The Barn Sale

Since my trip to Wyoming is going to take a while to write out, I'm opting for sharing a shorter jaunt instead. Yesterday was The Barn Sale that has been advertised on a little flier hanging on my fridge for several months now. Being so freshly back and not quite into the normal routine, since what is normal changed right before I left with school just starting, I almost forgot. Luckily I spotted it amongst the stuff and loaded up my nine-year-old and headed off.

Since it was a long ways out on a road we rarely take, even just driving out to the place was an adventure for us. Once we arrived there was no mistaking we were there--cars were parked clear out onto the road. Yay! We don't have these types of events around here often (or maybe I'm just ignorant!), so we were excited!

The first booth had a beautiful box of little silk flower parts that was so colorful. They were in the shade, which made for that nicely saturated light that really pops colors. Unfortunately I didn't check the pic before moving on and didn't know it was out of focus until I downloaded it from the camera. Note to self--don't do this again! But the colors were lovely and the little flowers in the middle--mine. Oh yeah. They had a whole stack of vintage travel postcards for only 25 cents each! I managed to only buy $7 worth. At some point I want to get back to my travelling Louisa project and these were perfect, although the assistant got a bit bored once her pulled pork sample ran out.


Thanks to Junebug (509-990-4558) for allowing me to take these images and for the deal on the postcards!

















The next booth used a lot of natural flowers and grasses to accent their wares, and I'd like to thank Jennifer Henry at the Trellis for allowing me to photograph her wares. I love her casually elegant style.























This adorable little yellow cabinet was from Two Women. She also had a a ring that the assistant was salivating over, but was not rewarded with. A bit spendy to end up lost in a nine-year-old's room. We'll check St. vinny's 50% off day instead. ;-)















Across the way was another shopping find. Ribbons. Not like I need more, but I bought some anyway. I mean really, who could resist this? Maybe my husband, but not two girls with cash! This vendor from Sandpoint also had a gorgeous variety of handmade cards, journals and tag-like cards all embellished with authentic glass glitter. The colors were so sweet, like petit fours on paper. If you want to see more visit Barbara.



















So many goodies! We saw some lovely charms, an adorable doll tea set, bunches of old patterns, lovely linens. It was hard to not want to buy stuff, stuff and more stuff. But being the owner of already too much stuff, I really was thoughtful in my purchases, instead of succumbing to the greedy part of the brain (now do you suppose that's left brain or right brain? Hmmm...).


A number of the next booths showcased more outdoorsy wares, so our next stop was at a lovely little booth with the nicest displays and who sells at Etsy.















There were so many cool displays and lots of fun goodies we saw while just strolling around.



















One of my favorite booths was owned by a lady whose daughter is one of my art students (and very talented I might add!). Suzie Q's (208-765-8460) is a local store that has a great mix of vintage with a few new things here and there, along with some handmade wares.
One of the customers had a sweet little dog conveniently for sale, but this mom has a heart of stone for these types of temptations, which is good, because the assistant does not! Love this heart vase. And it would be so fun to live in one of those places where you could actually have a chandelier and stand outside on a stone patio with flowers all around. But, here in Idaho--not likely. Although I'm sure it would entertain the dog.




























In the end I made it through without too much monetary damage, but having had a bunch of fun. Just going and taking photos was a blast. On the way we followed the road out further and saw some new sights. The assistant came up with a great regional joke on the way home (saying the name of the town "Chilco" as a sneeze) and I'm sure I'm fated to hear it for the rest of her childhood until it becomes family lore. And really, that's the best part of the day.

Here's a great word: hendiadys

Main Entry: hen·di·a·dys
Pronunciation: hen-'dI-&-d&s
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin hendiadys, hendiadyoin, modification of Greek hen dia dyoin, literally, one through two
: the expression of an idea by the use of usually two independent words connected by and (as nice and warm) instead of the usual combination of independent word and its modifier (as nicely warm)

I still need to share my trip, but that's going to take a longer post than I currently have energy for. However, one of the things I picked up on my trip was an Edward Gorey book. (It was only $2 at the silent auction held the last night of the workshop.) I used to watch Mystery on PBS almost religiously and of course anyone faimliar with that show (I don't even know if it's still on now) knows Edward Gorey's opening credits. So for $2 I couldn't resist. It really takes a dry and somewhat twisted sense of humor to appreciate, so I'm not sure what that says about me (!), but we had some silly chuckles this evening with parts of it.

The second piece is called "The Nursery Frieze" and features little hippo-like animals running by saying various words that create a nonsensical rhythm, with every fourth word rhyming. I got quite a kick out of it, but my nine-year-old was mystified. The fourteenth word is hendiadys. Now you know that there is a word for this linguistical phenomenon. Go forth and use it in your conversation somewhere today. I dare you!

I'm off!

Off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of...

Oops, wrong trip. I'm off to Wyoming for an art workshop with my mommy. And to the best of my knowledge it will not involve any tin men, scarecrows or cowardly lions. Just acrylics, watercolors or oils, depending on what I decide to participate in. The non-objective expressionist meets landscape and portrait professionals. Should be interesting.

See you next week!

Free Motion Stitching

I spent today working on some art projects of the hands-on variety. Exercising the creative brain parts was a nice change of pace. I've really not spent much time in that mode this summer, although I had big plans to work on all kind of projects.

Today's piece was a fabric postcard for a friend. It started with several layers of various fabrics tacked together with a couple ribbon sections. My attempt to draw the FME design on was really a non-productive exercise: my sewing machine has an LED-type light that is going out (giving a nice strobe light effect--ever sew in a disco?) so I have a lamp that I shine strategically into the sewing space to lessen the effect, which essentially erased my light-colored chalk lines. Consequently it was even more free free-motion, that's for sure! If you've never tried FME, I recommend it--very (dare I say it?) freeing. Ha, ha, ha! Okay, bad Rin, I know. But it is quite fun. I highly recommend a darning foot, also. In all my years of sewing I've never stitched a finger, but it would be awfully easy to do while doing FME without a foot. (Of course I don't bother to put my projects in a hoop, which probably adds to the danger of footless sewing.) If you've tried FME and are frustrated by it, I would encourage you to give it a bit more practice. If you can get into a rhythm, everything starts to flow so nicely. After finishing up all the FME sections I took my heat gun and burnt off the layers of chiffon and some of the netting, to go back to my bottom layer. I really should have taken pictures before and after the burning because it made a dramatic difference on the piece. I'm very happy with it and now have to send it off.

Here is another fabric postcard I made recently and finished up today. It needed a little more color, so I pulled out my water-soluble wax crayons (a favorite toy), colored, then brushed on some water for some soft accent coloring. Free motion stiching and burning fabric also played a part here. (The burning thing could get a little addictive--I might finally understand my husband's desire to have a burn pile twice a year. The first year we lived in town [we're both country kids] he burnt the lawn in the spring. I told him that city folk just mow it--lol!) It will also be sent off to another home.


And finally, here's a little reject from a swap I participated in with some other artists in the Christian Paper Artist Yahoo group. We made pages for a Fruit of the Spirit book; my page was joy. Knowing the Lord always gives me a deep-seated feeling of joy; I am not an Eeyore (sp?) Christian. Even in the hardest of times I feel joy deep within. How to express joy on a piece of paper came easily to me--color. Every idea I had for how to approach this topic involved bursts of color. In the last year I've begun to realize that a large portion of my art falls into the category of non-objective expressionism and I find that I frequently want to express emotions with colors. Words and letterforms have always fascinated me, so this depiction of joy worked for me. And I had fun playing with my brush pen that gives such fun lines--sort of a French feeling.

What makes you joyful? What expresses joy to you? How would you depict joy? I would love to know (feel free to leave a comment. I moderate my comments, so it won't come up right away, but I check in frequently). I really would like to hear from people on this topic, because I'm trying to expand my interpretations and understanding of what I see in art. I'm not sure I'm explaining myself well, so here's an example: there are many paintings that I encounter that I dismiss as simple sentimentality, but I'm starting to wonder if I am missing something in the interpretation because of my personality. I'm not highly sentimental, so if I looked deeper would I see that the painting really says something bigger about love (for instance)? So, in that mode, I would really enjoy hearing how other people would depict an abstract concept like joy. BTW, this little page was a reject because I stitched it the wrong from the wrong side and then tried to cover the resulting ugliness with a satin stitch, which effectively made a cutout of the fragile sheet music on the back. The rest were stitched correctly and sent off. I can't wait to get the book.

Gearing up for art!

After a summer of reading drawing books, and a few bits of aesthetics in places, my art curriculum is almost finished. I was a bit stuck on illustrations for the concept of contrast, but found some lovely examples after a bit of research, including a striking "Pieta" by Jean Fouquet. There's a starkness about it that reminds me of twentieth century art, but Fouquet lived circa 1420-1480.



Because we'll be focusing on improving our drawing skills, I've been spending some time searching for drawings (rather than just paintings) by the masters who have gone before us to use as examples in our class this year. Here's a gem by Albrecht Durer, titled "Head of an Angel". Durer was an immensely talented artist. I'm always amazed by the details in his engravings, especially those with words--remember engravings are made backwards.



But in honor of going back to school, I want to share one of my favorite paintings by Caravaggio called "Rest on the Flight into Egypt". An imaginative painting to be sure (can't think of any violin-playing angels in the Scriptural story...), but so lovely and delicate, with such a sense of peace. Astonishing, coming from such a wild man. A reminder, perhaps that outward appearances can be decieving? Enough of my musings, however--here's the painting. Be sure to click on it and view it larger or you'll miss out.

The Holohan Sisters

During our weekly library trips I've been checking out different CDs to try to find some new music, especially things that inspire my creative spirit. I can usually tell within three or tour tracks whether or not I would ever listen to something twice, and truthfully I haven't found much that I've liked (I'm rather particular about music I guess). Several weeks ago I tried the Chieftains and found several songs I quite liked, including "The Foggy Dew". While looking for it on YouTube I found this wonderful gem. My grandma used to sing me old cowboy songs and old folk songs, but I hadn't heard this one. Beautiful voices. BTW, in the last blog reorganization I moved the music plug-in up so it's easier to get to it to turn off the music playing already. Enjoy!

In Mourning

Today I am in mourning.

I am lamenting the passing of one of my favorite people: the copy editor.

When I was younger it was a wicked little pleasure to find a typo in a book because they were so rare. Nowdays it's just a nuisance.

Yesterday I found two typos in as many pages in a book on aesthetics. One moment I was reading about values and the next thing I knew we were discussing valves. It was really quite distracting. Rather like being on a train when someone has pulled the emergency brake (well, I'm really guessing on that account because I've never been on a train when that has happened--but it looks like that). The thoughts start falling all over each other as the brain comes crashing to a halt. Valves? Where do valves come into this discussion. Oh, oh, it's a typo. A dratted typographical error. And that was the second one, after a from/form mix-up. Both of which tell me that someone relied on spellcheck.

Which, I suppose, was better than the book I was reading today where the editorial staff couldn't even be bothered to use spellcheck, as evinced by their immensely creative spelling of words such as generally. I don't remember what the other misspelling was and quite frankly, I'm glad--it's all too depressing. Having worked for several years as an editor, I really hate typos and strive to even keep my e-mails free from them. When I comment on someone's blog and then discover that in my haste I left a typo I feel like I should post an apology.

But e-mails and comments are one thing--academic books about fine art (hidden in a plain white cover, amongst the dull books of academia--I knew it had color photos the moment I picked it up: I could feel the weight of the clay-coated glossy paper inside) are quite another. I'm only halfway through Umberto Eco's "History of Beauty" and have already found three typos. Where are the copy editors?! The irony to me is that it seems like spell check would make things easier. I mean they used to set all that type with little metal letters put into trays backwards--shouldn't we have fewer errors now?

So, I have to conclude that copy editors are rapidly going the way of the wooly mammoth. Wave good-bye now because they are going fast--perhaps they're a victim of global warming.



Thank you to Liam for the picture of the old books.

Recent life in pictures

I'm taking a cue from my friend Andi and posting some life without much text just pics. Hey, don't they say that a picture is worth a thousand words? Just think how much time we're saving on reading it all this way. ;-)

4th of July















Swaps in Yahoo groups: first up, inchies.











Next we have charms for swaps, in process and done:









Summer field--the pic wasn't very good, so I goofed with it a bit.



Prepping for the 4-H dog show. Okay, the dog didn't go in the fitting and showing class this way! The spoils? My daughter won a blue and a red and we all lived throught it. Now I remember why I quit showing horses, though.



New art in progress. This piece was started last spring and is finally moving forward. A new palette of colors for me--I don't usually use greens and yellows without pink and I avoid orange like the plague. Well, unless it's with some pink...

Good News!

If you read the bit below about our teacher trying to bring his family into our country legally, then you'll be pleased to know the updated story: he's found the sponsors!

Other good news--our powerful confuser is once again connecting with the e-world. I really like my space bar and am most appreciative of its normal sound and easy functionality.

I actually had an art day today. The family went into the mountains on a disappointing huckleberry run. Such a small amount for all their effort on a hot day. But I had fun at home. I worked on a piece that I started earlier in the spring and got a lot done on it. Of course the nice spring quote odesn't quite fit now, but I'll work something out. I'll share pics when done. I also painted some pages in an altered book that had been in my brain for a couple years now. It's a sort-of pop culture take on different Bible verses (not irreverent, though, by any means). I've been saving all kinds of bits and pieces and need to start piecing together and glueing. Just getting the little bits and pieces stuck in something so I can throw away the extra will be so nice. My sweet husband once referred to my office/studio space as a "mouse playground" but he was off a bit--it's a packrat's paradise!

Looking forward to more art time tomorrow. I'm trying to be more disciplined this week with mornings set aside for study and afternoons set aside for some play. We'll see how it goes.

Away...

Well, I've had lots of things in my brain to share lately, but our internet is down again, so I'll be away until the service provider can resume providing. I'm at the library right now on a computer with a space bar that either sticks or is inordinately loud. Or maybe they're all loud and I'm just the only one using the space bar. Stay cool wherever you are!

Need a sponsor to come to the U.S.

In my personal life I tend to be very opinionated when it comes to politics and such, but I try to keep it away from my blog for a variety of reasons. So I hope any readers will not be offended by the following small indulgence, along the way to a serious need. (Is that what is referred to as a disclaimer? ;-) )

Life is so interesting. While our country has a serious problem with control over its borders and is dealing with providing health and education services to vast numbers of people in this country having not come through the proper channels (which would technically be a breaking of the law), and while the politicos try to drum up support for allowing these people to stay regardless of proper procedures, one of our teachers is trying desperately to get his family into this country legally. The challenge? For each family member he must have a sponsor who will sign papers stating that they will provide financial support in case of catastrophe. The reason? So they will not become wards of the state and drain our government financially. Which makes me scratch my head in wonderment at the aforementioned politicos.

Why are so many of them endorsing breaking our own country's law in this immigration debate? I know, I know--I've heard the heart-appealing arguments about not wanting to break up families who already have one member here. Wait a moment, what about our teacher? His family is stuck in another country because of our law. Oh and then there's the other argument about needed labor. Well, here's a novel idea about putting to work some folk who aren't doing much right now. Obviously not appropriate in all cases, but certainly for some it could be and it would be job training to provide skills for after release (and I'm sure much more effectively than my feeble attempt to teach short story writing in this environment!). As for the cost of rounding up people who are here without proper paperwork--what if we quit providing government-funded services and put that savings toward finding them and returning them to their proper country. If they want to come back that's fine--just do it the right way. Just go through all the red tape and proverbial hoops, like our teacher is doing. Too hard to do all that? Well, I was always taught that anything worthwhile takes sacrifice.

I'm not trying to be heartless. My great-great-grandparents were all immigrants, as were many peoples' ancestors. Come--just follow the law. And on that note, if there is anyone who can help Mr. Phillips, here is the link to his blog again. He needs one to three people to step up as sponsors for his family to be allowed to come. He gives info on how to reach him, if you can help, or know someone who can. Or contact me and I can pass info on to him.

Thanks for indulging my little rant. Yes, I know it's a complex issue, and no, I'm not without a heart. But I do look at the situation of one family trying to do everything right and how difficult it is for them and then look at the state of this issue in our country and wonder what has happened to the sanity of our leadership. Oh, and yes, I called my Senatorial representative and let him know my thoughts also. ;-)

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...