Whoa, all praise the technology!!

This may not look like much to most viewers, but this, my friends, is my new Bernina Walking Foot. Exciting to me on so many different levels, it is unimaginable. Not to mention that I could have bought an entire sewing machine for the price of this foot. I love it though, it was worth it!

Inspiration

I've been thinking about inspiration a lot lately. It definitely comes in many forms, some far more motivating than others. A group of us climbed up Mt. Tom last night. It was a race for the top in order to see a simultaneous sunset and moonrise. Three dogs and seven people rushed from the parking area on Chapin Street to the Hawk Migration Observatory Tower on Mt. Tom in the Goat's peak area. It was fantastic, and worth all the hyperventilating to get up there in time to see it.

This photo does not do the moon justice! It was so huge and beautiful. And while the beers were being passed around, fireworks erupted in the distance, which we speculated must be from the Wilbraham Peach Festival going on over this weekend. On the way down (after dark, mind you), we were treated to a bat show and some other scary moments when the two black dogs with us would rush around in the surrounding dark forest and then jump out at us into our flashlight beams! It was pretty Blair Witch, but cool all the same.

No guilt work schedule

It's been raining for weeks now, which means there has been no guilt about staying indoors and working my bottom off. If there are times that I feel guilty for the amount of time that I spend "making" things, then it is when the sun is shining outside and it's green and beautiful, and I'm in the sweatshop, hunched over the Bernina sewing away. Luckily I have my machine placed on a table that sits right in front of a double window. This window provides an unparalleled view of the mountains of the Holyoke range. So when I start to feel guilty (and this is only guilty for my own self) I just glance up at the sun shining on the mountains and there, I'm enjoying the outdoors. With the windows open, then hey, I may as well be outside hiking as far as I'm concerned (minus the mosquitos though). Being in the studio is actually another matter all together....there, I can see even more of the extensive east to west mountain range, and get pretty direct sunlight from early morning until around 4 p.m. or so. It's just sheer beauty...windows open, the water in the canal rushing from the spillway, and the fresh breeze...again, I'm outdoors even though I'm perched at the easel for hours. It's ok to work constantly. Isn't it?

Crafty in Easthampton

In a previous post I made a big list of Easthampton Etsyers http://artandcraftlife.blogspot.com/2008/05/easthampton-etsyers.html These folk are pretty talented. I especially love fernanimals work and check her shop all the time for new critters. I'm thinking now of starting an Easthampton Street Team on Etsy. I've just emailed zerkahloostra (see her eyeball kid digital camera case) to see about joining the Western Mass Street team, which would be fab, but hey, we've got talent here in E'town I'm saying.

I've been busy in the sweatshop creating some new items for the shop. For example, check out these eyeglass cases! I'm making two different types, one that closes with a button, the other is just basically a slip in type case. I wish I had time to make one for myself!

reclaimed urban garden - now with soon to be mini mural!!

We've been talking about doing this for two years now! Finally, on this hot and sticky Sunday morning, my hot and sticky boyfriend and I managed to get out there and do some scraping and priming. This mini reclaimed urban area garden has been in the works for three years now (or more?), and the perennials are coming up nicely, the new grass and coneflowers came back after a scary-cold winter. It was a tough spot to get established considering it was full of refuse, brick and mortar dust, rocks, and very very poor soil. But two bags of cow manure and lots of tender loving care the first two years have turned this spot into a nice little oasis.

If you are wondering where it is, it's located behind Mt. Tom's Homemade Ice Cream and Candy Store at 34 Cottage Street, Easthampton, MA. Come in and get a cone and ask Jim (pictured above) to have a look at the garden. Perhaps by the time you come the mural will be already started. Sketches to follow soon. We are thinking it will be a landscape with, what else, but Mt. Tom and Nashawannuk Pond?

Church Street painting almost done

It's nearly there. Just waiting approval from its new owner. This is a bad, bad, bad photo! This is a tough canvas to photograph and there is a lot of reflection happening in the tree area on the right side of the canvas in this photo. I can get one side looking good and the reflection is there on the other.

I'm much more content with the foliage in this canvas than I was with the mural panel at Bueno's. It feels more "tree like" even though it is greatly stylized.

I'm usually very interested in fine detail, as seen in my paintings of glass, architectural detail (as in the painting of the Abbey Chapel Window below, for example) and marbles, so this type of work is always a stretch for me, but the final result, after denying the impulse to be very specific, is light, fun, and yet still remains site specific.

I still favor the detail...

Church Street - progress on Sunday

These are not the best photographs, given the light and situation, they say what they need to. Progress is being made...slowly but surely. I really had a hard time getting myself to the studio today. A really big storm blew through earlier with hail and more lightning than I've seen in a long time, and then torrential downpours that caused some minor flooding in the street. Finally, dragged myself out of the sweatshop and headed over to Cottage Street, where the scene wasn't any better. It was at least an hour after the storm had gone through and there was flooding in the building down on the second floor.

I remember being in studio 304, in the front of the building. In 2006 there was this! Apparently something similar happened again today, as the hallway by the PO Boxes and outisde of Riverside's Art Room was wet and someone was right around the corner with a shop vac running.




Yuck. I hope nothing was wrecked.

The canvas just a few days ago.