Bartley Crisp: Farmer, Horse Trader & Uncle Extraordinaire

A while-back I asked my mother about old family photos, not really sure she would allow me to ever borrow any of them to scan for myself. Much to my surprise one day when I went by to drop off some prescriptions I had picked up for her, she had a box of old photos on the dining room table ready for me to look through. Many of them I had never seen before; I'm not sure where she had been hiding them, but their cracked and broken corners and aged patina beckoned for me to come hither. This is one of the treasures that was buried in the old shoe box that housed them; the original was very faint--almost ghostlike--and required quite a bit of dodging and burning in photoshop to coax it to life. The younger man astride the steer was Mammaw Laws' brother Bartley (husband of Virgie referenced in Washing With Virgie posted earlier). The gentleman on the left and owner of this fine bovine was the grandfather of my Aunt Hilda (wife of Dad's youngest brother, Frazier). His name was Gold (Goldman) Sawyer. Both Uncle Bart and Gold were "horse traders" and throughly enjoyed getting the best end of a deal. I am not sure if they ever did any trading amongst themselves; I am thinking probably not since they were close friends until the older man's death when I was in my early teens. As a child I spent a great deal of time with my Uncle Bart and Aunt Virgie and always enjoyed getting to know Uncle Bart's latest trading triumphs, be they ponies, mules, or horses. They were never graceful "riding" equines, but rather the sturdy working stock favored by the farmers whose eyes and pocketbooks Uncle Bart was always looking to open (be aware that as far as I know he was always fair and honest in his deals; I assume this to be true as he was very well loved by everyone who knew him and had no known enemies). Even though they were capital to be sold and traded, Uncle Bart always loved to sit me on the latest mount and lead me around the pasture and yard. Thinking back, it may have been a way to demonstrate the docility of the animal to prospective buyers, but as far as I was concerned, it was just plain fun. Sometimes he would keep an animal for an entire growing season, allowing me to get very attached to it. One of my favorites was a bay mare called Trixie. Trixie was broad across the chest and flanks with a barrel-shaped middle that stretched my short legs to their limits. She was slow-paced and sure-footed with a muzzle that compared to the finest velvet. The rattling of the pasture gate perked her ears, and if she found it was me climbing the rough sawn boards with a handful of plaintain leaves or an ear of corn she came at a gallop, whinnying and tossing her head. Trixie and I enjoyed a lot of slow rides and ear rubbing that summer, but not long after the tobacco and garden were in and the wood shed was filled with fuel for the winter, the trading bug bit Uncle Bart and I was forced to say good-bye to Trixie. With tears running down my cheeks I watched her disappear around the curve with her ears just poking over the wooden frame on the back of his pickup truck. A few hours later as the truck crunched the gravel of the drive way Uncle Bart jumped out calling for me to "come here Brenda and looky what I brought". This time it was a young mouse-colored mule with long erect ears--and a muzzle soft as the finest velvet that promptly nudged my shoulder and nibbled my curls. I couldn't keep from smiling.

Five days later...the snow is still laying about three inches deep in our lower pasture. The weather service is predicting rain/freezing rain for us this evening and tomorrow...but...the "old folks" say that if snow hangs around three days it's waiting for more... Also, smoke from everyone's chimneys is coming to the ground...and...it clouded up over a HUGE frost this morning. We'll just have to see about this weather prediction.



Roots Cellar--version 2: This is a second version of this piece with some of the changes suggested by Amber. I went out yesterday afternoon and shot some photos of roots hanging over the edge of the red clay road bank and payed around with the image again in Photoshop last night. I think it is getting there.



I also scanned the Alice piece, although the colors may be off a bit.



Eat Crow: This is the first experiment I did this semester with the water method for transfering inkjet prints to fabric. The garden are of the image is done with this technique. I use Goof-Of to transfer photocopies of a crow feather and some of my crow and tree drawings for the other parts of the image. Crayon and Pitt Pens add color and text to tie the image together. The text relates to myths and sayings about crows. This piece is small--about 5" x 7" on unbleached muslin.

An in-progess piece: I am calling this one Cousins; it is based on a vintage photo of my Grandpa Jenkins' cousins. I think the photo must have been taken at a wedding or something, as they all have flowers in their shirts/overalls : ) The images are water transfers on muslin. I am going to stitch/glue the parts down when I finally decide where this one is headed. Below is a detail:

I want to add some drawing/painting to the image to break the grid up and unit the parts more. The green background was not working very well for me in this direction, so here it is with a different ground.

I want to also add a larger image, maybe of one of the individuals. I am thinking about the banjo player. To check this out I did a gel transfer yesterday so I could put it on the piece and work with placement. There is a bit of glare from the "plastic" of the transfer in the photo below, but you can get an idea of what I am thinking anyway.

Roots Cellar

an in-progress piece for my current grad school class... I am calling it Roots Cellar...the couple in the center mason jar are my Pappaw and Mammaw Laws and on either side are her parents, Jesse and Callie Crisp...the "roots" are actually bare maple tree tops... am mulling over in my mind where this one is going...maybe separate the layers and transfer them to a wood substrate? or a piece of old text? rust-stained? include sand, grit in the adhering process?...we'll see

Alice update for Amber

This is the 4th version of Alice. The base layer of the image is a sepia toned photo of Harold's great grandmother, Rebecca Alice and her little Chihuahua. It was cut and woven with strips of a small toile print cotton fabric. This layer was then glazed with a sienna acrylic glaze. In the upper left corner is a waxed oak leaf. A piece of tea stained cotton cheesecloth was the applied using clear acrylic gel medium. Alice was printed out on an index card-sized piece of acid free card stock and was cut out paper doll fashion; color was added to her skin and clothing with colored pencils. The remainder of the negative area was cut into a grid and color was added with metallic crayons and then heat set. The grid was glued in place with rubber cement and then another grid of turquoise thread to pull the color from Alice's dress into the background. Another wax coated leaf was hand stitched to the background image using 6 strands of embroidery floss. Extra layers of card stock were glued to the paper doll to make her more substantial and stable, then a thin wooden strip was glued up the length of the back side to raise her off the surface. She is attached with jeweler's contact glue. Sorry about the quality of the photo; I was in a hurry because the power kept going off!

Wow! It's Been a Year!

I haven't posted on this blog in almost a year! It's really difficult to realize that time has flown so quickly. I am still here, but just pretty much overwhelmed with the rest of my life--so--blogging has not been my #1 priority. Since my last post I enrolled in grad school and have been working on my MA Ed online through East Carolina University. It has been fun, hectic, invigorating...Some of the classes are quite interesting. I am currently taking my second class with Audrey Kilgore. One of the requirements for the first class was the creation of a website featuring the work we were doing. You can check it out at http://www.modusvivendi.webs.com/ On this site you can see both in progress and finished pieces I completed during my first semester with her. This semester she has graciously allowed me to do an independent study that continues with the exploration of combining digital and traditional art media. We are a week into the semester, and I am at the experimenting phase, so I haven't added anything from this phase to the site, but I will be adding things throughout the spring. If all goes well I should be able to finish up my degree either during the summer, or fall at the latest. I am also working on my National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certification renewal; that is due on April 30th. Between these two projects I have very little free time, but after the NBPTS portfolio goes in the mail I should be able to have free time back in my vocabulary! Check out the other site and see what I have been up to!

We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful location. This stream runs around two boundaries of our yard. Not only is it visually inspiring but it makes music transcending that of any symphony. When he visits, our oldest grandson likes to sleep in the upstairs window seat with the window ajar. He says he "likes the sounds". He isn't the only one; if it isn't bitterly cold the window in our bedroom next door is also ajar because we also like the sounds. Right now I am anticipating warmer weather and the arrival of the spring peeper frogs. Nothing lulls me to sleep like the sounds outside my own bedroom window, regardless of the season. Thank you Lord for allowing me the pleasures of living in this place.

Finally finals are final

It is official. The semester that wouldn't end is over. Tomorrow is another semester with all new students. Another chance to make a difference; another opportunity to instill a love of the arts in a student. Wish me well.

All Good Things Must Come to an End

This is a pretty sad photo. Not the photo itself, but the subject: the very last bowl of fresh blueberries from our orchard. We have been blessed with a bumper crop of fruit this year; our blueberry bushes and apple trees have outdone themselves. Over 40 gallon of blueberries have gone into the freezer, jams, cobblers, pancakes, muffins and little boys mouths from this years crop. There are still berries scattered here and there on the branches, but not enough to bother with. Those that remain will be gleaned by the birds (and my husband). In addition to a bounty of berries we have gathered bushel after bushel of apples---Summer Treat, Empire, Cortland, Jonalicious, Red Delicious, Blushing Golden, Golden Delicious, Mutzu, and Adina---and there are still apples ripening on the trees---Winesap, Fuji, Granny Smith, Arkansas Black. Almost all of the trees have looked like this Winesap looks right now.
Last year there was a very late freeze that wiped out most of the tree bloom here in Western NC; then, we had terrible drought conditions through the summer and fall. There was very little in the way of fruit and nut crops as most trees had to put out leaves/blooms twice. This year it is almost as if they have compensated. Every fruit and nut bearing tree in the area is loaded. Hedgerow apple trees that usually have only scattered fruit are bent with the weight of their crop. My husband and I have been discussing this and I have decided we will probably have a tough winter. All the signs our ancestors looked for are there: lots of fruit and mast, early frost (last Thursday, Sept. 25), bees nests on or near the ground, fall flowers blooming early, Katydids singing early... I hope I'm wrong. I guess we will find out.

Blogging in the Classroom

I am trying to come up with ways to integrate blogging into my classes. I teach Visual Arts and Appalachian Arts & Culture at the secondary level in a very rural area. My students have very limited access to museums, galleries, etc. For the most part, they do not enjoy writing, esp. with pencil and paper. Most of them do use My Space and/or Face Book on a regural basis and send/receive tons of email. I have been trying to think of having them set up a blog account and then give assignments from my own blog for them to respond to. Assignments my include critiqueing artworks, journaling about creativity & the role of the arts in culture, as well as posting digital photos of their work and writing about that too. I would love to have ideas/suggestions. My principal and media specialist have already given me the OK on this, I just need to figure out exactly how I want to go about doing it. I also need to think about the security of the kids in my classroom. I know the comments will need to be moderated and student names and personal photos will be taboo. Any Ideas?Suggestions?

Great Minds Think Alike

Early this year I picked up a skein of Austermann Step in the Petrol colorway at Silver Threads and Golden Needles in Franklin, NC. I chose the colorway because it reminded me of my well loved turquoise jewelry. When I began swatching for socks, I chose the gull and garter stitch pattern, which resembles the fletching on an arrow, because it was yet another connection to my Native American turquoise. Swatching was finished and the socks were underway when I received my issue of Knitter's magazine announcing the Think Outside the Sox contest. I thought my socks were pretty good and discussed entering them with my family and friends. Around the end of May, with my "Fletching Sox" complete, I began swatching for a different design idea. A couple of weeks ago I purchased Shear Spirit (by author Joan Trapper with photography by Gale Zucker) from Knit Picks. What did I find on the cover? a pair of socks virtually the same as mine. Inside I further investigated Sheri Franz's Welsh Traveling Socks and found only a few differences. My socks feature 1x1 ribbing on the cuff rather than Sheri's 2x2 ribbing and I gave the sole of the sock a different treatment. Since I have a very high instep, I often choose to use 1x1 ribbing on the sole so that the sock hugs the bottom of my foot rather than bunching up like some socks tend to do. The only other major differences were in the yarn, guage, and number of stitches cast on. It's back to the drawing board (or swatching board) for the Sox contest, but, like I told my husband, at least I have good ideas (and so does Sheri!). Check out Trapper and Zuckers collaboration. Both text and imagery are wonderful. It is inspiring to an aspiring shepherd to learn how others got involved with their herds. The designs are great; just my style. I highly recommend this book to spinners and knitters alike. I have already earmarked several of the projects for my own homespun.