September comes to rainy closing and questions

I can hear the nuts and acorns crashing through the trees and bouncing off the deck. Once in a while I hear a crashing of leaves and branches without the concluding bang. I assume it's a squirrel that lost its footing and fell through the branches. With a large collection of acorn and hickory trees along the edges of our property, we get all these events each fall.

The path through the woods is littered, strewn and all of those words with roly poly acorns making for teetering walking, for me not Deezel. He runs and sniffs everywhere, dashing with determination to be ahead of me on the path. Sometimes he bumps me. I am learning to be out of his way even though I'd prefer him to avoid me. He's training me very well !

The Portsmouth Poet Laureate Exhibit and Auction was fun and interesting. I bought a fantastic postcard that is really more a book. The poet is Terry Karnan of Portsmouth. the artist is Julianna Gold-Mulloy spelling. My postcards were among many really outstanding pieces, and some ok pieces. Of course, everyone has different tastes. That's truly a wonderful aspect of written and visual art. 

The cards can still be viewed on their website,  www.flicker.com/photos/wish_you_were_where/
Next week I'll add photos of a mobile the second grades created with leaves of paste papers... I love it.

Now to Daily Haiku...
I photographed all of October, even though it's overcast. I have to admit some of them are very nice. I got into some new visual techniques in the upcoming month. I hope I can work some artistic magic on the two pieces I'm working on this afternoon for "The Vision & The Word" exhibit. Frames should arrive any day. Where do people get nice, reasonably priced frames? Or is there such a think ?

September 30, 2009
 Here's the ubiquitous, and totally marvelous, oak leaf. I found two gigantic leaves on the path in the woods. I took them to school to inspire my little artists. (I still have them and will be using them again tomorrow. )This one is tracing paper that's been stamped with several colors of ink pads when I created the entry for the 28th.
The verse reads: Who can count the leaves blanketing the earth and what is their color?
It is written along the central vein and off to one side.
September 29 has a verse in the form of a question also written in a curvilinear path through the paper.
Who can hear the oak leaf's note as it caresses other fallen leaves?
The artwork consists of stamps and stencils scattered with the verse integrated into the chaos.

September 28 # 272 

I used the oak leaf as a mask to create a negative image over the card after attaching  white paper with the verse printed on it. The sun and flip flops show it was a nice day and I ook a walk with Deezel -the paw print paper tells me that.

fall has arrived

The maples are tinged with color - not green, red, yellow or orange. The pool and its tools are away. The furnace has been cleaned. I got my usual vacuuming done, but no walk. Plans for "The White Dress" are progressing. I'm ready to start stitching and/or gluing.
Today's weather sound much like that of a year ago.  It's been drizzly and misty all day.
DAILY HAIKU 2009
I made three tags of vellum and positioned them as if together. The top one has a dark impresssion of a
single leaf from a stamp.  I first stamped with ink pads over the backround and at the edge for a single border.. I wrote "rain" along diagonal lines.
                        Long awaited rain
            cleanses the old faded leaves
                refreshing rhythm

I wrote the day and date with a fancy font to reinforce the lettering in the text.

busy fall day

Looks like rain - very warm weather forecast... how to dress for comfort is becoming too time consuming.
I have taken time this morning to trim my first art piece to fit a standard frame and am happy with it. I'm printing my wedding dress right now. I hope it finishes before my rider gets here.

DAILY HAIKU 2009
This entry has many things happening. I stenciled the tiny maple leaves on the edges and drew squares around each. I stamped the green shadowy oak leaf, sun, grass, and flip flops. I printed the text on vellum. It tries to unify each of the separate elements, but doesn' quite make it. Overall, it feels like the busy sounds of the day.

Newmarket Heritage Festival and other events

This morning I'm meeting Mary Z to go to brunch at the festival, it's a fund raiser for "Extreme Air", a jump rope team. Yesterday we went to see and hear Odaiko New England, Japanese drummers. They were fabulous - great sound and energy. I bought their dvd, and of course a t-shirt. Check them out at  http://www.onetaiko.org/ . I hope to have them come to East Kingston Elementary.
Tuesday, I'll be at the Wish You Were Where: The Postcard Project party and auction at the Sheraton in Portsmouth, NH. Check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/wish%20you%20were%20where . I have two postcards in the exhibit, one does not have my name on the on-line slide show, but you can see my initials.
Wednesday I start a class in Dover at the adult ed. It's "Write Within: Journal to the Self" and is six sessions. My sister, Anne is going also. We'll probably meet for dinner first.

DAILY HAIKU 2009

September 26

This text is one of my favorites: Hidden throughout the

                           oak's green leaf lies waiting the

                                   bronze of cool weather.

And the leaf motif appears frequently in my work.

I stamped it partially with an oak leaf stamp and made a pattern of the leaf using tracing paper. I drew the shape with pencil . I found a very large oak leaf in the woods and took it to school. (I still have it and will use it again this year. ) It was just astounding in its size and mix of colors. So, the kids used oil pastels to interpret their leaves.

September 25 This entry consists of stamping for a frame and on a scrap of parchment. I used a stencil for the squares and framed the leaf stamp with the text.

Catch up again

Well here I am posting several days' images on one day. I had made a resolution to do it each day, well, so it goes. Deezel and I took a 4 mile walk. I took all morning chores off the list and focused on my entry for "The Vision and The Voice"exhibit - due Oct 6. There were some things that were working and some obstacles. I fixed an obstacle and now the other things don't seem as effective.
I was using a page from my ART JOURNAL July-Dec as a model.  It wasn't translating as well as I'd hoped. As of this moment, I like the way everything looks, but now I need to attach the everything. I'm starting with machine stitching probably on Saturday.

wedding dress and old quilt

 I had a brilliant idea for Mimi's "The White Dress". This summer,when I was cleaning closets, I pulled out my wedding frock -now 32 years old. I washed it and it looks fabulous (not to wear) but to photograph. Seems totally destined to be used.  I have plans,  to print it on a single piece of white cardstock and then use some smaller pics to cut for the small art pieces. Of course, I'll use textiles also. But working out the kinks has to wait.






DAILY HAIKU 2009

September 23
First day of Autumn
The oak leaves are punched from a commercial paper. I inked one and used it to stamp the faded ones. The spiral and sun's rays stamps signal the heat, I maksed the edge of the paper and stampes several colors in the middle before I did anything else. The text is with a calligraphy pen, crooked of course.

September 22

This records a performance at UNH. I went with Anne, Bruce and Ila, but I started coughing and had to leave the performance. The poetry was about life in Iraq for women done by one woman. The irreuglar text fits the experience.

September 21

The text is the image on this entry and clearly states my disposition at the time. The way the middle line trails offf to the side emphasizes the mood.

a single entry day

If I were writing Haiku for the day, I'd have to make note of the afternoon sun illuminating a patch of pale pink Clara Custis chrysanthemums/daisies in Garden #1.

A cloud of pink waves

sadly at the garden's edge.

Green leaves hug the earth.

As usual, I started the day with some art work. I'm working out basics for a submission to Exeter Area Art Associations next exhibit "The Vision & The Word". Then I got looking for what I had available to use and started sorting, and throwing and reorganizing. It feels good to have some awareness of what paper supplies I have on site.

I had to condense supplies where I work because it was becoming claustrophobic. Among the papers, I found a piece of gold, sparkly cardstock which will be a stunning background.

This housecleaning was promted by a field trip yesterday to Stamped Designs in Dover. I gathered up a few "necessities". I resisted a stamp that I've been thinking about all day. I may be back there on Thursday.

I'm using Haiku # 233, 234 & 235 from August as my verse.

DAILY HAIKU 2009

September 20... aslo can be seen on Sunday's post.

exhibition visits

Dawn and I went to UNH today to see the faculty exhibit. I'm hoping I can arrange to take my fourth graders. We were totally amazed by the photos of Julee Holcombe. This work surpasses amazing in their complexity and deception. Also,I was caught by Don Williams constructions. There is one photo with a nude female. I'm afraid it will bring the fourth graders to their peak of giggling and impossible to be with situation with giggles, and total embarassment.Maybe we'll go to the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter instead, got to check it out on my way to school Tuesday.

DAILY HAIKU 2009

We went for a walk at Adam's Point on this lovely fall day. The image for the day consists of primarily two stamps - the one I made for bar codes (one the positive and the other the negative) and the commercial one with several leaves. The latter is partially inked with different colors. One color is paprika. The positioning of the verse compliments the image and it's image is effectively created, but the syllables are off slightly. I can't remove "thes" or "thats" when I should.

Walk along the water's

edge, the point rearranges

the salty water.

September 19

Puppy paw paper, sun stamp, flip flops, tissue and tracing paper record a lovely day. This Haiku works well.

Clear blue sky and bright

warm sun hide winter's rushing

to push away fall.

September 18,

Ila and I went to the Lamont Gallery to see Allen Say's watercolors -planning a fourth grade field trip. He's an author/ illustrator of remarkably amazing talent. On our drive home, in the early evening, we saw a rainbow. My coloring of one does not capture the loveliness of what we saw.

Arched rainbow colors

light up a stoney grey sky.

The sun glows pure gold.

p

daily entry becoming bi-weekly

I have errands in Portsmouth later to get supplies for two works I've just commited to. Both are for an exhibit in Exeter "The Vision & The Word". I'll create a visual piece for one of Mimi White's poems and recreate my page in ART JOURNAL: July-Dec with "Haiku Collection". The day to drop off is October 6!!! I'd better get going.

I don't know where my time has gone the last week. Friday, I was at work/school. Thursday I had a list of things to get done and the day disappeared before I could sit down to blog. One of the time takers is the situation with Red Roof Hotel -well with their insurance company. They've made an offer for a settlement. We've decided to see an attorney for some input at this point to see if it's a reasonable offer.

Last summer, we went to Gainesville and when we went into the room, a HOT SHOT flea/bed bug fogger had been released and the room had not been aired. In fact, how do you air a hotel room when there's one window and it's 105 degrees outside?

I ended up in the emergency room and since the doctors saw elevated enzymes, I had to have more tests to see if I'd had a heart attack. As far as can be determined, I am well. Of course, with a histroy of bronchitis and using an inhaler most of the year, who knows what my lungs /bronchial tubes might have suffered that may present as I get older. The event at the time with not being able to breathe and subsequent nausea, drop in blood pressure, and overnight at the hospital were enough to make me totally wary of hotel rooms and appreciate my health and life.

It did give rise to some good art.I constructed my first scroll around this story.

DAILY HAIKU 2009

September 17

We knew something bad had happened to Sophie and this entry reflected my mood. I made it and didn't like it - the cat stamp smudged and the lettering looks too happy. I tore it in half thinking I'd do it over, then I stitched it back together with some parchment over the tear.

I am compelled to

mourn the loss of a kitty.

Again, with heartache.

September 16, Sophie didn't come home this morning. I called and looked everywhere. No sign of her. I used a green card stock and brown craft papers, partially framed with a pretty Japanese paper.

My heart fears for the

new empty space it holds not

a soft grey kitty

September 15

The tracing papers and printed vellum are unified by their somewhat similar shapes. Then I stamped over all of it with an oak leaf stamp lightly inked.I made a stencil for the small oak leaves. We spent the late afternoon in the field in the sunny area.

September 14

I like this image. The frame is from an advertisment. It looks woven. It's regularly cut edges surround the torn tracing paper over the puppy paw paper and flip flop stamps. I removed a portion o the frame to use the sun stamps for the warmth of the day. The text is on the tracing paper in all caps, pretty well printed, not straight !

Clear blue sky, warm sun

cool breeze, colored leaves falling

individually.

memories , tributes, exhibits

I just looked at the invitation to attend the Portsmouth Poet Laureate's Program- auction/exhibit of "Wish you were where" postcards. I have two - one with Mimi White's poem ( with out my name). The other is with one Maren Tirabassi's poems

Try this link. http://www.flicker.com/photos/wish%20you%20were%20where/

Today's entry is another catch up.
I was in school on Friday, in Portland on Saturday and busy all day Sunday. Today I had another long list of chores, but wrote "blog" and ART JOURNAL near the top of the list.

So, after vacuuming, taking a walk, making spaghetti sauce, watering garden with pool water, washing my car (also with pool water) , doing laundry (not with pool water), going to the drugstore I am sitting down to catch up with art work.

Saturday I went to Portland Museum of Art in Maine with Paula and Dawn. We met Deb there. She's a friend of Paula's and a lifetime resident of Portland. She took us on a driving tour of the Old Port and Fort Williams/Portland Head Lighthouse. We had a fabulous lunch, lots of laughs and just an all around greta time. On the way home, we stopped in Portsmouth to get acrylic frames and elastics to make display boards for ourselves.
DAILY HAIKU 2009 September 13, 12 , 11, 10 Except for September 11, these entries have fun writing, dog paws and flip-flop stamps. The 13, Deezel and walked 3 miles. I wrote the day lightly in pencil over the entire card before I collaged on it. On the 12th, I used the appointment card from my hairdresser in the collage and tried to imitate the text font.
Of course on the 11th, I paid tribute to the losses and fears on that day with simple pencil drawings of the twin towers. On the 10th I covered the entire card with the dog paw tissue and stamped with flip flops, sun and barcode/grass stamps. Deezel and I walked all of New Road, making a 4 mile walk. I thought of the last summer with Monty, a year ago, and the many walks he and I took together.

individual leaf, appealing numerals

I walked four miles with Deezel this morning. It was overcast and on the cool side. I saved this leaf. It's the time of year that the leaves begin to fall. They fall one at a time, perhaps to be enjoyed.

Sometimes a solitary leaf will look like a strange insect as it's blown across the street.

This one is the perfect shape and colors for a fabric piece I started last year based on a Daily Haiku entry. I'm going to print it on fabric, cut it out and stitch it onto my wallhanging.

I need a clearer photo. I still have a hard time to not move my camera ever so slightly and get a blur.

I think I'll print it multiple times for " ART JOURNAL: July-Dec".

Of course, leaves are a recurring theme for me in my writing and visual art.

In spring, it's tiny, new light green leaves and in late summer, it's multi-colored, perfectly shaped, falling leaves. Last year, I picked up two very large oak leaves. I have one in a plastic sleeve on a bulletin board at school and the other in a sleeve and in the plastic pocket on the front of my plan book. They've lost some glow, but are impressive for their size.

Leaves show up in several entries of "365 DAILY HAIKU 2009" later this month.

September 9, 2009 (9/9/09)

What a lovely numerical designation for the day ! I used a stencil for the numbers, colored them with pencils, stencilled the ninepatch wth other greens and used the numbers repeatedly around the border. The verse is written around the nine patch:

Curious how some

numbers shape time and its sure,

steady, unseen beat.

I used white cardstock to assist the colored pencils in creating a transparent effect.

I wondered about March 3, 2009 - 3/3/09 - if the two numerically appealing days had any visual elements in common... here it is

September 8

The barcode stamp and stencil in two shades of green predominate in this entry. The sun stamp in two shades indicates the heat of the day. The simple verse documents a summer chore.

A comma after "garden" would clarify the meaning.

I watered the dry

vegetable garden, soon to

harvest the last crop.

fall morning in September

Yesterday was a very cool morning. Here's a photo to show you how cool it was - even Buck Wheat snuggled under the afghan.

It warmed up nicely. It's supposed to warm up today, but it's still overcast as of 10:00.

I'm tackling a spread in ART JOURNAL: July-Dec. I think the problem is that I had an idea for a strategy I wanted to use - cutting a shaped page out of watercolor paper, inserting it in the journal and using the negative shape on the next page- but I was stuck there. Usually the image evolves and then the approach is decided by the needs of the image.

Is that clear as mud?

The pages have some connections to the last entries for September in D.H. 2009. I like the verses especially about the numbers of leaves and their sound as they fall.

Last night we watched Doctor Zhivago in our quest to watch the 100 best movies of the 20th century. I loved the book and have seen the movie before. It's spectacular. Just incredible in it's imagery and emotions. It has some basis in Pasternak's life in that he had two loves and of course was a poet.

DAILY HAIKU 2009

September 7

I used the rectangle in a rectangle format with the text floating off to one side. The now standardized use of the "paw paper", the sun and flip flop stamp show that it was a warm day and that I walked with Deezel. The text documents a chore for the season.

Bring in the houseplants

too sensitive for autumn's

early, chilly air.

September 6

Here are the symbols again - paw paper, sun stamp and flip flop stamp. Also the commercial bird paper I've used to show a bird sighting. I traced around the sun's rays with a sharpie pen and added the yellow center. There's a piece of tissue paper covering another piece of tissue that had some ink on it. I'm not sure it's a good thing - it's dark and becomes the focal point. The bird needs something darker than the purple for the flip flops. The text written along the irregular edges helps unify the piece and looks like a hummingbird's flight path, a little. The date and day written along the bottom creates a platform for the image.

Labor Day weekend

Finally we're having cooler weather. Actually it feels like early October !!!! Deezel and I walked 3miles.
I am saddened that a neighbor, with a fabulous property, mowed the field with hundreds of milk weed plants in it. The poor monarchs have no food source there anymore.
Years ago I hand pieced a quilt in tribute to the milkweeds and the monarchs. It's a landscape of a field of milkweed pods in winter. To many people, it looks like the beach with shells. I'm fine with that interpretation.
I was inspired on a drive when the milkweed pods still standing looked as though someone had planted them in a neat arrangement. I sketched it out and created a refined drawing, on which to base the pattern, when I got home.


I looked through my fabrics and started adding what I needed. The background has various fabrics, including a silk charmeuse ( don't you love that word?). The pods are constructed of corduroy, silk and wools. The gold lining is milium, a coat lining fabric. Some of the pods are dimensional. The stems are heavy yarn couched.

There are butterflies handquilted into the quilt. Two are in the top border. One is in the white silk square toward the left in the middle and the one in the middle near the bottom.Around about two thirds of the lower portion I inserted grey piping between the two borders.
Even though viewers don't always see what I saw, I am still happy with its overall effect.
The second grade does a big unit of study around the monarchs and their life cycle. I'll show them this quilt.



DAILY HAIKU 2009
Neither of these entries has an image that relates to the text....
September 5
I photographed this one several times. I could not get a clear photo.
I first stamped the back of an attendance card with a gold and a melon ink pads.
I hand drew the puppy paws - a spiral with smaller spirals - the flip flops, and the stylized sun. I used a green card stock for the frame.
The text reads: Stacking wood in an
arrangement reminds me of
a funny sculpture.



September 4 #248

A single, hungry

hummingbird visits the blossom,

goodbye to summer

This entry is constructed of a piece of green scrapbooking paper glued to an attendance card. I cut the curved, u-shape to expose the stamped sun. The text is written on a piece of purple tissue paper glued over the green. The curved orange Japanese paper enlarges the sun and outlines the curve of the text, which is written in green gel pen.

Scroll #2, the need to make

It hasn't heated up today, yet. Earl is headed toward southern New England. I scraped one garage door this morning ( my thumb joints are aching). Roger's hoping to begin a primer coat on the trim tomorrow. Yesterday, my sister Elizabeth and I had a nice visit, quieter than at the anniversary party last week. I showed her my scrolls and "365 DAILY HAIKU 2009". She wondered what Roger thinks of my creating.

It's challenging to be a creativity based person. It's tougher when a mate/spouse does not openly acknowledge his/her creativity. Roger has seen me work on quilts, do shows and teach classes for about 30 years. He respects the skills I have.

Now, I create just because it's an integral part of me to create. I need to stay in touch with that side of who I am. I have a feeling of connection with the world and to my inner world. I have a sense of satisfaction when I've spent time being creative and having an actual item to show for the time behind me. I feel I've made a document of my time .

Particularly when the artwork is a journal. I can look back and bring yesterday to some kind of life again. When I mentioned to my sister that last summer was so rainy, she didn't remember that. I do because I recorded it. The record was done in a creative way.

As I visit these pieces of work, I feel satisfied that I stayed in touch with a creative aspect of myself. However, it makes me want to create more. I find myself thinking, I like how this worked I should do it again.

DAILY HAIKU 2009

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3

I stitched a piece of vellum over a piece of scrapbook paper. It is a lovely blanket stitch. I used my Janome. I repeated a "stitch" with a marker around the border and for the leaf shape in the center. There are scraps under the vellum. The text highlights the leaf shape. The handwriting for the day and date along the lower edge balances the leaf. There is an energy and a sense of harmony in this piece that projects the sentiment.

The repeated paths are those I follow now with Deezel through the woods. This walk brought a sense of the presence of those I had walked with through the woods, particularly Monty and Sophie, now both physically gone.

Even though there is a sense of melancholy connected to these paths, there is a sense of reassurance because I feel the presence of my previous companions. Their spirits are in the leaves on the forest floor. I can sense them in my life still by walking the paths.

Walk repeated paths.

Old sights, sounds and rhythms soothe

and restore lost threads.

30 days hath September

Forecasters say that today is the last day of this record breaking heat and I'm counting on it. Poor Deezel wants to play and run, but even at 8:00 this morning he was panting after a quick walk through the woods. I walk as fast as I can to out distance the mosquitoes. I must say I'm so ready to not have mosquitoes mobbing me in the field.

Luckily, we can sit on the deck and enjoy the warm afternoons with frequent cooling off in the pool and the mosquitoes aren't too bad there.

All my house plants look good considering they haven't had water f or a week. Soon, I'll be bringing them in for the winter.
The question is , How badly will "Earl" hit New England?

We're into September, even though it feels like July. I finished photographing all of September's entries for DAILY HAIKU 2009. It's fun to see them again and together. I'm adapting the

entry for the 30th for ART JOURNAL: July Dec.

September 2

I liked this entry so much, I made a postcard size one for Paula Rolfs. For this one, I glued a piece of yellow tissue to the card.This has paper circles in oranges and the petals in green cardstock.

The text reads:

Colors fall and blend.

Peace for the coming season.

Red & yellow mix.

September 1 [(or 9/1/09) nice looking number arrangement, Right?]

I made this from a note Paula lelt in my mailbox at school. It's her handwriting, cut and arranged for the Haiku. I filled the white areas with the same text written differently.

Here are the 30 days together. The calendar is a clear sticker attached to an old attendance card.

August 31, # 243.

Another date with numerical interest. The entry is a piece of printed vellum - the leaves and blossom are part of a larger design- glued to an index card. I printed the verse from my computer. It's a celebration that I am semi-retired, not at school, stretching on the back deck in the lovely weather.

The flip-flop stamp indicates a walk and makes a chain effect along the bottom.