Intercambio, marcos de chaquira... and tile bead auction piece

It's been a busy week in my studio. On Tuesday a group of exchange students and their teacher from Pino Suarez, in Jalisco, Mexico joined me for an afternoon of beading. My friend Carmen, from the Basque region of Spain  (who was also my Spanish teacher 2 years ago) assisted.
Each winter Moscow High School families host a group of Mexican students as the counterpoint to the Turtle Trip exchange, when a group from here head to Playa Gloria, in Jalisco to help on a project to restore sea turtle populations. Our visitors take part in many different community events, and with luck experience some skiing - or at least snow. I have a great fondness for the kids, as they come from the community I have visited each year for the past six years. One of the boys here was in my first residency at Tenoctitlan Primaria Escuela!
Clockwise from left: me and Pinta, Maestra Fabiola Graciano Lopez, Edward Alexander Pérez, Ulises Antonio Quezada Carrillo,  Yaxziri Coral Cisneros, Carmen Cerdá Aldama (with Charlie in her lap), Alba Regina Renteria Salazar and Cristian de Jesus Cuevas Macias.

The small beaded frames were stitched by members of my Artist's Way group at our first meeting this past Sunday. More about this later, but it's a great group and I look forward to getting to know everyone a little better as we work our way through Julia Cameron's classic volume of the same title. Several of us have done the program before, to great benefit, and for me: It's Time again!

I just delivered the framed beaded mirror to the Prichard Art Gallery. It will be up for bid at their gala biennial fundraising auction, and I am happy to donate this piece which was created from 'overage' (NOT leftovers) from the Million Bead Project, exhibited in '07. This piece was created using Czechoslovakian tile beads, which are extinct now. The factories where they used to be made (I learned from the US Czech Consulate while researching them) have been "disassembled." Another casualty of the plastic age; modern little petroleum-based equivalents may at first glance look the same... but they are not.
Anyway, this piece is a full donation, to support children's art programing at the Gallery, and the winning bidder is going to get super deal. The auction will be Saturday Feb 8th at 7pm. The show opens before that, on Jan 24, and pieces can also be previewed at https://www.facebook.com/PrichardArtGallery

Getting ready for ArtCamps...

This is only one of many stacks out in my studio: books, papers, pastels, beads, ideas (too many) testing, and sun outside too. What's not perfect about that? I'm really looking forward to hosting some creative kiddos at my studio this summer. 

Group from a couple summers ago...

Printmaking... one of my favorite activities!












My strawberry plants are blooming now too and promising to put out a good crop for some nibbling, with my first groups... As I said, There's never too much fruit!

Too Much Fruit?

There is no such thing as too much fruit.










Here is a perfect Sunday breakfast.

And here's Monday's breakfast. Leftovers amid the table of preparations for my beading class this afternoon.

Which I was lead to believe would be from 4-6 p.m. at the home of a friend. I'm teaching the class gratis and the students even get to keep their looms. (But I'm hoping they'll buy out some of the beads I've stockpiled.)
If you want to read more about why, you can try out your Spanish. [below]
PS The class began about 5, and went too long... but everyone had fun.

[I submitted this to Las Opiniones, the local paper here. I hope I can sneak the advertisement at the end past them.]

 “Acumuladores” ¿Es un problema en México?

Por La Gringa Jeanne Leffingwell

Quisiera saber una cosa. ¿En México, hay “hoarders”? Es inglés palabra por acumuladores que recogen o compran demasiado cosas y para ellos es muy difícil deshacerse de ellas. La condición extrema es una seria  enfermedad conductual y muy difícil de curar.

Hay acumuladores en mi comunidad y en todos partes de mi país. Unos personas pagan cada mes  por espacio para guardar sus ‘cosas preciadas’. Algunos dejan de pagar porque se mueren, se mudaron, o no tienen dinero para pagar más. Otros hacen subasta.

Para que otras personas las compren, esperando que haya un tesoro entre ellos, pero usualmente no hay.

Existe un programa de televisión y se llama “Hoarders”. No es divertido para mí,  porque la condición de los enfermos es muy triste. Es una mania.

La mayoría de las casas que visité aquí me parece que tienen solo las cosas necesarias y no más. La excepción es la ropa que se vende en todas partes. Me imagino que unas personas necesitan mas dinero para remediar sus necesidades esenciales. Posiblemente otras están cansados de sus propias ropas o simplemente les gusta comprar y compartir. No sé.

Así es mi situación: He acumulado demasiadas cosas durante mis seis visitas aquí. No deseo comprar una casa. Y no es sencillo que otra persona guarde mis cosas hasta mi regreso.

Necesito deshacerme de practicadamente todo. Pero odio tirar cosas que alguien mas pueda  usarlas.

El filósofo Ralph Emerson dijo, “Si poseo una vaca, esa vaca me pose a mi.” Es verdad. No puedes dejar de dar comida, agua, u ordeñar a tu vaca, entonces quien es el jefe?

En mi i próxima visita es posible que me pueda quedar con amigos que me ofrecieron un cuarto en su casa. Espero poder regresarles el favor cuando me visiten un día.

En este viaje voy a vender todo excepto lo que pueda llevar a mi casa en mi maleta. Pienso que me voy a sentir más ligera y más feliz. Si tienen interés en mi “gringa bazaar”, voy a vender muy barato materiales de arte, chaquiras, objetos para la casa, ropa, muebles, y juguetes.

Ven afuera de la Posada Maréa. Encontrarás cosas buenas pero baratas. También puedes comprar un rico postre en el restaurante de la maestra Rebeca para celebrar. ¿Me ayudarás en mi experimento? Cuando regrese, voy a comprar solo las cosas que necesite. Para no tener una ‘vaca’ que me preocupe.