However indeed…
I’ve been home for more than four months. Except for a weekend getaway back in January to my sister’s cabin in the Catskills, and a weekend in March when we went to Orlando, I have been in my house, in through the winter, holed up in my studio, hard at work.
I like my house. I like my town. I like getting into NYC when I can. I like the guilds near me. I like the knitting group in the library in the next town over. I like having my family with me. I play music, on my own and with a consort. We had a performance this morning. I like my life.
There is a lot to keep me here, keep me busy, really I don’t ever have to leave. I can walk to the grocery store, shop online, have more stash than God so don’t even have to leave the studio to have yarn and fabric and art and craft supplies, and things to entertain me and make me think. I download my books on Kindle, and there is more than enough to take up the few hours we are given each day. I can even walk to the yoga class in town twice a week.
You won’t hear a complaint from me. Unfortunately, my job requires that I leave my little nest sometimes. A lot of the time actually. And when I do go away, there are days of prep and focus, and then of course days of reentry when I’m finished. It is always good to come home. Last year I was gone way too much. This year promises to be a bit better. I turned down some work because I need to be home more than I was last year. For my sanity.
Once in awhile I have to go on a solo adventure, which doesn’t involve getting on a plane, being picked up on the other end, and standing in front of a class for 2 days, or 3, 5 days or 7. Thursday, I was asked to jury a fiber show at a place in Philadelphia called The Plastic Club [1]. I will say that the name was off putting, what does fiber have to do with plastic, although we used a lot of it when I was in college in the 70’s. I met the exhibition chair last summer while I was teaching at Peters Valley, but I didn’t know her affiliation with the group at the time, I had never heard of the group.
So I get in the car, and figure out how to sync up my current read on the Kindle, to the audio version, to play through my car speakers while I had my trusty GPS take me down the NJ Turnpike, across Southern NJ, over the Ben Franklin Bridge and into center city Philadelphia. I found a parking garage, and with my printed email I looked for the restaurant where I was to meet Susan. It is about a 2 hour trip depending on traffic, and I arrived at lunch time. Can I say there was a little bit of a fist pumping yes moment when I rounded the corner and there was the sign for the restaurant? I did it. All by myself. I got there, and found where I needed to be, and was pretty proud of myself. I remembered sort of where I parked the car, and was really proud of myself for remembering that the parking ticket from the garage has the address of the garage on it!
I had lunch with the most wonderful woman, we talked like old friends about all kinds of things, life as an artist, science fiction vs. historical fiction, books, travels, adventures, it was like I’d known her forever. Eventually we got around to talking about The Plastic Club [1]. I have to say right up front, I’m blown away. The Club, apparently was started in 1897, at a time when Women were not permitted to participate in guilds or clubs, especially the Philadelphia Sketch Club, two doors down.
[2]
The old section of Philadelphia is famous for its tiny alleys, with cobblestone streets, and its very old buildings, many still serving their original function. This is the front of the Plastic Club.
[3]
So the Plastic Club dates to 1897, before there was such a thing as plastic. I looked up the definition of plastic, and it is pretty wonderful, the plastic we know today took its name from that term. The word plastic dates back to 17th century,
| synonyms: | malleable [4], moldable, pliable [5], pliant [6], ductile [7], flexible [8], soft [9], workable [10],bendable;
informalbendy [11]
“at high temperatures the rocks become plastic”
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| antonyms: | rigid [12] |
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(in art) of or relating to molding or modeling in three dimensions, or producing three-dimensional effects.
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(in science and technology) of or relating to the permanent deformation of a solid without fracture by the temporary application of force.
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offering scope for creativity.“the writer is drawn to words as a plastic medium”
The website for The Plastic Club [13] has this to say about the origin of the club’s name.
[14]
The name ” Plastic Club,” suggested by Blanche Dillaye, referred to any work of art unfinished, or in a “plastic” state. The term also refers to the changing and tactile sense of painting and sculpture.
Started as a Women’s group, the club began to accept men as members in 1991. They make up about half the membership. Susan said there were over 200 members. They have classes, life drawing models regularly available, exhibits, and all media is represented.
So this month, they are putting on a Fiber Show.
[15]
And I was asked to be the juror. It was a mixed show, meaning that the show was open to outside the membership and everything submitted was hung. All areas of the fiber arts were represented, weaving, dyeing, surface design, bobbin lace, basketry, quilting, silk painting, soft sculpture, fabric college, crochet, and a slew of other fiber media including something called Gyotaku, which is Japanese Fish Printing (Google Gyotaku Fish Printing images, your jaw will drop on the ground), and I had to pick awards from all that. It was an interesting show, and I really enjoyed myself, and I was finished, and back on the road by 4 in the afternoon.
Fearing a slow slog home in rush hour, my GPS happily took me around traffic in a convoluted way home, but I never once sat in any kind of back up for the next two hours which is pretty remarkable considering I left Philadelphia, crossed NJ, traveled the turnpike north and crossed back west, getting me to Morristown by 6pm.
I stopped for a bite to eat at a Panera, and then headed over to an opening at the Morris Museum [16], in Northern NJ, not far from where I live. There was a basketry exhibit opening there and one of my weaving guild members reached out to a bunch of us to attend.
I was blown away. If you live within 200 miles of this museum, try hard to get here. I think the show is there until mid-June. The Title for the exhibit is Green from the Get Go: International Contemporary Basketmakers. The show was curated by Browngrotta Arts [17], an unbelievably amazing fine craft gallery in CT, and by a woman whose name I can’t remember and it isn’t on the website, but she was a former curator for the Renwick. The baskets in the show were all from natural materials, all different kinds of assembly techniques, but all wonderful, powerful, contemporary, and breathtaking. I hung out until the place closed, chatting with one of the curators at the Morris Museum. I apologize for the poor photos, I was too busy looking at the exhibit to waste time photographing and you can see by the one blurry photo it was really crowded.
[18]
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I came home, swimming with excitement, ideas, inspiration, and pride for managing to accomplish all I had done, and making it back home to my nest.
So, even though I think I can curl up in my little nest and never leave, the one thing that is critical to what I do and who I am, is to get out of my little nest once in while, and see something of that great big world we live in. See how others create, how others invent, how others keep themselves sharp and focused, see what others use as inspiration. One can’t create in a vacuum, no matter how colorful and full of yarn and fabric that vacuum is.
I’m happy to report, especially to all of you who are sick to death of me reporting on the progress of my class sample jacket overhaul project, that I have finished the sample jackets, all 21 of them. I have a clean master copy of each of the 15 pattern pieces, and now have to make three copies of each of them, and then I’ll be done with this project unless they don’t work, and then it is back to the drawing board. I leave in three weeks, and part of me can’t wait, and part of me is scared to death to actually see how these updated patterns work. I’ve also redone all the handouts and have to start printing to get ready for shipping, which has to be done in the next week or two, since it takes about a week to get to the Pacific Northwest from NJ.
And I’ve woven three of the five scarves on this warp. Finally.
[20]
And I’m percolating an idea for the tartan yardage…
[21]
Stay tuned…