I'm struggling here today, to make progress on the Big Doll and collage and paintings and learning Creative Suite, so I can do more books...my mind is leading me in a million different directions, when what I really need to do is FOCUS. Have you read ART+FEAR?

Earlier this afternoon I was very tempted to get side-tracked by catching you up on all the other things that have been going on, and later, after working on the BIG DOLL, here are some pictures of the past year. Above is the paper doll class I taught in February 2007 at Art Supplies Unlimited, with my painting and paper dolls hanging in the background. What FUN! We MUST do more classes! The rest of you will just have to travel to beautiful Port Angeles by the sea.

Last December at the Fine Arts Center Gala, a group of us bid on a special tour of sculptor Anne Morris' studio. I loved the open work space under a glass roof and all Anne's BONES.














You can see one of Anne's bronze sculptures in the background.

I'm having a little chronilogical difficulty. In blogs, everything happens backwards, but when I start posting on a regular basis, I should get back on track...at least women and artists are good at carrying multiple concepts at once.

On the left is a box I'm displaying at The Art Mine in Port Hadlock, WA.
The next box is one of a series of "found" (thanks to Barbara Slavik) boxes we decorated for the fall fundraiser for Port Angeles Fine Arts Center (where I am on the Board of Trustees). I did seventeen and really enjoyed a very focused project. I need to write FOCUS in big letters all over my work space!

In the spring, my job sent me on a trip across Washington state--it's BIG! After living in the Northeast most of my life, driving 8 hours and never leaving the state was Amazing.

In my years of traveling and teaching took a series of pictures of where I sleep. Was also inspired to be brave enough to do self portraits regularly in a L.K. Ludwig class, so here I am at the motel in Spokane, where I took a class in making splints. Thermoplastic would be an interesting doll material.

I live in Western Washington now, where there are lots of mountains, ocean, and really, really tall evergreens. This is the Columbia River Valley, in Eastern Washington. I think everything east of the mountains is Eastern Washington, the way everything north of New York City is Upstate.

And a retro diner on my way across Washington.
I miss traveling and teaching, seeing new things and meeting all of you all over the world. We'll just have to visit via the magic of the Internet.
As you may remember, for my 60th birthday, I traveled Washington from north to south...I'm getting the state surrounded.

This would make a great painting, wonderful blend of a limited color palette and lots of pattern.








David (on the left) with Tom, at David's residency at Fort Worden, where he created a vast array of his wonderful monoprints in September. The space was large and light, reminding me of my 24' x 36' workspace in the old schoolhouse in Northeast Vermont.



We really are jumping around--flashbacks from 2007. Me and the Seattle brothers on Doug's back deck on Easter: Me, David, Hugh, Doug.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's WONDERFUL to be living so close to such a large contingent of family! Always an occasion for great food, too. You're lucky I haven't included Too many food shots (a Hastings tradition).







Hugh and Connie always look great in pictures--is it their actor training--or are they just gorgeous?



I'm still battling weeds to maintain my rock yard. I swore I was never going to do any gardening again after getting way burned out on weeding and lawn maintenance in NY, but I can't resist the many-colored sedums here.
The lobelia was a shocking and wonderful contrast to the yellow-greens.
There are pansies all year around in the Northwest, and COLOR! is Wonderful!



The stone spirals keep growing, with stones from Vermont (thanks, Will), Sequim (thanks, Tom and Ed), New Mexico (thanks, David) ones I've hauled from the beaches and my walks, and brought from Saugerties.

One of these days the yard will have a weatherproof Big Doll.

Caught up (for the moment) 10/20/07.

I gotta admit, I'm weird....but loveable. The scatter technique for task management, not sleeping too much, and not having a TV...work for me. Read SHAMBHALA, THE SACRED PATH OF THE WARRIOR by Chogyam Trungpa and ART + FEAR by David Bales & Ted Orland. Even though it's devilishly difficult to be an artist, we can't help it, and in the end we love it.

Do what you can, where you are (metaphorically and physically) and we can keep this old planet and each other going.

Thanks for Being,
Pamela 10/20/07 9:05pm PDT