from above and below

Bleak Water

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

Cold rain, warm Great Lake water. I waded until the clouds got so low that soon, too soon, they let loose their rainy load. Winds, too. This, not far from me. The weather fascinates me. There's all that energy up there, all around, doing stuff. It's always there and doesn't much care about us.

come, bring your friends

The Invitation

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

The next exhibition of Vicious Scissors is hanging in Lavery Library at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York. It will be up for two months, but the reception, yes, the reception, where I will be laughing and answering questions, that is on Thursday, September 17th, from 4 to 7 pm. This is a small party. Come join me, look at my art, tell me what you think, write that down in my notebook so that I will remember what you think. Tell me what works, what doesn't. Mostly, though, enjoy it. Please.

it continues, with help

Ibuprofen

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

I am the poster person for better living through chemistry. I choose carefully and then use to their full capabilities those chemical structures that make me able to handle the world. Whew! Imagine a time when the best medicines were whiskey and willow bark. Aspirin from the willow bark and whiskey in a hot toddy work very well indeed, still. But ibuprofen! Now there is a wonderful antidote to many kinds of pain, including the headache that accompanied yesterday's sore throat. See the headache being attacked by ibuprofen here? Go get it, you (RS)-2-(4-isobutylphenyl)propanoic acid, C₁₃H₁₈O_{2 !}

what now

Sore Throat

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

There was a time in the early 1980s when I would come down with strep throat every August at about this time. It would put me to bed for a week; nasty thing. Then it stopped and I've not had it since, have I? Today, I have a sore throat. It's not strep—you know that doctors of old, the ones who came to the house, could smell strep throat—it's just a sore throat. Too much talking. Sleeping with the window open right over my head in these cool nights. Stress. Allergies. Could be anything.

We have moved into the era of strange viruses, N1H1 being the current threat. Poor swine, having an illness named for them when they really have nothing to do with how the world is.

not letting impulse take over

Going

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

Heaven for me would be someone giving me a credit card with no limit, good health insurance, and a requirement that I spend at least four months on the road every year going, just going, seeing places, stopping where I wanted, looking at what I think is interesting, then taking another four months to teach about what I saw. And then, the last four months I could spend making my art with no disruption, no other requirements. When I am on the highway heading to work, I often think, well, what if I just kept going? Ignore the exit to school and just go, through Pennsylvania and Ohio and continue. Stop in Greensburg, Kansas, to see what it looks like after that tornado took the town away. Look down into the deepest hand-dug well, which still is a hole in the ground, see if it still looks like the hole that it looked like when I first saw it. And then stop in Great Falls, Montana, to look at those manipulated waterfalls, to try to imagine what Lewis and Clark saw when they came upon them back in 1802 or 1803. And in between, I would look at the fields and the rocks and the other villages, and eat the food and photograph the sky and read in the public libraries.

Having said all that, I do not mean to imply that what I am doing with my life now is bad. Not at all. Just sometimes my genetic GOING gets the best of me, and I want to just go. Remind me to tell you the story that both my great-grandmother and mother would tell about trains.

water

Coastal Initiative

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

I went to a one-day conference about environmental issues on the Great Lakes, specifically Lake Ontario. The event was held at the State University of New York College at Brockport, so in the afternoon, I drove just that little bit further north to Lake Ontario, given that I had been listening to stuff about it all day. And, of course, it's one of my most favorite places, so I had to go. Beautiful day. Algae-filled water. Couldn't help but think of the coliform that is being spewed by many of the creeks running into the lake, bringing with them run-off from agricultural fields and manure from dairy farms. It didn't stop me from wading in to pick up rocks and glass, though. Nope. This is what we have to work with, so. . .there it is.

What a place we have made for ourselves.

today's color

Cut & Color, or How I Look 55

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

A number of years ago, I saw a photograph of Martha Stewart in some magazine. What riveted me was her hair, specifically the many different colors that were in her hair: various shades of blonde and brown and even a little bit of red. It was extremely multicolored. I couldn't stop looking at it, and I don't know why. What was it about all those strands of hair, each a different color?

About every 4 or 5 weeks, I go have a magician make my hair look like many different shades of red. She also cuts it short so that I don't have to think about it at all. It can stand on end, or it can lay flat, and I won't care. But the color! The color is important. Partly, that's because it is keeping the grey away. But part of it is having those multicolored strands all in one place.

One day, however, I will go in there and ask that all the color be stripped, and I will walk out of there with my hair the grey that it is growing out as. One day, but not this day.

anticipation

Thunderstorm

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

Thunderstorm cells have been around all week with some spectacular storms—wind! rain! lightning! noise! So I thought that it was time that I dealt with this subject. And yesterday, that strange shrieking electronic beeping came on the radio during All Things Considered and the electronic weather voice started in, telling of massive storms coming. Wow! Official news of the storm! What great timing for this little art piece. I worked, stitching and stitching the rain, then stitching the lightning. Whew! But what a disappointment! My lightning is wimpy. And so was the storm. Turns out that it came across Lake Ontario, about 25 miles north of me, so nothing happened here. No thunder, no lightning, no rain. Sigh.

strange mind

Froggy Courtin' Lake Ontario

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

I had gone to that favorite place of mine, Lake Ontario, to collect some beach glass and thought that today's piece should be about the lake. Again. I told you it was one of my favorite places, and in all seasons, too. So, I was putting the thing together when the song Froggy Went a-Courtin' popped into my head and wouldn't leave. Remember that song?

Froggy went a-courtin'

He did ride, uh-huh, uh-huh.

Froggy went a-courtin'

He did ride,

A sword and pistol

By his side, uh-huh, uh-huh.

He goes to Miss Mousie's house, she sits on his lap, I think they get married. Anyway, I found the frog (isn't he cute?) that belonged on this collage to finish off the piece so that the song would go away. I also checked out YouTube for versions of the song, and there are many, including Bruce Springsteen and Elvis and Bob Dylan!

I haven't yet seen a frog at the lake, although—when was it? here—I did come across a large crayfish/crawdad/mudbug there once.

Why does the mind link some things together and not others?!

another roommate, of sorts

Zero the YoYoMan

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

Zero the YoYoMan has joined the household. He was rescued from an antique shop by a friend of mine and brought to live amidst our many species of birds, cats, stuffed critters, and sock monkeys, who are taking this extremely badly, afraid that Zero will displace them as my favorite toys. (Joey the bird has already done that, but don't, just don't, tell them that. Two of them are still in the car from the summer travels, actually, and only heard the bird when it screeched once on its way home from the shelter, and they were sleeping and didn't know what that noise was. I told them it was another car's fan belt.) So now Zero is terrorizing us with those eyebrows of his. Maybe I'll take him to the salon with me on Monday and have something done with them. Cripes, they are scary! It's also that smile, though, so. . .I don't know. I just don't know about the YoYoMan.

questions for my readers

For three weeks now, you have been receiving daily posts of artwork. These are part of a year-long project called "The 55 Chronicle." My questions to all of you are: Do you want information/explanation about each piece? Or is the title enough? Is there anything else you would like to see or read about? Please let me know because I certainly don't want to bore you, but I do want to put this project out there. If you are happy seeing the work, please pass the blog on to others you know who might be interested. If you aren't happy seeing the work, please let me know what would make you life better that I can actually do something about —we're talking within the realm of this blog, of course.
:-)

Meanwhile, here is what the sky looked like this morning.

confinement

Out the Office Window

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches wide

rulers

Measuring Spaces

mixed media

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

easy day

Work Day

mixed media

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

can it get worse?

90°

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

noisy world

Joey Screams at Cars

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

how to clean house

My Kind of Domesticity

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

With thanks to Linda Bachman, who showed me this zigzag "piecing" technique.

better day, strange piece

Finding the Rainbow

collage, embroidery

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

minimalism

This Day, or How a Bad Day Feels

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

bright spots

Friends = Sun
collage
7 inches wide x 7 inches high

saving nature from ourselves

Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge

mixed media

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

manipulated nature

Niagara Falls

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

Several years ago, I made most of this piece after visiting the Falls. Yesterday, I went back to the Falls, as I do when I can. The New York State Park is really quite beautiful. Why people go to the Canadian side, I don't know. This is a fine park, a place to sit next to the rushing water, the water that is moving so quickly that it is hard to comprehend its strength. It's just there in its standing waves, its white water, and its dark blue depths. When the sun shines, the water sparkles as though it is the happiest thing in the world. Too bad it has the history that is has. What a place.

Go.

lake ontario light

South Wind

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

When the wind blows from off shore, from the south, the surface of Lake Ontario is calm, smooth, with just little wavelets coming up on the beach. This was one of those days. East light, quiet and serene.

the world in my hand

Gifts from Hoef

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

another roommate

Joey, the Conure

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

Central embroidered parrot is a mola from Panama. The feathers are from an actual parrot, a conure named Joey who came to live with me this week. See him here:

not a question

What is Art

collage

7 inches high x 7 inches wide

In response to creations out there that are pretty, crafty things. Nice technique. No stray stitches. Good color combinations. Patterns made by someone else. Connect the dots, stitch by number.

Think, people! Have an answer to how what you are making is art.

this happens

Managing the Angst

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

just

Tuesday's Errands

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

question:

Sunny Monday

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

Why is Monday traditionally the day to do laundry?

keeps thing green. . .

Summer Rain

collage

7 inches wide x 7 inches high

. . .and the mosquitos lively.

how did this happen?

55

collage

7 inches high x 7 inches wide

I became this.