Solid Sound Festival, curated by WILCO

I've been wanting to write about my experience at the Solid Sound Festival two weekends ago but having house guests during the festival then leaving for a whirlwind vacation during the last day totally made it hard for me to sit down and write my thoughts.  I'm home and it's a rainy day.  I can reminisce now.

The festival was unlike any music festival I've ever been to because it was SO multidisciplinary.  It was not just about music.  It was a festival of the arts.  I loved that at any given moment during the program there were so many choices to witness.  It was hard to chose what I wanted to be a part of and I wish I could have been omnipresent and taken it all in.  The galleries at MassMOCA were open for viewing, there were comedy performances, live music performances, live theater, puppetry, special workshops given by some members of WILCO, specially selected movies to view, good food and lots of drinks to choose from.  

For two days I was a part of something big, yet accessible, connected and thought out and I liked that.  I felt like I was living and breathing the arts and I enjoyed being part of a bigger thing that made available the witnessing of other artist's ideas, talents, energy and creativity.  

Usually music festivals are so predictable.  You walk around from stage to stage, pushing through crowds of people, trying to take in different acts and maybe in between musicians and group performances you grab a beer or a bite to eat.  Solid Sound was totally different.  The campus of Mass MOCA was our playground for the entire weekend.  We could be inside one of the redesigned, old industrial buildings, outside at the dining and drinking patio, we could be in a myriad of industrial courtyards with colorful lighting, interesting textures and sculptural installations, there were indoor state of the art performance theaters, an outdoor movie screen, outdoor stages and one big grassy field with a big stage for the headlining acts, Mavis Staples and WILCO. 

Personal highlights for me were....
...seeing Kristen Schaal's live comedy.  I laughed so hard during her last skit I was crying. 
...Mountain Man's exquisite set of three part harmony singing (more to come on them later)
...viewing WILCO's poster art in one of the gallery spaces
...unexpectedly walking past John Stirratt (bassist for WILCO) twice early Friday evening 
...witnessing Mavis Staples own the stage with such grace and power
...being about 20 feet away and dead center in front of Jeff Tweedy during WILCO's killer, over 2 hour long, set.  They put on a fabulous show.  I was thrilled to witness what monsters/masters Nels Cline (electric guitar) and Glenn Kotche (drums) were on their instruments.

THANK YOU WILCO FOR A FESTIVAL LIKE NO OTHER!  I hope you do it again next year!

Here are some photo's from Friday evening before it got dark and the space filled up with people:
 










10 Fabulous Architecture+Design Highlights in Toronto

Josh and I just returned from a full and busy trip to Toronto and while we were there we explored a lot of sights.  I was struck with how architectural and design elements threaded different parts of the city together in an interesting way.  I love how contemporary architectural elements juxtapose against and mix with older styles in Toronto.  Here's what I'm talking about...

1.  The view down from the glass floor of the CN Tower.  (My knees were shaking as we took the glass elevator that looks out on the skyline up over 340 meters).
 
2.  The CN Tower in the distance and a black and white building on colorful stilts which is part of the Ontario College of Art and Design.
3.  Victorian and Contemporary as neighbors
4.  Steel tree trunk like supports hold up a vaulted glass ceiling which connects old and new buildings.  Standing here was reminiscent of standing in a Gothic cathedral.
 5.  A spiral staircase in the Art Gallery of Ontario
6.  Store front in the design district
7.  The Royal Ontario Museum in between older buildings that house Toronto's orchestra and performance space.
8.  Entrance to the Royal Ontario Museum
9.  Tables and chairs at the Distillery Historic District
10. An alien being watched over a sitting area

Lake Champlain Twilight

Here are 3 pictures taken from a lookout on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain over a period of 10 or so minutes.  I love how the color changes and deepens as the sun sets further below the horizon.  It was a perfectly beautiful late summer evening.

Travel Bug

Oh my, as I enter my blog I glance at the last post date and feel a bit disappointed in myself for not posting anything in over two weeks.  I love being home but I feel that my busy daily routines in summer are not conducive to blogging.  So many other projects call to me when I'm at home plus earning my daily bread factors in to the mix.  It takes getting away for me to sit in a more focused way and post an item or two.  Ok, apologies over (and yes, they're more for myself than anyone else I'm sure) and on to a new entry.


I'm on the road again after a whirlwind weekend spent attending WILCO's Solid Sound Festival at MassMOCA in North Adams.  I had friends staying at our home and on Friday and Saturday I road to the festival with them.  The festival was a great and magical time and I'll dedicate my next post to that occasion.

We drove up to Burlington, Vermont yesterday and what a beautiful drive it was.  The day was cool and overcast and as we headed north the landscape gently turned to a lovely lush green.  I'm saying this because in my area we are experiencing a big drought and I've become accustomed to brownish, parched looking vegetation.


In a way, this a kind of homecoming for me.  I was born in the Champlain Valley over on the other side of the lake, in Plattsburg NY.  It really is beautiful up here!  In my head flashes of old memories and photographs that my parents took while we lived up here run through my head.  We moved away from here when I was three back around 1978/79.  I believe that we hold places within ourselves... feelings, memories, essences.  So, I look forward to heading out shortly to wander around the town of Burlington, meet with an old high school friend and reconnect with the big lake.  On Wednesday morning we will take the ferry across the lake to Plattsburg as we head onward to Toronto.

I'll leave you now with a good taste in your mouth.  Here's a nice photo of an awesome lunch I had yesterday in Brandon, VT at the Cafe Provence.  Pan seared scallops wrapped in smoked salmon served over polenta with a parsley cream sauce and a topping of green asparagus spears.  Yum.


 

Desert Hideaway

I was at a party this past Thursday night and talked with friends that I'm getting to know better a little bit at a time.  You know how it is when you're getting to know someone...  you share with each other and slowly reveal yourself and your history.  The subject of Southern California came up a couple of times in our conversations since Josh and I lived there right after we got married for 3 1/2 years.  The conversations got me to thinking that...

I often reminisce of our time in San Diego since there were so many special qualities to being way out west.  The pacific ocean was 15 minutes away, we could be across the border in Mexico in just a half hour, the LA metropolis was 3 hours away on a good day, the mountains east were a gateway to the desert which was only an hour and a half away. 

I was telling my friends that my ideal living situation would be to live here in western Massachusetts mid-April through mid-January then spend the rest of the time in the desert somewhere in Southern California.  Perhaps out in Anza-Borrego or in Joshua Tree.

I really love the desert.  There is something so timeless, haunting, big, heightened and magical about the desert landscape.  Being surrounded by the desert gives me feelings like nothing else.  Possibility looms, openness abounds outside but mirrors itself within.

I'd like to share some of my favorite photographs taken by me during a weekend trip to Joshua Tree back in the spring of 2005.
The motel where we stayed... I highly recommend it.   Spin and Margie's Desert Hideaway



 Joshua Tree at twilight.  Magical.

I had to include the rock that looks like an eagle head, taken the next day in the bright sunshine.

There's no place like home... Part 4

Here we are, it's almost August and how my gardens have grown!  I'm in the flow of mid summer when the frantic pace of trying to plant, set up the gardens and keep ahead of the weeds has slowed to a steady and comfortable relationship.  I pick some weeds here and there, water when things are dry and now I get to harvest the fruits of my labor.  Most meals we eat at home are pretty heavy on fresh home grown ingredients.  Last week Josh and I made a killer quick pasta dish on the fly.  Brown rice pasta,  sauteed purple string beans, fresh garlic, yellow summer squash, butter, olive oil and fresh dill with grated raw dill farmers cheese and some Parmesan melted on top as well.  Yum.

Now that the gardens are mature and producing I find I have more time to daydream, make lists of creative goals, write in my studio and sketch again.  The visual arts and musical sides of myself are percolating with activity and dreaming.  It feels good to be giving myself attention in these areas again.

I want to share a few pictures with you of my gardens this time of year.  They look so different from the pictures I posted on the blog on June 4th.   Enjoy and hope you are also enjoying the fruits of your labor.
Terraced bed with stone path leading down to the fruit trees and chicken coop...
Sunflowers, Cosmos, Summer Squash, Beets, Beans, Tomatoes, Lettuce, Wild Flower Patch and Orchard...

New winter squash patch with nasturtiums and sunflowers, outback where the old chicken yard used to be...

Front entry garden, a work in progress...

Cabbages that will soon be sauerkraut...

Front yard herb, flower and vegetable garden with a little pond and stone bench...

Arts In My Community: Rosemary Wessel's Resonances

Rosemary with some of her paintings...

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of getting a private tour of my friend Rosemary's art show.  She is an artist who lives in my town and had a show for the month of June into July at the Cummington Community House Art Gallery.  Her work is really unique in many ways.  She's a painter (she uses oils) but her canvases are built up and out like 2 dimensional relief sculptures.  There is a lot of texture to her surfaces.  She mainly works BIG.  It's strong stuff... and so far I'm only talking about the superficial qualities of her work! 

Through her paintings, Rosemary shows the energy she perceives coming from people.  The paintings are not portraits in the traditional sense. She takes her subjects up a notch to the energetic level.  Her training and experience doing energy work feeds into her visual manifestations.  Rosemary uses models, including herself and makes molds of their face and/or body parts.  From these casts she creates interesting portraits of emotions, feelings and energy.  Sometimes I saw myself reflected in the emotion coming from her work, sometimes I saw other people I know reflected back to me.  I can relate to what Rosemary is saying through her images, colors and textures about the energy and emotional landscape we as human beings are all a part of and all experience.  I've never seen work like hers.

Feel free to check out more of her work on her website: http://www.rosemarywessel.com/

Octavia



I fell in love with an octopus this week.  Her name is Octavia.   She lives in the aquarium at the Wetland's Institute, a not-for-profit organization promoting appreciation of wetlands and the coastal environment.  I've been thinking about her ever since I met her yesterday. 

We learned from her caretaker that she has the intelligence of a domesticated house cat.  I have to say,  there was a playfulness, curiousness, flirtatiousness and shyness about her and her intelligence and personality showed through her eyes and came through in the way she interacted with Josh and me.  We had some quiet moments with her all to ourselves when we went back to see her again after kids and families moved on from the aquarium to outdoor activities.  She really liked Josh and appeared to flirt with him, blush and change color, as he talked with her through the glass.  She came right up to the glass and after a moment or two of reaching her tentacles to us she would coyly retreat to her little den behind some rocks.  She peeked at us with her lively eyes from behind the rocks and a moment later would come right back out and start the dance all over.

My feelings for Octavia are mixed with sadness.  Sadness that such and intelligent and lively creature has to spend her short life in a glass aquarium.  We were told that octopuses only live to be about 2 years old.  Maybe she enjoys her time interacting with the public?  She seemed to know and like her caretaker.  Maybe it's ok that she can safely live in a space where she is fed and protected?  It's always hard for me to visit animals in captivity.  Especially when the animal seems so aware of itself, the space and things around it.  I hope she, as a force to be reckoned with,  provides an opportunity for awareness to build around the connection we have to the oceans and wetlands.  Perhaps she instigates thoughts and discussions about how we as humans can better care for and respect her environment?

Hereford Inlet Lighthouse, Anglesea NJ

On Thursday while we were waiting for the clouds to clear (it turned out to be a perfect beach day in the afternoon) we took a short trip to North Wildwood and checked out the historic Hereford Inlet Lighthouse.  The lighthouse is well known for the beautiful gardens which apparently have been lovingly and generously designed and maintained by a man who donates 20 - 40 hours of his time / week.  The lighthouse has American Gothic architectural elements including the tower.  It's not your typical long, white, cylindrical coastal tower.  Below is the house with connected lighthouse.  The following photos show parts of the extensive gardens.  Out back the garden transitions to a coastal path that leads to the last photo which shows the Hereford Inlet.
 
 





Inspiration

I'm reading "Letters To A Young Poet" by Rainer Maria Rilke every morning while I'm here at the shore.  I will continue reading it when I return home because unfortunately I see our vacation week near the ocean coming to a close very soon and I have not finished the book.  I may have to buy myself a copy to have on my shelf when I need a supportive voice, a voice who can encourage at any hour and one who truly understands the creative process.  The book is filled with gems of insight and advice related to the creative process and on being an artist.  Rilke (as a young,  established artist) is writing to a young poet who is just starting on his artistic path and looking for encouragement and words of wisdom from someone who has gone before.  The excerpt I have taken from The Third Letter reminds me that I can not only pay attention or rely my own agenda.  For as much as I know things do not happen with out effort, pursuits especially of the creative vein have their own time.  Expectations and agendas must be thrown out the window. 

Here is some inspiration that I read this morning. 

"All things consist of carrying to term and then giving birth.  To allow the completion of every impression, every germ of feeling deep within, in darkness, beyond words, in the realm of instinct unattainable by logic, to await humbly and patiently the hour of descent of a new clarity: that alone is to live one's art, in the realm of understanding as in that of creativity.

In this there is no measuring with time.  A year doesn't matter; ten years are nothing.  To be an artist means not to compute or count; it means to ripen as the tree, which does not force its sap, but stands unshaken in the storms of spring with no fear that summer might not follow.   It will come regardless.  But, it comes only to those who live as though eternity stretches before them, carefree, silent and endless.  I learn it daily, learn it with many pains for which I am grateful:  Patience is all!"
-Rainer Maria Rilke 
Letters to a Young Poet
taken from The Third Letter

Down the Shore

We arrived at the Jersey shore late Sunday night and woke up to humid breezes and the smell of salt and ocean in the air.  Ah, vacation.....

In the past 24 hours some essential shore "bases" have been covered. 
I've been to the beach twice and swam in the ocean both times.   I love floating on the surface of the waves and diving under a wave as it crashes over me.

We went to Mike's Seafood in Sea Isle City and I ordered a beautiful and tasty stuffed Maine lobster.  It was stuffed with fresh crab claw meat.  What a treat!   Oh, and I can't forget that I started the meal with raw oysters on the half shell.  Yum.

My sister in law and I treated ourselves to some fashion and celebrity magazines... a fun vacation indulgence. 

I brought my sketch book and watercolors and began sketching at the beach earlier today.  Wow!  I have time to sketch, doodle, paint and practice making art!  It looks like it may be a productive vacation too!  I'll keep you posted.  For now, here are a few photographs of the beach before all the people arrived later in the morning.

The Raconteurs "Old Enough"

The other day my friend asked me "If I could see any musical artist, who would I want to see?"  I have too many "want to sees"..., but The Raconteurs came up as one of my answers.  I was lucky to see them open for Bob Dylan a little over three years ago.  They were real good!   And real loud.  I didn't know what I was in for....we were watching the opening band and I was like, "Josh, that's Jack White!"  I hadn't heard of this "super" group up until that night.  What a great surprise.  I've always really admired Jack Whites playing and artistic flair.

I've been digging this song by the Raconteurs called "Old Enough".  It's on heavy rotation on my local radio station.  Only the version they're playing features Ricky Skaggs and Ashley Monroe.  It's a great song with Skaggs on the mandolin and vocals and Monroe singing a great female lead/harmony part.   The song has an old time feel but great dymnamics and a great arrangement.

So I went on the Raconteurs myspace page today and watched this video. It's their version...I assume pre Skaggs and Monroe.  I REALLY like their arrangement here.  I miss Monroe's female vocals but other than that I think they've really welded two musical styles: bluegrassish country and good, hard electric guitar &organ rock n' roll.  I love their harmonies too. 

Enjoy!

The Raconteurs "Old Enough"

The Raconteurs | MySpace Music Videos

This painting took my breath away.

Night Entangled, by Diana Vosburg

I'm in bed this morning, going through emails, doing the facebook thing and basically trying to take my thoughts away from the fact I feel as if someone filled my head with burning goo.  Yes, I caught the dreadful summertime cold.  Colds are bad enough but in the summertime they're even worse.  Period.  I have gotten through a book and a half though and have taken this opportunity to catch up with my blog.  That is good.  Anyway, enough about me.  Back to this amazing painting....

I receive a publication in the mail called artscope magazine....New England's culture magazine.  Through the same organization I get regular emails with updates about regional artists, art shows, juried exhibits, galleries, etc.  I think they do a really nice job getting the word and images out about a lot of really talented artists of high caliber and the galleries and museums that represent them.

Today's email highlights the above painting:
Night Entangled, by Holliston Mill Artist Dianna Vosburg
I love what looks to be her everyday subject matter.  Is it grass?  If so the grass takes on a whole life or persona of it's own, with the way it interacts with the starry sky and it's root system below.  It looks like the grass is involved in some kind of elaborate dance.  I think it really is.  A dance where what lies above and beneath are all one.  Oh, and what gorgeous color too!

Gardening In Honor Of My Husband's Grandmother Phyllis

Josh's grandmother, Phyllis, passed away over a week ago after suffering for a long while with dementia.  I was lucky to get to know Grandma Phyllis a bit before this awful disease slowly took it's toll on her health and personality.  She was an art lover and painter.  Her art hangs in many places on the walls in my Grandpa Morris' & and Aunt Becca's home as well as in my mother and father-in-law's home.  Josh and I have two of her musically inspired paintings hanging in Josh's studio.  I've heard stories about how she loved to cook and entertain.  She also loved to have flowers in her garden beds around her house.  I can relate to her desire to live surrounded by beauty and to practice and live a creative life.

Last fall Aunt Becca asked if I would help her take care of the garden beds that she and her mother, Grandma Phyllis, used to tend.  Becca hired me to thoroughly weed then redesign the beds.  We've been having lots of fun working and bringing beauty back to the garden beds that Phyllis loved so much.  We are excited to have tended flower beds around the house again and look forward to the fall when Becca might hire someone to do some stone work to replace the old wood that has lined the beds for the past two decades.  It's a work in progress... 

Josh and I went down to Pennsylvania this past weekend for the memorial and before the guests arrived I weeded and dead headed the beds and flowers hoping that somehow Grandma Phyllis was enjoying and appreciating the flowers and plants.  It felt good to honor her in my own physical, private and creative way in her garden.

Here are some photos of the gardens...
Aunt Becca's and Grandpa Morris's home and gardens...  They live in a lovely spot surrounded by pasture in an energy efficient passive solar envelope house.

Here in this partially sunny spot as you walk towards the front entrance was clematis, liatris, and some lily's that Grandma Phyllis planted years ago.  I added a russian sage, heuchera, butterfly bush, portulaca, monarda, marigolds,  nepeta, echinacea and zinnia's.  I'm enjoying the mix of colors, a palette of purples, oranges, greens and a few pink shades for good measure.

I redesigned this bed and it may change further when some intended stone work is done this upcoming fall.  Here I planted some of my favorite plants.  The pink and airy flowered Meadow Sweet (Filipendula), Russian Sage, Butterfly Weed (Asclepias) as well as Grandma's Peonies which I moved and replanted.  She and my aunt also love marigolds so they are in the mix along with more echinacea and portulaca.

In front of the greenhouse windows are a couple smaller beds where I planted an ornamental grass I fell in love with last year called "Red Ribbons" which is a red switch grass.  As it grows and matures the blades vary from shades of green to shades of reddish purple.  In the bed closer to the door I repeated the theme of purple and orange with nepeta and asclepias.  A pink monarda is in the mix as well.

Poppy Perfection



I just took this photo before the rain started to fall.  It's pouring again.  The rain is good but unfortunately makes my poppies and peonies melt.  Luckily yesterday was rain free and I got the majority of my garden/yard work finished.... lawn mowed, some annuals planted in my shade garden, walking path's mulched with cedar bark, new seeds planted: carrots, beets, leeks & scallions.  I want to plant my three fruit trees, two apples and a peach, this weekend.  If I can accomplish this task sometime in the next two days I'll feel like things are all taken care of for the time being.  Josh is picking up electric poultry fencing for my chickens so I can put them on fresh grass and they can graze and eat bugs.  They will be so much happier plus their eggs are much better when they have access to fresh grass and bugs.  This afternoon I plan on going to a local nursery where they are having an ornamental pond/water feature workshop.  I want to learn more about how to care for my little pond.  I'd like to get some water plants and maybe a few fish but I really would rather not have an electric pump and filter running out there.  If I could have it be all natural it would be great.  We'll see what I learn.  I have a feeling a may come home with a water plant or two to try out.  Right now the pond is full of developing tadpoles.  The toad who I called Fred and posted about a little bit ago seems to have moved on.  I miss having his company out in the garden.  That's the news for now.  Hope you have a great weekend!

Gardening takes up all my time...

This time of year I am an obsessed gardener.  I can't stop.  I think about art, visual ideas and paintings I'd like to try to work on and produce.  I think about music and songs I want to learn, new projects I want to work on and people I want to contact about possible collaboration.  I think a lot.

When it comes down to it, all I want to do is be in my garden.  That's where the action is.  I don't go out for a hike or walk,  I haven't gone swimming in the pond,  I rarely call my friends or family,  I don't want to go to a museum or on a day trip.  I want to be home weeding, planting, sprucing up and enjoying my garden...and when I go to work,  I go to other people's gardens.  I like my job, a lot.  Am I a workaholic?  Obsessive Compulsive?

There is a time and place for everything and I want to milk the warmer months for all they're worth.  I can sit in my warm, well lit studio during the cold, dark months.  I can organize my musical thoughts and goals in front of a fire.

It's funny how interests can become obsessions, creep into your being, become a part of you when you were not necessarily expecting them to.   I hated to work in the garden as a kid.  I was kind of afraid of bugs.  I didn't really like physical labor.  I wasn't particularly interested in plants and flowers.  I liked them but didn't LOVE them.

All that has changed.  I look forward to weekends so I can keep working in my flower and vegetable gardens.  I get really dirty, sweat, and tire myself out.  I love watching bugs and how they live their lives and make their homes in the dirt and amongst the plants.  They are my company during my solitary days spent in my gardens.

I do miss painting and making music.  Maybe I can do everything?   Can I set a lofty goal to live a renaissance life like Leonardo DaVinci?  That sure would be cool!  But hours and days fly by and damn, I'm tired after a 9 hour day digging and weeding.  For now, I'll just keep reminding myself that there is a time and place for everything.

Here are a couple of my garden beds at home...
Terraced Vegetable Gardens
Herb, Vegetable, Pond and Perennial Gardens

Our Neighbor

We have a very handsome new neighbor who moved in this past week right next door in our little pond.  He likes to sun himself on the rocks.  I also notice he floats around in the water with his eyes bulging out above the surface and his legs and arms outstretched.  He acts like he doesn't have a care in the world...even when my cat, Gilligan, stalks him he just jumps right in the pond with out a fuss.  I feel like I want to call him Fred.  He looks like a Fred to me.  He has a lot of company since there are tons of tadpoles in the pond as well.  I like having him around as company when I'm out and about in the garden.  He sings every now and then in a creaky, croaky kind of way.  I just realized that I keeping calling the toad "He".  "He" could be a" She" but the name "Fred" will have to stay

Hay Unos Ojos



Some songs just rip your heart out...  Linda Ronstadt's Spanish style records are next on my list to look into when I get back to Turn It Up, the local record store.

For this song, Hay Unos Ojos, they've got the musicians, the atmosphere, her costume, makeup and hair all perfect.  She brings it up a whole level when she sings in such a heartfelt way.

Crescent Moon


It was a beautiful night on Sunday.  Josh and I ate dinner outside and enjoyed the view of the crescent moon.  It's always an exciting moment to look up towards the sky at twilight and see the reappearance of the moon in it's sliver stage.  I love the soft pastels of the sky and the clouds. They provide a perfect backdrop for crescent moon watching!