Hambidge Once Again (briefly)

To add to my last post about gratitude, I'll mention my recent time at the Hambidge Center.  I'm grateful to be a Fellow of the Center and to have had residencies there through the years, beginning with my first stay in 1994.  Earlier this fall an opportunity arose to be a fill-in for someone who wasn't able to take a scheduled stay and I jumped at the chance.

The only problem was, as I realized after confirming my stay, the dates overlapped not only Thanksgiving and my birthday a couple of days later, but also an event in town that we were committed to working for!

My solution was to go to Hambidge for a curtailed time and try to squeeze as much work into the opportunity as I could at the beginning and the end of the two weeks.

Here was my studio space on my first night there--a blank slate to begin within:

I wanted to continue my writing project, but also to work on a weaving I've had underway for about a month.  And I wanted to paint a bit each day. 

The weather was glorious for the few days I was there... the bright blue sky of November 27 was as clear and intense as I've ever seen:

I didn't walk as much as I usually do but did get one quick hike in to pass by the stone foundation in the woods:

I loved the contrast of colors in the dried mosses, the stones and the sawbriar leaf.

Almost every day while there I found something from outside to use for a painted study.  I used 140 lb. watercolor paper as the surface and drew first with pencil, then added some color with watercolor pencil, and finished it with watercolor and a little gouache.  Observations like this help me appreciate the details of the world--not that I'll ever plan to make tapestries from these studies.  But I might!

Only three of these were from Hambidge studies--the hickory at the left was from Lillian Smith Center earlier in the fall.  

 Most of my days' time was spent in reading, revising, writing.  All in all, even though my stay was brief, I feel good about the work I was able to do.  Sometimes I really need the away time to chart my path ahead... this was one of those times.

Thankful for...

I'm grateful for so much and can't even begin to list it all.  Here are a few of the things my world holds and that I hold dear... but only a few.  Thank you, world, for letting me share my passing years with your wonders and with family and friends.

 

Long time coming!

Finally I'm taking time to write a new post.  So many things have happened in the last couple of months and I haven't gotten around to describing some of those.  I'll take time to do that now.

I had a wonderful weekend class in Durham, North Carolina in late September.  The Triangle Weavers Guild invited me to teach and there were 15 wonderful people who came together at the Murphy School where the guild has a couple of rooms.  Here are a few photos by participants in the class.  Thanks for sharing those, Lori, Jenny and Deborah.  Michiele later wrote a blog post about our weekend--here's the link to that at her blog--and take a look at her other posts, too.  Thanks, Michiele!

(I wasn't really that stern all weekend!)

Before that class, I'd spent many days at the end of September getting the small tapestries from the last post mounted and ready to take to Hambidge.  I also worked on finishing of the larger tapestry, hoping to have it photographed on September 11.  But then the hurricane came through.  One of the several from this year.  So I postponed the trip.

We had some storm damage from Irma on our property in the county but not much to speak of at home, just lots and lots of limbs in the yard that we spent several days cleaning up.  We were fortunate at the house in town to not lose power.  Many in the county weren't that lucky--the power was out or up to a week for thousands and the public schools closed for five days, I think.  Of course none of what happened around in north Georgia is anything in comparison to the devastation if Puerto Rico and other areas of the Caribbean.  My heart hurts for all who suffered so much--and continue to struggle for survival.

In October I was able to finally get to Tim Barnwell's place in Asheville to get the tapestries photographed--here he is shooting the latest one finished, Earth Echoes:

Before leaving Asheville I went by the Western NC Farmers Market to see Milissa Dewey and Allie Dudley at the Mountain Mama Weavers booth that Milissa has there. Allie was in the Penland class in the spring and she's currently working with Milissa as an intern.  Here's Allie as she's weaving Venetian carpet on an antique Swedish loom:

After Asheville, I went to the Lillian Smith Center for a two week residency.  I treasure every minute I've been at the center, just about once a year since 2009.   This year I decided to encourage others to consider spending time there by funding a two week residency for a visual artist.  It's being called the McClure-Scanlin Visual Art Residency Award and my husband and I want to give the award in honor of our mothers, both of whom were supportive of education and also of following one's chosen passions in life.  Applications may be made through the Piedmont College Lillian E. Smith Center website for 2018 season starting now, with deadline to apply March 1, 2018; the link to that is at this news announcement from the Center.

Even though most of my time was spent in other ways I'll mention below, I did dig a bit of dirt while I was there... isn't it interesting how this particular color of earth is so similar to the oak leaf from the yard.

I didn't have my earth pigment sifters and the muller for grinding along with me this time like I did last year but I bought a small strainer at the grocery store and did a bit of refining.  I painted with the few pigments I collected using matte medium as a binder.  I picked up charcoal from the fire pit for the black.

This time while at the center I spent most of the time looking back at past journals, notebooks, and sketchbooks -- I took over thirty to browse through.  It was daunting and exhausting to see what I've been writing and drawing about over the past thirty years.  Some of the journal entries were pretty raw and sad, while others were filled with flights of fancy about the world and my place in it.  All of this review work is going on to gather information for a bigger project that may or may not come about.  The look back was at least an exercise in reminding myself about who I was, who I hoped to be as a person and an artist, and how I'm getting there (or not). Here are many of them laid out on the top of the bookcase in Peeler Cottage the first night I got to the center, before I'd begun to plunge into them:

I found the flower for October while I was at the center--an aster.  And here it is, one of the photos I collected and the interpretation I made of it for the tapestry diary.

November's flower is still waiting to begin although I've decided what it will be... more about it later.

This week I'm busy with warping all of my looms to get ready for the winter's weaving.  I'll be having some surgery on my left hand in December and wanted to get this out of the way before that happens.

Teaching news--I'll be in Orlando in February to teach for a weekend for Weavers of Orlando and in addition to the class at John C. Campbell, I'll be returning to Arrowmont next summer.  I'm also having discussions about a future workshop in Florida in 2019.

Exhibit news--I've had two rejections lately.  But I've also been accepted into two juried exhibits.  One is Excellence in Fibers 2017 sponsored by Fiber Art Now magazine.  And the other is the Art of Georgia III for 2018, with selected artists' works to hang in the State Capitol in the Executive Offices.