Flying Time.

One Night at Penland.

Months ago I made boxes for a week. The best week ever.

Meanwhile there was a National Geographic worthy battle between an orb-weaver spider and a wasp. ..

Seriously, it went on for hours. The wasp finally did break free.

Alfred Artemis Moode at home.

Then Alfred and I moved to a little house I have wanted to live in for some time. He was scary sick for a while...but I think he is almost back to 100%. He is actually at the vet again as I write this. :(

fig & port.

 Amanda Lee came to town for like ten minutes, (as is her wont) and we went to Asheville for chocolate and bookstores. Perfect.

It started like this.

I have an installation up at Green Plum Collaboratory right now, and I'll be having a closing reception on Friday October 25 from 7-9. Do come. I'm very pleased with what I have put together, and it has been a good dose of obsessive craziness and therapy. So good. I'm heading over there to photograph it today....(and to keep adding to it, shuffling bits around.)

I'm making books and things for a number of forthcoming opportunities, and working on some applications and proposals. I wish I had an existence that allowed for more time for these pursuits. No, I don't wish; I want. Shall work toward.

Always Arranging.

Okay, so I have been in the process of moving into a new house, just a couple of blocks away from the old one. With my funny, busy schedule, (I have Thursdays and Sundays off...) I thought it would work out well to do it slowly, a car-load at a time.

Here it is November and I'm still not done moving, so I may have been mistaken about this plan.

But I am almost done, and I have taken up residence at the new place, and so has Alfred.

Still have some things to dig up out of my yard, and some odds and ends to get out of my old house...but here are a few pictures of my stuff in the new place...

Very fine kitchen things, and room for everything!

I have been arranging many many books.

Orange things go here.
The corduroy pillow was a very good $2 thrift store find.

Wait, more orange?
 My favorite coat matches another good thrift find..

Alfred got a house-warming gift.

And so did I!

Look! Pink starburst countertops.

Alfred, checking it out...

In other news, I'm working on putting together a Kickstarter project to help with travel expenses of my winter residency at Jentel. I'm pretty excited about it!  Stay tuned!

Learning.

I've been in Spruce Pine, North Carolina just over a month, and everything is going well.

I am suspicious of how well things are going. But that's just my distrustful nature.

I haven't been blogging because I have no idea where to begin. There are things I want to share from the month before I left Los Angeles. Heck, I never really reported on Unique LA or Austin Renegade, huh?

Or my super-cool former students and the conclusion to my time at CSUN.

Or my spontaneous adventure to Visalia and Sequoia with a van full of teenagers.

Right now I am at the sweet little Spruce Pine Library. the calico library-cat, Valentine, is curled up on my red backpack, purring quite loudly. Yeah, yeah: cute. But my heart belongs to my roommate, (the one who is not human) Henry, who doesn't pay rent, sleeps all day, stays up late, and doesn't clean up his messes.


Actually, Henry is one of the most mellow, easy-going cats I have ever known.

I have spent the past month unpacking, organizing, arranging, rearranging, cleaning, moving, and looking. I'm bored with it and wish it could be an automatic adjustment into feeling "at home."




I have also been digging in the yard which has been wonderful, satisfying work. I arrived a bit late in summer to get a garden going, but about a week ago I did start some pumpkins. They were growing quite happily until yesterday I discovered that some spiteful cutworms had put an end to them. Boo. So that's enough about gardening for the moment...

My "studio" is still the area of the house where I haven't unpacked everything, and I don't know where things belong....so I haven't been working. But soon. Oh, and I have a little table-top etching press staying with me now, as the fourth roommate. She's still settling in too. I'd post a picture, but my camera seems to be broken.

This past weekend was Penland's Annual Benefit Auction, the tenth that I have been involved in. And that deserves its own post.

From There to Here.

The GPS sabotaged my father and I every chance she got. We ended up on a LONG tiny road that delayed our leaving California by several hours.

Vive la France!


One of several nerve-wracking stops on our way across Texas. For the first leg of our trip we were towing my car behind the truck. The Uhaul folks initially attached my car to the tow-dolly wrong, so it kept coming loose, shifting out-of-whack, and causing much anxiety. (It took us a few days to figure out how to make it right.)

But O, such prettiness~





And the moon rolled along the horizon next to us...

Who Cares!?

Oh, I am so behind on sharing news and pictures on the ol' blog.

But I am moving in a month, and I won't spend my last month in Los Angeles sitting quietly at my computer, looking to the past.

June is all about putting things in boxes, taking other things to Goodwill, having some work done on my teeth, (I went to elementary school with my current dentist. Isn't that great?) and untangling all sorts of loose ends.

Ten pictures of where I'm moving.

Well.

Well. Here we are well into March. Well, well, well.

I have been working hard: teaching, making books, printing, drawing, and going through everything I own. My home has been in a crazy sort of disarray lately. I keep the windows covered quite often, so no one will see in and think a crazy, reclusive, card-board-box collecting book binder lives there.....


ehem.

I will be relocating in a few months. Good. Exciting. Scary. I have a little fit of anxiety every weekend. Although I have a lot on my mind, and a lot of variables contributing to bizarre dreams, I'm actually coping really well. Rather than dealing with my anxiety and nervous energy by eating, or sleeping too much, or just freaking out in every direction, I am channeling my energy into obsessive, efficient book binding. I'm very excited about the Renegade Craft Fair in Austin.

I've also been taking many long walks around Los Feliz and Atwater.

For now, here are a few more things I have been considering:

To have everything in one place.

I'm somewhere between there...and there. I'm on my way home. But I'm also somewhere that's sort of home, but I've never lived here.

It's complicated! Complicated and boring.

Now that I am living in a better place, and I finally have room for a bed AND a couch, I have taken on the frighteningly complex task of organizing my belongings, and herding it all into one state. I've been living in California for almost two years, but I'm finally actually moving there.

The past week or so I have sold, given away, and thrown away A LOT of stuff. And it feels great.

It's been like time traveling too, and let me tell you: time traveling is exhausting. In one afternoon sorting through elementary school awards, sticky ancient barbie dolls, crazy thirteen-year-old-girl notes, high school marching band memorabilia, the remnants of an obsessive scale model of my thesis exhibition, EVERY SINGLE LIFE DRAWING I EVER MADE IN COLLEGE (so it seems...) and of course, my door knob collection.

Oh, and late nights I have been re-reading my old journals. Egads, am I ever interesting. I've kept a journal pretty steadily since about 1999. My favorite snippet I've found is from 2001, when I gave myself permission to change my mind.

yawn.

Oh...and of course for someone who's getting rid of everything, I still have an awful lot of stuff. Of course there are always those weird art supplies that I may do something with someday, and those things I might try selling on ebay....and dried up flowers that had some particular significance that I've decided to forget, but can't let go of yet.

yawn.

So, I'm on the road, and sorting through piles. In other words....

I'm happy.

next right now.

I put together another Etsy treasury this weekend. Check it out here before it goes away!



This has been a good weekend. I'm working on packing, and getting rid of a lot of stuff. I move in two weeks! So excited about my new place. I've needed this change.

I've finished a few little pieces this weekend, and if my scanner is cooperative, I may post some things tonight in my store.

Today was hot as blazes in LA. My solution is frozen grapes. And a lot of sparkling water.