Belfast Poetry Festival

The Belfast Poetry Festival was a blast! I remain humbled and flattered that I was an invited artist, paired with Jonathan Skinner from Bates College. We had a great time collaborating and only wish we had started earlier so as to delve even deeper into each other's work. But October 1 came quickly and now the exhibit will come down in just two weeks so those of you who haven't had a chance to get to the Belfast Library to see the show, better get on it! Some of Jonathan's poetry is exhbited alongside my work, as the pairings are in the other venues. Thanks to everyone who participated and performed. What an impressive turnout!

More pictures of Acadia

More pictures of hiking Pemetic Mountain in Acadia.

Hiking Pemetic Mt Acadia

Bart and I finally got to Acadai this past weekend. We hiked the only trail we had not yet hiked, and though challenging at first, this part was short lived and I found it to be one of my favorite trails in Acadia. Check out the photos.

Detail of Scroll

The scrolls are 27 inches wide and have 10 feet of printed surface area. They are block printed in black oil based ink on mulberry paper. While they look quite fragile the paper is tough. They are displayed unrolled off a shelf so that they hang a little bit away from the wall and move with air circulation.

The Messengers show at The Belfast Framer

Thanks to Vicki McDaniels, my show, called The Messengers, opens tonight at The Belfast Framer with a reception from 5-7 p.m. The installation presented a challenge this time as the scrolls are meant to merge with each other and create a continuous image that I am comparing to a kind of stream of consciousness. I had to do some of the printing on site, once I could see how the whole thing was coming together. Another thing that caught me off guard: When installed last year at Downtown Gallery the scrolls hung as individual pieces, and the breeze was not as extreme through that space as it is for whatever reason through the Belfast venue. This time the scrolls are lifting and blowing more than I anticipated; I like it that they move but not this much! I will be adding more weights to the bottoms tonight just before the opening...The exhibit will be up until June 27, with daily hours from 10-5 and Saturdays from 10-2.

Not so good at this

As they say, time flies...I'm not very good at keeping up with this. Ted, yes, I'm cyberized and you're good to join the ranks here...Between that last posting and this one I have 1. been on a five day canoeing trip on the St. John River where I discovered I could still enjoy camping and survive Class III rapids (with Bart in the stern of course, barking instructions), 2. plugging along trying to get clients' gardens installed in a timely manner, 3. trying to get my own kitchen garden planted between 80 degree days and frosts and 4. hung a one person show of my insect scrolls which will be up at the Belfast Framer through the month of June (see my page on the Downtown Gallery website at www.downtownartgallery.com until I have a chance to post an image here).

An introduction, even to those who know me

I have been meeting with clients, both current and potential, these early days of spring and I want people to know something about my background and gardening experienc. I am not a casual gardener...I am a passionate, well informed gardener, with an artistic eye, a Master Gardener from way back, having taken the course back in 1991 when we lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan. That wasn't enough though, and I went on to enroll at Michigan State where I could learn more, a lot more, about landscape design and maintenace and go on to graduate at the top of my class. It was a challenge--all that science! I was an artist, I had avoided science all my life. And I turned 40 as that program ended. It made me nervous learning about soil science and plant pathology--even the course titles were intimidating. But I loved the plant identification classes, and I loved learning the Latin names of plants, a new language. And that is what keeps me going in this business, the plants and the designing of gardens.

Gardening season is underway

As of this week the gardening season is underway here in Maine, and, for me, art making is again put on hold for the seven months of running my business. I'm less happy about that than ever! I was on a roll with some new work that will remain unresolved until I can get back to it. Now that the weather is warm enough during the day I have been out with my crew doing spring clean ups which, over all, have been quite easy as we tend to do very thorough fall clean ups. We had great snow cover this past winter and that helped insulate the gardens. The only problem with that is that the snowdrifts gave the mice a very cozy place to live and some of the shrubs here and there were chewed on. In my own garden, my kitchen garden, I have peas, radishes, spinach and mesclun growing under row cover. I've never planted this early but my raised beds were dry enough and with row cover the seedlings will be protected from the wind (and there's lots of it). I want to grow a lot more of our own food this year, and to that end I have A LOT of broccoli (our favorite brassica) seedlings going. There will also be a lot of onions, leeks, garlic, carrots, winter squash, brussel sprouts, potatoes, tomatoes, etc. etc. Oh, and FLOWERS! I'm going to grow many more annual flowers and offer fresh bouqets for sale to my clients, for free delivery on the days we're there anyway. For a list of available flowers, updated at flowering time check this blog.

March marching on

A friend, Karen, casually referred to these new pieces as "cabinets," and I think she's right--they are containers that hold things. So I think the series has become my "Cabinets of Curiosities" series. As of today I have made 26 or 27, with just a few weeks left of the art making season before ARTgarden revs up for the spring, and spring IS coming!

Some new work

Fixed!

I think I finally managed to fix whatever was wrong with signing in to my blog. This has gone on for several weeks but now I'm back on track. As the calendar date for spring fast approaches I am feeling pinched for time in my studio before I have to go back to work. Here are a few new pieces, not completely finished, I think, but you get the idea.

NOW SHOWING

As of March 6 I will have work in a show called Insecta Poetica at the Essex Art Center in Lawrence, MA. This announcement shows who else is in it, as well as particulars.

With the increasing daylight and some very strong sun these days I'm thinking about the spring. This last snowstorm was beautiful, but I'm ready for some color out there. My seed order is in, it's time to plant the onion and leek seeds, the chickens are giving us more and more eggs and curling will be over in a month. All signs point to spring in the near future. If you are already an ARTgarden client, or if you are thinking of hiring me to help out with your gardens this year, let me know what you're thinking. I will have lots of plant material on hand for shade/part sun gardens as well as for sunnier beds and will be on site at my nursery and display gardens more this year for consulting and for sales, and I can always be here by appointment.

Followers

Look what can happen overnight... I have followers!

Going, Going, Gone

8" X 10" X 1" closed
Going, Going,Gone
8" X 20 1/2" open
mixed media, metal hinge


Try

11 1/2" X 6 3/4" X 2" closed

Try (open)

More to Come

I continue to develop this blog. It will be a good place to see when and where I may be teaching classes and workshops.

.Recent artist books

This is what I've been working on the last few weeks

Beetle Specimen Box

7" X 8 3/4" X 2 1/4" (closed)

Beetle Specimen Box (open)

Awash in Wax

6" X 9 1/8" X 3" (closed)

Awash in Wax (open)


Notions
6" X 5 1/2" X 4" (closed)

Notions (open)

Wait, Weight

81/2" X 4" X 1 1/4" (closed)

Wait, Weight (open)

Today I created my first blog

Now I have a place to post photographs of my recent work, art and gardens!