If it’s Tuesday I must be in Sedona…

I made it out of the snow, into beautiful sunny Southern California, and I kissed the ground as I got off the plane.  OK, maybe I didn’t actually, but I thought about it.  My ride was waiting for me in the baggage area, and my hostess for the weekend, Marj, took me to her lovely home in the Pacific Palisades, where there were flowers and green things, and sunshine. Once I got settled, we went on a field trip to the Fowler Museum, to see the Nick Cave “Meet Me at the Center of the Earth” Exhibit.  I missed the show when it was in NYC last year, and I love Nick Cave’s work.  I actually took a workshop from him many years ago at Peters Valley, and I was so disappointed to have missed his work in NY.  So this was a real treat. There is a fabulous photo tour of the exhibit on the Fowler website. Not to be missed.

I started early the next morning, lecturing to the Southern California Handweavers Guild, a fabulous group, their show and tell was one of the best I’ve ever seen.  Of course many of the pieces shown were just completed in time for the Convergence Exhibit deadlines, so it was nice to hear some of the stories behind the pieces.  And there were some new weavers who told of their struggles and perseverance, and I love to hear those stories as well.  I love the raw enthusiasm of a new weaver, as they explore a world just like I did so many many years ago.

The workshops went well, my only mistake was not to ship more monographs than I did, I underestimated how much they would want my books.  So I’ll just have to go home, and print a whole bunch more and ship them to California.

My flight yesterday to Phoenix was pretty uneventful, once I left LAX, where the TSA security lines were the longest I’ve ever seen in an airport.  I hope it was because it was the end of a holiday weekend, but literally it was more than a mile, through two corrals, down an escalator, out the door, down the road where the cars drop off passengers, all the way to the next terminal.  I made it to my flight, fortunately I’m pretty good at getting to airports two hours ahead.

So now I have finished the first day of a two day workshop in Sedona Arizona, staying in the most spectacular Craftsman style home nestled in the canyon, where the Milky Way streaks across the sky at night, where it is so dark you can see the planets.  My class is terrific, all have handwoven fabric, and they are busy making vests.  All are cut out and ready to sew first thing tomorrow morning.  I’ve had too many fabulous meals out, and am having trouble fitting into my two pair of jeans I brought for the trip.  I think I’m going to have to switch to salads for the rest of the trip!

The rock formations in Sedona are of course incredible.  The view from the window of the classroom makes me understand the lure of the gorgeous vistas.  The couple who own the house where I am staying are retired from , of course, New Jersey.

I’ll leave you with a couple of inspirational photos, I’m not sure when I’ll have access to the computer again, since I move around every 48 hours or so, and not everyone has WiFi available.