Artist in Residence: Jack Brockett

Jack Brockett, artist and storyteller extrodinaire visited El Cielo Studio for a couple of days while his wife Anne was in San Antonio to plan the 2013 Surface Design Association conference. (OK, get those dues paid San Antonians!) (And check out the new SDA website that Anne has worked on this past 6 months as interim director -- she's on for another year, too, so expect great energy and member-friendly services from SDA.)

Jack, as many of us know, is a one-of-a-kind vortex of energy, ideas and an eye for excellence --and it was a delight to have him visit (thanks to Mary Ruth Smith who suggested it). Jack just finished with a workshop at Round Top, his first teaching gig of 5 years after a health crisis. The fiber show at Copper Shade Tree features some of his work, and that of other fiber artists  in the annual juried exhibit.

Jack shared the work that he had with him for examples at the workshop -- spectacular pojagi seamed jackets, art quilts emboridered with dragon flies, and a new series started with red ants. I got a private pojagi seam lesson, the steps of which I hope I remember -- I'm headed out to try it a -- I need the required machine foot #10 for the 1/8" tiny seams -- but for now, I'll do a wider version and see how it looks.

 Jack's stories regailed us at table; we feasted. If you have an Texas storyteller in your clan, you'll know what that means -- howlingly good tales filled with cows, Neiman Marcus hats, old bats and hoop skirts. Jack sewed seams for a new piece, and toured the neighbor's house; Pat Schulz and Sue Cooke came out yesterday morning for an art date with destiny. I've been cleaning the the studio and finding things I didn't know I had. It's been lovely and inspiring. We all need artists-in-residence, tribal gatherings, support for our visions and food for the soul. Thanks, Jack, for all that and more!

Sitting and staring

Today, I'm reminded of the baseboall great Satchel Page's oft quoted," Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I  just sits." An unexpected delay of a work-related appointment has given me the gift of a hitherto unplanned afternoon. Yes, the studio needs a good sort. The garden is (perhaps riskily) calling for seeds. I have really been planning to go through and file all the piles of receipts and GET MYSELF ORGANIZED for the new year (hardly new anymore, you might note). 

But I find myself sitting and looking out into damp, gray between-winter-and-spring air and light and I just sit.

Sometimes its good to sit.

The creative life is full of adventure (even if it only shows up on the inside of your eyeballs.) When one is a self-employed artist, there is the ever present tension between amking art and making a living and it takes a lot of juggling to keep it together sometimes. I, like many of us, simply like action, I live at full-speed-ahead.

And then I sit.

You (I) need both. You (I) must let minutes wash over us when we can. Remind ourselves that time is finite; in 100 years (unless Singularity DOES come to pass, or the Mayan calendar ends us all in a bang) everyone you know and everyone you don't know who is walking around here on earth will be gone. And so, no matter how important it all seems, it is just a drop in the bucket when you look at the big picture. So let the drops fall where they may for a few hours. Sit. think. or just sit.

One thing I am thinking about is some of the thought about romance that I am reading in Barbara Lazear Ascher's wonderful book Isn't it Romantic; Finding the magic in everyday life. Here's a quote to ponder as you sit today:

"The romantic has to believe the bread crumbs were left as a trail, that the dots will make a whole....Faith doesn't require answers but a trust that if we dare reach out a hand another one, unforeseen will receive it. That we will be made whole. The ulitmate romance. Exactly as Michelangelo painted it in the center of the Sistine Chapel ceiling."

And Yes. I am puttering around in the studio today and making some progress on the annual clean, sort and toss that I force myself to do in order to avoid a manditory appearance on some reality show or another devoted to hoarding. But I am doing so very, very softly. Like the air and the gray heavy skies. Like the seeds underground waiting for the next increment of warmth. Reminding myself to think a bit about the spiraling fossil of an ammonite once alive, then dead, buried turned to stone, washed up again on a different shore.

(P.S. Speaking of nature, the next El Cielo studio retreat/workshop is almost full-to-the-brim. If you are thinking about attending  send me an email through the contact form on the sidebar. $160 if you pay before March 1. Potluck on Friday night through Sunday afternoon, most supplies included.)

View from home and El Cielo Studio.

NATURE-INSPIRED SURFACE DESIGN

March 25-27

Find color, shape, form and inspired design for new surface design tools at this spring-is-sprung weekend in the blooming Texas Hill Country. We’ll do sun prints, leaf-inspired thermofaxes and screenprinting with dye, flour paste resist and more.

Pop-Up Adventure Playgrounds

Doesn't this just make you want to go and play?

"On October 3, 2010 as representatives of the New York Coalition for Play, we brought giant cardboard tubes, string, swaths of bright fabric, boxes, a broken set of blinds and lots more to host a Pop-Up Adventure Playground at The Ultimate Block Party in New York City’s Central Park.  Some of the adults who came were a little skeptical at what they saw as the mess and chaos of the place, but children immediately understood that it was for them.

“You can do anything you want with anything here,” we said.  They gave one businesslike nod, then set to making a series of dens, thrones, obstacle courses and musical instruments.  They made new friends, and there, in the middle of the city, they made a beautiful ruckus.

Over the day the crowds of children ebbed and flowed, cardboard cities rose and then were felled by play earthquakes.  Play was tidal, following its own rhythms and signals, producing eddies of deep and rich play.  Within the 17 x 81 ft. Pop-Up Adventure Playground, children created a thousand tiny worlds."

I've been trolling around as I work on a resource book and report for the International Program SEED that I work with at Palo Alto College. I want to have one of these at my house (for grownups!).

http://popupadventureplay.wordpress.com/example/

Art Gallery by Google

Want a little artist date to some of the world's greatest museums without leaving the warmth of your sofa or studio?

Here's the back story.

And here's the link to the site:

http://www.googleartproject.com/