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Turmeric Anthotypes and beyond
In about 6 weeks, I will be leading a workshop featuring “nature art” at the Oyama Senmaida harvest festival. Last year we explored a variety of ways to get color from plants and earth. This year, something different: anthotypes. (antho, flower + type, print) It’s a fancy word for capturing shadows by sun-bleaching botanical emulsions.…
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Camera Roll
Another couple of months in photos from my Instagram Stories. Week by week the seasons change while daily life remains “same-same but different.” Scroll to see nature (including my best ever photos of a snail and a grasshopper) and art. Always plenty of cats.
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Festival Spider
When my sister read my previous post, she wrote some encouragement to me. Not a classic “you can do it” message, instead it reframed my perception of my role at Kozuka Art Festival. You are the spider of the festival. You have put yourself in a shady spot where there are trees and tenderness to…
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Kozuka Art Festival 2026 (first half)
Art festival in the forest! A magical week full of artists arriving and displaying their wares and their work. Restaurants come to us on a daily rotation. There are performances and impromptu encounters. Workshops, crafts for sale, art on display. It’s very cool. But from my point of view, its been a lonely four days.…
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Dandelion Color
This week I spent creative time in the shed, making color and paper. It began when I took a walk and gathered dandelions on the roadside of the route between home and Tod’s office. When foraging, I never take everything I see. I am not the only entity using these resources; there are bees, butterflies…
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A lifetime of weaving
Morita Seki is retiring after 60 years of weaving. She is 92. I saw an article in the Bonichi about her “final exhibition” at a gallery in downtown Tateyama and I had to go to meet her and to see some of her work. By the time I got there on the 20th, day before…
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Triptych Weaving
The creative process led me to creating a trio of small weavings about the creative process, specifically writing: The Blank Page;Concept of a Plan;First Edit. I really only meant to make the one in the middle. I wanted to practice a tapestry joining technique – looping the weft threads of two different colors – to…
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Weaving in public
This year’s theme word was “weave” and I made good use of it. Metaphorically I wove myself more tightly into my community (unfortunately, I feel like a loose end much of the time). And though it took me most of the year to get around to actual weaving on a loom, I did it. When…
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Fourteen Yeses and a No
This is one of my favorite artworks from this year. In fact, I finished it today. It’s been sitting on my desk waiting for the moment when I felt brave enough to tackle the gold leaf. In the autumn, I audited an online class about divination, Prediction X: Omens, Oracles & Prophecies. It was fascinating…
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Drawing the line
Here’s a question I frequently ask myself: when teaching a creative topic, is it best to have students copy your work and use your ideas, or is it better to let them roam free in their own style? I’ve done both and I don’t have a definitive answer. It depends on the students, mood of…
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