Sunday, March 31, 2013

weekend stuff

aimee met hannah years ago, 
and now she's met ian.
all the way over in portland!
yes, he is tall; aimee is not short.
i love this picture!
and they had it made
just for me!
hugs to you both.
~~~
and
~~~
friday afternoon i taught the second
of two classes at st lawrence university's
sustainability semester
there's a lovely post here
and maybe a picture or two when 
i get to it!
i was very impressed with this
amazing group of students 


Saturday, March 30, 2013

transitions

 transitional times like march and november
move me 
i must go outside
(hence my absence from the ethers)
and i have been making lots of ecoprints
  i did get out on my land
several times
and found a stack of rock books
this rock i've not seen in years
in fact, having lived on this piece of north country
for 26 years,
 much has changed,
is changing
the stream has become a series
of ponds
six now, i think
as beaver rearrange the land to their suiting
 i walked across several dams
 became dazzled by the late afternoon
brilliant sunlight
 saw myself reflected on ice
 and walked gingerly around such trees
 there were other dam visitors
before me.
 while there i heard some birds, chickadees mostly,
beginning to think about spring
 i've ridden my horses, skied, and walked,
sometimes hauling out a child or a load of stuff
up this hill from the woods
this is the back of my pasture
and there i am with a bag of plant bits
 i often come out here and just 
stretch out on a rock
or examine the plants
or watch a woodchuck hole, a rabbit run, a deer trail.
it's really growing up to brush now
without grazing animals on it
there are still
milkweed blessings 
all over this place.
at work the men were talking of milkweed
how toxic it is, blah, blah, blah,
and i told them i'd eaten it.
poor (wo)man's asparagus.
mouths fell open,
astonished.
(i grinned)

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

luna

my little camera found this sphere
and
there was music,
coyote and geese

Monday, March 25, 2013

arrivals, etc

a nifty project: mail art
 these two made it to iowa city
unravelled
part of emily martin's project
 a small visitor
 strange and wonderful 
cards and doodles
from the perfect friend
(one of my peeps as i keep hearing) 
 to the west tonight
and to the east
i listened for woodcock, to no avail.
sap is running.
redwing blackbirds continue to sing.
 paper bird
dyed silk ribbon
from beautiful silks
these colors are from the recent dyebaths.
just some doings around here.

Friday, March 22, 2013

repetition

i've learned that to repeat 
a process
 repeat
 more than two or three times
 more even than twenty times
 during many seasons
 maybe even years
 makes it possible
 to begin to understand
the possibilities
there are 60 papers
ecoprinted.
i'm beginning to learn a little
my hands know a little more.
~~~
north country: 
late winter, late afternoon,
a workshop with eight college students
the sustainability semester
at st. lawrence university
learned some dye techniques, too.
no photos; i forgot.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

some news: pod cast

the incredible aimee lee 
forwarded me this message 
from susan mills

Hi Aimee and Velma,

Your podcast is posted - thank you so very much for participating in this series.
Have a wonderful spring, 
Susan
this means that aimee interviewed me for susan mills'
book arts podcasts.
it's a touch hard for me to talk about my work
i'm not used to it.
but i must say that aimee 
made it simple for me, she did all the hard work,
figuring out the technology.
if you have a bit of time,
go check it out. 
~~~
i've been doing a bit of dyeing, too
 ecoprints for a 
sutra
~~~

Sunday, March 17, 2013

hanging out...

...with my friend caliban
always inspires me to want to be a printer.
alisa golden has three 
bookarts videos on her current blog post.
two i already knew of,
this one made me smile a bunch.



maybe there's something else, too, 
a little bit of that old timey west virginia spunk, 
from my mom and dad.

holdout

 this is the way
the silk fell 
and this script
could be read
many ways
like a poem can
 not so much these large ones
who move through winter
with magesty
 who know the signs of springing
the redwings, the starlings, the cardinals, the chickadees
and all are singing
their spring songs
 color paints the sky,
then white outs 
this one with thunder
 i'm moving through 
this time
and soon i'll have some news up here
but not just yet.
sunday morning breakfast:
pancakes with brand new maple syrup!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

what the camera saw

 in the evening's golden surprise
 between showers, cloudscapes, snowmelt gurgling
the light was long and 
 there was a reminder that this walk 
is now mine alone.
there was a trickster surprise on the roadside, too
left by a border collie with a sense of humor,
not a print, something more present
than absent.
but,
then the geese surprised me
quieter than in fall, but in huge flocks.
later
i went out to listen, flushed a white tail,
but didn't hear
woodcock, peepers.
yet.

Monday, March 11, 2013

another blue

 the sky, the snow, the land
 the beaver dam
 i was too timid to cross
 little drainages
 one the beaver did not
 blue and blue and some red catkins
 the stream north
 and south
 shadow play
 gold and silver
 and magic to draw you in
and...
the pantone postcard project
i am getting used to 
not being homebound by necessity
and love. 
strange freedom.

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