Another year has gone by, yet again filled with travel and adventure.
I spent January in Europe, touching down in Spain, Turkey and Romania, dodging the virus carefully, February back in Berkeley, weaving, and March back in Eastern Washington, in isolation at my tiny house, recharging.
It was a long cold, wet spring in Eastern Washington, that brought snow and hale into May, and cozy woodstove days well after the easter cozonac was consumed. This long spring also brought a clear summer, and hopes that fire season would be short and subdued. In my isolation I started making. First some tapestries.
Then a few compositions inspired by some immediate emotional and visual settings.
While the willows were bringing forth bright yellow new growth by the meandering stream down the road, a faithful friend and restaurant owner decided to open a new restaurant of a French persuasion. So I created this mural to celebrate, mixing those Berkeley roses in with stenciled rosettes.
May found me accepting an invitation for a two-month residency by the generosity of a friend in Berkeley. I took full advantage of the chance to do nothing but make art, which has not come in any official manner from elsewhere, yet.
Going back to my basic drawing skills and employing pen and ink, my first love, for that unmistakable mark.
July found me back in Eastern Washington, getting ready to teach Printmaking for Fall semester at Gonzaga University, thanks solely to my friend Reinaldo Gil Zambrano who took time off to welcome his firstborn into the world. But first another mural for a new restaurant, this time with Spanish flavors, and a fiber show where my tapestries were shown for the first time.
Fall came with fires, smoke, and evacuation news. Floods and despair from across the world. The war in Ukraine still raging, African conflicts still killing way too many. Countries all over choosing right-leaning regimes, because the new voters don’t remember what it was like under the rule of fascism. Hurricanes are leaving millions without power or shelter. The world keeps falling apart… But being human has never been easy. Looking around I see everyone doing their very best, having babies, starting relationships, planting gardens, celebrating what they have, keeping the lights on. I am now making a sketch a week inspired by my own students to try new things, to loosen up.
The year ended with two new compositions. Both inspired by the sketches done above.
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