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.

Ten pictures of where I'm moving.

Great moments with Mr. Stitt.

My pal Wes Stitt has moved back to that mountain, to a good job with a good man, and to adopt a black cat. I am envious and mopey, and could run away to North Carolina any minute. Okay...probably not, but I am planning a visit in the spring, and daydreams about moving to North Carolina persist.

Before he left, and before I helped him pack up his library, we went to Disneyland...


...for any number of reasons.


It was so fun. so ridiculous. so exhausting. so expensive.

perfect.

Not that we spent any part of the day waiting in lines...but I found plenty of time to take pictures for my own amusement. The tip-tops of things, disney railings and fixtures and details, and our tired feet standing in line.




We had silly-tired conversations. I think that may be my favorite part of a day at Disneyland: the unlikely, imaginative conversations it facilitates. I knew Wes would totally be into that.

Elsewhere.

Elsewhere, in Greensboro, North Carolina, is a "living museum set within a former thrift store." I am fascinated by this place. I stumbled upon it years ago (on the internet I mean) when I was in grad school. Re-stumbled upon it while opportunity-hunting earlier this week. As many of you strangers know, I have a personal and academic interest in both logical and illogical collecting, arranging, accumulation and...let me say it quietly......hoarding.

hmm.

I hope to visit this place sometime. Anyone ever been there?

Post-Penland Blues, and Other Mysteries.

Here is Michelle C. Moode last week: tired and heart-broken, and unfortunately in Georgia.

Okay.

I am finally on my way home, and ready to conclude what has been an exhausting, wonderful summer. I start teaching again very soon, and I need to put aside my summer wonderment for a while.

Just to get you caught up: this summer I went from LA to Nashville to Murray, KY back to LA via Texas, (that was the “get-everything-I-own-in-one-state” phase.)

Then I was in LA for a while...then to Visalia and Bakersfield, CA.

Then to Seattle, with an unexpected detour to Las Vegas (THAT was an unfortunate day of air travel.)

Then to Asheville on a red-eye, via Atlanta, and then up a mountain to Penland for a very long three weeks.

After that the plan had been to be in Atlanta, Georgia to make books and have a show. That didn’t work out due to unfortunate miscommunications, so lets leave the topic like Maranda and I left Georgia: itchy, and in a hurry.

I spent a few days making books and laughing uncontrollably in Murray, Kentucky. I did not expect to be back so soon, but it all worked out for the best I s’pose.

Where am I now? Hell, I don’t know. Oh wait...I’m at my parents in Nacogdoches, Texas again. God, I am so ready to be at home. I hope I remember the way.

“Penland penland penland penland penland.” I could go on and on. I must get it out of my system.


Young’s Mountain Music, down the hill from the school. A few students played there one night, and it seemed about half of Penland was in attendance for the show.


This is Freya, whom I met in 2003 at Penland. I did not expect to see her again. She was my favorite friend to share secrets with in the past month, (besides Maranda; there was an almost seamless transition) and I miss her so much already.


This is Loring. Loring and I were studio mates in lower metals, and he taught me a game he called "I hit you with a brass rod." He also played "Its a hard knock life" (yep, from "ANNIE") in the dishwashing room one day. What few people know is that he also played it three times in the studio before that. I miss this guy a lot. Boy, did we laugh. I remember lying on my back in yoga, quietly laughing to myself at something he had said earlier that day, and also because I could hear him quietly snoring near me...


Part of my work/study job was to wipe up dear little crumbs like these in the Dining Hall, the Pines. I love them, and this picture.


So, my class was two and a half weeks long, and after that was Penland's Annual Benefit Auction. This was my EIGHTH (!?) year managing the Pines for this crazy-exhausting weekend. My crew, "Team Awesome," washed all this rental stuff...that's 400+ dinner plates, desert plates, water, wine, and highball glasses, silverware...and we washed it all twice. We also washed everything that the kitchen was getting dirty for the volunteer meals, and the caterer's serving pieces (out of the goodness of our hearts.) Of course, (as always!) I had good help...


My ol' travel pal Maranda (from Murray State) arrived just in time to help me out in a million ways...like helping 'clean' this bowl of chocolate.


My "god-parents," Megan and Jack. I think this was their third auction working on my team.


And the rest of "Team Awesome '09."


This is my good friend Kate Boyd, who actually organizes the Benefit Auction. I'm just "the help."


Lastly, here is my dear friend Wes Stitt, with his "Lady," the Pines Dining Hall. He manages the Pines, except for the few days when it gets all messed up by the Auction. (although all would be left in chaos without me around.) Of all the friends I've made in the past month, I spent the most time with Wes, and he is a kindred spirit.

I will continue posting pictures on my flickr site...but I am at my limit for this month I believe.

In another post, I shall share the Ballad of Maranda and Michelle, and what adventures we found after Penland.

Lastly, here's an early-auction-morning, before they turned the mountains on:

The Happy Ones.

So, I've been on spring break from CSUN this week, which has been a pretty successfully balanced time of rest and productivity. Okay, maybe a little more rest than productivity...

I've also had lots of good news this week.

The "calculations and waiting" in my last post refer directly to my apartment-hunt. I've lived in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles for almost two years (well, come august), and I've been in my current apartment for over a year. I like where I am, and after a brief investigation into moving more drastically out of my neighborhood, I decided I'd rather stay put for now. I know these streets, I like walking to places around here, I like driving up to the observatory as needed, and I like having a familiarity with the check-out folks at my market.

But dang it, I need more space! My little studio apartment has been good to me, but in recent months I have felt more and more crazy because of the stiflingly small space. And street-parking. So I've been looking at apartments for a while now, and it really helped me clarify what I want in a place to live.

Geeze, this is wordy.

To sum up, I am moving May first into a place that I am very, very excited about. Besides having room for a couch AND a bed, it also has a petite dining room, hard-wood floors, a GARAGE, a telephone niche, and all sorts of 1930's detail that makes Michelle a bit giddy. It's the one-bedroom apartment that feels like a home, and it's the same price as one I looked at that was in a dark building with EIGHTY units. Bizarre.

Okay, so that's the big news. Let me tell you about my summer plans.

In July I'm planning on making a short trip up to Seattle, (never been there) to stay with my friend (from WVU) Myra. I'll be teaching a two-day bookbinding workshop at the Kirkland Arts Center, where Myra is the educational director.

In late July/early August, I will be at Penland (as I mentioned last post) for Arthur Hash's metals workshop. So excited to play with metal again. It's been a while!

Afterwards, I'll be hanging around P-land for a few more days to do my thing at the fancy-pants auction, and I hope I can persuade these girls to join me:



After THAT, I'll be making my way to Atlanta, Georgia (not sure I've ever been there, either...) for a residency at the Art House. I'll be making things and having a show. I'm excited.

I'm planning on posting more work for sale in my shop today. Not all of it is brand new....as I begin organizing/packing for the move, I've been finding pieces that I've forgotten about, (most have been in shows and have been resting in frames in a closet) and I'd like to find good homes for them. I do not make art to hoard it all in boxes and closets.

Again?!

I've decided that for one week in August, I'm gonna wander over to North Carolina...you know, again. To breathe wholesome mountain air, see some old friends, and wash dishes.

This will be my SEVENTH year managing the dining hall at Penland for their Annual Benefit Auction. It may sound more glamorous than it is. My team and I will be washing dishes. A lot of dishes. And pots. And silverware. And bowls. And glasses. And then different shaped glasses. And maybe a third shape of glasses. And then some things that we're not-quite-sure what they are, but we gotta wash 'em.

And then we gotta wash everything again, the next day.

If you're a friend or a fan of my work, it should come as no surprise that this satisfies my conceptual interest in repetition.



I do find dish washing to be rather satisfying. No, really. I like washing my own dishes, (particularly with my lovely view from my kitchen window, and my vintage china and Lisa Miller ceramics....)

And at the auction we listen to a lot of good music and always end up having a good time. There's always a moment when I tell myself I'll never do it again.....it is hard work, but it's a good way to remind yourself that you're alive.

Today my friend Maranda wrote to me about how "we do this to ourselves over and over...it's like a way for us to remember we're alive. it's like pinchin' yourself when you've 'gone away' while driving on a long, long trip just to make sure you aren't in a dreamland and you haven't really run off the road." She wasn't talking about washing dishes, but it does seem relevant.

Anyway...