My hands at work are in a kickstarter video!

https://vimeo.com/94621261    a big Thank You to Deann Horack!

Windows into Hidden Worlds

Windows have fascinated me both metaphorically and historically.  Light or deep shadows pour through this fascination and I end up studying the light again and again.  Maybe its on my mind since currently, in my reading life, I'm imagining the world of Vermeer, another of my favorites.  Here in Wisconsin the sunshine has been extremely elusive for many days, yet the light continues to be intriguing.

looking out and looking in

very quick small sketch: maybe 15 minutes

my new scarf from Avalanche Looms

Land of the Kickapoo River

 The greening of the earth has arrived after a long cold winter and we are all enjoying the land, water and sky!  

I have been out walking and sketching and even going to live radio shows featuring great music and happy spirits.  

WDRT Viroqua hosts the Kickapoo Barn Dance and last month featured  The Poor Nobodys.  I enjoyed attempting to sketch them as they played and we all clapped double time to make it sound like a bigger crowd.  wonderful wonderful music

I love the size of life here, the sounds of rushing trout streams and spring peepers

West Fork of the Kickapoo River  Vernon County Wisconsin

Sunny Days, more socks, (and more snow)

WAITING FOR SPRING

and in the meantime I am carrying on with fiber projects and occasional bouts of painting

Driftless Folk School Land   site for new buildings  Wisconsin

watch for Driftless Folk School on Kickstarter in April  
A fantastic already operational Folk School aiming to build on land near La Farge Wisconsin       http://www.driftlessfolkschool.org/
(with help from friends around the globe)

White and Tan

W O V E N WARMTH

.....my family claims that I am queen of stating the obvious,

ITS BEEN COLD HERE!!!    As I write this it is -11 degrees, with plenty of snow

I have been weaving up an inside storm of warmth and coziness as a survival technique.
And it has been great to both enjoy the process and have the challenge of discovering what the resulting five and one half yards of fabric will ultimately become.
Linen (with a little cotton) as warp and mostly all wool as weft........Maybe curtains?  Maybe a pieced coverlet??
I'm not sure yet, and I am in no particular rush to decide....we'll just see what evolves.

maybe wait until it becomes obvious.......

woven on Glimakra Julia loom

Fenceposts

view from the window next to my loom

Prairie Edge Road, near Viroqua Wisconsin

...taking a break from weaving I went out Hunting for an elusive Snowy Owl, last seen along the fenceposts of 

Prairie Edge Road

(that's the for real name of the road,  isn't that great?)

For quite a few years I have been painting and drawing in journals keeping a sequential record of my perceptions and views of my world using paints and colored pencils.  That process is continuing however weaving has lately become more invigorating.

My current weaving piece started out with moss and lichen as my inspiration but gradually over time has begun to look like the snow and hills and fenceposts of my home here in the hills of southwestern Wisconsin.  These blog posts are challenging as I wonder at my new life.  I was out driving on the lookout for a snowy owl,  I felt inside a painting......... or a song......"Don't Fence Me In"

Let these posts be posts on the way to new fields.  I haven't spotted the snowy owl yet but I sure am enjoying the journey, throwing my shuttles across, as the yarn turns into more and more cloth.

The pleasure of my new life here is more and more a wonder.