another shawl

here is another project i finished up a couple months ago, but have yet to post about.  after i had one shawl under my belt i decided to make another.  plus i really love the malabrigo sock yarn.  it is beautiful and so soft, and the colors are wonderful.  this shawl was made for the artist that i have been working for for the past, almost 2 years now, as her studio assistant.  she has become a mentor and good friend to me in addition to being the boss lady, and i show my love by making people things!  she was headed out of the country for a 3 month residency and i wanted to make her something she could bring with her as a congratulations, early birthday, thanks for being so great to me gift.  i picked out her favorite murple color and the pattern was really simple and lovely to make.  it turned out quite nice.

i also finished up the soap making post over at patrick’s blog and he put up a post about us making tomato paste, if you are into that sort of thing.  below is a picture of some beautiful flowers i purchased at the market a little while ago, they looked so pretty and fall like next to my pumpkin.  i have been hoarding squash since this fall!  at our market the farmers sell heirloom winter squash and pumpkins as decorative pumpkins for dirt cheap!!  so each week i have buying a different variety, knowing that they will get better as they age.  i would have bought more, but they are heavy!  and sometimes it isn’t good to give in too much to that hoarding behavior, although i am sure i will be delighted by them come january.

cold and sunny

hi there, it seems that i have unintentionally taken a vacation from this blog.  so here is a catch up from the last couple (er, few) months.  mostly i have spent the past few months coughing, being feverish, sleeping, and then recovering.  a few days after my last post i came down with pneumonia!  i have never had pneumonia before, in fact i have never had a fever that i remember either.  but i came down with both.  so i very very sick for about two weeks until my doctor figured out that i had legionnaires disease.  then i was given the right antibiotic and started getting better, but those two weeks were pretty miserable.  then it took me a few months to recover from being that sick.  i spent a lot of time sleeping, reading and knitting as i din’t have much energy for anything else.  but now i am just about back to normal.  it is just strange adjusting to normal life and not being sick.  while i was sick i managed to make an appearance at my art show closing, but within half an hour of being there i started swaying while standing up and patrick took me home.  but i would like to send a thank you out to all the good friends who dropped off soup, juice, flowers, cookies and sent me much love during that time.  i was feeling miserable, but very loved.  after i started getting better the holidays seemed to hit.  i still can’t believe that it is december!!  i feel like i am  living in a slight haze because it feels like i missed an entire season.  but i have a back log of knitting projects to share, as i’ve spent a lot of time knitting in the past few months.  this is a shawl i finished in july for my mother in law, for her birthday, a lovely gift for an even lovelier woman!.  it is by far the most complicated thing i have ever made!!!  i made a lot of mistakes, but learned a lot as well and i think it came out beautifully.  raveled here.  i also put up a post today on patrick’s blog about making soap.  and more creative spaces here!

more john chapman

in the course of one week we have gone from almost 100 degree temperatures to rain and lows in the 50′s.  it is truly starting to feel like fall.  i love fall, it is actually my favorite season.  but i don’t love that winter follows it so closely.  fall in michigan always seems so short in comparison to fall in maryland.  winter comes much more quickly here.  in preparation for my show that is currently up i spent a lot of time reading about the life of john chapman ( aka johnny appleseed) and pioneer times.  winter during those times was a life or death situation, but with the rising costs of food, gas, oil and the shrinking job possibilities it seems that winter is becoming more of a life or death situation to more people.  john chapman was tough rugged man.  he lived largely outdoors and alone, surviving the elements and living off the earth.  he was an animal lover and committed vegetarian.  he fervently believed in the new church of swedenborg and spent most of his life planting apple orchards spreading the good word.  as a man he is very different from the myth that was created around him.  the myth softened the edges and gentled the wild man, and made a more palatable version of this man.  ultimately, as these things often go, the man is much more interesting than the myth.  below is a paper cut from my series about his life.  more creative spaces here.

hiding in the reeds

new solo show!

hi, wow it has been a long time.  in fact it has been a long few months and i have a lot to share.  but the most pressing to share is that i have my first solo show ever, and it is up right now!!  i will be sharing some of the artwork from that show over the next few weeks.  but here are the details:

Legends of Paul Bunyan, Lumberjack and Stacey Malasky: Cut Paper

I have two new series of paper-cuts on display at the gallery.  the first one explores the life john chapman who later came to be known as johnny appleseed.  the second is called ‘home economics’ and is centered around hands making things.  There will be a closing reception on Friday, September 23, 2011 from 6:00 – 9:00 pm. The artists will discuss their work at a gallery talk on Saturday, September 24 at 2:00 pm. The exhibit and gallery talk are free and open to the public. The show is located at Paint Creek Center for the Arts at 407 Pine Street Rochester, MI.  The show runs through September 24th.

in addition to my show there is a group show in the upstairs gallery that is all about paul bunyan, and worth checking out!!

the good word

my creative space

today is a good day.  mainly, for the reason that i have electricity and can work in my studio again.  we had some crazy thunderstorms saturday evening that knocked out our power.  unfortunately the electric company didn’t turn it on until 4am yesterday.  so i spent several hours yesterday cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer.  we had purchased some durian popsicles a few weeks ago to try, and had only eaten one (correction patrick ate one-i took one bite and decided i didn’t need anymore), as a result there was melted durian popsicle on everything in the freezer.  so now our house smells like a combination on durian and kim-chi (there were a couple jars of this in the fridge that i composted because they had already been in there for quite some time).  so now with the weather a pleasant 72 degrees outside i am airing out the house.  so not much has been going on in the studio over the past few days.  instead i spent time at book stores, picking cherries, reading and knitting by headlamp.  but it is back to the grind today.  my space is quite messy as i am planning my projects, which is a new thing for me, i usually jump right in.  so i have been sketching, creating a to-scale diorama of the gallery space (so i can figure out how many pieces to create and how many frames to buy and of what size), gardening, spending time with cute babies and their lovely mamas, and that is about it.  so here goes for some photos of all.  more creative spaces here.

out of the studio

sorry for all the radio silence.  i have gotten myself out of the habit of regularly posting and it can be hard to get back into the swing of things.  of news and interest i currently have work up in a show in detroit called ‘objecthood’.  it is up through the end of next week and open for viewing on fridays from 10-5pm, or by special appointment.  i am going to take better photos of my work on friday, but here is a peek at what i have been working on.

in addition to some new studio work i have still been knitting, even on the really hot days.  i am well into completed a sweater for myself.  currently the body is almost finished and then i will move to the sleeves.  i am kind of dreading the sleeves, as they seem like they will be slow and boring, and then after one you have to do the same things all over again!!! but this time the sweater actually fits!  bonus.  it uses a few techniques i was previously unfamiliar with, such as knitting pockets into the sweater (i don’t do well with simple).  i am also alternating skeins, which means i am knitting back and forth with two balls of yarn because they come from different dye lots and therefore do not match very well.  so it looks kind of stripey.  but here is a mini sweater for a baby i finished in about two or three days.  it was a quick knit, and is very soft.  it is to send to a friend who is having a baby off in a far and distant land!!! sweater raveled here.  more creative spaces here.

fava beans

here is some fava bean love.  we usually only get one small meal out of what we plant, but they are so beautiful.  today was full of beautiful weather and checking the bees.  gwen and i made 2 more splits today after seeing some queen cells with eggs in them.  so yeah for more bees, and more beans!!

june, really?

ok i am going to make this brief as i am baby watching at the moment.  the baby is sleeping in her chair beside me on the kitchen counter.  she seems to really like the kitchen.  so here is a quick catch-up and new challenge for me.  first off the baby is not mine, but resides with some dear friends whom just introduced her to the world a little over 2 weeks ago.  i have been super busy with gardens, bees and artwork.  we have a lot of beautiful lettuce in the garden, almost ready for harvest, planted all our tomatoes (which are now being destroyed by rabbits!!) irises are in full bloom, and almost finished.  we harvested all the spinach that we planted in august (about a bushel) and finally ripped the plants out.  i requeened our hive at our house, my first time ever doing that, and am hoping that they accept her.  i have quite a few art projects in the works to post about in the upcoming months.  i have been very bad about updating on here, so i am challenging myself to post a picture a day for the next week to get myself back into the swing of things.   check out more creative spaces here.

mushrooms and birds

it has been raining a lot, with a sunny day scattered here and there.  terrible weather for gardening and enjoying the outdoors, but fantastic weather for mushrooms!!  patrick and i found almost 3/4 of a pound of morels in our backyard this week.  signs of spring are also popping up everywhere, as i found the remains of a beautiful blue robin’s egg, the peonies are growing fast and the garlic is getting taller.  i checked on our one remaining hive last week and they were still alive, but pretty weak.  the cluster was really tiny and the queen had only laid a small amount of brood.  we have a lot of weak hives at earthworks as well.  i can only hope for the best, but it has been a terribly rough year for the bees so far.  but now all the flowering trees are in bloom and i was woken up to the sounds of a spring thunderstorm, so hope is still alive.

happy may day!!

well happy may day, a great holiday in my opinion, a celebration of spring and political protest!  i have not been up to too much in the studio, so once again i will inundate you with pastoral scenes from my back yard.

                      

so here is what is happening in the yard:

• spinach that was planted in august under hoops is still going strong
• the ornamental pear tree in our front yard is in bloom, detroit has a lot of flowering trees, so spring
here is quite lovely!
• new garden beds have been prepped and are ready for planting
• our carpet of violets in the side yard has returned!
• a bird house i put out 3 years ago is finally inhabited by a bird, i have not  figured out what kind of bird,
but seeing a twiggy nest in there was quite exciting
• fava beans popping out of the ground