Adventures in Ireland Part II

We stayed in Gallway for a couple of days. This enabled us to visit  Inishmor, the famous Aran Island. We took a ferry out, rented bikes and headed out to explore.

Lichens on a rock wall. The rock walls provide a rich visual symphony of neutrals. 

There are lots of variations on the dry stone walls. This was a particularly elegant style.

This is the 13th century Athenry Castle.  The Irish government has done a splendid job reconstructing this beautiful building.

The little room hanging off the side of the castle is the most up to date toilet technology money could buy back then.

If your farm field is wall to wall stones then your option, to get them out of the way elegantly is to make....dry stone walls. The walls on the brow of a hill look like rock lace so the wind won't blow them over.

This is the bronze age fort of Dun Aengus. You can see beautiful areal photos here.

Adorable rock picnic table!

This is going to have to be three parts. I'm having a hard time editing all the beautiful sights......Stay tuned

Ireland Adventures Part I

We arrived in Shannon at 7AM jet lagged, hungry  and all set to drive on the left side. Oh crap, we forgot our portable defibrillator. Thanks to Craig we drove without mishap.

Within one hour of arrival, my obsession with stones begins. Ireland has 240,000 kilometers of dry stone walls. Plenty of source material for me to chew on.

 Rather alarming road sign we found at 10AM our first day.

Our first destination: the Cliffs of Moher. Enough beauty to break your heart into a thousand pieces.

Amazing landscape architecture for the Cliffs of Moher visitor center. The use of local stones made sure the built environment totally blended in with the cliffs. (I'm exercising remarkable restraint in not showing you all 50 rock photos.....)

We traveled 6000 miles to hear......American musicians in Galway?

The River Corrib runs through Galway and has many diversions created to power various manufacturing during the industrial revolution. We passed men fishing in several spots throughout the town.

Will post part II later this week.

Books On The Night Stand

Sketchbook :Idea Generation for Manufactured River

Water Bills

Working out sketch ideas for textiles is a little like wearing a raincoat in the shower. It's much easier to generate ideas in fabric. but I love the immediacy of sketches.

Test plots idea 1

Test plots idea 2

Poseidon's Siblings III idea

Canoe Marathon Training

Salt Creek Spring 1 

Craig and I are training for our annual Des Plaines River Marathon. I love the beautiful, clear spring light and the river smells. After the huge flooding a few weeks ago, the whole system has been flushed out.

Salt Creek Spring 2

Inspired by Michael Pollan's "Cooked"

fermenting cabbage and lemons

Canoe Launch and A New Boat House

The Des Plaines River Marathon is less than a month away and with flooded waterways, finding a training site took awhile. Our first choice is the Rockwell launch point on the Chicago Canal. It's usually the least affected by flooding. But to our surprise, the new boat house, designed by Jean Gang was under construction and the ramp was all torn up. We were shooed out and told it would be completed in July. Can't wait! 

So we tried the Oakton launch site further north on the Canal but alas, Loyola University was hosting a Sculling competition and again, we were shooed out. We ended up at the Skokie Lagoons and had an uneventful launch and a lovely two hour paddle.

I have not been posting much because I'm working furiously away at creating 8 new pieces for my new art project Manufactured River. I'm looking around for a venue for an opening and stitching away. I'll post some sketches soon! Happy Spring everyone. It's finally arrived here in Chicago.

Ian Ruther: Silver and Light

What would you be willing to give up?

Manufactured River-Inspiration and Persperation

Stalked Ciliate Carchesium

silk, cotton , linen embellishments

40"h x 29"w

This month I have six drawings in a group show at Chicago Art Source. If you have a chance, please stop by and see the show.

This month I have been feverishly working away making the quilted backs for all my microbe pieces. Each piece  measures 40" x 29 and there are 8 microbes. The work is paying off because the presentation will look very polished! I'm getting ready to show the work at WATERCON 2013 in Springfield, IL.

In order to appease my muse while I am working away on rather dull projects, I am playing in my sketchbooks. You can see a couple of pages below.

Audio books are a wonderful companion to studio work and I've been listening to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. HeLa cells are used everywhere but this author investigated the life of the woman from whose body those cells originated from. A fascinating listen or read.

Here is yet another amazing  microbe.

Manufactured River: Getting the Message Out

Colonial Stalked Ciliate

Carchesium

Textiles and embellishments
See new art work here

Normally, January is a time for me to kick back a bit and take a breather from teaching. But this month, I've been hard at work preparing work for the March WATERCON conference for water professionals in Springfield, Illinois. My work will be featured in the opening ceremonies and I'm so excited.

I am delighted to say that Chicago Art Source has six of my drawings, including three new ones on exhibit until March 31. Please come and see this beautiful group show.

If you are free today, January 16th, at 1PM  #landscapechat  has asked me to guest host  their Water Wednesday show. Martha Golea   has written a lovely article about my work titled:    The Calling of an Artist

Sandra Postel is a passionate researcher and advocate for water conservation. She is the director of
Global Water Policy Project. She inspires me to continue my work and I'd like to share this video about her with you.




Here is her article for National Geographic
Grabbing at Solutions: Water for the Hungry First

You can see more of Sandra Postel's book on Amazon.

The Waterkeepers

Holiday Gate Valves

This Holiday Season, give the gift of  igniting interest in local clean water. The documentary, "The Waterkeepers" is a great example of citizen power in holding big businesses accountable for our water.
The work of these people inspires me to work harder and pay attention to my water usage.

The Waterkeepers | Watch the Documentary Film Free Online | SnagFilms

Help the Waterkeepers reach a 30,000 following

Here are a couple of Waterkeepers working on the Lower Mississippi.