Mr. Tolson, I need your help...

I am still trying to "take back and keep my righteous mind".  I have been decluttering since 2016.  Household is pretty much done, except for books.  Remember back in the 70s how paperbacks looked.  They were much smaller than today's books classified as paperbacks.  I really should send them on to Goodwill.  But its hard to part with them for the sole reason they are African American literature and our books are the least to go into reprint or even digital availability.  Also, its hard to part with them for what they represent to me in my development as a teen-ager and young adult who struggled to be aware and conscious or as they young admonish today "stay woke".  That is an emotional attachment.  I will never reread those books (my aged eyes can't handle the print).  My oldest son reads and I have been passing some on to him.  I thought about just giving him most of them and let him pick  and choose what to keep and what to pass on.  That sounds like a sound plan...I think I'll go with it.

A friend who is a volunteer at an Art House in Louisville's West End took some art supplies.  I'm trying to keep a minimum.  Today I returned to the basementm (I had been avoiding the space for month and months), to move some things around.  Oh mercy me! More is more.  If I had my phone down here I would snap a picture and let you see all the stuff that has ended to one side of the room.  I want to go through and make a keep pile and a giveaway pile.  This pile includes more art supplies and art instruction and quilt instruction books.  No, I do not want to have a yard sale, (although, I might do Half-Price books).

The wall next to the pile in the floor is an old Elna system of wire drawers (that I found on CL for 20 bucks!  I was happier than a pig in slop!  I'm channeling my Mother with that one.(  I want to get back to quilting...contemporary and art quilts; but I do not want to keep a large stash.  Not that I have a huge stash, but I still think I can go through what I have and let go.  For contemporary quilting, I want to buy as I make and for my art quilts I want to keep a a couple of different rolls of PFD and paint and dye as I go.  I want to create more slowly and with intent.  Which means my blank art journals are definitely a keeper.  Its better to make crap in a journal then with fabric.  Restarting a journal practice can translate to a masterpiece in cloth.  Right? Just say sure and lets move on.

I want to be a good steward of the spaces I have to create in but to tell you for true, my creativity was higher and more productive when we lived in an apartment where I used the wall in the hallway and the kitchen table and cleared it up daily before my kids came home from school and we ate together as a family.  The next morning after everyone left I hauled my projects back out to the kitchen table and hallway.  To dye fabrics I rented out space 2-3 times a year at Mary Anderson Center (is that now defunct?) for the Arts on the grounds of Mount St. Francis (a peace/piece of heaven on earth).
 in southern Indiana.

But whenever I glance at the chaos on the other side of this room (I'm still in the basement) I envision Mr. Melvin Tolson placing his hands firmly on my shoulders and looking me in the eye and saying with conviction "I'm trying to help you take back and keep your righteous mind".

Until next time, Peace.

Trying It On for Size

So we are moved in and progress has been made.  Most of the boxes are unpacked.  The boxes which remain hold decor, books, toys, etc. and are pushed into corners until I decide where things will fit, hang, and so on.

My studio is set up and functional and today I piddled in it for about 5 hours trying to get comfortable with where items are placed and how to move in the space.  The new shared arrangement with Peter is nice.  He was doing some technical stuff with the computer/tv connection.  I didn't know when he was in the room or out unless he said something to me.  With what I was doing today, the only time I couldn't hold conversation was when I was crocheting.  Overall, it was a fair run for trying the space on for size.

I did a zentangle to warm up followed by a face sketch and ending with exercises from the workbook on crochet.  But in full disclosure, a lot of time was spent browsing Facebook on my phone.  Discipline is the word for the rest of the month and must be had to get a groove going.

studio music was Regina Carter's CD, Southern Comfort

A friend asked me about dyeing fabric in ombre and that got me excited.  It has been 2 years since I had my dyes out.  We're working out a Friday that she can come.  This will give me the opportunity to to try out the set-up in the garage.

Trying to describe to myself what I feel like is going on with me as a creative person, I feel like I'm forever waking up from a slumber.  The closing down of my Mellwood studio and the year dealing with breast cancer and 2 moves in 18 months created an alternate reality that I'm trying to shed or bloom out of the pod.  But one thing I know is God is here in and of it and I'm trusting the process!

Karoda University School of Art

Let's see, I have a lot running through my head this morning.  First, let me go make a pot of coffee and I'll be back.

I'm back, but not with coffee but a mug of lemon ginger tea.  This past Sunday I wrote out a curriculum for studio time.  I've done this several times before and although I rarely complete the course, it is due to me jumping off onto my own rhythms.  Having a curriculum brings intent and focus instead of waking up every morning undecided and loosely hodge podging something together for the day that doesn't continue the next day.

On Monday I woke up with a upper respiratory and throat irritation and was in bed most of the day.  Today I'm feeling better and am ready to begin.  Here is what I'm going to focus on:

• Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) and Zentangles (I see these as complimentary) and will use Leah Day's videos as a resource and the book Zentangle A Day by Beckah Krahula
• Piecing: Expanding the Basics by Ruth McDowell
• The Crocheter's Skill-building Workshop by Dora Ohrenstein
• Mixed Media Portraits by Pamela Carricker

When I did this before I called it Learning Curves.  I think I'll call it Karoda University School of Art.

I've divided my days into AM and PM segments leaving room for experimenting and deep porch sitting.  For May, I'll do gel plate printing and just as soon as I finish typing this and playing a few rounds of Puzzly Words, I'm going to mix up the ingredients for the plate.  I'm making one that will be plasticized.  It doesn't have to be kept in the fridge and is pretty much permanent.  I've only made the one which has to be kept in the fridge so I'll let you know how it turns out.  

I've also been rolling around the idea of starting a YouTube channel for crochet and with some art quilting thrown in.  Since the Hubster can't stop watching MSNBC, (has this not been the most grueling, painful, and LONGEST campaign season ever?!!!  This is the one that has broken me of calling myself a political junkie; although I've turned my sights to following our evil minion of a governor....the first Pub in 40 years and boy is he all of a mess up one side and down the other)  (that was a pretty long interjection in this sentence) I've taken up watching YouTube videos.  Most of them are yarn head type videos and there are tons of them with knitters.  Not enough crocheters and its been a while since I've had a tech challenge (Mo and Ade would say I'm challenged by using my smart phone, but I beg to differ).  And it seems like another way of putting myself out there for a chance to connect with folks who share the same interests and renew some presentation skills that have languished since I've been out of the world of employment now.  I really have a lot of time on my hands and I have everything I need to create the art I want to create.   It is a miracle after all the years of working 2-3 jobs and 60-70 hour work weeks.  

I'm listening to a pretty cool podcast called Crafty Planner.  I started from episode 1 and am up to 17.  She has focused on diversity within the Modern Quilt movement and I've been introduced to some pretty hip young women and men.  It is good studio listening.  Check it out.  

And in closing...Alonzo Davis sent me an email yesterday saying our collaborative piece received a red dot!!!!!!  That did my heart good!

Health and Creativity.

Last week my son helped me rearranged some in my creative space..  While I was watching him move things, it hit me...I've always used my studio as an indicator of how well my health is holding and watching him do things I did for myself just two years ago, it dawned on me at a little deeper level that my energy post-cancer is not the same as it was pre-cancer.  My expectations were high thinking once it was all behind me I'd soar like a bird and it would be for an extended flight bursting with energy.  How I use to work in my studio, i.e., whether I did dyeing of fabric, screen printing, or hand stitching, beading, or machine quilting was not just an indication of where I was in the process of creating a quilt, but also, an indication of how laborious my breathing was, how fatigued I felt, if my muscles and joints ached, and if my diet was off or way off.  I haven't spent much time creating because I have lower energy and become winded more easily.  For me, I can know something and then I can really know a thing.  I knew it but didn't want to accept it.

For awhile my daughter and I were on a role with healthy smoothies and had started incorporating ginger tea into our diet and eliminating the unhealthy stuff but that too has been sporadic giving way to fast food and convenient eating.  I did feel better.   My weakness is home baked sweets.  Yea, yea, I know about Splenda.  I would rather go without and make it worth my while when I do eat something sweet.  It is really hard to stay consistent but I'm thinking I need to get back to cooking (which I don't do much either anymore) and being a predominant vegetarian...Peter will follow as he isn't "real" picky and is usually very thankful for home cooked meals.  He cooks but it is always the same meal in the 30 years we've been together...a Nigerian stew over rice and fried plaintains.  I on the other hand, love to experiment and try not to cook the same meal too often, except for, as my family would say, my version of ruebens...they will swear we had them every week for a period.  I don't believe them although I do love me a rueben!

The studio rearrangement has opened up more floor space and receiving a cast off chest of drawers that belonged to my granddaughter has opened up space for my growing yarn stash.  I've been vegging out on YouTube vlogs and video channels by other yarn heads.  Among knitters and crocheters it is a "thing" to show your yarn stashes and yarn hauls.  I'm entertained by it!  Here are some channels I enjoy: Kim Cee, Milkshed, Essence of Me, B.Hooked Crochet and I discovered Bonnie K. Hunter's Quilt-cam and I seldom watch Bonnie's entire episodes but I find her idea and the concept delightful.

Also, I'm still in need of a woodworker to cut a hole in my sewing table so my sewing machine can be flushed.  I've been looking at studio tours on YouTube and Pinterest...but I don't really think I have storage issues....maybe organizing a bit.  I'm not sure if I want to have an ironing board, or a Big Board or turn a table into an ironing table.  I'm thinking my print table could double as an ironing table...it is still relatively clean since I have not used it but might not be practical once I'm up and rolling.   When I was in my Mellwood studio and had to iron a quilt top or quilt in the past, most of the time it came home with me unless I had a clean cloth on the print table which was rare.

And here is the shawl I made for one of my sisters modeled by my daughter:

I've got the same one going for an Aunt and this is from a YouTube tutorial.  This one is my sleeper...it is very repetitive and I can watch tv and do this one.  I also have another one using lace weight yarn an it is one that says "you better sit up and pay attention".  I like having at least 2 crochet projects going...one that is a challenge and one that is a sleeper.