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I got up today after not quite enough sleep and went to an appointment with an accountant at the Small Business Development Center downtown. I run a small business. I hear businesses like mine referred to as "micro-businesses" frequently. It is just me doing something I love and trying to meet expenses while still impacting the world positively.
I don't know exactly what made me schedule that appointment at the SBDC, but I remember the way I was feeling. One day last week I had had enough.
Color is amazing, isn't it? It has the ability to delight us and then, just when we think we know how to use it, kick us in the butt. I think I will be learning a lot about color for the rest of my life. (Fortunately!)
As I was answering questions for my online classes this morning, I came across two submissions of the same exercise in the Color Gradation Techniques class. This exercise is part of the transparency section of the class where we practice using this simple technique to create forms that appear to overlap. The technique works best on large-format pieces and with careful choice of value... and saturation!
This is Lifelines.
The story of this piece is long. Longer than perhaps it should have been. But nevertheless, finally she is released out into the world (with the nudging of a few show deadlines).
I worked on the design for this piece for quite awhile. Probably it was years of picking it up and putting it down in the way that an artist does. I did a lot of refining of it in a Joan Baxter workshop in 2014 and wove the piece in 2015.
I took it off the loom last winter and immediately rolled it up and put it away. I have trouble looking at a new tapestry when it comes off the loom. Sometimes they come off and I know what I'm going to see and it is fine. Sometimes I am not sure and it is best if I don't look too closely for awhile.
Sunday I got up late, was ramping up for another day of spinning more yarn for a tapestry project, and I got an email from my friend Conni. Her opening was that evening in Taos and I had already told her I wasn't going to make it.
It was 10:14 am. Taos is five and a half hours away in good traffic. The opening was 5-7 pm.
I love the desert. I'm not all that fond of the heat, but you do get used to it. I grew up in the high desert of western New Mexico and I'm used to horizons. Having a day in the desert of southern California was a lot of fun even if I didn't have time for a big hike (or the mojo to battle the 100 degree heat).
. . .
Emily came out and said, "Did you find the carcass?"
There is something very interesting about spending time at the ocean. Not that I was at the ocean last week. I wasn't. But I was in Los Angeles and San Diego teaching tapestry. I only had time for a few brief glimpses of the Pacific, but knowing it was right over there was somehow very interesting... being at the edge of the continent and all.
My second workshop was in Vista, CA at the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum. I'm not sure what I expected of the place, but it certainly wasn't what I found. I was so confused when I pulled into the property that I just pulled over in disbelief. There were big hunks of metal all over the place. Many buildings with more hunks of metal (engines, trains, tractors, trucks...) peeking out of them. But it just didn't look like a place I would find any weavers.
A nice guild member rescued me and ...
Western California. There is something about being right on the edge of the continent that is appealing and even a little thrilling. West from here is just water.
I am currently just north of San Diego teaching my second of three workshops this week. The first was in Los Angeles and it went quite well. Smart and innovative people. Great questions. Fun times.
