A lot of downtown has changed since Paul drew it- both in subtle and significant ways. The most notable change was the natural gas explosion that leveled the block with Boodles, Montana Trails Gallery and the American Legion (he had already drawn it in its entirety beforehand), but if you look close you’ll notice other things that have come and gone- snow melts,  temporary construction passageways, and the Army/Navy store. Everyone who has been shown the sketchbook has some memory associated with a certain building downtown–whether from recent memory or when they were kids, and it is always so great to hear the stories.

I wanted to show you this partial one so you can see how he works. When he wasn’t able to complete one in a day (due to light changes, snow, etc) he’d come home with partial sketches. He didn’t lay anything out in pencil, just drew from left to right as he saw it.

I am really proud of Paul for completing the series, and excited for his show and talk. He’s going to be selling limited reproductions of all 26 pages in the first ever gallery show at the Story Mansion. This is also the first time all of the sketches will be on view. He’ll give an artist talk an do a sketchcrawl workshop, too.  Here is the schedule of events.

Thursday, November 12
7:00pm to 9:00pm Opening of The Paul Heaston: Main Street at Story Mansion
A reception for invited guests from the Downtown and University Communities featuring a gallery talk by the artist, refreshments, and music by Jawbone Railroad

Friday, November 13th
12:00pm to 5:00pm The Paul Heaston: Main Street Exhibit at Story Mansion
7:00pm to 9:00pm The Paul Heaston: Main Street Exhibit Public Reception, featuring a gallery talk by the artist, refreshments and music

Saturday, November 14th
10:00am to 5:00pm Open Mansion to view the exhibit
10:00am to 12:00pm Coffee, doughnuts and Story Mansion tours
12:00pm to 4:00pm “Sketch Crawl” a free drawing workshop in the BonTon Historic District with Paul Heaston and other MSU School of Art faculty
Unfortunately I can’t make it back in town to celebrate (BOO!) but I hope you will go have a look and tell your friends about it. If you aren’t in town either, Paul also keeps a blog (Three Letter Word for Art) and has an Etsy shop. Go say hello!

I am so excited to be reunited with my Bernina. Paul dropped her off for the birthday cleaning while I was gone and we went and picked her up this weekend. I dove into my scrap pile to start experimenting for an upcoming project, or rather, large undertaking, that I am planning. It was fun to play, and here’s the block I came up with.

Making this spurred me to go through my fabric. All my scraps seem to be too repetitive so I set aside many fat quarter sized pieces to be cut into strips. I almost always quilt improvisationally anyway, and I needed to add new stuff to the mix. I straightened my shelves and thought I was awesome at reducing the amount of crap until I turned around and saw the huge stack of fabric I’d forgotten about on the ironing board. Now my floor looks like this. Oh well. I think I’m going to organize another scrap swap soon– once I am feeling human again. So stay tuned for that.

Otherwise I’ve been working on this lovely Drop Stitch Scarf (free pattern!), which I found on Ravelry to use with my very fun yarn from Hill Country Weavers. I hung out with the Naughty Secretary herself, Jen Perkins, while I was in Austin and she took me to this yarn mecca that I somehow always miss when I visit. I had a hard time deciding on anything but two skeins of this in the sale section made me say, “Yes Please!”. You can read more about the shop on Craftstylish. I had a super great time with Jen, by the way, she took me to some of her favorite thrifts, then we ate mexican food, gossiped and shopped. It was a very welcome escape!

And last but not least, since I’ve been neglecting this blog, I thought I’d introduce you to Paul’s sketchbook blog, in case you’re so inclined. Paul is my boyfriend,  in case you haven’t been paying attention, and he’s been sketching up a storm. He’s drawing every building on Main Street in downtown Bozeman, and the results are pretty amazing. Below is another of his sketches, which he drew from his truck (it’s cold!). Check out more of his work over at Three Letter Word for Art. And please feel free to leave him comments!

p.s. Thank you so much for all of your kind comments about my upcoming book. I am as excited to see it in print as you are!

This morning I made poppyseed muffins, from the box (keepin’ it real!). They were yummy and I enjoyed them quietly while catching up on blogs. I am wearing a dress for no reason except that I wore one last night and it was nice. I’m not going anywhere today (chained to the desk!) but what the hell, I have dresses and I should wear them.

Last night we went to a celebration for Gennie DeWeese, a local artist who passed away last year. They had all of her work up in Debbie Butterfield’s barn, including a 120 ft panorama Gennie painted of the gallatin range, which she probably never saw all put together. It was so, so, so pretty out there. Just look at this sunset.

I also found this guy, who I really wanted to pet. He was so smooth and muscular and BIG. I did end up petting him, but I was afraid the whole time, horses are kind of magical like that. He kept trying to get closer to me, I have a feeling he wanted to eat my necklace.

There really is something special about living here. Although we’re often feeling stir crazy and bored in the winter, this is what I held out for. Summer! Finally.

The pile of ears has a few influences. One is the pile of shoes from Holocaust victims- he was raised with Holocaust survivors who taught him to pay attention to what was going on and change what he could. The ears vary in size from an inch to over a foot and are made of clay that’s rendered to look like stone. Their stony appearance is meant to represent deaf ears. In his studio among the many post it notes, he has listed  the old proverb “We were given only one mouth to speak, but two ears to listen.” His work is political (this collage speaks to his thoughts on the current administration) but in a sweeping way–even without the current administration, he’ll be pissed off about something.  He noted that he thinks all art is a political statement: artists are exercising their creative minds instead of the also human take-over-the-world urges.

All in all, he’s a really interesting guy and I love that he speaks his mind. That was what was so great about seeing him in the documentary. Parts of it were very hippie-esque but I remember him saying in the doc that he was angry and pissed off about the state of things– and he told me today that they fought hard to keep that in the film. 

 I’ll end with a quote from Notkin, posted in his studio: “I continue to make ceramic sculptures which reflect on the social and political dilemmas of our world. As André Malraux observed, “Art is a revolt against man’s fate”. Need I say more?”

Last Friday I got to tag along with the grad students on a field trip to Amsterdam, Montana (!) to see Gary Bates’ studio. Gary is a local artist who makes large-scale metal sculptures out of things like bars from old jail cells and boiler parts. A lot of his pieces are kinetic and he says he intends for them to be a pulse on the environment. For example, this spinning piece (for which I don’t remember the name) weighs some ridiculous amount but the way it is balanced means even a small wind will set it spinning. Gary has a telescope in his house aimed towards the piece and he looks out to see what the weather is like based on how fast it is spinning.

His Wind Arc, on the MSU campus, spins only when the wind hits a certain speed (it’s a bent tube, and the spinning to wind speed ratio has to do with how far down he cuts the tube). He said one professor told him that he looks out to see how fast it is spinning to determine if it’s warm enough to ride his bike home, or if his wife needs to come and get him.  He showed us another piece he’s working on that’s activated when it rains a certain amount. Here’s a sculpture on his land, where the mountain silhouette lines up perfectly if you lay on the grass and look at it.

In addition to all of the sculptures, I thought the land was just gorgeous. It’s a huge farm with a little house he built in the middle. I am still so amazed at how beautiful it is out here. I love learning about all of these thing that I’d seemingly never come across otherwise. Living in New York it was so easy to be consumed by everything that everyone is consumed by (the latest this, that and the other), but here I feel like I can breathe, and appreciate each beautiful thing, because I don’t pass a million influences on my way to work every day.

You can see lots more photos and stories of the art and the land (which are so interconnected) on my flickr page.

I added pom-poms instead of braids. It turned out a little large, but that’s actually a good thing because I hate too-tight hats.  Next week we are learning to knit in the round, which I’m excited about too. Don’t worry, I still love to crochet, but I thought the idea of crocheting an entire garment would just be too hot to wear (Unless I use tiny yarns. Which are not my favorite). I’m excited about the possibilities of combining them, too.

Things are going really well here in Bozeman. I now have hats and scarflets for sale at a local boutique called Tart (I put them in the shop last Friday and sold one already), met some cool local ladies (including Carrie, who found me via Alicia’s blog–thanks Alicia), and I’ve got some freelance work rolling in. I couldn’t ask for more!

I also had the pleasure of meeting MacArthur Genius Grant Award recipient Anna Schuleit this week via my day job. She does truly amazing work- she spent years funding a project wherein she made a dilapidated mental hospital sing, and recently wired an entire forest to receive phone calls. I just got back from hearing her talk about her work, and she’s an amazing and generous person. She is done with public art for the moment because she (understandably) needs to withdraw from people and paint in order to work with them again. But when asked how she could pull off these seemingly impossible public works, she said something to the effect of “It’s easy to have one clear idea and tell people what to do and make it happen. To paint is more challenging.” So true. I love meeting people like Anna- she has an idea, she makes it happen. What’s sad to me is that some people never realize that they are fully capable of the same things. Even Anna Schuleit has her doubts about whether her projects will succeeed- but she keeps on. To me, that’s what life’s about. Keeping on.

I got up at 7 this morning to start my! new! job! and the light was lovely. It’s a part time job with an office full of great ladies, so I think it’ll be fun and also, get me out of bed every day. Which at this point is very necessary! Plus I can walk there, which is awesome.

I’ve sent out about half of the patchwork swap partners, and plan on sending the rest out this weekend. Don’t worry if you haven’t gotten yours yet, it has nothing to do with the order in which you signed up. I just went a little blind with all the emailing, so I needed to split it up into a few days. Plus I am going out for sushi tonight. We are far from the ocean, but I’m hoping it’s still tasty.

And finally, here’s a nice drawing (but I am biased) by Paul Heaston, AKA the incredibly talented arist/ reason I moved to Bozeman. He’s been working furiously on his website this week, and I wanted to share. It’s still under construction a bit, so be sure to check back. Enjoy!

I wanted to share these two paintings that I saw at the MoMA the other day. They both use the same color palette and a similar layout with completely different outcomes, and I like each result.

Succulent Eggplants by by Beatriz Milhazes, 1996

Creative Artists Agency (Los Angeles) by Sarah Morris, 2005

I love these colors together, too, so I’m filing them away for a project someday.

I’m putting away the laptop now, and we’ll be on the road for the rest of the week. I’m really excited because we’re driving through parts of the country that I have never even seen. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures to share.

And, as a little extra, here’s a self portrait I took on the train on the way to meet Paul. I was so excited sitting on the subway and then I noticed the light on the seat, and the organic quality of the skirt next to the plastic subway seat.