>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!