Travels

We decided to head north on the motorcycle.

Books and Expresso in Washburn

I never tire of seeing the colors of autumn, so beautiful all the way up to Lake Superior, Bayfield and Madeline Island and all the way back to LaCrosse.

A riot of color before the grim grays of winter.  Just have to feast on it while it's here.

The Lagoon at Town Park on Madeline Island.  Superior just on the other side of this lagoon was rolling with wind and waves, here was calm and quiet.  

Two guys in a canoe were on their way to go fishing.

A Great Gray Owl

What a site, we were riding our rented bikes down the road to the park he/she landed on a fence post right in front of us --- letting us admire, turning her/his head all ways. 

Off the ferry and ready to head home. 

Driftless 2013

The Driftless Art Festival happened this past weekend.  I've been anticipating and preparing, the weekend finally arrived.

Making lists, checking them twice, taking out all the work, cataloging.

Good we remembered to get that 'booth' shot.

All arranged - whew!  My daughter helped both days, she wore 4 or 5 of the vests over the time - have to say she looked lovely in anything she tried on.   My husband helped with the set up and provided great support - thanks honey!  That dog with out-stretched arms is for you!

It was a great weekend, we even had rain on Sunday morning which made my day along with all the wonderful people supporting art and artists at this terrific fair.

Today

The photo of this great bus wasn't taken today.  It would make a most excellent traveling studio. Found it sitting at the re-cycling center where we deposit whatever we can keep from the landfill as we head home after vacation.  Hmmm - at the re-cycling center, waiting to be recycled?

The bumper sticker says 'honk if parts are falling off'

Haha......

Look at those whitewall tires!

            

Processing...

marking Today

                       

Summertime field of Bluestem

A web fresh and dewy

flowers on the street

Construction and De-construction

cloth making

colors and textures

Love these action pictures 

A random sampling of what's in the studio and out in the yard.  Taking the shingles off the garage and the little screen house.  Hope you are having a happy summer and not getting too bit up by the vicious, rapacious, little mean spirited bugs that are populating my neighborhood.

Old School Geometry

There's a school in my neighborhood that is about to be torn down.  A crew is disassembling the place. It's been there since 1955 but now they say it needs fixing and that's too expensive.  The solution is to build new.  I know there are advantages to building new, better energy efficiency, state of the art classrooms and all that.   I'm hoping they put old-fashioned blackboards into the new school classrooms instead of those awful white boards and that they don't carpet the floors.   I am lamenting it's demise.  Artistry and craftsmanship is evident, apparent time and thought was put into styling this building.  New schools don't have that same vitality or soul. This post is a record of this place, dedicated to those who built it and inhabited the hallways over the years.

It's coming down so, of course, the kids got to decorate the walls and the floors.

Inset tile on the risers.

The geometry of straight lines and symmetry attracts and inspires me.

Prairie Reppweaves have geometric lines and symmetry --- like the tiled walls of the school.

Bursting Green

I love those red rocks and the inspiration that came from them but, now I'm singing  praises of the green all around.  It is glorious. Outside the trees, the grass, the plants are bursting green this year.  We are swimming in a rain soaked world.  From the orange, reds and purples of the rock wilderness that conjures hot and dry to soft, saturated shades of green everywhere.

The marsh along the bike path to downtown.  Last year the cracked earth showed, this year 

the brown water has been close to the banks all spring, the trees standing in water.  

Toad and Turtle heaven.

The path along the marsh to downtown.  

Setting up a new Rips warp.  Love the way the color fibers wrap around the back beam.  

This orchid, found abandoned in an alley last fall, has bloomed!  Magical.

Singing Praises of Southwest Canyon Lands

We took a trip in mid-March to the National Parks of U.S. Southwest.  Our first stop was Needles District of Canyonlands in Utah.  Wondrous sights were impressed upon my soul forever there. Grand, giant, awe-inspiring wild rock dessert glory.  One is humbled by this landscape.

When we were back home I had to put colors swimming in my head on the loom. 

I'm sharing some of the grandeur in these photos and results from the loom.

A painter paints these scenes, a fiber artist has to weave them.

Happy travels where ever you are going.