Done Crawlin'

Finished the Eastside Culture Crawl last night after an amazing and successful weekend. What could possibly be more inspiring than hundreds of people participating in a community art event and sharing with artists? Old friends and collegues showed up with new babies, grandchildren, and lovers with new stories about their lives. Another generation of dynamic and remarkably talented young people came and shared information about what they knew and let me share what I knew. Hundreds of people came to play in the studio and poked and pinched the remnants and samples of my work. They touched and looked carefully and responded. I had so much fun!!! I love the reactions people have to extreme textile work. I love the generosity it inspires in others. I met a metallurgist, a entimologist and botanist, a shadow puppet troupe, a carpenter, a number of photographers, a political furniture maker, a dance company, writers and musicians. Many local people attended including politicians who I worked with and against. A sailor came and bought an old work from the lost coast series. She loved the charts I sewed into the tiny embroideries and recognised the locations! A Chinese film crew, some art professors from Beijing and people inviting me to show work in an old mine shaft came and played in the studio. Tiny children adopted pupae and decided that they contained slugs. Pupae ended up being wrapped in swaddlings of toilet paper and carefully cradled in little arms.( I swear that only West Coast Rain Forest kids could make pets of slugs!) ( I can too!) A favourite customer from last year came and gave me an amazing gift. He arrived with a whole bunch of old film stock and scripts from years of operas at the Met. He gave me the projector to go with them. Karen and KYd both work with projection and I have been dying to get my mits in! I gave him one of my favourite pieces but it still doesn't seem like enough. Karen and Jim both know what to do with the machine so something will percolate. The same wonderful man is also going to find me some slides and old medical equipment. My precious old friend Bill Darnell arrived with his nephew. Bill is the man who named Green Peace and was on the boat to Amchitca. He was one of the founding members of this important organization. I haven't seen him for a few years. He radiated sadness and exhaustion. He told me that he and his beloved partner Phyliss lost their son in an accident this summer. He said he was worried that they would be abandoned because of the immensity of sadness and loss. I know what that feels like. But the world keeps spinning and we all need to find balance and remember what is really important.