Monday, August 13, 2012

Summer in the Studio and Stalking Chipmunks



I wandered around the garden with my camera a bit today, realizing that 
was speaking to you. So it seemed that I might need to write a post, as 
the many stories of my days are piling up and some are too old to want to tell here. 
Its been a very full month. I can say with confidence that I was more social these 
few weeks than during the years I spent dreaming and manifesting the new 
studio. Gatherings, my dear friend Katja's wedding, the Daughters of the Earth Gathering, and genrally making point to see friends filled me up while 
the heat, humidity and mold spores flattened me. I even found time to 
work in the studio where I explored the continuing theme of light and branching 
in the forest. I worked with a bit more layering of branching over the atmospheric 
washes and bleeding this time which I especially like in the top drawing. 



Full days in the studio began with writing in my journal, sinking into the space 
and listening to the sounds of the forest. Often I shift into drawing spirals. I 
now have a sketchbook dedicated to them, and recently words have been 
spilling out onto the bottom of the page. 



The words above are:

Listening to the wind today....
So many stories float by in the infinite. 
I am called to presence
watching the dance of tall grasses.  




Here the words are: 

It can't be long, can it be? 
Until hearts are shattered into a million pieces 
and the shining 
can begin. 

( I wonder about the punctuation here, but left it as that is how I wrote it)


I framed two of the drawings and hung them. They are some of the
first things I have committed to hanging on the pristine walls. 


Pasha has figured out how to come in through the bug screens,
and must check in throughout the day on breaks from stalking chipmunks
nearby.  Stalking is an exhausting pursuit, he tells me, and short naps on the 
studio chair are needed to keep going. 


A dear student, Sarah Pollock, sent me a sample of some of the 
ecodyeing she has been continuing with after I introduced her 
to all of you amazing fiber folks out there. She learned so 
much from all of you and especially India Flint, of course, 
who inspired her to no end! Below is her cloth which is 
now hanging in the studio... I know only that that one 
wonderful stripe is a rusty pipe. I think it relates quite well 
to the forest theme here!


With more expansiveness to my days recently, I decided to finally 
re-organize my upstairs, and especially my bedroom. I'm not sure 
how it happend that I hadn't completely settled in there even though 
I moved here in 2003. I found a wonderful old, wicker rocking chair on 
Craigs List - an online listing of all kinds of stuff for sale, trade or sometimes even 
for free! The rocker wasn't free, but it was a very good bargain at 
$40. Better still, I love it and so does Pasha. 


I framed a couple of older forest drawings and hung them, 



Found a table, finished it and now have a nice place at 
the foot of my bed for important things like sticks and stones.
 I think I am close to a decision about wall color - a light ochre...  


 My constant companion has been very relieved that my travels 
of late last only a few days. He very much enjoys when Boo or Kessie come 
to visit him while I'm away, but he would much rather visit outside than 
in. I'm starting to get the message, too, that he isn't always fond 
of the camera pointing at him.  


Lastly, I've been watching the slow transformation of a lovely 
spider web on a downstairs window. I can't help notice the 
relationship to my spiral drawings. The last image is quite 
a magical doorway to travel through, I think....