The Big Babushka

For those of you just tuning in, welcome. We’re in the van again heading home to Eugene from Spokane and are currently driving through the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The river and the state of Washington are flowing by on our right while Oregon canyon walls are stoically standing watch on our left. The wind is kicking up its heels, reminding us why this is such a popular place to windsurf.

The rain pounded tempo on the drum-roof of our vehicle last week during the long drive to the Lilac City and today the sun is center stage playing rough house with the wind on the equally long drive home. You can see from the first two photos the difference in weather. Photo #1 was just now captured on the return trip and picture #2 was taken last Wednesday, also during the day, on the journey over the desert and through the woods.

A severe weather warning was extended for the Portland area, so we elected to bypass that situation and chose instead to try a new route. Instead of the same ol’ same ol’ on I-5, we ambled up the McKenzie Highway past Sahalie Falls, the Three Sisters, Redmond and Smith Rock, linking up with I-84 around The Dalles. While it took a bit longer, the scenery was gorgeous, changing rapidly: Deep forest, volcanic rock, high desert, emerald waves of grass, the gorge, table rocks, and hills with tall skinny trees reminding us of Tuscany.

I’m happy to report that this, our fourth time in Spokane, was our best so far. We had fun from start to finish and ArtFest, in spite of the rain, turned out to be a good show. As Kimmm says, “One could hear the sound of profitability.”

ArtFest is held annually on the grounds of Coeur d’Alene Park in Browne’s Addition, or as one T-shirt read, “Browne’s Addiction,” a historic neighborhood filled with stunning homes and MAC (the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture).

We attended the Museum and felt blessed to walk through the Arts & Crafts Movement In The Pacific Northwest special traveling exhibit, a turn of the century installation of furniture, jewelry, pottery, photography, book covers, paintings and other fine hand-crafted examples of the exquisite period. They should have had a sign posted “No Slobbering” as each item was drool-worthy.

In another hall, we wandered through Ruben Trejo: Beyond Boundaries.“Aztlán y más allá is a survey of over 45 years of the artist's sculpture, mixed media constructions, paintings and drawings.”

Spokane and ArtFest is like a person you think you know, but who continues to surprise you time after time. This year I rounded one corner and saw several visitors from Africa in full tribal wear (gorgeous!) and then turned another corner to discover pole dancers, well, pole dancing in the middle of the lawn. Then there was the teepee behind our booth, erected for some mysterious reason, but kept under wraps the whole time. Keeps things interesting.

The photos, documentation of what we’re describing, are more interesting when viewed a little larger. Simply click on the pic to make it bigger, then hit the back button to return to the blog.

The show’s enjoyment factor was multiplied by a lovely visit with my cousin who lives in town and a delightful dinner with a group of intensely artistic people. Until connecting with these friends, I was under the impression that Groom and I lived and breathed art, a natural extension of our passion including how we make our living, how we express ourselves with clothing, the way we decorate our home, the choice of foods we eat, etc.

Ha ha ha. I’m rolling on the floor laughing. I now have a new definition of people who eat breathe and live art. I’m still a toddler wearing diapers compared to these fascinating folks.

One is an artist recently featured on Oregon’s ArtBeat and another whose paintings are, well as one woman put it, “visionary.” They took my breath away.

The interaction, conversation and exposure to people of such talented caliber inspired me more than I can say here. If you’ve been reading along, you might remember the entry I wrote after attending the Salem auction (The 45th Parallel March 3, 2010). There, I realized how small my energy was and after that evening (in combination with taking the metalsmithing classes), I’ve had about four months of creative bliss, where I’ve colored outside the lines, venturing into new territory.

My energy is expanding and so is our art. The pieces have gotten larger, taking on various shapes and extending beyond the square and rectangle postage stamps we’ve been using as our jumping off place.

Retrofitting found objects, and designing some of our own, we find ourselves in the middle of an “upcycling” trend, our jewelry popping with rivets, color, quirkiness and cold connections. Mixed-media Assemblage is what I think they call it, these days.

We found our audience with Spokane. Our necklaces, including “That Voodoo That You Do,” sold at a great pace and we broke our previous record. Speaking of breaking, God’s Minion (a friend of ours), told us to break out of our shell and be bolder in our creativity and presentation.

You know those Russian nesting dolls where one sits inside another? I feel like that right now. Instead of a messy birthing process, it feels like I am busting out of one of those babushka dolls, except instead of opening one and discovering a smaller one inside, it’s the opposite, like I started out in February as the smallest, then after the Salem auction the wooden shell broke open to reveal the next size up.

Now, after this trip to Spokane and the delightful connections made, I feel like the second doll has opened and the next larger size is emerging. The growth is both incremental and exponential. Uh-oh, the combination of those words makes excremental. But no! That’s just my point. So many of my growth spurts have come from pain, the whole “plants need fertilizer” type of experiences, but this one has been born out of joy.

I stopped waiting for “my real thing” to happen, whatever that might have been, and started focusing on taking the jewelry to the next level. This has released energy that was pent up and locked away for some future unknown.

I am enjoying the process.