A Wasteland Near Me

 I went out today on a mission to check out the land north of Vancouver House where there are two circular on/off traffic ramps, one newly-empty taxi company building, & number of 'empty' spaces.

Earlier in the day George & I had driven one of the ramps & I noticed things looked pretty unpretty! As usual, there are the categories that often catch my eye: marvelous multiples, great textures or shapes, lost or broken items, construction left-overs, signs of people living rough, graffiti, signs & traffic control equipment. As I entered this zone it was all chaotic & random. I finally had to categorize it !

This collection of photos reflects my preoccupation with change, loss, & social inequality. This walk I took brought up thoughts about those things,  but also something important to me about 'beauty' or 'fascination' being where you find it & slowing down to notice.

So without further ado...

 

 

 

a glove, shoe, wood, chair base & so on... each with stories to tell

 

  

construction left-overs all over the place

 

 

 

orange road thingies

  

closed taxi company

more windows reflecting 5 urban cameo

 

3 rectangles

Vancouver House entry feature looking towards Beach Avenue Auto Center neighbor

                                                         That's it for now.

2020-- year of turning 80, not getting Covid, & Making Quilts, & some more

2020

Well....Quite the year....

George & I revisited Oaxaca where we had been in 2004/5 for three weeks. It felt very different. Oaxaca had changed & so had we!

We came home & a month later Covid-19 came into our lives. I made a wall piece about how angry I felt about how the pandemic had invaded our lives. 

Then I began to see how all the uncertainty was contributing to my need for less anxiety. The walls in Oaxaca were the inspiration for The Wall of Tranquility.

 This was my start.... & below the finish....

It's hanging in my upstairs hall & it does calm me down.

I started 'going through things' in the house: discarding old clothes, unwanted cloth, old projects that could be revived-- there were quite a few of those.

My Life in 8 Parts was one of those old projects.  Here are the parts.

 

I fall in love with cloth                                          I like to make things

I love to sing in harmony

I had wonderful teachers

I have many zones of reading                                                         I have two families

 

I like to dance                                 I take photos

So here is the whole quilt.

Not much on great composition, but that's not the point of it!

Another project-in-waiting was going to be called Helping Hands.

 

I had a collection of "small things" that eventually became my milagros.

The whole project shifted.

I added many scraps of cloth from parts of my life & more milagros.

Then came the jeans project. These jeans were wearing out, I had really worn them to death, but couldn't bear the idea of throwing them out. They were members of a very special club in my life: Grey Cloth with Black Print.

I had a high school dress, & many grey outfits through the years. I'd worn them all out.

SO I cut out the seams & the waist band & reassembled them.

Front & center! Hand-quilted.

Back, machine quilted.

The details were fun. A Pilot pen in my right back pocket & a tube of Chapstick in my right front pocket.  I have measured out my life with Pilot pens, Chapstick, jeans, wrist watches, cars, homes, & many other things.  I decided to write along the sides of the pant legs.

The quilt-backs dramatically show the difference between hand & machine quilting!

The last quilt of 2020 I want to show you I call Grey Moths. In B.C. in the fall we had a big outbreak of small moths.  The quilt started like this before the moths alit....

(I was still hanging on to & enjoying the tranquil colors.)

& below, not quite finished.

Turning 80 was a shock......

 

............but I'm doing okay.

That's it for now.