This Weekend

This weekend, the very first of September, marks my return to the gallery walk circuit here in Port Townsend. It has been several years since I have officially shown my paintings and fiber work. Not since we closed Franklin House Gallery, have I regularly shown new work. My paintings, the most recent ones, will be on display in my classroom space upstairs from the bead shop. This little room is also my workroom -slash - sewing room where I create my felt banners and woolen paintings. This week it is all cleaned up but I expect that in future gallery walks, you will see my mess and the works in progress. I am a little trepidatious about this as I have no idea whether people will find me, or respond to my work which lays bare my soul, or as in the most recent past, even remember that I am a painter. Take a breath, dear self, get a grip and display your work. All along I have made new paintings and drawings but not having a gallery, they have not been displayed or framed. I have been away so long from the scene! I have to make " art speak ". I need to look arty. I need to open my head and heart to studio visitors! Oh, scary, scary!

Thought for Today

‎"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own and you know what you know. And you are the guy who will decide where to go." Dr. Seuss

Sometimes things happen and you can think to yourself, " Whew! Glad that is not me! " and then other times things happen that make you stand back and say, lesson learned, life appreciated! Such was the lesson yesterday.

My doctor, friend and confidant had an emergency brain bleed,  ( when are they ever not an emergency ? ) and is in the intensive care wing of a regional hospital. No one knows what the outcome will be for certain and no one knows at what functioning level she will return to. Of course, I am saddened, shocked. Of course, I am sending prayers and healing thoughts her way, writing in her on line journal. I am also once again reminded of the preciousness of life, how fleeting it can be and how suddenly things can turn on a dime. Wow, just wow.

Hold close those you love and care about, hold tight to the memories you make now and hold even tighter to the love you find. I love you all.

Community Bowl Project

One of the things I promised myself this year was that if I had the chance to volunteer here and there, I would make the time, even a wee bit of time, and do it. Yesterday found Jacob and me at the annual Uptown Street Fair ( which I started more than 20 years ago ) working at the Community Bowl Project. Local potters donate thrown porcelain bowls, glazes and their time to make the little dishes that the community members paint at local fairs and then sell for $ 10 each at a later event. The full $10 goes to the food bank. It's a great way for the community itself to participate creatively in making food bank donations.

Porcelain bowls for sale all signed by the artists!
Many painted by the community's children.

It felt great to be outside on the warmest Saturday of the year, speaking with my fellow residents and painting a bowl with my friend Marlene's delightful twin grandchildren ( 11 months ). Henry and Tommy are budding artists.

In my heart, I am so happy and feel so much more enriched to be donating my time. Really it is more valuable than anything else I can give. xo, Lois

Painting supplies & glazes.

Other craft vendor booths.

More crafty people & booths early in the day.

And the band played on!

A Love Story

 My friend Alan came to Port Townsend from New York to show new trims and ribbons for my shop. He often comes twice a year and we are able to sit, look at new wonderful sometimes shiny merchandise and have political discussions. We have been doing this for years, ever since I walked into his showroom in Manhattan 11 years ago. At the time neither of us imagined that our friendship would grow or that we would find common ground and look forward to our visits. He being a conservative traditionalist, even a republican and me being an ultra liberal arty sort.
Today, Alan told me a story. A story of how he views relationships of married friends. He said that marriage is like a river and a rock. One person is the river and the other the rock. The rock is solid, stands its ground and can't be moved while the playful river winds its way over, around and along the rock. He said two rocks together don't work because they crash upon each other and neither moves. Two rivers won't work because they just keep flowing and moving their own way. But a river and a rock, they work together. He said Phil was my rock, someone I could lean on and return to, who would stand his ground and let me be the river, moving around him, journeying onto other places yet  always returning to the rock. An intimate love story that is without end. Timeless. I was so touched by his story, this analogy of a marriage, that I could have cried.

Now, you know I am not telling the story of the river and the rock as well as Alan but I think the idea is clear. I will look at my marriage this way forever after. I am free and yet grounded by my rock. Safe, returning, ever moving, ever exploring and still protected. What an insight with beauty and sensitivity in his words.

Still the Heart of August

I am slow moving this morning and at the shop, they are probably wondering if I can ever show up on time. I was sucked into the facebook tunnel of entertainment this morning. First watching one video, then another, then greetings to the birthday people, general comments and hellos and now, it is 9:28 and I have to be at work ( or rather should be ) in the next hour at most.

Last night we went to the Jefferson County Fair here in Port Townsend and although it is one of the tiniest I have ever attended, I LOVE it. It lasts three days and Friday night it is tradition to go and see all your friends, neighbors and customers, and eat your way through the fair. Local teens spend the whole day and evening there, strolling from end to the other, being cool, hanging out, eating junk and buying cheap belts and trinkets with a slightly " rebel " edge. ( marijuana leaves on vinyl belts ) There are chickens and goats, dogs and cats, cows and horses, llamas and pigs with piglets. What more could you want on a summer evening? As the darkness comes upon us, the moon hangs nearly full in the sky and the soft sounds of local rock and roll fill the air, we say goodnight to all that is the fair.

Sunset from the Jefferson County Fair

It is ever so quiet in the house at this moment in lazy Sunday time. The sun is out, a breeze is blowing and I can hear the occasional soft drone of the airplane flying over head from the airport below me. Jake is at a friend's place down the street and at any moment I expect he and Ben to come flying in to play video games or be on the computer or to eat and eat and eat until the cupboards and fridge echo with emptiness.  I do not think I have ever been around a teenager that eats as much as Jake and he seems to grow taller by the hour. Even a close friend, visiting from Panama said, " geez, Jake I haven't seen you since Tuesday and you look two inches taller already! " Amazing this teenage growth. At once I love him to pieces and don't want him to change or leave or move away from me physically or mentally and the next, go, young man, go. Since he was first born, I always thought he was adult who could not wait to get out of his stuck little baby body. I will lose him a bit more this fall when he starts the 9th grade in a public school. Oh, how I wish I had Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility so I could follow him throughout his day and watch him. Be protective, save him from the roughness of the adolescent world. I suppose all moms feel this way and it is part of the needed separation from teenager to adult. Still, my heart just aches at the tenderness and sadness of our little partings now and the big parting down the road a few years from now.

Jacob and Lisa working on Lisa's new Mac. How hard is Lisa working with
that bottle of beer in one hand, I wonder. 

Anyhow I have a much needed day off, out of the shop to catch up on jewelry making. I have been fortunate to be selling many of the pieces I have made over the past winter. My new things are well received and I am very happy. However, this business of working e-v-e-r-y single day this summer is exhausting, mentally and physically. Even on this day " off " my mind is still in the shop working and I can not seem to unwind or relax. I have a goal of making 30 pairs of furnace glass earrings for an empty rack and then I want to cut out a nice thick cross for casting. It should all keep me busy today when all I really want to do is watch a good movie and veg out; still my hands, still my mind, breathe deeply and maybe even doze off! On that zzz note, I will close for now and be back when something other than a sleepy Lois is ready to show you some real WORK! xo

One old Jesse dog trying to sleep in the studio.