My friend Floyd is running for Taos County Commissioner. I think he’s a great guy and will make a great county commissioner. If you live in Taos County and live in District IV I encourage you to vote for him. He’s #2 on the ballot.
I’ve been on the GAPS diet myself for the last few months. It’s helped immensely with my Endometriosis and since I’ve cut gluten out I’m not getting violently ill anymore. But GAPS can get boring. I was getting tired of just eating cooked veggies, meat, nuts and fruit which are some staples of the diet.
So I cracked open the GAPS Diet Cookbook and made myself some truffles.
These are ghee truffles rolled in coconut and walnuts and are vegetarian.
These are so delicious and really help when I’m craving something that’s fatty. Though next time I’m planning on rolling them in bacon crumbs.
These are pistachio date truffles.
These are yummy too but not as good as the ghee ones. They’re good for when I’m craving sweet and crunchy and are vegan.
Source: Internal Bliss cookbook
Thebes updated my blog for me. I’ll be tweaking the look over the next few days. If anything looks too messed up please email me. twilly23 @gmail .com
I haven’t been blogging lately because the last few weeks have been sad and stressful. I could break things up into individual posts but then it would seem weird to mix happy knitting posts between them. So here we go:
At the end of June I painted the upstairs floor. The paint fumes made Thebes very sick and caused him cramping, headaches and hallucinations. He moved into our shed and slept on the floor for three weeks. Our friend Evelyn gave him some air masks for chemical sensitivity that he would wear as he darted into the kitchen on food runs.
During this time Taos started getting smoke from the Wallow Fire in AZ. That was pretty bad but then the Las Conchas Fire happened in Los Alamos which broke the record for the largest wildfire in NM history.
The smoke was very bad and possibly radioactive (Los Alamos Lab being a secretive nuke lab after all). Our eyes and throats were burning and we were edgy so Thebes and I loaded up the car, grabbed Sieben and went to Durango for a week. The cats did fine on their own and were lovey when we got back. Though we were worried about the fire the trip turned out to be fun and I plan to blog about it soon. We got back shortly after July 4th.
One downside of the trip was that I got extremely sick one day-vomiting in the car sick. I traced that to a gluten intolerance. Apparently a lot of women with Endometriosis have issues with gluten-but that’s another blog post for another day.
Shortly after we got back a young Taos man named Turner took his own life at the Rio Grand Gorge Bridge. He was 28. We didn’t know him personally but since Taos is a small town we have several friends who knew him that were saddened and shook up.
The week after that Abbey’s daughter’s boyfriend Floyd Jr. shot himself. He was a young man as well-only 22. The night he died Thebes and I drove Abbey’s daughter Samantha, nicknamed Chezzie, to be with Abbey and Daniel. She had tragically seen Floyd shoot himself. Floyd Jr. was the son of our friend Floyd Sr.
Sam was of course traumatized by this and five days after Floyd’s death she decided to take her own life at the Gorge Bridge. She was just 19.
Here’s Abbey with Samantha and Floyd Jr. this past March:
This spring Chezzie helped build our greenhouse and I got to know her better. She was a funny, smart, pretty young woman. Her memorial was last week and since Thebes is a reverend Abbey and Daniel asked him to do the service.
Here’s Chezzie putting in insulation in the greenhouse:
The Gorge Bridge gets roughly four or five suicides per year. Thebes and I have lived here ten years but this is the first time we knew someone that jumped. We put up flowers for her at the bridge.
Two days later my friend Bliss miscarried her baby. I had just finished making a funny baby gift (another blog post for another day) when I got the news. She has wanted children for awhile and I was so happy for her (and regular readers know I rarely get happy over babies).
The day after that our cat Keefi died. Coyotes or neighborhood dogs got her. Sieben knows what happened. Thebes and I got caught up in town over memorial details and didn’t get back until late. He was whimpering in a very weird way and Granola was sticking right by him when we got home. She was just under a year old.
This is one of the last photos I took of her:
In some ways it still feels like I’m processing Prana’s death. Keefi’s passing just makes it hurt all over again. We talked about getting another kitten but two kitty deaths in one year is just too hard.
There’s been so much sadness and stress and death that it’s hard to even process it all. Today I thought about Keefi a lot. Granola is typically a very happy kitty but he has been so sad lately it just makes me tear up. They were such little friends:
This week I took a long walk in the woods with Seiben. I cried some and prayed some. Is there a meaning to all of this? Or is it just weird chance? Thebes calls it a death vibration; a friend called it a loss vibration. Either way there is a pattern of sadness and stress that has woven it’s way through this summer. I am hoping and praying (and at times begging) that this fall will be mellow and provide some relief to all of us hurting right now.
Artist Lise Poulsen will be in this year’s Beyond The Fringe.
What is your artistic background?
No formal training apart from classes with many wonderful fibre artists over the years. I have been making hand-made paper (to a fine art level) and books for over 20 years, moving into fulling and felting in the past twelve years.
Why did you choose the medium of fiber to express yourself?
It started with a happy accident, when I took a paper-making class many years ago. I found my perfect medium through manipulating all kinds of fibre – indulging my love of colour and texture. When I started out, I didn’t realize there was so much scope and variety to fibre art!
What is your process from original idea to finished piece?
I start out by gathering as many images as I can. Once I have a rough idea, I will sketch out the piece. Because many of my pieces incorporate multiple layers and surface techniques, I’ll annotate the sketch with the compositional details. This is an iterative process, as more ideas are thrown up, and technical challenges have to be solved.
Once I have a clear idea noted, then I’ll start working on the elements of the piece. Of course, sometimes I’ll start right in working on a piece, and it takes shape in my hands! These are often the most surprising and eye-opening pieces.
What do you love about fiber art? What do you find frustrating?
I love the wide variety of fibres that can be worked into cohesive ideas. I love the colours, whether provided by other artisans or dyed myself. I love the ability to create so much texture, from very fine surfaces to representations of nature.
If anything, as I get older I suppose I find the physical work involved in felting more challenging, and the frustration is more with the limitations of my body than any limitations of the medium!
What is your artistic vision?
How did you find that vision?
What challenges you as an artist?
I need to be challenged by outside events and requirements. The biggest evolutions in my work have come from working on special commissions and shows. For example, my paper and book-making work was advanced by a request to create a set of personalized family albums to celebrate a wedding. My felting work is taking a new direction, inspired by the parameters of the “Body Language” show at the Stables Gallery.
How do you handle personal road blocks in your artwork?
I’m still trying to figure that out! If I can find a challenge to work towards, that’s a very good approach for me, so I’ll seek out opportunities that will get my creativity flowing again.
Where do you find inspiration?
Can I say that I am very inspired by what other artists are doing in the fibre medium? Although I’ve been working with fibre for over 20 years, I hadn’t had the time to devote to it until I retired, and now I’m just astounded by what people are doing. Often the work of several artists will get me thinking in a whole new direction of my own.
Let’s say you have a huge grant to build an art piece of your dreams. What would you make?
I would love to create a natural setting using felt, along the lines of an old European forest. I have always been a sucker for the old fairy tales, and can envision mossy banks, old gnarled trees, and a subtle element of mystery!
Do you have any upcoming projects or art shows this year?
My husband and I are moving our gallery from Truchas to our own place in Penasco. We’ll have a lot of work to turn the building into a gallery, but the potential is there to make it into a multi-purpose art space as well as a showcase for our art.
How can people contact you?
I can be contacted through our gallery website Gaucho Blue my email address is Lise @ GauchoBlue.com
Artist Abigail Z will be in this year’s Beyond The Fringe.
What is your artistic background?
I’ve been knitting and sewing for about 27 years. I attended college at UW-Superior and was an art major with an emphasis on Photography. Photography was my main passion for about 15 years. It was about 10 years ago that I changed mediums from photography to fiber and spent a few years figuring out how to combine my love of craft with my desire to create art.
Why did you choose the medium of fiber to express yourself?
Bottom line: versatility. Yarn and cloth are one of the first things I played with as a child, right up there with crayons. Besides being completely addicted to yarn, it’s important to me to have a sustainable art medium. I can combine art with craft for unlimited possibility. I use a high percentage of recycled materials and I produce only 0.25% waste. All my tools can be carried around in one little basket; I can take it and work anywhere.
What is your process from original idea to finished piece?
It usually begins in meditation or as I’m falling asleep. I build a mental image and then it becomes an obsession. I can’t stop visualizing it. I start to build it mentally over and over. Then I sketch it all out with insane notes onto paper. Then I begin collecting materials that might be connected. I’ve spent up to 2 years collecting material for a single project. Next I begin making the small pieces that will eventually come together to make the whole-knitting, felting and sewing are the basis of the actual creating process.
What do you love about fiber art? What do you find frustrating?
Again, its versatility. I love how fibers have a life of their own and the act of meshing them to my will…or not. The factor of unpredictability in all areas of fiber…the colors, the textures and the blending are what I love most and find most frustrating.
What is your artistic vision?
Everything I do is a celebration and expression of how much I love life. But I think my work has and will continue to express my love and appreciation for the feminine energies I experience directly in this life. I love to make pretty things!!!
How did you find that vision?
Through the answers I received in the process I call prayer.
What challenges you as an artist?
Right now I want to say everything!! Time, money and my own ability. I have fallen into a bad habit of dreaming up pieces that I don’t have the knowledge to construct, the money to get the supplies, the space to create them in, the allotted time to do it in or the physical ability necessary. So the challenge is what and how I create within those limits. It’s always a surprise how an idea evolves inside the given constraints.
How do you handle personal road blocks in your artwork?
My most difficult road block is when I reach the point of it becoming actual work. The point when the artistic fire is gone, all the really fun stuff is over, the act of completion is still pending and my heart is already moving onto the next exciting project. I handle it by forcing myself to treat it like my job, and make the time necessary each day to keep picking at it. This is not easy!!
Where do you find inspiration?
Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll baby!!! Visions or ideas are brought about through my emotions which I then feed with music, dancing, meditation, other visual arts and long walks. Long talks with my best girlfriends can be the best for inspiration!!
Let’s say you have a huge grant to build an art piece of your dreams. What would you make?
Right now…I would put together a huge community project with my friends and alot of strangers and yarn bomb an entire city!! Fiber graffiti everything!!
Do you have any upcoming projects or art shows this year?
I keep myself open to possibilities!!!
How can people contact you?
My E-mail
inthewildernessart @ yahoo .com
and my blog Living Lupie
I’ve saved these Beyond The Fringe pictures for last because they’re my favorites!
Me and my honey:
Abbey and Daniel
Looking tough:
Sisters!
Group photos:
I don’t see many movies in the theater but when I heard that Tim Burton was making Alice In Wonderland I knew I had to see it. Thebes couldn’t go because of his corn allergy (popping corn in the air). Laura and Paul joined me.
Here’s Laura and I holding up her handspun. Oooh, she’s a natural! Her yarn is lovely.
(I doubt there will be spoilers but if you’re sensitive to them skip the rest.)
I absolutely loved this movie! It was the first 3D movie I’ve ever seen. Super groovy and oh so trippy! Alice In Wonderland is one of my favorite stories. The imagery was so beautiful I cried at some points. There’s one scene where Alice is small and is riding on top of a dog. I thought, “I want to do that someday!” Plus the actor who plays Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movies plays the Caterpillar in this one. His voice is amazing. (And damn sexy too!)
Two complaints. After the big climatic scene Alice says goodbye and heads home. That seemed rushed. While not kick back and celebrate? Especially if you don’t know that you’d be able to return to such a magical world? The second complaint is with the actress who played the White Queen. Gods, she sucked. She overacted her role and kept her arms up in an awkward pose. She was in Brokeback Mountain and acted fine in that role. I’m not sure what happened here but her breathy, flaky White Queen was weak.
I can’t imagine this movie being as good in DVD form. If you get the chance to see it in 3D I highly recommend it!
The postcards for this year’s Beyond The Fringe are here:
The artists listed on the front are:
Violette Alby
Linda Berger
Linda Michel-Cassidy
Connie Fernandez
Lois Fernandez
Kimberly Hamill
Carolyn Hinske
Jana Greiner
Twilight Kallisti
Mary K. Lyon
Merce Mitchell
Nina Silfverberg
Faith Welsh
Karen Wittwer
Abigail Z
The text on the back reads:
Beyond the Fringe
March 26-April 1, 2010
A fine fiber art exhibition
Opening reception
Friday, March 2, 5-8pm
Stables Gallery
133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte
Taos, NM 87571
575-758-2052
Visit arists at
craftingchaos.com/beyond-the-fringe
Fiber classes at
www.manosweavingschool.com
These cards are designed to be working postcards. I’ll be mailing some off to friends. Maybe I’ll see you at the opening reception?
Merce sent me progress pics for Beyond The Fringe.
She’s got a great fiber studio.
I like the curlie-ques she puts into her felt.
