Carol Larson - textile artist

Today I succumbed to buying a new calendar for the new year. I had already noted 5 or 6 appointments and/or trips in the back of the current year calendar, and probably could have kept on adding them up until December 31st. But I just had my last 2007 haircut today and when I got the next appointment card, I knew there was no way I would remember it on January 3, unless I had it written down on January 3, 2008.

Last year I replaced two long-standing traditions with new ones! I bought a PDA for my new cellphone which includes an electronic calendar. I am probably the only person in America who does not turn on my cellphone everyday, nor talks every minute of every day to everyone I know, about absolutely nothing. So the chances that I would see the haircut on January 3 are not 100%. Of course if I synced my phone to my PC, once in awhile, this would not be a problem!

The second new tradition (is that an oxymoron…new tradition?) was switching from a wall calendar to a desk calendar. After we remodeled the family room, and the kid was grown, we did not need the campy bulletin board, with a stack of notices and school schedules. I decided we were grownups and could just use a simple desk calendar. Hubby has bemoaned this fact much of the last year. He misses the bulletin board look with the calendar bearing 150 thumb tack holes.

Today, I bought the 2008 Sierra Club Engagement Calendar. And what a gift to myself this is! So many of the gorgeous photos are from places we have traveled in our 36 years of bliss while so many others are inspiration for art. I am dazzled by the wave washed stones on the June 16th page, the Swift River of New Hampshire on September 22 or the three dimensional, multi-colored, layered feathers of the Sandhill crane of New Mexico on November 3rd. If I were not such a stickler about copyright infringement, I would post them to my blog.

On another note, 18 pounds and four months ago, I gave up sugar, for the fourth time. Each time before that I have given it up, I did well, for quite a while and then my birthday and the holidays rolled around. I’ve never made it all the way through December. One year, I only sniffed the ravenous boxes of See’s chocolates that were delivered to my office, en masse. I was so good at work, and yet it was just one piece of my cousin’s hand-made English toffee that just sent me over the edge.

So, as I approach, the holidays and more specifically my upcoming 60th (YEAH!) birthday, I am well aware of my sugar addiction. I am also well aware that I feel so much better this winter, because I don’t hurt (as much). Sugar aggravates inflammation! A lot of people in pain just don’t realize that and have another brownie to deal with the sadness of hurting so much.

As an ex-smoker, I have never been one of those reformed, annoying rah-rahs. But as a sugar junkie, maybe this will be my salvation this season. I’ll be the tall, thin one, standing by the dessert table, mumbling my mantra of nothing tastes as good as pain-free feels and dragging on a bag of petite carrots. At least my eyesight might improve.

Someone whose opinion matters recently told me my work was not cutting edge enough for a particular exhibit. The sting for me came from the piece being one of an autobiographical series. Clearly, we cannot please all the people all the time, but because this work is so deeply personal, I don’t particularly care if it is cutting edge. The fact that I am presenting this torrid story to the world, at all, is edgy enough for me, thank you.

This got me to thinking, about being edgy, cutting edge and trend-setting. While I have always dressed to look like no other on the street, I would never have categorized myself as cutting edge. I definitely have an edgy haircut, not only in form but by the sheer fact of proudly sporting the grey and white hair I have earned! In this hair-dye obsessed culture, that is definitely cutting edge.

Up until I retired, I daily wore clothes that exhibited who I was on the inside, rather than the latest fashion trend. I likened myself to a walking art gallery. People stare at a tall woman, let’s give ’em something to look at!

Actually, I got a bit annoyed when popular retailers started selling wearable art. Those are the clothes of my people, not every Susie, Sal and Mary! Since I retired, my artistic look has been reserved for special occasions, although I have been known to wear artsy earrings and lip gloss with my workout clothes.

My daughter, on the other hand, has always been cutting edge. She was wearing her grandfather’s WWII Army wool waistcoat in junior high. No one in the entire school district was wearing WWII gear. In high school, she deconstructed an entire knit shirt with safety pins. She used about 100 pins on the shirt. She wore nylon slips as dresses and a kilt pin through her pierced septum! People stared, thought she was weird. Ten years later Macy’s was selling nylon slips as dresses and safety-pinned clothing. She was a trendsetter. She eventually got her BS in Fashion Design. You can bet that all those famous big bucks fashion designers were the weird, cutting edge kids in high school.

Oftentimes, I have thought that my daughter was actually living the life I would have lead, had I been given the permission and freedom to be my own true self. It is actually quite amazing how far and how well a spirit can grow given space and opportunity.

As for me, I guess I am as cutting edge as I can handle. Occasionally, I worry that I am not creating cutting edge work, but really not too much. I am doing what I love to do. I am not a cerebral artist. Seldom do I plan, research or sketch, I just do. And I am happy being who I am instead of trying to mold myself into who I am not. I have already had decades of that.

So, why the batik? These are shots of gorgeous African batik yardage I bought two years ago, from a vendor at a show. It just happens to be the perfect fabric for the tall girl body in the next piece. The background fabric is painted on yellow. When I was designing the background, did I give thought to the Tall Girl? No!!! And now I find myself looking for some “fair” skinned fabric and nothing looks good with the yellow. Ok, so I could dye some, but that is not an option, right now. So I ferreted out this fabulous batik and voila, this will work.

The Tall Girl may not be cutting edge, yet, but soon she is going to be head-to-toe in African batik. Then, when my husband critic says she is not realistic, he will be told yes, but she is cutting-edge, dear!

Back in the day, when I was a paid employee, I was the maven of multi-tasking. Why I could do four or five things at once, and never lose my place! Of course I was over a decade younger, as I have been retired from a regular paycheck for nearly nine years.

Often I choose to multi-task, a concept that my husband simply cannot understand. He says he knows how to, but chooses not to! I suspect multi-tasking is not in his DNA. He was a firefighter and until the end of the 20th century, they never had to write anything down.

Today, I thought I would have an easy day. I had planned to skip my exercise routine in favor of light housekeeping duties! We have a houseguest coming tomorrow and I wanted to spiff up the bathrooms and kitchen, clean the shower, clean the guest room,vacuum the rug in front of the fireplace, dust surfaces; just your basic run-of-the-mill cleaning. My husband who graciously cleans all the floors was doing his duties. As phone calls began to interrupt my progress, he stepped in to help me. When he asked me to inspect the bathrooms, I told him he was out of uniform and needed to salute! His idea of a clean bathroom and mine are quite different, however; so that required I run over everything again!

In between, I had two back-to-back telephone conversations on completely unrelated subjects. Then I had a conference call with my sisters regarding our father’s deteriorating health; and our strategy for dealing with it. There were two e-mails requesting immediate attention; one of which was a panicked exhibit curator.

Beyond the cleaning, I had planned to paint cloth, which never happened; start a new design for the Tall Girl Series, which never happened; and read at least one of the myriad of periodicals stacking up on the dining room table. And that never happened.

Don’t get me wrong! I am so grateful, I got so much done today. I am also grateful I don’t have to work like this everyday. At three weeks shy of 60, I am so over being the multi-tasking maven!

What a great photo for a totally frenetic blog post! I took this at Bodega Bay last week when we went out for lunch and a drive to celebrate hubby’s 62nd. It was a cold, dank day and yet I got this beautiful shot. Maybe if I looked at this while I was multi-tasking, I would just chill out and do nothing! Life is what happens when you are making other plans.

My website is officially updated! As you might recall, I was sewing like no tomorrow about two weeks ago. I did not take the time to photograph or catalog any work. It started to stack up on the guest bed, which is hosting a guest next week, so the self-induced pressure was on, to get the work photographed, and onto the website.

My husband, bless his heart, went downstairs with me, voluntarily and kept handing off the next piece, and we aced through the photography of 7 pieces in about 15 minutes! Had I done it alone, it would have taken me at least an hour.

Fortunately, earlier in the week, I built the webpages, so today just had to shoot, size, insert images, re-arrange the three gallery pages, change all the links, and upload the whole kaboodle. Because I have so much work now on the website, I also took some off, and eliminated two gallery sub-categories, thereby making navigation easier. And finally, a really big step, put in a link to this blog. What really impressed me is it only took me about 2.5 hours to do all that.

Up till now, I have been opposed to linking my blog to my website, because those in the know keep harping that we should not write about anything life-related on our professional artist’s blog. Since I make a point of not slandering anyone nor gossiping on my blog, I ask what is wrong with potential art patrons discovering I am human, with a real life, real experiences, real emotions, real good days, real bad days and a real sense of humor? Nothing! So now the two are linked forevermore.

Ok, so this photo represents no small miracle.

I am stuck by small miracles this week. Just as I was becoming exasperated with the ongoing dialogue of the SAQA Yahoo list…I mean when do these folks have time to make art??

Just as I was thinking of treading the list no more, I put my two cents in. And out of the blue comes this kindred spirit from the mid-section of the US, who writes me offline. And we have this amazing connection of like minds and spirits. Part of me wonders how can this be possible? And the other part, the trusting part says, breathe, relax, enjoy, learn. And I am. Thank you Rosemary!

This has been a very stressful week, full of ups and downs. The guild lecture is done and was a success and that is an up. They neglected to pay me, however, and that is a down, but not completely down as I forward them my bill! I had wonderful uplifting news which I cannot share yet, but that came with some very tense down moments.

Tomorrow is hubby’s birthday, which in reality is a chance for me to take a day off and just relax. What a concept! Then on to updating my website with photos of the new work, before I pick up my sewing machine from being serviced and start all over again.

It is amazing what can happen in a day’s time, if one gets up early enough. It took me until about 50 to notice my natural rhythm was not as programmed by my parents to rise at dawn, or before. Rather my body clock wakes refreshed about 8:30, my mojo comes alive about 2pm and I go to sleep about midnight. By the time I exercise and do whatever that day’s essential errands entail, it is usually noon. My old work mindset tells me the day is half over, when in reality it has hardly started.

This morning, I was up, with the alarm at 7:15. Within 30 mins I was showered and dressed for the day. We had a new furnace installation which was to start at 8 am, but I could have slept an additional 45 as he arrived late.

In anticipation of having the juice cut, I finished stitching quilt #6 (in the past two weeks), cut facings and sleeve,and sewed to handstitch tonight, paid bills, sorted through the never-ending paperwork. I designed 3 new thermofax screens in PhotoShop, updated my exhibition spreadsheet and ordered two pairs of pants from Lands End in my new slimmer size; all this before noon!

Then I asked the serviceman when the juice would be cut, and he said he did not have to cut it; instead he would be turning the gas off!

So, I continued on as if the electricity was to be shut off, and cleared shelves in the guest room of old HTML class notes, old OS documentation, old CDs of financial records, floppys, etc, etc etc. I filled a grocery bag with recyclable materials. My inspiration being an old friend who is staying overnight soon.

In the process, I found an audio CD with a cover that looks like it may have come from my cousin’s kid. So I popped it in the CD-DVD drive and am now listening to it. It is great latin music by Pepe and the Bottle Blondes. I have NO idea where it came from. It is obviously not my cousin’s kid! Maybe it belongs to my kid? I will have to save it to iTunes, before I even consider returning it.

So latin music brings me back to the studio. I often listen to latin music when I work. Yesterday it was Frida and hubby came in and asked me what the words meant? Men just crack me up….who cares what the words mean? The rhythm, melody, harmony and instrumentation just sends me. They could be singing about cow manure for all I know. Although I do recognize the words chile verde….I have been up so long, it must be siesta soon?