Mid-Transformation News

21 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in Court Street, Modern Life

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Well things are evolving over here…always a little more slowly than one imagines…but evolving nonetheless…

bathroom 1bathroom 2

 

bathroom 3bathroom 4

fanshower valve

floor up and shower

Scott was here to do some wood stuff

Scott

Vince came today to get the shower floor ready for tile…

Vince

shower floor

the big question now is paint color…???

paint

MEANWHILE…outside we’re getting a new deck surface as the old deck was in tough shape…

old deck

FIRST though, Ron dismantled the wonderful wheel chair ramp he built for me last fall…

ramp

and removed the lattice to slide it under the deck…

deck:latticehalf deck with ramp stowed

it rained all day today, but the deck is nearly done…

new deck

this time around we chose to go with man-made material…in this case the color is about the same…just no holes to fall through!

And while it was sunny and beautiful yesterday I was doing a little garden work, finally sitting and noticing how beautiful the garden is this time of year!

garden 1

studio

herb garden

 

Happy Birthday Harry!

19 Sunday May 2013

Posted by in Art work, Art World, Artists, Celebrations, Design, Drawings, Modern Life, Quilting, Sculpture, Sky

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We started Sunday at the beach…

Beach house rhoadie

but quickly jumped in the car, and headed home to get ready for Harry’s 84th birthday party.  LUCKILY I can sew in the car (…and no, I wasn’t driving…) I’m still working on the spring quilt…trying to finish before summer gets here!

Q 1Q 2

The sky was so beautiful today….

sky 1sky 2sky 3

sky 4skysky 6

We arrived home and I rushed off to a uke jam, while R fixed asparagus to take up to Harry’s party (oh…and we got rear-ended on the way home…)…we then jumped back into the only-slightly-damaged car with our offering in the “catering wrap” (hi Randy…)

catering wrap

and headed north.  After hugging and eating there was singing to the birthday guy…

bierthday guy

and a tour of the new studio finds…Mardy recently found some crates in the garage that she thought were empty, but in fact they were full of these lovely wood sculptures Harry made in the 1970′s…

studio 1

s 1s 2s3

Harry is deeply into Alzheimer’s now, but the reassuring thing to me is that although he can’t remember us (though he doesn’t mind a hug), he is STILL making and arranging things…things he finds around or outside…and these are poignant and beautiful.Alzheimer's 1

Alzheimer's 2

The studio remains full of energy and life, Harry’s life.

studio 2

Painting

…and here’s an idea I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to use…Thanks Harry, and Happy Happy Birthday.  XXOO

drawing

Living the Creative Life: Claudia Cave, Ella Rhoades, Cynthia Spencer

15 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in Art work, Art World, Artists, Living the Creative Life, Studio

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On Monday the “Salem Tribe” (Heidi Preuss Grew, Kristin Kuhns, Corrie Loomis Dietz and me) went to the Corvallis Arts Center to see the drawing show “Making a Mark” which comes down May 18th.  Though I have some drawings in the show and wanted feedback, really I was thinking they might all really like this interesting show for different reasons.  The Arts Center is closed Monday but curator/exhibition director Hester Coucke met us and let us look around…

Arts Center

Arts Center 12

Three Corvallis artists (Claudia Cave, Ella Rhoades and Cynthia Spencer) joined us and invited us to tour each of their studios … a nice inducement for us to drive down!

First we went to Ella’s house.  Ella Rhoades is a mosaic artist currently involved in a huge civic project…making mosaic panels for insertion in the utilitarian cement trash receptacles around town…

trash can 2

Over 900 volunteers (including the 4 of us) have helped fashion the mosaic panels which will soon be installed and grouted in place…

trash can mosaic

and after a tour of Ella’s studio and projects…

ella studio 1

glazesE kitchen wiindow

E bathroomfree Library 1Ella sign

we plopped onto her deck in the beautiful garden for our lunch…

E garden

lunchE clematius

On we went to Cynthia’s.  Cynthia works with clay, hand-building all manner of items both functional and not.  She’s having a garden/studio sale this weekend, and also has a beautiful garden…

C garden

and a house full of wonderful ceramics pieces from a variety of artists…

C squirrelC tea cupC ephmera 1

We checked the garage seconds shelves (ready to move into the garden for her sale…)

C seconds

and headed down to her basement studio…

C kiln 1C kiln 2

C toolsC work tableC & H

including her ingenious set-up for photographing her work…

C photo corner

and finally on to Claudia Cave’s studio.  The group got side-tracked at her floors though…sanded and painted floorboard revealed when the carpeting was taken up in 2000.   Rag rolled paint, sealed…gorgeous…

CC floor

CC paintCC bird bookCC ballet bird

CC studioCC new work

CC strings in houses

We were all amazed at Claudia’s wonderful adjustable table…

CC table

We headed to Coffee Culture for a rejuvenating coffee to discuss our day…

coffee culture

and we were off home where my new cup from Cynthia’s sale looks pretty good with a couple of small Heidi pieces…

home again

Thanks to the Corvallis crew for a great day full of good talk…and great images to carry home.

Week’s Worth

12 Sunday May 2013

Posted by in Art World, car wash, Ephemera, Family photos, Garden, Modern Life, Uncategorized

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Not a momentous week, but like most of our weeks, filled with the lovely variety of things that make our lives…here’s what I’ve been up to:

gardening

porch

quilt top

stretching 2

shower 1shower 2

Check this out people…every Tuesday in May conservationist Tom Fuller will be working on the Hallie Ford Museum of Art’s native basket collection in the lobby so you can watch him work and it IS fascinating….

basket HFMA

Tom Fuller

Friday artist Rex Amos and his wife Diane brought the remainder of Rex’s archival material to the Northwest Artists’ Archive at the Willamette University library where archivist Mary McRobinson, Rex and curator Roger Hull conferred…

Mary Rex and R

Rex explained…

Rex

and the deed of gift was signed, allowing the library to index and publish on-line a list of general contents….

deed

carwash 0carwash 1crwash 3

carwash 4carwash patternscarwash 2

and today is Mother’s Day…making me think of my Mom…

Mom 1Mom 2

after enjoying a lovely mother’s day brunch with Zach and Ashton…

lillies of the valley

frittata

Happy day to the Moms among you….

last berry

Dye Day

07 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in Uncategorized

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Irene M. gave me an old quilt that was sort of beyond repair.  I had the idea of cutting the good bits up, over-dying the squares and using them as foundation for some “quilting”…read embroidery.  I made the mistake of washing the quilt first, which got rid of about half of the squares from disintegration…but enough were left to do something interesting with, I thought.

Q squares 1Qsqaures 2Q squares 3

Kellie is an experienced natural dye user and agreed to not only “help” me out, but to do the dyeing at her house where she has all the right stuff.  We used 4 color baths…onion skins…

onion skins

coffee grounds…

onion:coffee

black walnut…

black walnut

and cochineal (insect parts…)

cochineal

…guess you can probably guess my fave…

cochineal bath

I also dyed some unbleached muslin which had to first go into an alum soak in order to retain the color…

alum soak

…and not only did Kellie show me creative kindness…she also made a great lunch!…

lunch

and eventually I rinsed all my squares and fabric, packed them up and headed home…

off home

My THANKS to Kellie for her instruction, extreme generosity and a day of just plain fun.

Now to do something with these things, so I’m sitting on the porch this morning thinking about it…

porch

Wisteria’s in bloom….

wisteria

hmmmmm…..????

bag

Friday Follow Up

03 Friday May 2013

Posted by in Architecture, Coffee art, Court Street, Garden, Trees, Uncategorized

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First and foremost, I made a mistake on the location of Rochelle and Nate Rafn’s new restaurant.  It will open early in June at 479 Court (next door to Olson’s Florist)…(that used to be Quizno’s sandwich shop…)  Thanks to my neighbor Jason Heimerdinger and David at the Statesman Journal, disaster was averted…because if you went to the former Big Town Hero you’d find a video game mall…NOT a nice restaurant.  Here’s the photo of the REAL place to keep your eye on…

Rafn Correction

Meanwhile the last two street tees are still there, though the stumps of the others have been removed so no more “altars” for floral tributes to our lost “soldiers.”

2 trees

stumps gone

and back on the homefront, the roof was finished today and I TOTALLY recommend Mike’s roofing…really amazing work, total clean-up, fair price…

Mike's

new roof front

new roof back

It was NOISY tho so we took off to Portland for one night…saw some art, dinner with the adorables…

Z&A

and, of course…

coffee

roll on weekend…yard work ahead…

back yard

Restaurant News…

01 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in City, Modern Life, Salem, Think local

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Well just about this time in 1991 we were “building” the Arbor Cafe…certain that soon there would be 10 downtown restaurants opening up.  Oops.  Never happened.  But this summer in Salem the restaurant scene is heating up…

Have you been to Maven yet…??  Good food, good ambience…State Street.

restaurnt maven

for Salem-ites it’s right across the street from The Wild Pear…which will be open for dinner on first Wednesday through the summer, and has pushed back it’s regular closing to 6:00 for happy hour and food on the early end of things…

restaurant Wild Pear

later on in the summer we can look for two newcomers…stand-by Amadeus is moving downtown in May…(where the Coffee House cafe used to be…or if you have REALLY been here a long time, where Brice’s dress shop was…on Liberty)

restaurnt 1

restaurnt 2

and Nate Rafn is opening a restaurant on Court Street (where the Big Town Hero used to be)…

restaurant Rafn

AND…keep your eyes peeled for something exciting happening here this summer…opening in September!!??

restauyrant Sally's

When everything is up and operating it will be time for a restaurant review maybe…?  Think Local!!

Work Zone

29 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in Architecture, Court Street, Modern Life

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It’s a work zone over here today.  Mike’s crew arrived early to tear off the old roof…

tear off

all off

and then the plywood sheathing went on…and here’s Mike himself (hint: he isn’t 20, 30 40 or 50…)

Mike

…the crew was well-supervised at our end…

supervisor

and by the end of their work day the front was ready to get the shingles (which were delivered as the crew left…)

shingless arrive

Mike's truck

The job will be done by Thursday and the week promises to be warm and sunny…

Meanwhile Scott has started inside on the bathroom which used to look like this….

bathroom before

but now looks like this…(the plant room is becoming a new shower!!!)

batheroom demo 2

PHEW!!!!  And I put the lace curtains in the Goodwill box…my lace curtain days are over…stay tuned…

 

“Making a Mark: Drawing in Oregon”

25 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by in Art work, Art World, Artists, Bonnie Hull, Drawings, Uncategorized

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If you’re down Corvallis way you still have 2 more weeks to see the nice drawing show “Making a Mark: Drawing in Oregon” at the Corvallis Art Center (700 SW Madison Ave)…up until May 18th.

card front

Of course I WOULD say it’s a nice show because I have some drawings in it, but actually…it really is a nice show!

list frontlist back

the opening was fun and well attended…

opening 1

opening 2

Here’s artist Yoonhee Choi looking at a Jim Adams drawing…

viewer

Dan May on the left, Michele Liccardo in the middle, me on the right…

DM, ML, me

…and last week a few of us spoke in a brown bag panel discussion at noon in the gallery…l to r  Ellen Goldschmidt, Andy Myers, Elaine Green, and Clint Brown…

panel

here’s my drawing “Tron”…surprisingly, one of the few abstract pieces in the show…

Tron

Go take a look and let me know what you think?

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