So let it out and let it in.

Look, I'm blogging again.

Summer has gone quickly and has been full, busy, wet, and difficult. And suddenly it is almost over. Wasn't I just saying how spring was almost turning into summer?

Remember how in the winter during my residency I said how I'd never seen so much  snow in my life? Well, this summer in the mountains of North Carolina I have seen the most RAIN in all my life. It rained all of July. Days, weeks of rain. Moldy shoes. Moldy everything.

Boring. Here, let's look at pictures:

Bad picture of really interesting little things.

Same again.

Tiny bundles.

My god-daughter met her first cat friend,
and Alfred met his first little girl friend.

And by the end of the week they were best buddies. 

There were heart-shaped puddles.

Against all odds, I did grow tomatoes this year.

Several kinds of tomato. (and squash, too.) 

I went to California for like 10 minutes. And I ate all the fish.

And I took photos of things I've always known by heart.

And then I came home and I ate all these peas.

The best day of summer was a sunny one, August 3. I went tubing with friends, ate a cheeseburger and chocolate shake from Bonnie and Clyde's, took a two hour nap with Star Trek: the Motion Picture on (a GREAT movie to nap to) and then went up for delayed fourth-of-july fireworks and astronomy at Penland. I saw Saturn through a telescope and the international space station swing by. It was lovely.

Mostly there's been work and numbers and spiders and rain. But things are better now, and getting better and better. The Benefit Auction is past, and I'm gladly taking a class the last week of summer. I am moving into a better place soon, (BETTER!) and yes, that's three moves in two years for those keeping count at home.

'Til next time.

Heads Up Seven Up.

Rainy day schedule here in Spruce Pine, meaning I'm not working outside as I have been the past four days. This is springy rain, mind you. I have been listening to records, the windows are open, and I plan on doing lots of internet business this afternoon.

In my last post I visually gushed about crocuses and spring flowers. Later that day I noticed that while I was busy being enchanted by Penland's well-kept grounds, my own crocuses were struggling against all the weeds and leaves that I never cleared out from the fall.

Try harder, Michelle.

So I spent an afternoon clearing out dead weeds, ivy, and leaves while tip-toeing amongst the crocuses and on-the-way tulips.

I found this little guy while clearing out weeds. 

I wandered lonely, as a cloud...

The well-established daffodils in my back yard are fully blooming, and the ones that I planted in the fall are on their way. But good gracious, what about all that jagged brown stuff?

Japanese Knotweed is ruining everything.

I have been clearing and cutting up tons of huge, dry sticks, the remainder of the wall of Japanese Knotweed that has overtaken two edges of my backyard. I have given up hopes of clearing it completely. I do plan on keeping it under control this year, particularly in the part of the yard I am planning for a veggie garden.

...I can see it out there now, being blown over in all directions by the wind. Mocking me.

Although it was starting to rain a bit...I planted seeds today! What!? In February? I talked myself out of it yesterday, but my friend Courtney Martin said she planted some, so...

kale, lettuces, spinach, arugula, radishes

Henry and Alfred aren't sure about my spending so much time outside...

Gullywasher.

Snails in rain, courtesy aliette via Etsy.

It has been raining like mad all day today, and I even heard thunder last night, which is a rarity in Los Angeles. (Although my upstairs neighbors might have been dropping bowling balls on the floor again, like they do sometimes in my dreams...)

I blame the rain for my sleeping in later than planned, and it also kept me from going farmers market-ing. Ah boo. But I did take a walk today...

A walk in the rain? Yes, a lot of a walk in a LOT of rain. Maybe it is corny, or eccentric, or sort of masochistic, but I love walking in the rain. In Los Angeles months and months pass with only the slightest changes of temperature, so something different, (whether a singing-in-the-rain kind of rainstorm, a sudden drop down to a chilly 58 degrees, or even a sudden heatwave when all I can stand to eat is frozen grapes and sparkling water...) um, it is something different, so something worth noting and experiencing.

I can't wait to live where there is real weather!

So I put on my ol' $8 goodwill trenchcoat, some boots that I swear used to be waterproof, and took my black-and-white polkadot umbrella down the road, over the fast-moving LA river, to the Village Bakery. I bought sourdough bread, coffee, and a cookie for later. It was a wonderful adventure 'til the wind picked up and started threatening my umbrella, and my boots became soggy inside. I swear, they were fine in the West Virginia snow, but couldn't cope with LA rain.

Lame.

Jody Alexander

This morning I woke up to a tree-cleaning Los Angeles rainstorm, and a link from my friend and mentor, Bonnie Stahlecker, which I'll gladly pass along to you.

Jody Alexander, based in Santa Cruz, over here in California. Books. Bookish objects. Bookish spaces. That's what most interests me about her work.

Yum.

Anywhere: this is what's happening.

I'm visiting a brand new little redheaded person this week. I'm very fond of my little goddaughter. She's very neat.

Also neat is this funny girl, who I am rather more comfortable with then the newborn...


cold and rain.

and quiet.

and thinking.

and reading.

and the internet:

I've had a flickr account for some time, and it has been entirely neglected for two years. In an ongoing effort to pull myself together, I plan on getting back into the habit of posting pictures there. Check it out.

The past few days I have been picking over these blog posts, via Etsy.

Speaking of Etsy, lately I have had time to browse and explore, which has resulted in a lot of good discoveries. i made a treasury, which I haven't done in I-don't-know-how-long.



These happened, and more in progress...

the lovers, the dreamers and you.

This is a mediocre picture of a perfect rainbow. The only way I could have got the full arch in frame was if I had stood in the middle of a very busy street...but still, it was a lovely lovely time.

Exhale.

Oh my... was I ever sick! Sick and busy. Narcissistic as it may be, I had to document what my days were like there for a while...bundled up like this, feeling dreadful, but binding the hell outta some books. My apartment is trashed at present...like a busy, sick, artist lives there. yuck.

Things are better now! Better! Better! BETTER! I'm better, for starters. Still a bit of a cough, but I'm not depending on cold medicine to get me through days or nights. ah. Well, maybe still the nights.

This is the end of the semester at CSUN. Today I got most of my grading done...I wasn't drinking coffee while I was sick, so today it hit me pretty hard. I also made a rather long list of things my students are going to CLEAN on Thursday! I plan on bragging about my awesome intro class in a separate post. later. tomorrow.

UNIQUE was great. I really was doubtful about how it would go, what with my illness and fatigue and all...but it was good, and I'm glad I did it. More about it in another post.



And what else? Rainbows. It rained on Monday and the LA winter that I love so much seems to have arrived. There is snow on the mountain-tops, and it is clear enough to see the mountains. People are putting up Christmas lights. LA is beautiful this time of year.

Tulips and other Pretty Things.

O, its been cold and rainy and wonderful out here in California. I love it. I've been very busy with work and art. And tulips and letter-writing. Can't believe its already mid-February. Deadlines are sneaking up on me from all sides.

But I wanted to take a break from my productivity to at least post some pictures, and a "hello" to my mom, who likes to check in on the ol' blog.





I'm spending every possible moment working on work for my upcoming show, "Very Long Lines" at Surface Gallery in Bakersfield. The work is larger than usual, and also very open: lots of lovely white space. And also lots of intricate tiny detail. I may be going blind!

I'm not ready to start sharing this new work with the world, but I will post some pictures of some of the "source material."





Journal drawings, August 2007.



Magazine image of a river...this has been taped to my wall for a few months. I know its upside down. The Polaroids are from a sunrise in Northridge, maybe in November.





I made these sketches in 2001, in my little seventh floor drawing studio at Murray State University. They were images from dreams. Very vivid dreams about art I had not made...don't worry. I'm not about to start writing about my dreams on this blasted blog.





More recent journal notations...December 2008.

Okay. Back to work.

November.

I started this blog to write about my news, but the difficult thing is, when I have lots going on....I never have the time to write anything for my blog.

So that's annoying.

It's finally cooling off a bit in LA, but there's no knowing if it will stay as pretty as it is today. We had some rain on Saturday; I even heard thunder, which is pretty rare out here.



On Saturday I went to my friend Jennifer Anderson's opening at JK Gallery in Culver City. Jennifer's work is always beautiful, but I was amazed to discover that she also makes her own frames. New-found respect, for sure!

Take a look at the amazing amazingness on "stitch spectacular"......"on the poking edge of embroidery."

On Friday I'm driving to Bakersfield to go to an opening at Surface Gallery....why Bakersfield?

Why not!?

On November 30, I will be at the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts annual holiday sale thingy. I participated in this event last year, and it was a really good day. If you're in Los Angeles, come check it out! And if you do come, make sure you stop by That Yarn Store in Eagle Rock. It's my favorite yarn store, although unfortunately I haven't been there in some time...but really, I don't need any more yarn in my life right now.

Oh yes, an Etsy treasury called "cold november rain":



Links to these good people:

My amazing friend Abbey, of hownowdesign
selflesh
erinzam
seasprayblue
kimwestad
yoola
xfreshbatteryx
robindanely
larimeloom
lupin
StudioElan
cherylasmith

More good things to talk about soon. I can't tell all in a single post.