so this happened

Caithness, Scotland

Late January or early February, my friend Paul Tarlow who owns Helios, a glass studio and Bullseye Glass resource center in Austin, posted on FB about a 9 day residency he and artist Jane Bruce are doing in North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland next year. This is a place that I have been wanting to go to for some time but financially, it hadn't been possible...til now. Or rather since we cashed out our property in the now stupidly valuable inner city neighborhood where we lived and worked for 40 years. So I signed up.

Then 9 days ago, I got an email from Jane. She was inviting me to participate in her 4^th International Artist Symposium and Retreat on the recommendation of my friend Natali (who may or may not be able to participate), 9 days and basically the same dates only this year. No way I could afford both so I had a decision to make and I chose to go this year, not that I think Paul's residency won't be wonderful, which it will be, but I thought the one this year would be more interesting with the international aspect of it (and maybe getting to hang out with Natali) and I knew Paul had a waiting list so it wouldn't be difficult for him to fill my spot.

It's been a little nerve wracking. The fee for the symposium, the air fare, the lodging, and meals sans dinners is going to cost about $4000. I hate spending money, well large sums of money. And I rarely never spend large sums of money without thinking about it hard and long over a long period of time, a habit born of being a working artist living hand to mouth for most of my life, and this, basically, had to be a snap decision for me.

So for the past week of days, I have been busy getting my deposit transferred over from one to the other, making flight reservations (3 flights to get there, three to get back), and getting my passport renewed which doesn't actually expire til August but it needed doing anyway.

my passport photo from 10 years ago

my new passport picture (however, by the time I leave, I'll be sporting my summer hair cut)...I could have looked a little happier I guess.

I still need to secure my lodging while there but I'm working on that, waiting to hear back from a bed and breakfast there.

North Lands Creative Glass is about as far north in Scotland as you can get and even in summer it's wet, windy, and cold. I'll be packing all my winter clothes I guess plus my wind pants and dry shirt from my river guide days. Now that I've made the decision to go I'm trying not to dwell on the cost and I am looking forward to it.

I've never been overseas before.

12. so long and thanks for all the fish

Our last night together we spruced ourselves up a 'wee bit' to quote Karl and went out to a nice dinner at a restaurant courtesy of Amanda and Lance and it was a very fun end to a thoroughly enjoyable week and the time had flown by.

I want to thank Catharine Newell who was our fearless leader and fellow seeker.  She is an amazing person and I count myself lucky to have been able to spend this week with her guidance and company.  

Also to Amanda and Lance Taylor who own and run Oatka School Of Glass and sponsored the residency and made it all possible by arranging for the venue and opening their studio to the residents and for providing not only the Food but anything else we might find ourselves in need of.

And Karl Herron, artist-in-residence at Oatka at the time, who generously answered any question asked of him.  

And to all the volunteers that actually cooked the food and cleaned up after us and helped us find the stuff we needed in the studio and drove us everywhere we needed to go. So thank you Julie, Diana, Betty, Carol, Kristin, Pam, and Steve who did the cooking, cleaning, stuff finding, and toting.

And many thanks to Wayman and Eryl at the Center who generously led us in meditation every morning, especially the last Sunday morning when they usually go to Rochester, and for all the small unnoticed tasks they took care of.

And thanks to all the women who participated for the friendship, support, laughter, kindness, generosity, experience, and knowledge shared, for the inclusive atmosphere extended to all. You made this a memorable experience for me and I hope I managed to give back even a tenth of what I received.

OK. A little pause to wipe away the tears, which, as it happened, welled up unbeknownst while I was speaking at the last morning's meeting.

Well, that was unexpected, I remarked.

To which Cindy replied, welcome to my world.

It was that kind of week.

We took our group shot, though two of us had already had to leave early, presented the bowl to Eryl, and headed back to the studio one last time to collect our makings and clean up our work spaces.

Then it was back to the Center to wait for Lance to ferry those of us going to the airport that day. I was in that group. But before we left, we discovered where Eryl had placed the bowl.

She had put it on the platform with the Buddha in the Zendo.

So off to the airport where Abhilasha, Suzanne, Marti, and I parted ways.

Re-entry occurred in Newark while I was changing planes.

whew!

11. presentations of our studio work

Late afternoon on Saturday, we had our final presentations. Each of us spent a few minutes talking about our time in the studio, what we experimented with, what our feelings were about it, and what we may plan to do with these explorations in the future.

We all explored different things.  Lori continued her work with screen melts and slumped and tack fused compositions.  Natali worked with wood, shaping boat forms.  Ann worked in concrete, Leigh made sample color and pattern tiles with frit and powder, Suzanne and Laura worked in the powder painting technique.  Abhilasha worked in the cold room with plate glass and did a pâté de verre piece.  Marti did a box casting and powder painting, Cindy pulled stringer and shaped them into compositions and made sample tiles.  Louise fused morelli canes, worked on the lathe, and made cubes from a pattern bar.  Miriam explored painting glass powder paste with a palette knife.  Jerre also made color tiles and then cast them together.  Estelle continued her explorations in trying to recreate Japanese indigo dyed fabric and made bells.  Denise worked with powder wafers and enamels.  And I, of course, worked on powder wafers and powder painting.

In alphabetical order:

Abhilasha

Ann

Cindy

Denise

Ellen

Estelle

Jerre

Laura

Leigh

Lori

Louise

Marti

Miriam

Natali

Suzanne

Almost done. Only one more after this.