As I write this, sipping coffee and gazing out the window at the first snow visible high above the valley floor, a magpie is teasing out chickens...perching in the tree and then ever-so-casual, touching down on the ground. At which point a rodeo ensues...feathers fly and squawking ensues, and yes, nothing really can make a wholelotta outraged noise like a chicken. The snow is so beautiful, and the chill in the air this morning as I skulked around in the dark made my wool sweater and fuzzy boots feel soooo good...but there's always a moment of feeling unsettled when the cold comes in. We depend on wood for our heat, and this time of year I always get a cold panic - do we ever have enough?

          The magpie is back, picking at an old deer hide hanging in the tree. I guess he probably feels the same way with the cold coming on...It's so hard for the animals here. It really does get down to negative twenty-five, and some years it's felt like we always had four feet of snow.

              

I spent the last few days in the garden with Rob, trying to put away as much as possible. All the red tomatoes are canned, and I'm making pickles and chutney with the (many, many) tomatoes that hadn't ripened yet. I also tried to make pickled peppers yesterday. Here are some pickles below:

I can't believe how nest-oriented I am right now. I think that goes with the fall, somewhat - all your energy is directed inward to some degree. It's a symptom of the colder weather, and you see it in animals too. Even plants pull their energy back from leaves and fruit to keep the essence alive. Fall as a result is such an introspective time for me.

                

The show opening went well. I was excited to debut this new body of work. All these pieces were created while I was working at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, WA, from the end of April until mid-July...the ideas started last winter however. I began with a series of hourglass forms...it's a good exercise, to practice a new form over and over, and to a degree that's all I was doing...tweaking the proportions, exaggerating the waist...We started experimenting with a series of hourglasses that were no longer transparent, that had a mirrorized outer surface. So the line of thinking went: what are the implications of an opaque hourglass, one in which you can only infer time's passage? What are the implications of seeing your own image in that hourglass, distorted as the form swells and tapers? I carved some lenses into the surface, creating another layer of optics and distortion...they began to have this really nice tension between exteriority and interiority.

            I use the idea of the vessel as a metaphor for the body a lot in my work. So here's what we ended up with:

They feel really nice in the hand...and they have a lightness to them, sort of humorous...sort of lost. And this idea of the hourglass stayed with me, and it became the basis for the whole body of work, this idea of time passing...As a research tool, I use word etymology and myth (very linked subjects) to generate different ways of thinking about an idea...and so I did research into the root of "chronology". Here's some of what I found:

            

In Greek mythology, Chronos (Ancient Greek: Χρόνος) in pre-Socratic philosophical works is said to be the personification of time. His name in Modern Greek also means "year" and is alternatively spelled Khronos (english transliteration) or Chronus (Latin spelling).

Chronos was imagined as an incorporeal god. Serpentine in form, with three heads—that of a man, a bull, and a lion. He and his consort, serpentine Ananke (Inevitability), circled the primal world-egg in their coils and split it apart to form the ordered universe of earth, sea and sky. He is not to be confused with the Titan Cronus.

He was depicted in Greek mosaics as a man turning the Zodiac Wheel.  Often the figure is named Aeon (Eternal Time), a common alternate name for the god.

Chronos is usually portrayed through an old, wise man with a long, gray beard, such as "Father Time." Some of the current English words whose etymological root is khronos/chronos include chronology, chronic, anachronism, and chronicle.


                   Ananke, she became a piece in the series too...the idea of hourglasses became formally linked to this feminine form...to fertility...Here's the lynchpin of the series:

...This piece is called "Shakti"...the feminine principal...
We paired her in the show with this painting:

I watch the magpies as I write this. Putting a body of work together, it's a little like what they do...scavenging ideas and images...picking on detritus looking for something shiny.

                       We're starting plans for the new show in the spring. I'll be showing with three other really talented artists: Cheryl Wrangle, Sue Marracci, and Laura Karcher. Cheryl and Sue are both painters, and Laura works in three dimensions...very fragile Japanese aesthetic, handmade paper and wood, and light. Lovely. She's doing these things with old 30s and 40s era car hoods that I sort of love. It's an interesting mash-up. The suggested theme at the moment is: Deepening the Wonder. Here's the poem it's based on:  (by Sufi poet Hafiz)



Death is a favor to us,
But our scales have lost their balance.

The impermanence of the body
Should give us great clarity,
Deepening the wonder in our senses and eyes

Of this mysterious existence we share
And are surely just traveling through.

If I were in the Tavern tonight,
Hafiz would call for drinks

And as the Master poured, I would be reminded
That all I know of life and myself is that

We are just a midair flight of golden wine
Between His Pitcher and His Cup.

If I were in the Tavern tonight,
I would buy freely for everyone in this world

Because our marriage with the Cruel Beauty
Of time and space cannot endure very long.

Death is a favor to us,
But our minds have lost their balance.

The miraculous existence and impermanence of
Form
Always makes the illumined ones
Laugh and sing.

_____________
Impermanence is the word that keeps jumping out at me, and I think it's the word I'm going to seize on to design the new work off of. Stay tuned...