Poet Marie Howe

Marie Howe is one of my favorite poets -- I keep her book What the Living Do beside my chair. Here's Krista Tippett's interview with her:

http://www.onbeing.org/program/the-poetry-of-ordinary-time-with-marie-howe/5301

Howe went to a Sacred Heart school and praises the experience. Nice to hear her. It's so hard to explain why I loved (most of) my time at Carrollton, the Sacred Heart school in Miami.  Howe does it for me.

I care about day lilies

Joe Agosta demonstrating how to divide a daylily

 I can't believe I care about daylilies. Until Saturday I knew only three things about them:

1. Grandma Frey used to have them in the back yard of her duplex on Rich Street.
2. They were in the front yard when we bought this house. 
3. Clark would mow them down. To him they looked like grass. 

Then Saturday I heard Joe Agosta talk about his beloved flower at Tallahassee Nurseries. He is president of the Daylily Society, and I think he mentioned that he tends 1/2 acre of daylilies. I went because someone had to save our daylilies.

Now I know this about daylilies:

1. Divide them every three to five years.
2. They need at least 6 hours of sunlight.
3. Plant them 12" apart.
4. They like moist soil of 1"-1 1/2"  water/week.

A Daylily Year

Feb. 14: Fertiize with Milorganite and Osmocote 3:1:2
April: Bloom season begins. There are 2-3 weeks of rest between blooms. I'm not sure how long this goes on.
April: Fertilize with Milorganite only.
September: Best time to divide and plant.
September: Fertilize with Milorganite and Osmocote 3:1:2

Some neat words:
Floriferous -- blooming
Bloomscape -- stalk
Fan -- bloomscape
Corms -- not bulbs

How to divide a daylily:

1. With a spade cut a circle bigger than the plant, digging down 6"- 8".
2. Lift the plant out.
3. Remove dirt.
4. Hose off roots.
5. Cut the fan to 6". 
6. The plants will separate. If they don't, encourage with a screwdriver.
7. Trim roots to 6". 
8. Replant or give to friends.

There's Hope!

Hope accepted into the Sacred Threads exhibit! My first juried national acceptance ... I'm in good company. 

       Exhibit Dates: July 10-28, 2013

Show Hours: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm, Sunday 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Meet the Artists Reception: July 13, 2013, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Not Fade Away, Oral History Conference: July 20, 2013 (8:00 am - 6:00 pm)

Location: Floris United Methodist Church, 13600 Frying Pan Park Road, Herndon, VA 20171 (near Dulles Airport).

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10 things 2012

Already deep into 2013, I remember I never told you my list of 2012's notable bumps and blessings. I've got the list; when something changes me I write it down. Lots is simple, notable only to me -- but who wants earth-shaking? I'm an ordinary woman observing the marks in my life, and no doubt missing many. Enough with the dismissives -- here is my 2012 list:

1. Running belt -- I finally discovered the elastic kind with pockets. I used to run with my phone and keys slap-slapping my stomach. Kind of sloppy. That's what comes from not being a joiner: you find out late what everybody could have told you long ago.
2. Mom's dinner -- We all got together in Columbus to toast Mom's 99th birthday -- several months after the freezing January day when she actually celebrated.
3. Art quilt group -- Turns out there are plenty of us in the area who think of quilts as a starting point for new beauty. We've been getting together once a month.
4. Clarkston in the summer. That's Clarkston, Michigan, where Chris and his family live. We loved visiting when so many Turners were there for Rebecca's high school graduation.
5. Quilt accepted at SAQA. Studio Art Quilt Associates sounds high-falutin' to me. Never thought they'd hang Beach Walk in their Florida show. I loved becoming part of this challenging group.
6. I'm an artist. Yes, that's what I say now.
7. Back to spirit. I don't know why I wrote this, but I did. Spirit made me.
8. Activity is good. I wrote this after realizing that it's actually true. Shocking to someone like me, who even hated being a spectator. (I still do.)
9. Sons: Mark said he is taking charge (with Rachel) of Mom's 100th birthday celebration. Nice.
Sons: got a sweet Mother's Day note from Patrick. Nice.
10. Porch. We added a screened-in porch to the back of the house and now we practically live out there.

Thornton Dial watercolors in Quincy

I got a chill when I encountered a red and yellow Thornton Dial assemblage about as big as a goat at the High Museum in Atlanta a few months ago. Then I learned a Tallahassee couple, Lou and Calynne Hill, collect his work. I visited a few in a hallway at the FSU School of Medicine; the Hills also donated some Dial works to the Gadsden Arts Center in Quincy. Several Dial watercolors will be exhibited there through April 27, and I went to see them. They are faint compared to the vibrant piece that first captivated me, but about as haunting as watercolorss can be. They're 23" x 30." You can read more about them on the Arts Center site.

Encaustic love

Sunset flower
silk, wood, encaustic
3 1/2" x 5" x 1 1/2"

I love to make encaustic art! That's because I love texture and wood. (Dad's workshop smelled like sawdust.) Since encaustic is painting on or with wax, it's got to have a firm base: the wood. I made this little sunset flower in Amanda Wilke's encaustic collage workshop at LeMoyne yesterday. It started as just the stem, leaves, and pink circle on orange background. They are silk. This I glued to a scrap of wood  from the shed. I covered it with a layer of melted beeswax, which hardened immediately. Then I got something sharp and drew petals, and painted over that. I love the result. It doesn't need hanging -- just set it on a shelf. This is one technique I'm going to make my own! 

Radiology Associates Spring Art Show

Fall flowers trio will be in Radiology Associates show

I'm excited to be one of five artists chosen for the Radiology Associates spring art exhibit.

The opening is 7-9 p.m. Thursday

1600 Phillips Road

Music by the Apalachee Trio

The best part so far has been connecting with Perdita Ross, the curator, who said she loved my work as soon as she saw it. She probably doesn't know how I treasure that offhand compliment!

I'm nervous too -- so come by on Thursday to hold me upright.