More Beads! @ Pendleton Woolen Mills

If you are ever anywhere near Pendleton Oregon, and you have any interest in wool... blankets... sheep... weaving... warmth... fibers... history... or whatever, Pendleton Woolen Mills is a Must Stop. Take the tour of the mill! Buy something in the outlet store. (I finally bought a shirt this week to replace the vintage one I inherited from my mom and proceeded to wear for more than a decade during and after college.)
There is a great little historical display at the mill too, which includes fine photographs and western gear, Native American bead work, Pendleton Round-Up history and more...
Here is a picture of C.M.'Mort' Bishop Jr receiving a Pipe Tomahawk as a Friendship Award from the Confederated Tribes only a few years ago. Click on the picture to check out that bead work a little closer!

Stumbling Onto Fabulous Plateau Indian Beadwork

James and I spent last night at the Marcus Whitman Hotel in Walla Walla. (Sweet choice, James, especially since they were overbooked and upgraded us to a suite!)
Today is already lucky too, as we got to see this wonderful exhibit at the Walla Walla Museum: Patriotic Beadwork of the Plateau People. I didn't know it was here. Here's a short review from their sister museum, Tamastslikt Cultural Center, where I am headed this afternoon. (My 3rd time there; always worth it. (James is hitting the links instead; I gave him the afternoon off.) Tamastslikt is a gem out here ten or so miles from Pendleton. And a nice biking distance from the Wild Horse Casino, where we are staying tonight in a very quiet (?!) room.
Would our luck will hold? Should we play Keno or Blackjack or ..?.. tonight? Or just eat a great meal at the Plateau Restaurant and think on it...
PS Muchas Gracias Vicky and Brian, for taking care of the house and dog for us. (Hope it's not too noisy there.)

Today at the Prichard Gallery

Spent the morning and part of afternoon at the Prichard Art Gallery, doing block printing and then beaded appliqué. Not a huge class, but tons of fun.

Here is Brigid with her print and favorite carved block. Upon pick-up by her mom she was overheard asking, “Can we do this with my friends all afternoon?”

Hey, I did it! I managed to post something every day for 6 days in a row (which qualifies as a week in my book.) And it's getting easier!

Incarnations for Old Projects

In my final year at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, one of the things I made for my senior show was a bentwood 3-panel frame. I batiked these three pieces of rayon and made everything into a room divider / screen. The fabric has held up well, but the frame had become something to stumble over in my mom's down-sized apartment.
When I visited her in Anchorage recently, she consented to let me re-purpose that "gift". So I took it apart and am in the process of making three separate shawls.
In the first picture, we're in the Far North Yarn Co (way cool store!) where the the owner-daughter team helped us pick out the perfect fringe yarn. (If you click it larger, look at my mom's split loom necklace. She first wove those glass beads into a belt when she was a Campfire girl. A few decades later I reworked it into the necklace.)
In the second picture, at my friend Linda Rasmussen's recent Art Walk opening at the One World Cafe in Moscow, I'm wearing the first shawl (with the warmest colors.)
Today I was just working on the fringe for the second shawl (cooler colors) which I'll give my mom. I'm planning to finish the 3rd one for my daughter, who is right now the age I was when I batiked the original fabric. (She doesn't know about this yet.) I hope she doesn't think it's hopelessly out of vogue. If she does I'll just wait a year or two. (She's acquiring excellent taste.)

Arrival of New Neighbors / Goings On Next Door

Well, big excitement today was watching the crew pour the foundation. Of the house in which our newly arrived studio guests will be living in a few (short?) months. Brian and Vicky, rear ends deadened from their 2,900 mile road trip, got here just in time to watch the workers get that cement into those nifty forms. Then it was time to share a first nosh on the deck.

Block Print Synergy

Here is the finished collaborative block print my students and I created at Arts Powered Schools recently (College of Idaho campus in Caldwell - great place, wonderful FOOD!)

Since the students all made their own cards and samples, I took the liberty of keeping this group print (we made two of them). I shared the other with my friend and fellow teaching artist Linda Wolfe who assisted me. It was a blast.

I just may frame it, like this print I made with 3rd graders at Troy Elementary in the spring of 2010.

Art Collaborations / Goings On Next Door

Here is Jacob, from my summer school group in Elim Alaska, making a block print. And, more recently, one of my students from the Arts Powered Schools Institute, putting a finishing touch on the collaborative print we made in my workshop.
This "linoleum" block-printing is fun!
Want to try it yourself ? I'f you'rein the neighborhood, I'm giving a workshop this Saturday at the Prichard Art Gallery in downtown Moscow. To find out more go here or to preregister call the gallery at 208-885-3586.

Today Next Door:
My brother and his wife are doing us one better. They were inspired by the shrinking aquifer in this part of the Palouse to invest in a rain catchment cistern. They will 'harvest' rainwater off their soon-to-be-roof.






So while we installed a 550 gal. above ground tank several years ago for watering the veggies, they are burying a 2,000(?) gal. vault. Whoa! That'll do a BIG garden! Here is was, arriving this morning.

Mixing Personal and Professional (Goals and Projects)

Here I am surrounded by the wonderful teachers from across Idaho who were my students in the class I just had the privilege of teaching for Meredith Essex, at Idaho's Arts Powered Schools Teachers Institute in Caldwell recently. It was jointly sponsored by the Idaho Commission on the Arts and our State Department of Education. We all worked on collage/assemblage boxes using (in Meredith's words) "a compelling personal story of transformation." Each of my students completed a wonderful art piece (their fearless leader isn't quite done...) and I am so proud of them all.
Now I am making public #1 a personal challenge, #2 a professional/personal goal (we artists tend to wrap them all up together) and #3 a specific project goal that is a key to my future:
Challenge #1 is to post something in here each day for one week. I figure even 6 days' practice should help get a habit started, and I really want to get better at this.
The personal/professional goal is to get 30 people subscribing to my little blog here. I'm not sure how long that will take, but I'm sure it'll be more than a week. Why 30? Maybe it's because my hubby and I are celebrating our 30th anniversary. (See what I mean about the personal and professional getting all sloshed together?)
My #3 project is to complete the commission I am doing for my wonderful web designer Susan Weaver who has been waiting so patiently for it for TOO long! (The reason this project is so important is that I need her help big-time again. I have places to go and stuff I wanna do with this website... and I am too embarrassed to ask her for any more help till I get this done!)

So there you have it: Jeanne's Monday-in-a-Nutshell. Oh did I mention that life is about to change around here? My brother and his wife are building a house next door, and will be living upstairs in my studio for a few months in the meantime. As I write this they are on their way down the highway from Alaska after 35+ years in Fairbanks. The guy in the foreground with the shovel is our son Sol, who's on the construction crew!