Greetings everyone,
For those of you in the bay area, the beginning of Spring is glorious. It's been a while since I've posted primarily due to bookkeeping duties. From January - the first week of May is my busiest bookkeeping time. In past years, I've felt phenomenally anxious and overwhelmed by this time of year. I've had strategies to deal with this in the past that didn't work. So on New Year's Day, I decided to draw what I was feeling. I drew the walking woman with a demon.
I recently completed an online composition course with Jane Dunnewold and decided to use the image in an actual composition. Not sure how this will evolve from here, but I'll keep you posted.
One of the other exercises in Jane's class was to create a list of words - the intangible kind like love, hope, cranky, etc. and then compose a piece that embodied the chosen word. I chose hope for two reasons. The shallow reason - After all the rainy weather, it was a hope for Spring to come. The deeper reason - Our national politics is now lined with more young people, women, and people of color (sometimes all of the above) than ever before. They have more skin in the game than our elder members of congress and geez do they know it. I chose the OM symbol as a sign of higher consciousness and the new growth reaching towards it. It feels pretty good. Unsure what I'll do in the long-term with this composition, but I wanted to share it with everyone so that you can feel better too.
While I'm on the subject on paths and growth, I have a few announcements:
1. April 19th at the Oakland Museum - I will be vending that Friday night from 5-9. I will be selling new books and whatever else crawls out of the studio in time. Please come if you can and tell your friends. Mildred Howard's exhibit TAP is on currently on display. If you don't know who Mildred Howard is (or her mother Mabel Howard), get googling. We can thank Mabel Howard that Ashby BART is underground. There will also be food trucks and fun for the whole family.
2. Studio move - I will be moving studio sometime late Spring/early Summer. I love my studio at Activ Space. It's super light and airy, but alas too small and on the 2nd floor (no use of outdoor space). The garage here at home will be converted to studio space. It needs some fixing up!!! I'm looking forward to have a wee more space and the backyard to work in.
3. Camp 510 - Yes, I'm teaching again this summer at Camp 510 for four weeks! Omigosh! How did I get roped into teaching that many weeks? Honestly, they didn't have to twist my arm that hard. I'm teaching mixed media madness, two beginning sewing classes, and a teenage sewing class with some surface design thrown in. If you have or know children between the ages of 6-14, you can peruse class listings here. I'll have a wish list for you soon.
4. Potentially coming soon - I may have the opportunity to teach at Handmade Studio School in El Cerrito coming soon. It'll very likely be a beginning sewing class for grown-ups, but more details as they come available.
Thanks for reading to the bottom!