Happy Halloween

We're doing a game for the kids at work...guess who's baby picture goes with which grown-up. It's been fun and interesting to watch the kids pair up baby to adult. This is me when I was 3 and to this day I still can't figure out what my mother had in mind for a costume. And it's too late to ask. AnywhOOOO.....




This is the whole group of us...what you can't see are the "grown-up" pics just around the corner. I had fun putting these together, and I think they look more interesting than just pictures on a piece of poster board.

Have a safe and happy All Hallow's Eve....November tomorrow.

Frayed Edges Yesterday

There's something about spending a whole day with friends who love to talk about the same things you do. Food for the soul. And when it's served with beauty like this, who wouldn't come away with a hundred new ideas and the energy to GET STARTED!



As Kate's son Haven said: "these dishes are fit for a king!"...handmade bowls, beautiful napkin rings and the forks! Those curlycues on the ends of them are design delight!


Kate had carved out a pumpkin and filled it with whatever was left growing outside, making a great 'harvest' centerpiece. I love the lines of her house and the fact that it's old and rich and simple. Like this picture. Can't you just see families back in the 17 or 1800's feeding their families at a similar table placed in front of these very same windows? Rich.

Kate shared this piece she'd started in a workshop with Kaffe Fassett



...not a great picture, but you can see the colorway she was working on and the influence of Kaffe and his style. We spent lots of time auditioning fabrics for the borders and then finally decided that maybe it didn't have to have one. We also spent time talking about the MAN himself and the dynamics of a class in the presence of such a PERSONA.

While we talked Hannah poked these charming little snowmen into existence....



She's preparing for a show at the beginning of December and these will fly off the shelf, I'm sure.

And Sarah, our own Sarah shared a project she's been consumed with for the last few months. Don't know if it's a secret or not, but let me tell you, the WORK and PROFESSIONALISM she's put into it so far, blew me away. How lucky are we to be in the midst of such TALENT.

And we missed Deborah, but the hook is long and we'll be reeling her in with talk of our upcoming exhibit at the Camden Library in July 07...we all need to get working now that there's a plan!

Trip to Grand Manan or The Elements of Design

We've just returned from a weekend-cut-short-by-rain-trip to Grand Manan Island, which is 6 or so miles off the coast of Maine, but owned by Canada and so it's a 20 mile ferry trip from New Brunswick. Quiet, quaint, salmon raising, dulse harvesting capital of the world. And dead as a doornail in October. Perfect. We could have been the only tourists on the whole island. I took a lot of pictures which I'll share with you while combining them with my thoughts on Deborahs blog (see Oct. 16th) about her bag of scraps, and her clever use of them. So, here goes. My Elements of Design:

LINE



This is Swallowtail Lighthouse. A former bed and breakfast was housed in the house right next to it. For a dollar the government of Canada will rent it to you if you'll turn it into a viable business, say another B and B. Problem? When the foghorn blows all night it could be a little iffy as to whether you'd get any sleep.


REPETITION





TEXTURE



SHAPE



COLOR



BALANCE



This little boat on the back is for spreading the fishing net I'm told.

UNITY (or Variation on a Theme)



NEGATIVE SPACE



Hole In The Wall, a pretty spectacular spot to camp, if you like tenting.

CONTRAST, or just plain awesome!

Halloween Postcards

Sent my cards out last week after almost forgetting they were done and on my sewing table under the piles of fabric. I've had a postive response to the cards and the corny jokes. It doesn't matter what it is or says...kids just love to get mail!

Free Day

When I woke up this morning, it was one of those glorious moments when you remember you have NOTHING you HAVE to do. So I decided to take myself on an artist's date and find some art. Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine. Home of the Wyeth's. Rockland. Home to many incredible galleries. The Farnsworth is exhibiting at this moment Alex Katz, Louise Nevelson, Charlie Hewitt, N.C., Jamie, and Andrew Wyeth, and many other famous painters in their permanent collection. But I went to see Charlie Hewitt. He's a Maine guy who focuses on the abstract, taking a lot of his surroundings growing up in industrial Lewiston/Auburn and turning them into works of art. Chains. Church steeples. Factory smoke stacks. But I liked this piece:



What I liked about it, besides the fact that it was collage, digital images, machine stitched and hand painted, was this stray thread that looks like a circle, but it's really not.....made me think did he leave it on purpose? Or like me, always finding ONE MORE THREAD TO CUT!



This was beautiful; 61 8 by 10's laid out like a quilt:


These aren't the best photographs in the world. Remember I was in a museum where they frown on taking pictures. I felt so....undercover. This one though was taken at one of the many galleries on the main street...done by a woman named Kate Winn and called Blue Dinghy. It called to me. Water. Warm sand, curving away to somewhere else. I will remember this one in the cold of winter.



It was a good day. Good day.

My Fall Ritual

I haven't been doing much creatively lately. At least not in my studio. I think I've been avoiding it. Everyone goes through times like this and I know enough about myself to know that I can't force it. The desire will come back soon. I seem to go through this with every seasonal change and since we have 4 very distinct ones here in Maine, I'm good at it. In the meantime, here is a picture of something I make every october to celebrate fall...my pumpkin totem. It will MAYBE last till thanksgiving if we don't have a really hard frost. It pleases me to pull into the drive and see it.



It's easy enough to do if you have the cool gourds and bittersweet around your area. Here's a close-up:

Cranberries

I thought I'd picked every kind of fruit at least once in my life, but this weekend I picked cranberries for the first time. I always thought they grew in bogs (they do) on Cape Cod (they do), but they also grow here on property owned by my sister-in-law's family. Martha and I went out with coffee cans and filled them to the top in less than 20 minutes. Easy picking and very dry. And when you pick with a friend, the conversation is as good as the promise of sweet fresh fruit.

Of course then we had to do something with all these cranberries, so Katherine and I set to work at 6:30 this morning making cranberry-orange muffins. She was my measurer and stirrer, my sweet neice.



And don't let that angel face fool you. This one will go far just on pure tenacity.



The finished product. Think she'd try one, the top even, with sugar sprinkled all over it???? HAH!!!

One Last Paddle

On Saturday, Bruce and I decided to pack up our kayaks and take one last paddle. It was a beautiful fall day, the temperature was still warmish by the middle of the day, HOT on the island we landed on for lunch. There are no pictures of this part of the day because of the water and the new camera...but I have great pictures of the scarecrow contest we came across in Searsport. Part of their Fling into Fall Days. I guess anything goes now with scarecrows. No more going to find an old pair of your dads jeans and an old flannel shirt. These were much more sophisticated as you can see:



...who these little girls are I have no idea, but they REALLY wanted their picture taken!



How's this one for complicated?! And the detail, obviously a Beatles fan:



very clever, those faces. This one too:



not scary though. But this one might frighten a little bit:



..if you happen to be the guy in the lobster trap! Or this one:



..yeah, that's more like it! Which one is your favorite, Charlie, Katherine and Carey? Bet I know!

Fall Flowers

I just love bringing a huge bunch of hydrangeas into the house in the fall. I put them on the fireplace hearth and it makes me feel like I'm nesting. It goes along with making apple butter or applesauce for the freezer. Pumpkins and squash in storage. Long winter nights by the fire.