slowly she turned

In mid-July, I flew to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for three classes at the Art and Soul Retreat. It’s been a long time since I attended one of these. I enjoy them so much.

When Seth Apter announced his classes at this retreat about a year ago, I signed up for “Within the Layers” immediately because I knew it would fill quickly. I planned to drive at first, but since I had enough miles to fly “free” on United, and both of our cars are nearing the 20 year old mark, I decided that it would be safer to fly. I registered for two more classes: “Copper Journal” with Thomas Ashman, and “Encaustics for All” with Lisa Bebi.

Without a doubt, I was most satisfied with Seth’s class. I came out of it with a small book that was deeply meaningful to me. We were making gelli prints and stamping and stenciling and making marks on papers for the books, and one of my old papers stuck to the gelli plate. I loved the colors but I had to peel it off in pieces. When I started collaging the pieces to my book pages, I started thinking about how it is possible to see and make beauty out of destruction. Which led me to thinking about the destruction that Hurricane Helene left behind in western North Carolina and how it is still being reconstructed and rebuilt and cleaned up. The debris left in Helene’s wake also led to wildfires months later. My book morphed into these feelings about my sorrow and hope for western North Carolina.

Here’s a slideshow of the pages. I’ve yet to bind the book and I might not do so, since I am happy with the band around the cover.

On the third day I took a class from Thomas Ashman, hoping to improve my metalworking skills. I had a vision for this book, which in hindsight I should maybe have abandoned. I didn’t do the patinas and torching the covers that the others did, and now I regret it. Anyhow, I may dissemble this and re-do it. It’s wonky, and I’m not completely happy with it.

The object on the front came from the flea market in Lisbon. When you remove the little pen on the right, it opens up to where a notepad would be. The pages are marbling samples that I made with my friend Susanne, with some noodling around on the backs of them. Those need some more “work.”

In Lisa Bebi’s “Encaustics for All” class, she pretty much set things up, gave us some demos, and let us go. She brought all the supplies! I was really happy with playing in this class, especially when I found an old photograph of Betty White in the collage materials. Sadly, by the second morning, I found that I was too allergic to the fumes to continue the class and had to drop out. I was disappointed because I’ve wanted to learn encaustics for a long time. I’ll have to do it with a mask on next time, because it should not have been the room, which was HUGE with a high ceiling. Maybe at home on the front porch with fans going would work.

I stayed in a cheaper hotel about five minutes away but I found that the traffic made it too dangerous to walk there, so I used Uber every day and it worked out. I made friends who I went to lunch and dinner and had drinks with. I always leave these events feeling like I’ve left my tribe behind, which is why I am friends with so many artists I’ve met at these retreats on Facebook and Instagram. It has enriched my life exponentially.

The weather was wild on the East Coast on the day that I flew back. I compounded the wait at the airport by going straight there after I checked out of the hotel, because I felt sure that I had lost my eyeglasses there on the way into town. No luck, but they were an old pair and I had already ordered a new prescription, so it wasn’t a big deal since I wasn’t driving. Then our 2 p.m. flight was delayed again and again and again because of ground delays at my connecting airport, Dulles. Then I missed my connection at Dulles but was able to get on a later flight home. When we landed in Greensboro, it was in the middle of an intense thunderstorm and we sat on the tarmac in the plane until 15 minutes after the last lightning within five miles. Sandy was waiting inside. But I got my luggage, yay, and we got home at about 2:30 a.m. We’ve gotta expect this kind of thing with extreme weather caused by climate change already here to stay.