There's a line in a song about Washington's Mt Rainier that goes, "when the mountain lifts her skirts..." referring to when the cloud cover lifts. Well, when my mountains lifted their skirts this afternoon after 24 hrs of off and on chilly rain, the highest one revealed snow! Tis the season...
I had company this weekend so only progressed on the unpacking to the point of unearthing the stereo equipment so they could help me set it up. Oh, and we shifted furniture in the living room a bit - a nicer arrangement for sure - and moved an old couch that doesn't fit anywhere out onto the porch for pick-up later on. They wanted to see my quilts in person, having only seen pictures of some of them so far. I had packed most of my wall quilt size ones in an under-the-bed-tote which of course doesn't fit under my bed, so it was handily sitting on top of the ping pong table in the studio-to-be..
This group showed the full range of my quilting efforts from when I first got serious about it right up to the present. Kind of interesting to view them that way - a quick history as it were and not in chronological order either - and note my friends' reaction to different ones. It was a real boost to note their comments about the more recent art ones, ones that I've not gotten non-quilter feedback on, ones that I tend to feel a bit uncomfortable or unsure about,. But here they were, making critical observations like they do any piece of art (and they are quite art aware), noting strengths, things they liked and making connections between recurring themes or images in various pieces that even I hadn't noted. I've been slow to return to the urge to work; this experience definitely bolstered my confidence that perhaps I AM an artist, distilled for me my path so far, reminded me how important challenges have been in shaping my art and pushed me a little closer to the urge to get going again.
After my friends left, it occurred to me that I am finally down to unpacking the studio and feeling almost ready to do so. I decided that the stack of boxes sitting in the hall that are full of books might be an easy place to start. Most of them will go on a bookshelf in the hall or on shelves in the adjacent linen closet. Once they are unpacked, it will give me more room to shift the stacks in the studio as I organize it. I only got a few of those boxes unpacked last night but it's a start, one that enforced that feeling of almost ready to start working again.
The turn to cooler and windier weather has the leaves cascading off that maple much quicker than I would like. The peachiness of many of those leaves fascinates me. The soft colors may be because of the dry weather they've had here - drought tends to dull fall colors it seems.
So the colors may not be as intense as some years, but still it is a beautiful backdrop. Here are a few pics a took a few weeks ago - liking the multicolor effect of them strewn across the green of the lawn and the grey of the rocks. Thinking it would be fun to blur the image in my photo software program, or pixelate it until all I have is a wash of colors.
Also amazing to me is the bright red veins running through some of the stronger yellow ones..
And then the odd very intensely red leaves themselves that spice up the palette. I particularly liked the way they looked against the cement.
With the exception of the leaves in the last two pictures, this is a very different intensity of palette than I envision working with when I think of fall colors. All the fabric I have set aside for my autumn piece is much darker and stronger than the majority of these leaves. May have to rethink what "fall colors" really means.
I had company this weekend so only progressed on the unpacking to the point of unearthing the stereo equipment so they could help me set it up. Oh, and we shifted furniture in the living room a bit - a nicer arrangement for sure - and moved an old couch that doesn't fit anywhere out onto the porch for pick-up later on. They wanted to see my quilts in person, having only seen pictures of some of them so far. I had packed most of my wall quilt size ones in an under-the-bed-tote which of course doesn't fit under my bed, so it was handily sitting on top of the ping pong table in the studio-to-be..
This group showed the full range of my quilting efforts from when I first got serious about it right up to the present. Kind of interesting to view them that way - a quick history as it were and not in chronological order either - and note my friends' reaction to different ones. It was a real boost to note their comments about the more recent art ones, ones that I've not gotten non-quilter feedback on, ones that I tend to feel a bit uncomfortable or unsure about,. But here they were, making critical observations like they do any piece of art (and they are quite art aware), noting strengths, things they liked and making connections between recurring themes or images in various pieces that even I hadn't noted. I've been slow to return to the urge to work; this experience definitely bolstered my confidence that perhaps I AM an artist, distilled for me my path so far, reminded me how important challenges have been in shaping my art and pushed me a little closer to the urge to get going again.
After my friends left, it occurred to me that I am finally down to unpacking the studio and feeling almost ready to do so. I decided that the stack of boxes sitting in the hall that are full of books might be an easy place to start. Most of them will go on a bookshelf in the hall or on shelves in the adjacent linen closet. Once they are unpacked, it will give me more room to shift the stacks in the studio as I organize it. I only got a few of those boxes unpacked last night but it's a start, one that enforced that feeling of almost ready to start working again.The turn to cooler and windier weather has the leaves cascading off that maple much quicker than I would like. The peachiness of many of those leaves fascinates me. The soft colors may be because of the dry weather they've had here - drought tends to dull fall colors it seems.
So the colors may not be as intense as some years, but still it is a beautiful backdrop. Here are a few pics a took a few weeks ago - liking the multicolor effect of them strewn across the green of the lawn and the grey of the rocks. Thinking it would be fun to blur the image in my photo software program, or pixelate it until all I have is a wash of colors.
Also amazing to me is the bright red veins running through some of the stronger yellow ones..
And then the odd very intensely red leaves themselves that spice up the palette. I particularly liked the way they looked against the cement.
With the exception of the leaves in the last two pictures, this is a very different intensity of palette than I envision working with when I think of fall colors. All the fabric I have set aside for my autumn piece is much darker and stronger than the majority of these leaves. May have to rethink what "fall colors" really means.
1 comment:
I like the description of the clouds on the mountains. Sometimes in Garfield Bay the clouds are so low you'd think you were at the ocean because you can't see the end of the bay.
Don't forget the cedar cones. The overlay pattern is interesting.
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