Buttercup, Travolta and Gazelle Board a Car to Toledo (--> Maker's Mart, That Is!)

It's almost here.  It's almost here! For the past month I have been gearing up to sell at Handmade Toledo's Makers Mart and NOW, here we are, one day away! Last year's Winter show boasted a fabulous vendor list, plus ridiculously good grilled cheese and mac-and-cheese balls, so I have high hopes all around for this May show. Please come visit me in the tent adjoining the main hall! Scroll midway down to check out the robust vendor list.

I'll pack up my car after Rick returns from the first student matinee of his final Mosaic play-with-music, "Detroit to Dakar," which he also wrote and directed. It officially premieres tomorrow -->  tickets for this weekend or next may be purchased here.  His over-the-top production week coincided with my own intense week, which perforce coincided with a more tearful daughter. Harried fun for all!

Coming with me: spiffy new handcart, delusional blue footed boobies, improvised card sign bases to replace the *perfect* ones (now 20% bulkier, with uncooked rice!), bullying squirrels, angst-ridden groundhogs, hedgehog stickers, and random art books and Dickinson poems to leaf through on the off-moments.

Wishing Fellow Artists and all Attendees a Wonderful Show!

False Starts, A-Weekending We go

Unsatisfying: to visit your blog posts page and see the top half littered with "draft," "draft," "draft" and remember, too, that you started blog posts at that bar with dodgy internet and that lovely restaurant last month and g*ddamn, why's it so hard to establish habits which honor that which you find to be most important? Turning 44 in less than a month, which I haven't acknowledged until now, and Javier is EVEN older, and I won't give specifics, but it's a milestone*...I'm trying to turn over a new leaf**. It's a pretty low-tech leaf, with pen scrawls over recycled paper with two-week buckets loosely gridded out. I can...ease into...a routine, right? So at the least, I can list out the highest priority tasks for the duration, and that way, given twenty minutes, or an hour, or a few at the end of the day, I can point and shoot, versus waffle around anew each day. We'll see how it goes.

As Sundays go, it was a pretty contented, domestic one, despite May snowflakes and Saturday's momentary hail. For years in make-do jobs, I often wondered whether Sunday's melancholy was intrinsic, or if it would assume a different character without Monday's work looming overhead, with its email backlog and sludge of meetings***. Well, I'm here to report that, yes there DOES seem to be a pleasantly mild, abiding sadness, but why?

Gingerbread pancakes started the day off nicely, paired with the afterglow of seeing Javier bask in his directorial success at the DIA the night before****. I carried Oyo across the street to see my family-friends in the neighborhood; and then we briskly surveyed the Yourist Spring Pottery sale tent. We followed artist Stephen Kerr inside Yourist, duckling-style, as he's

similar. from Lakeside Pottery

often a good person to follow. He talked about his new favorite black clay ("Cassius Clay") and let me hold a piece so I could confirm its buttery pliability. We chatted while Stephen made a round standing form. He sealed a 2 inch clay band to its circular clay base with a rolled coil shape (think: those tiny playdoh snakes from decades past), which he pressed down with a tiny spatula thing. The indents made pleasing little teeth prints. He added a second band on top of the first; and at that point it looked like an oh-so-neatly frosted milk chocolate cake. Also pleasing, but distracting. I thought maybe I could make the gingerbread pancakes with chocolate chips next time; or slather them with nutella.

favorite sweater

Stephen complimented Oyo on her best handknit sweater and told me that he used to teach his third graders to knit, so they could knit while he read Harry Potter chapters out loud to them. Don't you wish you had a similar third grade experience to share? My memories from that grade centered around Mrs. Sudler bullying a classmate to "not draw like a baby" i.e. coloring the sky in broad horizontal strokes, rather than a scribble here and there. Art ruiner. And she put up lots of blackboards of homework, which seemed excessive then but is probably normal now. Multiplication stressed me OUT.
 

...but not knitting for soldiers. from mylearning

The rest of the day meandered on, much like this post. I had pancakes and tea during Oyo's disturbing naptime*****; and then we visited the grandparents, where Oyo was gobsmacked by her Grandpa repeatedly opening the refrigerator and her Grandma handed her several paper napkins, which she gleefully shredded before eating them. And so it goes...


*as they say, when they wish to convey gravitas to something potentially unpleasant and resented. As with the entire rest of the human race, neither of us really feel we should be the age we are, even though I get carded tons less, "ma'amed" by either clueless young men (just don't address this, unless you're Southern; I get "miss"ed by the same demographic, which also makes me want to slap you; but since I won't slap you, I'll just tip you less) or male idiots who are approximately my age (you should totally, utterly know better; don't spread your paternalistic passive aggressiveness my way because you're not comfortable waiting on me; I wouldn't look down on you, except: now I do) *SECOND NOTE TO THE ASTERISK --he's older and also damn more accomplished. but to say that would be setting the wrong dynamic between us, right? But seriously, he has been following his passion with a passion for basically his entire adult life -- and he's talented -- so, yes, he's most definitely more accomplished.

**And, you know, fix everything about myself before Oyo stops being astounded by my poor whistling (like a bird!!!) and ceases to check in with me from across the room ("Hahaha,"...I mean, is this all cool Mom? This person is picking me up and knows that my feet are ticklish, is this okay?...Okay") and starts understanding terms like "self-thwarting."

***my favorite corporate culture video ever, Conference Call in Real Life and more, recently, Carrie Brownstein's New Yorker piece on eliminating conference calls 

**** A/k/a Rick Sperling, Mosaic Youth Theater of Detroit's newest "Midsummer Soulstice," which is really, really fantastic, my bias aside. Seriously talented and professional young artists. Isn't it lovely when you can stop and enjoy what a dear one has wrought, through vision and will? Which, again, is not to give credit solely to one person for the success of an entire play -- this only comes to pass through dedicated and impassioned staff; and dedicated, talented actors. So much hard work, for something to potentially exist for a few nights! But like grows like, right? An impressive display of talent, paired with a sense of command, inspires further pursuit of talent. Thank goodness for the ripple effect, wherever you find it.

*****Odd to sip tea accompanied by an extended bout of gnawing via the baby monitor; the crib rail now has dented spots free of shellack, ohhhh industrious Beaver Baby.

Fun with Expiration Dates

Happy Wednesday! Looks to be a glorious day out there. Were it not for a headache which has carried over for a few days, t'would be that much more glorious, but. Javier came over last night and helped me set work to the side for a few hours before a night conference call; and now he can be heard stomping around, from this room, to that room, and back again. He is quite happily mobile with his electric razor, so one hears a zzzzzzzzz from the bathroom, to the the kitchen, to the living room.  Zzzzzz, stomp stomp stomp, zzzzzzzz, stomp stomp stomp.

An appearance at the study doorway: "We should drink coffee on your deck, enjoy the sunshine -- well maybe not this morning" and then he is gone, offering a plan and then nixing it, without any fussy need for more input. Luckily his plans often agree with my yet-to-be-formed wishes, so we wind up doing a lot and seeing a lot and sometimes slowing down. Within a few minutes the coffee matter is reconsidered and I am invited to join him on the deck; and then he is off to his morning meeting and I wonder if I can do a wee blog post in ten minutes before showering*...Hmmm. The sun is so treacherous, it feels so healthy and health-giving and yet...

{*No. not even close. why do I always think I can cheat time?}

And yet! Only a couple more days until this next May weekend. Selected for your consideration, a few fine activities that you should catch before they're gone!

1."Hastings Street" -- a play with music, put on by the Mosaic acting troupe, in the Detroit Film Theatre (nestled up against the DIA). I saw the opening last Friday and it was fantastic -- they're polished enough and talented enough to be put head-to-head with adult acting companies. Set in the 40s, in the Black Bottom area of Detroit, which absolutely thrived during the 1940s -- did you realize Duke Ellington played in dance halls here?Check out the photo at The Detroit News and tell me you don't want to go. Second weekend, closes after *this* Sunday! Highly recommended.

2.Circle of Art! -- people have bidding online on artwork for the past month or so -- to simultaneously become art owners AND virtuously donate to Food Gatherers -- But THIS SUNDAY marks the final day -- silent auction for possibly hundreds of pieces, wine,drinks and all manner of delectables outside,bustling, jostling, tons of cool, friendly people who only get cooler as the day draws on. And raffles, usually! Along the lines of Zingerman's, some fabulous cherry things, who-knows-what all tied up in wicker baskets and sealed from troublesome fingers by crackly clear plastic. Possibly you could win a llama, or miniature giraffe or a manatee. WHO KNOWS. You certainly won't, if you don't go. People in the know play their little holding-off games, hovering around pieces to place the final bids on coveted items, moments before the final call (which falls shortly before 5 PM).

Here's where I'd share the link to my first-ever printmaking mobile, but alas, the link doesn't work, so I'll just reshare a recent photo.  Here's the general Circle background-- and here's a tiny sampling -- John Copley, Jan Ruvido Stebbins, Mike Hahn, and OMG check out this lovely pen and ink fox drawing by local highschool junior Vivyan Zheng! See also: Valerie Mann, Mariette Van Buhler, Lynne Yates (Ephemeral Books).  Starting at noon, you can pop in, stay awhile, stay as long as you want! Well, not really. At the end, they're all "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here." Which, fine, they have been working long, long hours for the past 6 weeks at least, to bring the grand event to pass. So: this Sunday, noon to 5. Bring a can or two of food for Food Gatherers. Saline.

7641 N. Ann Arbor Street
Saline, MI 48176
(734)429-3352 phone

 3. Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles has been a distinguished guest at the DIA since February, but you haven't seen it yet, have you? Next weekend, next weekend, next weekend. Silliness. It leaves May 28th: the time draws nigh, people. It's usually in Paris, so not like you'll be crossing paths with it. Unless you have a much cooler life than I do.

4.5. Bonus links: I grow more and more fond of Jimmy Fallon. Here he is, doing a smattering of impressions of other comedians. And this one, ohhh, I love this one! Rufus + Ben Folds, doing a perfect cover. Best to watch a few times.

6. And you thought this was going to be about food poisoning, or old, old Rx's, didn't you? Playing with fire. Salmonella hides in the dents, online friends. Unused commas: so misleading.