Jo Metson Scott and her woodland mysteries

For the last few days my backyard has been filled with the most magical mist. All of summer's last blooms have been tiny zings of color emerging from gray transparent overlays. It seems we only get to see this get this kind of beauty when the weather shifts happen. The collision of warm and cool. I recently came across Jo Metson Scott's series of photos that take advantage of these fragile moments in nature. To fall in love with more of her work you can got here. And don't miss her cover for the NY Times here.

Beautiful Decay

My sweetheart, Paul Clancy, has new work at the Candita Clayton Studio in RI. The show, Four Thought, is comprised of work by Allison Paschke, Agata Michalowska, and Graham Heffernan. Paul's photos often find the beauty in the natural decay of architecture. Sometimes I can see loss in the beauty and sometimes hope. This particular collection of work has special meaning because his subject was the antique yacht club in Edgewood, RI and the caretakers cottage next door. The cottage was the last house he shared with his children and wife at the time. In February of this year the yacht club was struck by lightening and burned to it's pilings. Paul and I visited soon after and went into the cottage that the yacht club was renovating. It was my first time in this home that meant so much to him and his first time in 8 years. It was humming with volunteer workers and had already been stripped to it's antique lathing. The huge loss of the yacht club caused the group to focus it's efforts on what they could repair, the cottage. The photos are on raised boxes and the sculptures are made from dumpster retrieved lathing. This work, Shaw Avenue Cairns, is Paul's response to the past and present of those structures. I do have a major crush on this man and his art. Here's a link to Greg Cook's article in the Phoenix. He likes Paul's work too. 

Earl Schmearl

I think the milk and bread industries sponsored Earl. We did get all the lawn furniture and garden tools put away. But he hasn't amounted amount to much so far. This little video by my son-in-law, Alex Chen, captures what Earl did best today. Made some waves and giggles.

Keri Rounding's Wearable Felted Art

I've been coming across more and more artists finding inspiration where I have lately- the sea and especially on a microscopic level. Keri Rounding's felted, delicately colored sea creature have been on my "love to have one" list for awhile. I can see one of her petri dish brooches on a nice white coat.

Keri Rounding is a graduate of Sheridan Institute’s Crafts and Design Program: Textile Studio. There she learned that she had a passion for creating unique wearable accessories made using handmade felt and embroidery. She now strives to create what is new and unusual. Using science and the sea as inspiration, she creates a sense of humor, a story and a personality in each piece. Working out of her home studio in, she is now exhibiting and selling her work in person around the Toronto area and online through Etsy.

www.kerirounding.com

Can you tell me about your latest body of work?
I am currently working on a series of felted pieces inspired by the sea. I am hand making the felt from raw wool using needle and wet felting techniques. The pieces are becoming pins, hair pieces and necklaces. I am experimenting with lots of colour combinations and different shapes.

What inspires you the most lately?
I have always been inspired by creatures from the sea. But lately, I am looking into scientific images and working with images of amoeba, germs, and other microscopic creatures.

Can you describe the best thing you saw on your last walk?
Lately I have enjoyed visiting the local nature conservation areas and taking hikes through their paths. I see so many interesting root systems, trees and plants. Specifically, I came across a tree that was split into six pieces that seemed to have been hit by lighting. I stood there for awhile trying to figure it out.

What are five things that would happen in the perfect day of work for you?
- Wake up early without using an alarm clock
- I would be super inspired to create and new ideas would flow
- The lovely spring weather would not appeal to me at all and I would actually stay inside and work
- I would be packaging up lots of sales
- The studio would stay clean!

Can you describe the best pair of shoes you've ever owned?
I bought a pair of flats that cost less than $20 which were the most comfortable shoes I have ever owned. They weren't pretty and I wore them until they were
just plain ugly. They finally fell apart on a camping trip.

What are you doing this weekend? (May 15 and 16)
I most likely be outside enjoying the weather, possibly a hike.

Felted Sunshine

Some flickr finds. Chicks sitting around making things with felt. Need yellow this week.

The artnetshop ring you can find here. Fun camera by sheishine here and a lovely Elista necklace here.

A Few More Beauties From Local Pottery

Lisa Howard's Lickable Pottery

I know, such an odd impulse to have with pottery, but the first time I held one of Lisa's Local Pottery bowls in my hand that's what I wanted to do. Maybe it's their frosted cookie-ness. But they are delicious looking and each one totally hand built, painted blimpy dab at a time and pure joy to hold. She stopped by the other day with armfuls of tea bowls and tiny serving pieces to show me the new green she's fallen in love with. Her face is still a little brown from her month camping on St. John and her blue green eyes sparkled as she described the color of the water that inspired this new line. A deeper shade of seafoam, higher up on the Pantone page, this green got me too. She is a (mostly self-taught) potter working out of studio and gallery, Local Pottery, that she opened in Pembroke, MA in 1996.  She makes pots, teaches classes and represents the work of 20 or so other fine craftspeople.  Lisa lives in the pretty little seaside town of Scituate, MA where she can garden fanatically and try to ride her mountain bike without crashing. 

Can you tell me about your latest body of work?
I make functional pottery.  Every piece is different.  I don't measure for consistent sizing or make multiples.  Making pots has to feel like exploring.  I like seeing all the different sizes and patterns piled together.  It feels abundant-like looking at all the goodies in a French bakery.  Right now, I'm really into this new green that I'm using and also some fairly dense patterning.
  
What inspires you the most lately?
Where I live is so beautiful, it would be hard not to be inspired.  Mornings, I watch the sunrise over the harbor.  The color and feel of any given morning can be familiar but never exactly the same as another.  I look at the marsh, plants, birds, boats, trees.  I think about the way things grow and change and then make patterns that are visual metaphors or reminders. 

What was your first memory?
Growing up, we had this big old orange long-haired cat named Brandy.  I loved that cat. 

Can you describe the best thing you saw on your last walk?
That Spring is here!  The trees are budding and from a distance look covered in reddish frizz.  The lichen looks electric against it.  It's my favorite time of year. 

What are five things that would happen in the perfect day of work for you?
It all starts with getting up early enough to watch the sun come up and read for an hour or so while I drink my coffee.  It gets me in the right place-relaxed but fully awake and not rushed.  Then once I am at the shop, I switch around public radio and music while I trim pots and start decorating.  I especially love the wet parts of ceramic process.  All my color is applied to surfaces that are what American potters call leather hard.  (The Brits call it "cheese-hard" which I actually think is a better description).  A really good, flowy work day has a lot of decorating in it.  It's pretty rhythmic and I can bounce between a number of pieces.   Sometimes I bring things outside to work on. I can tend my plants when I need to stand up and stretch.   Most days, customers and friends are around, too.  It would be no fun potting in a vacuum. 

Can you describe the best pair of shoes you've ever owned?
I'm wearing them!  Black cherry leather  Troentorp closed-back clogs.  The leather is hand-nailed to the wooden part your foot is on.  The very bottom is rubber-they sound great when I walk. 

What are you doing this weekend? (March 28, 29)
March 27-29:  My shop is open on Saturday, so my weekend is Sunday-Monday.  I'll plant the rest of my pansies (Delta Blue with Blotch, mostly), take out the mountain bike.  I have a lunch date with an old friend and my dad will be 79 on on Tuesday, so I'm sure we'll celebrate that, too. 

Hello Friday!

Image No.1 If you're going with warm Grey 4, I'm loving these together.

No. 2 Image Dries Van Noten Summer Collection

No. 3 Is from 13 Threads. Be sure to stop by her etsy shop.

Image No.4 That wonderful Elisita in one of those "I want it Bad" outfits

Words and Pictures

The relationship of words and pictures have some special magic. Somewhere between them lies the true story for me. I've been tinkering/struggling with 3 childrens books off and on for about 6 years. I've never had any formal education on how to actually write and illustrate a book but this week came across some advice that went right to my heart. Victoria Thorne a new colorgirl follower, has been given some incredible advice to follow by author and illustrator M.B. Goffstein. If you aren't familiar with Goffstein's work, you most likely are and don't know it. Time Magazine has said about her- "Goffstein is a minimalist, but her text and pictures carry the same emotional freight as William Blake's admonishment to see the world in a grain of sand and eternity in an hour" 

Here is her advice- 

How to Write and Illustrate a Picture Book

Copyright © M.B. Goffstein 2009

   

To Victoria Thorne, with love

 

To make a 32-page picture book, take your favorite book and count the pages.

Count them over and over.

The pages of a book are divisible by 8, preferably by 16.

If you have a 24-page book, you can use the extra 8 pages as endpapers (2 sides are pasted down).

Make sure the pages of front matter are in order.

You can have more or fewer, but the book must be made right to have energy.

Paging the book, dividing the text into pages, is crucial.

Write something you don't know but long to know.

It is tiresome to read a text that the author hasn't fought for, lost, and by some miracle when all hope is gone, found.

•

When you have your text, say it over and over until the rough edges are worn smooth.

Recite it to yourself in the mirror.

The book must be separate from you.

•

You are serving the book.

It has to make its way in the world.

Make sure it can communicate.

•

Paging a book is difficult.

Do not start to illustrate until you have divided the text among the pages.

The book should speak without pictures.

•

There is one way for your book to look.

It is your duty to find it.

What do the characters look like?

Their world is on paper before you.

The characters talk to each other.

They mean what they say.

Their hearts are in it.

•

What makes you think children like childish things?

Don't tell them how to be children.

They want to grow up.

Do them the honor of reaching for something far beyond you.

It won’t be noticeable but it will be felt.

•

Do the book and forget it.

Do not strive to be known as the author of . . .

Your next book will be harder, and so on.

You cannot grow if you repeat past successes.

Some Illustration in the works from one of my picture books. FlingFlong won't leave me alone.

I Love Barbara Schweitzer's Words

Barbara Schweitzer is the author of 33 1/3: Soap Opera Sonnets, cited in The Providence Journal as a favorite book for 2008.  She has twice been the recipient of Merit Fellowships from the RI State Council on the Arts for poetry and has won numerous other national prizes including the Galway Kinnell Poetry Prize and Midwest Writer’s Center Prize.  Her work has been featured on Verse Daily and on WRNI’s “This I Believe” program as well as in literary journals and anthologies, print and online.  Her plays have been produced locally in RI and MA and have been finalists or semi-finalists in national competitions including the Louisville Ten Minute Play Contest.  Her play Sub-Zero was  published in The Writer’s Circle Anthology.  She is co-founder of the Origami Poems Project, a Johnny Appleseed approach to distributing free poetry in pocket-size origami books throughout RI.  She lives in northern RI and maintains a private practice in psychotherapy in Providence. 

Can you tell me about your latest body of work? Lately I’ve been engaged in our Origami Poems Project.  Begun as a prompt I gave to the poets in a poetry workshop, the origami books caught fire.  They are a full volume of poetry printed on a single sheet of paper then folded, origami style, into a book perfect to carry around in your pocket and read all day. Forty five volumes are now being distributed in plexiglass boxes and ziplock bags on telephone poles throughout RI. Lynnie Gobeille and Jan Keough orchestrate the distribution, and the books are free for the taking.  Free poetry! For real. And the books surely will win the Guinness Book of World records as The Book With The Smallest Carbon Footprint.

What inspires you the most lately? Lately, I’ve adapted the origami poems style to Cyjoe Barker detective stories.  Cyjoe Barker solves her murder mysteries in five chapters only, a feat only an origami detective can accomplish!

What was your first memory? The smell of a root cellar at my great grandparents’ house in Sugarcreek, Ohio. Earth. Onions. Potatoes. Grass.  I am still dizzy from it as I write these words.

Can you describe the best thing you saw on your last walk? (run)  A pair of cardinals flinging themselves with rapture into the bare arms of forsythia. One bright red male. One tempered female.

What are five things that would happen in the perfect day of work for you? 1. The sound of the keyboard steadily click, click, click. My fingers would feel the command of my thoughts. 2. Fragrant breezes (sweet spring morning) would waft from the open window beside me. 3. The room would sparkle. The air would wave with sunbeams. The tables would be dusted. 4. Birdsong. 5. The sculpture of words on the page would thrill me.

Can you describe the best pair of shoes you've ever owned? Oh, shoes! Why love shoes so much? My favorite pair of shoes must be the red sandals I put on in NYC when I was 25 years old. They had wooden high heels, and I walked the streets day and night that day and night with them on. I still remember the way the city looked and felt under them. The feel of wooden heels.  (But then there have been so many more I’ve loved as well.)

What are you doing this weekend? (March 13-14) My entire weekend is focused on the Towers’ All You Need is Love II Sunday, March 14, 1-5PM, a love fest for poetry and the arts at the historic Narragansett Towers in Narragansett, RI. On the ocean. The Origami Poems Project poets will be there along with featured reader Tom Chandler.  Poets, artists, musicians, actors will gather to celebrate their work.  Wine and chocolate galore, thanks to the generous merchants of the area who believe in LOVE and ART. Is there any difference between the two? 
- Photo of Fresh Origami Poetry Books on the Line, courtesy of Origami Poems

3.9.10 Color Swatch

W A R M  G R E Y  4 U

A sigh in Maine grey. Gray Maine. The morning dove at the end of the arborvitae hedge. Small throat clearing at a funeral. Grey that will make every other hue sit nice and true to itself. Hummmmmmmmmm grey. My squishy kneaded eraser grey. Absorbing grey.  Gray woods. Dorian Gray seeing his black soul. Grey's Anatomy, yes thank you. Grey hair, no thank you. Uniform grey. Yellow + Purple = Grey. Help, Grey Day! Grey Day! Gray for the Brits. Grey for the Yanks. Smartypants grey matter. Grey Gardens. Grey area. NY Times, the grey lady. Words becoming rivers of grey.

Grey in Glass

 

 

Some lovely grey glass. Top nesting glass set found on Remodilista.

Second Murano glass pendent found at Lumens.com.

Third sweet little etsy find by Pollyfusia.

Fourth mid-century martini set found here.

And one more thanks to Remodilista.

Poem for Monday

no. 92
-Barbara Schweitzer
 
Have you seen how colors boast distinctions?
Greens shout themselves into gay petals.
Tulips bend over backwards, bleeding tinctures
into desiccated snowdrops, metal-
toned like the earth itself. Past tense flowers
will bloom to death, and here, spring erupts, not
kind, but bossy in that way of empowered
voices just finding air, or –  love –  wobbly
as peonies at first, but then outstretching.
But, oh, let’s not compare love to spring again.
Fertility must have other more fetching
images to hold. Layers of rock, sane
thoughts, beach sand, gray horizons, purple, pink?
There is solidness to love, too, I think.
Photo of Providence Parking Lot Wall by Paul Clancy

Mini Garden Art

Some tiny metal sculptures by Jeff Borden planted in my desktop rock garden.

“World peace through better color”

-Alyn Carlson

That’s one of the things I put on my business cards and most people seem to get it. I’ve watched so many of my clients and friends walk into my studio or home and break out in a grin. They lovingly run their fingertips over colored pencils, hold a paint tube in an achy palm, and with their eyes caress swatches of color aid paper. They usually give me a happy glazed look and say something like “You must be so happy working with all this color.” Actually I am.

It was a rumble in my stomach for years. I took a 20 year break from making personal work and craved color so much it just started bubbling up in all my design. I found when I started a project the first thing I did was open the pantone swatch book and listen for direction. When the damm broke and I started making personal work again about 8 years ago, I floated around with an expression on my face similar to the Dalai Lama’s. So why do we walk around starving ourselves? Pick the softest palest taupe and avoid the sexy tomatoe bisque? Afraid? Of what?

One of my favorite rants on that subject is by David Batchelor in his slim little hot pink book, Chromophobia. The more western our thinking is, the more urban we get, the farther away from intense color we find ourselves. Is color vulgar, dirty, primitive? Why should we bother to even consider this right now with all this economic malaise? Shouldn’t we lay low and keep our heads down, no changes, stay as beige as possible, and make ourselves as quiet and small as we can?

Because color = joy. What I love and am moved by every day, abstract expressionist Charles Seliger’s Ways of Nature, my little spring green Roseberry Winn vase, and even my carved bakelite bangles, feed me. I know responsible austerity is wise right now but so is smiling every day.

Hey my demi god, Milton Glaser puts it so well “If you like Mozart and I like Mozart we really have something in common. So the likelihood of us killing each other has been diminished.”

Don’t you just love the color yellow?

As an actor, I find it helpful to do a little color study of the character I'm working on to help articulate who they are. My dear friend, director, and mentor, Pat Hegnauer got me started on this practice 10 years ago. We've collaborated often with these images, paired with her poetry. Here are a few I've created through the years- Stephanie from Tom Kepinski's Duet for One, Flora from Tennessee Williams 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Lady Ninjo from Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, Dull Gret from Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, Mrs. Malaprop from Sheridan's The Rivals, Pope Joan from Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, Constance from Shakespeare's King John, Sister Angelita from Ethan Phillips' Penguin Blues, and the fabulous Molly Bloom from James Joyce and Sheila Walshes' Molly and James.