Randomness

The random blog post title might have come from the Yarn Harlot. She is my favorite fiber blogger and often makes me snort right out loud. Some days you just have to post random things.

Last weekend I spent a few hours helping out my sister and brother-in-law with their house. That is me and my sis on the roof. Never thought I could get up there, but climbing harnesses do help a bunch!

I finished Emergence II. It has not been photographed yet, but will be soon as it is getting a ride to Germany in just over a week. Here is the end of it on the loom with the cartoon behind it.
And here is my new tapestry bumper sticker. Kathe Todd-Hooker is the author of this one! She just finished a book called "So Warped" and I suspect that had something to do with the idea for this sticker. I love it.

Bauhaus lecture at Open Space Gallery

Today we had an event at the Open Space Visitor Center in conjunction with the Bauhaus show. James gave a lecture about the Bauhaus and Cornelia and I did some demonstration about dyeing and weaving. It was fun to hear people's questions both about the Bauhaus and its connection to contemporary art and about the process of weaving tapestry.

Open Space Gallery.

Halcyon Days II, Emergence, Inscription, Contemplative Garden.

tapestry by Rebecca Mezoff

James Koehler giving a lecture on the Bauhaus.

Cornelia Theimer Gardella talking about her dye process.

Halcyon Days II

Cassiopeia

Today is 8.9.10

That is an interesting date. It is also the 11th birthday of my best buddy Cassy. Here are some photos...

2005

2007

2010

Saturday. This now-11-year-old dog hiked 22 miles two days ago. That is twenty-two miles. She hiked the Colorado Trail with me in 2003 when she was 3 years old, all 500 miles of it. She is an amazing pooch. She even loved her visit to the vet today (a special birthday treat). Happy Birthday Cassy!

Rio Grande walking loom (FOR SALE!)

In 2004 I returned to New Mexico to learn traditional Rio Grande-style tapestry weaving at Northern New Mexico College in El Rito. I rented a little adobe apartment there and found a job working in the Mesa Vista public school system. It was good. I loved weaving at the college 2-3 days a week. In the spring of 2005 I took the loom building class from Quentin Wilson and made this 2 harness counterbalance walking loom with the assistance of my parents. Dad insisted on precise measurements, and the loom turned out well.

This photo is in my studio in El Rito. It has been a weaving studio for a long time--the building is right on the road and the walls are 5 feet thick adobe.

My studio in Velarde before the Harrisville Rug loom found a home here.

Until 2009, I wove all my tapestries on this loom. I love standing to weave as it seems easier on my body at times. However, in 2009 I received a couple looms from my grandparents who were moving to an apartment and I no longer have need of this Rio Grande. So I am selling it. I am 5 feet 10 inches tall, so the loom is taller than many of the walking looms you find in NM. It could, however, be shortened if necessary. Let me know if you're interested! The loom comes apart enough that I could fit it in my Volkswagen Golf, though it is easier if you can leave the large pieces together. It has a 40 inch weaving width and comes with an 8 dent reed. $550 OBO.

Here a few more photos I found in Rebecca's archives...
Me weaving in the El Rito studio while my mom reads a magazine by the woodstove.

El Rito studio tour, probably 2006. The pottery is by David Coleman. The weavings I did at Northern NM College.

Dye set up at my studio in El Rito.

Spiraling

This is my statement from the show Interwoven Traditions: New Mexico and Bauhaus in Albuquerque (minus the Germany translation which you'll have to ask Cornelia for if you want it) at Open Space Gallery. A few people have asked me to post it so they could see it again.

Spiraling

i can't tell you who I was yesterday

everything i made this morning changed who yesterday was

today i made a tapestry while wondering about change and seeing

tomorrow's explorations may have different endings... or beginnings

a learning about collaboration

a movement through fear

a gleeful laugh of discovery

lifting a marvelous new color out of the dye pot

holding my breath as i pull a tapestry off the cloth beam at it's cutting off ceremony

i like putting individual threads together to make a crafted object that is also art

But mostly I revel in the journey.

______________________

The Bauhaus Project has been part of a creative three years for me. I have worked closely with other artists and learned about finding new paths together and apart. From the Bauhaus study I have learned about the importance of making things, of starting at the beginning, and of getting your hands dirty in the craft of the thing.

The Bauhaus was a school that challenged the way art was conceived and created. It was a place of people like Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, Gunta Stolzl, Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, and Anni Albers. They were giants, and they were just people. They are still challenging me today.

My finger has slipped off the control button... for better or worse

It used to be that I KNEW when my tapestries were pictured somewhere and where exactly they all were hanging. Recently I have realized that I no longer know this. My work has found it's way out into the world and I really don't know where much of it is. This is exciting in some ways--maybe my work is influencing someone else somewhere. Maybe in my very small way, I can create something that will help someone else.

I just found another blogger (Sandra Rude) who does fantastic complex fabrics who loved my work in Albuquerque and blogged about it here. I opened the Rio Grande Sun (local paper of Espanola, NM) yesterday and found a photo of Contemplative Garden in the Arts section with the press release for our show in Albuquerque. And the arts editor of that paper is going to do a story about our show in the next issue (if I actually sit myself down tonight and answer all his questions!).

The world has become a complicated place, and I am okay with not knowing where my creations have ended up. Part of my journey is learning how to let go of control. I am contemplating a new series of work that addresses the fragile and changing nature of life. We try so hard to make things archival, to hold on to people and memories and events... and often we clutch the past so tightly to our chests that we completely miss the present.

I love finding my images or news of my tapestries in various places. I hope that discovery continues for a long time. And for the photos, articles, and tapestry locations I don't know about... well I will imagine that they are making someone take a second look somewhere in the world.

As a related post script, I got a call from my father this morning. He is visiting some friends in upstate New York and found an article in USA Today about northern NM fiber trails with a couple photos of Weaving Southwest. There is also a nice video that has some footage of Teresa Loveless of Weaving Southwest dyeing and Lisa Trujillo of Centinela Traditional Arts weaving.

What else am I missing? (Or peanut butter blindness)

I have inherited a few minor "disabilities" from my father. One is a problem spelling. I think my mother's talent in this area tempered the spelling gene from my father as I am able to spell difficult words like Espanola, daisy, and pants. The other is a difficulty finding food in the kitchen. I can't imagine how someone couldn't find cheese in my parents' refrigerator (which at any one time sports an average cheese yield of 4-6 pounds--my mother is Dutch), but sometimes it hides nonetheless. This particular affliction struck again tonight when I was searching for peanut butter in my own kitchen.

About 10 days ago Emily spent the better part of a visit rearranging and cleaning my kitchen. She deserves beatification for this. And I am quite sure she kindly failed to mention many of the items she had to throw away. This difficulty I have seeing in the kitchen (things just become invisible, I swear) manifests itself insidiously in copious amounts of certain food items I am sure that I have none of while standing in the grocery store. I will buy 3 more bags of tapioca flour because I am sure that I have none (after all, I haven't seen any for quite awhile). Emily found a stash dated 5/2001 behind the mammoth bag of rice and another few bags stuffed behind the outdated salad dressing at the back of a bottom shelf. (Not long ago I opened a bottle of GF salad dressing that I had brought from home in a restaurant and the funny taste made me look at the date on the bottle. Mar 2007 is a long time ago for salad dressing.) Needless to say, there was a lot of food in my kitchen that was no longer edible. She got rid of it and had the good sense not to tease me too much after she found the 27th jar of opened pickle relish in the frig (I kept buying the dill relish when I wanted the sweet. I seem to have a shopping disability too).

Anyway, Emily left yesterday to bring Megan home and this evening I was in a post-Convergence funk and really wanted some peanut butter (though I would have settled for Nutella). I was reasonably sure that I had one of these substances somewhere in the kitchen, but wasn't quite sure where. I searched in every cabinet that, to my knowledge, contained food... to no avail. After 10 minutes I was frustrated and still no peanut butter.

I texted Emily hoping she wouldn't tease me too much as I had a sneaking suspicion that I was just peanut-butter blind. Sure enough. It was right in the center front of the middle shelf of the main food cabinet. It could not have been more obvious. But by the time I found it I had already given up. Cookies made from the Pamela's cookie mix I could clearly see hiding behind the olives (which I detest more than any kind of food) on the very top shelf... THOSE I could see.

I can see a design in my head and translate it fairly effectively into a tapestry, but darn if I can't find the peanut butter jar in the cupboard. My artwork is largely about seeing the world in new ways, exploring visual puzzles, and the visible/invisible-ness of what is real in the world (and what is real in the world???). I have to be honest. My inability to see the peanut butter when it is so obvious worries me. What else am I missing?