shining egg

waterscape

yesterday was glorious.  perfect temperature.  gentle breeze, sun shining.  painting next to the water.  just glorious.  i considered it cosmic compensation for the windy day on the farm last week.  

 

i painted these two small pieces.  they're both 6x8.  acrylic and oil on panel.  

 

and now i'd love to stay and chat.  but the kitchen is only about 70% packed.  and the laundry room needs to be packed, too.  yikes.  so i'm going.  but know that i'd rather be here.  or painting en plein air.

perception

you cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind.  -thoreau

(found that quote scribbled on a scrap of paper in the back pocket of my old jeans this morning.  and the photo, it's from my second roll of film.  i love it.)

this and that

i've been meaning to write for days.  to say, "have a great long weekend."  and then, "i hope you're having a great long weekend."  now, days later, i do hope you had a lovely memorial day weekend.  (if you're in the united states, of course.  if you're elsewhere, i was hoping you were having a lovely time, too.  with your regular weekend.  and monday.)  but the time has slipped through my fingers.  so here i am tonight, tired, and stopping by anyhow.

d. left for a business trip to europe yesterday.  he'll be gone until next week, but we didn't let that spoil the third day of our weekend.  watched a movie, jumped through the sprinkler, grilled with friends.  grilled twice over the weekend, in fact.  and ate outside both times.  our first outdoor meals of the season.  spectacular.  i love to eat outside.  on the deck.  at the end of a long warm (preferably warm and not stifling, thank you very much) day of frolicking in the yard.

 

and in the meantime, while d. is away, i'm packing up the kitchen and laundry room in preparation for our renovation, which begins on monday.  it's a daunting task.  last night i said aloud to no one in particular, though the children were sitting with me at the time, that i would pack up one cabinet each day for the next week.  and b., in his infinite eight year old wisdom said, "mom.  there are more cabinets here than there are days left in the week."

yep. 

so i'll be here packing.  listening to my itunes.  and feeling a wee bit bewildered by all that we've stuffed into these kitchen cabinets over the last five years.  and also by how it is that we have come to settle so nicely into such a mess of a kitchen.  i'll take some 'before' pictures to share later this week.  along with the stories.  about how our stove has only two working burners.  and our kitchen faucet has the 'hot' and 'cold' reversed.  and about how much love we have cooked up on our two burners and eaten around the old kitchen table that belonged to d.'s parents.  

until you hear from me again, i'll be packing.  or.  i might be sanding and preparing panels for this week's plein air painting adventure.  thursday.  at a nearby park that happens to sit on a river.  waterscape, friends.  and i'm hoping (fingers crossed here), depending upon the electric sander and the board i purchased and the powers beyond my control, i'm hoping to paint one mid-sized panel and several smaller ones.  i have high hopes and a little secret idea for those.  if all goes according to plan, i'll share that next week.

en plein air

well i'm glad to know i'm not the only one with "order" issues!  i have more to say on that subject (i would share details of my favorite systems if i thought it wouldn't bore you to tears), but that will have to wait for another day.

 

this afternoon i'm tired!  i spent the better part of the day painting en plein air - on a farm about 30 minutes from my house.  it was glorious; invigorating and refreshing and inspiring to be outdoors with brushes and colors and jars and panels and charcoal and pencils and the like.  it was also exceptionally windy.  the kind of windy where you have to hold onto your large panel of 1/2 inch birch plywood (that's a pretty heavy panel) so that it doesn't blow away!  also the kind of windy where you have to tie your red bandana around your ears so that they don't begin to hurt from all of the wind.  

 

i felt as though i was moving all day long - setting up and carrying supplies and painting and holding on to things when the gusts were strongest and chasing after the things (tubes of paint included!) that blew away, and walking to the water source and admiring the horses and taking pictures with my pentax (hoping to have those developed tomorrow!) and taking pictures with my nikon and switching back and forth between the two panels i was painting and trying some fun little pieces that, sadly, didn't get enough attention because of the wind (but i'll be back to those).  it was a whirlwind.  a wonderful and exhausting whirlwind.

 

this is just a peek at one of the panels i worked on today.  in process.  i'll post better photos of both pieces when they're dry and i can move them around without fear of the smear.

 

i have a feeling that tonight it's going to be early to bed.  i'm looking forward to crawling under the covers with my rice bag and my book.  and dreaming about painting on the farm again next week.

tidbits

i'm not selling gossamer (2).  i've decided that the two pieces belong together.  for now.  and i'm enjoying them hanging together on my wall.  thanks to those of you who shared your opinions.  i really appreciate the input.

i've been running around all week, trying to put my house in order - literally - as much as possible before starting another huge renovation project next week.  from the big - selling our living room furniture (which i purchased nine years ago at eight months pregnant - hormonal purchase?!), to purging our basement storage area of years of accumulated mess (which feels so good.  so, so good.).  to the small - finding new knobs for all of the doors that were painted in march and have been without knobs since then.  and everything in between - washing and putting away the winter jackets and hats and gloves (and putting them away so that we won't require an archeologist to find them come november).  i've had zero time for creating anything (other than order) this week, but it does feel good to make order. 

i happen to love order.  (everything in its place, you know?)  when my surroundings are in order there is so much more space in my brain for everything else - for mothering and creating and partnering and baking and gardening and dreaming and breathing.  i just prefer to think and live in orderly surroundings.  which doesn't mean that my house is always neat.  or tidy.  it's not!  not at all.  but i'm happier when there are systems; when there are systems, i don't care that things are all over the place (like the legos covering my living room floor for the last five days), because i know that they can easily be put away. 

 

i love order in cabinets and closets.  i love order in the basement storage area.  i love things packed away neatly so that they can be found again.  i love for things to have their own homes so that anyone in the family - and not just me! - can put things away or find them again.  i love organization, whether it's little bins of playmobil pieces separated by "clothes" "hair" and "food items," or separate boxes in the closet for winter boots and summer sandals.  

finally, after living in this house for five years - we moved in with a three year old and a newborn - finally, we're beginning to settle in, to make our own space and order within these walls.  i can feel the space becoming available in my brain.  and it feels good.  

i'm certain that plenty of you are groaning, thinking that i'm some sort of neat-freak.  i'm not, i promise.  i just prefer the order, and i enjoy making it.  (i don't always enjoy keeping it up, i just enjoy setting it up in the first place!)  so please, don't groan.  i just love systems.  it's always been a part of me. 

 

in other news, tomorrow i'm painting outdoors at a farm.  i'm so excited for this; it's been in the works for weeks, but the weather has not cooperated.  tomorrow, finally, is the day.  tonight i'll be preparing panels and packing a small box of supplies, my lunch, water.  and tomorrow i'll be spending the day in a field with brush in hand.  i hope i'll be able to sleep tonight!

finally, before i go, and as a sort of antidote to all of that talk about household organization, here are a few things i've been enjoying in between the running and purging and selling and organizing.  before bed each night i've been reading this.  and in the kitchen i've been listening to this.  and this.  a lot.  and i've been looking at this.  all afternoon.  soothing, isn't it?

(these two pictures are from my photo-a-day project.)

a poem, your advice, and the new word

wow, you guys. i was really touched by your enthusiastic reaction to gossamer. all of your kind comments were so very much appreciated. and megan flattered me beyond imagination. really, thank you.

and did you see what erin and tracy created? all so different - our interpretations, our choice of media, our projects. it's been so much fun, these last few days, anticipating, revealing, reflecting. but before i get to round 2, i have two more gossamer things to mention.

my brother - a poet, an artist whose medium is words - sent me this poem yesterday. it's by emily dickinson, and it's what comes to his mind when he thinks of gossamer. the poem is - well, it's so gossamer. and i was really touched that my brother was thinking about me and my project enough to have connected the word to this poem and sent it along to me. read it, if you haven't already. i don't think you'll be sorry. (i wonder whether my direction would have changed if i had read this poem at the beginning of the process? hmmm.)

the final - i think - gossamer item is this. there is a second gossamer piece. a sister piece, if you will, to the project i shared yesterday. i didn't mention it yesterday because i didn't want to take away from my final project, but there is another. it's gossamer (2), and it's very much like gossamer - 16x20, printed linen and stitching on linen covered board - except that the linen in this one is pink.

i'm considering the possibility of selling gossamer (2). but i have no idea if anyone would have any interest in buying it! this would be my first time offering my work for sale on the blog; it's something new for me, and something that i'm curious about exploring.

would you tell me what you think? of course, if i do put it up for sale, i'll give a full listing with pricing and such. but for today, i'd really love to have your input and opinions as to whether this is something to explore. or whether i ought to hang these sisters together on the wall of my studio room and keep their beauty all to myself! (which is also still a possibility.) so please, tell me the truth.

phew! i think that's it for gossamer for now. which is a good thing, because this next word - from jen - is so full of possibility that i'd better get started right away! (can you see it there? the word, written on the corner of her print, sitting on my desk alongside a few favorite things? it's a good one.)

happy weekend, friends.

wordplay: gossamer

so there you have it. gossamer. my first contribution to wordplay.

and can i confess something? i love it. and i feel awfully proud of myself about it. (though i do wish you could see it in person, because it looses a bit of its impact in the photos.)

it was a journey, this gossamer creation. starting with lots and lots of brainstorming - notes and notes and pages of notes in my moleskine. i imagined a painting. or a series of paintings. and then a collage. and then i got fixated on the definition of gossamer, the one from the dictionary. like, the actual words out of the dictionary. merriam-webster, page 312. and that fixation, with the collage, an idea started to form.

in the meantime, i was also fixated on finding gossamer-weight fabric. i knew it existed. but what i didn't realize was that it's really (according to my research. if you know something more about it, please let me know!) a synthetic gauzy fabric that's used for prom decorations and bridal veils. not what i had in mind; i was hoping for a gossamer weight linen, or something else with natural fibers. in the end, i settled for a very fine handkerchief weight linen. and i'm so glad i did.

so as i was fixating on the collage and buying the linen, i spent some time with my friend pam (who is an amazing textile artist and one of the most lovely human beings you could ever be lucky enough to know. and who really ought to have a blog. or at least a shop. really. are you reading this, pam?), and i shared my ideas with her. and she encouraged me to develop the notion of the collage further, to incorporate the fabric, to expand on my idea of the stitching. all of that, and she let me use her bernina.

really, my conversations with pam were integral to the development of this piece. and i'm so grateful to her for that. it's a gift, to have a creative person in my actual life. it's a new gift for me, and one that i'm so happy about. more on that subject another day.

so there were the notes. and then there were the photocopies; lots and lots of photocopies at staples, enlarging and adjusting and trying for just the right combination of lightness and darkness and grain-i-ness to suggest gossamer. and there was the linen. and then there an earlier version of the project (which you can see here), it's the one i shared a peek at last week. i really liked that one, but i knew there was more to do.

so last weekend i used my big stack of photocopies to burn myself some screens and print with my gocco onto the linen. i incorporated all of the lessons i learned printing on fabric in the gocco swap - about how much ink to use, and about how to burn a screen that will (or won't, which is what i wanted in this case) print crisp images. and i was really pleased with the results.

and then this week, the whole thing came together. these pieces cut and stitched and hanging from threads that remind me, just a bit, of a web. the float-y nature of the whole thing dangling together.

i had always thought that i would mount this project on paper. that's what i had imagined from the beginning (well, from some point after the beginning, really. but i had imagined it for a good while.). but pam (again, pam) pointed out how delicate and floating-in-the-air the whole thing is when it is suspended. and so i built a frame (i'm almost as excited about that as i am about the actual project!) with some canvas stretchers, brass tacks, 2 pieces of foam core, some super adhesive, a large piece of my favorite mid-weight linen, a staple gun, some encouragement, and a bit of courage.

and then i pinned the piece to the board with three red pushpins, suspending the fabric away from the board to create dimension. to let the piece float. to enhance its gossamer-ness. it's an installation, really. and it does lose something in the photographs. but i hope that you can get a sense of how delicate and float-y it is from the photos i've taken.

so there you have it. my interpretation of gossamer. something delicate, tenuous, gauzy, flimsy, floating in the air. gossamer.

(word #2 arrived in the mail yesterday from an amazing artist. i haven't opened the envelope yet, wanting to post this first. i'll open it in a bit, and share the word here tomorrow.)

getting ready for tomorrow

gos·sa·mer

Pronunciation: \ˈgä-sə-mər also ˈgäz-mər, ˈgä-zə-\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English gossomer, from gos goose + somer summer
Date: circa 14th century

1     : a film of cobwebs floating in air in calm clear weather        
2     : something light, delicate, or insubstantial

gos·sa·mer
 
Function: adjective
Date: circa 1807

: extremely light, delicate, or tenuous  

(with thanks to the merriam-webster dictionary)

so it's been almost six weeks now, since i opened shari's envelope to find the word gossamer typed and pasted to a pink paint chip.  (i've carried that token with me in my notebook ever since, by the way.)

it's been a challenge.  this new project, this first word.

when we began imagining wordplay in its current form, i planned to paint.  and only paint.  i was fixated on painting.  i'm fairly certain that i told erin and tracy that i wanted to commit to a single medium for the course of the project.  thinking, of course, that i would stretch myself in my painting, explore new possibilities.

luckily, those two wise women were not interested in committing to a single medium.  because i haven't painted a single stroke.  not one.  this project that i've created has nothing at all to do with painting.  but it has stretched me in ways that i never imagined.

i can't wait to share tomorrow.  and to see what my friends have created.

but now, i'm off to put the finishing touches on gossamer.

w.i.p.

remember wordplay? time is growing short on our first go-round; the gossamer project is due to be finished on may 15, which is nine days from today.

it's been tricky, this one. it's the first one. and the word - gossamer - it's so beautiful and delicate and evocative all on its own. what could i possibly add to the experience of this word? but i've been thinking and brainstorming and writing page after page of notes.

yesterday i spent some time playing with all of my notes and ideas. i wish i could show you! but this peek is all i can spare until next week. there are some elements from yesterday's work that i'm loving, that i'm certain will end up in the final piece. and there are other things that i'll be playing with and adjusting over the next nine days.

we'll all three (erin and tracy and i) be sharing our first-round projects on (or around?) may 15. i'm looking forward to that - to sharing my creation, and to seeing how erin and tracy have interpreted gossamer. i'll be sharing my process then, too. and revealing the second word at the same time.

i've got a lot of work to do in the next nine days. but this project, it's fun!

coconut cupcakes are yummy

today is my mother's birthday. and also her mother's birthday.

can you imagine!? my mother was born on her mother's 23rd birthday. what a gift.

coconut cake is their favorite. (convenient that they have the same favorite, isn't it?) i've been making the same coconut cake recipe for a few years now, and though i love the cake, i wasn't crazy about the seven-minute-frosting. so today i tried something new: a coconut-cream cheese frosting. it's a bit thinner than i had imagined - not thin enough to be a glaze, but a wee bit thinner than a traditional frosting - but it's creamy and shiny and absolutely delicious. d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.

i'll tell you how i made it. but only if you promise not to say a single word about my arteries. it's frosting, after all. and it's two birthdays rolled into one. ok? ok.

coconut-cream cheese frosting - makes more than enough to frost 18 cupcakes
(adapted from this recipe)

1 8-ounce block of cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1.5-2 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth.
add all but 1/2 cup of the confectioners sugar and beat until smooth.
add the coconut milk and vanilla and the remaining confectioners sugar.
beat until smooth. (there's a pattern here, you see?)
frost the cupcakes, trying not to eat as much of the frosting as i did along the way.
and enjoy.

happy birthday mom and gramz. i'm proud (and also feeling pretty lucky) to be your daughter and granddaughter. i'm wishing you love and joy - and most of all, peace - in the coming year.