thelmasmith

There is not much mystery when I label images correctly.  Amazing what one does when tired.

My apologies to all the people kind enough to comment.  I finally got the comments up on the blog today.  Sionwyn is a clear winner based on the time stamps.  Hello, my friend, it has been many years since we spoke.

I’ve sort of been down for the count.  My body has gone into rebellion mode; it is demanding inordinate amounts of sleep.

I’ve a nice group of unidentified objects.  They are from Longfellow Square in Portland, Maine.  Maybe by tomorrow I’ll get them sized and identified A, B, C, etc.  Then I’ll put them up for study and identification.

Several things today. Do go and see this YouTube video.

This one called Elektro.

This image is compliments of Google.

The following is a request from the National Museum for Women in the Arts. Please take time, make time, to continue each day by voting for this project with the American Express Member’s Project.
URGENT REQUEST to help NMWA:
June 17th is the DEADLINE to RATE our project!
NMWA / American Express Members Project : ID: 04062

WOMEN ARTISTS: NOT IN THE BOOKS? PUT THEM ON-LINE!

The winning American Express Members Project will receive up to $5 million in funding and visibility with millions of people and the media.

Please go to www.membersproject.com for complete details and clear, simple instructions on how to REGISTER and RATE our project (it takes less than ten minutes).

Please register ASAP and give a FIVE STAR RATING to:

Project # 04062: WOMEN ARTISTS: NOT IN THE BOOKS? PUT THEM ON-LINE!
Help us attract funding and gain UNPRECEDENTED visibility for NMWA through a program that American Express estimates could attract 5 million of their cardholders and countless more through media coverage.

The DEADLINE is June 17th, but please REGISTER and RATE us with 5 STARS TODAY, so we stay high on the list, have a greater chance to become known by more people, attract their support and rank in the top 50 project finalists. The Top 50 Projects will be announced July 3rd, the VOTING begins then, and the winning project will be announced August 7th. Please forward this to your friends! Thank you.

Contact:
Howard White, hwhite@nmwa.org 202.783.7983

National Museum of Women in the Arts
1250 New York Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20005
202.783.5000

Let’s see how we can do on identification. The first person who correctly identifies this image will receive a small gift. Please leave your email using DOT and AT to avoid spam. I’ll contact you.

The Mothers – No More Tears

Make some time and take some time to watch this YouTube introduction to a film in progress. The complete documentary will be called A Trail of Thread.

The haunting music in the film clip is called Water in the Desert.

I live in the Sonoran Desert. I know many of the immigrants. I learned long ago that I cared little what language was spoken as I saw good people who worked hard for a living and loved and disciplined their children.

It is so pleasant to come home and review all the posts on Planet.textilethreads. So much is going on. The synergy is building. I am really enjoying all the images.  Many thanks to all the artists who are building such an exciting community.
I had planned on using my vacation to be more disciplined about posting. However, life gets in the way. Here’s a late nineteenth century advertising sign; apparently thelma is a southern name.

A southern first name, and an uncommon one, at that, is okay, now that I’ve lived with it for more than sixty years. My great great grandparents left Virginia in the early nineteenth century. They anticipated the need for the Emancipation Proclamation.

This is a sealing iron, probably 1930s to 1950s vintage. I bought it to go with the beeswax.   I haven’t tested it to see if it works.  It will come apart easily.  I can probably rebuild it if I need.  It’s a nice companion to my 1950s GE iron.

I have not had the time or self discipline to work yet. I have two more excursions this month.

Beeswax and collagraph are calling my name.  I’ve an embellisher that I want to spend time with.  I’m also going to do some more focused study on abstract design.  I think that being forced to commit to design principles in abstract will enhance my work all around.  Once I have the design principles I’ve been using for fifty years reinforced, refreshed, and updated, I hope to use that active information to jump start my work again..

I hope I will have found both the direction and the ability to close out more mundane reality and work.

Back from my sons’ fiftieth birthday party. Here’s the birthday boy, on the left, with his father, my Sam.

Tennessee and the rolling foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains is quite beautiful. Most of it was logged off, probably a couple of centuries ago, but the second growth provides a lot of various hard woods. This is wild rose, with a twining sprig of an aggressive vine found even in Arizona. I’ve lost the word.

Another scene, typical of the rural roadsides,

How many of you remember your American history? I learned much of mine doing research on the material detritus of the nineteenth century. I found that handling dauguerrotypes
and old wallpaper, clothing and furniture let history fall into a real place rather than dry statistics and dates.   A grease bucket for a conestoga wagon made history tangible.

In the fifties, the fashion was Davey Crockett and his long rifle and coon skin cap. Today, after traveling a full 24 hours, I saw the state park where Davey Crockett was born.

I’m on the northern edge of the Smokey Mountains. It’s the heart of the Tennessee River Valley Authority.

I have just come past the sign pointing to the home of James Polk. Here’s the image of a stamp bearing Polk’s visage.

The cameras are here. Maybe tomorrow I’ll give you a glimpse of what the south calls mountains. The Smokies and the Appalachians are old, old, very worn down mountains when compared with the Catalinas and the Santa Ritas in the Sonoran Desert.

Maybe I’ll be a better role model about posting to blogs on a regular basis. I’m off to a week long birthday party. House sitters and puddy tat caregivers and mail collectors have all been arranged. My house will be more inhabited than when I’m at home.

I’m taking my camera and my laptop. Here’s hoping that I remember to take photos of the interesting things I see.

Last week I missed an albizia tree in full bloom. It was in a truckstop of all places. It’s a tree that grows happily in both the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts. Here’s an image borrowed from Google to show you what I missed.

I’m off on a red eye flight this evening, cheap woman that I am. I like to leave some pocket money. If I find a nice gallery or a used book store I really need to be prepared.