Tuesday, June 1, 2010

open studios and family fun

lobelia, planted in
 a La Grange, IL yard sale find.
hanging on the porch at
our "bit of earth" in Vermont.

When I am away from the internet (at our "bit of earth" in Vermont), I have to make do with occasional and quick posting at the curbside in front of the library, where there's Wi-Fi. Someday I may be ticketed for loitering! I have missed being in touch with many of your blogs, and hope to catch up soon.

Today I am back in CT, but will hit the road again tomorrow for board meetings at Earlham. My laundry is spinning as I write! (And Gretta and I will be passing one another in the midwest, in opposite directions!)

So much fun we had in Vermont...with Hannah and Lindsey with us for assorted bits of the weekend. There was a camp fire and some inappropriate fireworks (Batman....), eating at both ends of the food spectrum (local, healthy produce and chips and s'mores), weeding and planting and watering. The recent crazy, hot weather and lack of rain scorched a few of the newly planted trees...one of the risks of trying to live between two places at once.

Armed with the Studio Tour Guide, we navigated the back roads of Vermont and saw a field filled with lambs, herds of beautiful Jersey cows and lots of farmers out haying. Open Studio Weekend in Vermont is one of my favorite weekends of the year. Here's a peek at my favorites from this year. (Click here to see the studios I visited last year.)

On Saturday, I drove north of Burlington to see Carol E. S. MacDonald, whose studio is perched on the edge of the Winooski River. She does monoprints, limited editions, and I have long loved her work (especially her crows!). Lately she has been working with images of skeins of yarn, knitting needles and knitted yarn. She was very generous with her time, demoed her printing press, chatted about inspiration, time management and the development of her ideas. I came out of her studio into the sunshine and realized we had been talking for ages. I'm grateful for her generosity of spirit!

On Sunday, Hannah and Batman joined me. After breakfast at Eaton's, we stopped by the studios of Michael Barsanti and Anne Mapplebeck in South Royalton. They are artists and activists, working to challenge us to pay attention to what's happening in the world.  I loved Anne's textile work. Her flags, made of old clothing, incorporate into the stripes the names of soldiers killed in Afganistan and Iraq. Her current work with men's buttondown oxford shirts is very evocative. We had a great conversation with the two artists about public art projects and how they can draw folks into current world issues.

We also stopped by the studio of Sabra Field. It was the first time in the 18 years of the Open Studio tradition that Sabra has opened her doors to the public. We are big fans of her work, and enjoyed seeing how her pieces come together.

Late on Sunday, Lindsey joined me in a visit to our local White River Craft Center where our friend Susan Rockwell talked about her hand weaving. Her stunning shawls are amazingly beautiful and soft. Susan will be teaching at Fletcher Farm this summer...weaving does have an allure...but I really don't need any more distractions!

Whew!

Hope you all had fun, long weekends!

P.S. Thanks for all the dandelion love! :-)

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a jam packed fun weekend.
    I'm all for the s'mores!

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  2. Hey!! How come I didn't see that yard sale find in LaGrange way back then?! Sure looks great with the lobelia in it. I LOVE lobelia.

    Glad you guys had a great weekend.
    xo

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  3. I don't know how I missed this post, Karen, but your weekend sounded fabulous. I looked at the links and loved the artwork!
    Glad you had fun!

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