Passion for paper

Woodlucker is a visual partnership and studio founded by Ann Wood and Dean Lucker in 1987, after graduating from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. This partnership is based on both individual and collaborative practices. Ann creates mixed media portraits and theatrical tableaus of mysterious beauty and solace whose identity is grounded in the timeless aesthetic and ethic of rural America. Dean’s work is driven by a passion for vernacular animated traditions which combine a personalized mythology to create mechanical storytelling. Their collaborative work combines a love for illustrated paper art and forgotten histories into engaging objects full of sentiment and longing.

woodlucker from Woodlucker on Vimeo.

I feel so much better, I am making a list of things to do. Like clean, fold, mop and vacuum! 

I always wanted to join a Mycological Society and they have one in Seattle. I think it would be fun. Most of us in the house like mushrooms.  

For over fifty years, the Puget Sound Mycological Society (PSMS) has nurtured collaboration amongst its members for an understanding and appreciation of the wide diversity of mushroom species in the Pacific Northwest. We also depend on a diverse membership to support our mission to foster the understanding and appreciation of mycology as a hobby and a science. In recent months, as systematic inequality in U.S. society is revealed to a broader audience, it becomes clearer that inequality imposes barriers on marginalized groups to participation in a wide variety of activities.

Pantone 2024 color of the year is Peach Fuzz. It's warm and welcoming embrace conveys a message of compassion and empathy, with a cozy sensibility that brings people together.”

I would love to make some fabric bowls.

Yuko Nishikawa expression of joy through mobiles whose wonky colorful dots sway and giggle as we walk and stir the air around them.  

Mokumoku is an installation of 23 hanging sculptures composed of recycled paper pulp. Mokumoku, a Japanese onomatopoeia, describes continually expanding formations, like clouds and smoke, that puff up, swell up and become larger with no constraining boundaries or containers. (below)

No, thanks

I can't explain how wet and cold it is here. I think we have another weeks' worth at least. 

I am still drinking my coffee, at NOON and I need to get busy cleaning. My SIL is coming soon. So much to do now that I have put it all off until the last minute. It feels like I clean something and a minute later it is all messy again.

My friend from Texas just DM'd asking if I wanted to go to the desert, ride a camel and watch the sunset with her. (She is 80 and really, deep down, doesn't like to be put out traveling). To which I replied, no thanks. The thought of getting on an cramped airplane, paying $9 for a pack of peanuts and hundreds of dollars to check a bag ... NOT APPEALING. But I sent her a nice video of a desert sunset and said, "There I just saved you $6,000."And if you speed up the video, your trip is even faster! 

Although I would not mind having a Berber Scarf.

The berber turban are worn to protect its wearer against sun and sand in the desert. This tribal scarf is very soft hand woven fabric of 100% cotton. This Berber Tuareg scarf is also known as Tuareg taglmust, Moroccan scarf, tribal tie dye scarf, desert scarf and Cheche

I don't know why I have no desire to  air travel anymore, but I just don't. The last airplane trip, with numb legs ... I swore it was the last time. This coming from someone who worked for an airline and traveled back and forth from SJT to DFW almost every night on a very small airplane. Not to mention, world turmoil. Although, I would love the catch an "airplane Karen" in action. I suggested a nice road trip somewhere?

How can you hear an animal throwing up all the way across the house???? 

I LOVE Graham Norton. When I wake up in the wee hours and can't go back to sleep, I watch him. He makes me happy. I laugh and cry so hard, I wake up the dogs.

 

Artist in residence, Navajo weaver Naiomi Glasses. Now if we could just afford to wear it!

Conquer your drawers

So, we are flooding in the basement. Well, the be fair, all of PNW is flooding. I live in Snohomish County. Matt has stayed home to  clean up but that is okay because they had a rain-out in their construction job. I don't mind rain, but I hate it when it POURS for weeks! Pixie doesn't want to "go outside" so she literally pees on the door seal! Murphy and Remi think it is just a blast to go out in the rain.

 

I am watching another Christmas Romance movie, DON'T JUDGE ME!

I just ate leftover lasagna and Noah is having chocolate chips for lunch? 

I need to get more dog beds for the cats. 

Bri has been busy organizing and being ruthless. I told her, the difference between us, she buys these organizational trays. I will not spend the money on such things, and just throw crap in there ;) 

 Marjorie Thompson is is inspired by the Pacific Northwest, before it washed away! LOVE the colors!

Bikes, bunnies and bunches of flowers

I have a little stomach ailment the last couple of days. Could be the chaos ... but who knows. 

I have been watching Christmas Romance movies on YouTube ... I am guessing Lifetime or Hallmark? Each one has that handsome man, widowed; a professional, recently unemployed, sometimes with a daughter. I drift to the snowy, small town settings ... but they are all over the map. I am convinced these all all the same little town, with different bows and shitty wreaths plastered all over Main Street. Every interior looks like Hobby Lobby threw up the cheapest Christmas decorations all over the walls and stair banisters. I especially liked the one I just experienced, with a random cheap red bow on the walls. But hey, it is mindless entertainment while I don't feel good. 

There was one movie, where the mom said she would not put up a tree. But the daughter asked the Santa, who was really the main guy who would fall in love with her for her mom to have a  tree and be happy. Of course, he showed up with one. And lots of decorations were produced. Then pan out and the entire house is decked out with artificial spruce garlands, a wreath on every wall.  It was a Christmas miracle!! 

 

I woke up with a huge nostrils in my face at 7am ... then Remi gave me a big, slobbery lick across the lips. Earlier, around 1 a.m. Pixie was barking to be let out. And after I finally got back to sleep ... Luna, the older cat came to sleep on my legs. She forces me to pet her by ramming her face into my hand. 

So we are back the "zoo" atmosphere here. 

And of course it raining, HARD which makes going outside for the dogs fun for them, muddy for us.  Wendeline Matson happy-go-lucky style makes me very happy. "My sense of color was formed by everything from early color television to children’s book illustrations to prairie landscapes and the billboards along the Texas highways where I grew up."

Beautiful creatures

Amusing Wooden Animal Sculptures by Hugo Horita and Instagram

Brother from another mother?

Doesn't John Kennedy remind you of Mr. Hanney on Green Acres? 

 

 

The transistion

Not sure what day we are on in our transition. It all goes pretty fast. Kids just left for school. I guess they will be moving back to this school district. All the dogs have been out. I have fed Pixie ... protecting her food from the other dogs while she eats. 

One of the many cats is walking over my keyboard as I type, having a sniff of my coffee as he passes by. Luna likes to drink her water from my glass, all the time. They all have found their spots on the window sills and desk to watch the birds. I am trying to protect the birds I feed from on cat that ventures outside, Luna. Luna grew up here, knows this place very well and feels like she is just coming back home. The new, young cats are busy eating the dried weeds I have in a vase by the computer. It is all very amusing. 

That is the animal zoo ... then we have the human zoo. I use the word "devolve" now (to change from one thing to another, often to something bad) as the girls start off screaming at each other and end up in a slapping match. We tend to stop them when they get to the physical stage but have decided to try the "let them work it out" therapy when it comes to fighting over toys. Mason use to like to control or manipulate Noah, but Noah has turned out quite smart and very strong and has learned to fight back. This makes all interactions between them very entertaining. Unfortunately, they are also both very smart and cunning. 😵 She is also very busy creating art.

(On an other note R. Philip Bouchard says devolve makes him cringe. These days the word “devolve” has gotten quite popular in the media. Every few days I encounter the word in a news report or a printed article. The authors use the word to mean decline, degrade, descend, degenerate, decay, or regress. This is primarily an American phenomenon. In the UK, the word “devolve” refers to a process of decentralizing government powers. There is an ongoing discussion in that country as to which aspects of national government authority should be transferred (“devolved”) to regional parliaments or local councils. This, of course, is a very different meaning of the word than seen in the examples above. While the British use of the word might seem a bit odd (especially to Americans), it is the American use of the word that makes me cringe.) 

Maybe I should use the word degrade or regress? 

I am here alone, drinking my coffee with barking dogs and roaming cats. I guess, not so much "alone". My role right now includes turning off lights, doing dishes, picking up "stuff" from the floor, telling the dogs "no barking". (Not complaining)

Bri has been cleaning and organizing, RE: getting rid of food past it's use by date. She is constantly doing this so I am surprised there is any still here. I have learned not to get involved.

Working as a freelance illustrator from her Shrewsbury studio (Shropshire, UK), Rosanna creates semi-surreal scenes and narratives, with a particular passion for the magic of the natural world. Delicate lines and rich handmade paper textures are woven together to depict elegant, elongated forms, complimented by a limited colour palette of gouache. 

I think she looks and sounds just like her art, quiet sweet and soft.

Rosanna Tasker, Sanctuary in Nature for the Grange from Studio Response on Vimeo.