I’m here because my partner is going to a conference, and I was invited to come along. And I have never been one to pass up a trip, so here I am!

I’ve spent a lot of my time so far finding the ocean. The first day here was in the middle of the remains of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Rachel, so it was windy and rainy and basically no one was on Mission Beach except eight kinds of birds dodging the weather and two kite boarders chasing the weather – they were out on surfboard kinds of things being hauled about, at speed, by kites that let them fly for brief amounts of time. It looked exciting, and moderately terrifying.

I found the San Diego Maritime Museum, and went on and off all the boats they had, which was delightful. The whole museum is centered around a ferry they brought down from San Francisco, with art deco stained glass on the second deck, and a lot of exhibits around the engine room on the lower deck. They also have a replica of the first European ship to sail into San Diego harbor in the early 1500s, and a gorgeous steam yacht that made me think of Some Like it Hot, and the Californian, built when every state with a coastline felt they needed a sailing ambassador, so the same age as Spirit of Massachusetts and Pride of Baltimore. The ship that played the part of HMS Surprise in Master and Commander is there, and some of her history as well – she was designed by Phil Bolger as a replica of HMS Rose, and then reworked by Fox studios to be in a movie. The pride of place is the Star of India, a steel ship that had many lives and now (I am told) hosts the fourth graders of the city for overnights, as well as other educational programs. I got a tour of the harbor on an actual Pilot boat, that had been working until 1972 carrying pilots out to ships waiting to enter San Diego harbor. It was funny and informative, and the day was perfect for beign on the water.

I spent all day Tuesady at the zoo. I learned that the zoo is one hundred acres, and I learned why a two day pass is a good idea, and I think I saw between one third and one half of the animals it was possible to see. Also I gave myself very sore feet. I did hang out and watch the elephants for a long time – they are SO big, and moving so slowly, but still cover a surprising amount of ground. They had all kinds of toys with hay hidden in them, to poke, reach into, grab, shake and rattle.

Yesterday I was even closer to the ocean – first in a kayak out to the caves of La Jolla, then swimming on the beach there. The kayaks were fat and unsinkable, and hard to maneuver, but it was fun to be sitting on the waves like a duck as they rolled into the shore underneath us. The surf was too high to go through the cave that they take tourists through, but there were some very nice views of the coast, and the day was, again, perfect. I managed not to get knocked down by the surf when I was swimming later on, and came home only slightly sunburned (thank you Kurt who loaned me his sun screen) and cheerfully salty.

Today I intend to be on a sailboat in the evening, and possibly at the Visions Textile Art museum before I do that. Al has dinner at the conference, so I am on my own for supper. We found the best fried fish the second night we were here, and we keep going back, rather than trying to find a new place. Charli’s Landing, on Quivira Rd in San Diego, if you’re nearby. It’s where the fishermen eat before taking the tourists out for deep sea fishing – highly recommended.

One of my favorite books is about an artist. The book describes her work in terms that set my imagination on fire – a checkerboard sky, chunky fat cows with filigree gold wings, butterflies with toothy grins, sunflowers with eyes, and round smiling mermaids. I could see these things so clearly in my mind’s eye, I wanted to make them happen in fabric. So I tried.

I realized fairly quickly that I am not the kind of artist who can make winged cows or even mermaids. However, my younger kid has been working on a sailboat in Penobscot Bay since April, and I wanted some ocean, so I started veering away from the described work into something I felt more comfortable portraying. So I made a schooner, some seals, a humpback whale; all things we’d seen when we sailed with her for a week, and things I know the shapes of.

I am pleased with pieces of both the daytime and nighttime pieces, but I’m not at all certain how successful they are all together. I think I might try one or two more, but then I need to try it again working in my usual way, and see if anything is clearer coming back to it fresh.

The excellent title was from a studio neighbor who put their finger on what I was trying to do while I was just babbling about checkerboard skies!

I’m onna BOAT!!

The Alaska State Highway system ferry MV Columbia. Columbia is named for Columbia Glacier, which is named for Columbia University which is named for the personification of the North American Continent. Generally seen in assorted art of the mid-1800s glorifying Progress and Science and other high-falutin’ concepts, Columbia was generally shown in sisterhood with Europa and Britannia, although sometimes separate European countries were identified with their own personifications as well.

I will be on this ship for two more days. The above picture was taken an hour before the rain started in earnest, so the clouds are dramatic and the sightlines longer than I am currently experiencing. The assorted weather forecasts I can find predict some sun in a day or two. When that happens, I’ll find a new picture with the sun in it, but it will still be astoundingly gorgeous.

The lovely people at the gift shop at Castle Hill requested some extremely local pieces, which I am happy to oblige. They look like this – a collection of seasons.

I keep wanting to spell that (k)new knee, but it is a different word and thus a weirdly pointless joke.

It was done a little over 8 weeks ago, and I am sporting a fabulous scar, and some stiffness, but I am walking around, and I can see how it might be going to hurt less that it did before I got cartilage-free bone swapped out for titanium. The funniest thing is that I think it has changed my specific gravity? One side of me sinks when I am doing the water aerobics. I can’t decide if I am imagining it or not!

So that is why I’ve not posted anything. I have been doing rehab, instead of art. The plan is to change that soon!

I’m thrilled with all the things showing up in the garden. I ordered a lot of bulbs from the amazing Fedco and they arrived while I was in the North. My generous offspring planted them for me, and we have all been awaiting the results. Here are the frilly goth tulips, the not-peonies tulips, the frilly and flames yellow tulips and (of course) the vibrant red tulips. I added in checkered lilies (also called snakes head lilies or checkered frittilaria) and the most forward of the lilacs (also from Fedco – they send you a stick, and then it turns into a raging bush in a couple years – magic!).

Working on new coasts – can you recognize anyplace?

If you guessed Woods Hole, Rockport, Plum Island or Isles of Shoals, you get a sticker! Woods Hole Massachusetts, is important to me for many family reasons. Plum Island because I have a thing about sandbars and longshore transport. Rockport has that great breakwater, and I don’t think anyone has seen Motif #1 quite like this before. I know Isles of Shoals are a favorite of many people, but I am in it for the underwater topography (just look at those shoals! next to that deep channel! I love it!).

Having the laser cutter installed and working feels like a huge milestone, and I have been celebrating by cutting things. The first thing I did was make some miniature magazine holders to hold the Field Notes notebooks. I love these things, but I had to cut myself off because I was acquiring them much faster than I was using them. Right now they are used for logbooks – keeping track of materials and settings and hours logged on the laser, reminding myself of ways to use QGIS, so I can go back and repeat a process that works (or avoid a process that does not work) and keeping track of my thread inventory, so I don’t get three of a particular blue and completely forget I am out of two different browns. Having the notebooks corralled into Used and Ready to Use means there is counter space for putting other things that need homes.

The second thing I did was test cut a five layer rabbit. There is a designer I found on Thingiverse who makes three layer animals – a center layer that is mostly head and body, and a layer on each side that is legs and ears. The results are evocative. I made a bunch in cardboard for the kids I was sort of teaching in 2022, and tried to get them to design some of their own. And now the same man has a pair of five layer rabbits. So I have a couple of them on the windowsill keeping me company.

The next project was to cut all the parts for ten new tiny boxed coastlines. I was looking at the New England coast trying to find places that looked interesting and that might also be iconic enough that people would recognize them. I settled on a fairly eclectic list, including Provincetown (a characteristic hook) and Monhegan Island (with Manana just beside it) and a couple others. The parts required include pieces for the box, the plexiglass for the ocean, and the cardboard that makes up the land (both over and underwater). The final pieces need to be composed of fabric and then stitched before they can be laser cut.

And finally, to warm up my sewing machine skills, I made an abstract river. I had a vision of birch bark circles originally, but the colors I chose for the river valley do not have enough contrast that birch bark would be visible, so I decided on green silk circles. I have a lot of punches for holes of different sizes; they need sharpening and they have to be hammered into the fabric to cut the circles, but they are useful. I had found the punches, and the hammer, and was in the process of hammering on folded fabric when I remembered – silk is imminently laserable! So I drew up some circles on the computer and sent them off to the laser and within fifteen minutes I had a couple hundred circles in various greens. I was so pleased with myself.

Next week I will get the fabric stitched and cut for the little coastlines, and see how well they work. I have my doubts about a couple, but I won’t know til I try!

After a lot of help from friends, I can start making work in my studio.

The laser is focused, and vented (thank you Jared! all your climbing about on the windowsills, and your cheerful gargoyle impression) and fabrics are unpacked and sorted and filed into bins (thank you Cathy! your suggestions are still on my desk and sorting goes so much better with you) and the rest of the boxes are unpacked and put away (thank you Jeanne! your help and good cheer when it was So Cold in here was so valuable). I still have the label maker here, but almost everything has a label now. Having more than enough space for the things I have here feels so expansive – there is room for my work, friends’ work, a friend to visit. There are still things uncategorized and in boxes, but for the most part, it is time to buckle down.