Meet my Friend Kay West!

 Hello! It's already been a busy summer (once summer finally got started here) and I am trying to get back on this blog. My friend Kay West is having a one woman show at Pottery Place Plus and I thought you might be interested in meeting her, and, if in the area for the month of July, coming to see this special body of work she has created. Let's see what she has to say!

"I arrive today from a lifetime of creating and making. I've learned and loved working with many different mediums. Each has informed and fed the others as I progress. Years of experiences, plus a short attention span, find me painting impressionistic acrylics, fabricating silver and copper jewelry, and fiber-wrapping other jewelry pieces and coiled baskets. I leap-frog from photography to acrylic paintings, then stop to finish a pair of earrings to match my apparel du jour. 

My art experience includes formal and informal art training, living in Japan for four years, a diversity of art shows, teaching others in a variety of art forms, touring museums and cathedrals, and even owning and operating a fine art gallery supporting other artists in Spokane Washington.

It's all a very happy artistic stew, with new elements learned as I go along, I am a master of none, but thoroughly enjoy my mismash creativity."

Fish Inna Outta Water

"The idea for my July guest artist display at Pottery Place Plus started as a reaction to global warming and the effect on our global waters. Narrowing the whole situation just to fish, for example, rising water temperatures, drought, and water pollution are rapidly killing off fish and their spawning conditions. These directly and indirectly affect fish populations, which in turn affect commerce and human dependence on global consumption of fish. The dwindling fish populations also directly affects the cultural practices of indigenous cultures reliant on fish for their spiritual practices and life observances. 

Whoa! Way too deep for a guest artist display! So, I've chosen to put together a sampling of Fish Inna Outta Water: spawning salmon, trout, a few colorful koi, a few unidentifiable "fish". All of the painting and jewelry pieces are simply reminders of the important role of fish, whether for sustenance, sport, enjoyment, or cultural identification."

Come meet Kay at the First Friday reception this Friday from 5-6PM at Pottery Place Plus 203 N Washington; in downtown Spokane. Catch up with Kay on Instagram.

Report from the Backyard

"If we built houses the way we build software, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization."

Clifford Stoll

Can you tell I have been spending way too much time filling out online forms, surveys, and not to mention online financial stuff? And let me tell you how much I enjoy listening to a lovely recorded message about whatever I am calling about can be found on the callee's website. That would be the one I am staring at, and have been staring at-and clicking endlessly on-for the last half hour. BTW, I have no idea who Mr. Stoll is, but he seems a very wise man.

The backyard keeps me grounded. Watching what plants are coming back to life, keeping track of the birds and their goings on remind me that there is a bigger world out there. They just deal with whatever they are dealing with and then there is the next moment and the next and the next. The Flicker is busy trying to find a mate. I have start calling him Ruddy the Riveter. The other day he started out on the furnace vent pipe on the barn, taping away. Today, even in the blustery wind we are having, he was at it again on the peak of the barn roof. All these are metal structures, he is not looking for a meal. He is looking for a partner. He is say "Look at me!" "Pick me-I am the best!" in his rat-a-tat sort of way. He needs to find the substrate that will make the loudest sound so the girl of his dreams will come along and claim him. Kind of like applying for grants, but I digress.

So, since getting a decent picture of this is impossible, I asked a dear friend to send me one of her paintings. Her name is Linnea Tobias and her work is wonderful. So bright and beautiful, and in a lot of cases thought provoking as well. You can see many of her lovely works on her Etsy site and when the Pottery Place Plus opens up again you can see them in person.

Flicker with Dahlia by Linnea Tobias

I have been putting eco printing on my Etsy shop, and adding new buttons every day, be sure to check back often-Thanks!

Kindness

"Kindness and a generous spirit go a long way. And a sense of humor. It's like medicine-very healing." Max Irons

Peek-a-boo!

Black Hollyhocks-I can't wait for them to start blooming!

Don't remember planting these, but, yeah!

We are working on a friendship, sometimes we have disagreements, but we are always happy to see each other.

Blue Monday

After a busy weekend (some of it good busy, some of it the bad type) not to mention that catastrophe in Florida, I was out of sorts today while trying to get normal stuff done around the house and get ready to leave for the Edmonds Arts Festival. I got the suitcases packed; heaven only knows what is in them-it is probably worth stopping by the show just to see if I am wearing pajamas out in public. Then I decided maybe what was needed was to go out for a bit. I hit the post office, the bank, the drug store and was about to go to the grocery store when the phone rang. It was my friend Juaquetta, who owns Garden Party Fibers and she said " I was going to call you earlier, but I wasn't sure this was going to work, its old dye, but it is and I wondered if you wanted to come see it-I mean come see the indigo happen!?!!" Not an exact quote but if you read it really fast and out of breath you will get the idea. Who needs groceries?

The fiber goes in white

It looks all swampy and green

Expose it to air and the magic starts to happen! From green to blue!

Woo-hoo Blue!

It lays out in the shade to dry