Nanny's Knitting Needles, 2013

My newest piece, done in a brief but furious 24-hour period recently. Approximately 19 x 28 inches on pineboards once used as a blackboard.

M Y  A R T — "Nanny's Knitting Needles" is the first of a new series I've just started. I'm still using fairly rigid stripes but I'm not adhering to a graphpaper-like grid. Looking close, the grid is still there, but I'm trying to work with a type of "balanced chaos." This first piece is an homage to my grandmother. When I was just a little kid, staying at my grandmother's after Kindergarten and the early grades, she was confined to her bed or a wheelchair. We did everything together anyway. She even claimed I helped her learn to walk again as I'd stand in front of her walker and help move it forward. I remember telling her "just one more step, Nanny" and other encouraging words, and more than once I'd get a kitchen chair for her to sit down because we'd gone one step too far, lol. She used to toss her big container of knitting needles on the rug for me and have me pick up all the red ones, or blue ones. She taught me colors that way. Later she'd have me pick up all the No 4s. or 7s, as I learned my numbers. We were so close! We laughed a lot, even though she was dying of cancer and I had had my own traumatic experiences by then, but I have nothing but the warmest and most loving memories of our short time together. She died in 1969 when I was 12. I still have her container of knitting needles, and if I show this piece in public, I will make an arrangement with those needles to show my inspiration.

This next series will explore this "balanced chaos" and the second piece I'm working on has a photo collage in the background.

Tomatoes for the Takin'

Quite often at this time of the year tomatoes fall off the bushes before they're fully ripe. I leave them in this basket on the porch to ripen and my neighbors and friends know they may have as many as they'd like. They're photographed on my 1950s folding cardtable, the work surface I use when I'm working on my art. I'm going to hang it, too, on the wall someday...

It's a Bee for All!

Midway through October and this variety of dahlia is attracting entire bee conventions, lol!

 

Using the flash gave this later afternoon shot an evening feel.

 

Almost appearing to hold up the center of the dahlia, three bees angle for as much pollen as possible.

 

This was the record. I believe there were six bees on this one flower!

Looking Forward Towards my Future Past

Kodak Instamatic photograph I shot in June of 1979, Point Clear, Alabama. It was just after I graduated from Vassar on my 22nd birthday, and I was driving across the country with my late friend, Toby Caron. She had graciously offered me a place to stay in Los Angeles to begin my new post-grad life, and we were stopping in various locations to stay a night or two with friends. This stop on the coastline of Alabama was to see our friend Ellie Crosby, whose parents owned a vintage beach house here. We ate Hush Puppies and Shrimp Grits, and were soon on our way to the west coast. Toby's roommate, Andy Hixson, soon became my best friend for the rest of his life, and I like to think of this photo as the beginning of the rest of my life. I was hopeful then, completely unaware of all the tragedies that befall almost everyone's life, but at this point in time, I was nothing but optimistic, hopeful, and very, very thrilled to be starting a new chapter!