Miss Mabel Studio

Linda July 2nd, 2008

I sent my “Deer/Dear Doll” to Editor of Art Doll Quarterly (don’t do like I did dear reader and wait till the last minute to send something in..it cost me $26 to send it Fed Ex, just so it would make it in time for the winter issue–I just about fainted when Scott told me!!!). I then emailed her to tell her that according to UPS it had arrived. Below is her response:

“Got it! She’s even more lovely in person.

Thanks!
Staci”

Fool doll was in the Summer issue, Cat doll will be in the fall 2008 issue, Dear/Dear doll will be in the Winter 2008 issue and Staci is interested in my Chicken doll for the spring 2009 issue (I am actaully hopng she makes it on the cover!) That is a whole year of ADQ.

Is this bragging? When I told my kids–they were unenthuised. Noel said “Geez, Mom it was exciting the first time you were in a magazine, but now it is getting old. You’ve been in about a gazillion times,” (and this kid is my math whiz???? Gazillion?! That’s not even a number!) Sigh.

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Linda July 1st, 2008

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trying something new here so please be patient!!!

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Linda June 26th, 2008

I just finished reading a book by Garrison Keillor called “Pontoon”.  I am a big fan of his “Prairie Home Companion” show.  It strikes a cord in me because those people he describes in his monologues are my family.  We are danish, came to Washington via Minnesota, they are Lutherans and drink hot black coffee in church basements.  I see these people at my family gatherings so I can reallyrelate to his comedy.  But here is the paragraph that made me snort my coffee…”Lutefisk is cod that has been dried in a lye solution.  It looks like the dessicated cadavers of squirrels run over by trucks, but after is is soaked and reconstituted and the lye is washed out and it’s cooked, it looks more fish related, though with lutefisk, the window of success is small.  It can be tasty butstatistics aren’t on your side.  It is the hereditary delicacy of Swedes and Norwegians who serve it around the holidays, in memory of the ancestors, who ate it because they were poor.  Most lutefisk is not edible by normal people.  It is reminiscent of the afterbirth of a dog or the world’s largest chunk of phlegm.”   

(o.k. call me a very sick person!)

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Linda June 26th, 2008

  My good friend Jeanette signed up for the Icon class that I taught on Doll Stree Dreamers.  Here are her results.  I think she did an excellant job.  Three cheers to you, Jeanette (she is such a good friend she took the class even though it was my first on-line class I have ever taught.  What a gal.)

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Linda June 23rd, 2008

 (I just added this for you city folk–I wake up several days a week with deer grazing in my back yard–now some of you might think this is cool but for those of us who garden…well let’s just say, I wish we had a dog to chase them off!!!)

 About 5 years ago Scott built me this garden.  It has an 8 foot fence (to keep the deer out, to stop my beloved kitty from pooping in the beds, and other creatures etc) and raised beds.  It is appprox 30 by 27 feet.  It is “my” garden, haven, and no one is allowed in unless “the mama” says so.  It is my own little spot to myself (I even have to share my studio space, sigh).  The wisteria bloomed this year for the first time.  It is purple and very fragrant.

      These are views from inside it.  I am growing:lettuce, spinach, rainbow swiss chard, 2 kinds of edible peas, cucumbers, zuccini, strawberries, blueberries, herbs, carrots, flowers, pumpkin starts, egg plant starts, basil starts, radishes, and rhubarb.  Whew!!!  It is all very compact.  I don’t use any chemicals except slug death (this is Washington you know)–I find that crop rotation works very well thank you.  And it gets regular doses of compost and chicken/rabbit manure. 

  A view of my raspberry patch. Not many make it inside–most end up inside me!!

  These are my peas–most of these end up inside my kids before they make it into the house.   

    This rose came from my grandmother Alma, and who knows where she got it–it was always in her garden.  It is not a very well behaved rose, but it brings back such fond memories.  It is a “cabbage” rose and give off such a heady scent.

 A view from the garden.  To the left is the garden shed-the one with the red door.  And the building next to that is Mimi’s play house.  Sadly she does not spend that much time in it–she spend most of her time running away from any flying creature because she believes it is a bee/yellow jacket.

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Linda June 19th, 2008

When I woke up yesterday the sun was just peeping out and it looked to be a nice day in Sultan, Wa.  Took my 15 1/2 year old to his drivers lessons…said a prayer for him and sent him off.  It was his first day driving in class.  Went home, ate a scone with yogurt, showered, dressed and told the other 2 kids that I was heading out to play in my yard.  I weeded some beds, put down bark mulch, replanted some seeds (that had rotted from the constant rain we had been having), inspected the veggie gardens progress..tra la la.  I was having so much fun and it was looking like a great day, then tragedy struck..in the form of my 15 1/2 year old.  He called and said he was done with his driving lesson and to pick him up.  Skipped off (ha–just kidding–too old for that kind of stuff!!) and picked him up.  Son proceeded to break down in the car…he had messed up driving and the instructor “reamed” him.  Told him, and the friend who is in the class/car with him, that he was going to be nice and not fail them on this drive…..etc.  My dear son’s self confidence was completely shattered by this man.  I have not seen him weep–out of anger, frustration, and fear for a long time.  It broke my heart.  What to do….he was only able to get his permit a week ago because he was not quit 15 1/2 and he was not enrolled in an “approved” drivers ed class till then.  He has very high standards and wants to do well.  He came home and shut himself in his room and did not eat till dinner and then only little–now if you know that my son is 6 foot 4, you can see that this is very unlike him..another sign of his sorrow.  

Then later that day #2 son comes to me and just stairs at me…I talk to him and notice that he has a cut on his forehead–how did you get that I say..he starts to tell me this loooooong story about his sister blah,blah, blah–the point was he was smacking a stick with another stick because he was angry at her and the stick broke and knocked him in the head.  It hits with such force that it gave him an “egg” on his head and a cut.  Give him an ice pack and send him off the sit in a chair.

And I had such high hopes for the day.  Talked to #1 son about his driving (what exactly did the instructor say etc)….and then took him out to practice, practice, practice.  He came home feeling better about his skills and his self.  It is so very hard to watch them go through such trying times….when to shield them and when to not.   (Personally I was ready to call the guy and do some personal damage of my own but know better.) 

I go to bed that night exhausted from all the flying emotions and “kissing emotional boo-boos”.  But #1 son went to bed feeling better, #2 son does not have a concussion and daughter is excited to go summer clothes shoppin’ with mom.  All is well with the world. Any body else have a day like this????    

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Linda June 16th, 2008

 This is my latest project (I was getting too tense from sculpting these heads–I needed something “fun”.)  I found a pattern at the craft store I clean–I am on the look out for the “perfect” little shift dress…I will post pictures when is it done.  So far it looks easy, I figure if I can sew clothing for 18 inch dolls I can sew for me!!!  

              This head is one of two that I am working on for the “Treasure of the Gypsy” challenge.  I have changed my method of sculpting and will see if it is any different or turns out any better.  I used a Styrofoam egg for the inside versus a aluminum foil ball.  The clay  instead of Das paper clay is Dawrii air dry clay (both are easy to use and to sand–see my page on various clays).  The eyes are porcelain doll eyes.  I think around the nose and eyes are better but I am still frustrated by the lips–mine always come out too “poochy”, like someone punched my dolls recently.  It will be a large doll–close to 24 inches.  Scott and I are working on the challenge together, it is due Oct.  

        This is the second head..I work on 2 at a time.  Scott and I will pick the one we like the best (and the other head may end up in another project.)  The eyes protrude but I think of think it looks interesting.  Also you can see that I penciled in the ear placement.  This is also new for me, I drew roughly where certain features went and them added them.  I am struggling with my artistic voice/style.  Do I want to do realistic or fantasy/extreme dolls.  I long to do scultps that are life like but don’t feel I have the knowledge yet.  Ahhh, the pitfalls of teaching one’s self. 

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Linda June 11th, 2008

“Standing at Water’s Edge–Moving Past Fear, Blocks, and Pitfalls to Discover the Power if Creative Immersion”, by Anne Paris, PhD

I highly recommend this book. The past year or so I have been reading books on art and creativity and I found out about this one reading a Somerset magazine. In it the author writes, “My fundamental assumption is that is that creativity (and the hope that is needed to fuel our movement) comes from a state of experience that I call immersion. The experience of immersion is one of total connection and engagement. Literally, to immerse means to plunge into something that surrounds or covers. We usually think of immersing into water: an immersed object is completely suspended in liquid but not drowned by it. Immersion means to be totally absorbed or engrossed in an activity.” That is Anne Paris’s description of being in the “art zone”, as others put it.

She goes onto discuss the nature of immersion and what happens if we starve our selves of this experience (depression, anxiety, underachievement, anger, isolation, addictions etc). When we immerse we are putting “our self” out of the way and entering into ameditative/spiritual experience. Now I am sure that some of you may find this kind of description esoteric but I truly believe that we all have a “creative” spark in us and that spark calls us to be fellow creators. One point of hers that I found particularly interesting is the idea that we need 3 types of people in our lives to keep us healthy (and yes, she purports that we need community contrary to what messages our cultures gives us!). We need “heroes, mirrors and twins.” A hero is a person real or imaginary who we “look up to, to admire, and to please….We want to be like them and to make them proud of us.” A twin is described as “being with a like kind…..Relationships with ‘twins’ help us feel understood and understandable; our feelings and experiences make sense and we find comfort in the awareness that we are all alike”. And finally a mirror is a person who “see(s) our specialness and…reflect(s) it back to us…these people (who) validate our strengths, and our talents and our uniqueness….” Dr. Paris points out that these people can be real or imaginary (this was a new thought for me!!)…a hero could be a dead grandparent and a twin could be a imagined person.

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Linda June 10th, 2008

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Linda June 10th, 2008

I have been reading a lot lately about creativity and the nature of creativity (and I will add a list later of these books)but for now I have been reading one of my art “heroes”, Madeleine L’Engle.  I am currently reading “A circle of Quiet”.  In it she says, “A great painting, or symphony, or play, doesn’t diminish us, but enlarges us, and we, too, want to make our own cry of affirmation  to the power of creation behind the universe.  This surge of creativity has nothing to do with competition, or degree of talent.  When I hear a superb pianist, I can’t wait to get to my own piano……A great novel, rather than discouraging me, simply makes me want to write.  The response on the part of the  artist is the need to incarnate the new awareness we have been granted through the genius of someone else……It is beauty crying out for more beauty.” 

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