Ferns

Another one more of those fabulous spring moments.... the beginnings of a little plot of wonderfully big ferns right ourside our back door every year!

Look! Up in the sky!

I love grapevines, and other things of the forest that form natural spirals. This one seems to have lost whatever it spiraled around, but grapevines are pretty sturdy things!

Lilac City - Rochester

Very tiny beginnings of spring - I didn't cut it off - honest -- just a file card behind!

We have a great Lilac Festival here ----- http://www.lilacfestival.com/ - May 11-20 this year. That little cluster above has a way to go in 2 1/2 weeks.

And along the canal today a Canadian friend!

Spring comes along the Erie Canal

So many things to see along the canal today..... a tiny bit of green...... how long till the berries are ripe?

This little wooly bear spent the whole winter somewhere around here, and was out to find a prime spot for a coccoon!

Paint Brush before --- above, and after --- below!

Lots more, including a pair of ducks, a garter snake, a Canada goose, and a few twists and turns, but more about that later ....... got in 11.5 miles today for a good start to my summer!

Bicycle Day

Every spring, Robert Frost's line comes to mind --- "Nature's first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold."


Nothing Gold Can Stay
Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.

Got my bike out Friday - put on 2 miles going to get some air in the tires, and Saturday got to one of my favorite spots - a bridge over the Genesee River. Very little spring green to be found yet. The lilac in the yard has tiny leaves emerging- the hedge seems to have had a hard winter - very brown, but close inspection shows very tiny buds with tiny green lines between the scales! Those daffodils are out again, but may soon have to give way to the new gas line going down our street.

Bicycles seem to be emerging from basements and garages. Like mine, they are a bit soft in the tire, and a little stiff - like their owners after a winter of sitting around? Other odd references to bicycles recently --- Bicycle Day was this past week - seems the person who discovered LSD rode his bike home after trying it for the first time in 1943 --- evidently quite an experience? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_Day#Bicycle_Day

Today's Writer's Almanac - a Garrison Keillor production that hits my e-mail box every day - includes a poem called "Bicycle Spring" by Kevin FitzPatrick. Check it out at http://www.elabs7.com/functions/message_view.html?mid=148124&mlid=499&siteid=20130&uid=15da4f022a

Subscribe if you really like a moment of uplifting each day.

Anyway, my bike still serves me well all these many years after my Dad propelled me down that cinder driveway sometime back in the 1950's. Between my Dad's good advice, and those sharp cinders I learned quickly. The lesson stuck, and even my arthritic hip that does not like a walk down the block seems to enjoy a few miles on the bike!

I think I'll add a new Label - "The old Erie Canal" because for the next few months a lot of my good moments and stories will come from the canal, the folks who ride along it with me, and my bicycle.

More Art at home from a happy customer

A happy customer combined one of our dancers with a favorite quote to decorate her bedroom!

Old Friendship renewed!

Many years ago, about 40 actually, I went to Divinity School. One of my friends from that period of my life was Bob Babbitt, the guy on the left in the above picture. I hadn't seen him in all of that 40 years, but thanks to Google, I found him last weekend .... the title for this could have been "This is April 15th, so this must be St. Paul???", but "Old friendship renewed" seemed better. Bob called back immediately, and along with his partner Gerry, fed us, showed us around town, and even helped tear down the booth at the end! Many thanks to Bob and Gerry. We'll stay in much closer touch this time!

Philadelphia

Here we are in Phildelphia! Tried a new booth arrangement with a sort of window/counter in the side wall..... corner booth. It was visually fun, and made for a great over the "window sill" conversation spot.
Here are Cheryl and Christina enjoying the new window.

Here is Don and our new friend Ed Bing Lee on the other side of the booth!

Back in February I was missing the warm weather, and the daffodils. The other day the daffodils emerged from the snow, and while a bit sad looking right now, they are definitely green, and will soon have those wonderful bright yellow flowers lining the sidewalk and brightening our days and the days of the neighbors. Thank you for the continuing process of life!

Art Critic in the booth?

Sorry for the delay in entries if anyone out there is checking regularly. We've been on the road from Atlanta to home (about 36 hours) and now we're in Marlborough, MA. ---- near Boston. Didn't sell much today because of a bit of snow, that the weather folks turned into a huge event like they love to do..... job security question I think. Job security for them, and job insecurity for us because when everyone stays home, our sales, and our ability to pay the mortgage suffer.


It did give us time to notice the visitor above, and to have time to get a pretty good picture. Had we been busy, our visitor probably would have bothered somebody, and we would have needed to move him/her sooner. Below is a pic as we first noticed him/her - in my earlier entomologist days I could have told you which. I moved the spiral to a better spot for the above pic.

Probably not the ultimate oddity???

I love odd things..... here is Cheryl standing in front of a picture of a store. The Cumberland Mall in Atlanta, GA. ---- remodeling a store. The "covering" over the work area is a picture of three stores! The t-shirt over Cheryl's left shoulder says - Detroit. That is where she is from? Also note the folks walking by in t-shirts.... it is March, and back home it is 15 degrees with lots of snow on the ground!

These kids rock!

Pretty much nothing compares to seeing kids do something really great! The only thing I can think of that would make it even better is having your nephew be part of it. Last night I had the pleasure of seeing a group of 5th through 8th graders put on the School House Rock musical at the Wayland Cohocton Middle School. They had fun doing it, they did a really good job, and they made all of the audience - their parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and neighbors - have a fun time too! That is my nephew Wyatt, in the middle with the black suit and red sash! (kind of hard to get a great shot in those lighting conditions)

My thanks to Wyatt, to all the other kids, and especially to the teachers, staff, parents, sponsors, etc. who helped those kids put on a terrific show, and make that about the best $5 I ever spent!

Creative use of materials

Another use of our spirals! And some Art Start! Liberty Montessori Preschool in Philadelphia used some of our spirals and miscellaneous Art Start parts as part of a mural for the wall! We just love knowing that our work brightens so many lives! That's Ms. Madelynn, the newest teacher. Thanks to Monica Wright for sending along this picture!

Success!

Just a quick note - Cheryl packed up the Generations show today, and by all measures it was a great success. The 1570 Gallery director - Jean Pope Boyle - was very pleased. Attendance and sales were both very good. Quite a few pieces sold, making it a financial success for them, plus in addition to their regulars, the opening was well attended, and there was a rush of folks after the appearance of the newspaper article. The article is shown below - February 23rd. All the artists seemed pleased. All were happy with the chance for their work to be seen, and those who sold work were of course even more pleased! And of course Cheryl and I are very happy that all the effort that was put in - mostly by Cheryl - was worthwhile! A big THANK YOU to Jean, to all the artists, and the all the folks who made a point of coming to see the show!

The music of knitting!

No picture today because my battery ran out, but I have to tell you about the music of knitting. Officially referred to as Orchestral Apparatus for Knitting - Laure Drogoul organized a group of 6 knitters, each using a different type of needles - big wood ones, thin metal, thick metal, thick and thin plastic, etc..... with each needle set attached to some sort of electronic pick-up. The sounds of each needle set clicking, rubbing, even the sound of the yarn sliding on the needle..... all fed into a sound system, and heard over a speaker system! Very cool..... not exactly musical, but interesting. Some of the knitters seemed experienced, and had a good rhythm, while others were beginners, kind of working at each stitch. Some were clearly just trying to knit, while others seemed to figure out that they had some control over the sound coming from the nearby speakers! It is so much fun to have your perceptions changed. I remember the clicking of the neighbor lady's knitting when I was a kid. I'm sure she never thought of working with the sounds of the process. I certainly know I concentrated only on trying to wrap the yarn right as she showed me how! Today I learned that she and I created some music!

Newspaper review of the art show we curated

Just a quick note today with the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle review of the art show we curated.

The link to their web page is gone now (mid May), so here is a copy of David Raymond's review in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Black artists connected through the ages
The importance of art is passed along through 'Generations'

David Raymond

(February 19, 2007) — Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest.

"Generations," the current exhibition at 1570 Gallery at Valley Manor, began with curator Jean Pope Boyle's desire to have a Black History Month exhibit, and her invitation to popular local artists Cheryl and Don Olney to serve as guest curators. The former social worker (Cheryl) and toy maker (Don) turned full-time artists had never curated an exhibit before, but they were willing to try.

All they needed was a theme — and they needed it fast, since the exhibit was due to open in a month. But they found it, inspired by a recent commission to design and create a wooden Sankofa. The West African symbol's name means "return and get it," or as Cheryl Olney interprets it, "the process of learning from the past as we build the future." This gave them the idea of generations of artists, sometimes literally related to each other, building upon one another's work.

Cheryl, "who knows everyone in town," according to Don, immediately started asking friends and professional acquaintances for work. With the quantity and the quality of the responses, the show quickly "developed its own energy," as Cheryl puts it.

That simple idea turned out to be remarkably rich. The art that arrived at 1570 Gallery truly spanned the generations, from acrylic paintings by 11-year-old Kimicah Roberson, to photographs by junior high school students, to work by professional artists of long standing. All currently live in Rochester, and most are Rochester born and educated as well.
The moment you enter the gallery, your eye is immediately drawn to the Olneys' Generations, a vibrantly painted wood piece showing several generations of African-American women in red, green and purple outfits against a glowing blue background.

The exhibit is rich in inviting, exuberant pieces like the Olneys', including the quilted piece Exotic Perennial, by former Garth Fagan dancer Frances Hare, which also hangs near the entrance to the gallery. This rare bloom is resplendent in gold, orange and brown, and its tendrils reach right out to the viewer.

These fanciful pieces are countered by striking, somber images like Eddie Davis III's two Clown Paintings — done entirely and unexpectedly in black, white and gray — and complex, thoughtful work like Shawn Dunwoody's collage Brown is the Magic Number. Full of references to recent African-American history and to education, Dunwoody's piece carries the "Generations" theme in a nutshell: If you want to move ahead, know what came before you.

While many of the pieces in "Generations" delineate contemporary African-American life, others seem to reach back through the centuries. Faruk Kaiyum's delicate silver and white-gold jewelry would befit a princess, and Calvin Hubbard's clay stoneware pieces recall ancient pottery. At first sight, Hubbard's Mother and Turtle seems to refer to some sort of folklore or creation myth, but Hubbard says his inspiration was his mother, who "proceeded slowly, but always went forth in spite of all obstacles." The piece is a tribute to persistence.

House Maid, by MCC professor emeritus Betty Hopkins, gives a black interpretation to Vermeer's iconic European painting of a servant pouring water from a pitcher. Hopkins' daughter, Leda Hopkins-Mack, is represented in the show by her two hand-woven fabrics, Red Delight and Purple Mist. And Hopkins' professional colleague, MCC faculty member Athesia Benjamin, contributes several untitled oils, the most striking of which is a large, imposing portrait of an older black couple.

José Flores' simple but haunting Darfur, an oil pastel of an African woman in native dress with a sad expression, is the last image you see in "Generations," and it stays with you, saying as much about the costs of war and racial conflict as a more obviously political image.

A highlight of "Generations" is a group of seven black-and-white photographs by students from Studio 789, the Wilson Foundation Academy Photo Club. The subjects range from Janet Jackson, to a baby in a bath, to a powerful study of a group of locks from chains formerly worn by slaves. Rodney Allen Young contributes a group of vivid color photos of Senegalese and Ghanaian natives.

"Generations" unites several generations of black artists, but since many of them graduated from, are enrolled in or have taught in Rochester schools, it also highlights the artistic creativity flourishing there. "We were thrilled not only to encourage the young people," says Boyle, "but also to combat all the negative things we hear about the Rochester City Schools."

David Raymond is a freelance writer.

Today is Tuesday so this must be Baltimore?

Here is a view of the booth in Philadelphia that we tore down yesterday! Picture courtesy of Walter Johnson. Walter and Christine are wonderful friends who always come and help us tear down after shows in Philly. Yesterday a record 54 minutes! 7 minutes ahead of a previous record when our son Casey, and wife Deanna, and a couple of their friends helped!

Today we were in Baltimore - had a good day with three new gallery customers, and several nice orders! The Sankofa piece - see above picture - lower middle, and January 26th entry below, is selling well. It is always so great when a new item sells well. People seem to really appreciate the piece itself, as well as the message behind it!

Baltimore

I meant to show more of the process of space conversion that happens as a craft show is set-up, but I forgot to take an earlier picture of the crate with all the walls stacked on top, neatly shrink wrapped, and sitting next to the little 10x10 foot square of carpet we ordered for our booth. About a week ago, that crate was in our studio, neatly packed, and ready for folks we don't know, and probably never will, to load it on a truck and take it to Baltimore for us. Quite an amazing process if you stop and think about it. I walked in today, and there it was, looking exactly like it looked last week in Rochester, NY ( just a couple of extra labels added) and now sitting in a big hall in Baltimore, MD, right next to "our" space! Usually we drive our big van to shows with all the walls, product, etc, but this time we have two shows almost simultaneously, with only one van, so we shipped to this one..... a lot less work!

Here is the view from the front of our space. Lots and lots of unconverted space.... vans being unloaded... electric cords laid out ready to power lights, etc. Last week, maybe there was a car show here, next week maybe a boat show. Week after next maybe a foot of dirt will be right there with flowers growing out of it for the flower show? About 30 years ago, I attended a Dave Brubeck concert here ---- I think the stage was right behind where that white van sits now.

Just empty space that several hundred of us will mark out with walls, curtains, sheets of cardboard, to seperate our 10x10 foot space from the next 10x10 foot space. And it will really be our space. Most of us will be very friendly, like the US and Canada, even helping each other out with heavy walls, or sharing our food from the deli. There will be some border disputes however. Somebody may decide that the space behind their curtain is the perfect place to store those extra boxes, but the space behind the curtain is my space, and like the US and Mexico, I will try to send their stuff back. The most common problem is folks pushing those ugly orange extension cords under the curtain into the next booth so they won't clash with the beautiful glass vases! (somebody needs to invent attractive extension cords) I like our hard walls - folks can't slide that big vase to the back of the table, creating a big bulge on my side of the curtain! On the other hand, when we like our neighbors, which is 99.9% of the time, we can't just slide the curtain aside and say Hi!

Below is our space, as I marked it out today, and put up our stuff! That big crate is inside the grey display on the left. I learned long ago that it can take hours for the show folks to return the empties at the end of the show! I don't know who will be next to us on the right - still empty space when I left tonight, or the space behind. To the left is a big aisle that will carry the crowds our way. In front, between us and the aisle is nothing --- just a line in the carpet, but folks will generally stay outside the booth, thinking that they need some sort of passport to cross the line. I remember the "line" my brother and I drew down the middle of our room. "MOM! He's looking at my side!" We want them to look, and we'd love for them to come in, but most won't, even if we specifically invite them.

Snow Hat

Snow seems to have temporarily stopped, but a couple of days ago I had a full inch of snow on my hat brim after about an hour of shoveling! That daffodil in the pic below is under about a 5 foot bank of snow right now.

I'm off to Baltimore for a wholesale and a retail show with our work - Louise's Daughter

Three days of wholesale only to sell to the galleries around the country that carry our work, and then three days of retail - open to the public if you are in the Baltimore area next weekend .... the 23rd to the 25th at the Convention Center. Cheryl is now at a wholesale show in Philadelphia, and I'll go pick her up on Monday after I set up in Baltimore. I'm going to try to keep this writing and pic thing from the road, so stay tuned for some pics of very nice work, and hopefully some good stories.

Hydroponic food!

I mentioned earlier that Dad and I both like to grow things, and to notice nature in the back yard! This is more like nature in the house, and another way to get some spring thoughts going. We got Dad this hydroponic garden for Christmas, and within 3 weeks he and Mom were enjoying spring lettuce in January! Not enough to skip any trips to the grocery store, but a lot of fun, and great tasting!