Early Spring has Arrived!

I woke this morning to be greeted by beautiful floating puffs and blue sky.

Snow last week, early spring this week.
Hoping the latter is here to stay.

The spot where I spent my entire day yesterday...and some of the night!
I'm a very messy potter, as you can see.

Pieces trimmed and drying while first load is in the kiln, firing as I type.

Cat Labor
Bouli does her best earn her keep...though she seems to be taking a lot of naps while on the job.

Yes, I do think spring has arrived a bit early. We were walloped with a late season snow last week (enough to delay school two hours) then two days later the weather gods decided to tease us with sunny, warm days. It felt great to take a St. Patty's Day walk in the fresh air without having to "gear up" in mittens and hat. This morning I woke to a gorgeous blue-clouded sky and am in the mindset that I best get my studio work done early so that I may enjoy a mid afternoon jaunt.

The past week was full between meetings, teaching, and studio work. I got my grades for school done a few days earlier than normal and am glad to have that project marked off the list. Lubec Arts Alive committee met last week, too, and it is exciting to think about possible projects and the hum of summer activity. Lubec can be a "sleepy" sort of town in the winter, but like spring, is coming to life a bit earlier than normal. Already, cars from out-of-state are passing through our streets and that means that I should be thinking about opening the shop soon. There is lots to be done in prep for that but I am hopeful for a mid to late May opening, though may sneak in a few open hours here and there before that. I won't keep regular hours, though, until June. In the meantime, I am busy making wares for other venues.

I am super excited about my upcoming show in June. I am anxious to see the main installation piece come together but realize that this won't happen until May. Today, after about an hour of finishing up some pot trimming, I will do an extensive stretch of clay shingle production. I am also working out ideas in my mind for a series of work for the show - "collector's pieces" if you will, that somehow tie in with the main installation sculpture, but will be far more affordable and less time consuming than the 9 foot/200+ hour installation piece.

I will cut this blog short today- for the simple fact that I am itching to get into the studio and tackle the to-do list. It's a busy week ahead with four kiln firings, glazing marathons, teaching, visitors, and MFA work.

If in downeast Maine, don't forget to tune into ABC/WVII TV (channel 8 Warner Bros. / channel 7 Dish Satellite) on Sunday, March 25th, 3:00 p.m. The 2009 Lubec Arts Alive film, by Jon Wing Lum, will be airing. The film documents an amazing week of art-making here in Lubec when our town joined forces with the Union of Maine Visual Artists. The film includes interviews with Natasha Mayers, Robert Shetterly, Kenny Cole, Rose Marasco, Brown Lethem (to name a few!!!). And if here in Lubec (or nearby) Uncle Kippy's Restaurant will show the film on the big screen as it airs on TV, open to the public. (I am a narrator of sorts for the film.) If you are in the viewing area (Rockport to E. Millinocket /Oakland to Lubec) check it out! The film is about 36 minutes long, but will air in the 3:00-4:00 p.m. hour long slot.

For more info on the Lubec Arts Alive film, visit the Lubec Arts Alive blog site.

Into my cave I go....

Keep this date open
Saturday, June 2
My art opening at Lubec Landmarks. More info to follow.

Chris' Poetry
Student and Faculty Poetry Reading
UMM / Tuesday, March 20th / Power's Hall Art Gallery / 7:00 p.m.
Chris will be reading some of his works at this event.

Occupy Art / Art Opening and Poetry at the Harlow Gallery in Hallowell, Maine
Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, Maine
April 6th, 5:00-8:00 p.m.
Poetry reading by Chris Crittenden, Lee Sharkey, Henry Braun, Mark Melnicove
Please Note: THIS EVENT IS HAPPENING AS SCHEDULED

http://www.harlowgallery.org/wordpress1/?p=4944

Calias Bookstore Poetry Reading: Chris Crittenden
Tentatively set for Monday, April 16th. I'll keep you informed!

Exciting Week of Business and Pleasure

Shanna weaving poolside at the Rossmount Inn
St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada

Tapestry just off the loom
Check back next week to see the finished piece

Chris on his first-ever ferry ride, Campobello to Deer Island

"Jade Moon Night Swim"
A close-up detail of the most recent tapestry that I completed

Successful kiln firing unloaded yesterday and pots have already made it into the shop space,
as well as a few at Northern Tides downtown Lubec

Lubec Arts Alive "Art on the Beach" a success!
Gorgeous weather, lots of people creating at low tide, Mowry Beach, Lubec
Here, Kara Bennet of Texas is plein air painting.

Chanterelles!

It has been an exciting fun-filled and busy week, so much so that I am once again late to blogging. It began with a wonderful overnight trip to St. Andrews to celebrate my birthday. Chris and I ferried from St. Andrews to Deer Island, where we happened upon a sweet place called Fireball Gallery. We met the owner and learned about her beautiful glass beads and jewelry, and also bought a lovely set of wheelthrown pottery mugs by another Canadian artist. It was a reverent moment for us to also find the cemetery and grave site of one of Chris's Native ancestors. This has sparked an interest in both of us gathering info on our family trees.

The Rossmount Inn provided us some much needed relaxation. The trip was far too short, but such a wonderful treat! We swam in the pool then I was able to work on a small tapestry poolside with my travel loom. That evening, we ate a gourmet feast at their in-house restaurant. Chris had the pleasure of meeting the chef outside in the garden where he was picking fresh vegetables and berries for the kitchen. Every course of our meal delighted us, perhaps the highlight being the crostinis with chanterelles mushrooms and the dessert of bee balm poached peaches in cream with fresh raspberries over pastry. Oh my! I need to send a note to my dentist thanking him for this referral.

We ended our trip the next morning with a stroll downtown St. Andrews. The open farmer's market was alive with tourists and live music. Vendors sold wares and foods. We picked up some fresh baba ganoush from an Indian vendor and fresh beets and chanterelles from a farmer.

When we arrived home we both retreated to our respective studios. When we go away, we are always itching to get back, inspired, to create.

I also had a pile of work to do to prep for Lubec Arts Alive. Friday night we had the world premiere screening of Jon Wing Lum's "Lubec Arts Alive Documentary". It was a packed house and the film amazed many. I will be updating the Lubec Arts Alive 2010 blogsite with full info on the event and the filmmaker, as well as the "Art on the Beach" event that took place the next day. The weekend deserves, and demands, my full attention with an inclusive blog entry. I should have that site updated within three weeks with lots of fabulous photos taken by Goodman/Van Riper Photography.

The glaze firing was unloaded yesterday and I was ecstatic that all pieces survived and looked fabulous! I tried a new glaze combo and am in love! The shop is restocked, just in time, since the day was busy-packed with visitors. I can't wait to get my hands back into the clay. The one thing that is difficult with clay is that I am forced to wait so long to see the finished product. I go back into the throwing cave this coming weekend, but the pieces I make, from throwing, to trimming, drying, bisque firing, glazing, then glaze firing, will take about a month. Longer if we encounter humid weather as as we did the past couple weeks. In the meantime, I will enjoy the weaving, and hopefully finish up the current piece early next week. Morning throwing sessions, then afternoon weaving. Ahhhhh...the artist's life. (we'll ignore, at this point, all the other business details like paperwork that goes along with it...and enjoy the blissful, peaceful vision of artist creating all day long everyday.)

An added bonus to this incredible past week is that Chris and I found some beautiful chanterelle mushrooms on one of our hikes. We got proper ID from Phillipe in town who I was told was the local mushroom expert. So delicious! Last night we sauteed them with butter and garlic and served them to our dear, beautiful, talented friends Nicky and Judy. What a feast!!! The dinner also consisted of fresh pesto made with basil fresh out of our little garden, as well as a stir fry with freshly-harvested lettuce, basil, and swiss chard, broiled tofu, and cous cous. The soy flour blueberry cake wasn't too shabby either!

I am off to my next appointment. Life is split-second timing right now, but it is all wonderful!

(note: please excuse any typos..no time to proof read!)

Lubec Arts Alive 2010

Mural from LAA 2009, located at Lubec Historical Society
Mural facilitated by Natasha Mayers
Photo Credit: ©2009 Goodman/VanRiper Photography

LUBEC ARTS ALIVE 2010

Friday and Saturday, July 23-24
Lubec, Maine

Kickoff Event!
World Premiere Screening of the
Lubec Arts Alive Documentary
A film by Jon Wing Lum
Friday, July 23rd, 7:00 p.m.
Christian Temple Church, Lubec, Maine

This beautiful thirty-minute documentary by filmmaker Jon Wing Lum captures the 2009 event from beginning to end with footage from the mural creation, portrait project, doorway installations, Hamilton Cove project, poetry reading, and iconic sign project. The film features several local community members and artists from far and near, their creative philosophies, and their artwork.
Free Admission. Refreshments.

Thank you to Pastor Alan Andraeas and the Christian Temple Church for their time and the use of their space for this event!

Resident UMVA Artists featured in the film:
Natasha Mayers, Robert Shetterly, Kenny Cole, Rose Marasco, Richard Brown Lethem, Diane Dahlke, Jill Lavestky, Siena Mayers, Karen Adrienne, Mary Bernstein, Barbara Sullivan, Alan Crichton, Harlan Crichton.

Lubec Arts Alive 2010
Art on the Beach
Saturday, July 24th, 1:00-5:00 p.m.
Mowry Beach, Lubec
Rain date: Sunday, July 25th
Info booth will be set-up at Flatiron Corner (across from Quik Shop)

Join us at Mowry Beach for an afternoon of environmental found-object art! Create with stones, seaweed, sea glass, shells, driftwood, etc. Plein Air artists are invited to bring their materials and musicians to bring their instruments for some improvisational fun!

Thank you to the Downeast Coastal Conservancy for allowing access to Mowry Beach for this project!
Mowry Beach is protected and maintained by the Downeast Coastal Conservancy.
Mowry Beach Steward, Jennifer Multhopp

Lubec Arts Alive committee members:
Karen Burke, Jean Bookman, Jean Deveber, Claudia Mahlman, Ann Rosebrooks, Shanna Wheelock

for more info, go to our website: lubecartsalive2010.blogspot.com
email: lubecartsalive@yahoo.com

Seaweed Labyrinth and Rock Formation
Created during Lubec Arts Alive 2009 at Hamilton Cove
This portion of LAA 2009 was such a beautiful and fun event that we decided to base Lubec Arts Alive 2010 around a similar theme!
Photo Credit: ©2009 Goodman/Van Riper Photography

Jon Wing Lum, filmmaker
Photo credit: ©2009 Goodman/Van Riper Photography

Mead Mugs

Bowls and Sake Sets

The mini Stonehenge herb garden

For those who check my blog on a regular basis, you probably noticed that I didn't show up with my regular post last Sunday. Sometimes this happens. My life just blows wide open with happenings and I can't find an extra moment to spare from sunrise to sundown. This past week and half my days have typically begun at 4:00 a.m. I love that time of day, waking with the birds, seeing the moon still in the sky while the sun is peeking out from the eastern horizon over the bay. So much stillness, yet full of life with birds chirping. I am getting a bit worn out though and even though I look forward to Lubec Arts Alive, I will be a bit relieved when the event finally takes place and then...look forward to a few days to just "be" and breathe.

The past week and a half was full of other wonderful stuff as well - including meeting new folks from distant places who lead interesting lives, from raising peacocks to writing books about model building. Last week's post about friends returning must have sparked some sort of universal energy because another couple (Linda and Jonathan) from New York that we hadn't seen in about three summers stopped by when "just passing through". This couple is one of the neatest that I have ever met. They are both rabbis and run this super cool charitable/educational bakery/program in their synagogue called "Bread and Torah." To make their lives even more interesting, Linda is working on an intesive scroll translation project where she makes the animal-skin parchment paper for the scrolls by hand! Check out their website/blog for more info.

In between Lubec Arts Alive prep and greeting folks who swing by the shop, I have been spending my time throwing pots in the "pottery cave", tending the garden with Chris, and working on the various non-glamorous aspects of keeping a micro cottage-type business up and running, and hopefully on the grow. I was so excited yesterday to see my OBDS (official business directional sign) posted on Rte. 189! Kinda neat to see "Cobscook Pottery and Fiber Arts" looking so official. Porcupine Signs in Pembroke did a fantastic job! I should give kudos to MDOT as well for installing the signs so quickly!!! Yey!

One other highlight of this past week was that Chris and I finally set aside an afternoon for some kayaking. We went to my favorite spot, Indian lake, in Whiting. It is a relatively tiny lake, but we almost always see the loons. This time, a mama loon and her baby on her back. Shortly after that sighting, Papa loon came swooping in from the sky to join them, providing us a uniquely reverent moment.

I have been up since 4:00 a.m. listening to the drenching rains and the West Quoddy fog horn. My aunt June and pup Shimmer are visiting for a few days from Bangor. I imagine this weather is not conducive to their plans for a ferry ride and hike, but it will provide its own kind of magic and peace. Perhaps an afternoon of "Scrabble Showdown". I better go find the official dictionary....

Living the Artist Life: All in a day's work

One of the casts after it was removed from the Anne's belly

Anne, in her ninth month of pregnancy, plastered

Our third drawing session with Anne as our model

My drawings from today's drawing session




Living the artist life is interesting, to say the least. This past week was full of creative, and sometimes unusual, activities that non-artists probably couldn't imagine doing. I sometimes wonder, when life is moving full speed ahead and I can't catch my breath, what it would be like to be "normal". Is there such a thing? I have this fantasy that I will wake, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch TV, and go to bed. No major projects to complete. No big list of things I need to get done that week. No 3:00 a.m. wakings where my mind won't stop buzzing with the next thing I need to design.

If I were to experience that kind of life on a regular basis, though it might decrease the blood pressure immensely, would probably catapult me into complete and utter boredom.

This past week is a great example of living the artist life. I felt completely immersed in the creative process everyday.

After I blogged last Sunday morning, I spent the day working on a tapestry, then Monday began the "official work week" where days were spent at school teaching. The high school Art 1 class learned the monotype process and we had loads of fun! Albeit, there is a huge sticky mess that I am still trying to clean five days later! My other favorite project at school this past week was the aerial paintings in the style of Maine artist Eric Hopkins. We're painting very cool images of local Lubec maps.

After school, I continued my personal work as an artist. Monday evening I rolled clay slabs then worked on my end-of-the-month (a few days late!) project update for the MFA program I am in. Tuesday evening, I began painting a new sign for my pottery business, and edited some work I had been doing for the Lubec Arts Alive portrait exhibit that opens next Wednesday.

I know, you are thinking, "this doesn't sound very exciting for an artist's life."

Well....how about this? Wednesday, I plaster-casted a pregnant woman's belly. I mean, who gets to do something like this and not sound like a completely off-the-wall weirdo? Artists can get away with this sort of bizarre behavior all in the name of art. So, arrives Anne, I have covered the floor with two plastic drop cloths, cut strips of plaster, and loaded a bucket with warm water. Anne coats herself in petroleum jelly. I say how cool it is that she will let me cast her in her eighth month of pregnancy, then she explains to me that she is actually in her ninth month and says "I feel ready, like it could happen any day now." Of course, I'm not feeling too comfortable with that statement being that I am about to wrap her in a substance that dries solid and would completely render her immobile for a period of time, not to mention, I have zero experience in delivering babies!

We made it through the session. Two casts were made, one for each of us. And, those darn drop cloths didn't make much of a bit of difference. There was plaster all through the dining room, on the hardwood floors, into the living room, around to the kitchen, and into the bathroom. Somehow, there was even plaster in the toilet.

Thursday, I joined other committee members, my husband, and filmmaker Jon Wing Lum to view, for the first time, the video documentary about Lubec Arts Alive that Wing had been working on since last summer. We gathered at Jean's house, filled our bowls with popcorn, and settled-in to watch the DVD. This event definitely deems its own blog entry, so I will save the details for another time after the public screening occurs. I'll leave it at this for now. I am so incredibly touched by the film that Wing has created. He is a master of his medium and works from a place of love. I am deeply grateful for his presence, talent, and his willingness to share.

Friday evening....here comes the mundane but necessary. I spent several hours cleaning the house that had fallen into complete disarray over the past few hectic days of "living the artist life". I discovered that plaster doesn't mop up. Not at all, especially after it has hardened on the linoleum and hardwood for two days. Hands and knees, sponge and brillo pad. It wasn't glamorous by any stretch. But, I got the job done. Along with other cleaning and plant pruning duties to prepare for today, which was the third and final drawing group with Anne as our pregnant model. It's sad to see the sessions end, but I suspect she's willing to give up her gestational model sessions to birth that little bundle of joy.

The next week is looking to be just as full as this past one, thus the blogging a day earlier than usual. I plan to rise and shine at the crack of dawn on Sunday to fire the kiln, work on the tapestry, and prep for the days ahead that involve a small business workshop, field trip to UMM's Thou Art Fair, and the opening reception for "Faces and Stories of Lubec: The Portraits of Lubec Arts Alive 2009".

I kinda like how I live. I guess I'm not ready to give it all up just yet for a life of 9 to 5 and TV dinners.