Monday Inspiration: Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt, sleepy baby, 191o, pastel on paper (source)


Mary Cassatt, The child's bath, 1893 (source)

Mary Cassatt was a well-known, well-exhibited female artist (perhaps this is so because of her relationship with Degas), but she was unique in her portrayal of women and mothers. Women tending children is one of her most popular subjects. I find these paintings reassuring now- and complex and deep- in a way that I largely ignored in school. I remember twigging onto how interesting it was that a woman was representing women like this- but then putting it aside and writing papers on different artists.

I'm not sure what that shows- that my interests have changed I guess- or perhaps that the idea of motherhood is so couched in our society's subconscious that until one actually becomes a mother, the plight of mothers is kind of secondary. All I know is that it didn't seem pertinent to me at the time, or like something I could have explored- and I want to explore it now.

Maybe that's one of the biggest drawbacks to art school- because it takes so much time you're not really living while you're there (or at least I wasn't)- so the subject matter you focus on while you have all this time to dedicate to researching and exploring isn't necessarily based on anything that you feel is important. You're just so busy trying to get a grade that you don't actually evolve personally, except for your skills.

Happy Saturday

Clay, Clay, and more clay. This has been my week- yesterday I spent the day moistening and wedging some clay that was a bit too dry to work with- that I inherited from the lady I bought my kiln from. It's an awful lot of hard labour that wedging- especially turning several slippery on-the-outside-hard-on-the-inside bits into one smooth lump. My back is paying for it today- but I did manage to get two boxes worth of clay workable, so it's worth it.

The above picture is a carved tile that I made a mold of, and will hopefully form the basis of a series of slab mugs, it's a bit big actually, but I'm terrible at judging shrinkage- Clay shrinks as it's dried and fired, so mugs that seem the right size wet almost always turn tiny when done. That's something I'm hoping to avoid by using templates and molds- but I have to ignore my gut instinct that this is too big- though maybe it is too big- we'll have to see.

Also this week- a space was made in the shop for me- my own little sectioned off clay space- right next to the bench grinder, but away from the anvil (which I'm sure was responsible for the mysterious bruises on my thigh). And K made me some square plate molds for slab plates, Which I plan to try out today, but the sun has just come out- and there's tomatoes in the cupboard that need to dealt with so we'll see how far I get on the clay front today.

Learning...

"In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy"- William Blake.

I feel like this quote is so appropriate for how I'm feeling lately, I almost can't wait for winter- for quiet, and solitude. I say almost because I'd really like my tomatoes to ripen up before I harvest them- so a few more days of warmth would be welcome. The air is crisp- my toes want socks, and the big blanket is on the bed, It's officially fall, and the quiet fall days of my maternity leave are not happening this year, University is starting today, and with it my Marking and T.A-ing starts, and also it's craft sale season, and for the first time I'm on the selling end of these sales- which is a bit daunting.

I'm not just toiling over salsa, and blanched tomatoes- though I plan to do that too, this year Fall is for learning how to balance this motherhood/homemaking gig with other occupations, which will hopefully work well together, but one never knows, just because you work from home doesn't mean you always time to clean the fridge or read stories- or shower even, if we're honest.

I feel lucky to be able to do this job of Full-Time-Mama from home, and also to have a job that can be worked from home, but it's a bit non-stop if you know what I mean. The attachment parenting principle of Balance, is the one that's hard, the one where you have time to groom yourself as well as teach your child, and feed your soul, that what I have to work on.

Monday Inspiration: the Textile Blog

This Blog is amazing, of course when I'm planning to spend a whole two months working on Clay projects-(in order to get ready for craft sales)- it figures that I find a way to lust after textiles. K actually found this blog for me and one day I noticed it peeking at me from my bookmark list. He had found it through a post about Dukhobor Weaving, which just shows how diverse the postings are. Oh well, I must get back to my clay, but enjoy the textiles.

Happy Friday

I don't think I've posted about these flowers yet- Zinnias, I've fallen for them this year. They're a perfect cut flower, they last forever, and were so easy to grow. These ones were from a small six pack of annuals, but I've been diligently collecting seeds from them, so next year hopefully I'll have tons of them from the seeds of this batch. But I think I'm hooked, I've been looking at some lovely orange ones online...

One Small Change: September

My One Small Change for this month is going to do with the garden, I would like to use and properly store as much from the garden as I can. This may seem like a no brainer- but actually last year- the onions and potatoes we harvested froze in the garage while we were trying to sort out a space inside for them- it was such a shame, I'm determined not to let it happen again.

My onions are already out, and they're hanging to dry in the shop, the beets have been harvested and are being stored in damp sand in a rubber maid container, and we've frozen enough corn on the cob to last us all year. I've grated and frozen zucchini, beets, and Swiss chard, and I still have more to do. I've bought burlap sacks for potatoes and we've got some bins for the squash. But for the most part what I need to focus on is learning a space for everything- we've got a room downstairs that is just storage, and I need to tidy and organize to make space for everything. Fall is perfect for this I think, I'm actually kind of looking forward to clearing out some spaces and giving them a new purpose.

Saving seeds

So far this month my seed saving has been from flowers- which is super easy- the seeds are usually just under the petals, or the seed heads are dry and easy to see. Then you just label and store in an envelope in a dry dark space. More directions can be found here.

I'm planning on using the fermentation method for tomatoes when my tomatoes ripen here with these directions.

For beans and peas I'm doing this, basically just allowing the beans to dry in situ, and then storing.

I was planning on saving squash seeds but after reading this about the possibility of disgusting hybrids, I decided not to- maybe next year I'll try to be more selective about planting and pollination, but for this year I'll just leave it.

I'm pretty happy to have collected what I've got so far- I think I won't need to buy flower seeds next year, which is great- though I'm not super sure what will come of them, because of open pollination I don't know if the colour of the flowers will stay true, but it'll be interesting to see what comes out anyways.