Of thread and dancing and all the other little things that make life worth living.
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So I was going through some photos to make prints for the ArtCrawl a couple of days ago when my youngest walked in. She looked eagerly through the photos then declared glumly that she had Englandsickness--like homesickness but more complicated and expensive to cure.
I'm right there with her. We miss our friends and their little town and the grand, glorious, mysterious Dart Moor.
Anyhow, I'm getting these up on my website soon, and on my Facebook page sooner, so if you find these give you Englandsickness, you can buy your own little window onto the moor (or Cornwall, or Ireland, or industrial Kingsport).
Thursday night (9-30-10) from 5-9 p.m., KingsportARTS (full info and admission @ their website) and downtown Kingsport shops, eateries, and studios are hosting the semiannual ArtsCrawl. This event has expanded significantly in the last six months (along with business in our real city center), so come support the arts in our fair city and see what's hopping in downtown Kingsport.
If you do come, say "Hi!" when you're at the Kingsport Ballet's new digs--I'll be there with the Kingsport Art Guild.
P.S. I'm tagging this with food and cheese because there's always good nosh!
Well, time passes swiftly and a lot has happened in the past two months. The highlights are these, though.
The Good: WOOT! The City of Kingsport purchased my "Labyrinth" for their permanent collection. It will adorn the new V.O. Dobbins Community Complex. I hope to attend the opening on Friday and will be recording my artist statement for the cell phone audio tour of the public art later today!
"Labyrinth" (c) Cindi Huss.
The Bad: I accidentally felted the commission I was working on. OY! Forgot about the felting properties of the wool batting I was using. How? How could I forget?! Beats me since wool has become one of my major materials. Perhaps fatigue? Perhaps trying to do too many things at once? Perhaps because it was inside rather than on the surface. Anyhow, I've recovered from my initial shock and dismay and have decided it actually is a good thing because I am working on an even more wonderful version of the piece now. (Pascale, you are not alone. Unfortunately, the product has not been transformed into a coordinating rug.)
The Lovely: I got together with a couple of friends last month and we dyed. For two days! And we're going to do it again on Wednesday. We dyed yarn (for the knitter), leotards, tights, and silk gauze (for the dancewear designer), and I dyed wool prefelt and natural woven wool fabric to be backgrounds for my felt paintings.
Also, about three weeks ago, fellow quilter Pam Morris announced that she was done dyeing and ready to quilt up all her lovely fabric, so she was giving away all her dye supplies. For Free! So I drove over to Burnsville, NC, to pick up many containers of fiber reactive dye powder, many containers of mixed dye (poor thing sprained her shoulder before she could use it all up), a small plastic table, and loads of measuring implements, dye containers, rags, and auxilliary chemicals. I really appreciate it, Pam, and will let you know what we do with it!
Also, I'm about to send a couple of quilts and some fabric off to Timna Tarr of Q Tailored Quilts. I haven't plugged her recently, but Timna is fabulously talented and highly reliable, and her services are reasonably priced. I'll post photos when I get the quilts back.
I use hand-dyeing, needle felting, and wet felting to enhance my extreme-quilted fiber reliefs. I also design traditionally constructed contemporary quilts. I teach classes on art and quilting and draw on my past life (as a trained journalist, copywriter, and freelancer) to write articles and essays on quilting and the business and philosophy of art.
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”—T.S. Eliot
"The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?" --Pablo Casals
“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” --George Bernard Shaw
"People do not believe lies because they have to, but because they want to. "--Malcolm Muggerige
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another." --Jesus (John 13:34, NIV)
"You are dead only when the last person who knows you is dead."--folk proverb
"Do good work, but be brave and adventurous!"--Marka Harwell-Bentley
"Who is rich? He who rejoices in his portion."--The Talmud
"He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself." --folk proverb
"We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without."--Henry David Thoreau
"I write a little every day, without hope and without despair."--Isak Dinisen
"Love is superior to everything ... durable, sublime, more resembling God..."--Michael Servetus
"To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man."--Sebastien Castillio
"It is better to light a candle than to curse the dark." --folk proverb
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”--Edmund Burke
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."--Thomas Edison
"If you don’t find God in the next person you meet, it’s a waste of time looking for him further." --Mohandas K. Gandhi
"Every happening, great and small...is a parable whereby God speaks to us; and the art of life is to get the message." --Malcolm Muggeridge
"It is in our lives and not in our words that our religion must be read."--Thomas Jefferson
"We do not have to think alike to love alike."--Francis David
"What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?" --George Eliot a.k.a.Mary Anne Evans
"So live that you wouldn't be afraid to sell the family parrot to the town gossip." --Will Rogers
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." --Dr. Seuss (a.k.a. Theodore Geisel)
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter...." --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
(Please read in haiku) "Speak only the truth; Follow your promises through; Lead with dignity"--Margaret Badger
"A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud." --Ralph Waldo Emerson
"We know what we are, but not what we may be." --William Shakespeare
"With malice toward none and charity for all." --Abraham Lincoln
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." --Anne Frank
"Life itself is the proper binge." --Julia Child
"The world speaks to me in colors, my souls answer in music." --Rabindranath Tagore
"Swim with abandon in the creative waters." --Linda Ruel Flynn
"Do not turn back on reaching the frontier." --Plutarch
"Color possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will pursue me always, I know it." --Paul Klee
Lagom--a Swedish word meaning, basically, enough is enough--in the literal sense. More is not necessarily better, regarding money, fame, etc. Sufficiency is fine and dandy and doesn't lead to pride. A pretty potent word!
"There is no 'must' in art, because art is free."--Wassily Kandinsky