since when

since when does 26 degrees feel warm? since 26 below zero, that's when! we just returned from a walk in the newly falling snow, and wind, and i didn't wear long johns and i'm nicely invigorated and feel really hot indoors! imagine if we had skied.

some critters know how to spend the winter.

 in my library, between two surfaces

last night while sitting at the table my spine actually shivered, as a little group of coyotes began singing within spitting distance of my house. i couldn't spot them, but it startled me. 

this is a very small room, it used to be the toy room, then the art room, where the kids made things. before i painted it, the walls were fairly decorated.

behind the basket in front of the little medicine cabinet is where i found the spider's nest 

books. all small, by me. and carol and aimee and roberta and shanna and sarah and amanda and susan and joanne and margot and asao. a tumbler by ian and a basket by gin. cheers!

and inside the cabinet? a heron's skull!

good work

there are times when i become intrigued with someone's work, and end up reading all of, say, terry tempest williams, or looking at all of hedi kyle's inventive structures and finding one of her workshops, peruse for hours the lovely papers at cave papers, perhaps seeing the group of seven oil sketches in the national gallery. i get hooked on a voice. a vision. another way of seeing and understanding that somehow infuses mine, which i suppose is research. or, as i say (wendy!) someone who "gets it". they resonate. often that person is female, sometimes not. this internet has been a boon to hermits like me. because the bits isolated old me gets to see are now so much bigger. and i can view video right on this macbook.

yesterday i watched a book artist talk with such love about his work. awe might be a better word, but in any case timothy c. ely caught my imagination yet again. about 15 years ago i was in our wonderful local university bookstore and i found this book. which i had to buy. it was made like a fine art book crossed with a magnificent children's picture book.

it is called the flight into egypt, binding the book. it is simultaneously a book about a mysterious journey into egypt and building a book, and includes amazing drawings and marks. it is so very much more than just what i've written. it was obviously a facsimile of a book, and even though the book is lovely, it is, i know not nearly what the original was.

i recently visited the website of the planetary collage and found this book, a catalog of work from a show a few years back. i purchased it and got a fine email from tim with the purchase arrangements. he inscribed it for me, including more beautiful marks in his own writing system, with enough english to help me along.

this is, i think, one of the blessings of the internet, this connecting. in the video, tim mentions a huge difference in book art and, say, painting. the book is held in the hands, explored with the eyes, it's best if it's smelled. how right he is, how intimate and visceral this experience is! 

it is my hope that my work in textiles, papers, fibers, is becoming stories, books, that, if possible, heal.