christmas in louisiana

even the gingerbread houses down here are sporting blue roofs....(thanks to fruit rollups), downed trees, and search markings on the walls.

thank god for humor!

we;ve had an enjoyable weekend with family and friends which is coming to an all too soon close, as life returns to something resembling normalcy. i coudl stand another week or 2 off before returnign to the day job but i don;t think that's in the cards! it has been nice to have little to no schedule.
both of the kids spent the night here christmas eve, and since they havent visited with each other in a while they stayed up till the wee hours talking, so we al got to sleep in till 10-ish which was pure heaven! and a far cry from the middle of the night wake up calls we had when they were little!
i've got an updated music system up here now thanks to santa so art making shoudl be more fun.

i also received word that i will have 2 pieces in an exhibit of louisiana artists, appropriately named uprooted, at LSU during january and february. just have to write artist statement.......aka how the storms have affected me.
sigh.
its; been too nice a weekend to go there right now so we;ll get back on track tomorrow.

hope eveyrone had a wonderful christmas. down here we;re hoping for a far less evenful new year as well.

i;ve even been working on a *fluff* quilt for my dh, who's a space nut. using all those odds and ends of weird fabric i;ve accumulated over the years. pigs in space. aliens, etc. it's been fun to just play a little with it. will take soem photos as soon as i can borrow his camera!
for now i;m going to go savor a few moments of peace and quiet to do some reading and some football game watching........
later~

post katrina gingerbread house 

to make this art related

2 things:
during the concert, he talked a little bit about his dad....and siad he had written @ 23 THOUSAND songs........ that he wrote constantly, on anythign, wherever he was. which was just about the exact comment that walter andersen's daughter had said about her dad...
sounded like they (woody guthrie and walter andersen) were cut from the same bolt of cloth.
and...arlo's kids, willie nelson's daughter. and assorted others did much of the concert. while they were really good , what immediately came to mind when arlo was on stage was the conversation we have all had repeatedly about, (pardon the pun) finding your own voice in your work, having a body of work etc. and the very subtle but still obvious differences between startign out and sort of trying on things till they fit, and having a solid *style* if you will. his work was what it was....nothign fancy...no new techniques, just solid, mature, accomplished. some of the others coudl be seen as sort of tentative; very good, but not necessarily *there* yet. i thought of the old question of what do you submit to shows....differnet things or pieces that show a distinct body of work...... we're so close to our own work i think that we don't often recognize those things....but seeing it in a different art form altogether made it very clear to me....
my early morning ramblings for the day.

arlo  

time flies

i can't believe it's been so long since i blogged. my camera is still
on the fritz and it just doesn't feel right to post without pictures....
been too busy at work and doing what little bit of shopping i've
done to do much else. tho we did escape to new orleans last
friday night for the *arlo and friends city of new orleans* concert
at tipitina's. (for those of you who are too young to know....
i'm talking about arlo guthrie: son of woody guthrie (this land is
your land) and creator of Alice's Restaurant.one of the pure gems
of the late 60's and well worth a listen if you;ve never heard it! all
18 + minutes of it. it was wonderful to get back to new orleans
for FUN and music. and nice to know his hair is WAY whiter than mine~

another layer

i added a few pieces sunday before i ran out of acetylene......it may be finsihed....
or i may add a few more?? i;ll listen to what it wants between now and next weekend.....
thanks so much for the wonderful comments!
i;ve got a photo of myslef welding on the about me page on my website:
http://www.clairefenton.com/about.asp
i;ve tried to upload it onto my blog on my profile and can't for the life
of me figure out how to do it!
off to work...
till next time!

locked out ....finished? 

detail 

back in the saddle!

figuratively speaking that is....... i FINALLY got back to some welding! i was really afraid i had forgotten how but it all came back to me and i actually did a damned good job....and had some really nice joints (yes, i know... that sounds funny!). i started out playing with a piece i had started @ a year ago, figuring i would just use it to practice on. so i was outside fiddling with it for about a half hour and decided i'd quit for the day, go inside and get cleaned up as i had friends picking me up for a belated birthday lunch. so i shut everything down, packed it all back up, brought it back into the garage, and headed inside.... only to discover i was locked out of the house. oops!
there was nothing else to do but take it all back out, set it up again, and keep on going. my husband had gone to run a few errands and i figured he;d be back soon enuf. so without a plan
(like i EVER have one!) i just started playing..........and actually had a blast. and abtou an hour later he finally showed up. (it worked out ok cus my friend;s were running late too...)
this piece has clearly told me what it wants to be and i figure its @ 1/3 of the way there..... so now i'ts just a matter of finding the time to work on it some more. if the acetelyne holds out in the morning and i can squeeze in a few hours before i leave for new orleans i hope to finish it .
and the name is obvious: locked out!

underwater detail 

not named yet! can't decide........... 

ladder 

ladder 

finally finished

i ended up cutting this one down a bit to focus on the *eye of the storm* ....and quilted it in swirls emphasizing the lines of the spiral... for once, i stopped when i should have! the compulsion to go on and on sometimes gets me and i overdo.......i even put a sleeve on it! it's Done!
i;m still working on underwater. i;ve been adding some handstitching to it. i'm still not sure if i will quilt it or stretch it when i;m done. in the meantime, i'm really enjoying the process of stitching it.... ]
i've also gotten a much better photo of *ladder* a 3-d piece i did last year.. and photographed another piece i finished over the last several months.........

fury finished