Richard Notkin Studio Visit

This afternoon I was, yet again, lucky enough to tag along with the art grads to another artist’s studio. This was actually a joint visit, as Richard Notkin and Phoebe Toland are married and share studio space in Helena, Montana; we got to meet them both. I’ve been excited to (hopefully) meet Richard ever since I moved here. I saw the PBS Craft In America documentary just before moving and thought, ”Alright,  there are interesting thinkers in Montana!” Notkin’s work has always been about the state of the world and how we need to save ourselves from…ourselves (nuclear weapons, war, etc). He works with traditional forms like teapots and tiles, and you might also know about his ears.

The pile of ears has a few influences. One is the pile of shoes from Holocaust victims- he was raised with Holocaust survivors who taught him to pay attention to what was going on and change what he could. The ears vary in size from an inch to over a foot and are made of clay that’s rendered to look like stone. Their stony appearance is meant to represent deaf ears. In his studio among the many post it notes, he has listed  the old proverb “We were given only one mouth to speak, but two ears to listen.” His work is political (this collage speaks to his thoughts on the current administration) but in a sweeping way–even without the current administration, he’ll be pissed off about something.  He noted that he thinks all art is a political statement: artists are exercising their creative minds instead of the also human take-over-the-world urges.

 

All in all, he’s a really interesting guy and I love that he speaks his mind. That was what was so great about seeing him in the documentary. Parts of it were very hippie-esque but I remember him saying in the doc that he was angry and pissed off about the state of things– and he told me today that they fought hard to keep that in the film. 

 I’ll end with a quote from Notkin, posted in his studio: “I continue to make ceramic sculptures which reflect on the social and political dilemmas of our world. As André Malraux observed, “Art is a revolt against man’s fate”. Need I say more?”

You can see more of his and Phoebe’s studios in my flickr, along with some pics of the Archie Bray foundation in Helena (which perhaps I’ll write more about later).

Winter Fest

Yesterday I convinced Paul to take me to Winter Fest, which had a kind of stock show/county fair vibe.  I was most interested in the quilts and the petting zoo (yay!).  The quilts were largely traditional, but there was one with some amazing feedsack fabrics. I didn’t take any pictures though, so you’ll have to imagine them.

The best part of the fest was seeing all of the animals. Check out these alpaca! They’re standing in a herd like that because apparently some dogs had just come by and scared them all. They made a collective low humming sound,  kind of like a creaking door.

There were more alpaca in the petting zoo, and in the Alpacas of Montana group (above), a 3 1/2 week old alpaca! You can read all about the alpaca here. Gee, at $12k an alpaca, I guess I might never own one!

We also saw these very wooly sheep. They are a very old breed, but the name escapes me.

And here are some piggly wigglies.

Lots more pics in my flickr, if you need a dose of cute.

Brrrrrrr. RRRrrrrrr.

 

It’s cold outside. According to weather.com it’s -1 with a windchill of -14. Last night it was actually -22 (not sure I even want to know about the wind chill). There is lots and lots of snow on the ground and part of yesterday was spent attempting to push Paul’s truck out of the snow. Then I got smart and let him do the pushing- because really, I wasn’t getting anywhere. And oh boy do I feel it today! We did get unstuck, but the amount of snow is a little problematic when it comes to getting around.

Yesterday I (foolishly) thought it’d be nice to go for a little walk out by the studios to see the horses. And little it was- we ran back inside after I could no longer feel my thumbs. Paul’s beard had little icicles (I kid you not) and my glasses were super fogged up from my breathing. Oh, so THIS is the winter everyone was telling me about. Poor horsies- they wanted me to feed them, I wanted to give them blankets. Neither was accomplished.

But I’m happy to report that with long johns, knee high socks plus regular socks, boots, 2 shirts and a sweater, plus  my crazy undersea balaclava, mittens and a parka, I survived the walk to work. Heh. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be!

It was a slow and crafty weekend…. I did a little sewing, a little flower-loom flower making, a little thinking. I started to tackle the sewing machine bag (because I’m nutty) and I even got around to making enchiladas.  But the most exciting thing that happened was that my sister had her baby boy on Friday night. Everything went smoothly– she delivered in 6 hours with no drugs. Totally amazing. I can’t wait to meet him!

Christmas Stroll

A couple weekends ago (dang, I am behind!) we went to the annual Bozeman Christmas Stroll. The city closes main street to traffic so that everyone can walk around and delight in the holiday spirit, all the while wondering if they’ll be able to revive their toes upon frozen boot removal.

Paul and I headed downtown with a bunch of friends and we came upon a little Ugandan Craft sale. There were tons and tons of paper beads. TONS! And so inexpensive, for what you were getting, with all proceeds going to charity. Despite the fact that we’re not really putting up a tree this year (so sad, but I left my tree at the curb when I moved here, andI’m leaving on Sunday anyhow), I had to buy a “garland”– which was really ten or eleven necklaces strung together. Of course I detached one necklace to wear myself. I think it wil also look great on the tree. The some day tree.

I also got this super cool blue necklace. I wasn’t sure about it in the basket, but it looks GREAT on. This is definitely something that you can make from old magazines (or specialty papers, if you feel fancy), and if you choose a monochromatic color scheme, you can achieve a really nice look. There’s a tutorial on some very similar beads in the winter issue of Craft. Just taper your strips of paper and wrap them around a toothpick instead of the safety pin they recommend so that they can get chunky. You can slip them off the toothpick when they dry and string them however you want. I think the seed beads are a nice touch.

Other activities at the stroll included listening to the local high school’s Jazz Choir, sipping hot chocolate, and petting an alpaca!

I was seriously excited to pet the alpaca, and I made everyone come with me. Luckily most of the kids were lined up for Santa by this point. The alpacas were already full from being fed by kids all afternoon, but I lured one over with my teleke-knit-ic powers. I had an 8-year old’s smile on, according to my boss. I wish we had gotten some better pics of the alpaca, but it was dark. Some of them had these cute white faces and their fleece was trimmed so stylishly. Oh, those alpacas. One day I’d like to have a pair of my own.

And here we are, in a rare blog photo appearance. Coming to a Texas near you! Hi Mom(s)!

p.s. Tomorrow is the last day to order from my etsy shop in time for the holidays. After that, I’ll be out of town, so no orders will ship till 2008. Thanks to everyone who ordered from me this year- it really helps encourage me to keep on making stuff.

Decompressing

Alexa has left and I’m getting back into the swing of work. I had one very involved crochet project that I wanted to finish by this week, and I’m happy to say that the seams are sewn, pattern written, etc. Not without a lot of complaining on my part, but it turned out beautifully so now I just need to send it off.

Paul and I spent this morning building a little hat tree for my upcoming craft fair. It came out pretty well for me not really knowing exactly what I wanted or how it would work. I’ll have to snap a picture of it in action this weekend.

I’m still catching up and haven’t even downloaded my photos from the week, so for now enjoy these two from Paul’s flickr. We took Alexa to Yellowstone on Friday despite the icy roads and freezing cold (and we survived!). It’s a totally different park in the winter– only one road is open, leaving you more time to observe, and you see tons of animals and few people, instead of the other way around. Below, I was watching a coyote along the frozen Yellowstone river. He was watching me too.

And here was the lovely sunset view on the way home, through Paradise Valley. The sunsets here are simply gorgeous, and this one was accompanied by the moon, which seems to appear earlier with each passing day.

Gary Bates’ Studio Visit

Okay, here’s one more post for the week, before too many things escape from my memory. I’ll be back after Turkey day to show you my holiday cards and maybe even some craft fair setup. Enjoy your holiday!

Last Friday I got to tag along with the grad students on a field trip to Amsterdam, Montana (!) to see Gary Bates’ studio. Gary is a local artist who makes large-scale metal sculptures out of things like bars from old jail cells and boiler parts. A lot of his pieces are kinetic and he says he intends for them to be a pulse on the environment. For example, this spinning piece (for which I don’t remember the name) weighs some ridiculous amount but the way it is balanced means even a small wind will set it spinning. Gary has a telescope in his house aimed towards the piece and he looks out to see what the weather is like based on how fast it is spinning.

His Wind Arc, on the MSU campus, spins only when the wind hits a certain speed (it’s a bent tube, and the spinning to wind speed ratio has to do with how far down he cuts the tube). He said one professor told him that he looks out to see how fast it is spinning to determine if it’s warm enough to ride his bike home, or if his wife needs to come and get him.  He showed us another piece he’s working on that’s activated when it rains a certain amount. Here’s a sculpture on his land, where the mountain silhouette lines up perfectly if you lay on the grass and look at it.

In addition to all of the sculptures, I thought the land was just gorgeous. It’s a huge farm with a little house he built in the middle. I am still so amazed at how beautiful it is out here. I love learning about all of these thing that I’d seemingly never come across otherwise. Living in New York it was so easy to be consumed by everything that everyone is consumed by (the latest this, that and the other), but here I feel like I can breathe, and appreciate each beautiful thing, because I don’t pass a million influences on my way to work every day.

You can see lots more photos and stories of the art and the land (which are so interconnected) on my flickr page.

Giveaway Winners, Buttons & Butte

Whew. Today things have been a little crazy but I’m here, to announce the giveaway winners. The winner of the scraps is Kimberly, who wants to use them to make a quilt for her mother. The softies book goes to Emily (check out her art quilts!), who wants to make softies for her son. Yay! Thanks for playing.

Now, I wanted to share with you a great find I made this weekend. Paul suggested we go on a drive, so I got in the car with just my wallet and the next thing I knew we were in Butte, Montana (home of one of the largest Superfund sites, the Berkely Pit). It was really deserted looking downtown, but beautiful in that gritty, toxic-pit-in-the-distance way. I took lots of photos, here are some of my favorites:

We walked into one really nasty junk shop –it was all JUNK, if not trash–and walked by some other pretty antique stores that were closed. But then we came upon Antiques on Broadway, and Paul found the sewing section for me. There were little baggies of buttons and old machines, all reasonably priced and in good condition. I was deciding what to get when I noticed some notion jars. Behind them were cookie tins. I beckoned Paul to help me lift them down, and as I suspected, they were chock full of buttons!! I only bought one (I have some self control), and I spent the rest of the night cleaning the buttons. First I had to cut off the threads and disintegrating backing fabric on about half of them, because I think someone had cut them right off of their clothing. Then I oxycleaned the whole bunch. A lot of them were pearl and some kind of heavy shell, and they looked much better after the wash. Here are the ones that made me really excited, along with a cute textured doily I also purchased.

In addition to that, there were all of these:

And there were also random things, including: a bullet, a tax token, a very old safety pin, a second commandment charm, upholstery tacks, etc.  Butte is probably the kind of town where this stuff is still in people’s houses, and if it was up to me, I’d drive back every weekend to get some more of it!

Go outside!

Yesterday’s weather was gorgeous. I’m not quite understanding how the city can be blanketed in snow one day and70 degrees and sunny the next, but I’m not complaining! It really makes me appreciate the lovely days.

These are some of the leaves popping  up around downtown. They are so pretty!! Most of them are already falling off in droves and rustling around the sidewalks and streets. 

 

I also wandered across campus, where I passed these sidewalk stencils (at a sorority house, I believe), some juicy looking berries, and the duck ponds. The ducks are a little crazy- they all came traipsing over once I sat down to say hello. And begged for bread, of course.

I came back exhausted, but rejuvenated. I need to remember to go outside (for more than ten minutes) more often! More pics on flickr.

Autumn!

It’s already Fall, which became clear to me because of the color in the trees on the way to work.  Right after I realized this, I heard on NPR that there would be snowshowers this weekend. This seemed unbelieveable as it was nearly 80 degrees on Friday. I woke up Saturday morning excited to peep out the window: nothing. There was snow in the mountains, but nothing on the ground. But later in the day, on the way back from the studio, there was snow(look closely), and more obviously, horses. They moved them to this pasture near the road, where I can see them all together.

This morning I insisted we hike, since yesterday was rainy (mostly shower, only slightly snow) and today was gorgeous. We didn’t stay long because there are always things to do, but I loved all of the colors in the leaves! I never feel like I get to observe enough, I could stand over plants and stare at horses through fences for hours.

After that, Paul went to the studio. I stayed home and cleaned up, then decided to cook him an early birthday meal (it’s tomorrow). I made baked breaded acorn squash, rosemary lemon chicken and a little spinach salad. It was delicious! And there is squash leftover. I love fall, with all of it’s oddly shaped gourds. I definitely need to make something with pumpkin soon.

P.S. If you are participating in the Patchwork Swap, you should have received an email from me by now. If you didn’t, please email me to let me know.

Another Lovely Weekend (Yellowstone Redux)

Today I’m trying to get back from a nice, event-filled weekend. Friday we had a chance to walk around downtown Bozeman and go to the Emerson for an art opening (for another post!). Saturday Paul’s friend came in to town, so we went to Hyalite and Yellowstone. They went on another hike this morning, but I slept in–I’m exhausted! Here are a few of my favorite pictures. Hopefully I’ll post some more on flickr, but this week I need to kick myself into high gear. Lots to do around here!

 
We had a picnic lunch by Yellowstone Lake (the largest lake in the contiguous 48 states). It was chilly so I broke out the birthday cake hat I made for myself (it has sequins!). It is so, so peaceful by the lake.

We came upon bison and more bison, with each herd being bigger than the last. This is by far the biggest herd I’ve seen in the park, it stretched across both sides of the road. I loved all of the changing colors of grass in the hillside, and in landscapes throughout the park.  Winter is coming!

 
We met a few coyotes along the way. We saw one hunt successfully (he didn’t stop to savor his meal) and then we ran into this guy. They both seemed remarkably unphased by us. We let him cross before we moved on.

At the end of the day, we went by Mammoth Hot Springs. The spring flows over an entirely different area than it did last summer, which seems strange. They even had to change the walking path.

Driving out of the park, near the springs resort, we saw an entire herd of elk, complete with the bull. He corraled his group of females and we heard him make his call. It wasn’t something that could be captured in a snapshot. The park never ceases to amaze me, and I hope that never changes.