Beadwork bonanza

When I came across Chris Maj's work on etsy, I at first, said "oooh." And then I said, "whoa." Why? I saw this:

And this:

And this:

And they are made out of beads, by hand, each bead threaded and woven together. Suddenly, I felt a kinship with all those people who look at my quilts and say, "You did all this? Wow, you've been busy. How long did it take you?" When underneath those questions is the unspoken elephant in the room:

How do you have the patience to do this?

The short answer is, we find it fun. Read Chris' long answer in my profile of her in Go Triad. And don't worry about how she does it, just appreciate the artistry, feel the connection to this art form that has been around since antiquity, and get your "oohs" and "aahs" ready.

The road

In writing, the road is a symbol for journey, and I've been thinking a lot about journeys lately. A road to Canterbury is what structured Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and the theme extends all the way to the trip to the beauty pageant in Little Miss Sunshine. It's a framing device, tapping that story-telling subconscious that we all have, that we understand. It's the road in the parable of the Good Samaritan or the path to enlightenment, the symbol of change but also of commitment. I could muse on this all day, but it would be better to read Joseph Campbell.

In short, sometimes you don't know where you're going, you just can see the road to get there, and your job is to just get on the path. Recently, when I interviewed Doug Klesch for Go Triad about his project, 99 Americans, he talked about looking for something, and hoping to find it on the road.

The road frames Klesch's project both literally and creatively, and it extends farther beyond the horizon than he once could even conceive. And if we really commit to the road, all our journeys will take us places that would not even be imaginable at the start. I'll see you on the road ...

You wanna be a big shot, do ya?

I remember my first reaction at seeing Warhol's work, in this case the iconic Campbell's soup can. It went something like this:

*dialogue in my head as I listened to a lecture in college* OK ............. he just copied the can, right .... and he made more than one ???

Of course, after years of schooling and many art openings and such, I started to respect the fact that while, it wasn't "that hard" (common dismissive artspeak), he was the first to think of it. That really still seemed to be a cop out.

But after writing this week's cover feature in Go Triad about the Weatherspoon's exhibit of Warhol's Polaroids, well, I am getting it. And I am liking it.

I'd always imagined Warhol flippant, a man who knew how to use the media and who was more style than substance. That's the image he often portrayed, the type of people with whom he surrounded himself. But as for art, this man was serious. He did really breathe art, weaving together all parts of his life into an artistic web. His film fed his art that fed his celebrity that fed his image that fed his photography and around the horn again.

It was weird to a lot of America, still is, really, and it was very much a Studio 54 New York Thing. But I think I'm starting to get it. I might not be on that 54 dance floor, but at least I'm in line behind the velvet ropes.

A Writers Block

As you might have noticed, I am working hard at this writing thing. So it was fortuitous that in the past month I've had the wonderful opportunity to interview two other hard-working writers who seem to miss the meaning of downtime.

The first was Lowcountry royalty Dottie Frank, whose 11th novel debuted this week. She decided to kick off her book tour with a benefit for the Charleston County Public Library, and that gave me an excuse to track her down and talk about writing the Lowcountry. Some of that conversation was captured here for a Charleston Scene article, but I gained much more from my conversation with her than could fit into 500 words.

She was charming, down to earth and so generous explaining process and how she feels about her own writing. I was enamored.

The second interview was children's book author and illustrator Jim Young, who has managed to write / illustrate 24 books despite a full-time position at the Greensboro Public Library (yes, how cool is it that both of these writers are very connected to their local libraries?). And you know what was even more amazing? Jim is very calm about the whole thing, so much so that you could mistake him for a yoga instructor instead of a guy who loves being around children and loves painting wacky animals.



His process centers around working at the kitchen table until the last part of the process, so it seems he loves being the eye of the family hurricane. At least, that's what I imagine, although he might have a family as serene as he.

Two different perspectives. Two very different writers, but both fulfilled writing lives. It can be done, and these two are doing it.

Outsider Art Inside My Heart

Look at that title!! They don't call me a writer for nothin'! OK, bad rhyming aside ...

I love country roads, not in the John Denver sense so much, as for the people and their houses that dot them. B. and I are always taking the backroads, and when I ride with him, I get to look out the window and imagine who is it that lives in the house with the "Fresh Eggs for Sale" sign or what it would be like to live in the North Carolina town of Tyro. And sometimes, there are houses decorated with paint and signs and all types of homemade sculptures. I never stop. My new friend in Greensboro, Mike Smith, ALWAYS stops.

I met Mike while working on an article about his At Home Gallery in Greensboro. I have been interested in outsider art since coming across a book about it in the UNC Charlotte Library while avoiding my real research for a long forgotten undergraduate paper. That book, Signs and Wonders, is out of print now, but it really got me interested in the whole phenomenon, and so I've always been interested in learning/writing more about it.

Mike got interested in outsider art by driving the back roads of the South, and wondering just like I do. He went a step further and instead of just driving by, began to visit these folk artists with sincere interest in their work and motivation. That interest has led to a 20-plus-year career in the folk art/outsider art world, which made him a worthwhile subject for my cover article of Go Triad! last week. We were both thrilled.

Meanwhile, here's a little show and tell for you -- my piece of outsider art I purchased years ago with my first paycheck from The Highlander. I love the iredescent nature of this piece, and of course, its self frame. The first picture is a personalized piece on the back the artist doodled for me when he found out I purchased the piece, a generous added bonus.

Pretty Stones

Like many women, I could look at beautiful jewelry all day. I love the variety of stones, especially colored ones, from aquamarine to tourmaline and even the beautiful pink quartz. But looking at beautiful stones for work? Count me in.

Recently, someone turned me on to Luba Warrack's jewelry, interesting organic forms whose focus is unusual, often large semi-precious stones. A little digging located the artist in Lindley Park, just a neighborhood hop away here in Greensboro. A little more digging revealed that she had been a research scientist before turning to jewelry full-time. I smelled a story!

So did the editor of Go Triad, and yesterday, my article about Luba's great artistic journey was published in the Thursday edition. The photographer did a great job on the piece, especially the photograph of one of her pieces, and I was happy to have another art article in the local market.

Publishing update

The article on the Dutcher's work with wolves has published. Check out the wonderful layout and photos in SEWE's special section, published by The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C. Seems like the annual wildlife celebration was a great success again this year, and the Food + Wine Festival is right on its heels, starting in a couple of days.

Unfortunately, my little desk was devoid of tickets to either, but assignments are another matter, so I am happy sitting at my desk, with a spring snow melting in the front yard and another adventure around the bend. For a dose of culture in the home turf of the Triad, I covered a contemporary art exhibit at Wake Forest for the Greensboro News and Record's Go Triad. I feel strongly about the need for art no matter the economy, and it was great to find a gallerist who could speak on the subject so personally. I hope to write more about art for the publication in the near future, so stay tuned . . .