In the Studio

They are finally, FINALLY patching the ceiling and repainting in the studio today. Getting workers to show up after you locate them is nearly impossible here in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Closer to any of the cities just two hours away and there would be competition to do the job.

It is what it is….

Maybe by the end of the day it will be all over as far as the plaster and texturing goes….then later the painting….then later I can sort things out.

In the meantime I am keeping busy with little stitcheries upstairs.

This one is only four inches square with collaged pieces of woodblock prints and bits of cloth. It took me three crime series programs (three hours) to make another one that I did not like as much. So today I might just spend another few hours adding to it. They are a bit like puzzles of curiosity. What if I put this here, no wait, maybe not, maybe this piece, yeah that’s it, well, maybe not.

It is hot and humid here. This weather clogs my brain. There are no good choices to make when it is like this. Well there is the choice of whether to have a single malt or gin and tonic or white wine at the correct time….which seems earlier than most other peoples’ time because we eat so early so I can be in bed by 7:30 – 8:00 at the latest.

Between that drink around four o’clock and bed with a book is preparing and eating dinner, setting up the coffee machine for Lee to only push the “on” button at 4:30 in the morning, cleaning up the kitchen, making sure the house is closed up, finding a program for us and then him to watch, remembering to give Lee his evening pill, check the litter box and cat food dishes, turn off the fans and pond waterfall, having a phone conversation that I am only half paying attention to as I run through the list of what needs to be done next……BUT slipping into the sheets knowing that all of that has been done is the best feeling of the day.

I can read no more than ten pages and then my eyelids will not stay open. Lee will be in bed about one half hour later after he has pushed the off button (circled in black felt marker) and turned off the lamp in the den.

Sometimes like this morning at 3 am he will bolt from bed headed out to see who is ringing the doorbell. His dreams can be be quite real to him. Maybe I will get back to sleep, maybe not. My mind seems to be most active in those wee hours. There are no less than a zillion things that you can imagine going wrong in those times. But come 4:30 and NPR coming to life on the radio (always reminding me of what actually IS going wrong) then it is shower, dress for the gym, get that cup of coffee that Lee has poured for me, and we start all over again.

Yesterday we saw these two new additions to the crowd he feeds via corn, birdseed and anything they like from the front yard….azaleas, hostas, formerly flowering bushes….anything but the weeds!

Baby deer don’t pose for pictures very well. They are terribly cute though.

Til later….I am headed up to check on Lee and work on that little stitching that needs something….

I finished the third Hands of Responsibility. Lots of weeds, not knowing how to load the spool for the weed eater, sometimes help with tying shoes, now taking the garbage in my car, no driving his truck, rotten tomatoes in the garden, not emptying litter box, forgets where his underwear is kept, and needs reminding to brush his teeth.

After my last blog the two of us were having that beer on the porch when he decided he needed to put on a long sleeved shirt. After a few minutes I asked if he was having trouble finding it.

“No, it’s something else.”

He comes out with his shirt on inside out and he can’t figure out how to button it.

“That is because your shirt is inside out.”

“Oh” and he figures out how to get it back on right side out.

And says, “I know I did not hang my shirt up this way. I know you wouldn’t, so it must be that grandmother that comes around and changes things.”

I liked that….a grandmother sneaking about the house. So we both laughed when I told him it must have been her that burned his toast the other morning.

We also have another phenomenon going on. The cleaning lady came today and I showed her some things that looked like white bread crumbs in certain areas….but not necessarily the kitchen/dining areas. We tracked them into the bedroom, down the hall, in the laundry room, foyer….just some loose scatterings of them. They have no odor, no taste, no weight. She and I thought it might be basil blossoms coming in on damp shoes or jeans. She no sooner vacuums them up and then ends up sweeping up more before she leaves. That was three hours ago and now they are back. They aren’t coming from the ceiling, they are on the porch as well….but nothing is blooming right now. Very strange indeed and if it continues, then we have no choice but to think that there really is a grandmother having trouble eating her ghostly sandwich and finding a place to sit still.

Anyway…..

I have taken a look around the studio and know what my next “thing” will be. These heads.

They were always going to be right and left brained women with things carved into their heads and called “What Were They Thinking.”

They still will be but not on these elevated spools, rollers instead so they can visit each other. And they will have dormer windows built out so we can see deep inside…maybe even a couple of ladders heading into the windows. I want each one of them to be very individual. It will take lots of time which is a good thing.

Here are other things in the studio near the heads.

Suggesting windows made of mica.

They might gather around this dome with the yoga figure on top….not sure.

And one will surely need a life boat to escape.

So I will be looking for old wheels so they can get around….about the size of old roller skate wheels or old rubber toy wheels.

I like that I can make them travel or line them up and put a rope for them to hang onto like children going into a museum.

Anyway more to come on that.

Also the new stitched prints, now all framed behind glass, will go to the craft shop at John C Campbell and I will pull out older work to give away to whoever smiles at me on the way out and looks like they would like one, or they will go to an auction.

Til later.

Our son came down to spend time with Lee. They stay in the shop or at Lowes Hardware store getting things to use in the shop. Lee loves it because they can get back to making glasses out of wine bottles.

After the glass is cut and polished Patrick will put a food grade epoxy in the stem and turn some exotic woods for the bases. Sometimes they will put some frosted design on them.

Patrick will go home tomorrow and Lee and I will get back to doing nothing in the shop because I am so afraid he will turn on a power tool. But he will spend a few days vacuuming any dust up and asking when Patrick will return.

Last night I had the fixings for spring rolls laid out for our dinner. This is easy and I will do it more often because Lee likes it and it is easy!

I did get away for an overnight in Asheville. Some shopping, a lunch out and good views and visits. I leave long before my friend gets up so I can take in Trader Joe’s on the way home. I decided to buy several frozen meals there to make dinners easier for me. By dinner time my energy is pretty much depleted. And because their red and orange peppers were only a dollar each, I bought several to make meat stuffed peppers for Lee and a vegetarian version for myself….all now in the freezer.

This morning when I went out to get a shovel to bury the forgotten piece from funeral the other day I found this little fellow in an over weed-filled  garden.

There is no way to keep up with the weeds so I have let them go. The deer have chomped down some azaleas in the front yard and later this fall I will just pull them up.  A lady who wandered into the driveway a week or so ago told me of a friend who bought a house here in the area because she just loves it here…..and then turned around and sold it because there is no one willing or able to do work whether it is in the gardens, yards or house repairs. I understand but need to keep Lee in the place he is used to for as long as I can.

Winter will come and then everything will die off….the ultimate weed control.

But I did bury the last little thing this morning and covered the place with the last of my collected soils for watercolors and laid out all the sweetgrass on top of that.

I like this picture and may use it for the cover of a book of notes on letting go.

And in the meantime I will finish the framing of the textile/prints pieces and then what? Not sure. Maybe start to do something made up of lots of small stitched parts….a quilt of sorts with paper and cloth and threads.

This one is a wood engraving I did with antique Japanese cloth patches stitched on.

And a woodcut of an owl I did years ago with textiles.

I am hoping to find a shop that will take them.

Anyway that is enough for now.

Til later.

 

Today the grave digger came. He brought a worker to help with the clearing and luckily for me carried all the pieces and assisted with the laying in.

For a while in my artist imagination I thought I might dress in black, carry an umbrella, lean over the hole with sadness…..maybe even have a fellow artist help me with the placement. But no, this was better. I took the helper aside and said, “Listen, you have to do this in a certain order. It matters.”

His response, “Yes, Miss Sandy.”

How perfect was that!

Here he is laying down the cloth in the fresh dug hole.

Then the houses are placed. Tony, the helper does all the carrying down a slippery slope and hands the work to Steve who dug the hole.

Then all those patriarchs….so glad to be laid to rest by men they would have appreciated.

Lovingly collected earth pigments mixed together and tossed over.

The war works get laid next and I tell the boys to be careful as these represent the suffering…lay them down softly.

Then the Expedition to Elsewhere pieces go down.

I toss the collection of Artist Group Meeting notebooks into the center of the pile.

Once the boat gets laid on top with all the specimens inside, they cover it with the banners.

My final view. And then the dirt goes back.

Pack it all down.

And then it is done.

I turn and find a small piece from the Expedition to Elsewhere….it was just a small basket made to fill wall space in the exhibit. I will bury it with the rest while the dirt is still soft enough to get it underground. And I will scatter the rest of the soils on top of that and cover it all with the sweetgrass. Just not today. It is hot and humid out there.

My outside studio space is empty again. I can’t remember when there was not a pile of things out there waiting for something to happen.

I will go read a book….another good book.

I tried to not read too quickly the book by Paul Howarth titled, Only Killers and Thieves, but yesterday it wouldn’t leave me alone. Like a Cormac McCarthy the writing draws you in with the writing of place, descriptions of people….but like McCarthy, not for the faint of heart. I have to say I loved it and hope that he writes a sequel. It reminded me in no small part of McCarthy’s first of the Border Trilogy, All the Pretty Horses.

So now I have dug out a book that a friend in Australia gave me to read on the plane coming back home. I saved it to read when I had just finished another Australian story and was not quite ready to say goodbye.

Then I am sure it will be back to some other mystery from the Brits to get lost in.

And just a couple more remarks about Australians. I miss them. I miss that I am not on the roster to teach this coming year. We mostly keep in touch and they will let me know who the lucky tutor is that will have them in a workshop. They are the best students ever and will push themselves to get the most from whatever is on offer.

And you know what else. They will call each other, “gorgeous”. I love that they use that to compliment each other and no one checks to see if that person really is “gorgeous”. I miss being called gorgeous, but last week I came close.

The Hispanic waitress at the diner looked me right in the eye and said, “You are very beautiful.” And all I did was order my usual pecan waffle. The word “beautiful” is lovely in a Spanish accent. Made me feel gorgeous just hearing her say it.

Til later.