travel

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>I have been waking up different since the ATA Workshop. I have some good design ideas floating around and have assembled the tools I need to begin working with them. Have I done this yet? Well, I’m not perfect!

My photos from Convergence are kind of strange. Since there was no photography allowed in any of the exhibits my photos are all bits and pieces of other things, mostly the ATA Workshop. As part of registration at Convergence we all got a CD with images from the various exhibits, including the fashion show after it was hung as an exhibit. I still have not looked at the CD because I’m saving it for a quiet, special time! Ha! I may never get to look at it!

At ATA, Joan Baxter brought lots of images of her work and many samples. The samples do a great job conveying how she works to create such a wonderful sense of transparency. I’m smitten by her use of color and shape in creating that illusion. I do know that if I’d been in her class I would turned into a ‘Joan Baxter clone,’ something fate kept me from doing!

Joan lives on the northern coast of Scotland which definitely influences her work. I’d love to visit someday, and I’d love to spend a few days (or weeks) studying with her, once I’ve squelched my desire to be just like her.

This is a photo I took of a postcard of one of Joan’s tapestries, so the quality is not what it should be. Still, it just stops me in my tracks, rivets me. I can barely tear myself away!

So…..I’m off to work on my own designs!

>There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.
–Martha Graham

Mary Zicafoose read this quote at the beginning of the ATA Workshop which she titled “Wake up Different!” For three days she gave us exercises to try different methods of understanding how to design, how to use color, how to get over our resistance to creating art.

We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. One becomes in some area an athlete of God.
–Martha Graham

Here are some photos I took at the ATB7 opening which occurred during Convergence.

ATB7
Margo MacDonald,
Shimenawa for Puget Sound

ATB7, Marcia Ellis, WindSong

Mary Zicafoose, from her Chromosone Series,
at Tampa Airport

Sarah Swett, Blue Day

The ATB7 Catalog is wonderful! You can order it here. The works have such a human element this time, and such emotional force.

>I’m just back from Convergence and the ATA workshop “Channeling Your Muse,” as well as a long weekend sailing in Narragansett Bay for the July 4th holiday. What a whirlwind! It was all great, but the ATA Workshop stands out way above the rest as an experience I won’t forget anytime soon!

I’ve got photos! I bought a new camera the night before leaving for Florida, since my husband and I are always needing the camera while going in different directions. So….I have to learn how to get the photos from the camera to the computer. I’ll be back shortly with images!

>Well, I have not managed to learn how to make a photo collage. Everything technical is such a steep learning curve for me!

The garden is looking quite nice….the peonies have just opened, along with the pinks and cranes’ bills and Siberian iris, while the bleeding hearts are fading. My weld is huge and just about to bloom so I’m looking forward to some dyeing! Hopefully I can rejuvenate my indigo vat and get some wild lime green like I saw at Vicki Fraser’s studio two years ago!

My catalog for ATB7 arrived in the mail just before Chris’ graduation. What a wonderful surprise to find part of Buddha’s face on the cover! I’m very honored!

Wedding plans abound, Convergence is just around the corner, I’ve got homework from my Pre-Columbian workshop with Susan Martin Maffei, and three tapestries in various degrees of completion (one that is still in the design stage). My knitted kimono is almost done! It’s sewn together and the knitted band is about 1/2 done. I’d like to wear it to the wedding shower in mid-June….next weekend! Yikes! I’m partially done with a silk kimono style vest that tempted me at the MD Sheep and Wool. It’s a kit from Just Our Yarn. The only downer for me right now is that somehow I’ve caught a summer cold that’s been making the rounds here.