Blowing through April

Here I am at April 25th, feeling like this month has been utterly unpredictable in weather and life. Two days of beautiful sunshine on Friday & Saturday, warm enough to open the sliding glass door. Now we’re back to rainy, windy, dark clouds, sunbreaks with rainbows sort of weather. My grandmother used to complain about the spring weather, never knowing if she should wear her hat and gloves to town or not (that was in the 1930’s when she moved to Eugene). Crazy. What happened to the Texas trip? I should be down visiting Dave’s family in Austin (90+degree temps) but the new dog had other plans. We tried to leave him at the kennel but he wouldn’t stand for it, becoming downright aggressive toward staff members. This was the first trip I’ve canceled due to a last minute critter issue. Humm, guess we’ll need to work on his fear aggression and separation anxiety. Fun. Dave has been gone for a week and I feel like nothing on my plate has been tackled. Submitting my Artist in Residence proposal has gone no where. Researching more into the Arts Care program: zilch (I was asked last week if I wanted to enter the training program in June). Luminarias for the Spring Garden festival: nada. Packaging up my work for Art About Ag: no progress yet. Dog care: full time!

Ahh, such a cute boy!

So the best thing that’s come through my front door in the last two weeks was 12 prints from the Leftover Print Exchange. What a great way to brighten my life by opening up the envelope and discovering the amazing works. Thanks to Amy Nack in Boise Idaho for hosting the exchange. Why the heck haven’t I participated in other exchanges? I have no idea. Hope to participate in others this year. Wish I had submitted a much better print. I’m totally in awe of all 12 I received.

Luminaria for Friends

Back in October, our friend Shannon married her partner Megan. Last month, they had a great celebration with family and friends at Downward Dog in Corvallis.  Since the party I’ve been slowly working on completing a luminaria as a wedding gift for them. Shannon really likes yellow but I was not able to incorporate that into the design terribly well. I did find some cream colored vellum and a Thai Unryu paper to match. Nice for the background colors. The leaf cuts are from 100 # cover paper in a Citron green. Such a yummy color! Each panel is trimmed in a Plum colored Thai Unryu. Violet vellum was placed behind some of the cut leaves.

I even had a base finished and wired.  Now it’s ready for delivery. Another project off the list!

Now I have to get busy on the kitchen tiles for Mike & Shannon. A whole new process to learn… I’ll keep you posted on it’s progress.

Book Box Extra

Friday, I dropped off the book box to to Dick’s  home. Two of the major participants for coordinating the memorial book for Marie were also in attendance: Cheryl Maze and Susan Liser. There was one change made in the box cover after taking the initial images. I added a place to insert narrow pictures or words on the inside of the spine.

In the above image, you can see the paper inserted over the red space. There is an access on the left side to slide thin things in. Kind of a fun extra for the box. Dick was in the process of rebinding the book (after scanning all the pages contributed) and wasn’t certain if the box would really house the book. I let him know that it was fine if he decided to not use the box in that manner. He can certainly do with it as he pleases. It really is much too large for the shrine area. Oh, and Dick loved it!

Here are some images of a furry helper. I can bet there are hairs in the binding! Nigel did place his muddy paw prints on some of the binder board prior to covering. Thank goodness it was in the early stage.

It’s nice she’s finally getting more social again.  Kitty cuddle time just happens in the studio space rather than upstairs. Moby still scares the heck out of her. Maybe in a couple of months she might venture upstairs again.

Book Box Experiment

After an artist friend died in January, a group of her friends gathered to put together a special book for her family. I took on the job of creating a box to house the book. I’m not a box maker but have dabbled in putting together some pyramid box forms as gifts for family.  So how difficult could it be? Tougher than I first thought! Originally I thought of a clam shell design, but that stretched resources. I only wanted to utilize what I had in the studio, which seemed like plenty except for book cloth. The finished box is covered in bamboo paper and three colors of book cloth. The clasp is made from a plum branch with copper wire and black elastic to loop over the wood.  It took me over a month to create due to several illnesses and other art obligations. Finished exterior dimensions: 16.75″x 12.5″x 3.25″

Here are the images of it’s progression:

Creating the book box using scraps of museum board. Next time I’ll use a heavier board for more stability. This image was taken before the design change.

After adding one additional wall, the sides were covered with a bamboo paper.

A bottom insert was created and covered with book cloth and glued into place.

Front/ back flaps plus spine. I used Binder board for this part.

After cutting the spine and covers I forgot the order of the steps to follow. For some reason I hinged the three parts together with book cloth. Humm, probably should have covered the flaps prior to that step.  The thing that caused the most problem was the coloration of the binder board showing through the thin green Thai Unryu paper. When attached, the glue and binder board DID show through. Change in plans yet again. This was when I decided to cover the green paper with the remaining bamboo from the interior. It ended up being a good choice, well, interesting at least!

Here is the finished box

I discovered the cloth stretched when wet with glue. Lost my straight green edge in the image above.

By wrapping book cloth over the edges that will come in contact with the elastic, I hope to lessen the wear on the box.

Thanks for looking at my box experiment! Not certain I’ll be attempting that one again.

Aging parents

The human body can certainly endure and heal many problems that arise. Dave’s mom Lucille can attest to that. Over her life she gave birth to 4 healthy children plus survived the death of twins late in pregnancy and it almost killed her (this was when they lived in Guatemala). She survived a major car accident that shattered her leg bone. Many many surgeries and rehab hours later, she was up and walking. Then there was a knee replacement in the same leg. Unfortunately, MRSA jumped into the scene and made her fight for many years to keep that leg, only to loose it back in fall 2009.  Since then she has been adjusting to a prosthetic leg and making slow progress forward.

With all that under her belt, she had a hemorrhagic stroke yesterday. Today we wait for test results to come through. Dave’s dad is getting out of rehab after spinal surgery two weeks ago. Lucille fractured one of her vertebrae last week.  When it rains, it pours!

I’ve spent part of my morning looking into strokes on the internet and wondering what her chances are for recovery. Does she have mobility in her hands? Is she even able to speak? How large were the ruptures? Where were they located? Can she swallow and will they insert a feeding tube? How long does it take for the blood thinners to leave her body and allow the cells to clot again? Will she make it through the next month? What sort of assisted living can they be moved into eventually? So many questions that will have to be dealt with when the time comes. My heart goes out to Dave’s siblings who are on the home front in Texas. They are in for a wild ride yet again.

Spring Windowsill

It has been a beautiful spring scene looking out the kitchen window. This image was taken a couple of days ago when it was sunny and more petals were on the plum tree. In the foreground is part of our glass collection with Jerri Bartholomew (birdhouse & fish), Sarah Morrissey( multi-colored abstract) & a Dave Stahlke paperweight. The ceramic vase is from Cynthia Spencer & daffodils are from Carol Chapel.

The kitchen windowsill has proven to be a safe zone when it comes to glass work. The cats and dogs are unable to reach this area (or just don’t want to). Unfortunately we now have a new measuring device known as Moby Height. This could spell the demise of some artworks placed in MH zones.

The kitchen counter is one standard Moby Height. Notice how the nose is able to reach just above the counter. When he places his paws ON the counter, he can reach almost to the back splash.  No food or dishes are safe (or wallets, bills, etc…) He’s making sure we keep the kitchen clean along with the rest of the house.  He can also reach quite high on the refrigerator door front, removing photos and gift certificates stored on the surface. Muddy paw prints are a give away to where he has been investigating (counter tops in kitchen and bath, the front door, refrigerator door front, dining room table). We wish we could teach him to wipe his feet before coming through the dog door. Muddy brown carpets, tile and everything else is not appealing.  If the weather would shift a tad towards warmer and drier days… life would be better. Ahh, life with an active dog and dog door. A time we have not experienced for many many years.

Bringing in the pro!

I passed along a few dollars to one of our local photographers, Harold Wood, for some stunning images. Harold’s work is tops! Now I have images of the two works for the Ag show plus a stunning pix of my leaf coat from 2009. Here are the results:

Journal Entry: February 1, 2011, mixed media

A Walk in the Woods, 2011, mixed media

Winter’s Remains, 2009, Oregon Ash leaves

The leaf coat was by far the most difficult to bring to his studio. It measures 65″x 33″x 3-4″. It doesn’t like to bend and is created from real leaves that are more brittle now than when first assembled. There was a tad bit of damage done when I brought it home but it’s something easily fixed. There are still two 5 gallon buckets filled with leaves collected in 2010.

🙂

Forest Project Almost Complete

Oh, that deadline is fast approaching and I’ve been rather preoccupied by illness, new dog and other stuff.

So I did decide to add on six additional squares to “A Walk in the Woods: Discovery Loop Trail”.

There was also another lamp in production but I’ve given up on completing it for now. There is one possible person interested in purchasing it.

And here are the printed and watercolored squares for the other project…

Top row: Licorice fern, fir cones, ranunculus, forest trees

Bottom row: Osoberry, pileated woodpecker, cut log, banana slug

Hopefully by Friday night the cubes will be assembled and the “Journal Entry February 1, 2011” will be completed and photographed.

Moby

After some deliberations we have narrowed and changed the name for our new dog. He arrived with the name BEAU, which after lots of thought, sounded too much like NO. The household before that called him UTAH. Ick!  So what do we name him? Finalist list included Lionel, Percy, Moby & Odin. Moby won while I was out on our 3 mile walk Tuesday morning. Moby is from Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick, not the musician. We also tossed around Ahab, Ishmael & Queequag ( just didn’t roll off the tongue as well). Since his arrival Sunday night our household is still on a roller coaster ride. Nigel the cat had accepted him, since he so resembles our old pointer, until the cat chase Wednesday morning. MeMe was seen Monday but not Tuesday until very late. She left her previous house and adopted us due to a new dog. Will she do the same with us? Georgie! Poor boy! He’s very unimpressed and vocally upset by our newest member. Snarling, growling and ugly outbreaks have occurred over the past 48 hrs. However he really seems to enjoy going on walks with Moby. Go figure! I’m confident things will settle down after a couple of weeks.

Moby has quickly adapted to our home. He figured out how to go through the dog door Monday and actually came back in the house via the flap Tuesday morning. His night time sleeping area is our bedroom floor, shared with George. No more kennel time for sleep. He is starting to feel more protective of the home, barking at strange noises and even Dave coming in the front door. He was so surprised by this man in a big yellow coat that he lost control of his anal glands, perfuming the living room with eau de dog. Think Dave needs to spend more time with him!

Here are some photos of his first days with us (looking very much like Mocha- see the September 1, 2009 posting on The Mocha Era).