Sofia Reyes, famous crafter of 'black pottery'

After a visiting the several shops where they make alebrijos we came upon a tiny town where the famous potter Sofia Reyes lives.  Sofia is 90 yrs old.  We were so honored when this living legend gave us a demonstration of her technique.  She uses NO pottery wheel. Instead she balances the clay on two inverted dishes.  The picture to the left shows her transforming a lump of clay into a vessel.  Note, only the hands are moving.   She has been doing this all her life and has also taught her daughters and their daughters to make the black pottery.  The pottery is fired in an outdoor, underground 'kiln' of sorts.  It looks like a simple hole in the ground though I am sure there is much more technology to it than that.  I had no more room in my luggage by this point so I did not buy anything from her amazing inventory.  But many of the group I came with did.  While we were in her shop much ruckus could be heard in the streets.  Turned out a mini parade was going by with all the town's children dressed as muertos.   I went back to sit on the bus with Damien the handsome and flirtatious driver who offered me some local made bread.  I had to refuse since most 'local's' food is made where they have no running water and it is way too easy for a gringa like me to get sick.       But as I was waiting for the others to return I saw a lovely little old lady walking home in the rain and I took a picture of her thru the bus windshield.   I thought it came out pretty sweet.  Next entry is a vignette with pictures of the visits to the alibrijas wood carvers....                                                                                                 

 

                                                    

"It Felt Good", a show at MECCA

     With a title like that I bet you thought I was going to talk about something else.  This will be my last blog entry before I head south to Mexico.  Michael deMeng, the teacher has been sending plenty of photos from Oaxaca and I already know I am not going to want to come home.  But knowing I have wonderful extended family and friends here will sure help.         
     Also the show "It Felt Good" with so many wool creations  I am sure it will knock your socks off.  Here's my latest scarf.  The base layer is a blue silk chiffon that loves to get all bubbly with texture when Nuno felted.  What looks yellow in the picture is really a chartreuse that compliments the soft rose colored yarn.  This is my favorite combination so far and if I don't keep it for myself it will be for sale in the show.  
   I got another picture for you.  It is of my tee shirt that I made from several other tee shirts for Day of the Dead in Oaxaca.  I love the dreamcatcher image in the center with the whimsical bird and horse on the side.  I make these shirts for myself cuz I just love to indulge myself with some wearable ART....
See you when I get back.

A creative's journey: The Felting has Begun...

A creative's journey: The Felting has Begun...

The Felting has Begun...

     On Friday, November 7th, just after I return from Oaxaca, I will be part of "It Felt Good", a show at MECCA dedicated to a wide variety of local felting artists.  From needle felting to Nuno felting and everything in between there will be much for the eyes to feast upon. 
     I intend to have ten new scarves for the show; each one unique in color, material and design.  And, this time I am actually going to put sale tags on them.
     In the scarf shown to the left I used a 4 inch wide, black cotton lace with a floral pattern as a base.  Then I laid out gold merino wool roving to make for some contrast.  Next I made circular patterns using the curly red mohair yarn.  Finally I finished it off with some lime green kid's mohair in the center of the patterns made by the red yarn.  Red, Black and Green... an old favorite of Bay Area politicos and an awesome combination that mirrors all those bloody leaves that are falling everywhere.
    I hope to see you all there on First Friday.  We will have some goodies to munch, a little vino and lots of beautiful felted eye-candy.  And I am sure I will have lots of great stories fresh off the road from Oaxaca.

Dios de los Muertos

     Perhaps because I lived in San Francisco for so many years with it's enormous hispanic community my version of Halloween in much more akin to Dios de los Muertos; a celebration of those who have died.
     Every year on November 1st and 2nd all over Mexico people 'celebrate' the lives of their beloved dead ones.   Lovers, brothers, mothers and sisters not to mention 1st and 2nd cousins and anyone else deemed important.  Little skeletons of these special people are made, often doing what the person being honored used to do.  In my collection of 'skeletons' one is a camping scene.  Two skeletons with yellow hats are sitting under a full moon playing music as they lean up against a Joshua tree.  Laying at their feet, is a sleepy eyed dog, just waiting for the next adventure.  The most recent addition to my 'skeleton family' is a sexy woman in a red dress showing just a bit of leg.  I love the playful nature of Dios de los Muertos which is why I have been wanting to go to Mexico during the holiday for over a decade to celebrate.
     I am so happy to say this is the year.  Because (due to my own recent near death experience) I couldn't possibly go alone I am going with Michael deMeng (google him, he's fab)  and a group of a dozen or so others.   Michael is an awesome assemblage artist who I met several years ago at Artfest.  He was teaching a class on using old polaroids as mini canvases.  The end product was a 3 dimensional piece that you looked into as if it was a little world inside a 3" x 3" frame.   I would have dig around really deep in my old files to find the pictures.  So you will just have to trust me on this one when i say they were 'fricken awesome'.

  


    It's occurring to me as i write this that both of my most recent pieces have had a distinctly hispanic edge to them.  In my piece called 'the resurrection of Yo' she looks to me like she was born and raised in Oaxaca.  The piece I did at Art and Soul begins with a drawing of a skeleton's head with a blood red path that flows from the area where the doctors drilled into my head.  No wonder the minute I saw the drawing I knew I had to work with it.  (There's a small picture below... before I worked with it and another one after.  I am aware that many might see it as a tortured soul sort of piece.   Especially if you don't notice all the music that frames the collage.  But it was really done in the spirit of Dios de los Muertos; a tribute to my previous self and to the new person I hope to become.

      Nothing like a 'near death experience' to turn one's life around.  And I am so looking forward to this trip to Oaxaca, Mexico and all the transformations it promises to bring. Many, many pictures when I get back, I promise.

Art and Soul and community...

     I am sitting here in my living room, pellet stove putting out the heat, music singing in the background and I can't help but to reflect on the many incredible moments I experienced during the brief 4 days that was Art and Soul 2009.  It is held every year in various parts of the country but generally hits Portland sometime in early October. 
     Just last night Mija, Christina, Helga and I were laughing so hard we could barely stop ourselves from wetting our pants.  We had gotten together after dinner in our hotel room to share our 'finds' and show each other the art we made in class.  It was already 9:00pm by the time we got up to the room. After all the excitement of our little "Show and Tell" wore off, the wine and the chocolate helped loosen our lips and soon we were telling our secret pasts lives to each other.  One person's included tales of being a proprietor of LSD during the Haight-Ashbury days.   Another's including stories of illegitimate sons.  But soon the wine had us entertaining thoughts of the absurd.  Someone mentioned suppositories and suddenly the idea surfaced 'next art challenge: things you last put up your butt'.  Howling with laughter our imaginations brought us to ever more absurd places until around 11pm we were suddenly too tired to continue. 
    After everyone was gone I lay in bed pondering the conversations of the day.  Aside from making some amazing art and some even more amazing new friends I suddenly realized my 'artist construct' had dramatically changed.
     I, like many of my generation was taught that artists were tortured souls who had no other means to connect with people.  Jackson Polluck got himself so drunk that he killed himself in a car crash, Van Gogh spent too much time alone and ended up cutting off his ear.  Seraphine made her own wine and though she sold a few paintings in her lifetime, died in an insane asylum.  The list is so long that many of us have been convinced one must be crazy to be an artist.  Although I have disagreed with this construct for many years it wasn't until this weekend that I reaffirmed the importance of community.  Artistic community.   Making art with other people and sharing it.  When creatives get together an 'energy' bounces between them in an almost manic manner.  Call it what you like but it is so robust I can almost see it's presence.  And it is this 'energy' that keeps me coming back year after year to artist retreats like Art and Soul.  That, the laughter, the crude jokes and the secrets too.  Tonight, I am in love with almost everyone.

Blabbing on about Rob again and the meaning of love...

Every week Rob Brezsky puts out a little column of jewels (in the form of words).  Last week i wrote a bit about his new book but i find myself wanting to write about him again this week.  Am I in love?? you may ask.  Probably in some form or another.  I like peeps who say things that help me to feel good.  Share the love as some would say.
So this week what caught my eye the most was this little shpeal...

'"I may not love you," wrote R. R. Doister, "but I can certainly love my fantasy about you." Personally, I've been guilty of embodying that attitude toward certain people in my life. There have also been allies to whom I could have said, "I do love you, although I love my fantasy about you a little more." And it has even been the case on numerous occasions that I've been proud to declare, "I love you even more than I love my fantasy about you." What about you? Where do you stand on the issue? This is an excellent time to get on the righteous side of the great divide, which is to say: Adore your special people for who they really are more than for your fantasies about them."

For my own 'bit' i seem to be struggling with falling in love with the image of something or someone.  I have more often than I would like to admit fallen for the way a woman looks or the way she moves or the sound of her voice as opposed to what she is really saying.  Lately I have been falling for the excitement of a bigger city (portland) and a living situation in which i can fire up the chop saw in my living room and no one will have a problem with it.  Is this somehow a 'low-level' search for my union with my gaud?  or is it my firey desire to create whenever i feel like it?  Who knows.... but at least I am thinking about stuff before making life altering decisions.
PS.  i am listening to 'the black heart procession' this week especially their nuevo tango jaunts like 'voiture en rouge' and 'tropics of love'.  If your into accordians and waltz-like music check em out...*