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.