I am trying very hard to back down on excessive Christmas giving. It seems there is so much giving as a means to consume: buy, buy, buy. Here at Rubistudios, it’s more like make, make, make. In my large family, we pick names from a hat, instead of buying gifts for 5 siblings and their partners and children, we have only a few. This enables me to consider each gift carefully. My niece sent me some drawings of hers. I turned one into an embroidered pillow (above).

My mother never reads my blog, so I feel safe posting pics of her gift. So safe in fact I can say that I am leaving first thing in the morning to fly to CT for Thanksgiving to surprise her. This is silk ribbon on linen for her bag.

I extracted the motif from some of the bag fabric, a vintage marimekko panttern. Mom is into Vera Bradley bags, I am not; so I tried to meet in the middle. I call this bag “Suck it,Vera!”

This is a “W” in silk ribbon on silk. I cut the fabric from a curtain panel,  pearl and charcoal gray dupioni silk  West Elm, over two yards, brand new in the package for $2.99 at Goodwill.

The current issue of Fiberarts Magazine contains their Student Showcase, a round up of up and coming artists:

Based on refinement, consistency, and presentation, we selected the following artists’ work to represent today’s high quality, innovative student work.

and they picked me!!

I decided to take this opportunity to show you my barcode art, which is currently on view in Duluth, Ga at the biennial “Fiberarts: Journey of the Imagination.”

detail

I generated this code with the help of Scott Blake, a SCAD alum.

Something happened last night, I don’t know if it was the ball, or the lane, but I kicked ass. Every time I got up to the lane and let go of the ball, it felt right and I knew it was good. I couldn’t ascertain what exactly I was doing to make it good, it just worked. I didn’t think too much about it, except to note how easy and effortless it felt to excel. I bowled five strikes. My first game I scored 136, the highest of the 30 people I was bowling with.

Then, as mysteriously as it began, my lucky strike streak ended. Everything felt different, the holes seemed to hold onto my thumb, my legs weren’t so graceful, and the ball navigated itself towards the gutter. Try as I might, I couldn’t get that new great bowler back.

I didn’t do any special  exercises before my bowling. I was actually feeling a bit stressed from organizing our bowling field trip and all of the math that involves (bowling fees, shoe sizes, lane numbers). When I stepped up to the lane, I hadn’t put much thought into the bowling, I just did it. And I just kept doing it, and I kept doing good.

When everthing started heading towards the gutter, I tried so desperatly to adopt the same attitude, the Zen attitude. But the more I tried to force it, the less Zen it felt.

What happened here? How did I somehow channel a great  energy, hold onto it for a short amount of time, surprise myself and clusters of increduluos onlookers, then without warning, the good, happy energy disappearred? How do I tap back into that at will? And can I tap into that zone creatively instead of bowlingly?