Carol Larson - textile artist

The past two weeks since I returned from Europe have mostly been creatively chaotic. I have had time to make fabulous art, but no desire. I have new tools to use, but no ideas. Occasionally an idea would surface and I would quickly talk myself out of it. And I have gotten into the old tapes about where am I going with this, there are so many great fiber artists, I will never amount to anything (thanks, Dad!), etc. And I have slipped quite easily back into my procrastinator’s routine of habitual busy-ness!

I meditated once on it, and got immediate clarity, which I chose to ignore! Like my crazy mind knows so much better than my gut. I kept listening to the nonstop chatter in my head, and elsewhere for the magic answer, when I know the answer is within.

Today, at the gym, in the middle of my 30 min cycling workout, I read a line…get my message out despite the odds! OK, so it was a self coaching book for artists, but BAM! I got it.

Synchronistically, the meditation also revealed the TALL GIRL work. I need to return to and complete (will it ever be finished?) the TG work. Get my message out despite the odds.

I need to stop doing exhibit driven work for awhile and do this work, that is so meaningful to my life story and my personal healing. After all, isn’t that the whole point, to create from passion and spirit? It’s when we try to overthink it, that it doesn’t work. Sure it is hard, but most growth worth achieving is.

The muse was with me when I left Ohio and nowhere to be found when I arrived home two weeks later from Finland. People keep saying it is normal: it takes time to integrate all the visual delights of the trip, it is jetlag, it was a long and arduous journey (their words, not mine)and yada, yada, yada. I don’t know the reason, only that it is making me nuts.

For once my calendar is wide open. I got all the time in the world to create. I even have some ideas, which range from re-doing finished work (huh?) to creating new and wonderful work. Somewhere in the delivery though from idea to product is a vast void.

Mostly I am interested in nothing. In surfing blogs this week, I randomly landed on link for what another artist does when she is bored. It was a game, seemingly from Japan, but it did have a Netherlands url. I sent it to my daughter for instructions and then it was all over. I immediately became seriously addicted to this stupid game. This morning I came in and deleted the URL. Either that or I am off to a 12 step meeting for gamers.

When planning the trip and all the deadlines around it, I did think about AFTER. I did have concerns about the letdown after with no big plans until August. But obviously I did not give it a lot of thought or I would have left something half started to finish when I got home. I knew better, but instead I finished that last one up. I did, upon my return add one more layer to it, interestingly enough. Aside from that tiny bit of fusing and stitching, the only action my studio has seen is the ironing pile.

I guess I could really motivate myself by going in and doing fabric postcards. About a dozen of those and I will really be ready for some serious art-making. One hopes, anyway.

I’m on my way…to being a crotchety old lady. I really have worked hard at not getting that way. My father is so much so, at 83. He is judgmental, short-tempered, has no patience for waiting for anything, or anyone acting other than if they were raised by the strap. He is my role model for where I don’t want to go! I practice everyday not going there.

And yet, summertime in the grocery store just does me in. This morning I did my usual routine, of going to the gym for cardio and then to Trader Joe’s. Had the food not spoiled in the car, the wise thing would have been the other way around. By the time I finished my shopping, in under 20 mins, my blood pressure was way up.

Even when I was a young mother, I hated summer. I hated the influx of these alien people intro my everyday routine. Today in the grocery store was no exception. Rugrats everywhere, all screaming, no one using their inside voice, clueless Moms on their cellphone or yakking it up with someone they ran into, in the store and their little darlings playing tag in the frozen food section, nearly knocking over a much older woman with a cane; bowling with mangoes and darting in and out between carts. Kids everywhere!!! Eek, get out the Raid! And this is only June.

I came up with a couple of solutions, three actually. I could send husband dearest out with the list; I could shop at midnight at Albertson’s or grocery stores could install daycare centers, like the gym has. How much workout would get done if we had rugrats running, screaming through the gym? None, I tell you.

My daughter has no children and plans to keep it that way. So I will never experience the joy of being someone’s grandmother. Good thing, because I wouldn’t put up with this crap! I know that these children with no manners are no one’s grandchildren. They are the orphans of the yuppie lifestyle.

All I can say is in 20 years, when they are grown, and I am 79, it is going to really get ugly. Maybe by then, I will have my groceries delivered!

I leave you with the last of the vacation photos (I wish!) that I am willing to load and post. We sailed on an overnight ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm. My husband was rousing me at 5:40 am, because he had not set his watch to Swedish time (an hour earlier). He was afraid I would miss the archipelago. It took immense determination to pry myself out of bed, get dressed and go up on deck. Wow, was it worth it. It was just spectacular and it was jaw-dropping how they manuevered this giant ship through this very narrow channel. There was another ferry behind us, which gave us great perspective.

And of course our famous Japanese tourists…

OK, so now on to other things! Even though my creativity is still in hiding, I did today more work on my website . I had done an overhaul before the trip, and had some table issues. Because I am a visual learner, it is excruciating for me to read the manual, so I had decided I would hire someone to tutor me on that and some CSS issues.

Then I found out that these guys want the big bucks to drive to my house and answer maybe 30 mins of questions! So the cheapskate in me got out the Missing Manual this a.m. and figured it out. I still have one more pressing issue, and then of course I might re-vamp the previously revamped pages. Like the video game on my blackjack, it is addictive. But I look at it this way, it is not taking me away from studio time, since there is nothing is happening there anyway!

to rant! Ay-yi-yi!!!

First, let me preface by saying I HATE TO SHOP…except for fabric, Indian Market in Santa Fe, anything in Santa Fe, actually, and fine craft, particularly jewelry. Other than that, I hate it.

So, a few weeks ago our beloved daughter took possession of an UGLY sleeper sofa, which we bought 3-4 years ago when the idea of entertaining hordes of invading Swedish cousins was appealing. The bloom is now off the rose, the sofa has been broken in and as I was no longer to get off of it, it was time to bid it adieu. She jumped on the offer of free ugly furniture, and wanted it right away. I had not purchased anything to replace it.

I did know that it was an albatross, however, and if I had an interested party, I too should jump on it and get it out of here. So she and her Dad hefted it down to Berkeley and there it rests in peace.

Meanwhile, DH and I were sitting on various oddments of furniture. He was like a human sculpture, asleep, on the side by side pew seats!
And I was sitting on a whoopie cushion on this 1940’s chair which has a broken seat. This chair belonged to my parents as newlyweds and aside from the broken seat is really comfortable and a good height for us long-legged folks.

Now mind you, I was the one who stated at age 23, many many moons ago that hell would freeze over before a recliner darkened my door. As I grew weary and guilt-ridden about husband dearest cramped up on the pew seat, I started researching chairs online. Just before we left for Europe, we went to the Lay-Z Boy showroom, which was probably our first mistake. In my online research, I had found all kinds of good-looking chairs, that reclined but looked normal and not like marshmallow rhinoscheri.

Unfortunately, hubby dearest who had retired from the fire dept where they had 6 side-by-side recliners in the TV room, does not share my love of contemporary design. They called it the “luge” room as they all sped towards dreamland in their respective chairs.

As we tried nearly every chair in the showroom, he loved everything I hated and vice versa. The one I loved the most gave him no neck support. I suggested he roll up a pillow there! Then I got it, how stupid it was to pay good money for something that was uncomfortable for him. And in an exhaustive moment, I surrendered and we bought the luge.

Granted it is a smaller luge than the giant marshamallow luge with 19 gears. I mean if you want 19 positions to lie down, go to bed!!! Yesterday, the chair arrived and I have fallen into deep doo-doo buyers remorse. The chair looks like a submarine in the room. It destroyed my vision of House Beautiful

So now I am totally stuck. I had planned to have the ’40’s chair rebuilt and re-upholstered, but it looks like baby bear’s chair next to the dominator. Last night, it did occur to me to buy myself a recliner (yikes!!!) just so the two match somewhat in size. But because I am shell-shocked, I am doing nothing for now.

Meanwhile, hubby is waxing on about how much he loves his new chair. Last night I strolled in to find him laid out, on the luge, sound asleep, with the TV blaring away. He couldn’t even see it!!! He said, he could hear it though. Oh, and you can bet, when no one is around, I’ll be sitting in it, but trying not to sleep, lest I be found out!

I know there are much worse problems in life. If anyone tells me that, they will have to spend an hour in the luge.

Today I thought I would present the REAL reason I went to Finland. CFA had our first international exhibit there at the Taky (tak-ooo) Galleria in Lappeenranta. No one in our group has yet come forth with photos of the gallery exhibit. My excuse is mine were too blurry and yellowed, compared to the rest of my collection. Perhaps the real excuse is when one is re-entering, the idea of cropping, resizing and uploading a bundle of gallery photos, one at a time to a yahoo list is not real high on the priority list! So, in that vein I give you a sneak peak of Taky Galleria, my work, and Lappeenranta.

Here are the intrepid travelers and Rosemary Eichorn’s brother on his front porch, at his house and gardens in paradise.

and my husband and myself at the gallery reception, in front of my work, “Arctic Glow.” This is our annual holiday photo…get used to it!

Lappeenranta is a spectacular little burg of 55,000 folks on Lake Saimaa, about 2 hours NE of Helsinki by train. This lake is gia-normous and our time there included a dinner cruise, going through one lock.

Had we gone through all four, we would have sailed to Russia. Apparently the rich Russians go there on vacation and have their eyes set on purchasing our art. All the Ruskies I saw were purchasing ice cream!

This is the view from our dorm room! Yes, hubby and the girls spent a week experiencing dorm life while attending classes at the South Carelia Polytechnic.

One of the other big summer draws, other than our artwork, is the sand sculpture building competition. Professional sandcastle builders, older than four, use tractors and pallets and water and brooms and buckets etc to build this giant sand sculpture. It was to be unveiled the day after everyone left, but we did see quite a bit of progress in our week at Lappeenranta. We left just as the McDonald’s and other corporate logos began to emerge.

The most lasting impression my husband had of Lappeenranta was that hundreds of bicycles were left in the city core, by their owners, with NO locks! He was so impressed, he took a photo.

Already, I am growing bored with this concept, but since this seems to be my only creative outlet at this point, I will press on! I am unpacked, laundered, up to date with bills, correspondence, etc, caught up on my sleep, ready to take the art world by storm and the well is dry. There is no creative flow in my body, except for posting photos to my blog. Woe is me!

Today’s tidbits are macros. I shot a number of wonderful and inspirational close-ups, and actually got quite carried away with the process. Perhaps the reader should guess as to what they are??? But then it would come to pass exactly which two people are actually reading this blog. So let me help you out…

…these two are a gravestone in the medieval old town of Tallinn, Estonia.


… a corroding copper drainage pipe in Stockholm.

…a Stockholm park bench arm.

…the last morsel of a devine macaroon sitting on its NK bakery box

and outside the back door of Jacobs Kirka, a church built in 1600’s in Stockholm.

…a palm

I sent myself to the gym this morning as I had finally run out of post-travel excuses not to go. The I walked through three airports in 21 hours and the I cleaned the house yesterday excuses were wearing thin.

I ran into an old friend at the recumbent bikes and we rattled on about my recent trip to Europe and her upcoming one. We do live the life, don’t we?! Anyway, she said she thought I looked thinner now than before I went on the trip. It make me laugh because I certainly don’t feel it, and I am wearing my super big baggie pants today. So that got me to thinking about the fabulous food we encountered, along the way and thus today’s topic!


While my CFA friends all got hooked on pear ice cream in Finland, I didn’t. Mostly because I am allergic to ice cream, I was not game to try it. That excuse held me for a day! I succumbed to the pear on day two. It was great ice cream and did not give me my usual headache, so then I tried other flavors! After all I was packing my gluttony reversal Chinese herbs, in case of a bad ice cream day. Finally I settled on the lactose free koko citronella which is swahili for coconut. I consumed many a koko citronella cone in Finland and Sweden.

We had fabulous food all across Finland. When I booked the overnight Silja Symphony ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm, I was advised by a friend, to also reserve the smorgasboard. Following the lead of fellow art quilt foodies, Gerrie Congdon, Liz Berg and Rayna Gillman, I approached the smorgy with camera in hand. You cannot imagine just how very popular I was taking photos of the trays, bowls, pans and platters of food, instead of actually serving myself. And on top of all this wonderful food, there was a “glas” stand for ice cream. It was only strawberry and vanilla though, so I passed in favor of the other dairy-laden delicacies.
If I am thinner, it must be an optical illusion.



And one to grow on…

While many of my peers are shooting madly away taking photos of anything that is not nailed down, I have developed a bit of shyness about it. I was always aware that I did not want to be obnoxious with my camera (not to imply otherwise) but there were so many visual delights in Finland and Sweden, how could I resist?

Today’s tidbits are about window dressing. All of these shops were closed so I could take advantage of their glorious color or pattern without regard to the photo police accosting me.

This first shot is in the Munich Airport, where I was waiting (im)patiently for hubby dearest to come out of the men’s room. The entire window in a shop was filled with beer steins. At the time it seemed an awesome shot, but obviously the flash reflection doesn’t add much to the picture!

Even the mannequins are well-dressed in Finland, no jive plastic body parts left exposed in the window.
And Marimekko…
what can I say about Marimekko that has not been said or purchased? Well, I could say I spent over an hour in the Marimekko shop in Stockholm looking for just the perfect something for my daughter. After the 2002 Missoni mishap in Florence, I wanted to make certain that (a) she would like what I bought and (b) it would fit. So finally, I made a decision, they wrapped it up and I returned home knowing she would love the wonderful cap sleeved pear shirt with the scoop on the back neck. Until, she opened it, today and omigosh, I didn’t buy the pear, I bought the polka dot!!! She loves it, prefers dots to pears she says and it fits, to boot.

And finally, let them eat cake… a window so beautiful only the fork was missing!

Since some folks hate travelogues, I have decided to post a tidbit a day until I either run out of tidbits, grow weary of tidbits, fall asleep or just plain forget.

Today’s tidbit is from Helsinki. Since we had two days there to acclimate to the 9 hour time change, (yeah, like two days is going to do it…try 9 days, one for each hour!) we decided to take a city bus tour.

When I was in my 30’s or even 40’s I would not be caught dead on any bus tour in any city on the planet. But at the end of my 5th decade, I relish seeing a city without taking too many steps!

On the way out of this rock church (i.e. church blasted through giant rock), I spotted the Santa Minimart. I mean is this not so much more impressive than dynamiting a rock to build a church??? Of course that got me started on peace and religion, but let’s not go there today, ok??? However the designers of the bus tour neglected to mention Santa’s Minimart as one of the highlights of Helsinki.

The other tidbit was the incredible Sibelius monument. Sibelius (and gosh I hope I spelled his name correctly) was a Finnish composer and when he died, the city had this impressive sculpture installed on a bluff overlooking one of the many harbors. It was a challenge to get a good photo of it because every moron with a camera was taking a photo of their traveling companions standing underneath it.

This is a phenomena that boggles my mind. There are people who take photos of everything with cousin Harry standing in front of it. I actually took photos on the overnight ship from Helsinki to Stockholm of Japanese tourists posing at the rail while cruising the Archipelago. It was just downright funny how they never took a photo without someone in it.

We on the other hand seldom take any photos of ourselves on vacation, or anywhere. So far we remember what we look like, and where we have been. That is subject to change! My boss used to say, who was on this trip when he looked at my vacation photos. OK, so I learned to take a few people pictures, but not as many as texture, pattern and color.

I got even though with the telephoto lens and captured several closeups. Awesome!

And that is today’s tidbit…stay tuned……..oh great pun!