Ritual-less Ritual

Change. It's not just the seasons... it's another one of those things that happens inside me, something that feels like I made it over a hurdle I didn't even know i was jumping. Then i am free'd by the feeling of my feet hitting the ground. Not Running. Standing still, seeing, watching, learning.

All my life people have thought I was a free spirit and most my life I have felt largely trapped by this, that and the other... something always holding me back (usually I could blame the stagnation on my health). It's not some kind of hippy thing, like I am going to fee myself by joining a nudist colony & OM'ing... it's inside me. Something that says, I am free to have what i deserve, free to seek what interests me, free to look in the mirror and like what i see no matter what the world may see, free to love what i love, free to run around a big fire with headphones stuck in my ears & dance. And no one is watching. No needs to be.

I never was good at religion, rituals, worship or agreeing with the Pope. And I'm still not. I wouldn't even make a good witch. My religion is watching the fire with a smile, having enough food and being thankful for it, having a place to live that reminds me of what heaven would be like (at least during the better seasons), and hell during the winter. Trials of sacrafice and empowerment in simple tasks, like staying warm, finding friends in a remote location, getting behind the wheel of a car and finally being able to drive again.

And freedom for me = i can get my feet dirty. Completely black.

XOxoxoxoX

Rustic Fence Gate From Wood Scraps

For the love of mah DOnkee - the fence is going up and I made sure there were three spots with gates for me to get in the domesticated animal ring! I decided to get artsy with my smaller fence gates which will be next to my house and behind the pond, by using whole hardwood tree branches & scrap wood that was piled up on my porch from all the other projects going on.

The basic premise I followed to make the small gates were alot like making a frame to stretch canvas over for paintings. Even though I was using raw materials, like branches I created a square/rectangle/box shape following my measurements (approx. 4 feet high and 36 inches wide).

And to support the box, it needed corner braces...

There may be better ways to do this, but I was using mostly hand tools and winging the design(as always I am open to suggestions, and ways to make things easier too!). I was careful to put in extra screws to increase it's durability.

As a finishing rustic look, i took other twisted branches and screwed them to the front of the gate-! Pretty cool huh? Now Jus' two more to go & I am picking up mah DOnkee this weekend.....

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(Helpful Hint::: If you wanna make something like this make sure to pre-drill holes and use really long screws!)

NEW BONUS PIC :::::: (Here is the second gate on the right I built today, July 29th!)
xoxoxo

I Heart YOU (wink wink)

Love, Your Secret Admirer

XoXo

Adventures In Basket Weaving

This isn't basket making 101 because I have never had a lesson on how to actually make a basket from scratch... although I shimmied through two survivalist books that breezed over this skill. The books didn't tell me jack toodles, used words I had no idea what they meant (waft?), and didn't have enough pics to really give the mysterious instructions any real meaning. So I started this basket from the skills I learned first when I was 16 sitting under a weeping willow tree with a rad girl named Mara, she looked just like a drag queen and knew how to make wreaths out of branches for dream catchers... and second from Mr. Bort, who makes wreaths of vine that carry sentiments without words and discussed with me various ways that maybe a basket could work.So I started out with basic circles, wrapping the privet (very invasive) vine around itself to create a bottom piece & a handle. Then tied the two together with Honey Suckle vine. I attempted to make some 'spokes' by wrapping thin vines around the bottom circle, keeping the image of a spider web in my mind's eye as a guide.

I used the 'spokes' then to wrap under and over them continuously in a circle...which took FOREVA' and eva' and Evaaaaaaaa.....

I tied the third loop where I wanted the height of the basket to be. Really I wanted it to have alot of depth and be bigger, but my hands were getting cut and my mind was starting to lose itself in all the winding. I kept thinking if I knew what I was doing, it would feel so much smoother... metaphorically and literally. Possibly soaking the vines in water first makes it all alot softer.

I found the wrapping part for the sides of the basket to be a little confusing, but was beginning to get a pattern going by simply wrapping in and out, around the top and bottom breaded wreathes.

I only used two types of invasive vines to makes this basket and I think after hours of working on it, that I can't help but put up this dorky pic below of me with my beloved basket, it's the kinda shit a grandmaw can love!

XOxoooo

Nature Art: Andy Goldsworthy

When I was trained to be a professional artist in New Orleans and New York all the mediums used to express ourselves seemed to be focused on toxic paints, glues, chemical printing inks, dark room printing with formaldehyde, and various mixed media using other stains or things as volatile as tool dip. A person who would have made art using natural objects would certainly have been looked at as either a hippy or absolutely lazy... in the art world nature made pieces lacked a certain toughness and finish to really gain any kind of prestige. When I realized my own health was being effected by the amounts of chemical materials I had been using, I faced the notion of completely re-structuring my entire outlook on what is "art". The definition that never can fully be defined. Making art with natural materials became an option I would begin to explore, but only after viewing the unreal & imaginative artwork of Andy Goldsworthy in his documentary Rivers and Tides.

"Andy Goldsworthy (born 26 July 1956) is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist living in Scotland who produces site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. His art involves the use of natural and found objects, to create both temporary and permanent sculptures which draw out the character of their environment.
The materials used in Andy Goldsworthy's art often include brightly-coloured flowers, icicles, leaves, mud, pinecones, snow, stone, twigs, and thorns. He has been quoted as saying, "I think it's incredibly brave to be working with flowers and leaves and petals. But I have to: I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole." "

After being given the movie River and Tides to watch, something in my mind finally shifted - I had not lost my ability to make amazing artwork because I couldn't use paints, but a whole new world of materials had opened up to me. A world which was as endless as the things that grow and die here on earth. I began collecting sticks, dried weeds, bark and various rocks to create art pieces that were temporary yet liberating and peaceful. Artwork that caused no harm to the environment. Eventually my front yard began to look like a crazy gnome lived there building it's own empire.
I encourage all creative types to view the work of Andy Goldsworthy and banish the notion that brilliant art must come on a canvas full of paint. Nature holds more colors, variations, and beauty then any tube of paint will ever be able to compete with. :)