Studio Ruthe

A little more country and the big city

For more pictures and stories about our “art camp” in Door County, see Jan’s blog and Sandy’s blog. Anita has a brand new blog where you can see her work. 

Sandy sent this wonderful thank you note: Special thanks to Anita for all her hospitality and the use of her home and studio.  Special thanks to Kathy for her hospitality.  I'm sorry you weren't up to all we did, but it was good being with you.  Because of you we know about such glorious places as the Garden Gate and got to dine on such good asparagus.

Special thanks to Ruthe for all her help putting the blog together.....and especially this year adding Picasa to my computer.  What a blessing that was in doing this blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And thanks to Ruthe also for all her excellent instruction on the books, and for the "Paper in Three Dimensions" book.  Thanks to Jan, our worthy Best of Show, all the blood, sweat and talent who kept everyone laughing.I'm a richer woman for the experience of last week.  Loving you all, Sandy

At breakfast with Eli this morning I said I would not want to move back here. Walking downtown afterwards I could feel the power and energy of the city and realized I still loved it. The sun was shining; lots of people on the streets; the city looked wonderful. Once I knew every building, every alcove and alley. Now there are many surprises. Walking toward the Daley Center I stopped to take a picture. Someone came over to me and said the Stanley Cup was there. I could stand in line to have my picture taken with it, or just take a picture of it. It’s there, somewhere, behind the Picasso sculpture.

 

Walking near the Chicago River and the Opera House.  

Wabash Avenue with Chicago's Trump Tower in the distance. 

My destination was the Cultural Center, one of my favorite places. I saw an exhibit of jewelry made with handmade paper by Arte Papel Oaxaca. Unfortunately there was no catalog, they wouldn’t let me take photos and there is only this one article I could find on the web. I’d love to show you more, or better, I‘d like to go and be part of the collective.

An exhibit about Louis Sullivan, the architect, was also very interesting; lots of photos and information. 

A newly created space within the Center is Project Onward, a studio and gallery for artists with mental and developmental disabilities. There was a lot of good work and a lot going on within the studio. I was much impressed. 

Back to the city

Back at Sandy’s in Arlington; filled with swirling, unstructured thoughts, about bookmaking, about my friends, about the week, and about me. I feel so much better when I have people around me and lots of challenges. All week I was much younger than my 76 years. My hip still aches and sometimes I have trouble walking, but I was happy and nothing bothered me. 

Being teacher for the week was a great pleasure and I was sorry to see it end. We left Anita’s about 11 am and drove south on the scenic route, sailing past the ice cream store but stopping at The Flying Pig, a combined garden center and gallery of outsider art, great things to look at and charming ladies running the it. What a great place!

Sunday morning, the sun shone briefly on too much heat and humidity for 8 am, then thunder and lightning filled the sky. After the storm was over, I drove over to Carol, not far away. Family day, or, at least, family afternoon. Carol invited some of my cousins for lunch. It’s a kind of family reunion each year when I come back here, but each year our numbers grow smaller. This year’s theme seems to be a recounting of all the people we’ve lost. Many of my friends in Chicago were older and long gone. It made it easier for me to leave Chicago thirteen years ago. Did I mention, this is nostalgia trip time? 

In Chicago with good friend Betty and feeling very lucky. Found a parking space a block away at 6:05 Sunday night. From 6 pm a permit is required for parking. Could I get to Betty’s, get the permit and get back to the car before the cops came? Decided I couldn’t give up the space, so I really scurried. The cop was there when we returned, busy with someone else. Very lucky. Found two parking spaces Monday night. Didn’t like the first one. Very, very lucky. 

We went out to Rockford to see a Japanese garden. Do you think I’m obsessed? Rockford is about 2 hours away; I’ve only been there once before, many years ago, before the Japanese garden was built, and long before I cared about Japanese gardens. The garden was lovely; worth the drive, but somehow American Japanese gardens are never as satisfying as Japanese Japanese gardens. It has something to do with the trees.

 

    

Back to the big city and cell phones, traffic and noise

This is our last morning in Door County. It's been a great trip. Not only have we all been productive, 

we went to a wonderful play (Tom Stoppard's Heroes) visited two spectacular gardens and spent some time at Kathy's house in the woods. Only Sandy, Jan and I came up this year; Sue couldn't make it. Kathy joined us part of the time, but she hasn't been well and didn't have energy for all of it. So this year it was three of us and Anita, our hostess.

We went back to the Garden Door, the master garden we visited last year, but the really spectacular treat was Overbeck's, a nearby private home and garden. This is a living work of art; the garden and the house being embellished with mosaics, stained glass and carved wood in amazing, tasteful ways, not at all exemplified by that website. 

Between the book workshop last week and art camp this week it's been the best two weeks I've had all year. Nothing like a little stimulation to make me forget all of my health problems. My week in Chicago should be equally good.

What a week!

We worked all day Tuesday, Wednesday morning and part of today with great results. Tomorrow we'll have show and tell with pictures. Here are some pictures from the week:

  
 Jan hard at work

 

My workspace. I hate to admit it looks a lot like my workspace at home.

The studio.

Looking back at the house.  
 
 Looking toward the lake.

 

   

  The house.

Of course, all was not work. Here are Jan and Sandy exercising.

 

 

On the road

Sunday June 20

Another beautiful, sunny day. Yesterday was a nostalgia trip. Some of my visits in Chicago concern the here and now, but often they dip back into the fathomless past. I spent the night with Joan, Richard’s cousin. I’ve known her since I was 20, and even though I am no longer Richard’s wife, she remains my cousin. We deal with the here and now, but the past sits just behind an open door.  We talked non-stop, all through dinner and on to a visit to Linda and Tom, who live in a house filled with art. Tom is an amazing, highly productive artist. I ache for him, that he does not get more recognition.

I am sitting in Joan’s kitchen watching the birds at the feeders, the squirrel under the feeders cleaning up seeds the birds dropped and a chipmunk that steals seeds and darts away. 

 

We went to see more of Tom’s art: sculpture being installed on the Purdue campus; 

 
Linda, Joan, Ed and Tom 

a wonderful mosaic with 150,000 tiles at Andrean High School. 

 I am overwhelmed by this man.

More talk, then into Chicago with traffic as bad as I’ve ever seen it. If this happens on Sunday, what must Monday be? I made a quick, unsatisfying stop at Paper Source, then out to Arlington Heights to meet with Sandy and Jan over a wonderful dinner. We looked at the books from the workshop, which inspired Sandy to add more tools and materials to the supply we are carrying.  Tomorrow morning, after quick stops at Trader Joe’s for snacks and Office Depot for more paper, we’re off to Door County.

Monday

The drive to Door County was largely uneventful--only about 10 minutes of heavy rain as we left Illinois. We arrived about 3, unpacked the car visited over lemonade and then another show and tell for Anita and Kathy. We are now suitably inspired and ready to go to work tomorrow.

Cardio update

Wearing the monitor, last Thursday, nothing happened until early Friday morning. Then I was back in afib for the day, but it was never as bad as Wednesday had been. I went back to rehab and exercised in spite of the flutter. When I woke up Saturday morning, still fluttering, or fibbing as they call it, I took the old dose of my meds. By noon I was feeling good and have been fine ever since, even though I immediately went back to the reduced dose. I tried to ask the doctor about it, but his staff just told me to do what he had said and wait to hear from them. (Remember, he has the personality of a drill sergeant.)

I've been waiting all week; in fact, I'd pretty much given up. Since I was feeling good, I didn't care. Today was the big day--they finally called, not with an answer, but an order to come in again, possibly on June 29. Obviously, this is not an emergency. I made the appointment for July 6. I have a busy three weeks coming up and I won't let them spoil it.

Next week I'm taking that book making workshop at the Society for Contemporary Craft. Then the next day, Saturday, I'm driving to Chicago then on to Door County for another art camp. Back to Chicago the next week to visit with friends and relatives and attend a nephew's wedding. I'll get back here July 5. But I promise I'll post again before that.

Pittsburgh and points west

I went downtown to the scene of my terrible accident and found it all changed. I had this terrible dislocated feeling: was I dreaming; did I dream my fall; how did they manage to totally change the area in slightly over a month? I know I didn't dream it. I have the bills to prove it: $50 copay for the ER, $25 copay for the plastic surgeon, badly scratched glasses for probably another $225, finally a notice that I will have a $100 copay for the ambulance. That's what motivated my trip downtown. I want to threaten to sue the city for their bumpy sidewalk. I wanted evidence of the bump. Alas, the sidewalk is completely torn up and now sits behind Jersey barriers and a wire fence. Here's a Google satellite photo showing the area where I fell. It's not an ordinary corner; I could not have mistaken it for another place. The red arrow marks the spot. I tripped on the red brick paving. I was heading toward the busway. You can't get there today. It's completely blocked off and a small sign directs you to another corner to get the bus.

On to better things--I'm still cleaning up the details from the Chicago trip. Finally looked at my photos; I'm not too happy. On my first weekend I stayed on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. That weekend was the air and water show. We could see it from the apartment. Sunday the weather wasn't very good, but Saturday was beautiful. There were lots of boats, many sailboats, anchored out in the lake around the harbor. The beach at North Avenue was so full I don't think another person could fit there. We didn't stay for the show but went down to the Art Institute. The first thing we saw was a 21st century lemonade stand: bottled water and cookies. I think the kids were doing a great business. We saw a wonderful show of gilded Japanese folding screens, then looked at the newly opened modern wing and walked on the connecting bridge to Millennium Park. Here is a marvelous fountain where children play. It reminds me of the Art Institute's famous Seurat:  A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. This is Saturday on Michigan Avenue.

On Sunday we came back down to the Cultural Center where we attended an opening for several of my artists friends and saw a show of contemporary Chinese art.

Monday through Saturday we were up in Door County in a wonderful house on Lake Michigan. Our hostess, Anita, made us very much at home and always had wonderful things for us to look at while we ate all her great food. Here's one of her great table settings. Raja has more, and some wonderful pictures of our trip, including the Garden Door and the lake.

My photos of the Garden Door were mostly details: water drops on a spider web;


the lotus pond;

planting in old purses

I forgot what this is, but I like the look of it against the sky.

Sitting at that dining room table I spent lots of time looking at reflections. The water is behind me but there it is in the glass. On a day the waves were high it looked like the water was flowing around the trees.

On our last morning the lake was gray and dull; sad we were leaving.

Last day in Door County

We've had a wonderful time. Aside from my great book I haven't gotten much art work done, but have a few ideas for new projects. Yesterday, between showers, we discovered a beautiful garden called The Garden Door. I took some pictures. Then we returned today so the others could take photos. I was the only one with a camera yesterday.

I love watching the lake. It's almost hypnotic. It rained most of the day yesterday, and the lake kept changing colors. Also the wave patterns change and clouds are continually moving. No rain today, but lots of action on the lake. It really looks like the ocean.

Back to Chicago tomorrow to relatives and friends. I'll post pictures and more stories after I return to Pittsburgh.

Door County, day two

Last year when we came up here we decided to work on altered books. I began an elaborate effort, which never got finished. Today I started and finished an entire book. It's called The Strange Woman, a title I thought strangely appropriate, but with nothing to do with what I did. Here is a picture of my finished effort:

 

It's not much of an effort, but I was pleased to finally finish something. I tried to walk on the beach this morning. The lake is unusually high; most of the sand is gone. None of us had any plans to swim, although it would still be possible. Sandy and I finally walked along the road and over to the bridge over the creek.

 

On the little bit of sand.

 

More pictures to come.

Wisconsin week

Arrived in Door County about four this afternoon. Overcast with slight rain all the way, making for an easier trip than bright sunshine. Anita welcomed us with wine and cheese, a wonderful dinner, then a short studio session for show and tell with a little brain storming. Brains not working too well after all the driving and wine; tomorrow is another day.

I owe at least two posts, which you may, or may not get: nostalgia for Chicago and what I forgot then remembered as I approached Indiana; visiting with Betty and a trip to the Art Institute.  I'll try to get it all in, but it's hard to be sociable and still think about the computer.

I'm going to try my best to get a post ready for Thursday to add to Ronni Bennett's Elders for Healthcare Reform Day. If you don't know about it, read her post here.