California!

 

It seems so far away already, but in September Linda Willis and I took a great trip to Petaluma, California for the premier of the West Coast version of Art is You and couple of added on days for visiting old friends! The venue (Sheraton) was great and of course the fact that we got to meet new peeps and see some long lost buddies was the best! Among an inspiring array:

Ricë Freeman-Zachery and her amazing husband Earl!

Laurie Mika

 Katherine England

Amy Powers

Keith LoBue

Leighanna Light

Albie Smith

Was feeling inspired by the work that was flying around the hotel. Loved Petaluma and thank you Julie Panusis for taking us around town!!!

Got to visit friends in Joan and Pietro Parravano in Half Moon Bay (where I spent many years). The weather was unusually warm for the northern coast of California and I loved the Giants game, picnic on the beach, relaxing sauna, the most excellent food and the time to just chat! Thank you!!

 

And Leo, Great to see you!

Finished up the journey with MT Silvia, former girlfriend and maker of the film "Atomic Mom"! We had a wonderful dinner with her best girlz some of whom I hadn't seen in 25 years. A talented and very funny group of women!! Got to sleep under the quilt I made her in 1985!

On my to the airport in Oakland, I check out the Institute Of Mosaic Art. (Thanks for the tip Katherine) It is a building in a mixed use part of Oakland that is filled with wonderful finished pieces and many ongoing works, such as the bathrooms. As you can see the outside of the building beautifully reflects the good works.

I missed my baby and was glad to get back to the East coast to see Sue and prepare for the Danbury Art Is!!

So Much Happened in July!

July was so busy. My sis Allison and girlfriend Midge arrived, having driven from Florida with boxes of mangoes from their yard and a thermo fax machine! We were thrilled to see them and consumed bowls filled with mangoes as we caught up on life. 

We had to get right on the first two day task of helping to setting up tables, chairs, dishes etc and making pizza dough for 100 folks that would be attending a fund raiser for the Salt Ponds Coalition  that was happening at George and Cathy's beautiful home and farm. All went well and then it was right onto Al's Birthday Celebration that went on for a couple of days with family, friends and a fancy brunch at the Ocean House.

Looming in the background was the list of preparations that needed to be done for our big creative weekend with the brave women heading this way from NY and NJ!!! Finishing name tags, food, supply piles, presents, cleaning, weeding....The day arrived, the girlz arrived with all of their goodies, and off we went...

The overall idea for the weekend was to create an 18 inch pillow. To that end, the first project was fabric painting outside. To survive the 100+ degrees, we quickly watered down fabric and each other, sprayed and splattered paint and retreated to the very cool basement to carve stamps! It is the space that saved the weekend!! So we over came fears of drawing, so so attitudes about carving and with a bit of urging, developed amazing stamps!

Somewhere in there we ate, snacked, drank large volumes to liquid to help with the survival of the 100+ degrees and who knows about the humidity!!! We then moved all of the screen printing materials from the garage down to the cool basement. After a brief demo and discussion we went to work on our painted fabric with silk and thermo fax screens. My sis was developing her new themo fax screen empire as we worked. "Do not let the screens dry out" was the mantra of the afternoon.

Saturday was printing with rubber stamps and sewing day. The afternoon was broken up a bit for some by shopping at a Folk Art Quilts, Wakefield and chowing the best ice cream on the planet! 

 

By the end of Sunday everyone had survived the heat and each other, had a great project done or almost done, a hand made "friendship" book constructed from painted and stamped papers that were worked on over the weekend and shared with everyone, presents from everyone, a fat quarter trade stash, hand made rubber stamps, and a pile of painted, stamped and screened fabric.

And of course the whole thing was made possible because Miss Linda Willis keeps coming to my house and bringing things to eat and projects to make. Thanks Linder (rhodeislandeese)

And thanks to the creative women keep driving here to use my dried up paints and glues...They keep showing up and have advised that they will continue to do so as long as possible!

Thanks also to Midge, Allison and Sue for all of their work in the very very hot kitchen!!! Very much appreciated by all I'm sure!

Details for the next Rhody event coming soon. Save the end of January!!!

Then there is the garden and the chickens and bees...

and

MT's movie "Atomic Mom" in Providence August 12th

try to get there and please tell your friends!!

and

Art is You California in September

Art is You Danbury in October

See you soon somewhere!