Bowyn’s been cooped up during these Covid weeks, scoring only a few short walks around the neighborhood. Still, he wanted in on the sweater photo. And a treat. This dog is a whore!
Sadly, the day after Easter, Covid darkened the Salamy home. Unfortunately, that also meant that three of our holiday dinner guests received a “souvenir,” and I’m not talking leftovers. Thankfully, they’ve all tested negative again this week. Tom and I, however, are still stuck at home with a case of rebound Covid. Seems like double jeopardy to me. At least, this week’s been more like a bad cold with congestion and runny noses rather than the sore throat, chills, and terrible fatigue of earlier in the duration.
The worst thing was that first week when I couldn’t really concentrate on anything. Forget hooking and the Yearlong Environmental Stitching project (YESP). Because I thought I had plenty of time till Sketchbook Revival 2023 closed on April 20, I’d held off doing all the sessions, planning on a leisurely pace. Yeah, that didn’t happen either. The sweater I’ve been crocheting. Nope. No books started or finished either.
But this week’s been different. I’ve actually gotten some things done and even attended a meeting on Zoom. I started a new novel and am almost halfway through it. I’ll finish the second sleeve on the sweater tonight. The Sketchbook Revival workshop I was most looking forward to didn’t involve a sketchbook at all but was about stitching! Emma Freeman presented MAKE SLOW STITCHED WABI SABI FABRIC SCROLLS. Most happily, mark-making comes in many forms as does experimentation.
No hooking’s happened in two weeks, but not just because of Covid. The reality is that I was bogged down on a project that wasn’t working the way I anticipated, so it’s back to the drawing board to rethink it or another design.
Although I’m still finishing up with some beads and maybe more stitching, here’s the wabi sabi scroll I started in Sketchbook Revival 2023.
Meanwhile tomorrow is Earth Day, something I always try to celebrate in some fashion or another. Taking environmental care is one of the main bases of my artwork be it upcycling all kinds of textiles for hooking or scavenging the news for stories to represent in the YESP. What I find saddest about our troubled natural environment is that we have the technology to do something about it; we just lack the communal and political will. And for that coming generations will suffer. USA Today had a article about what 2050 could be like. Sadly, I fear it’s more of a pipedream than anything else.
Nonetheless, a girl can hope even if she lives in the desert during a prolonged, 30-year drought. In the meantime, I’ll try to take shorter showers and use less paper towels. Some habits are difficult to break, I know. But till this Covid thing exits my house, I guarantee that the tissues will keep piling up .
Celebrating Earth Month with the Yearlong Environmental Stitching Project!
First day’s work on the Yearlong Environmental Stitching Project. January 1, 2023.
As many know, a main focus in my artwork, particularly hooking, is to bring attention to the state of our shared environment. Globally, locally too, it’s not in great shape. Between crazy-ass storms, drought, rising temperatures, air and water pollution, too much trash and waste, etc., etc., we’re suffocating ourselves and other forms of life here on earth. (Though I understand that cockroaches and kudzu are still doing quite well.)
If you’re reading this, I won’t bother preaching to the choir. You’re already aware of the problems. And you’ve probably heard me pontificate or at least share various posts on my social media. A note, my initial career was in environmental regulatory management for industry. I’ve had plenty of time to think about what we put in and on this planet of ours.
On January 14 I stitched about how the US Department of Agriculture approved the first ever vaccine to prevent the bacterial disease that destroys honey bee colonies. This is GOOD NEWS!
More than wool, I create hooked art using different types of old textiles that I find in Savers (my local thrift store) and am gifted. They can include old t-shirts and other clothing, curtains and bedsheets, and so on. It makes me feel good to tell people what the art they’re fondling is made of. Kids especially love to see and touch recycled t-shirt rugs.
In 2020, I spent the WHOLE YEAR hooking and stitching the Ribbon Rug Journal (RRJ). Not familiar with it? You can read about it HERE. Given the nature of 2020, I had plenty of time to sit down every single night to log in that day’s entry. Still I was psyched that I made it to December 31. And really ready to move on from the project given the time and energy it took. It’s since been the subject of an article I wrote for Rug Hooking Magazine and hung in two exhibits.
Fast forward to late 2022. Surprisingly, I was itching for another yearlong endeavor, preferably something with meaning from the get-go. (When I started the RRJ, I had no idea that 2020 would be the “special” year that it became.) I wasn’t looking to hook something every day; that’s what my regular projects are for. Besides, Tom begged me not to have to work on something every night. So, I pondered…
On March 13, I started the Brown Widow Spider after reading about how the aggressive Browns are “slaughtering” the more docile Blacks (spiders!) in the US Southwest and South. Then they eat them! Meanwhile the Black Widows are expanding their range northward, even into Ontario and Quebec.
Meanwhile, like most everyone else, during 2020 and 2021, I took online classes and became more interested specifically in hand-stitching. In fact, I incorporated stitching into the RRJ because some things, like letters, were easier to do on the burlap ribbon than hooking. I made a Kawandi quiltand was pretty proud of myself. I also did more sketching with the likes of Sketchbook Revival.
I’m not interested in fine drawing or fussy embroidery, but something more basic. To share a thought, make a memory, the stuff of journaling.
Last year too, while on a hunting trip to Savers, I came across a large, linen curtain panel from Ikea. It’s a beautiful, pale green. Come the end of the year, it was just sitting there, waiting for me to formulate an idea. Which I finally did. The color is a great earth color. And I kept seeing and reading more and more environmental stories. Ah ha! I decided on the Yearlong Environmental Stitching Project (YESP): I’d stitch using an environmental theme throughout 2023.
After the Norfolk Southern train derailed in Ohio in February, we learned more about how the last administration dismantled railroad safety rules. as the railroads requested. This accident and subsequent environmental and health disaster didn’t have to happen.
I’m still not enthused by the title so that might change. And to avoid burnout – my own and the husband’s – I don’t work on it every day. In fact, throughout Sketchbook Revival 2023, the whole thing has sat on the dining room table. Really, it could also be a tablecloth; it’s big enough! As I scan the newspaper and news online each day, I collect stories. Some are pretty horrific, I’m not going to lie. Like the recent report from the UN about humanity’s closing window of opportunity to affect climate change, that our current investment and funding for adaptation to that change are completely insufficient, especially in and for developing countries. Never mind that the US electrical grid is heading for a total meltdown. But there’s good news too. Biden created two new national monuments here in the Southwest. Then there’s the woman in Britain who got so fed up with her town’s lack of recycling that she decoded to take care of it herself. And all kinds of folks joined her. I need those kinds of stories; otherwise the whole project would depress the crap out of me.
I keep all the stories in a file folder and pull one out when I’m ready for a new entry. Having learned from the RRJ, once I finish a stitching, I record it and pertinent info in a written journal. I photograph it too. That way, in January, I won’t wonder what the hell I stitched. Also, the only thing I can purchase for this project is embroidery floss. Everything else has to come from what I already have or am given.
While this won’t be quite as entertaining as the nightly RRJ postings were, I hope that you join me on this yearlong journey. Hey, it’s less than nine months now. Somehow busy-ness and my own winter inertia kept me from getting this all written up, though I have been posting on my Instagram and Facebook accounts all along. Sadly, it’s a constant fight against the cult of busy-ness in this culture. Even when your kids have left home and you don’t have a regular paying job. Also my ability to multitask isn’t as honed as it used to be. (Thank goodness!)
Toadzilla, the fierce, burly Cane toad from Australia. He was 6 pounds, the biggest Cane toad ever found! I’ll let you Google him to see why he was in the news in mid-February. This is his outline. I still haven’t finished filling him in. It’s a good lesson to me to sketch more, color and detail less.
How do you cope with climate change and all that the environment’s throwing at us these days? Any good plans for Earth Day?
Every year – usually in the late fall – I create an angel for the coming year. See 2022, 2021, but not 2020; not sure where she went.) This year I was a little tardy and finished her up on January 1. Given everything HOLIDAY going on and the passing of another year, I’m thinking that I’ll keep this schedule from now on. It gives me a break after festivals, sales, and late fall teaching.
THE ANGEL OF 2023, SHE PRAYS FOR RAIN Hooked (various fibers) and embroidered (bamboo yarn and cotton embroidery floss) on 4×4 monk’s cloth; mounted on a black canvas.
In my fiber art practice, I focus on reuse and repurposing, especially of textiles of all kinds. Better to use something than let it fall into landfills. Sadly, this is particularly the case in this time of fast fashion and its concomitant waste. I will never run out of raw materials for my work.
At the same time, I live in the American Southwest, a land still wildly beautiful but suffering from a megadrought. You’ve all seen the pics of Lakes Mead and Powell. No need to repeat it here. Our uncompromising thirst for water and other resources has brought us here. Truthfully, I don’t think that much will change, but if it’s going to, WE better get to it right quickly to help with water and all of our other environmental crises.
Happy 2023! FIREWORKS (repurposed t-shirts and sparkly ribbon on monk’s cloth)
My plan for this week between Christmas and the New Year has been to do the things I WANT to do rather than HAVE to do. (The last couple of months planning Workshop Week 6 and handling some other things – like LIFE – were exhausting.) Things I wanted to do include the usual end of the year review and, more importantly, making plans for the coming 2023.
Gotta say I’ve been a little lazy on all accounts. Also, the final holiday rush took its toll physically. I’ve been mostly lying low the past few days: started a novel, doing Sudokus, and working on a new hooking project. Going through my piles and drawers and closets to organize and dispossess hasn’t happened. Yet. I still have a couple of days, especially given that it’s a long weekend. Watch for that ANGEL OF 2023! She’s a little late this year, but she’ll make an appearance by January 1.
I didn’t feel up to a detailed post mortem on 2022. Sadly, the end of the year brought with it a flurry of deaths in my little part of the universe. Nonetheless, like everyone, my 2022 brought some downers and some nice pluses. Teaching in Tennessee at the Shakerag Workshops was right up there. If you have a chance to participate – as a teacher or a student – I highly recommend the experience. A couple of articles I wrote were published in Rug Hooking Magazine. There were art shows and festivals here in Albuquerque and in Other Places, New Mexico. In the fall I made it out to Seattle to visit the kid. With a little luck, Tom and Bowyn, and I will make a road trip there in 2023.
What about the coming year? In 2023, I’d really like more time to myself, time to explore my making. Certainly, I look forward to teaching and sharing how others can get in on this calling of rug hooking and other fiber arts, but I need to carve out time for myself to sit in one place and ponder and experiment without distraction. I find it really easy to administer, to volunteer, to vacuum (ew!), to do anything but make the things I’ve seen in my imagination. Busy-ness, a need to feel needed, and the concomitant exhaustion – they can kill an art practice. I see it in others, and all it leads to is regret.
What I’m losing myself in tonight. NO NAME as of yet (repurposed t-shirts on monk’s cloth)
So, my big goal in 2023 is: SOLITUDE. Not that I plan on blowing anyone off. I’m a très social being who has a hard time saying NO. But it’s time for a little me-time. (Being Catholic and Irish, I know I’ll apologize for that all year.)
My New Year’s wish is that you too carve out some solitude for yourself and your art, your gaming, your reading, whatever it is that you can lose yourself in. Happy 2023!
High on Hooking dogs Tynan and Bowyn wish you a joyous and restful holiday season. WOOF! (Meanwhile they await their gifts from Santa Paws – very serious business indeed.)
The gifts are wrapped; it’s Christmas for real now. I look forward to taking a week off from things I HAVE to do so I can accomplish some things I WANT to do. Like working on a new hooking project and planning some new ones for 2023. (More on those in a few weeks.)
If you’re still looking to fill a creative’s stocking or or even gifting yourself, HoH has a few ideas. Our winter teaching schedule is filling – for both in person and online events. Yay! After the holidays, I’ll give more info, but find the salient info below.
IN THE STUDIO ONLINE WORKSHOP WEEK 6 – Various Fiber Arts
February 16-26, 2023
Nationally known teachers! 9 workshops and 5 lectures plus 2 bonus events!
More info HERE.
FULLER LODGE ART CENTER / LOS ALAMOS ARTS COUNCIL Introduction to Rug Hooking – Saturday, February 25, 2023 Introduction to Punch Needle Rug Hooking – Saturday, March 4, 2023
Fuller Lodge Art Center, Los Alamos, NM
More info HERE.
We here at High on Hooking thank you for all your support this past year – students, festival organizers, schools, and customers. We wish you the best of Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, whatever winter holidays you might celebrate. Here’s hoping for a joyful and peaceful 2023.
