Monday, April 28, 2014

roots

my son ian put this 
drawing on facebook
he doesn't know i stole it away
to put over here.
he's some drawer for sure!
yes, my folks were from west virginia 
and ian, 
well he practically grew up in an old barn.
~~~
i returned from toronto late last night
after a thought-stimulating class.
more on that later on.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

current events

 1. most incredible and delicious cheeses: 
harbison & clothbound cheddar.
 2. amazing india flint has celebrated her students in a book of their own
all of india's students were invited to send a story and pictures
and the book is big and beautiful!
3. a stack of books, many mine…
i'm getting ready
for a weekend workshop in toronto
 with timothy ely
at the japanese paper place.

Monday, April 21, 2014

around the place

 there are reddish rocks here
and in spring especially these little bits
of potsdam sandstone
show up.
i think the road crews 
fill up at the local sand pits
and some of them 
 have a bunch of this stuff.
i like it.
i like the layers.
 and i like holding them in my hand as i walk.
 it's a leftover pumpkin 
and prints on old pages
 old pages, latin.

and contact print over pressure print
lichen under and on cotton under plants.
i've been having a conversation with my friend catherine.
 work here 
and at the new place continues.
i love
the honorable nature of work clothing.

Friday, April 18, 2014

some books

 i finally got to putting together some of my samples
from my february trip
i made three books
and a few samples, too,
while (or in australian, whilst) teaching
 the bottom book
was completed at
my wee residency at beautiful silks
and provided enormous entertainment for me
one long night
 this stationers bound sample book
filled with silk and paper contact prints
and shifu and eucalyptus blooms,
in a fit of experimentation i dunked it into the wife.
well,
the wife is a wise and enormous vat of indigo
and my book came up gasping for air
going from sludge to blue
quickly
but also starting to sag and would have torn itself to bits
from the wife's good juice.
so i supported the thing 
as she completed the color magic
then set up a drying system, which was no mean feat 
considering the dry book weighs only an ounce or two, 
but wet,
well she sagged under her own weight.
iowa flax case paper cover and various handmade and machine made papers,
and shifu
hold a lot of liquid.
so, once the color stabilized i began
the tedious blotting dry 
and using a fan and a drying rack and many towels
 all night long
she dried, stabilizing the spine and then the pages. 
yesterday i sewed in all the loose bits and have a finished book
thanks to beautiful silks and the wife
also as i sorted out the work table
 i unearthed a little book i made 
years ago from scraps
from the trash at pbi
 oh, and a feather and someone's measuring notes.
and took a picture
 i, like jude, have been thinking
~of weave~
overexposed
 in motion
 focusing
 and finally focused
spun paper, kami-ito,
and canada thistle paper
of course it is!
weave holds the universe together.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

a friend, a photo, a quest, some papers

my daughter hannah took this photo
me at the book arts bazaar.
she says i look happy!
yep.
~~~
today my friend catherine came to mind
you know how that is--
 
so i went over to her blog
and she'd posted twice after a long hiatus
(while she went to school).
and she has some poems you might like to check out.
i love what she's been doing!
~~~
this morning
i watched the pesky chipmunk
who lives too close.
it took the bait
peanut butter.
so i took chipmunk in the have-a-heart trap
in the driving rain
to a new home on the kip tract.
fare well.
~~~
i worked on some new prints yesterday
as well as beginning excavations
on the work table.
spring fever.
as the temperature drops
approximately 30 degrees today.
several pages went brown and blue 
an idea brewing.

Monday, April 14, 2014

watershed, snowmelt

vast snowfields gave way
to spring longings
no, realities.
green pointy things in gardens
are appearing.
watershed
snowmelt
rivulet
stream
that's how it is in april.


























and today i begin 
spring break
i am home studying spring
listening to birds
fending off ticks
(20 on two dogs and one human
after 45 minutes in the woods)
no matter, we must learn
to live together.
i am so happy 
there is only a little snow and ice left
here and there.
 are you celebrating
spring?

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