an overabundance. The nest location remained a mystery until Tuesday. That was the day I decided to reclaim the second half of our garden space from the blackberry brambles. Both dogs (we’re taking care of Ms Maggie right now) were in helping out and Moby discovered the nest. It was situated in the garden box where the soil was shifting away from the walls, covered with loads of grass. Unfortunately, he grabbed one and there was no way for me to save it. Urgh! After that fiasco, I kicked both dogs out of the space and covered the remaining buns under the grass. Mom continues feeding the little guys because they were still there this morning, getting bigger, ears lifting more and eyes opening. The above photo is of the larger, who happened to come out of the nest (and I had to shove it back inside). This is the second time I’ve had to handle them and (fingers crossed) momma bunny hasn’t cared. The little white blaze will disappear as an adult. These are the cottontail rabbits and can weigh up to 54 ounces when fully grown. Our cat brought in a juvenile that weighed close to 2.5 lb. I suspect our adults weigh close to 3 pounds.

Fourth day of cutting on the piece. So far my hands are holding up.

A little more progress has been made, but not much, on the cell cutting. It takes forever to get rows cut. So far my fingers are holding up, but I’m not pushing things hard. That’s part of the reason it’s going so slowly. I’ll get through another couple of rows today before heading to the coast. They say we’ll be having rain, but I’m still doubtful. Fortunately, the weather has cooled quite a bit. It’s nice to be back in the mid 80’s again.

Cell count

What have I set myself into now? Cutting plant cell structures isn’t a thrilling subject, but I’m hoping the outcome will look interesting. Boring work and I blow through loads of blades. I’m only working on the first row of three. Once completed I’ll shift to cells decay. Maybe the two sheets will be layered, but I’m not certain right now. My brain really isn’t focusing well these days so we’ll see how far this project progresses. The October 1 deadline is looming….

Quiet and warmish

I’ve been a bit quiet on the blog front. My art energy has been missing since working on Karen’s book. Anna’s book rests on my desk, awaiting pencil and other tools. It will get attention, but I’m still trying to regroup my brain. July has been a purging month. Quite a few items have left our home/garage, helping to make space for work (and possibly art!). The biggie was finding a home for the giant mural from the Camas Project last year. 7 full door panels, collage, pastel, charcoal, and paint. About 19 feet long. Today I pulled out a full sheet of Rives BFK, split it and started cutting cells. I’ll talk about it more as things progress.

Testing the camas sculptures in high temps at home.

We’re in yet another major heat wave, reaching possibly our highest temps of the summer thus far. It’s already moving beyond 104F (yes, 40C!) at 4:30pm. I now have 3 of the camas sculptures outside to see how they fair in different weather conditions. Today they are rather glossy, since encaustic wax DOES melt. By tomorrow, they will be firmed up again and ready to take on yet another brutal heat testing day. Personally, I feel like a melting Popsicle right now! Did I mention we don’t have AC at home? I’ve never had it, not even growing up. Tonight I’ll be putting the cars AC to work on the way up to Portland and the Guardino Gallery. A friend, Diane Archer, is one of the featured artists along with ceramic artist Michelle Gallagher. I met Diane many years ago during my time with Corvallis Fall Festival. She creates fabulous work and I think she is one amazing woman! Always a treat to see! So, if you’re in Portland, swing by the gallery. It’s over in the Alberta district and features some incredible work.

I’ll try to get back into the swing of posting again as this new project progresses!

Urgh, I checked the temp and we’re at 105! At this rate, we might reach 107!

Patterns in Nature – Forests

I can finally reveal Karen Bailey’s book at this time! It’s a subject that really grabbed me from the start, since I do a bit of forest work already, but had the most difficult time figuring out what to contribute. Basically, too many ideas! Above is the outer cover of the book created by Karen. The cover was hand-colored and she added the beautiful designs.

The first page now holds 3 artist’s work. Karen created the whimsical fiddle heads in the lower left corner and Anna the elegant leaf and flower cluster. The salamander was my contribution.

Karen’s spread is of a liverwort (no, not liverwurst!). I love all the undulating edges and negative space. I tried to explain what a liverwort was to my husband and said “you know, a Bryophyte”. Then I second guessed the terminology. Was it really a bryophyte, or is that a term for something else? I googled it and I was actually correct. Sometimes those scientific names actually stick in the brain, not that they’re of much use anymore.

Anna created a beautiful graphite drawing of wavy shelf fungus. So delicate and a strong image.

I added a watercolor of a plant that shows up in disturbed soils. Scouler’s Corydalis had lovely elliptical leaves.

The joint spread starts with Karen’s fern in the lower left corner. Anna created the beautiful red seedpods. I added my rendition of the seedpods on a stalk of Fox Glove (Digitalis). Now it’s up to Cathe to finish off the page!

And finally the back page where we add our comments!

Anna’s book has been waiting patiently in the studio while Karen’s book received it’s last touches. Once I send the Forest book off, I’ll finally open the last book! Something fun to look forward to tomorrow.

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To see the work of the other three artists please click the links below. I linked the start of each book created. You can figure the rest out on your own. 🙂

Karen Bailey- Karen Bailey Studio (Occasional Artist) – Australia (VIC)

Anna Warren- Anna Warren Portfolio – Australia (NSW)

Cathe Jacobi- Amaryllis Log – USA (Minnesota)

Digitalis Seedpods

Oh so close! The final drawing is coming together. Yes, I’m ashamed to say I’m still working on Karen’s book. Things in life have piled up causing artistic momentum to falter. Mini vacation, family crap, more family crap and more stuff that clouded my brain. At least I’m not in an arm brace after a jarring rock encounter in the kayak. It bruised the heck out of the bone. Pain and limited movement for about 12 hours, then it settled down. But no resting the giant goose egg on any surface! Yowza! The next outing will be much better and NOT involve the dog. Unless we take the canoe…. and that would bring up a whole new kettle of worm to deal with.

The book should leave the house tomorrow morning to Minnesota and Cathe’s waiting hands! I’ll post the final images at that time.