Energy Pyramid

You've heard of the nutrition pyramid, here's the enegry pyramid. Its all about prioritizing the greening of your home and home habits.

www.katherinesalant.com

We did an energy audit on our home this year, and while none of the reccomended changes have happened yet, the path is laid for our improvement of our 100 yr old home. I so highly reccomend the energy audit. Most homeowners of an old building are thinking of all the modern insulation they don't have - but when the auditor pointed an infrared camera at our walls, no temperature leakages were to be seen. Despite the lack of insulation, the lath and plaster, the diagonal one by six boards edge to edge, which make up our home, are darn heavy and solid!
An energy audit is the grooviest, I highly reccomend it!

the Saturn V Dream Quilt

Checkout the dream quilt - a huge undertaking aimed at... the moon? A Saturn V rocket overshadows Huntsville, Alabama. Like a cathedral spire it stands, inspiring the residents. It memorializes a dream thought to be impossible. Now the Saturn V rocket again will show the dreams of the world, for a better future.

An 80 thousand square foot quilt is being assembled to drape the Saturn rocket, quilts showing the dreams and hopes of children and adults around the world. Hopes are that when the piece is finished, that the quilt will travel on a global tour, along with the stories of its creators.

The website shows how to contribute a quilt for yourself, how to organize and contribute a quilt from an organization, and how to support others in their efforts. Wow! Just reading their website is like a shot of positivism. After the aids quilt, I can imagine the joy this project will create in all its participants.

What do you think? Want to give it a go?

The Family Show : Animal, Vegetable, Spiritual

Nov 7th witnessed the opening for a show at the Delaplaine Visual Arts and Education Center in Frederick, Maryland. It was real groovy, because not only was my work in it, but my whole family participated!

Don Dunsmore, my dad, exhibited his nature photography. Kit Dunsmore, my sister, hung her quilts and displayed her varying sculptures. And Jane Dunsmore, my mother, showed her ceramic sculptures.

The outstading efforts of all these family members created an unusual and vibrant show. We often consulted each other while creating the work, checking to see that we all had items that could hang well and relate to the other pieces. Don showed me a photo, and I caught a flame if inspiration, ran home and created a wall hanging from his image of a water lily. Jane made an owl, Don photographed and owl, and Kit made an owl wall hanging. Don received inspiration from the quilts headed for the show and created a quilt of his own, layering images in a photo quilt.

To name the show, with our diverse work, challenged the Family's creative skills. The title seemed to cover all. Despite our group tendancy toward portraiture of living creatures, human, animal or plant, the title allows for the healing and contemplative relationship each of us has to our own work. Spiritual also refers to the sometimes holy reverence we each have for nature's grandeur, and our attempts to capture this in camera, in fabric, in ceramic, in glass.

The Delaplaine Frederick Hot Glass Fun Times Workshop

This Sunday, six ladies settled down behind torches at the Delaplaine Visual Arts and Education Center in Frederick, Maryland. I did my best to explain basic use of enamel powders, and then the ladies fired up and began warming, then melting glass.

They were silent, their inensity burned! (really!)

I had a great time, and not just because I got to be the boss.
Debbie Weaver, my mentor, attended and delivered her inspired observations, allowing me to appropriately help the attendees, but due to her arm in a sling, she was unable to play with fire. L

A good time was had by all, german chocolate cupcakes were served.

Casowosco is a retreat center on Owosco Lake in upstate New York. Bi –annually, the quilters of Tompkins county descend on Lake Owosco in a horde, carrying boxes of fabric and expensive sewing machines.

I have the joy of being a member of the Tompkins Co quilt guild, despite living seven hours away, in Maryland. I, too, load up my car with glee in the fall, and drive to this beautiful, peaceful haven for a wild weekend of stichin’ joy.

I meet new artists, hug artists I am thrilled to re-connect with, hear their stories, and have an audience for my own. Sharing, a word with meaning far beyond it’s few syllables. Quilts are made of fabric, cut up, and sewn together again in a new, magnificent, expressive solid flat sheet, which is then sandwiched and quilted. So we, as pieces of fabric, are reunited, and become whole for a time.

We leave carrying more than our projects and our equipment. Where we had twigs of thought, we bear away fruiting wild trees, laden heavy with new directions projects may take.

Thinking about a retreat, even a day, for your local art group? I suggest you take the leap!

Have there been times that you felt much more self-confident than usual?
Have there been times that you got much less sleep than usual and found you didn't really miss it?
Have there been times that you were much more talkative or spoke faster than usual?
Have there been times that thoughts raced through your head or you couldn't slow your mind down?
Have there been times that you were so irritable that you shouted at people or started fights or arguments?
Have there been times that you felt so good or so hyper that other people thought you were not your normal self or you were so hyper that you got into trouble?

I sat in a doctors office a few weeks ago, and had a twelve point checklist read at me, to which I answered every question yes.
If anyone asked me, I’d have said it was a test asking who I am. I would have said the test had been written for me, to describe me, at my best and worst. “than usual” Is simply an idiotic phrase to use when I am like this all the time. This is usual. What are they talking about not feeling like myself? The only time in my life I didn’t feel like myself was when I was on medication. These “wild” feelings are all what I feel like, all the time, every day. This is my life, in twelve questions.
The doctor, with delight, sat up and said, “We have a pill for that! You can be cured.”

Why am I putting myself thru this? I have a vivid and active spiritual life, I have managed my symptoms for the past five years without medication, without therapy. Why doesn’t anyone give me any credit for this? My doctor acts like I have lived like a hobo because I managed my symptoms with meditation. “Well it is a gift and a curse…”
So what the hell happened to the gift side of this equation? Does this mean I should fling aside the gift with wild abandon?

Frustration

This week I embarrassed, humiliated, and disappointed myself a righteous many times. Just when I started to pick myself up, I found a good, solid rebuff awaiting in the wings. So now I’ve had my good cry, had my time balled up in a blanket with my dog bravely beside me, I’m ready to pick up my chin, and grin, and say…. The sun will come out Tommorrow!

My advice, should you be looking for any, is to not expect to stand and run after the blow. Anticipate a collapse. I certainly can’t appreciate and heal my disappointed crushed little feelings if I’m smacking them on the butt and telling them roughly to get back in the game. I need to respect my injuries, respect my hurts. This doesn’t give the weakness liberty to take over, it gives my weakness the opportunity to heal, and grow into a new, stronger me.

Thusly, anticipate is the key word here. The collapse is not a dreaded event, but a joyous opportunity to meet, love, embrace and hold sacred the most vulnerable parts of myself. I have been gifted with this injury, this disappointment. So celebrate and let fly the tears. They are a doorway to a an old, and a new you.

Convergence

In case you need motivation, consider entering a competition in your chosen field.I have probably ten unfinished projects laying out on my work bench on any given day. Those unfinished projects call to me, beg me for their attention, and then lay there, unloved, uncared for. And why? Because I don’t have a deadline staring me in the face.

This week, I made two complete necklaces, with the goal of finishing three, the best of which would be entered in the International Glass Bead Society Jewelry challenge called Convergence. The theme was the four elements, and the idea was to collaborate with another artist, a jewelry artist. Being both a beadmaker and an artist, I decided this was a challenge I’d be happy to fill on my own, which fortunately is an option in the jewelry show.

I worked every day on these three pieces, finished and photographed two, and here they are. I am so gratified! Filled with accomplishment. It is the highlight of my week! We have had snow and ice, and my dogs can’t even walk on the surface of my lawn without falling down, so they are stir crazy barking maniacs who are dying to go out for even a moment, though they stand and do nothing. I have had a hellacious cold, and have used up a bottle of Dayquil and almost finished a bottle of Nyquil between me and my husband who has also been sick.

And yet what treasures I find I have made! What a blessing. My unfinished projects cry out to me, “Me next! Pick me! Finish me!” And I smile, because I know I’m taking a break!