I just returned from a week on the Yucatan Peninsula, on the Eastern Coast of Mexico. We stayed in Akumal, a quiet and uncrowded town north of Tulum. The beach right outside our condo was was sandy with beautiful coral “stones” washed ashore. We snorkeled right off shore and saw brain corals, branching coral, sea fans and lovely tropical fish. Beautiful. There was a rocky point just down the beach with crashing waves and fossils of corals in the porous limestone. The textures were amazing. Definitely inspirational.

Hammamelis mollis, or Chinese Witch Hazel, in full bloom

I’ve spent pretty much the last two weeks chained to my computer writing proposals but I did get out to the Witt Winter Garden at the Arboretum for a walk with Jim Demetre last week. Along with writing about art, Jim is very knowledgeable about plants and the history of this area. We were at the garden between rain showers but the perfumes, although dampened by the weather, were still quite fragrant. The winter garden is such a respite of color and fragrance in these dark days. Jim is a charming and personable tour guide and we had a good time talking about gardening. I’ve killed many of the plants we talked about but, as he pointed out, you can’t garden without a few dead bodies.

our native vine maple

the luminscent bark of the chinese birch

I've forgotten the name of these trees. Any help out there?

Paper Birch--it really is all about sex for the trees, too

Patti's studio

Patti Shaw and I are good friends. We go way back to when my husband and I bought the house across the alley from she and her husband, Benson, in 1993. At that time, neither of us were artists working in fibers. Alan and I sold that house when I was pregnant with our second daughter and I lost touch with Patti for a while. When we reconnected, Patti was making art quilts and I was just beginning to explore surface design. Patti encouraged me to join Contemporary Quilt Arts Association. CQA really helped me to develop my skills and methods, so I’ve got her to thank for helping me get started on what would become my career path.

Patti has an amazing studio. It’s actually the entire house that she and Benson lived in when I first met them. They bought another place and have kept the house as a studio. It’s hard not to be jealous of the amount of space she has to work in and she is able to keep it as both studio and gallery of her work.

Neither Patti nor I are really making art quilts these days (well, my pieces are actually quilts but that’s another matter). Patti has been creating textiles with the candle wick tabs left after people light votive candles. She uses waxed linen to tie together these metal remnants into blankets. The work is slow and meditative. Much of her work dealt with religious themes, not I think as worship, but as a way to honor the intention that spirit holds for those who pray.

Patti and I have coffee and a studio visit every couple of months. Along with catching about our kids and spouses, we talk about our work. We bounce ideas off each other and share information about upcoming calls for entry. Sometimes we give each other feedback on work in progress. I really value having a friend and fellow artist with whom I share such a long history.

a tableaux in Patti's studio/gallery

Cottonwood tree felled by beaver with the 520 bridge in the background

Yesterday I explored the urban waterways and beaver trails of Portage Bay and the back roads of Capitol Hill by canoe with Scott Schuldt. He’s an artist I met briefly through Northwest Designer Craftsman and then, more recently, through Facebook. He writes a blog, The View from the Canoe, about his days on the water and his observations there of the changing seasons. I was lucky enough to be invited to come along with him on a trip.

We started our canoe trip in Scott’s driveway. I was kind of nervous when his message on Facebook said that we’d be portaging about a mile and half to the water. I imagined carrying a canoe over my head all that way down the hill and then back up the hill after our paddle. I was quite relieved to see the ingenious portage cart he’s built for his boat, his background as an engineer showing in its elegant efficiency. It was really fun to walk the back streets of Capitol Hill, past beautiful homes with lovely old trees, striding along with a canoe. We got many interested looks and I saw parts of the hill I’d never explored before. Scott did all the work, only accepting a short push up the steepest hill on the way back. It’s obvious he’s well used to doing it himself.

portaging

Scott in an expert on beaver. I knew we had beaver here in Seattle, I’d seen their work at the Meadowbrook retention ponds, but didn’t realize how many and how active they are. It’s quite amazing to see a large tree felled right at the edge of an urban park and to see tall conical lodges next to the freeway on ramp. That juxtaposition of wild life in the city is what made it so fascinating. Scott showed me not only the lodges, but where the beaver had been gnawing and felling limbs, sticks that had been stripped of bark like ears of corn, and scent mounds. I took a whiff of the mud on one those mounds and took in their funky scent. Not bad. As Scott said, no worse than patchouli oil!

characteristic teeth marks of the beaver on the tree's inner bark

the stump sculpted by beaver teeth

One of the nice things about canoeing rather than kayaking is that it’s easy to get in and out of the boat to look at things on land. We stopped and looked at tracks in the soft mud and took a side trip to see an eagle’s nest. I got quite turned around seeing the land from the water rather than the other way around.  But Scott was an excellent tour guide. He even brought a thermos of coffee and some homemade chocolate chip cookies to tide us over.

an inlet in the cattails created by the beaver

fine mist on the pussy willows

a pattern created by the dripping rain

And, of course, over the hours of our adventure we talked. About ducks, about beaver, about the plans the Department of Transportation has for these marshlands, about his Artist’s Fellowship at Smoke Farm, about canoe trips, about our families and lives, and about art. We are both self-taught artists and, although we are both working with inspiration from nature, we come to our work from very different places. Scott starts with the written word, observing and documenting extensively before he picks up a single bead.

under the 520 bridge

Scott has a solo show up right now at the Anchor Art Space in Anacortes. He has national recognition in the craft world with his beaded pieces but also makes collections, hand drawn maps, photographs, and videos of his observations. I’ve looked around at his website but think I’ll need to take a trip up there to really get a sense of his work. Sounds like another field trip.

a huge beaver lodge right next to the freeway!

We’ve been having a long stretch of glorious weather here. It’s been sunny with highs in the low 60s for almost a week, not your ordinary Seattle February weather. On Saturday I went to Carkeek Park with my daughter, Eden and my BFF, the Corey. It’s a park along the Sound about a ten minute drive from my house and I go there often. It’s got a lovely stretch of rocky beach, a salmon stream, and woody bluffs overlooking the water. And I logged a lot of hours at the playground when the kids were little.

We arrived on the beach mid-afternoon, not in any hurry. The tide was really high and we saw a seal about 15 feet out from the shore. Then we heard a shout and looked out at the water. Orcas! A pod of at least seven individuals were slowly making their way South, not too far out and easily seen with the naked eye. It was amazing. I’ve lived in Seattle for over 30 years and I’ve never seen them from the shore before. If you click on the link below you’ll see a video taken from Golden Gardens Park just South of where we were.

Orcas!

Many people get a little depressed here in the Winter because the days are so short and gray. It’s easy to forget that we are surrounded by natural beauty as we go about our daily lives. It’s an honor to get to see that we aren’t the only creatures sharing this environment. Everyone on that beach, crowded on a sunny Saturday in February, watched those orcas pass. All of us shared in that experience of seeing those tall dorsal fins moving through the water, moving past us with the snow covered Olympic Mountains behind them and the blue sky above.

After the Orca show was over we headed inland and walked in the woods along bluff, armed with our cameras. Corey is a very good photographer, click here for a link to his website. Eden unfortunately forgot her camera. She enjoys it and has a good eye already at 13.It would be interesting to look at Corey and my two sets of photos from the same walk. I’m always zeroing in close and use the macro setting on my camera. Corey definitely looks more at the big picture. Eden and Corey started calling me the “crazy fern lady” after I lagged behind too many times.

On a day like that, filled with sunshine, strong light, and easily access to incredible city parks, it’s easy to remember why we live here.

crazy fern lady shot

the view from the bluff

tree closeup

my companions

I continued my studio tour the other day by visiting my friend Leah Adams, a neighbor, fellow parent, and felter. Leah has her studio at Ballard Works, a building near the Ballard Locks that houses 19 artist studios and also Sev Shoon Arts Center. Leah originally rented a small studio with a tiny glass block window. She recently moved into a much bigger, light-filled studio with a whole wall of windows. Leah shares the space to make it more affordable and was very lucky to find a studio-mate who works in felt and is a good match. It’s so important when sharing space to find someone who has similar studio habits. I’m sure we all had those roommates in college who left their dishes in the sink.

Leah makes wall hangings, small sculptures, and beautiful nuno felted clothing. She’s also been experimenting with making faux “sheep skins,” felting raw wool to make fuzzy skins that leave the sheep very much alive. But much of her time is taken with the bread and butter of her work: felting kits and felted rocks which she sells in shops and at craft fairs. It’s challenging to transition from her production work to the experimental projects that she finds more creatively fulfilling. We talked about being open to process, not getting frustrated by the time it takes to develop new work, and the bias in the “art” world against people who have to make their living with their “craft.”

Even though felting lends itself to sculpture, wool seems like such a foreign medium to me. I just have no desire to work with it. But I appreciate it’s unique charms. While Leah and I talked she was busy turning shanks of raw wool into fluffy puff balls. These are only the first layer of a piece which will be less than a quarter of its original size.

I bought one of Leah’s scarves at our school auction last year. I love wearing it and always get compliments on it. It’s actually the only scarf I wear that I didn’t make.

nuno felted vest

small sculpture

big windows, high ceilings and space