The Winter Crazy.

I'm going to post a few catch-up posts today. This has been a catch-up sort of a weekend.

Over my winter break, I tended to a couple of crazy Michelle projects.

One: I spent a few whole days unstretching my crumby undergrad oil paintings and cutting the canvases into 4" squares. Some of these paintings were rather large, and all of them were astoundingly crumby. They had cluttered up my life for too long, and I am grown-up enough to know that I am past any interest in reworking them, or showing them to anyone, or ever ever ever hanging them on a wall.





What will I do with the squares?

I don't know.

I like how they look all stacked up. I'd love to hear your suggestions!

So, this enterprise was about orderly destruction, and potential reinvention. This second crazy project was all about crazy organization. (while listening to all three seasons of Arrested Development...) This was what I did as soon as I was done teaching for the fall semester, and I think I needed to stay home and be alone and arrange things. It was great. But crazy. I know...crazy.

Anyway, way back in gradschool, I started making the paper-spirals...It was a big (but little) component of my Thesis at WVU. (the little spirals are pictured on the banner of my Etsy store, as well.) In my moves since then, these things have been tucked away in various boxes, bags and suitcases. And I have continued making them...so I finally took the time to wrangle them into a single container, and rather than simply dumping them into the box, I obsessively arranged them one at a time. And took a million photos in the process. (50 or 60, actually)

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...