Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Winter Thoughts

bare trees and view of the snowy Olympic Mountains from Discovery Park, Seattle

In the depths of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

~ Albert Camus

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Windswept Pines on the Pacific Coast

...windswept pines on the Pacific coast...

The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Monday in Seattle. Picture and Quote for the Week, Faye Fuller's Vintage Climbing Costume

Faye Fuller, first woman to summit Mount Rainier,

posing in her climbing costume (1890)

The mountains are calling and I must go.

~John Muir

You will find a blog post about Faye Fuller here.

Personal Symbols. Mixed Media Monday. Nature Inspired Art

This is my entry for this week's challenge, Personal Symbols, at Mixed Media Monday.  This is a 6x6 inch art quilt. The base is an image of some of my handmade paper, scanned and manipulated in the computer then transferred to fabric.  I've added scraps of the original handmade paper, mica, net ribbon, a transparency with a poem, all stitched, and finally some local shells added as an embellishment. 

We were asked to reflect on the images, colors and/or themes that recur in our art.  For me it is nature, hands down.  When I look at my art, I see lots of flowers, trees, forest themes and of course the sea.  I often bring home bits and pieces of the place I have walked, be it beach or forest, to use in my art, or just to keep close (see this studio snapshot).  I feel at my best when outdoors and close to the elements, and I often use the ocean as a theme in my work.  There is a timelessness to the ocean, a sense of eternity and peace that I derive from being near it.  It helps me see myself, like ee cummings eludes to in the poem I use in this piece (see below).

In addition to images, words are also really important to me, words are powerful and evocative.  I often use them in my art, whether they can be seen by the viewer or not.

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

~ee cummings

Look What I Found. Mixed Media Monday

Oh my. All you have to do is go to Bumbershoot Supplies to see "what I found" :)

But for this week's Mixed Media Monday challenge, I focused on one of the most special places in the world to me, the ocean. We are blessed  in Seattle to be very close to water everywhere, including salt water in the form of Puget Sound. And the Pacific Ocean is not too far away.

This is a 6x6 inch art quilt using my hand dyed cloth as a base and featuring some of the treasures I have collected in my trips to the beach.

One of my favorite poets, ee cummings, captures my feelings about the sea so well:

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

Party Animals. Mixed Media Monday

This 6x6 inch quilt square is for the Mixed Media Monday theme "party animals".  I live in Seattle, on the Puget Sound and quite near the San Juan Islands, around which reside well studied pods of orcas. They migrate every year, returning to the Puget Sound and it is a cause for celebrating this life rhythm. I took a holiday with my daughter to try to see them return.  We did not see them, I guess they were on holiday for the day too.  We did, however, see otters and porpoises within a dozen feet of us at our whale watching spot.  And at the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, we saw video of the orcas playing and splashing, surely looking like they were having a party, celebrating their return home.

This quilt square is made of silk, embellished with silk ribbon, vintage sequins and vintage seed beads.  It is stamped with letter stamps and stamped orcas were fused to the surface. The  beautiful orca stamp is a design by the Haida artist Paul White.

To Market, to market...

...to find a fat pig!

Have you checked the roof?

Pike Place Market is a great place to get: 1. Inspiration, there are many lovely colors and a truely Seattle feel to the market.

2. Lunch, from Mee Sum Pastries to Piroshky-Piroshky you can find just about anything you have a craving for here.

3. Flowers, you can always find a spectacular bouquet no matter what time of year it is.

A guide to Pacific Northwest pronunciation

Above, Rainier Raindrops. That's Ray-neer Raindrops.

And how about these Washington locations:

Sequim = Squim

Spokane = Spo-can

Puyallup = Pew-a-lup

And in Seattle, the original location of the first white settlement:

Alki = Alk-eye.

It is from the Chinook trading jargon, and correctly pronounced Alk-ee. It was changed to "eye" during prohibition because the locals did not like the alcoholic-sounding correct version.

Last, but not least, for now:

Geoduck = gooey duck. A very large saltwater clam, native to (primarily) Washington and British Columbia.

Do you have any more?