the picture that got away

Earlier today I was at the studio.
I was a hot humid day, even with the AC going.
It was a fair to middling printing day,I had more mishaps than successes.I destroyed a plate, had a roller marks on my prints...i haven't done that in years...Yikes!

well they can't all be masterpieces.

So later I am home,after my lengthy drive, sitting in the back yard, surrounded by tall groups of flowers. An armful of Beebalm, a forest of Echinacea, I'm there chilling with a cold beer,grimmacing over my dissapointing printing day.

In speeds a tiny green hummingbird, he's excited ,peeping as he darts from flower to flower, trying to decide, where to eat first. He doesn't care I am there, he does fly over,hanging in midair, seeing what I'm all about.Does he really notice me, can he smell me,do I smell? Then in a flash he's off drinking sweet nectar.
If that wasn't cool enough, my hungry friend, zips off and returns with a tiny green twin, to continue feasting on the beebalm.

alas my camera is no where close, all I can do is sit and observe them.I smile while I witness their bravado against the competing bees,shooing them away, guarding the flowers for themselves.

and in that instant, it doesn't really matter that I flubbed up my prints.
my disappointment is fading away , then gone.

and I am very thankful.

high in the sky

Originally uploaded by teagrrl.

sometimes all you have to do is look up.

6 x 8 = 48 - 2 = 46

46 multicolored snapdragons (should've been 48 but 2 were "no shows")
24 pink and white cleomes *
18 multicolerd asters (6 left)*
1 foam flower
2 blue salvias
2 perrywinkle scabiosas
1 golden echinacea
1 corydalis
2 dark purple heucheras
1 blue hosta (that I divided into 4)
2 white echinaceas
2 dark blue delpiniums
1 nasturium
2 wooly thymes
1 stone crop*
1 worm grass

a lot of kneeling,
hauling water....then watering
waist bends,
digging then planting
and some judicious weeding and like magic you have a flower garden.
well not like movie magic, but with time there is going to be a mess of flowers blooming around mi casa.

*not planted yet :)

st.paul's cathederal, London

Bombing

Recently I went with two good friends to London.We had a wonderful time.



This morning ...I read the news today...
just like in that sad Beatle Song.



"Police said incidents were reported at the Aldgate station near the Liverpool Street railway terminal, Edgware Road and King's Cross in north London, Old Street in the financial district, Russell Square in central London, near the British Museum, Aldgate Station and Leicester Square, which is the equivalent of New York City's Times Square. A police official also told reporters there was an incident on a bus in Tavistock Place."




sending love and support to London.

petunia

the Studio

Over 4 years ago I googled non toxic printmaking
and lo and behold, up popped Zea Mays Printmaking.
At the time I first searched those words, it was under the encouragement of my first printmaking teacher, Tom Lewis. At that time I wasn't ready to leap from, a classroom to open studio,left to my own devices. But I knew someday...someday I would journey there and find exactly what I needed to continue to grow in printmaking.
Now I travel once a week, it truly is a sweet ride, okay it does take about an hour, but in that hour I can focus my head on what I might be doing, that day in the studio,I can also just chill, to get ready to print.
At the studio people are truly nice, caring and quick to share any information, they know , there is also a camaraderie between us, which makes it a wonderful place to create and learn.
I truly enjoy everything about it,the mixing of the ink,tearing paper, preparing the copper plates. I'm an etcher, love the weight of the copper,the surface of it, how little lines, sometimes scratches show up, that add to the character of the print itself, and sometimes not....but those can be burnished out quickly enough.
In 2006 we will create a portfolio of solarplates, a process that's really new to me, but looks equally exciting, now just to figure out my image,do I want to print itaglio, or relief...Decisions, decisions,decisions.