Art Show and Spring ? Flowers

We stepped out this evening to go to the art gallery and see the show. Top photo shows the view into the gift shop area... Below are two men hanging out under my "Hard Times" collage...but can't be sure either of them NOTICED it or not... The Boy With Red Lips is not for sale but one might think they could put him on lay away... It cracked me up when I saw that Judy had placed this "Hard Times" piece above a money collection box with the We NEED YOUR HELP sign! Very fitting and very funny too. This is one of the water colors of the Spot Lighted artist Ken Potter. He had two rooms devoted to his art that spanned 62 years! Obviously a fan of MY work...as I did see him looking twice at The Boy With Red Lips...or maybe he was just waiting for his wife to come through that door and rescue him. I was very proud to find my work on this great wall around this other local artists of major renown' drawing of the wolf. More artists gathering and chatting....and eating too...LOOK, that man is looking at my work AGAIN!!!! He may have been the only one who did all night! But that's two looks now for sure! I think that is DH behind the two women looking at the water colors.

***************************************************************************

And AH SPRING is springing up in my backyard...these are my daffodils that faithfully return each year to add color for a week or so before dying off...as all things must and do.

They usually bloom in February so I guess they are right on target.

Saying Goodbye

I wrote this on January 27, 2009 Photo taken June 2009

My mother (in law) is dying.

SIL called to say two days to a week.

My appreciation for having this woman

In my life

Far surpasses the son she brought into the world

Whom I was lucky enough to marry.

Erika became the mother I never had.

And to many that will seem unfair, as I had

A perfectly good mother.

Maybe I never appreciated my own mother enough.

But Erika gave me something I never got from my own mother…

Enough.

Erika appreciated me out loud.

Maybe it’s sad to think that my EGO needed a mother

Like Erika,

But it did.

And Erika gave me that…she appreciated everything I did

Everything I created

Everything I wrote, or made or did.

She made me feel special and good at what I did

I love her for that.

When I first met Erika she lived in Cambridge, MA

In a small apartment. I knew she was born in Berlin, Germany

And grew up during WWII

I worried how she would accept me

Her Jewish Daughter in law.

I think it was when I saw a Jewish symbol in her home

One early Christmas visit

That cinched it for me…that I was okay

and that neither my Jewishness nor her Germanness would be a problem

And it never ever was.

Erika and I used to write letters to each other

We’d write weekly

In long hand

(This was before computers)

I eventually switched to the keyboard

But Erika never did. Always in long hand

And often on legal sized pages

Her letters and mine could be many pages long.

Erika still has (or my SIL has) boxes of all the letters

I wrote to Erika…

I saved some of hers too.

Erika kept notes on large calendars

So every Jewish New Year I’d send her

Another Jewish calendar

And at Christmas I’d send her German Marzipan

Her favorite

And German cookies.

The last few years dementia kicked in for Erika

And the letters stopped coming from her

I tried to write on occasion anyway and send photos

Of us and our grand kids

She said she was the grandmother to my children

Even though they were her son’s stepchildren & she never

met them in person.

And therefore she became a great grandmother to my twins.

We went every Christmas to visit her.

And in summer too.

I will miss this feisty woman

Who had a mind of her own

Who was smart and kind and loving

And who took me in as her “other daughter”

And who is/was my “other mother”.

Go in Peace Erika, Shalom. I love you and will miss you.

I wrote this January 30, 2009 to family and friends: Erika fell ten days ago and broke her hip. (This about a month and a half after breaking her other hip and having surgery for it) She had surgery but did not come all the way round after the surgery. We have been watching from a far and waiting and today we have heard that she died peacefully at six o'clock this morning in her nursing home in Minnesota. Needless to say we feel very sad.

Erika had a long life, tumultuous in the beginning (growing up in Berlin, Germany; becoming widowed in her first young marriage; surviving the war ...meeting my husbands’ dad, an American Soldier there...marrying and immigrating to America. She followed her military husband all over the globe. She raised two children. She worked as a Librarian at Harvard University. She became widowed a second time when my husband’s father died. She was lucky to live with her daughter and help raise her grandson, until he left for college four years ago. She was much loved by all of us. She was my "other mother". Erika and I had a special friendship over the past thirty years that was first lived through long weekly letters back and forth...the acceptance and praise I got from Erika has sustained me in my adult life in ways that is hard to explain but helped me in many ways. I will miss her.

I will miss that.

I know we have been dealing with a lot of deaths of blog friend’s loved ones lately…and I hesitated to add mine to the mix.

But many of you got to know Erika from my previous postings about our visits with her, especially this past summer and winter holiday time in the nursing home…I guess it’s the end chapter to that part of my story. Sorry to add to the sadness today…thank you for reading this and being my ear and shoulder.

Practicing Thread Painting

Definitely a meditative art form. Click to see details.

Roses for Those In Need

A client brought me roses the other day. I'd like to share them with Suki in her time of grief, and Marianne in her's as well. With Elspbeth who is healing from surgery, and with anyone else who could use a little boost of roses today.

Orange and Brown

I was not sure this would ever feel done. I THINK it may be now... This started out as one postcard and five ATCs. I liked them too much to give away. I decided to see what they would look like all together on an art quilt. So I played with them, and my embellishing machine/felting wool roving, and Angelina fibers, and ribbons, etc... around them. I added metal embellishments I got from Judy at Red Velvet; Still it was NOT done. I added the burlap backing. Not yet. I added the thick orange border. Almost. I sewed on the huge bone buttons I got at a quilt show last year. I top sewed the squares and lines on the brown background, Nearly there, I added orange and green threads to the orange borders. Whew, I think it's done. I almost threw it out. What do you think?

Double Rainbow

We were sitting in the living room around five p.m. yesterday when DH happened to look out a window behind us and saw this amazing double rainbow. I ran for my camera, he got the umbrella and followed me, holding said umbrella over my head... View out the window from inside the house... The "shooting stars" are really rain drops hitting my camera... It was too wide for me to get a picture of it end to end...the colors were bright and beautiful...

A lovely sight at the end of a pleasant weekend.

Some Thrift Store Treasures

A great day at the thrift store that had a 49% OFF sale yielded many treasures: clear elastic that should fine a use in my making of things; velvet red ribbon... and this little unopened bottle of Mental Leaf Adhesive Size. I have no idea what it is or for...but decided it looked artsy and would learn from YOU what I need it for and then be glad I bought it. LOL These rubber stamps with wooden backs are very expensive in the store... I got them for next to nothing... And this bunch of fabric looked like wood or earth an will certainly find it's way into an art quilt one day... This was the GREAT FIND that I did not know I had until I opened the rolled up fabric today. The bright colors and promise of "states" got my attention. When I opened it and found this full map of the United States with all the capitols and state birds listed I decided I must quilt it for the grand kids room. They will be learning these things soon enough, and already do as they fly from California to Massachusetts to visit family. Or drive or fly to Oregon to visit other grands. The circles and arrows at the bottom say things like "My grandparents live here" or "My cousins live here." Etc. Fun!!! The BOOKS are FREE...and I found three I wanted. The Time of the Butcherbird by Alex La Guma is set in west Africa and since I now know several South African bloggers I thought it good to learn some of the history and ways of that country. The Middle book: Blindness by Jose Saramago won the Nobel Prize for Literature and looked good too...and the third I am unsure of as they made a movie out of it and I am never too impressed by the movies made from books, except maybe Schindler's List, Spielberg did that one well. This one grabbed my attention as it's How To Make An American Quilt by Whitney Otto. One quote on the cover says: "Remarkable...It is a tribute to an art form that allowed women self-expression even when society did not." Jill Mc Corkle. We shall see. It may just have redeemable qualities. I also got a fourth book that about Love Friendships and quilts. It's upstairs and did not pose for photos. The top box is a brand new never opened box of Full book and complete Backgammon game. My son likes this game very much so I thought I should learn it and be able to play it should he come to visit one day. And one more thing was a plastic bag full of two little flat paper/magnetic dolls with magnetic clothes that will go in my Grandma's Bag. The kids will love playing with these. I think I spent a total of $8. Amazing yes?

Guilty Cat; sketch book finds and Ready for Show Not necessarily In That Order

I am ready to take these to the art gallery tomorrow to enter them in the new show called: Reflections. I have put the two art pieces in shadow boxes. I really like this look. It seems to make the art stand out and gives it protection at the same time behind glass without the glass being flat on the fabric. On Boy With Red Lips I glued the words around the 5 X 7 inch frame of the box as seen here: Hard Times is in a 16" X 20" shadow box and I've added letter beads to spell out Hard Times and some green weird stuff that I burnt in place with my iron (another garage sale find last summer.) This piece is made of all recycled materials, and fabric paper I made with glue and water. It really shows how I am feeling now in our economic crisis. Has it hit home for you yet?This is my very GUILTY CAT...I was wondering why I kept finding the fabrics in this cupboard poured out onto the floor? Was the door not staying shut? Did I not have them pushed in there firmly enough?

Well, now I know. Mr. Henry V is nesting!!!

These are finds in my sketch book. I tend to sketch and/or doodle in the evenings while watching mundane things on TV (or the news that lately hasn't been all that mundane!) I may have blogged this one already, it was for the last Big Draw, but when I saw it I couldn't even recall drawing it let along posting it. so here it is (again, maybe?)... Enjoy your weekend, what are your plans?

HARD TIMES

This is a (very close up) hint of a new art piece I have been working on for some weeks now. It's for the Around The World In 20 Quilts group challenge. The Challenge was to use recycled pieces and to do something you'd not done before, learn something new. I learned to make fabric paper, and portraits. It also incorporates stencils, paint and thread painting. I used recycled newspaper, tissue paper, embroidery floss and muslin. You'll have to wait until March 31st to see the whole thing, but it is going into an art show at our local gallery this Saturday.