August 21, 2011

I found my camera cord! 

 

I have a review published in Art New England!  Find the PDF version through the Helen Day Art Center Website by clicking here:  http://helenday.com/eastgalleryupcoming

 

I have just returned from vacation in Booth bay Harbor, Maine.

 

I am making hats for an upcoming Art Festival that takes place September 9th and 10th here in Burlington. 

 

I am online finally blogging again about this dress... THIS dress!  I love this dress!  It is so easy to wear.  It started off as a black and white floral print dress from some period of my past when I liked to wear 1950's looking dresses.  This dress is not vintage, but rather something vintage inspired.  I am finding that working against the very busy floral pattern has not been as easy as I had hoped.  I have started to applique a green polka dotted fabric that I picked up several years ago.  At first I was gaining inspiration from  the Farm Barn at Shelburne Farms, but now I have really deviated from that motif.  Instead, I am feeling like I have been stitching a set of green polka dotted ribs on this dress.  I feel my ribs alot when I breathe in this dress... it does feel a little tight around the center, but I feel like it offers a good reminder to breathe and take one moment at a time.  So as I am stitching these "ribs" I have been thinking alot about the phrase "just breathe".  The words have not made their way into the dress yet, and I am still uncertain that they will, but I am feeling a deep connection with my breath these days.  Perhaps this is good seeing that I have also been experiencing  a little more anxiety than usual.. could it be the reintroduction of caffeine?  maybe.  Could it be a result of not knowing what to do with myself on vacation, maybe.  Could it be from having taken on too many projects this summer... well sure... which is why I am sad but also relieved to say that I will not be participating in the STRUT fashion show for this year's Art Hop. I just want to have fun. Enjoy myself, and enjoy the hop.  I feel like I work so hard as it is, that to pull together more adrenaline when I am working on near zero is not going to fare well for me or my sanity.  So it is a bummer, but there will always be next year... I hope.  

 

This being said from the woman who is just on the heels of a wonderful time spent amongst friends and loved ones in Booth bay Harbor, Maine.  
How do I describe this magical place and these magical people?  I think the magic comes more from the people than the place, but let's just say I left my mark around town, wanting to share the love I feel.  I am thinking of a signature of mine being a heart with rays ... it feels like me, it feels like me saying share the love, and feel the love I am sending out into this world.  Some folks may have seen my little insignia... yep, you know who you are... it's me telling you I love you. 

 

Being in Maine got me thinking alot about love, and family and intimacy amongst friends and a tight knit group of people.  You see, I have been going to Maine to visit the same group of friends almost every summer since I was 19 years old.  That's been 12 years... (yes yes, I am 31)... wow, 12 years of sharing ups and downs and love and laughs and frustration and joy.  The house has never changed.  When we all walk into this house it is as if we have never aged, forever immortalized as mischievous youth who laugh without cause and share warmth and kindness.  Only the images and group collaborative drawings and -tshirt designs are proof that time has continued, sure we may look a little older, pudgier in places, winkles on brows, beards on some...well beards and moustaches on all (a Barn Tradition of mine to provide everyone with fake mustaches, at least they started off fake in the beginning until those of us could actually grow them), but we are all young here, we live life with abandon for good and some times for awkward, but never bad.. at least never too bad.  And of course there are the video games... but not just playing them, dancing to them, like Mega Man and Double Dragon II Soundtracks to some of the most liberating and frenetic dance moves I have ever witnessed as well as made myself.   This is a place of goodness.  Seeing as how we all make our way back every year, one could almost call this a place of worship... a place of devotion, we like to call it the Waiting House... a place where one is constantly waiting on the group to make a decision only to act while waiting for every one to come to agreement... you could spend the whole week waiting in the barn for some one to be ready to do something... but all one has to do is make a move and everyone (usually) will follow... trust... Trust is a big player in this house.  

 

So I could go on about this place for a long time suffice to say it is an important place to me and played a huge role in my formative years of learning how to be me...I would say that this is the place where I learned how to love, how to wait, how to be patient, how to act and how to laugh... did I mention that this is the place where I also learned to sing?  I love singing... and often part with a new song in my mind... something to remember fleeting moments of summer by.  

 

So I tribute this place... and some special people in deed with a stitch of a heart with rays emanating from my heart.   Cheesy enough?  yep... but that's just how I am going to roll with this dress... 

 

Do I have a name yet?  No, but I am thinking about something related to the body... about exposing a softness from within... something vulnerable...and sweet...something that is true to the feeling of humility I feel about this project right now, perhaps something that can speak to the earnesty of where I am being so close to the end of this year...