Emily Dickinson

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad, --
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.

IN THE GARDEN - A bird came down the walk

by Emily Dickinson

Waking Up

It was dark this morning when I woke up. It is really hard to wake up when it is dark. We were running late, and I drop off my son at his Highschool on the way to mine and it usually works out pretty well, except this morning I drove the direction to the middle school by mistake (as that was where he went last year) and when I had to make a quick left to turn around I almost hit a kid on a bicycle, who was going down the sidewalk on the wrong side of the road, but still I felt terrible. The bicycle kid did a quick save and circled off to the side and I apologized. I hate mornings like this. I did however see a couple of large crows, one of which was very proud about a large peice of food he was carrying. I love crows and we have alot around here. I always thought that a raven was the same thing as a crow, but it isn't.

Dreaming

A friend asked me a couple of weeks ago what my dream job would be. What I really dream of is getting a decent paycheck and benefits for painting, knitting, sewing and making jewelry all day. I would work really hard too. But since no one is this country is willing to pay the high price for beautiful objects and art, I will continue to show up at the job I have. Luckily I get a lot of time off and can still get to all my painting, knitting, sewing and jewelry projects. And, luckily while I am at work I can think about those projects and dream of painting and surf the web for inspiration.The latest of which is Camilla Engman. I admire the balance inthese paintings and the edges she gets to her awesome shapes. I am going to try to keep painting small pieces at the dining room table each day. I also really want to work on a large canvas in the basement that I started two years ago.

Sheep

This picture makes me think of Haruki Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase. There are so many images in my head from that amazing novel. There is also a refernce to high school students in this picture that I cannot put into words.

Monday Mornings

I am not really interested in sharing my working life with the world, but because I consider this blog a kind of historical journal for my own purposes, I want to document the beginning of the 2008 school year. I work in a high school that is going under severe renovations and new additional building. The work is supposed to be completed in 2010. So, this post is for me, to look back at in two years and either see improvement or be even more miserable about how long it is taking. Some of the construction is interesting to look at. I love this yellow wall board against the blue sky.I like two things about my job. I arrive at 7:30 and for about six weeks I will get to see the sun rise as I head up over Ellison Park. The other thing I love are these brilliant turquoise blue panels on the outside of the building . There is a stack of them on a trash can in the courtyard and I am trying to figure out who to bribe to get them.

collage

Here are two collages I think are finished. I am having a difficult time accepting the vagueness of the images and the light colors. But I am trying really hard to allow different things to happen in my art work and appreciate them for what they are. I may put these two on Etsy today and see what happens.

And this is one of my daughter's pet rats. She is allergic to them and can't even hold them. So I take care of them and clean the cage and all. We had a long conversation last night about how much she loves them and if she gave them away it wouldn't be any differnt then them dying in her heart.

Looking forward

September is such a wonderful month! I will be selling my work at Artist Row on Sunday September 21st from 10 -4. Artist Row is at the Rochester Public Market and it is definetly the best arts festival ever. Lots of dance, music and performance art surround hundreds of young avante garde artists. I am looking forward to that weekend also because it is the weekend of the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival. I really enjoy watching the herding dogs at work and purchasing too much roving and yarn. I fell in love with this yarn on Etsy, but I will hold off for now.

Stephanie Levy

So, now that school is back in session I am back to looking for art that inspires me. Stephanie Levy is an artist I somehow found over a year ago while browsing the internet. I had printed some of her collages/drawings and pasted them in my journal. I surprisingly came across her again and now I know about her etsy shop and blog.

fourteen years

My son is fourteen years old today.      

It is unbelievably difficult to think that fourteen years has past since that Friday night of painful labor. (And yes, he was born on Labor Day weekend). I am so lucky to have him and his sister and their Dad (my wonderful husband). We had a lovely family dinner with cake and ice cream of course. (The two younger boys in the pic are family friends). I am counting my many blessing tonight, one of them including the fact that I am not in labor. 

SOLD

The vintage typewriter keys sold, so I have posted more for sale on Etsy. I am still on the fence about cutting up my collection. I passed up one today for $10 at the Avon Flea Market. (The last Sunday of the season). I wasn't able to bring myself to purposely buy a typewriter  just for profit of its destruction.

Home Maker

I had some things framed and I have been trying to get the house in order as the school year begins. We have lived in this house for over four years and it is still a work in progress. Here is a shot of a corner of our dining room. I love this little picture by Erin Tyner. I may have to make a collection of her work. Two or three would look good on this wall, don't you think? The collage pods growing out of the molding are the one element I feel is my personal touch in this house. There will be more, personal touches that is, I don't think my husband could stand any more pods.

O8AMA

I had a great day at the market. Thank you to everyone who came out to support me and the other South Wedge vendors. It is so much fun to see friends and meet new people. Now I move on. I an watching Obama accept the nomination and I hope this country will move on too! Check out this exciting campaign necklace by Brokadelphia. They donate $10 of the $35 to the democratic campaign. I really really want one, but have made a promise to not spend any money on myself for a while. 

South Wedge Market

Don't forget to come today to the South Wedge Market. I have 22 pairs of hand knit fingerless gloves. Once they are gone, they are gone!

Time a wastin'

I spent half of the day photographing my typewriters. I should be making work to sell on Thursday at the South Wedge Farmers Market! Oh, well. It was a very bright day and the pics come out pretty great. See if you agree.

The ever popular Underwood.

The Tower President or the President Tower?

This one I started to disassemble. It looks like an old lawnmower to me. I think I could use it in a collage, I could have a secretary from 1961 mowing and office suite with it.

The Remmington Rand

The Remmington 5

The Quiet De Luxe

 Royals are my favorite typewriters. The first one I destroyed was a royal.

typewriter keys

 Just found this image from Small. What an amazing magazine! I guess Elisabeth Dunker is a photographer for them. Beautiful work Elisabeth! I actually have over eight vintage typewriters. (Is there such a thing as a contemporary typewriter?) I just love the look of typewriters, the juxtaposition of the mechanical with the visually pleasing design. I had planned to cut off the keys to all my typewriters because they take up so much space... But this picture makes me think that these typewriters shouldn't be destroyed. I  got them out of the basement and was reminded today why I love them so much. They are simply lovely objects. I will photograph them at least, if I cannot figure out a good home for them I will have the images of them saved for eternity. 

I'll post the photos of them tomorrow. 

 I love Michelle Maul's drawings of typewriters and although I will not attempt to draw them, I want to have these objects saved somehow.

Hear are keys of a lovely typewriter I failed to photograph first. I'll be posting them on Etsy today in small groups, I have the group of Shift Keys up already.

This Picture was obviously not in focus - but I like it...isn't it eery?

Small Magazine and Shanna Murray

Shanna Murray of Nook and Second Storie has her gorgeous work at Small. Congratulations to Shanna and thanks for introducing me to this beautiful website.

Thursday is coming soon

I will be selling my art work, cards, jewelry and fingerless gloves a the South Wedge Market this Thursday. I am trying to make a few more pairs of gloves and more earrings like these. Who could pass these up at $10 a pair ?

My friend, Nanso, gave me this great beer bottle after she saw my post about the Bassa Nova Acai recycled glass earrings (May 8th). I like this glass so much more. It has a gold and a green text on amber brown glass. And the bottles are very large which allows for more pieces. Too bad I don't like beer. But I have friends who do and they happily drink it and return the empty bottles to me. I "antiqued" the silver solder on these  and oxidized the silver findings. I really like the finished product. I need to go now and work on completing more before Thursday.

Asian Pears

We went to the Brighton Farmers Market this morning. I am sad to say that today was my first visit. But it is very nice and we bought some homemade manicotti for dinner tonight and lots of fruit, including these asian pears I photographed. I have always wanted to make poached pears for dessert. I will have to wait until they ripen but I think these pears will be perfect for that. I have also made a wonderful pear ginger jam in past years. I wait until late fall when pears are not quite so expensive to do that. The jam comes out a beautiful yellow color and makes for a lovely holiday gift.

Decisions

So here is the finished piece in place. And I do really love it.
I played around more with the pieces to this puzzle and I think I may rip the painting in half and have the house shape/flyswatter hanging down in the empty space...

These colors are truer to the reality of the painting. In the photos below I was using photoshop adjustments to give it something it just doesn't have.

I am working on this piece for our living room. I have a large frame that I am repurposing for an empty wall. It is getting there. I need to sand down the shininess of the acrylic paint and decide how much collage to use. The oval of wallpaper is bothering me - I like it and I dislike it. I am considering painting something over it to push it back...but I don't want it very complicated.

blog bugs

Here are some of our  wonderful finds from Pennsylvania's woods and gardens. My favorite is the spider nest. Each day we took a walk and would check out the spider nest that was along side of the road. It just looks like a fuzzy ball, but if you shook the branch a little the tiny spiders would all disperse. The fuzzy caterpillars were all over the place. Allen says the green bug is a katydid, but I am going to look it up.