slowly she turned

Art Update and Winter Storms

February 3, 2026

The pussy willow outside our back door

Polar vortex report: We were slammed with two winter storms one week apart severe enough to be granted the names of Fern and Gianni. Fern was sleet and ice, what we normally get around here when we get any winter weather. No fun at all and the ice accumulation meant that a lot of people lost power. However, we didn’t lose power and a lot of people in Tennessee did. We chopped our way out a few days later and went out for lunch. Then Gianni hit with almost a foot of snow here and over that nearby and on the North Carolina coast. Down where I’m from and my family still live, in Columbus and Robeson counties, a foot of snow is just about unheard of. I remember a snowstorm like that in the early 70s when I was delighted that there was actually enough snow to build a snow fort. The only time that ever happened! Anyway, the Outer Banks got a blizzard too, with more houses falling into the ocean. Snow at the beach is rare.

I also remember that when I was a little older, probably around 13, slipping out my bedroom window after midnight to take a walk in the woods after a snow of a few inches. I checked out my various hideouts that I built out of fallen branches. I don’t remember a whole lot about my childhood but that is a vivid and lovely memory. It was so bright that I didn’t need light to see. All of those woods are gone now – turned into pasture or cut for timber. None belonged to us – it’s amazing how I completely disregarded property boundaries and how completely our neighbors put up with it. I thought I was a combination of Harriet the Spy and Sam Gribley.

Tapestry weather diary 2026, January 1-February 2.

I am now into February on the tapestry weather diary. This past week has barely gotten above freezing. The low yesterday was 6 degrees! Today the temperature has risen to the low 40s and I pulled on my snow boots again and shoveled. It was soft and light, unlike the ice layer that still lingers beneath in some places. I think we might venture out later to the grocery store. We were smart enough to hit Costco before all this started and fill up the freezer, so we’ve been okay for food except one brief trip for milk and salad and cherry fritters. Yesterday I made a cream of chicken soup with onions, celery, and potatoes, and a broccolini and cheese casserole. We could get by for several more days, even a week if we had to.

The other smart thing I did was to bring my tapestry looms and yarns inside, as well as anything that might get ruined out in the studio if it froze. I ventured out there today again and with the radiator space heater having been left on its lowest setting, it is really quite comfortable. There are animal tracks in and out from underneath the building, which I believe are from raccoons.

Chaos! Tapestry in progress

Here’s the progress on the chaos tapestry. It may not look like much because I lost a key yarn that I twisted into most of it that kind of ties the colors together. I gave up and started weaving again, and then I found the yarn, so I unwove and started reweaving. Such is life. I didn’t mind too much. I don’t have a lot left on this and if I set my mind to it I could finish it by the weekend, especially if I move back to the studio where there are no distractions.

Speaking of no distractions, I heard from Wildacres Retreat and I am on the waitlist for an artist residency, so I really hope that happens. It would be so helpful to have several designs worked up to jump into as I finish a weaving.

I was working a remote temp job for the first three weeks in January when the work dried up. I guess because of school closings and the weather. It’s going to be extended into February so I hope to make some more money for my fabulous Ireland trip, which I reorganized to include several days in western Donegal. Now THERE’S a place with incredible inspiration for tapestry! The retreat workshop that I’m going to for the second week is for mixed media and collage, which of course is another love of mine. And I could connect the two, which I’ve wanted to do for some time. I do love traditional tapestry though. It is calming, like other kinds of needlework.

I think I’ve finally settled into semi-retirement.

Reading: I just finished “I Cheerfully Refuse” by Leif Enger which I thoroughly enjoyed enough that I had a very hard time putting it down. In hard copy, I’m almost done with “The Game of Kings” by Dorothy Dunnett. I have to say that it improved quite a bit after about 3/4 ways into it. I feel like I’ve been pushing myself to finish it. The other Libby book I’m reading is “Green Darkness” by Anya Seton, which by chance also takes place during the short reign of Edward VI. I love historical fiction, and this is a good one, but unfortunately I know what an awful end is coming to at least one of the main characters because of the foreshadowing in the beginning (and that I read an article about the source for writing it) and that is the only thing making it hard for me to finish it. I am a sensitive soul. Hopefully I will be wrong.
Currently on the looms

January 13, 2026

Well. Not all the looms. I have a lot of looms!

tapestry diary

I am pleased with how the tapestry weather diary is coming along. Last year I purposely started it in a bit of a chaotic design, but this year I have taken what I learned and calmed it down. It is more structured with same and similar weights of weft yarns.

I will begin the second line tomorrow beginning from the right side, and the rectangles will not line up to cut down on the slits being between the same warps on each row. I plan for there to be some interjections of rectangles with lettering referring to events or locations.

At the end of this first row, I wove a dark gray square to reflect the sadness and awfulness of the past week.

playing

There are a few other sections of warp on this frame loom that I expect for a warp thread or two to break. I decided to do these separately for that reason (I had finished warping when I noticed the fraying) and I am using them to play with small leftover bits of color and fibers. If they break, I can cut them off to use for collage or whatever without messing up the diary.

Fuzzy Chaos? Fuzzy Dreams?

Now, here’s the one I’m really having fun with. It should be finished by the end of the month. My brain has traveled all over the place with it. Right now the tentative title is either “Fuzzy Dreams” or “Fuzzy Chaos.” My friends and I see very different imagery in this. I guess that makes it a successful abstract. I’m happy with it, and that’s good because the original title was “Happiness Encroaches.”

Every time I look at it I see something else. Right now I see Tim in a hammock beside his kayak. That never occured to me before now.
Daily practice

January 2, 2026

I think that I’ve figured out that I’m going back to stitching and creating woven pieces with cloth strips and paper every day and integrating found objects as I get a whim. The ones that I’ve done in the past provided me with a lot of pleasure. However, the problem with this plan is that it always takes up more time than I intend, and I want my focus to be on tapestry and new tapestry designs for this year. The good thing about this plan is that I can see how many of these fabric collages I’ve done could be tapestry designs.

Just in case I decide to do another tapestry weather diary, I’ve updated my spreadsheet in which I track the weather each day, and I’ll warp up a loom and start something much smaller. After all, I have all this Paternayan yarn that I bought at that thrift store on Halloween! So, I’ll analyze which colors I will need the most of and figure out my palette from that. Or maybe I’ll base my fabric project on the colors of that day. Hmmm. For example, yesterday would have been medium green for the high temperature and medium blue for the low temperature. There are a lot of ways that could go – with the cloth, with the thread, with the objects… I could set a size for the back cloth that would work well for a fabric book at the end of the year, or a season.

Well, I guess I’d better get crackin’.
2026 and current project, plans

January 1, 2026

First, here’s my current tapestry project. I’m still musing over a title because it is truly abstract. What I’ve noticed is that the lines and shapes have taken on lives of their own in my mind. Right now I’m leaning toward “Fuzzy Dreams.”

The inspiration and cartoon is a painting I did in a mark making exercise with Jill Berry. I’ve had this painting on my bedroom closet door for a long time – this is often an incubation space for me. I took it down because I’m planning to get rid of those squeaky difficult metal doors, and I tore it. Later I thought, “I could weave this with the handspun naturally dyed wool singles that somebody gave me long ago.” So it began, although I am using natural linen for the border and black linen for the lines and dots, along with a funky synthetic(?) mix that Betty gave me.

I didn’t like the left top corner so I revised the design when I got above that shooting star of happiness through the middle.

The tapestry weather diary for 2025 is finished except for a small white linen hem I will weave at the top. This is the fourth panel of the year, showing September 1 through December 31, 2025. The brown border is black walnut dyed wool that I dyed many moons ago. The first column represents the high temperature of that day. In the middle, the weather, along with information of where I was during that time. Blue is generally sunny, no rain, and gray is overcast. Pick and pick gray and blue is rain, pick and pick gray and white is snow. We went to Asheville early on, then I went to Wildacres, Little Switzerland (where we saw a rainbow), and Lake Waccamaw just before Christmas. The third column is the low temperature of the day. The coldest day of the year hit 13 F in Greensboro, just before I went to the lake.

Now, a decision needs to be made. Will I weave another tapestry diary this year? I rather liked the weather prompt, because I’m a bit of a weather junkie. It comes from being a farmer’s daughter. I spent last night re-reading Tommye Scanlin’s Marking Time with Fabric and Thread, which is a remarkable book for any fiber artist. My brain got scrambled with too many ideas! I’m leaning towards doing a much smaller format with the same weather coding, but she also suggests an exercise in which you roll dice to determine the colors and shape of the day’s entry. I like that too. The method for most people and definitely for me is to reduce decision making from the get-go on these, because the idea is to get you rolling on your other weaving projects. I made that mistake on my tapestry diary in 2018, which I finally abandoned.

Whatever I decide to do, I want to make it smaller and quicker and portable because I want to focus on designing and weaving other tapestries I have in my head. I’m also considering doing stitch meditations again and weaving strips of cloth.

On Monday, I start working for the robot overlords on a new part-time temp project. I never know exactly what it will be before I begin, but I think this might be a “test” test with a different grading scale. If that’s the case, I may not have to train and take the qualifying tests. Either way, it will be good to have the paycheck, because if I go to Ireland in mid July, I will have to pay for it upfront. I’ve already bought trip insurance that is for cancel for any reason. I learned that the hard way in 2020. I’ve also stocked up on eye drops and acetaminophen for the computer work. There will probably be more work for me in April.

Other than that, I am waiting to hear whether I get a residency at Wildacres to make other plans. I am not getting my hopes up like I did for the JCCFS scholarship. I’ve been encouraged to apply for scholarships so many times, but I’m disappointed enough with JCCFS that after three strikes I’m not sure I’ll try any more. And I saw that they were still taking applications after I was turned down, so…clearly either my work is not their cup of tea or they are looking for a different demographic group. I hope that I’ll get to go back there one day, but it won’t be this year. My friend who I’ve attended Focus on Book Arts with in Oregon several times in pre-pandemic days wants me to go back with her in June, which of course I’d love to do, but that’s a no. Maybe next time. I miss Oregon and at one time I really wanted to move there. I’ll probably do at least one of the fiber retreats at Big Lynn Lodge, and definitely Edwina’s fiber retreat at Wildacres if that happens, and I’ll consider the Nature Printing Society retreat which they are having at Wildacres for the second year in a row. I canceled that last year. We’ll just have to see how much money I can make for fun stuff in the first half of the year.

I joined Triangle Weavers’ Guild in Durham, so there is lots of activity going on with them, including a Fiber Explorations study group that I joined in November. Tapestry Weavers South, sadly, is disbanding and won’t have another TWS retreat.

In the meantime, I am loving being in my studio, and that’s a great thing. I fantasized for years about repairing that building and making it into my studio. Now I have it, and the home equity loan payment is the same as the rent I was paying in the downtown studio I tried last year.
2025 Wrap-up

December 31, 2025

It’s time for my annual ritual of summarizing the previous year and writing about my hopes and plans for the next year. In 2025, I let go of more of my blogging and turned my blog into more of a web site.

A Harris hawk flies at the raptor release at the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum

In late January I headed to Tucson, Arizona to visit my dear friend the Fabulous ZhaK, and to attend an advanced tapestry workshop taught by a greatly admired tapestry artist, Tricia Goldberg. Unfortunately, the workshop did not work out, as I found after I arrived that I had Covid, probably for the first time. I was pretty sick with it, but after a few days my friend drove me to some beautiful outdoor spots, including a drive through the Santa Catalina Mountains, the San Xavier Del Bac Mission, and the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum. I love mountains and desert, and it was good to visit my friend, although I regret giving her Covid.

During the first part of the year, I tried to disengage from politics to preserve my mental health although we still went to a few protests. We went to classes at Hirsch Wellness, which provides free art and wellness classes to cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers. I enjoyed making this prototype for a tunnel book (above) from Mary Beth Boone, and I may eventually make a book from this concept.

I continued with the stitch meditations and collages with cloth, cardboard, paper, and discarded objects. I ended up naming this one “Rebuilding.” I spent a lot of time moving into and organizing my “new” studio in the back building and making it a place where I could focus and relax comfortably. This effort continued throughout the year. This is where the frame loom with my weather tapestry diary resides. I also took a trip to Lake Waccamaw with the intention of heading to Holden Beach to fossil hunt, but the weather turned stormy.

At the end of April, we went to Oak Island with friends and we all went to Holden Beach and dug for fossils. Everyone had a great time – it was like treasure hunting. After that, I started my remote job which made me enough money through May and early June that I took a tapestry workshop from Betty Hilton-Nash at the Yadkin Valley Fiber Center in Elkin, NC. Elkin is one of my favorite places! And I ended up with two tapestries out of this workshop that I really loved and enjoyed weaving.

This weaving was meant to be a vessel, but I ended up framing it in a horizontal format.

Despite some grave misgivings about flying during the massive budget cuts to federal employment, I had the points to buy a plane ticket to Harrisburg, PA for the Art and Soul Retreat in July and decided it was cheaper, faster, and safer to fly rather than drive. I’m so glad I decided to go. I really loved Seth Apter’s two day class and came home with a book that was heartfelt and lovely, and I made two new friends. There’s a slideshow of the book on this post. Sadly, I learned that I am allergic to encaustic, but there are ways to get around that.

This book was about Hurricane Helene, the destruction, flooding, wildfires afterward, and the rebuilding.

Somewhere in here, I got stuck in my head that I had to find a job. My anxiety about money was very high. In August, I found a great one back at my previous employer, but my anxiety disorder was too out of control to deal with it without having panic attacks. So I quit the job, saw my therapist and my doctor and changed medications, and now I am doing much, much better.

Fall came along and since we decided that we could not move to the mountains (yet and probably never), I went to the Blue Ridge Mountains three times! Honestly, it is not that far. The first time, in early September, Sandy and I went to Asheville for the weekend, met up with Betty H-N who gave me an easel for my tapestry loom, saw a wonderful art exhibit in Mars Hill, and played in the Asheville Drum Circle, which we’ve always wanted to do.

dahlias!

Then in late September, I went to Edwina Bringle’s fiber art retreat at Wildacres. This was my third year at her retreat. I finished another tapestry there and took many photos and brought home lots of inspiration for more. Parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway were still closed over a year after Helene. Turns out that if you drive the BRP on the first weekend of October, ya better not need to park at any of the trailheads or parking lots, but it was totally worth driving that way home.

“Platform 8E”, handwoven tapestry, wool, linen

Just a few weeks later, I headed back to Little Switzerland for a new retreat experience – this was a group of fiber artists who get together 2-3 times a year at Big Lynn Lodge. I thought I would not know anyone, but I did know one person who I had met at one of Edwina’s retreats. This wasn’t far off the concept of Edwina’s retreat, actually. It was very informal. We gathered in the comfy old lobby of the lodge with a fireplace and amazing views, and everybody pretty much did their own thing. If you wanted instruction, Susan, one of the organizers who I became friends with, had a theme for each retreat which she would offer instruction if needed. This time it was embroidery on denim. I loved it so much that I plan to go back whenever possible.

View from my cabin at Big Lynn Lodge

When I took Pablocito to the vet for his annual check-up, he certainly seemed healthy to all of us. But within two weeks I ended up spending about $1000 on him, and we really worried that he was going to die because he had stopped eating. It turned out that he was extremely dehydrated and totally constipated. After an enema and a few days of syringe feeding, he is back to his old nutso self. So for that reason and my two day bout of vertigo, I didn’t go to Lake Waccamaw for Thanksgiving.

“Lake Waccamaw”

In mid December I put the tapestry above and the similar one that I wove at Betty’s workshop in the year-end art exhibition at the Continental Club Gallery. I decided to name this one “Lake Waccamaw” because as I was weaving it I kept thinking about the sticks at the bottom of the shallow tea colored waters and the reflections on the water.

“Rascal and Sissy Share the Sunbeam”

Later on, I drove down to the lake for a few days and delivered “Rascal and Sissy Share the Sunbeam” to my sister at long last. We saw the Christmas gator and ate out and gorged on junk food and sweets before coming back to Greensboro for Christmas. I thought that I had a job beginning on Dec. 22, but at the last minute got an email that it had been delayed until Jan. 5. So we had a very lazy Christmas at home.

This evening, on the last day of 2025, I am fervently wishing that things will get better in this world, knowing that our powerful, corrupt, unlawful, and murderous government is responsible for so much of the suffering right now. However, I expect it to be an even crazier ride next year. I hope that we all survive it. In the meantime, I will finish this Highland Brewing Oatmeal Porter, maybe eat some crackers and cheese, look through Tommye Scanlin’s book on fiber art calendars and journals for ideas, and try to sleep through the fireworks.

Tomorrow I will post about my 2025 tapestry weather diary, the small abstract tapestry I am currently weaving, and mull over what I’d like to do in 2026.
The Mountains Are Calling Retreat Oct. 30-Nov. 2

November 28, 2025

A long weekend over Halloween at the Big Lynn Lodge in Little Switzerland was another balm to my soul. I found this group of fiber artists on Facebook, and not knowing a soul there, I headed off for the Blue Ridge Mountains again. Now I have a new group of friends.

The only requirement to attend this retreat was to book a room at Big Lynn Lodge and show up. This historic lodge provides breakfast made-to-order and a family style dinner included with your room. I booked a double room (thinking that my husband might come with me) and it was in a small duplex cabin with incredible views over a mountain vista.

The plan was to get there on Wednesday afternoon, but with the weather forecast for heavy rain, I chickened out of driving that steep curvy 221 and 226A, which is the only way to get there. I canceled my Wednesday night reservation and the staff was kind enough not to charge me for the night. From what I heard from those who did brave it, it was a good decision. So off I went on Thursday morning, with a stop at Switzerland Cafe for quiche and a purchase at the general store for a six-pack of that delicious Lazy Hiker Wesser Evil porter, a loaf of freshly baked bread from the cafe, and a small jar of red pepper jelly. Along with some cheese I brought from home, this would be my lunch for the next few days.

I didn’t take many photos inside…I guess that the mountains really were calling. The room in the main lodge where I settled in with my stitching had a beautiful view all around, and the other room had a fireplace, all with comfy old sofas and chairs. Next time I will take photos! My little cabin was decorated with vintage furniture and was meticulously clean, and a bed that Goldilocks would have been very satisfied with. It was quite cold, and I kept the heat turned up far past what I have my thermostat set to at home. There was a TV that I never turned on, wifi, and a small refrigerator. The porch had rocking chairs.

There was a rainbow on Thursday afternoon!

The theme of the retreat was embroidery on denim, a la 70s, and one of the leaders is available to teach the theme each time they meet. This was Sue McRae, owner of O Susannah’s yarn shop in Morganton, NC. She and I hit it off immediately. However, the majority of people attending brought their own projects, mostly knitting and crocheting. I brought a long denim jumper (for UK readers, in the US a jumper is a sleeveless dress usually worn over a shirt of some kind), a denim jacket, and several ideas of how to proceed. In the end, I used a couple of the stick-on designs that Sue brought and simply relaxed and stitched on the jumper, chatted with new friends, and enjoyed coffee and the view. The white part will wash out. Before I left I was working on a large moth on the back of the jumper.

On Friday a few of us took a field trip into Spruce Pine to a couple of thrift stores, which by pure luck marked everything half price on the last Friday of each month. I did not plan to buy anything, but I found a plastic bin filled with Paternayan wool yarns for $5.50. They were a bit on the musty side so they spent the rest of the weekend laid out across the rocking chairs on the porch, and the cold air took care of that. Now I have a whole nother pile of crewel yarns to weave into a weather diary for next year – unintended since part of my intention was to use up the old Paternayan yarns I already had from the 70s – but there were a few colors in there that I had run out of for the current weather diary.

Artist: Celia Pym

On Saturday, a group of us took a field trip to see the Penland Gallery exhibition “On Mending,” curated by artist Celia Pym, which was as fabulous as I had been told. Edwina met us there and we stopped by the Bringle Gallery, the gallery at her twin sister’s home where they made a few sales, and then to the coffee shop at Penland for sandwiches and scones. Yes, that’s a Patrick Dougherty installation outside the coffee shop.

I was the last to go on Sunday morning, reluctant to leave Little Switzerland and the area behind. I decided to cruise through downtown Spruce Pine, which had seen some of the worst flooding during Hurricane Helene, and by the little house I had been fantasizing about on Zillow, which had been sold and of course would have been perfect. But I’ve accepted that Sandy and I can’t move there in the short term, and perhaps in the long term, and that’s okay because our home is a good place too. I headed down the Blue Ridge Parkway after taking the detour around the still closed section around Linville Falls, stopped in Linville to buy a sack of honey crisp apples, stopped at Moses Cone Manor and used the port-a-john and visited the craft shop, and again at an overlook to have a late lunch of bread, cheese, and apple.

Before I left I made my reservation for the next Mountains Are Calling retreat, which will be in late April.
Wildacres Retreat Sept. 29-Oct. 5

November 16, 2025
Here’s a view that I haven’t seen before, possibly due to tree losses from Hurricane Helene last year. I think that it is Table Rock.

This was the third year that I’ve attended Edwina Bringle‘s fiber art retreat at Wildacres Retreat near Little Switzerland, NC. I’ve fallen in love with this area (and Edwina).

It broke my heart when Hurricane Helene devastated so much here last year just after I left. The people here at the time had to be airlifted out by helicopter. The destruction was not only about rivers sweeping away houses and people, but also about the mudslides coming down the mountainsides, carrying trees, houses and bridges away. Then later, as the region dried out, widespread wildfires.

So, back to 2025. I drove up Hwy 226A, a winding road with many hairpin curves which had to be extensively repaired and rebuilt. After a stop at the Switzerland Cafe (smoked trout BLT!), and general store for a six-pack of a most excellent porter (Lazy Hiker Wesser Evil, from Franklin, NC), plus a blond brownie from Books and Beans (a bookstore with a large collection of old books, my favorite kind), I checked in at Wildacres and settled in for a week of art and healing.

As usual, I hauled my whole damned studio with me, because I could NOT focus on what to focus on! I was in transition in my meds, and my brain was doing backflips. Once I got there, I decided to just weave the tapestry I had begun of a train platform in Edinborough. I didn’t have a firm plan on the colors and the textures that I wanted to use, so given the basic idea, I kind of followed my nose and changed my mind in some areas. I did finish by the last evening and this was the result (a bit of repair in the center will be done once off the loom.

“Platform 8E”, handwoven tapestry, wool, linen

I had planned to make a fabric book from some of my stitch meditations, but as I played around with some beautiful felt that Holly brought with her to give away, I decided that I would make a needle book with pockets for my small scissors and other embroidery things. I did not make any of the felt components, but I designed and stitched the book together. The thread for the blanket stitch was a luscious wool/silk variegated color blend that I bought from a vendor at the Blue Ridge Fiber Fest.

The campus at Wildacres is incredibly beautiful, with little surprises of art here and there and the flower gardens and trails and vistas. This time I decided to hike one of the trails and take some photos. Normally I cannot hike a steep or long trail because of my bone spur/Achilles tendinitis, but there was a perfect one around the mountainside just below the gardens. I plan to do some tapestry designs of some of these photos if I can get an artist residency there. Here’s a slideshow of my other photos.
On Sunday I hung around, as usual, until nearly everyone had left, then I decided to take the Blue Ridge Parkway home. Some of it around the Linville Falls area was still closed, so I had to make a detour. I stopped in Linville and bought apples, and at a spot before I got on the BRP to have a snack. Good choice, because I found out about traffic and parking on the BRP on a weekend day at peak leaf color! I do suggest making a bathroom stop BEFORE you get on it during an October weekend, but all was well in the end. It is a wonderful drive and I plan to make it as often as possible. I-40 may be a shorter drive in miles, but this route seems faster because of the beauty.
Saturday morning coffee pot post

November 8, 2025

If you’ve been following me for a while, I guess you’ve noticed that my website has changed. Drastically. I can’t say I’m that happy about it, but I was fiddling around with some different templates, thinking that I was looking at a preview, and instead lost my previous template. It was an older one, for sure, but one that I was used to and had a lot of flexibility for change. Anyway, as with a LOT of things in my life right now, I decided to let it go and embrace it. What else can I do?

The issue behind the change is that I am beginning to apply for scholarships and residencies, so I needed a more professional looking website for my art. This also means that I may go private for some of my more personal blog posts. This has been my journal for over twenty years, even though some of it was lost in a virus-related platform change.

I’ll still blog most of my art retreats and travel experiences, but it’s not the focus of my time right now. I’m in an art flow right now. It won’t always show up here. For example, I spent several days this week picking through my yarn stash for colors for my next tapestry. This, of course, sent me down a rabbit hole. I have SO MUCH YARN.

The main brain sweep I need to write about at the moment is about my mental health. I’ve always been open about my disability here. And it is officially a disability now, I know, because it is on my medical record that it is interfering with my ability to work. I took a short-lived part-time job at UNCG in the Office for Accessibility Resources for students, in which I trained to be an access specialist and I learned so much about the ADA and disability rights. However, I forgot that I am a sponge for anxiety and when I had my second severe anxiety attack at work, I knew that I could not meet with students with anxiety. I was sad to leave because the office staff were wonderful and the money was good, but it was also a relief when I made the decision.

Here’s the good news. I went to my GP and switched medications. After a couple of months on this new med, I feel so much better. It has a side effect that made me quit this same med years ago when I tried it, but I am trying to stick with it this time. I had been off regular anti-anxiety meds for a couple of years and had been on the same anti-depressant for over 15 years! Now it is clear that it was no longer working. Granted, these times are enough to challenge any anti-depressant, but I have found myself feeling some joy, some happiness, some hope. My emotions are coming back. My art muse has returned and I hope they will stay around for a while.

Other than changing meds, my therapist suggested that I plan some trips to work on my agoraphobic tendency. I had already planned to go to Wildacres with Edwina’s fiber group at the end of September. I had canceled my retreat with the Nature Printing Society because I thought I’d be working. So Sandy and I went to Asheville for a weekend and puttered around, including playing in the drum circle on Friday night, which was something we had both wanted to do for quite a while. I went to Wildacres for Edwina’s fiber retreat a few weeks later, and then at the end of October I went back to Little Switzerland, this time for a fiber retreat with a group of new (now) friends, focusing on stitching, at Big Lynn Lodge.

Sometime in there, we participated in the No Kings Rally in downtown Greensboro. There were two in Greensboro, with an estimate of 3000-5000 attending both. I believe it was toward the higher end of that estimate. Cars passing by contributed as well.

As a Monty Python fan, the sign on the left was my favorite.

I had been fixated on moving to western NC, but I realize that it isn’t going to happen for various reasons. However, I have so many friends who live there now, and it really isn’t such a long drive. I can drive the Blue Ridge Parkway, with its detours and frequent stops and 45 mph speed limit, enjoy the drive, and spend only 3-4 hours on the road. If I’m in a hurry, it takes 2 1/2 hours to get to Little Switzerland. Boone is only a couple of hours away. The Virginia mountains are even closer.

I’ve applied for scholarships to John C. Campbell Folk School again, and a residency at Wildacres. I’m considering applying to Penland, but honestly, even with a scholarship I don’t think that I could afford it. It’s a shame, but I’m starting to accept my financial situation more. I’ve got a more realistic attitude toward my money, and in some ways it is more positive than it was, and in others, I need to remember that we ain’t rich by any stretch of the imagination. The lottery is the only way left to that level!

Now I’m heading to the studio to weave on my weather diary and I’ve begun the next tapestry. I need to pick up the tapestries I finished this summer that I had framed. I’ll be in Preston’s group art show again just before Christmas at the Continental Club. I don’t have any expectations to sell this time. It’s kind of amazing how little I care.

Oh, and I also did this again. Not blonde as intended, but still fun.
Art and Soul Retreat, July 2025

August 11, 2025
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.

“What Would Saint Betty Do?”

alligator dragonfly

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.
Art Catch-Up Post

August 10, 2025

I am back to really enjoying weaving again. There’s something about laying in that yarn to fill those spaces – so simple but can be so complex.

Here’s what the inside of my studio looks like now. Sandy has decided that he is happier painting in his man-cave where he can access photos on his computer, but he still has a space there. I decided that I want to use it for my tapestry studio so I moved a lot of my tapestry stuff back there. I’m using his easel for the frame loom that I am weaving the weather diary on. Once this weather diary project is done, this frame loom is either going to be upcycled or sent to the landfill. It’s done well in its forty plus years but it is tired and the nails are rusty and it doesn’t want to hold tension anymore. I TOTALLY GET THIS.

^^^JULY: I’ve kept up with the weather diary so that seems to be a good tapestry diary theme for me that cuts through the depression days. One thing is for sure – there will be weather every day. Above you can see that July was particularly hot, and set a record in this area for the average maximum low temperature at night. HAR stands for Harrisburg, PA, where I attended the Art and Soul Retreat. That will be a separate post.

^^^Above is the panel for January through April.

I had to cut off the May through June panel because the tension became impossible to deal with by the last week of June. I think it was the humidity. Look at all that rain in the middle column! 38 stands for our wedding anniversary, and EL is when I went to Elkin, NC for a tapestry workshop and the Tapestry Weavers South retreat. WAC stands for the ten days we spent at Lake Waccamaw, NC. Whenever I travel, I indicate the weather in that location. It was incredibly hot that week in North Carolina.

My latest tapestry project (above) is using the leftover warp and some of the yarns that I used in Betty Hilton-Nash’s tapestry vessel workshop in early June. It was from a design exercise she had us do in the workshop. I plan to do some extra surface embellishment – probably attaching found objects or stitching. I’m following my nose on this one.

Below is what is on the other side of the loom – to be the side(s) of the vessel that I wove in Betty’s workshop. Once I finish up the tapestry above, it will all get cut off and hopefully I will finish the vessel, which I designed from a photo I took in Scotland at Neptune’s Staircase, a historic lock system with eight locks near Fort William that connects the Calendonian Canal with Loch Linnhe. I’m calling it “Loch Lock.”