River Garden Studio

over the mountain and in the garden

Thank you to all for your encouraging and loving comments on my last post... each one made me so happy and helped to bring the light back into my summer...

And so, as my friend Lynne said, I took back control of my life.  

Outside of Ashland, Oregon there is a beautiful winery that my daughter introduced me to last year... When the gallery that I showed my work closed in Klamath Falls, she said..."Mom, your work would be perfect at "Paschal Winery..." and we went there one afternoon for some wine tasting... 

Well it took me about a year, but I finally called the winery and left a message with my number and my blog address... The beautiful manager, Agnieszka, called me back very excited to set up an interview... and so began a new phase of my life, I think...

I drove over the Cascades, a drive I am very familiar with, all the time watching the scenery and loving the views of Oregon's wine country.

About an hour and a half later, I set down some of my larger paintings on the leather couch inside the winery, where they were completely at home... and I guess my daughter was right, they fit it beautifully. Agnieszka and I set up a time for my own show, complete with an evening of wine tasting and music,  six weeks in April... and talked and talked.  Below is one of her employee's who came out to see my work...

She was so lovely I had to take her picture as she looked through one of my books...

And a view from the balcony of summer hillsides, I live across the far mountains in the top right corner.

 

My heart was dancing ever more when we had our "Art Gathering" at my house this weekend... We began with a drum circle... a dream come true for me... especially when I saw everyone come in with their drums and other instruments...  This is Jan, and Shari in the back...

And Gaelyn, our leader...

The hands of Lynne...

And we began to make art.  I supplied everyone with small tin boxes and many leftover metal scraps, and they got to work.

This is Darlene's beginning...

And Jan's, 

And Gaelyn's...

And here are some of the almost final products...

Anna, who worked on a larger piece...

And Lynne, who stayed late and we talked through the rest of the afternoon...

and one last image, Rebecca's small beauty...

Art and friends in the garden... still making me smile... If you have time you should visit these artist's websites... they are very beautiful.

these days of June

My days are bittersweet.  Sweet  because of the garden.  Sweet because I have time to just be. But bitter because my job as an art teacher are over, (at least for this time), and there was so much more I wanted to do... and I loved this job so much. 

Next year our school district will have no middle school electives at all.  No art, no choir, shop or band.  High school thankfully will still have art and band.  So my sons day will still be rich in music.

Still, I have a job as an elementary school teacher somewhere in my district.  And I will find ways to incorporate art into every day... dance and three dimensional work as well...I can have that science/nature table again, and younger and sweeter students who are not going through such difficult hormonal times.

Some mornings I wake up in a panic... where will I be in September?  But other mornings I am fine... almost.  For now I just wait and love my garden, later in the summer I will begin the job of moving out of my art room.  I remind myself that many people have much worse problems...

This is a collage of two images, one myself, that I cut out and glued on the other, a close up of a peony with matt medium.  I added a layer of the medium over them both.  My husband says... "oh another woman reaching..."  but oh well.  It is what we do.  Here is the peony photo:

Summer days are my own.  My son is working for the Forest Service again this summer.  This time as a leader of his own crew for the Youth Conservation Crew. He and my husband drive down to California together everywhere.  Their district is called the "Goose Nest,"  so appropriate for this area.  I miss them and run out to greet them when they drive up every day...

I used the same method in this picture I took of my daughter when she was just a teen, and sat her on the columbine. To me it is as though she and the flower are having a conversation...

More colors of my world...

And two new collages as I find my new direction...

as the days unravel... and know at least for right now, 

this is where I am, "Meant to Be."

you see things that were

I have finished the pages in Seth's book... "Distressed Elements" for our Inner Works collaborative...  and at this moment it is in the mail, on the way to Rita for her beautiful contributions.  For those of you who have visited Seth's blog, The Altered Page, then you know that he sees the beauty of distressed elements like no other.  Out of our group of six artists it is amazing to me that we have worked on each other's book at the same time...

In this project, I have enjoyed the process of cut and paste more than any other... I just hope I haven't got too carried away!

Finding the "ingredients" for Seth's book has also been a joy... as was the process of what to put where, and how to "tie" things down, (I ended up using old wire and string).

The paper clips aren't really part of the art, and the slide keeps moving to different spots...

Now I am thinking of new projects until my next book arrives and I am welcoming summer with open arms...