Home Again

My sister, father and I flew home yesterday. South Dakota is a pretty place, and everyone is friendly. Saturday was taken up with family things and the wedding, so Sunday Nancy and I did touristy stuff. We drove out to Mitchell to see the corn palace (everyone kept saying "It's really small.") Turns out it's about a half a city block, and the entire exterior is covered with a mosaic made from ears of Indian corn. I can scratch that off my list; only 999 left.

On the way, we passed the Porter Sculpture Park. Since we had no schedule to keep we stopped, and it was well worth the $4 we spent to go through it. The artist was there, and he walked us through the park.
That's my sister standing next to this sculpture of an Egyptian steer. I think the artist, Porter, said it was sacred to the ancient Egyptians, but I was only half listening, I was so fascinated. It's hollow, so we went inside, and the interior details are incredible. The sculptor's father is a blacksmith, so Porter worked in the blacksmith shop all his growing up years, and uses smithing techniques to make his pieces from scrap iron and parts of old farm equipment. And it's all just sitting on the prairie, next to the interstate.
This is a reproduction of a dugout. The settlers came for the free land offered under the terms of the Homestead Act, and often the first shelter they could build was one of these, dug out of the side of a hill.
This is the interior. When there was rain of any amount, it could take 3 days for the roof to dry out. It's no wonder they had consumption!
This is a claim shack, only marginally better than the dugout, in my opinion, but at least it's not a hole in the ground. It's approximately 8 feet by 10 feet, and an entire family would sleep in there.
And this is the view. Practically nothing but sky and grass.

Shoe Shopping

I went out today to do some errands before I go to South Dakota tomorrow, for a family wedding. Anyway, my friend Denyse has a saying (I call it Denyse's law) that if you don't buy something in the first 15 minutes of a shopping trip, the trip is doomed. And she's right! This time, my first stop was Lord and Taylor, and I didn't find what I wanted. Next I went to the library, where I was only marginally successful.

Dispairing, I went to the Designer Shoe Warehouse, hoping for some footwear consolation. No luck, but look at what I saw there!

These lovely green shoes are a thick rubber, and while I found them on the sale rack, they started out at $299. And no, there's no decimal point in that price. Now, though, some lucky soul (yuck, yuck) can have them at 40% off. They really aren't so bad, but $299?

But wait! Look at these next ones!

No kidding, these are fish skeletons attractively running down the wearer's insteps, cunningly topped off with rhinestone fish heads. And the price? Another bargain at $299, on sale for 40% off. That makes them $179, on sale.

I resisted.

Hair

Lady Godiva in South Baltimore by Helen Glazer; 48 x 52, acrylic on canvas, cropped.

Here is the postcard for the show I mentioned yesterday: "HAIR, a Juried Exhibition Art work Interpreting the Theme of Hair" August 31-October 8, 2006. Reception and Awards Presentation Saturday September 16, 6-8PM
Sponsored by Hey Red!, Inc, Laurel, MD, and presented by the Columbia Art Center, 6100 Foreland Garth, Columbia MD 21045. 410.730.0075

I have plans for the 16th already, a weekend away sewing with a group of friends (see archive for April) but I'll skip dinner Saturday night and come back for the reception. It's only about 45 minutes away. Of course, it does cut into my vqt (valuable quilting time) but it can't be helped.

Living Well

I'm back! I've been puttering around, happy to be home. I finally managed to upload this image.
This is called "Living Well" and I made it in response to a divorce in my family. She's 38 x 50, and will be exhibited in a show here in Columbia, at the Art Center, from August 31 to October 8.
This one is called "My Husband's Name is Art" and it will be in the show as well. It's much smaller, 23 x 22.

CRS

I have CRS - Can't Remember Stuff. It would be nice to check my messages while I'm visiting my dad, but no. I can't remember my email password, and I could just change it while I'm here, but then I'd have to figure out how to change it on my pc at home. I think I'm just too lazy. And if I'm not reading email, I might do something productive instead. Imagine!

I drove down yesterday after lunch. I95 from DC to Richmond was pretty busy, but there were only a couple of places where the average speed was less than 75, so it didn't really take all that long. About 3 hours, I guess. I took an exercise walk this morning, for about an hour. I grew up here, so walking around for an hour really showed me how much has changed. It's not the quiet country town it was years ago.

New Postcards

I've been using the postcard format to experiment with the t-shirt transfer method. The images are small enough to cut out close to the edges so there isn't discoloration around it. I don't really like the results transfer process. I'm going to try printing directly on fabric next.
This is a statue of Santiago high in the mountains in Galicia. The statue is at the highest point on the Camino, and it's cold and windy there. You can see how he is leaning into the wind. Incidentally, I read today that there have been fires, deliberately set, in the forests where we were walking.
The hand on this postcard is a door knocker.
The scallop image is everywhere on the Camino, and I've used it on several postcards.

I've been experimenting with photos that I took in Spain. I'd like to have a thermofax machine to make screens with the photos, but I'm afraid it would be something else to distract me from what I should be doing! So these are iron on transfers, on fabric postcards. I took the scallop shell from a photograph of an iron fence. On the Camino de Santiago, the scallop shell symbol is everywhere, since it's the symbol of Saint James, and the symbol of the pilgrim.

I used Photoshop Elements to lift the shell image from the photograph, and printed it on t-shirt transfer paper. Having long ago lost the directions, it took a while to get a good print. First I ironed it on the wrong side - results below.

As you can see, my goof left a sort of afterimage of the shell, which I like. Another important piece of information I did not have is that the paper needs to be removed immediately, or it won't come off at all. And the iron needs to be moved around, otherwise the steam vents leave holes in the design.

Maybe I should invest in a thermofax after all. . .