Fast Week

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Beautiful morning walks to the gym. The other day all of the grasses in the field I walk through had been mowed down.

Then quickly rolled into hay bales that were taken away. All I could do was draw and paint the memory in the Meadow Book of what occurred there.

Couldn’t help adding those pesky Trifids in the background.

Then when not reworking the last of the small books for Amazon, I was busy watering over-heated plants out back. Just had to take some detail shots out there to remind me what flourishes and what wishes for more shade.

And today the first of two separate author proofs came in the mail. I can already see another adjustment I need to make before giving approval for publication. This book is thicker and gave room for a spine title/author. It costs a bit more to produce so price slightly higher than the other three. All can be found on Amazon under S. Webster.

Now I am working on the story of Burke and Wills. Writing in rhyme is fun so far, but several more drawings will be needed.

The monthly poetry meeting is this week and I have done more writing for that.

I am getting the hang of being alone and managing my time effectively. I miss doing artwork but with no place to put it, have gone back to writing.

Back in undergraduate school I remember having a hard discussion with my advisor. I told him as an artist, I am accountable for whatever the artwork is. Whether sculpture or works on paper/canvas. The artist is the work and vise versa.

BUT being a writer, the doors are wide open to be whoever I want to be through the characters in the story. There is such freedom in that way of creating. It is a good place to occupy right now.

These four small books by S. Webster will be enough for awhile. Burke and Wills will be using Sandy Webster as the author. (I actually still have a Sandy Webster artist page on Amazon because of my Earth Pigments book from years ago.)

That is about all I have for now. The novella, Kind Gestures should be available next week and slightly modified from how it appeared on my website.

Til later….

 

 

Another Four Days Gone!

Posted on by Sandy Webster

For some reason I kept this little drink mixing pitcher whose glass is turned upside down to create a lid and save space.  I never used it but didn’t want to leave it behind. It seemed perfect for one person. And it is especially good for mixing my Australian Turbo that is equal parts gin and coffee, then tonic and lime with ice. I am convinced that the Turbos taste a bit better served this way. Company (Marla and Patrick) arrive tomorrow evening for several days and I will get another opinion.

Speaking of Australia, I knew the basket makers of Tasmania were gathering this past weekend, so I pulled out the Gathering Book to work along with them. When they are not making baskets, preparing the materials for baskets, teaching anything to anybody, they are stitching. So I stitched.

First dig out the bits and pieces and pin them together in some abstract but pleasing manner. Use some paper pieces if there are some waiting to go into something.

I like this kind of stitching…just holding things together. It is soothing. I am not very good at it but I like it. It is not a worry that the stitches are not evenly spaced. Nor does it matter if the pieces are lined up well. What matters is getting the eyes to adjust to the tedious part of threading the needle and plowing ahead. I no longer bother to knot one end because my finger and thumb no longer make that quick movement that rolls the end up in a ball near where it needs to be making a messy knot in the end.

But it does put me in touch with my mother and her mother before her. By the time I was paying that much attention to their sewing, they were pretty much past the stage of neatness. It was just about the doing. Mostly they were trying to make something – some embroidery on an apron. a bit of smocking on a dress, stitching on quilts. Everything had to be of some use. They would be confused by scraps of mixed fibers being hung together by threads that resulted in something useless. In a way I am glad not having to explain the shear pleasure in the motions of hand sewing to either one of them.

Sewing like this is like taking a walk. Your mind is free to go anywhere. Problems are solved. Attitudes are changed.

I like figuring out where they will go on the page.  I like knowing where the scraps came from. On the left patch is a piece of mulberry paper left from the recently stitched animals wearing clothes. Then some of my contact printing from leaves. A scrap of purple linen from a vest I made. A piece of the cloth that famous textile designer of Japanese dyeing techniques, John Marshall, traded me for a pin I had made. And finally the little square of paper made in Claudia Lee’s class where I took gauze-like fabric and dipped it into fine pulp and made resists with wax and dyed with walnuts.

On the right is a scrap of a small woodblock print I made on more plant dyed linen sewn to another strip of mulberry paper with more linen from my sewing. The delicate green and cream cloth is from curtains I made the wife of an old friend in  Brasstown. They lived in a trailer across the road from his shop and she said she would like curtains on the bedroom window. So I made them for her as a surprise. The dark patterned scraps are from a table runner that a friend, now deceased, gave me because he spent so much time sharing meals and wonderful conversations at our table.

Good memories in both scraps. I am quite sure that my mother and grandmother did not have such an abundance of good times returning with the stitching that they did.

All stitched and stuck down, I do a drawing that relates to baskets or basket materials while switching my thoughts to the friends weaving baskets and stitching away down in Tasmania. A very nice couple of days.

And the gym trips through the meadow continue. Just this morning….

Til later

PS Tomorrow before company arrives I am having lunch with three other women. This will be the second time in two weeks that I have been asked to join others for lunch. It is such a novel experience for me. My new neighborhood and town are quite kind.

 

 

A Good Catch Up Post

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Still walking to the gym when it is not raining.

The absence of the bleachers is filling in, and a sunny bit of lichen on the post outside the gym.

A bit of baking while the stone work was being done.

They make a nice quick meal.

The flag stone is all in place where I planned in the front.

And in the back.

And the back from the opposite direction.

In two weeks my yardman will return to put as many of these extra stones between the mulch and gravel out back and lay some outside the back porch door to step on. Plus put them down under the pots and where the big rusted sculpture goes between living room and bedroom windows. Still plenty to use up.

And I finally got back to my Meadow sketchbook. Mockingbird and swallows.

And to be delivered tomorrow are the proofs for the two books finished this past week.

I am such a visual and hands on person that I need to see them in person to see where corrections are needed before giving the go ahead. I had to learn so much about the process of getting them this far. They are about the size of a Billy Collins or Mary Oliver paperback and are priced at $9.99 USD from Amazon when they are ready. I might take the proofs to the poetry meeting this week. And that reminds me that one of the poets who writes with children in mind is coming over after the meeting to look over Burke and Wills illustrations

I think that might be my next project.

Anyway, I did love doing these books and reading the words of my life again.

And that reminds me that in a conversation with one of the men at the coffee mornings, he said he wouldn’t mind finding someone to share his life with. I asked if he really thought it was a necessity. His answer was yes. He said it would give him a “witness to his life.” He said I, on the other hand, did not need one because I witness my own life through writing and drawing. I found it beautiful that having a witness to your life matters to this man.

I am touched by his words and will pay closer attention to my witnessing.

Til later….

Finished the GOP

Posted on by Sandy Webster

First of all a picture of the girls having a nap.

Now the last of the gang that Kelly Anne Conway and Trump gave birth to. I needed to get the felt and pins off my work table so I could move on!

The first of this group was Santos dancing with DeSantis.

Then the worst Supreme Court in history thanks in good measure to this group of Ginny Thomas whispering Qanon theories in her husband, Clarence Thomas’ ear. Followed by Alito who can’t seem to keep church and state separate. Next Kavanaugh with a wife and daughters that matter little as he drinks beer and votes against women’s rights. Finally, Trump’s dream girl. Coney-Barrett wearing her favorite outfit.

And since then we have Margery Taylor Greene sleeping with the pillow guy, Mike Lindell…lots of QAnon theories dreamt up by the two of them. She is well armed.

Flip the pillow over and here is Lauren Boebert sleeping with Mike, keeping her gun handy and ready as ever to exchange name-calling with Margery. Both need to be sent to the principle’s office. Of course in this country their right to keep their guns handy is well-protected.

But the closest to a principle for them is the barely holding it together, McCarthy, head of the House of Representatives, who finds his very shallow self tied in knots by his crazies. He sits on pins and needles waiting to lose his position.

Next, as if the Republican party isn’t disgusting enough, we have Jim Jordan and Ted Cruz wrestling (what else) over who gets the title of most abhorrent in their party.

And finally, the boot licking Lindsay Graham. He is in position and wearing his Maga hat.

Now to shove them in that plastic bag with their leader and the rest of their ilk.

Good riddance!

I am working away on the two books to send off but have come to a halt on how to number pages in sections. I spent the weekend watching videos on how to do it, but there seems to be a mental block on my part. Help may arrive or I start all over with the videos.

Being seventy-nine seems to be getting in the way!

The yardmen are here digging up and moving all the dirt that needs to get out of the way for the granite sand and flagstone. They brought me four more lovely bamboo poles to place opposite the single one at the front entry.

I am going to go have a drink of celebration that the nasties are in the bag and I can get back to sketching!!

Til later…