Magic in the High Desert

2020 Note - This entry was imported from my old blog, some of the links may not be active.

Museum Hill Sculpture

It started out as a joke.  A friend of mine mentioned a trip to Santa Fe and a tour to explore Pueblo Indian Art and I joked that if she wanted a chaperone to let me know.  She needed a roommate and promised to send the information along.  The next morning I found the tour information in my email and glanced at it before heading out for school.  On my long drive, the trip began to spill out into my thoughts.  I thought about it all day off an on.

Summer Monsoon Clouds

Later that day my professor took us over to the school's museum collection.  As we stood in the large warehouse I found myself looking at Pueblo pottery.  Rows and rows of pottery including the black on black designs so distinctive of the Santo Ildefonso Pueblo. It was there that I understood that I had to go.

Returning from this trip has been very hard.  Santa Fe is a beautiful place.  New Mexico flirts with the creative soul.  The food is incredible.  There were textiles, patterns and art everywhere.  I filled my camera with references to add to my sketch book

Sometimes there are places that get under your skin.  You feel instantly at home.  I felt home there.  It doesn't surprise me that I felt that way.  My mom lived in Northern Arizona and I spent a lot of my growing up years visiting and part time living there.  I love high desert.  I love the mix of cultures, food and the wide open spaces.  My post trip depression hit hard and fast.  Don't get me wrong, I love the area I live in, but I've known for a long time it isn't mine.  It is home, but not

home.  

I have a few weeks remaining in summer to hit the last remaining projects that I want to finish.  As I work toward the start of a new school year and a new school experience, I'm keeping New Mexico in my heart.

Indeed it is magic.

Prepping for Convergence

2020 Note - This entry was imported from my old blog, some of the links may not be active.

I'm heading out soon for 

HGA's Convergence conference

.  The last two weeks have been a mad rush to finish things for deadline, prep, clean the house and get my head ready for the largest weaving gathering I've ever been too.

I was awarded a student assistantship in May; it a tremendous opportunity and I'm so grateful I get to go.  There are various duties students are asked to do and one of them is assisting a teacher in a class.  I will 

Rebecca Mezoff

in her color gradation class and I'm very much looking forward to meeting her.  I am taking her online tapestry class this summer and I've followed her blog for years.  I picked up a Mirrix tapestry loom a few weeks ago from The Yarn Barn while traveling through Lawrence, KS.  I wonder what the TSA will think when they see the loom in my suitcase?  And the yarn, and tapestry tools....

I'll also go on a bus tour to the

American Textile History Museum

which has a very interesting website.  I've made a list of the all the gallery exhibitions, and started packing everything I'll need for a very exciting week.

I'm looking forward to meeting folks I've only known online and in print.  It will be great to expand my network of people who understand and can nerd out over textiles as much as I can.

Summer Start Up

2020 Note - This entry was imported from my old blog, some of the links may not be active.

Summer has arrived and things have possibly slowed down a bit.  Mark graduated a few weeks ago and it was a wonderful time.  It was nice to have a ritual to note such a monumental achievement.  He was happy and I was so proud.

We slipped away for a few days to Lexington, Kentucky.  Kentucky has always been one of my favorite states.  When I was a kid I declared any place that had horses on their license plates was my kind of place.  I begged my father to rip up our old lawn and plant bluegrass.  Perhaps I thought if we planed bluegrass, horses would sprout up as well.  This trip was quick, but just the refreshment we needed.

I have some deadlines early this summer and I'm weaving to meet them!  This piece and I will sit together for awhile.  It is a large brocade tapestry that I'm quite excited about.  My work took a turn towards the end of the semester and something clicked.  Through the encouragement of my peers and professor, I'm embracing some intuitive design concepts and going big.