The Last Weekend of the Barn Sale

Well, The Barn Sale is happening! A slow beginning but ended up really doing well. When I asked Jay at the store who could help me get some stuff hauled off he said he knew just the person and would see him soon. An hour or so later 2 guys came by and took away the scrap iron and then hauled some trash as well. Of course, I gave one of them the treadle sewing machine. So all were happy.

People were here very early , one when I came back from setting up a sign at 8am. I just kept setting up things and taking off the tarps.

The neighbors were aslo having a yard sale so it got lively with cars stopping and trucks manovering in and out of driveways. But was good to have more stuff gone. One more day and I will make a call to see who can come and get the rest of the "stuff" and also see what they will pay to do this!

I am anxious to get back to painting as I have been consumed with the logistics of work and getting everything tagged for the big clean. I already feel lighter and an artist stopped by at work to see if I would give her a refresher in encaustics so there is a sea change in the air which is a very positive outcome of clearing out the clutter.

And another positive note. I could not get the licence plates onto my car. I did not have the right tool and a neighbor on the island said she thought she did and would come back and help me get legal. She brought back socket wrenches but then the bolts were metric, go figure, so I went to look for anything I thought would work and used the tools I open my oil paints with. She was patient and we got the job done. That's one of the perks of living in a small community. You never know who can help you but there is always someone.

Be well and travel lightly on this wonderful earth of ours. She is in need of extreme care, Diane

Chasing time

With the 4th of July, summer has officially arrived to the island. I heralded this with a big barn sale! I am on a tear to have more room to make larger art, to stretch bigger canvasses and just cut down on so much work being done in my one room school house. I want the barn clear and will continue the barn sale for one more weekend and then call the "u-call we haul guys" and it will all magically disapear. At the same time I am rearranging the insides of the one large room. This now houses the encaustic area, the sitting and reading area, the office and the dining room and the sewing room with all the fabric! The fabric and most of the canvasses will be hauled up into the front room, no longer even pretending to be a guest room. This room is for storage. I will carve out a spot to sew in until the winter snows make the room way too cold. That said, and its all only on paper but that is the first step. My dream for many years is to have bare and spare and I do envision this happening now. I have emptied many boxes and put most everything in the barn sale. I will find more I can live without. When I moved to this island 30 years ago, I came from 8 rooms , 2 sheds and a barn and moved into a farmhouse with little storage so we built a barn. Downstairs was for the sheep and hay storage one side of the loft. The other side was for my stuff. So it has been years since I had my stuff out of boxes and now its time to unload this wealth of "stuff" and live the simple life I have yearned toward for a long while. The kids are long gone into their varied lives, no longer want mom's junk or if they d, they need to come and get it soon as that too will be history. My daughter and I still move around beds and bureaus and other things but I do feel we are at an apex now where there is nothing more to move back and forth. Plus with the price of gas its not so easy to say do you want the other spool bed and if so I'll bring it down on my next trip. In fact the bed went with my brother to my daughter's house. So change is in the air, thoughts of winter curtains lined with several layers of insulated warmth are what I am thinking about as we move through this fast paced summer.

In the art corner I have been to the Encaustic conference where I had the delighful honor of having 3 pieces chosen for "On the Edge" at Gallery 301 at Montserrat Colleg of Art in Beverly, MA. I heard lots of wonderful ideas, met many new artists and shared the ride down and back with my friend Kimberly Curry whose diptych made the distiction of being juried into the Conrad Wild Gallery in Tuscon, Congratulation Kimberly.

Once home I have been madly experimenting with many of the techniques I saw demonstrated while at the conference. Adding words into the encaustic ala Mary Hart, trying out new monoprint techniques from Paul Roland's demos and thinking more about textiles from Daniella Woolf's slide show. I have begun also to use some of my new colors but need more time to add to my series of Enzo or the large circles from Zen thinking of infinity that I had begun in my entry to the On the Egde exhibition. One of the images, Memory II is at the beginning of this post.

Now its time to go plug in the wax and see what I will come up with for today. I have been on a mission to be in the studio either making or cleaning and creating more space every day or every other day.

Be well, be creative, Diane