on the last day of winter

I found some back country snow bliss.

I took a trip over the mountains to Bend late last week, and since I'm never sure when I'll be able to make it over again, I wanted to be sure to get a dose of the Central Oregon Cascades. Tumalo Mountain sits just across the road from Mt. Bachelor, and when the skies are clear, its summit affords fantastic views. Unfortunately when I was there the nearby mountains were socked in, and sleet began to fall, making visibility near nil. The foggy layers provided excellent noise transmission, though, and I could hear the happy whoops of skiers and snowboarders on the slopes across the highway.

But my trip to Bend wasn't all about getting into the snow country. My main purpose was a visit to Atelier 6000, a print studio and teaching facility in Bend. In the past on this blog, I've alluded to a somewhat murky and mysterious "Bend Project." It's something I've had on my mind for years, but I've had a hard time starting the work. It's occurred to me that to do the work in Bend would be really helpful. I'm hoping to be able to get to Bend about once a month to work at A6 and start to forge ahead.

All of this sounds just swell, but the truth is, I feel a tiny bit conflicted about working in Bend, the project, and dividing my time between two towns...maybe it's just jitters associated with actually starting new work and the fear that always accompanies beginning something that potentially puts my art on the line. Self-doubt and second-guessing. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I do think this is part of the process, and is probably something to be embraced.

"There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning."

Hunter S. Thompson

I've been elbow deep in abaca pulp and I liked it!

Ok, really only wrist deep...if that. But still, I've been messing around with the over-beaten abaca, and it's opened up some new possibilities for me.

I'm a strong advocate of taking any opportunity to learn a new skill, to stretch oneself and explore new media when given a chance. Unfortunately, I don't often follow my own advocacy, and I let the excuse of time prevent me from exploring. It's something I've been trying to work on.

This past weekend, I took a paper making workshop with local paper making legend Helen Hiebert. Paper making has been on my list of *things I want to learn* for years. YEARS. It may take me a while to get around to doing things, but eventually, I come around to it.

So worth it.

The sheets I made were still in the dryer as of today, so I intend to update with images of the paper I made from off-cuts and mis-printed paper scraps from my studio. In the meantime, here are some shots from my weekend of paper making.

I can certainly see myself incorporating paper making into my studio work. It's so physical, and all about the process. So much of my work centers around concepts that I labor to translate, and tedious (but of course enjoyable in it's own way) fussiness over technical issues revolving around the press. Paper making is, at least so far to me, such a straightforward process - you acquire plant fiber/you beat it into pulp/you create a water and pulp solution/you form sheets.

It's wet. You can stomp around the studio in galoshes and a big rubber apron. You can sling buckets of water around. It's great!

It's the polar opposite of what the Studio Cat would like to do for fun. She prefers warm and dry. For those of you interested in an update, she's currently sandwiched in between the warm glow of my studio clip lamp and the space heater blowing beneath my desk. Despite the lack of soft surface anywhere, this is where she's chosen to camp out and nap while I click away over here.

In the time I've been not been blogging, winter came upon Portland with a ferocity rarely seen in the last gasps of the season here. In the last few days I've noticed, as have many of the people around here, that spring's tidy little sprouts are starting to poke up out of the ground, and there's an angle to the light that's slightly different in the late afternoon.

I should spare you the excuses - it's such a tired refrain. I've been absent. Away Without Leave. Missing In Action. Nowhere to be Found. Silent. Estranged. Incommunicado.

I should also spare you the apologies, groveling, and promises to "be back soon!" But truly, I mean it.

So get ready to have the excuses poured on, and poured on heavy. Squeezing every last minute out of the day has become the status quo around here lately. I added quite a lot to my plate in February, and honestly it's been a bit rough. I always have a longer adjustment period to new additions to my schedule than I expect. Keeping up with the fundamentals and growing with my schedule has kept me running just fast enough to be forced to drop a few things temporarily until I felt adjusted.

With all of the new stuff I've taken on come new stories and a laundry list of things to share with you over the next few days. I feel like I'm settling into the routine. It feels good to be back.