Everything's coming up . . .

. . . shibori!

I had a lovely three-day dyeing workshop with Jan Myers-Newbury last week (or at least it was last week when I began composing this post).

(By the way, Jan, I lived on Summerlea St.--I knew the knowledge was in there somewhere, but it only surfaced today.)

At dinner she pointed out that the ceramic lazy Susan on our table (at Susanna Foo's--excellent food!) looked like shibori, and she was right.

Then I noticed the bathroom wallpaper looked like shibori, as did the wood grain on a table, bare branches against the sky, and the clouds we looked down on during our flight last Sunday.

And then there are the clamp-resisted wannabees, like this cool building (very "early fortress")

and the reflection of a beaded curtain, also at Susanna Foo's

.

I even found an arashi shibori overdyed with a clamped resist--or is it a clamped resist overdyed with arashi shibori?

I know that shibori originated as textile artists observed and mimicked the world (particularly the natural world) around them, but it's fun to come full circle and suddenly see much more intensely the patterns around me. Thanks, Jan.

Anyhow, met lots of interesting people and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Took a day afterwards to visit college friends and that gave me a great boost, too. They say you can get the measure of a person by the company she keeps . . . therefore I must be a truly phenomenal specimen of humanity!

It's a different world than where I come from

We're house hunting in Kingsport, TN this week and the first night we saw this sign. Here religion is not a personal, private matter as it is in New England. It's a wear-it-on-your-sleeve, share-it-with-your-neighbor sort of a thing, and that will take a little getting used to.

However, the area is really quite lovely--tons of flowering trees just now, beautiful green grass, flowers, mountains, rivers and lakes. Pretty spectacular all told! And everyone has been very nice and extremely helpful.

SAQA/SDA Breaking New Ground Conference

I'll preface this with a disclaimer: I do not have pictures (yet) because the Wayne Art Center asked us not to take pictures and I decided not to take my camera along on the gallery tours because it was heavy and I didn't know whether they'd let us take photos anyhow.

However, let me assure you that the Biennial at Snyderman was worth the trip all by itself (and after visiting the facilities at the Philadelphia University's School of Design we all want to go back to school--there!). And Elements and the conference were worth the trip all by themselves. And tomorrow I begin a three-day workshop with Jan Myers-Newbury (who gave a very entertaining introduction for Judith and Michael James) that I expect will be worth the trip all by itself. Top it all off with the many dedicated artists at all stages in their careers and of all ages and you have a winning event.

I've been inspired by the successes and struggles of established artists as well as the enthusiasm and drive of emerging artists and impressed with the collegial, generous atmosphere of the entire event.

Maybe tomorrow there will be photos. Nighty-night.

Silk under water . . .

. . . is so cool!

In person it looked almost like stone or clay. I love what I do--every sense is stimulated, often in ways I don't expect.