Squid Ascending

Here's my new print!
Its available in a couple of sizes. The big 'un, 9"x 28" is gorgeous!
Its a fine art giclee, Epson archival ink on 100% rag Arches watercolor paper.

Karuna compassion....

as I head off to dreamland....

Faun - Andro

Yes! Faun is awesome! Makes me want dreadlocks...

`Eia `oe

a gorgeous drawing in graphite by Albert Weight check out his other work!


Well the heat is here. And yes it's terrible. Too make myself feel better, I like delving into my love of island or coastal cultures, ancient Mediterraneans, Polynesians... So I thought I'd share an interesting article "Moku`ula-The Future is in the Past" So if you're interested in archeology and history check it out!
And did you know the Hawaii people have over 130 words for rain, and over a 160 for types of wind. What a beautiful thought.

Bald Head Island -Woods Gallery

I will be over on Bald Head Island, at the Woods Gallery, in the late afternoon on June 27th demonstrating jewelry techniques at a meet the artist event. Nick Mowers will join me and demonstrate some of his methods as well. There'll be new work from us both. Should be a great evening over on the island!

Bald Head Island, once called Smith's Island, is a piece of land in the mouth of the Cape Fear River where it opens to the sea. It is accessible only by ferry and no cars are allowed on the island. There a few buildings and a lighthouse that date to the island's early history, homes for the small fishing community and the lighthouse keeper. The lighthouse, nicknamed Old Baldy, is the oldest in NC and was built in 1817. The village of Bald Head Island now is home to luxury homes, golf community, marina and a few shops and restaurants.

Evening Beach Walk

North End

Here are some pics from Robert and I's walk the other evening. Check out these funky dunescapes! the wind had carved funny little mushrooms and miniature landscapes from the hard and soft sand.

Just Added!

I just added new items to my etsy shop!

Molten Iron Throwing!

YEAH!! My kind a party!

Tweet!

guess where I am now......

The Spark

One of my favorite musicians has a radio show! Check it out: The Spark with Tift Merritt!

"How do you light a spark?
How do you make something true?
How does art happen?

It is a funny thing to fall in love with a work of art and wonder about the person behind it.

Isn't it funny how many interesting people we all cross paths with, and wouldn't it be great, rather than just making small talk, if you could simply cut to the chase and ask for the good stuff. Well, that's what The Spark is to me. It's my chance to meet the real people behind great works of art and ask them how they've lived and worked, how they've stayed true to themselves and how they've become great artists." -Tift

Finding Voice

In a yahoo group that I am involved in an excerpt from an interview was shared with Rice Freeman-Zachary In which she was asked to give advice to artists starting out. Her comments were great and were about the whole ball of wax of work and practice to become and artist. I really enjoyed her statements and thought I'd add my own.
The young people I teach at CFCC often say to me things like: "I don't think art should be graded. Or why are you making us do it THAT/YOUR way? Or why should it be better or perfect? there shouldn't be any 'perfect' in art, it should just be fun right?" Wrong.... Personally, most of them are just trying to get out of work or get away with sloppy, lazy projects. I constantly have to explain to them that they are in SCHOOL, and there have to be criteria of judging whether or not they did the work and "got" the concepts to earn the credit. And I have to constantly stress "craftsmanship". I have to over and over again explain that you don't learn a process jut watching me do it, or just doing it once. Musicians don't play a scale once and go, "Great, that's done. I'm all ready for Carnegie Hall now!" Why should we? A singer finds their voice through work so should an artist. But it is so hard to get across the concepts of artistic "work" to a button pushing,
vending machine society. There are reasons we use the word "art" and "body of work" in the same sentence (and have for hundreds of years). We are elevating a craft to another level when we use the word "art" or "aesthetic". We are working to perfect, or better yet achieve something. As Rice says you have to decide what that is. Working at your love can, and usually is, fun. When we work we discover. Accidents happen just as in a lab and the scientist discovers an new formula through trial and error. Our studios or dining room tables should be viewed as the crucibles and labs where we "work" out our visual play and hopefully arrive at "Art" however we define it.

Messages from the Gods

I have a seed of an idea.....
It began a few weeks ago. My father was involved with a group of fishermen who took some veterans fishing through the Wounded Warrior Program. Then my student Jim had his accident. I discussed with his family the possibilities for metalworking, being his new passion, giving him goals through the physical therapy and regaining the use of his hands. It started my thinking about how many people in the last year have not only caught the bug of metalsmithing through my classes, but have also been transformed by its power both mentally and spiritually.
Art has long been seen to be therapeutic. But in our area there is a lack of organization around this field. There are very few schools where you can receive training over here on the east coast. There is only one organization here in Wilmington that even comes close to using art therapy (forgive me if I am ignorant of others) and I know one individual who's come to use it in her counseling of the grieving.

As I drove home from visiting Jim in the hospital I was visited by the gods.
I had an epiphany. The sad thing about it is I am only one person with limited recources in order to make my cockamamy idea happen. But I figure if I invest time and energy in it, little by little, it may grow. Step one is to give it life.
Here it is...this is a little scary....
The Hephaestus Foundation "Forging new lives through craftsmanship."
There I said it.
Some things just want to be born. But birth is never an easy process.

Who is Hephaestus?
He is the Greek god of the forge and the patron of artists and craftsmen. He was born deformed and was thrown out of heaven by his mother Hera and fell to earth for nine days. He was rescued by two sea nymphs one of them a Nereid, Thetis... (you may already now my fascination with these ladies). Some tales tell they nursed and healed him in a cave for nine years (Nine being a significant number in ancient tales and numerology- its 2009 BTW). Hephaestus transmutes his pain and suffered and plight into creation. He becomes the one they all go to for beautiful, magical creations, Hermes helmet and winged shoes, Achilles armor, Pandora's box. In fact he is asked by Zeus to make Pandora herself out of clay.
Hephaestus forges beauty out of adversity, creation out of smoke, fire and sadness. In the words of Martha Graham, "Fire is the making of gold, adversity the making of men."

What will this someday foundation do?
Offer outreach programs for victims of war, violence and poverty that involve metalsmithing, blacksmithing, jewelry making workshops as well as other fine crafts like bookmaking, art journalling, mixed media, sculpture and clay.
We will spearhead the building of community metals studios, forges, and art workshops.
We'll orchestrate workshops for Wounded Warriors, victims of domestic violence, the grieving, the clinically depressed, caregivers of the elderly and special needs children(for they need rejuvenation!) and anyone else in need of the transmutative properties of creation. We'll offer scholarships for those people and their children to get training as metalsmiths, blacksmiths, potters, sculptors, or art therapists.

This is from Hephaestus-The Lame Creative Hero an article by Yael Haft

"It transpires that when we accept ourselves both outwardly and inwardly as we are, because this is our personal universe, and are ready to encounter whatever befalls us with an inner courage and an authentic relationship towards ourselves and others, as well as learn to better our lives by utilizing whatever lies within us with inner respect - there is a possibility for development and transformation. Hephaestus, as an archetypal figure, can serve us as a model and a guide to relate differently to the inferior, different, injured, lame and rejected side that so many of us carry within us to a varying degree. Hephaestus knew to contain the emptiness, the lack and turn it into fullness. He was not a victim of the fire, not even of the fire burning within as anger, hate and blame, but knew how to transform and use this energy of fire as the melting and welding pot of his character and personality, as well as using it to build, create and utilize sustaining forces....Homer was right in saying that Hephaestus taught man to work. To work on himself and for his life."

Now I have to figure out how to make it so...
Especially when I have so many other irons in the fire!

Hephaestus 2008

Wish I'd seen this one!

Second Chances

Saturday night on the 2nd was when it happened. Jim Carr got a second chance.
When you teach, and when you teach young people at a small community college, it can be draining. If you're lucky you get a student like Jim Carr. I have a few every semester that stand out. They are the students who are there early. They stay late, they love what they do and it shows. These are the students I teach for. These people are worth the low pay, the extra time, the silly paperwork and paralyzing bureaucratic spider web. Jim made Metals class interesting for me too. As the instructor you perform the same demos over and over. Things can become rote, but not when you walk in and there's a three foot long plank of koa one day and Jim's carving a piece of it to make his belt buckle project mixed media. Or you walk in and Jim's splitting a 50mm shell casing and transforming it into a bracelet. Oh, there were others this semester who've helped make teaching meaningful for me, but I mention Jim because the Universe intervened.
I have pestered Jim to pursue a career that involves his talent in some way. It appears others have as well. It's that evident. Jim shrugs, grins his distinctive grin and mutters some non challant response. May 2nd may have changed all that. It's too soon to tell. Jim was hit by a car on a busy road late at night as a pedestrian. Jim would not have seen May 3rd if not for miracles. I went yesterday to the ICU to visit him. He's off a ventilator, patched together and awake. It was such a pleasure to meet his family and see their joy over his small box of metals projects. I barely know Jim. He's a quiet reserved young man in my class, yet no matter how he keeps to himself, his personality and his mind seep out of small cracks in the veneer and shine through his artwork. They are a special breed of folk his family. I should have known.
As I drive home, I muse at how we humans touch each other in so many subtle ways. Like trees in a forest, the tips of our branches lightly touch. Our leaves mingle sometimes only for an instant, only when the breeze blows. Then other times winds howl and the branches become entangled or even more still, we affect one another so that our lives become entangled and our trunks intertwine. Those are the trees that speak out as the breeze sways them. So my students subtly change me in ways I can't readily see. Jim especially this semester. I pray for his full recovery. It will be rewarding to see a hammer in his hand again soon. And I thank God for my own hands and health. I will never forget Jim's father's hand on his son's arm, his fingers seeking between the tubes and tape his son's skin. It is fleeting this journey through the veil. Thank heaven Jim gets his second chance.

Jim and a lighter he made out of a shell casing in my class. He took apart a zippo to replicate the parts in brass.

Love, Love, Love!!!

YEAH!!!! One of the sculpture students in the other room has this fantastic cd playing on friday. We had the garage door open, the breeze waved in and I fell in love with As Tall As Lions....

Attitude Adjustments

Just when you need them the Universe sends them... if you ask.
First of all I find lovely new music on Friday, I discover As Tall As Lions!!! One of the CFCC students turns me on to them. Then I take my daughter to the beach with her friend. Her friend's brother and mom, my galpal Donna, meet us there and we descend on the Ocean Grill and Tiki Bar. One of my favorite spots. Low and behold who's already there but my brother Joe and some of his pals!!! What a gorgeous evening. The Golden hour softens the heat of the day. The kids eat calimari, I eat oysters and drink a tropical beverage complete with pineapple and orange slices. Children run around below the pier in the yellow fading light, digging holes in the sand. Seagulls do acrobatics and we listen to this great band...well an abbreviated version. Donna bought me one of their cds, Gabriel Kelley! Maybe being stuck here in NC ain't so bad after all.

Jay Manley

Thought I'd plug my bro Jay.
Check it out, he had this rad guitar made by Wes Lambe.

Water Street Brewing

So I keep running across photos from Port Townsend and wanted to share. these are from our favorite little watering hole in PT, Water Street Brewing. How could you not love this place??? There's even a woodstove. I love Washington State.....














We went there as soon as the dropped off the bags at the Palace Hotel. The Palace was once a house of ill repute. Lovely little gem, another of our favorite things about PT!
We've stayed two years in a row in Miss Genvieve's room.
The painted ceiling at the Palace is gorgeous.

Persevere

So I realize I am a little burned out.
I don't want to do anything. I don't want to teach. I only want to garden, and walk in the woods, and sleep, and cook and bake and play with my cat. I want to read and make things and hang out with Meredith. So in this moment of disillusionment and discouragement. I am sitting in a parking lot drinking a big fat coke and thinking in my car, under the shade of a greening pear tree. Traffic's whizzing by... a car pulls into the space beside me. I realize it's a cop. I glance over and for the first time in my life I notice the City of Wilmington's official seal on the cop car door. Why is this extraordinary?
Let me explain, we moved here in 1975. I was just starting 6th grade and I thought I'd been dropped in some sort of dusty, steamy hell. In a way I found it darkly romantic, in a kind of gothic way that only a teenager can, searing heat, 100% humidity, spanish moss dripping over the streets from the huge dark limbs of sprawling ancient oaks.... Sleepy southern town. I'd lived in slightly more progressive places, so I thought being in an un-airconditioned brick 1910 building all day, who's outside paths were made of loose cinders (I actually took a chuck home to mom and dad to ask them what it was!), was like being in a time machine. It found it kind of like an adventure. That is until winter when Ivan, the kid who was probably 16 in the 6th grade, started heating up pennies on the radiators (which I had also never seen) and dropping them down my shirt. So since then I have felt horribly trapped here. So much so in fact, that I have had numerous full blown conversations with like minded people, many of who even have theories as to how Wilmington may very well be cursed! Here I'd like to point out that only in New Hanover county do Venus Fly trap plants grow. Yes, the only place in the world! And it's no accident. Wilmington seems rather pretty, perched on a bluff overlooking a nice river, picturesque old buildings and such, then just to the east the twinkling Atlantic ocean. Nice all in all. But for some reason it's a trick. You come here and then things mysteriously begin to fall apart. And you somehow become imprisoned in its sticky sweet, spiney jaws and are slowly digested without even realizing it. I once new a woman who'd come here and gone through her own sort of hell, emotionally and then physically, only to recover and decide to get the heck out of dodge! She was said to exclaim over her shoulder as she exited the county,"Wilmington is where strong women come to burn off what they don't need". I think she may have meant it's where women who don't know their own strength are sent by the Fates. Then they are burned in a refining fire and spit out hopefully stronger, forged into something new. Wilmington is not an easy town. Difficult to explain to those who come here with full pockets. In the late 70's no major highways came here from anywhere important. The port had been eclipsed many years ago by others along the east coast, the Railroad had closed shop and left town, the downtown had dried up and was full of topless bars and bums. Back then it was a destination for no one. Most people were headed out of town. Things are WAY better now of course! Its almost a different town. With the building of major highways, and other cultural developments in the last 30 years, we have a lot to be proud of in this town. Still, I feel confined. Hometowns can be that way. I have slowly, tried to see my confinement in a much more spiritual, maybe even Buddhist light. I chose it... and it will be my making. It is my path to be here... now. I made a baby here and will stay here 'til she is ready to fly the nest. So what is left to do but... persevere? Try to make it work here. Scratch a living, out of the dusty, sandy dirt here....
Thus as I sit in my car, gazing at the white car door beside me, I am amazed to see the City of Wilmington's seal staring me in the face. And on it is a bee skep, one of my favorite images, as I love bees and my name means "honeybee". And above the skep is the word "Persevere". I had to read it twice I was so astounded.
So I will strive to be like my namesake, and be industrious making nectar from yellow pollen, persevering all the while.

Theme Word

So I have been reading.
Feels like it's been years since I read a real, whole book....
It all started on the plane recently goin' to AF. I realized it is good for me. It stops the constant grinding of the gears in my head that will never let me rest, those mean, self deprecating, worry wheels. They grind on and on, never stopping, like some sort of water torture. Alcohol certainly helps slow them down, but reading's far healthier and they stop all together! Like magic, I am lost in someone else's life! I recently finished The People of the Book. OMG! LOVED it!!! Right up my alley. So when I finished it and the awful voice started up its wheels, well, I had to get right back into another good book!
My SIL (Sister in Law) sent over Eat, Pray, Love.
I know, I know, every one else's probably read it, loved it and is now bored with the whole subject. Indulge me.
I was nervous, the People of the Book would be a hard act to follow. Well, I am happily ensconced in the second section and in bliss. What a perfect book for me. I face a lot of upheaval this summer so I needed this book. In the last few pages of the first section, she talks with a friend about how places might have theme words, special words that sum up a place. The author goes on to speculate about her own word, that might summarize her at that moment in time. I thought about my own... what would it be? Hopefully not WORRY!!! I decided it must be MAKE.
I make lots of things and I really can't stop making! Certainly I make art objects, but I also make messes, words, images, friends, fun, love, food, gardens. I make people feel better, and make people understand and make up stories, and even sometimes have to make amends. I make new metalsmiths! And I sometimes make money, but most of all I hope I make magic.

Hi ho, Hi ho...

work.... why is the last few weeks of school difficult for all involved? the luster wears off.











the work table outside the art building at CFCC

Art & Soul '09 Portland!

Want to remind folks that I will be at Art & Soul for the first time this fall. I will teach my love, metalsmithing! I will also do a night class where we'll explore finishing techniques. You bring one of your unfinished pieces of jewelry and I can help you refine, smooth and tweak it. I will show folks how to use nice swiss jewelry files and a flexible shaft machine with attachments. I have a few tricks up my sleeve! I also have a class making the Goddess of the Tines, which some people admired on my vest at Artfest, and another class where we'll make little "porthole" charms out of copper pipe.
Someone recently mentioned that my classes were full at Portland, but I think in fact there is still room. So don't hesitate! click here to check it out!

Akamai Art Heaven!

I want to take a second of your time to exclaim about Akamai Art and Glass Supply in Port Townsend.
When I was there browsing, nay-DROOLING, Robert was patiently following along and he said "I just realized, this is like a crack house for artists!" So true!
Check out their selection.
They are delightful, helpful, friendly, EXCELLENT customer service, I mean what a delight? Am I right, those of you who've been there? I sport my free tote bag with pride. I wish them lavish success!

Artfest Rockettes

The Rockettes of 335:
Misty Mawn, Judy Wise, Alex (my brain lost Alex' last name), Bee Shay, Katie Kendrick, LK Ludwig -n- me (missing are Stephanie Lee and Robert -who is snapping the pic.)

Sunrise at Fort Worden

I adore Fort Worden. I really can't get enough.







Sunrise from the back of house #335.

Jungle Fever!

People from my Botanica Exotica class at Artfest 2009 have asked me to let them know what music I played during our class. Here goes:
The Best of Martin Denny
Johanna Kunin -Clouds Electric
Tito Puente
Kristy McColl
1 Giant Leap
Percy Faith
various traditional Hawaiian tunes: Isa Lei, Aloha Oe, Haere Mai
The Mermen


(I played that line up for the Insect class also)



Then in the afternoon I played all of Johanna Kunin's Clouds Electric
(I think those gals really dug it!)Johanna Kunin lives in Seattle. My musician brother turned me onto her fantastic music.












and then the following shuffled of course:

an un-named track from Zero 7
Paris -Yael Naïm
She's So Strange -Travis
Liar & The Thief -Tin Cup Prophette
Morning Bell -Radiohead
Hunting Bears -Radiohead
Better? -Propellerheads
Walking On The Moon -The Police
The Mess We're In -PJ Harvey Feat. Thom Yorke
The Garden -PJ Harvey
Soaked -Pinback
3 tracks I don'thave names for from a Neko Case mix
Do Not Go Quietly Unto Your Grave -Morphine
Blindfold -Morcheeba
Friction -Morcheeba
Sand -The Mermen
Satie Blues -Toby Twining -Margaret Leng Tan
Eleanor Rigby -Margaret Leng Tan
Smoke Signals -The Magnetic Fields
A Change Is Gonna Come -Leela James
My Joy -Leela James
Other Side Of The World -KT Tunstall
Walnut Tree -Keane
Somewhere In Between -Kate Bush
Flight Over Africa -Out Of Africa Soundtrack
You Are What You Love -Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins
? -Iron and Wine
Extraordinary Machine -Fiona Apple
The Dicty Glide -Don Byron
Heard Somebody Say -Devendra Banhart
Sweet Jane -Cowboy Junkies
Chan Chan -Buena Vista Social
Frosti -Björk
Easy Living -Billie Holiday
Swollen -Bent
Sing Me -Bent
Circus Of Regrets -Béla Fleck
Paper Tiger -Beck
The Shining -Badly Drawn Boy
Just Friends -Amy Winehouse

Botanica Exotica -Artfest 2009

Somehow I ended up with more photos from my botanicals class. We did dark annealed iron binding wire florals covered with SAUSAGE CASING! Woo hoo, FUN! These ladies rocked OUT! Such great work from this class! The colors are Adirondak alcohol inks on the wet casings. Linda here working on a flower.






Leslie working on her gorgeous "lily".


And here it is drying with others on the dorm railing in the sun.

Artfest Insects

Thought is was about time I posted some photos from my classes. I taught Class Insecta on Thursday and Botannica Exotica on Saturday. Both great classes full of really cool folks. I must commend my student Brian whose right hand was recovering from surgery!!! He ended up with a really cool bug. What a trouper! There were so many total beginners and that is always heartwarming to me. I so enjoy watching people get hooked on making with new materials. This is Doreen putting color on her bee.

And Sylvia working on her insect.


















I've included images of Jim Sorenson's LOVELY cicada. He made one in my class last year and then went home and did another! It is larger than life and freaked some people out with its realism. I found it GORGEOUS!! (Jim's cicada last year inspired this years class). He was kind enough to bring it all the way back to Artfest this year to show and share. Thanks Jim!