The answer is "Most likely"

Remember the Magic 8-ball...the clunky ball that had about 16 possible answers to the questions you posed it during girlfriend sleepovers in your teens? At one point this week, I had so many unknowns in my life that I just thought I might have to go find the 8-ball to give me some answers.
But it seems that patience is rewarded. The mailman came about 2 hours early yesterday and brought a bill from Penland...which is their way of saying, "Congratulations! you got the class you wanted!" I'm totally thrilled...I've said before that this class is exactly what I want next in my own book arts learning. Julie Chen is a deeply knowledgeable and generous teacher. When I worked with her at Haystack a few summers ago, she was famous for bringing the most supplies ever! Among the boxes was one containing an ink-jet printer, and of course her famous collection of rubber stamps. But I really value her ability to push you in your own work process. If you land in a place with a project that you think is "pretty good," she is wonderful about challenging you to get to the next level...and help you find a way to do it. (If you have a chance to take her "bookbrain" series, don't miss it!) There are no blank books or boxes with Julie...you have to put a little of your own brain, heart or soul in them.
Because there's still so many transitions in my life at the moment, I'll take a few weeks to decide whether I'll go this summer. But I think the 8-ball is "most likely" right.

Penland Dreaming

This is the week when I'll hear whether I have a spot at Penland or not. (For classes that have too many applicants, they go to a lottery to determine who is accepted.)
On my first visit to Penland, I was struck by the number of people who were a bit on the fanatical side: "Oh, I come every year." I was already completely in love with the place, but I really couldn't see myself making the pilgrimage every year.
So I'm embarassed (a little) over how badly I want to go this year. I was just there last summer and there are so many other places I want to visit. It's just that they're offering a new class this year on the box as more than just container but also as in integral part of the experience of "opening" a piece of art. So Penland+boxes+Julie Chen (a great teacher)=Return?

Here's the class description if you're a box or book geek:
The potential of the box form as an expressive medium goes far beyond that of simple container. The box, through its design and function, can create an experience of discovery and wonder for the viewer, and can itself become a vital element of content. This class will take the art and craft of boxmaking to a new level of complexity, both technically and conceptually. We will explore the potential of the box form both as housing and as an integral conceptual element in artists’ book projects. Students will learn how to create complex hybrid box structures with drawers, multiple levels, and compartments. We will also look at strategies for incorporating text, image, and object into the box. Because this is a two-week session, students will have the opportunity to work deeply on the development of complex box projects.

Oh, and did I mention that I really can't afford to go this summer? Changing your life sometimes means a few changes in living style...which I mostly don't seem to mind. I almost hope I end up on the waiting list, just so I don't have to decide!

Spring Things

I did a little Easter shopping yesterday. It's really a good thing I only have one niece in town or I would run through my grocery money filling their Easter baskets. I always like to think of a basket in a broad sense: they can be boxes, purses or bags. In this case, it's a fun paper bag. And doesn't chocolate really just mean "yummy things?"
So here's what's in my niece's "basket": a wind-up bunny, a bag of beads to make "6 bracelets," a sparkly zip purse and a little notebook. I particularly like the schooled lines on the paper; they're so comforting, somehow.
And for my trip next week, a pair of gifts for a 3 year old boy and his 1 year old sister. I'm sure she has about a hundred stuffed toys, but I couldn't resist the look on this one. This little bunny has the same coloring, nose and floppy ears as my dog, Bella.

And for me...a rayon make-up bag for my purse from the 40's, $3!


Everything except the make-up bag comes from Patina, a unique collection of stores in the Twin Cities that now has an online store. I made the mistake of browsing their new items and mentally marked this beautiful wallet (not that there's anything wrong with mine):
and a bracelet that could just announce to the world my training as a producer:

Wild about Washi

It's no secret that I adore Japanese papers, particularly the Katazome*and Chiyogami* from Japanese Paper Place. For over 20 years, owner Nancy Jacobi has been a tireless supporter of using Japanese papers in creative work. She is as much a friend to the artist as well as to the paper makers in Japan.
Like so many wonderful crafts and traditions, the number of people knowledgeable about papermaking in Japan is dwindling. Instead of sighing about it, Nancy has been a remarkable advocate for finding new uses for washi and encouraging artists around the world to experiment with its strength and beauty in their own art. She was in Minneapolis a year ago and gave a great slide lecture on the process of creating washi...but I was particularly floored by what contemporary artists are doing with the paper: dying it like a textile, sculpting with cement and washi, printing. It seems that it can be used for whatever your imagination comes up with.
Now she has had the brilliant idea to bring all sorts of artists, scholars and users together in Toronto this June for the first World Washi Summit (June 7-15). And she's so excited about what is happening that she's abandoned her fear of technology and blogging about the artists, techniques and events that are being lined up. The list of workshops is pretty tantalizing (details will be posted by April). I'm hoping a friend with a camera will step up to help Nancy with her blog, as you really have to see what people are doing with washi to understand how amazing it is. In the meantime, send her a note and thank her for keeping all of this goodness going!
** If you're browsing the papers in the JPP catalogue, you may not be able to buy them directly from the store (unless you're in Toronto!). JPP wants to keep them in shops around the world and only wholesales their papers to local resellers. In the Twin Cities, Wet Paint has folders and folders of their stock.

Lotta Jansdotter fabric

I've loved designer Lotta Jansdotter's work for many years. I can't remember when I first ran across her, but her Scandanavian and urban influenced designs have a huge following, particularly in Japan (for some reason). For years, the only way you could get her fabric was through Etsy sellers living in Japan and Australia and selling to the U.S.
Late last year she announced that she would begin selling fabric on her web site (along with the charming bags, aprons, and table linens she's famous for, but it took until this month for the details to be worked out. As far as I can tell, it only went live this week, and already the bag of Lotta scraps has sold out! Drat!
I know I'm supposed to be on a craft-materials ban, but who could resist a bag of her oddments?

A poem for Spring

in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's
spring
and
the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee

--ee cummings

And what is Spring like in Minneapolis? They're predicting 3-5 inches of snow tonight.

Smarter than we think

I have a few rules for this blog: no family issues, no comments on my professional work (current or past) and no politics. But I do think about media and how we use it quite a lot...it's one of the reasons I'm such an Apple enthusiast. The company is really redefining how we integrate culture and technology into our lives.
As with any change in our lives, there are benefits and things that we miss. It's easy to worry about our younger friends short-attention spans from web-surfing and text messaging friends instead of old fashioned letters. Some even predict the end of the book (I don't believe it).
The success of You Tube, the video sharing web site, has been extraordinary. While silly dogs and fictional personalities are certainly prevalent, it's also a resource for vintage music performances, craft techniques and old television programs (I'm a fan of the Rocky and Bullwinkle videos).
If there is a question about the benefit of the internet, let me point you to the news this morning that the most-viewed video on You Tube today is Barack Obama's speech on race. As of this writing over 1,200,000 people have chosen to watch it. Time magazine's television blogger, James Poniewozik, points out:
"Given that online video is an opt-in medium, that one million doesn't mean people who happened to have YouTube on in the background while they made dinner or happened to catch the video because it was on after Oprah. In other words, it was a million motivated viewers,...It was people seeking out for themselves the kind of context, complicated argument and lengthy discourse that commercial media assumes that they will go out of their way to avoid."
The beauty of sites like You Tube is that it doesn't assume anything about its audience and, occasionally, we demonstrate that we're smarter than we think.

Talent gone too early

In 1990, when I heard that Jim Henson had died of pneumonia, I was in shock for days. Only 53, he had created a whole world of delight for children and their parents. I was just a bit too old to have watched Sesame Street myself, but that didn't prevent me from being delighted by the characters of Kermit, Miss Piggy, and my own favorites, Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster. To this day, I'm known to tell my friends to take their colds seriously. It floors me that someone as wonderful as Henson could die from a treatable disease like pneumonia.
In much the same way, I'm still in shock from the news this morning that film director Anthony Minghella has died. Not quite as prolific as Henson, still he created the same kind of magical worlds on film that drew you in and held you until he let you go. Seeing the movie Truly, Madly, Deeply was a life-changing experience for me. It's still one of the touchstones of my adult life. He followed it with the Oscar-winning film The English Patient, a work that the obituaries say he professed to be the pinnacle of his life's work. You may know his work as well from Cold Mountain and The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Just 54, he should of had years ahead of him in which to continue working in film (or whatever medium he chose) and I would have always trusted him enough to want to see what he was doing. I chose a photo of him from the movie set of the film that he's just completed, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency....a gentle comedy this time, but still a world that would not have existed without his own extraordinary vision.

Authentic Light

I have a terrible time the week after the spring switch of Daylight Saving Time. In principle, I don't suppose I'm opposed to the idea....especially in June when we have light in the sky until after 9 pm. It's just that I really think we've nudged the change-over date up too early in the year. In Minnesota, we treasure our signs of spring, especially when we know we could have snow anytime in the next few weeks. One of those signs is when the sun is up before us. But this week, we've gone from full sunshine at 7 am to barely seeing the dawn. The last time the sun rose at 7:30 am it was February 4.
I know that we're supposed to enjoy the sun more at the other end of the day, but when I see full sunshine at 6 pm, it just feels "inauthentic" to me, like my body knows it was supposed to have gone down about an hour ago and this is some kind of fake sun.
On second thought, maybe I am opposed to the idea. I don't mean to sound like one of those people who write letters to the editors on subjects that will never be taken seriously, but really, what if we did away with it all together?

The bright spot in March

After my first concert with Bruce, I couldn't not get tickets for his return this month in St. Paul. But when I bought the tix in November, March did seem like a very long ways away. But now the date is just a week away. He hasn't called or anything since the last time he was here, but I'm sure he's looking forward to seeing me again.

I haven't forgotten....

I haven't forgotten about my blog, friends. Occasionally I open the screen to write a note, but find I really don't have much to say, unless you want to know about my furnace going out or other similar adventures. (It's fine now, of course.)
I have been completely wiped out with a horrible cold in the last few days...the kind where any light is painful and you just want to hold your head in one position and never move again. Fortunately, the drugs have kicked in and now I'm well enough to complain.
I have to rave for a moment about movie rentals at the iTunes store. When you're sick in bed and in no condition to drive, but can't stand to watch Oprah or Dr. Phil, it's just the thing to download "The Paper Chase" from your laptop. Apple is also offering one movie each week at .99 and some fine young man has created a web site that tracks them for you. Apple's rental policy is that you can keep the movies on your computer for 30 days, so even if you don't want to watch it immediately, you can download it for a good price.
I know that you'll think that the drugs I took had some kind of Apple kool-aid in them, but I can't really help it.