So, do you all know the dialogues online between Rick and his cat Louis? Louis has been taught how to instant message Rick at work, and then discovers the Caps Lock feature. He is now famous for this line:
CAPS LOCK IS HOW I FEEL INSIDE RICK
I am kinda feeling that way now. Taking vacations -- trips you pay for and doing it just for pleasure -- is a new experience for me. I tend to either travel to conferences, travel for work, travel to visit family and sleep in guest rooms or on the couch. For some reason I feel guilty and frivolous taking what normal people see as vacations -- going someplace for the sheer pleasure of it. But not only am I taking a major trip REALLY REALLY soon (I will tell you all about it when I get back), but I just arranged for another one. This one is art and weaving related.
For years I have been looking at the courses offered in New Mexico at the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center. Some very interesting tapestry artists have taught there. One I had hope to study with, James Koehler, died suddenly last year. It reminded me that if I want to do something, to work toward something, I should do it now. Recently I saw a tapestry class I wanted to take, and the teacher told me she would be teaching it this summer in Española. So I did it: registered, reserved a hotel room and rental car, and bought a plane ticket. Whew! Now of course I am having a bit of panic about having done something so bizarre and scary as schedule a vacation, but WOO HOO. I am very excited as well. I feel like I am taking another step in securing the art education I have wanted. Here is the description of the course.
EXPLORATIONS OF LIGHT AND DARK: VALUE IN TAPESTRY DESIGN with Elizabeth Buckley (the third tapestry on that page is amazing)
Value is not only the foundation to effective tapestry design, it also can be an expression of the universal metaphors around light and dark. In this workshop, we will explore the theme of how light and dark enter into your own life, describe an internal place or a personal symbology. We will look at how value comes into the use of tapestry techniques. This is a workshop intended for weavers of all tapestry traditions: Rio Grande, French, Mexican, and the spectrum in-between. We will explore the use of contrast, color blending, and the illusion of 3 dimensional space. We will work with black, white and gray-toned papers, India Ink washes, and collage as we generate designs for tapestry, moving through the stages in the design process from playing with ideas to the fine-tuning of one design to the point of launching a tapestry. We will discuss how to think in tapestry and which techniques make the most sense for weaving specific areas. Participants also can expect to begin weaving a small tapestry, or a study section of a larger design.
Thursday – Sunday, August 16 – 19; 9:30 AM – 3:30 PM
Española is an hour and a half north of Albuquerque, about a 45 minutes drive from Santa Fe, and not far at all from Chimayo. I figure when I leave the studio at 3:30 each day, I can take off for Santa Fe or Chimayo and be a tourist. So I get New Mexico, weaving and a vacation, all in one fell swoop.
CAPSLOCK IS HOW I FEEL INSIDE.
Love Rick and his cat! Thanks for the laugh. Have fun on vacation! Report back.
Posted by: yorksett | March 06, 2012 at 08:18 AM