MAY 3013: "LIFE"

A bit of a change this month. The "life quilt" is an assembly of fabrics made as a graduation gift for my daughter. The quilt was inspired by places she has lived in and visited as well as her interests and influences. The quilt took a year to make and is a celebration of her life and life in general.

April 2013: LOSS

"LOSS"

April 2013: a sad month, marked by a small blue spade childs' spade - literally lost after a day at the beach. April was a month that saw a senseless loss of life on the streets of Boston, a loss of opportunity to do something meaningful about gun control and a loss of innocence - two untethered young men ruining their own lives in taking the lives of others.

"ANNIVERSARY"

The 10th anniversary of the war in Iraq was a muted affair with no official commemorations planned in either Washington or Baghdad.

I've noticed that items that have been in the sea start to look like they have come from the sea - a weathering process that renders all things equal

Bags, balloons and even a lobster!

"COMING AND GOING"
February's piece is called "Coming and Going" and represents the contrasts I've seen and thought about this month. February started with an explosive intrusion into the Earth's atmosphere. The headline from The New York Times on Feb. 16th read "Meteor Explodes, Raining Fragments on Siberia." It struck me that life is unexpected and surprising and that events can explode into an individual life in a shocking way. The end of the month was marked by two events that spoke to withdrawal - the resignation of a Pope and a father finally needing respite care.

So I've been thinking about contrast a lot this month.

The beach yielded a ready-made sculptural piece that needed no further additions or embellishment from me.

This screaming, sea-shredded piece of white plastic reminds me of a gull straining against the wind. I simply photographed it on black to provide the contrast that was February.

I prefer this upside down - it's quite sinister

Gull screaming at the wind

The claw

Head thrown back

Nantasket on a cold March morning

After the storm

February's materials

A bit of a digression from washedup but a happy weekend spent doing an oil sticks class at the MFA, Boston. 

The Studio

 First attempt at oil sticks, love the ability to get such intense colors

 No, not a celebrity nipple..ha ha! a pomegranate

 ..and you can scratch into the lovely goopy oil paint

The Beach: Nantasket, MA

January's materials

Washed Up: January 2013

"I WANT TO LOOK OUT ONE MORE TIME"

Thinking about February's piece - maybe the meteor!

"I WANT TO LOOK OUT ONE MORE TIME"
January's piece is called "I want to look out one more time" and is inspired by items found on Nantasket Beach in Hull, MA one cold Sunday afternoon. I went to the beach with no grand plan other than to pick up items that were not natural - things not normally found on a beach like shells or stones. I found the green net sacking which looked like it had once held vegetables or wood, lots and lots of plastic "rope" from buoys or boats and in one spot, the remains of celebratory balloons complete with streamers. I expect that the balloons were left over from New Year celebrations - perhaps a group of people had rented one of the summer homes during the holiday and counted in the New Year of 2013 on the beach. I was drawn to create something woven for January partly because I'm drawn to fibres and sewing and it felt very natural for me to create a piece like this and partly because with a new Presidency underway it felt appropriate to weave and unravel the different strands of our complex world. I thought of the balloon-revellers on the beach, hopeful for the new year and the wistful remarks of a President who wanted to indulge the simple urge to look out one more time.