Change of Address

Well, my husband and I loaded up the ol' Uhaul again this weekend.  It was our second move within the year, and it won't be our last.

No longer in remote Centre County (home to Amish farmers and Penn State), we're living in exurban West Chester.  There is plenty to do here!  The county is filled with apple orchards, independent dairies, wineries, breweries, art galleries, restaurants and markets specializing in local whole foods.  It's a pretty hoppin' place!  And it's pretty great that we don't have to drive forty-five minutes to get to town now.

Although we'll live here only temporarily, we are both excited to enjoy some culture, a time of rest (a "winter break," if you will), and time with family and friends (we can even go to visit some by train!).  Huzzah!

Blue Like Jazz

I read Blue Like Jazz years ago and loved it.  A few years ago, I heard news of the pre-production for a Blue Like Jazz film - which was difficult to imagine, since the book is such a lovely, meandering collection of essays on spirituality and conversations and experiences.  Now that I've seen the trailer, I'm so excited to watch the story come to life on the big screen.

Engagement

Greg and I are finally engaged, after having been a'courtin' for the past three years.  Yay!

Family celebrations ensued at the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, with many toasts and much story-telling and support from everyone.  I think the wedding will be a great, fun party with all these excited family members, plus good friends from home, summer camp, church and college.  We are very excited!

Even more exciting is the fact that we have a place booked.  Yes!  In the most difficult month to find an available venue, my parents succeeded in nabbing a catering place with a beautiful hall, great yard with many pine trees and a kind and detail-oriented catering lady.  We're stopping by her open house today to sample cakes.  This will probably be the most fun part of the wedding-preparation process.  Yum.

Besides that, we've got my parents' church reserved for the early afternoon on our special day, which I think will prove just perfect for the size crowd we'll have there.  Next up:  starting pre-marital counseling with our pastor, planning the ceremony with him and our Camp Hill pastor and a church wedding planner, picking out attire and flowers and making invitations and whatnot.  Oh boy!  I'm actually sort of excited to finish our Save-the-Date postcards, and later, make up our lovely printed invites; it's been a long time since I've dedicated myself to a design project of any sort.

What a  busy time!!  I'm glad we still have eight whole months to finish working on all this stuff.

And now, off to brunch and taste cakes!

springtime

It is spring in Pennsylvania and green and yellow bleed into my sight everywhere I look.  I drove the back roads betwixt farm & field yesterday on my way to Echo Hill country store and the fields of green were wrecked with dandelion debris.   The pollen floats on the breeze invisibly into every runny nose and itchy eye.  That, I have heard, is at the most ridiculously high levels we've seen in years.  Something like that.

At the present moment, I am searching for a[n additonal] job for the summer.  Parts of my heart long to work at a summer camp, reaching out to kids and spending every moment climbing mountains and searching streams, but I do also feel called to Kutztown and to continuing ministry [hopefully] to the great people I work with at the art stuff store.  They're a beautiful group of women whom I want to love on; I really do enjoy growing into deeper friendships with them and the conversations we have when there are few customers in the store.

Because of this, it seems a 'small' job in town would be the best way to go as far as a little increase in income goes.  I applied for an internship at an organic farm [with professional resume & kickass cover letter], and I'll ask for applications to the little cafes & ice cream shops & boutiques up & down Main Street.  Perhaps I'll market myself for an au pair job.  I'm really looking to work Thursday through Saturday to create a complete work week.  It's nice having more time to work on painting, but the skin on my hands craves clay, and acrylic or oil cannnot satisfy.

Or I'll bake and bake bread, fill a cart & go up & down the street trying to sell my delicious loaves.  Were that a well-paying job, I'd employ myself immediately.

Also, I'm currently accepting ideas for part-time jobs.  Anyone hiring??

ART & life

Ah, yes, working for Blick does have its benefits. Speaking with local artists, art students and art supporters is great for filling my brain with ideas and my heart with passion. And I do get some pretty sweet deals on the materials I use.  Working daily in a comfortable atmosphere with creative people is all sorts of fun.

Yesterday at work I had a conversation with this laid-back, friendly woman who works as a sculptor.  She's been doing bronze castings for years, but has recently had some problems with her hands [an artist's injury] and is moving into doing coil constructions with clay.  We talked about wood firings and pit firings and how a potter friend of hers will help her construct a kiln in her yard; the clays she could use for it.  I described some of the wood firings I did in school with Professor Chaney, in his massive anagama.  Whites, greens and reds in the naturally settled ash glaze pieces unexpectedly.  Delicate and dainty porcelain can become powerful and robust in the wood kiln.

She told me about her interest in paper clay, in which any paper is recycled and mixed into clay slip to create a light-weight, porous, low-fire sculpting clay.  Very interesting.  She gave me some sculptors to look up and explained her love of figure sculpting.  She spoke fantastically, with passion, and as a true artist - one unconcerned with the affairs of the world, who wants simply to create all the time.  She did mention the thought of hiring a studio assistant to do the heavy work for her [extruding coils, mixing clay & whatnot] so she could focus on the sculpting.

I asked if she had a website with photos of her work, she replied no.  I checked her out with the clay and tools she needed, seeing her name briefly across the screen as I scanned her discount card.  I wrote down my website address for her to check out my work, which I told her about a little bit.  The next customer approached as she rolled out her clay & waved a friendly farewell.

I spent maybe a quarter of an hour total that afternoon attempting to look up her name in the database, in order to follow up & keep in contact, if she were to need a studio assistant [me?] or someone to help out with the firings.  Oh, I do hope she emails me!