Sara was here again to day showing me how to move my videos from flipshare to imovie and how to export them to my video frame.  Getting the videos onto imovie was a breeze and I think I finally got it this time.(I wrote everything down).  Getting the videos onto the video frame took some more time to figure out.  First the video  wouldn’t play, then we got a picture, but it was broken up into strange squares and vibrant colors.

I would have given up, but Sara kept at it.  She  actually seemed to be having fun trying to figure it out.  Each time she tried she got closer.  We got to the point were  we superstitious about each step.  Only I could put the card into the screen and I could take it out of the card reader, but Sara had to put it in.

And finally, it worked.  We watched a 10 second video of Freida’s tail in the snow on the video screen.  (the video was one of those experiments, I thought I could edit it onto some other images to make a visual poem.    I also happen to think that Freida has an exceptional tail.)

Determined to make sure I knew how to do it, when Sara left, I tried to load another video.   I read all my instructions and… the  first one didn’t work.  I tried again, made some changes and still it didn’t work.  I gave up after the 3rd try.

There’s always tomorrow and Sara is never too far away.

Pember Library Clock

I dropped my work off at the Pember Library yesterday for the show on Friday (it runs through April 25th you can see more info on my events page).  3 Quilts and 9 potholders that I’ve been working on for the past month or so.  I was a little nervous dropping them off, although I wasn’t sure why.  When I got back home, I found I had very little energy or motivation. I wanted to write about it, but couldn’t even get myself to do that.

So what happened?   Deflation, a kind of  postpartum.  I thought of the feeling I used to get as a kid after my birthday was over or what it must feel like to send your kid off to the first day of school.    It makes sense that after a period of intense production, working towards an end, there would be a period of leveling or balancing energy.  A crash.

So I took a lesson from my animals who don’t seem to  question their motives and trust their instincts.  I let myself feel what I was feeling, I went to my yoga class and  I didn’t blog.   Then I went to bed and slept like a barn cat on a bail of hay in the sun.

Butterfly collection at the Pember Museum

Check out desk at the Pember Library

These are some of the stitch sketch potholders I’ll be selling at the Pember Library’s First Friday.  I know this  Friday (April 1st)  is April Fool’s, but what artist isn’t a fool at some point or another.  The reception is from 7-9pm at 33 Main St Granville NY  (518) 642-2525.  The Pember Museum, upstairs from the Library, will be open too.  It’s an original Victorian Natural History Museum and worth seeing just for the insect, butterfly and egg collection. You travel back over a hundred years when you enter the Pember Museum.

Reading Chair

I’ll be showing and selling my work with 2 other artists and 20% of all sales is donated to support the Library.  I’ll have 3 quilts and a bunch of potholders for sale.  Most of them have some reference to books, and some are sketches from the Pember Library.

You can check out my Events page for more details.

The Reading Quilt is done and ready for the show on April 1st at the Pember Library.  I’ll be selling it for $250.  20% of all sales are donated to support the Library. Now I just have to make a few more potholders for the show.

detail

detail of bookshelf

I’ve been using tea, teapots and the  healing and social act of drinking tea in my art for a long time.

For years I kept my used teabag stings and came up with ways to make art out of them.  I wove them into spirals in carpets, used them to tie quilts, hung them like tiny jump ropes from tiny nails and created abstract wall installations by tying them to straight pins and pushing them into my studio walls.  I wove them together with my used tampon strings for a year creating  a 6 foot long “calender”.

There’s comfort in a cup of tea, and it often involves another person and conversation.  It’s what people do.

Detail from Reading Quilt

From childhood I was taught that if you have  fun you have to suffer afterward.

My grandmother’s favorite story was about the man who retired and the next day he died.  She would tell a different version of this  story again and again, until my sister and I eventually made a game of it.  We would tell each other stories ,mimicking my grandmothers Italian accent, about people who  finally got what they wanted in life and then died immediately.  Needless to say, if this is what you believe, you’re not going to want anything too good to happen.   Later in life, If I were going on vacation and the car broke down I would be relieved that “the bad thing” had happened and I had survived it.

So a few years ago  I  began to change my life and lots of good things started to happen.  In the beginning it was still difficult enough for me to feel safe with the balance of good and bad.  But as time passed, the good stuff started to outweigh the bad.  When I felt “too” good, I repeated my mantra, “That’s Grandma’s story, not mine, I don’t believe it anymore.”  Then  I  would knock on wood and wait for the catastrophe to happen.

Recently I heard the idea, that joy actually brings more joy.  That the best thing we could do for ourselves and others is fill ourselves up with love which will radiate and expand to those around us.  That we can trust the good stuff and can’t have too much of it.   This doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen, it just means that good doesn’t bring about bad.

So this morning, as I was beginning to get scared, because it felt like life was just too good, I thought of accepting the good the same way I accepted the difficult.  And with a little help,  decided to trust that joy does bring more joy and there can’t be too much love.

Reading Quilt pieced together

A while ago my friend Suzy send me this orange ball of her hand spun goat wool.  It was left over from  a hat she made and to me it was a precious gift.  I sat it on a deer bone on my shelf, a  worthy goddess.

I tried spinning a couple of years ago, and quickly gave up.  While it looks easy and meditative, I just didn’t have the patience to learn.  I put it in the category of playing an instrument.  Looks like fun, but the talent just isn’t there.  So I really appreciated the quality of Suzy’s wool.   But last week Suzy took another spinning lesson and sent me an email describing it.  I thought it was as much a life lesson as a spinning lesson:

“I felt like I was starting over again, somewhat.  It’s, once again, about letting  go – easing up – let the twist come in as it naturally want to and let it flow.  Judi, my teacher, spun with what seemed so little effort.  …so practice, practice and some more lessons I think.  When I learned initially, it was rough and I felt so at odds with the fiber and my wheel, then slowly it started to click and became easier… I find it interesting that even though I feel I’ve come far – there is quite a ways to go.  I felt encouraged, it is definitely a process – humbling .”

My potholder version of Suzy's wool

A few weeks ago a friend emailed me and suggested I make a “Reading Quilt” after seeing all the potholders from the Library Book Tour.  I thought it was a good idea, and when I started making potholders and quilts for the Pember Library, it came back to me.

So today I started on my reading quilt.  I used a few elements from on a previous potholder stitch sketch and added some book stuff.  Above is the sketch on fabric before the stitches.

Below is a short Spring lament at the  snow which covered the fields again in white after yesterday’s Spring melt. (as you can see, I’m still working on acceptance)

The Pig Barn Gallery at Bedlam Farm will have it first Exhibit on Saturday and Sunday June 4th and 5th 2011.  There’s some work to be done to the Pig Barn before it will be a gallery, but not too much. Mostly just a clean-up and some track lighting.  The first show is From the Everyday to Art and will feature 5 local artists, Serena Kovalosky, Diane Swanson, Jack Metzger, Jon Katz and me.  All the work focuses on the everyday, the mundane made into art.  Our first meeting is April 5th where we’ll be sorting out  the details.

The Video above shows the Pig Barn as it is now.  Keep watching for the full transformation from barn to gallery.