Repost in honor of the world's first "fast" sewing machine introduced 130 years ago. The revolutionary Bernina could sew 100 stitches per minute, an international sensation in the 1800's. Here’s a little secret: I like to sew real fast. First things first…I never considered myself a sewist. As a kid, I didn't really like to [...]
In art (as in life), I tend to be a “What-The-Heck, Throw-The-Kitchen-Sink-At-It” Girl. The epitaph on my urn will probably read, ”Why not? What’s the worst that could happen?” When it comes to sensory experiences, I gravitate to heavily-planted gardens, spicy food, music with layers of vocal harmonies and soulful lyrics, and visual art filled [...]
My daughter Kate and her partner Tom announced their engagement a few months ago. They are embarking on traditional decision-making made by thirty-somethings: choosing rings, planning a wedding, buying a house. It is all very exciting in an “Age of COVID” kind-of-way. Theirs will be a backyard "microwedding" in August with immediate family, 15 people [...]
Sore arm, fatigue, fever, nausea. There is a lot of chatter and universal contemplation of body parts from head to toe while assessing reactions to, you know, everyone's favorite V-word. Never have Pfizer and Moderna received so much free advertising. All this talk of side effects seems exhaustive except for mention of the overwhelming reaction [...]
Above my sewing machine floats a post-it note with a message in all caps: FAIL FASTER! It meets my eye each time I thread the needle and reorients my perfectionist tendencies to True North. There is no correct path here, no right way to make art. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…” – just [...]
Many years ago, Sister Mary Francel stood in front of her fourth grade religion class at Christ The King School. To her wide-eyed students (including me), she told the story of "Moses and the Crossing of the Red Sea" by drawing it on the chalkboard. I recall a simple image. Two walls of water were [...]
Here’s a little secret: I like to sew real fast. First things first…I never considered myself a sewist. As a kid, I didn't really like to sew, although I was enrolled in summer garment sewing classes at the local Singer store. Making clothes or anything utilitarian was not in my wheelhouse. (I was the kid [...]
Living on the Pacific Ring of Fire, I am well-acquainted with earthquakes. In Seattle, we live with the potential of catastrophic change in an instant, a reality we avoid thinking about until uncontrollable shaking is felt at the surface. As we know from high school Earth Science class, damage done on the earth’s crust during [...]
Today I put the garden to bed. Up to my elbows in a tangle of butternut squash vines and fingerling potatoes, I rip out blight-infested Romas and wrestle with the pickling cucumbers and those damn tomato cages. Even the chard and ruffled kale leaves lie in tatters, waving a pathetic buh-bye. They (like most gardeners [...]
Wish I had written that lyric.* For much of Summer 2020 I was, in fact, busy dyeing. For me, dyeing entails hours working alone in my “studio” resulting in the textile bases for my artwork (and a trashed garage.) Coincidentally, time alone presents opportunities to contemplate some big ideas. Since my 60th birthday is imminent [...]
