Oh the Last Bumper Sticker

So, as I mentioned, our last bumper sticker gave us away. Here are some of the variations we considered. John made all of these; however I made him go with the one you see first because I was afraid the others would make Warren realize it was us. I guess I didn't worry enough.

Warren cut off the tip of his pointer finger in his food processor a year or so ago. (He's actually a really good cook, and has lots of fancy kitchen gadgets such as this apparently sharp food processor.) The irony is that he regularly teaches wood shop safety to art students. (I think Chara can relate to sticking her finger into a kitchen appliance.)

We had some other ideas, but I'm not sure we'll use them now...

Terri Jones

Terri Jones did an installation in our little gallery here. She's a memphis artist who has shown internationally, and everyone in Memphis gushes over her. I met her while she was working on the installation, and she really is that great. She was so approachable; John and I thought she was like Polly Jones.

Anyway, her talk was last thursday. I was in charge of taking photos - no I wasn't trying to be artsy, the lighting was low, and without a tripod i just couldn't get any good photos.

She showed some examples of other work she's done. Her work is often about a line. An article about her (by Cory Dugan in the Commercial Appeal) said, "Logic and mathematics teach us that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. but that's true only if the two points are on a flat plane. On a sphere the line would be an arc. If the two points exist in time (and supposing one could actually draw a line in four dimensions), the line might take a circuitous and somewhat organic path."

Her work in the past (the Power House show) deals with the idea of a line, but also about space, how we function in space, and our awareness of space. So, often she draws/makes lines that are created by the space they are in, or influenced by space.

Her work is really beautiful and clean. One thing she spoke about that I especially like was the desire in artmaking to reuse things rather than putting together more junk to fill up space - a sentiment I share in life, though I'm not sure my art follows.

Social

John and I were social this weekend.

Rachel came to town for a visit, so we spent friday evening with her. On Saturday, Rachel, John and I, and Stefanie went out to eat together, and then we went to Malone's (that craft store in town that's been going out of business for about 6 years). We spent the evening playing balderdash and drinking coffee. Then Rachel went home late Saturday night.

And Sunday was house church - at Warren's house, where it was terribly overcrowded with people. A good thing, but usually something that makes John and I leave early. Nevertheless, we were the LAST ONES to leave. Anyway, what an odd but fun weekend.

OH! And speaking of Warren... There was another bumper sticker addition this past week. "I (v) my food processor" with a fifties style hand gesturing towards a food processor. Unfortunately, our love of jokes about Warren's lost finger (in the food processor) gave us away. He figured us out. But he seemed to enjoy it. I'll post pics of the last bumper sticker soon.

Vegetables!

Also, last weekend I worked on some more vegetable knitting. I made these radishes, that I think (finally) turned out great. Though I need to felt them some more.

Also I made this cucumber, which looks a little funny. I had hoped that felting it would make it cuter, but after attempting to I realized that the white yarn wasn't 100% wool as I thought. So if you ever wondered what a half-felted cucumber looks like: here you go.

Hike

I've been so busy this week. I keep intending to post...

John and I went hiking last weekend at some park (where was it John?) near Selmer. We only went for a couple of hours, but had a lovely time. This is our attempt at self-portraiture along the trail.

Snow

Notice the sculpture on the back porch in this one... (this is so weird, it was supWe had a very busy week with new classes starting. But we did have a lovely snow one morning. I got a few pictures of the house in the snow. posed to be a post unto itself, a las I'm short on time). A friend of ours, Bill Smith, made this for us for our wedding. Originally, the smaller copper part was exactly my height, while the thicker steel (I think) was exactly John's height. A week or so ago, we realized that it had grown! The coil has been loosened so it is now a foot or so taller than it used to be. It didn't happen recently, we only just realized it though. John thinks it must have happened all at once, because it broke some of the wood from the roof next to it. We told Bill, and he is totally baffled, because if you heat and quench (I don't know these technical terms...) metal like this, it shouldn't be able to move without being heated again. And it is still definitely very hard to move. Who knows? I think a giant must have wandered by and stretched it.

Straw Structure

Over the break, John built this lovely structure to house our straw (no it isn't a straw-bale construction, fooled you didn't I?). We have straw for the chickens and John wanted a place to store it, out of the garage, off the ground, and out of the rain. So he chopped down a tree and built this structure only using wood from this one little tree (Isn't he cool?). He then put a tarp around it, so it's a little teepee-like. But the front side is flat so that he can also use it as a target for his bow and arrow. The dog is Sam.)

Pesto!

Among our New Year's Resolutions, John and I are trying to take a more active role in our health and try to eat specific foods for our bodies needs (like MonoUnsaturated Fats and Fiber - thank you, Tara). Tara gave me an old nutrition text book of hers, which we use regularly. So in order to help us stick to this, and just for general organization, we developed a weekly meal plan (This was John's idea, I resisted for a while because I like to be uncommitted). We've developed this schedule:

Monday: Fish night
Tuesday: Asian Food
Wednesday: Italian
Thursday: Mexican
Friday: traditional meat main dish meal (like mom's chicken and rice, parmesian chicken, meatloaf, or whatever, with plain old veggies on the side)
Saturday: left overs, eat out or "other"
Sunday: crockpot day (which will primarily be soup since John loves it, and I rarely think to make it).

I make no claims for how long this will last, but so far it's been fun to plan out meals in advance.(which also helps with the shopping). We've also mixed up the nights already, based on bean burrito cravings (which are full of trans fat at Taco Bell, but good-for-you-ish when I make them). We've gotten the chance to try to new recipes that've been hanging around too, like Broccoli Beef and Pesto! (not at the same time)

Craftivism

check out this neat site I've just come across:
Craftivism

For a long time now, (as I may have mentioned before) female artists have raised the level of long time "women's" crafts, to the higher status of art. Also, much contemporary art participates in activism. This exciting site suggests the combination of the three in Craftivism!

She wrote her masters thesis on the role of knitting in today's culture, what caused it's ebb and flow. Neat-o!

breaking

I made a new carrot with some of my new yarn. I made it small because I was a little afraid of using the expensive yarn. Also, I tried felting it, but I think it needs more done to it.

We are enjoying our time off. I'm painting and sewing and stuff, and John is organizing the house. Lots of fun.

A little side note: I had a sort of, let's say, post-modern experience over the break, and I think I am finally approaching my art with a little new life. I think good things will come of this. There will be pics of new work soon.