Flowering Bush
Pink Lady Slipper
ADK stream
Just a few photos from my recent camping trip into the Adirondacks.
A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened. ~Albert Camus
I bought these repurposed fingerless gloves a couple weeks ago… the artist had several sweaters, if I had much spare change I would have bought one. The pirate and I get into these discussions where I say, its too much, whereon he says, its handmade by an artist, its a unique one of a kind item. Meanwhile inside my brain I am laughing because it is like my voice came out of his mouth – made even more funny because he says stuff all the time that make me think this way. The other day he gave me a hard time for not weeding a tree out of his garden, I told him I wasn’t sure what it was so I didn’t pull it. You know, he said, I like to leave stuff to grow, because I just want to see what it is. When he says this it is another moment when my brain giggles… I am exactly that same way, it is a curiosity and a respect for life. I love that about him, just love it. And that he really appreciates art too, that he has his own style and it isn’t all cream and beige nor garishly bright, its kind of just right, he generally has good taste.
So anyway I love Colleen Brown reclaimed and repurposed sweaters and handwarmers. If you get a chance check out her Etsy site. Colleen’s Creative Outlet
Here are the fingerless gloves I bought
Way cool fingerless gloves from repurposed and reclaimed sweaters
I seem to like artist’s who tend towards reusing already existing products. There was another booth and I just didn’t get their card or take a picture, and they used those thick Hippy sweaters to make the best carry alls. And then of course the spoon woman and then Colleen whose sweaters were so unique that as an artist and a girl who is a bit crunchy, they really appealed to me.
Ocean Eye
Moray Eel
Shark with Sun Pouring In
Jellyfish Ballet
Jellyfish Ballet
Jellyfish Ballet
Jellyfish Ballet
I put my hand in the water, there is a big one lying there on the bottom, quite out of reach. But he sees me, I know it, I can feel it, I can tell he is judging me. A smaller one swims by and swims by again. I gently splash the water trying to call the bigger one to me. I give up and step away and at just that moment he comes to me, I put my hand in the water and run it along the ridges by his eyes, the slick smoothness of his skin, the rough bumps. Then I run my hand along the edge of him and to the hard bump at the very front tip, he wiggles it a little as I touch him, a subtle movement, but it is there. I commune with him for some minutes, but we have dinner reservations and this was our last stop. I walk away, touched in deep way, I have a new found love of this animal. I have taken no pictures, not like the half hour I stared transfixed by the dancing jellyfish, turning on the light again and again, taking picture after picture. No this is different. I felt this animals intelligence, rather than being transfixed by my own. Others were feeding them, one child was frightened, asking me, aren’t you afraid he will sting you. No I say, he is so gentle. He watches, unsure. But as I leave he sticks a tentative finger in the water.
The last handful of posts were about others, and I have one more that I just haven’t gotten to from the Crawfish Festival, but I will try to post this week. I have been working on the house alot lately and now that the weather is a little nicer have been spending lots of time enjoying the great outdoors. This weekend was absolutely beautiful, and my dear pirate finally gave in to my begging and took me fishing. He just bought a new carrier for his canoe, since he lost part of it on our way home last year from a festival in the southern tier, he just hasn’t yet had the time to test it out and figure out how it goes on the truck, but we went to the reservoir again and fished along the shores, he caught a bully, a red eyed menace, and with my sharp eye on a big fish, he tossed out and pulled in a bass, but we threw them all back, I got a little tiny pumpkin head. Later we fished along a stream hoping to catch a nice trout, no luck though, I did snag a few trees. Only lost one lure though, and a pile of worms. I am a novice, but years ago I caught more than one bullhead and sunfish in the canals and ponds near my home. I used to love to fish with my brother, and today when he called to wish me a happy Mother’s day, he told me about some good fishing spots back home and I pulled out my tackle box and in short order located the lures he recommended. I am loving fishing. It is so awesome, but it is a quiet activity with lots of spare time, so I used it to watercolor a scene albeit with some artistic license. The sun was brilliant and the shadows were really striking even from the distance across the water.
There were several artisans at the Crawfish Festival last weekend one of them stopped me in my tracks the minute I saw her booth basically because they were so pretty. I always love it when an artist reclaims items for his or her work and this artist had used spoons to create these really beautiful pendants. What stopped me of course were the steampunk themed images, a bird cage, and a bicycle. The pirate pointed out the om symbol and a buddha to me, and then I noticed an elephant, a butterfly (for my friend) and an owl (for my daughter). I really thought the the black silhouettes were so elegant against the softly colored background. There were also real flowers in some of them too. I LOVED this idea of using spoon heads to make art, I always find it difficult to just throw out old spoons that I have collected over the years, the first ones I ever owned inherited from a man I knew at college, which he gave me for my first apartment when he graduated, we were just pals, but that silverware saw me through several years, until I married and used the money my mom gave me to get a all new matching set. I still have that silverware in the basement. I also have a whole box of mismatched silver that my mom has given me, I am not even sure where it is at the moment, but I have held onto it forever, but what do you do with it? What an ingenious idea!!
Anyway her website is Sunshyne Silverware
Sign for Spoon Pendants
More spoon pendants from Sunshyne Silverwear
Sunshyne Silverwear Spoons
Praying Mantis made of metal
Palm Tree made of Metal
I met the artist Randall Yager several weeks ago when I was at the local Regional Market. It was a cold day and he was in one of the few outdoor spots that was filled that day. I was with the pirate and the pirate talked to him for quite a some time, it is easy to see how he always has people he knows everywhere he goes. We were both pretty impressed with Randall’s iron bar metal sculptures, his website is here Ironbar Custom Welding. One of the things I liked about his work, is that he does use some reclaimed metal, and that he does custom work as well. And his prices were pretty reasonable. Check it out.
Meg
