Life Lately

I kicked off March with a 45-minute song set at the St. Francis Mardi Gras pasta dinner fundraiser, which is always such a blast and gives me a great reason to play dress-up. I’m not big on selfies, but hey, the pillbox hat calls for one!

Not too long after that I was able to get down to Florida to visit my brother, friends, warmer weather, and the beach. What is it about reading a book while seaside? Every other care and worry and to-do list item seemed to find its proper size and place—as opposed to being overwhelmingly huge and at the front of my brain where they usually live.

While on my brief layover in Atlanta I discovered the handmade artist book exhibition in the E Terminal— my only disappointed was not having enough time to look at them all. I love that artist books are being given a more prominent showcase in the art world. So cool that this was at an airport too, and that there wasn’t just one display, but that they were on exhibit throughout the entire terminal!

At home, I got back to the print shop to work on the last page of my Tiny Poems book. The photo below is of one of my typeset poems sitting on the press before a test run. It was tricky getting everything lined up right, because this page is replacing an existing one, and so all the spacing needed to match exactly. Next up: binding the books and printing images.

Working on a new essay. I love scribbling on drafts.

While on a very short trip to Cleveland, I poked my head into the Morgan Conservatory, a papermaking, letterpress, and bookbinding center housed in a 15,000 square foot warehouse off I-90. It is amazing! The photo below shows a small section of one of their display walls with handmade papers and descriptions of how each was made.

While spring is definitely on its way (it was a bizarre 75 degrees on Thursday!) there was a bit of winter just before that. I love my front courtyard in the snow…

Sewed up another dress, and I think I need to make something summery out of this fabric I found at Sew to Speak.

Happiness is seeing Sherman and Hazel snuggling! I’m so glad he finally has a friend.

Cheers for now :-)

Hello from Lake Tahoe...

Greetings from the cross-country ski trails of Lake Tahoe, where I am thoroughly enjoying all the snow!

I’ve been feeling a little out of sorts lately and I can’t put my finger on why exactly. My guess is that it's a combination of a few things: I haven’t been sleeping well (kitty antics at 5am don’t help), my commitments to some volunteer positions I have are stressful lately, I haven’t been eating very well, nor have I been getting any exercise to speak of unless it's walking through an airport.

January came and went and we’re already halfway through February (?!) and I’m feeling the inevitable sense of “Holy cow, my June exhibition is going to be here before I know it and I’ve got an insane amount of work to do for that.” I love my life, but lately I’ve been edgy and the classic Retter "short fuse" is rearing its ugly head. We're mellow until all of a sudden we're not.

It couldn't be more perfect timing that I am cross-country skiing in Tahoe for a week. John tries to meet up with a friend of his every couple of years to go downhill skiing and this time I was able to tag along, going off on my own while the guys go zooming down the mountain. Tahoe feels like a winter wonderland dream come true and, best of all, it’s getting me outdoors in fresh air moving my body around for hours at a time. More photos to come.

Now to figure out how to keep up some version of this at home without feeling like like I’m “exercising.”
*sigh*

Life Lately: January

I took apart my desk calendar and hung the pages on my wall because 1. They were too pretty to just have them doled out one month at a time, and 2. I’m realizing that I need to see every month at once sometimes. There’s a lot coming up this year & it’s kind of exciting! By the time December rolls around I wonder what these pages will have filled up with.

So far I have loved January! Starting out the year by hanging up a huge exhibit was a great kick-off! It was a surprisingly satisfying thing to see my photographs out in the world again. I even sold a piece from the show already! The buyer and I chatted over the phone— I can’t wait to meet her when I take the show down in April and give her the photograph in person.

Then there were the snowstorms! It finally feels like winter, ahhh. I was even able to go cross-country skiing, which felt like such a treat.

It got pretty cold too… here is Sherman looking out the window at 7 super-puffed-up robins who were perched in the courtyard trees.

Miss Hazel. I love her so much! She is growing but still has that “little kitten” meow which I hope never goes away.

She is giving Sherman a run for his money (and I think Sherm is happy to finally have a friend he can have some fun with).

John came home with these beautiful flowers! I cut them short and put them into the one ceramics project of mine that was a success. I love the turquoise/purple combo.

In the studio… I’ve started working on finishing my Tiny Poems book. Yesterday I spent a couple hours sorting through sample packs of Japanese papers to see what I might use for printing. In the process, I was hit with an idea for another little project… sometimes the perfect paper leads you straight to the project it’s perfect for :-)

Also art-related: I’m excited to be working out the details of new collaborative projects with the Ohio State School for the Blind and also with Project Jericho in Springfield.

So yes! A lovely January. How is your 2019 so far?