Carol Larson - textile artist

As I am preparing for my second cataract surgery this week I am overwhelmed by all kinds of things I think I MUST get done beforehand. I will be without reading glasses for a month and worry I may not be able to compute, which in reality might be a great thing! Suddenly everything I am working on has an April deadline, so I got up early with two in mind to finish today and two for tomorrow! I just finished my second and it is only mid-day so after my walk, I will start on #3.

Yesterday was a short respite. My friend Lynn Harris and I had signed up months ago for an all day intensive sculptural knitting class with Lori Goldman. I had scheduled it thinking I would have had both eyes fixed, but alas the HMO postponed the second so I was there without depth perception having great fun.

Essentially, for me it was a refresher. I knew many of the techniques already having been quite the knitting junkie some years ago, but had lost interest. I wanted to recharge that interest and treat myself to a day of meditative play with this very inspiring teacher. It was such a fantastic experience.

First of all, Lori exudes creativity. She has the visual sense to see all for its design possibility. She views as diagonal placement and as embellishment. She sees portions of what could be sweaters as gloves! Her mind is sharp, fast and intuitive. Teaching knitting is what she does and loves so it is her first language, really. What a delight to spend the day with her. Plus she made us a divine healthy lunch which we enjoyed outside. Yum.

Totally unexpected was the kindred spirit connection the three of us had. Seldom in this world do I meet anyone as sensitive to words and food as I am. Seldom do I meet anyone with a thirst for knowledge but a disinterest in acquiring it through the written page. How delightful to interact with two women who also have a stack of half-read books, who have started Art and Fear three times but never finished it, who have countless knitting projects in utero and who either react or offend on a regular basis!

In the end we decided we needed more time together not as teacher-student but as women. What an incredible gift!

These images, taken with my iPhone are from Lori’s spectacular home amongst the oaks and grapes in Sonoma.

Who says graveyard workers have to wear a uniform with their name stitched on? I wonder if anyone would notice if I flipped my days? I get my best energy, drive and motivation mid-afternoon to late evening.

Last night while lying in bed after midnight, trying to sleep I was mentally rattling off all the things I was going to get done this week. So I set the alarm to get up at a decent hour and get at it. I did get up before the alarm, just barely but still could not remember anything I had planned to do. It took me most of the day to remember the second thing besides velcro that I planned to get at CVS.

It amuses me that several things on my art goals list for 2010 collided this week. Suddenly they all need to be done this week because of a huge looming printing discount. I am creating a marketing brochure for the Tall Girl Series, I am finalizing two lecture proposals, sending to different venues and put up on my website. I am taking an all-day sculptural knitting class, which is supposed to be fun, on Saturday so I need to gather treasure from the studio for that. I am putting finishing touches on another lecture I am giving in early April. I am pondering a charitable contribution art-piece which I need to ship soon. And I am having my second cataract surgery next week.

I am also working on the 2010 version of the Whisper Challenge, which I wasn’t going to do, but in a weak moment agreed. I am number one. I got the photo and I’ll tell ya it is a whole lot easier to be at the end of the line than at the front. I have been fussy-cutting, while watching TV, for days. If only I could have thought of an abstract of the unseen photo … sigh!

If my day was slipped then I would miss out on this glorious spring weather which beckons from the open window. So buck up campers, and get the job done!

These images were taken with my iPhone from Twin Peaks in SF on Sunday. We had such a great day escorting two out of town SAQA members for cultah and sightseeing. It is the richness of that day that is fueling me now.

My Tall Girl exhibit returned home tonight after its debut exhibit at Rogue Community College in Oregon. I won’t get it unpacked for a couple of days as it will be a mammoth project and I am engrossed in creating a PowerPoint for an April lecture. I did however open the book box, and found treasure within.

There were photocopied pages of comments by viewers of the exhibit, a hand-written note from the gallery committee, an article from the city newspaper and a beautifully written article in the college newspaper. The author of the latter was so thorough that she pursued a corporate collector and interviewed him about purchasing my work! Some of the individual comments were:

…an amazing story and an even more amazing depiction. Thanks so much!

…WOW… fantastic work!

…beautiful works of art. …story is so touching

…so powerful and full of emotion…journey truly touched me

…on a scale of 1 to 10, you are awesome!

…amazing work and a great story of growth through adversity!

…the world is more beautiful with you in it!

…very moving exhibit

…glad you have healed through liberation in art

…art therapy, healing through art

Quickly I returned to the natural high I felt upon seeing the exhibit in person. Although I did not mention it then, I fell that evening after the opening and was immediately brought down to Earth so my high was short-lived. So for now I am just enjoying the rush. I can always sleep tomorrow night.

All of this kindness fuels me to press on, submitting proposals to exhibit this body of work which has already touched so many people. How blessed am I.

Today is a glorious spring day, a teaser if you will sandwiched into a week of rain showers. I decided to sit outside and read a while and then was overcome with the urge to get into the garden.

Now mind you our garden is my husband’s art workshop. He grows plants and veggies from seeds, frets about the climate, the rodents, the bugs, the cats, everything. But as a city boy transplanted to suburbia he is in hog heaven in his garden.

Whenever I even suggest going out there to touch the soil or pull some weeds he gets agitated. At that moment I really focus on how I would feel if he came into my studio to rearrange fabrics, just because there are so many of them. He graciously gave me a patch of weeds in full sun as he knew I would not last long! And I didn’t…about 15 minutes and a couple hands full of nettles and I was done in.

So then I wandered about looking at the winter’s work. The dinosaur kale which we enjoyed all last summer has finally gone to seed and is now as tall as I am. While he fretted about the snail damage, I was captivated by the amazing patterning those mollusks left on the leaves.

In the garden, there is room for both gardeners and artists. I am going back out now, if only to read. In honor of my friends stuck in No. Dakota in four feet of snow, I simply cannot spend this one indoors.

My husband has been skiing this week in Colorado. Being as we both are home together most of the time, this is always for me a very special time! As we have aged he has found more excuses to not ski locally or to go for a week and stay only two days. By going out of state on the big bird I was assured he would stay the entire time. And that I would get my well-deserved quiet time.

When he left I was in a bit of a funk with all that is transpiring over my father’s care. Now a week later I am at peace once more. I have had acupuncture, acupressure, watched lots of movies, played endless games on my iPhone, been into the studio and designed new work, had long phone conversations with old friends, gone to bed early, slept in, and consumed all my favorite food groups, few of which actually crunch. And googled Jake and Vienna until there is not a thing I don’t know, or even understand about them.

Last night I watched a program on Frontline about digital media and how it is essentially ruining our minds. How kids (and old women) are addicted to game playing, how too much digital media causes our brains to go into overdrive and we all cease to be able to make sentences properly; which as a post-menopausal woman I find extremely comforting! How social media has ruined the art of conversation and how multi-tasking is really bad for our brain cells. As I watching this I was simultaneously playing Scrabble on my iPhone, under the mistaken impression that I was improving my brain function playing a word game! So I decided I should stop multi-tasking and just watch this very informative program. I turned off all digital media and promptly fell asleep in Papa Bear’s chair and missed the last 20 mins of the program.

Watching that program was just the push I needed though to (maybe) change the grasp digital media has on me. In the two months since I joined some groups on Linked In, I have been bombarded with more stuff to read online. How much is enough? I could easily spend all of my days marketing my art and never make any!!! The information one can procure from the Internet is infinite.

While I have known for a long time, I need to step back (and no one will get hurt) I have continued on, even buying more digital media in the iPhone. Having this respite this week where I had a chance to fill my creative well really proved to me how digital media is a boundless distraction. And do I want to spend the rest of my days just distracting myself? Ah…let me play a quick game…while I think about that!

The image is a macro of a 5-6′ fava bean at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

I am back in the studio and designing. I have re-entered the zone from the back door as I am in avoidance mode from writng an upcoming lecture! We humans are such curious beings. I have spent months avoiding the studio and now I am avoiding the computer. Finally, I may have it right!

There is another reason I am there. With one cataract-free eye and one yet to be done, in a month, my depth perception sucks. Interesting how I can design art but can’t drive on the freeway. Well, I suppose I could, I just choose not to. Actually I might fit in with those under the influence, texting or otherwise occupied!

Nothing profound to say, except I am working again, and in very deep and somber tones. Obviously there is a whole lot stirring inside.