shining egg

green week, 5

before i even say one word about green, i want to sincerely thank you all for your kind and encouraging words about my paintings. you truly, and swiftly, eased my shy-ness about sharing. i'm so glad that you enjoyed them. i really am. more about that next week.

now, the last day. the last day. (does anyone know that play? museum, by tina howe? an obscure theatrical reference. obscure, but apropos.)

really, i didn't think i could love any other week after shari's white week; i loved white week so much. but this week of green has been more fun than i could have imagined, and i've fallen in love with it, too.

you see, i wanted to do something - something concrete - to honor the transition from february - that long last month of deepest winter - into this new month of march - the month that brings us into the springtime, the month that brings the early awakening of the earth here in this place where i live. i wanted to challenge myself to find those clues to the earth's awakening out of doors, and to find the bits inside that i could cherish in these last cold weeks. a ritual, of sorts. well, it was all of that, and so much more.

i am blown away by how you all embraced green week. by how the "fever" (as alicia called it), or the "craziness" (as amy called it), spread through these parts. by how much fun it was to come to my computer each day and find your photos and your comments and your emails. i smiled all week long. and i am sure that this communal celebration of one special color has brought us closer to spring - by five days, at least!

so thank you. thank you for playing. for playing with me. for sharing in this ritual. for honoring this particular moment in time. for paying attention to the world around you and finding those greens in the most usual and unusual places. thank you, those of you in the warmest climates, for sharing your green trees and gardens and giving us hope for what's to come. thank you, those of you in the coldest climates, for looking hard, and for finding green, even when you thought there was none to be found.

i am in awe of our collective spirit. i really am.

this, then, is the last list of links to the kind people participating in green week. it's going to take me a long time to visit you all. but i'll be there, sooner or later. and i can't wait to see you when i get there.

raina

jeanne

tara

jane

annie

jess

pina

tifanie

sheri

amy

i'm wishing you all a wonderful - colorful! - weekend, wherever you are.

green week, 4

today has been a flurry of motion. i spend the better part of each thursday in the painting studio, so the hours outside of the studio tend to become a frenzy of dropping off and picking up and finding food and returning calls and emails, building with blocks, dancing to music, braiding hair, finishing homework, and the like. and tonight, the frenzy continues, as d. and i are off to the theater to see this play. but i'm stopping here first, because i couldn't miss the next-to-last day of green week.

today, because it's thursday-painting day, some recent green paintings. i realize that i haven't shared my paintings here for a good while. and today, i'm feeling a bit shy about sharing them. maybe because it's been so long. or maybe it's because i'm nervous (in an eager, curious way) to hear what you think.

incidentally, most of these were painted weeks ago, having nothing at all to do with green week (except that, clearly, green has been on my mind for months).

this first one is on canvas. 18x24. i haven't worked on canvas for a really long time. i just love painting on paper so much. but a few weeks ago i picked up this canvas for some reason i can't really put my finger on. it's part of what has become a series of window paintings - these are all part of that series, in fact.

these two are on paper. 10x10.

and this little pair. they were painted today. tiny little 6x6 pieces on paper.

there are more green paintings, too, if you can imagine. but i didn't want to bore you with so many. so that's it for today.

tomorrow is the last day of green week. i've been trying to visit everyone who is participating - to see all of your lovely and vastly different greens. it's going to take me well into the weekend to see everybody and everything, but i'm enjoying it thoroughly. and tomorrow i'll post one final list of links to those of you who joined late. do send me an email if you want to be included on the list and you haven't let me know already.

now, i'm off to the theater.

(these photos seem to be missing a section at the right edge of each image. i'm not sure why that's happening tonight. but you can click on the photos and see them in their entirety on flickr. really, you're not missing anything important, i just don't love how it looks. but i'm rushing now and i can't stop to figure out the problem. sorry about that.)

green week, 3

so much green going on out there in this little slice of the internet! and honestly, it makes me happy to see so much green. to see so many people celebrating green. practically giddy, i tell you.

today, just these bits of green from my kitchen. a favorite mug. a little dipping bowl, presently used as a salt cellar. some cucumbers. (a certain five-year-old somebody is loving cucumbers right now, can't get enough of them.)

and links! to all of the lovely bloggers who have joined the green week fun since i posted the first list on monday. there are more of you, too, i know, who are not on this list. it's fun to find you around and about. if you'd like to be added to the list, do let me know.

jo

jade

suzanne

erin

capello

shari

leya

amy h

coastal girl

beth h

kt

shelly

chris

molly

clara

joanna

miscellany of me

happy green, everyone!

green week, 2

well green week is off to a roaring start! i'm thrilled that so many of you are excited about this week of green. as alicia said, the fever is spreading. (i loved that, alicia!) thanks to all of you who emailed or commented that you're joining the fun this week. i'll be posting another list of links tomorrow.

in the meantime, i've loved seeing all of your greens. the kitchen greens, the growing greens, the full-on-greens, and the bits of green. such fun, and it's only tuesday morning!

today, my greens come from inside. i've had a basket of these felt beads traveling around my house since the fall. i've been reluctant to use them for anything because i so enjoy looking at them altogether.

several days ago, in anticipation of green week, i pulled out all of the green beads and set them in my favorite felted bowl.

but i couldn't leave them alone in there.

lately, i've been paying a lot of attention to color relationships in my painting. and i couldn't help but play with the color relationships with these felt beads, too.

so there you have it. today's greens. photograph after photograph of green beads in a bowl. i love them. soon it might be time to use them. a mobile, perhaps?

green week, 1

and finally, it's march. my breath is a bit deeper. the light, these past two days, it seems brighter. and somehow the horizon seems a bit nearer. the time has come for me to celebrate all things green.

these photos were taken on sunday morning in the woods with my family, where we noticed green all around. such a joy, to be out in nature, watching the earth coming to life. we walked, and we walked. we left the trail and forged through the branches for a bit. and when we came back to the place where we began, we found this tiny patch of daffodils, ready to bloom. i am almost certain they weren't there when we began; they seem to have popped up out of nowhere. a reward, i'm sure, for our sunday morning walk in the woods, for our examination of nature, for our noticing.

i'm thrilled that all of these fine bloggers are planning to join me in this celebration of green. some may be posting green once this week; others, more often. please go visit them and see.

tracy

cathy

julia

michelle

dominique

jennifer

louise

heather

alicia

sarah

grace

erin

thistle downs

sarah

ani

angie

tracy

leslie

rachel

molly

liz

(of course, if i've missed anyone - or if there are any errors on the list - please let me know - in the comments or by email.)

and one last thing. i'm honored to be the guest photographer over at sea and sky for the next few days. i hope you'll stop by and see me.

signs of fall

i seriously do not know where to begin!  it seems like ages since i've written here - a sign, i suppose, of all that has happened in the last four days. 

our holiday was delicious - in time spent with family and friends and celebrating, and in food eaten.  thank you, thank you all for your thoughtful new year's wishes - your sentiments are so very much appreciated.

fall has arrived.  cool, crisp, lovely air.  the windows are open wide, we've been outside and outside some more. 

i've enjoyed several long walks over the weekend, collecting little bits of fall along the way.  yesterday morning, when i arrived home from my walk (late to meet my mother, having not yet eaten breakfast) i had to photograph these leaves (of course, i had to iron the linen first - it was stuck in my head that i had to photograph them on this particular piece of fabric that turned out to be, of course, terribly wrinkly - being linen, and all).  i was just struck by the forms, somehow.  and i'm so glad i did capture them when they were soft, fresh in my mind.

but wait, there's more.  there was a special party, a late-night session making invitations to a certain eight-year-old birthday celebration, some sewing, a much-needed garage clean-out (complete with a toad discovered in the corner!), and there was my pie (oh!  my pie...).  i can't wait to share all of this, and more.  but that will have to wait until tomorrow.  tonight, a favorite movie is calling my name.

(more signs of fall here)

black, white, and color

fun with the kids.

today is painting day.  i'll share that, and more fun with the kids, tomorrow.

blacks, whites, and browns here.

back to the garden

when i began composting, a year ago last april, i had recently ripped out the bushes lining our front walk and committed myself to the notion that we would have no garden at our house.  no plantings that would require any attention at all.  we might have, i thought, some deer-resistant bushes with wild shape (like forsythia), and maybe some pachysandra.  but that was it.  i figured maybe we'd give our finished compost to a friend with a garden.  or, at the very least, use it for mulch under our imaginary bushes.

in the beginning, composting was all about the process.  i was beyond thrilled with how we could turn our garbage into something useful.  how drastically we reduced our actual "garbage" - we went from two garbage cans each week down to one half-can.  two bags, maybe, was all of our household garbage on an average week.  (i'm still looking for ways to reduce that garbage even further, but that's another post.)

around the same time i began composting, i also started stepping outside onto my porch for a few moments each night before bed and each morning first thing.  this new habit was about breathing fresh air, seeing the stars or the sun rising in the sky, acknowledging the vast universe that we're part of, and transitioning from day to night - and then again from night into day.

so there i was, outside most evenings to dump the kitchen compost into the bin, outside again later for my nighttime ritual, and then outside again each morning.  i started to feel invigorated by my time outside.  we hung a bird feeder from a tree in our front yard.  we planted a few pots on the back porch.  and then i was outside again, watering the plants, filling the bird feeder.  these quiet moments outside became important in my everydays.

 

i was given a watering can for mother's day last year.  i started clipping basil and parsley from our pots to add to our dinners.  and somewhere along the way, the idea that we ought to have a garden was born.  i put the idea away until springtime, but through the winter i kept watch over the backyard, looking for the spot where our garden might live.

we built (had built, really) a raised bed in a sunny corner of the yard.  dave built a fence around the bed to keep the deer away.  we hoed and planted.  we've weeded and transplanted (when it became clear that we had planted our zucchini and cucumbers too close together - novices that we are), we've tended and admired, and even puttered a bit.

and come the weekend, we're planning to spread the compost in our garden.

more green photos here.

cut-up and blue

for weeks i've been thinking about cutting up my paintings.  not all of them.  and not with any sense of malice.  it's just that i've got a pile of paintings stacked in a closet in my basement - paintings that i don't really like.  paintings that didn't work.  paintings that have "moments" - spots in the painting that did work, even when the painting as a whole did not.

so i've been thinking of cutting them up and putting those moments back together somehow.  last week i tried it.  i'm kicking myself for not taking a photo of the painting before i cut it (how could i have forgotten?), but it felt wonderful to slice into the paper with my scissors - and then later with my knife. 

this wasn't a good painting.  it didn't even have many moments.  but it did have nice colors.  and it was a good place to start.

i've been wanting to sew these moments together.  in fact, i've been thinking about the sewing along with the cutting all along, but i've been too afraid of breaking my sewing machine and i haven't worked up my courage to try.

 

instead, i put these pieces together like a collage.  sort of.  i started out with spray mount, but i got nervous while i was using it and i didn't like the way the work came out at all.  then i tried glue.  it's still not what i had in mind, but it's something.

and it's blue.

more blue photos here.

color week - blue

dessert tonight was homemade shortcake, fresh whipped cream, organic blueberries.  yum.

and that's the end of kayte's color week.  fun, of course.  turns out that andrea is doing color week next week.  seriously, i can't resist.  but i'll be posting next week's colors on flickr and go back to (somewhat) regular blogging here.

happy summer weekend.