Maryhill Arts Festival
August 27, 2010
The Oregon Glass Guild was featured at Maryhill Arts Festival because the museum’s focus is glass this year. My friend Charlene is the current president of OGG and combined with the fact that Maryhill has been very good to me I went along for the fun of it, even though I don’t usually take part in outdoor shows anymore. My first outdoor show was the Rose Bowl in Pasadena where I sold my tie-dyed macrame’ every weekend when I was sixteen years old.
Setting up tents; sharing space with Leila; 'Glass Row' at Maryhill Arts Festival
We OGG artists had a bank of tents in line with one another. Most of us arrived to set up on Friday, even though essentially we set up every day. And broke down every night. Peacock Protection, we called it! Yes, the inquisitive peacocks can get into zipped up tents!
Saturday morning arrived cloudy with a bit of sun beaming on Mt. Hood. Good portend or not? Turned out to be very hot! Breezy in the afternoon!
Steider Studios at Maryhill Arts Festival
What to bring & what to leave home…these are the questions that haunt me when there’s little space. As usual, I fit as much as I possibly could on my tables. I like giving you a choice after all!
The road to Maryhill.
If you made the drive to Maryhill Museum along Hwy 14 in the morning, you would have seen bright skies with puffy clouds scattered about. It’s an arid landscape contrasting with the adjacent river.
Sun sparkling on the Columbia River.
Large vistas of distant mountains and the Columbia River separating Oregon and Washington.
Maryhill Museum perched above the Columbia.
Arriving at Sam Hill‘s castle, Maryhill Museum is a surprising oasis amidst the dusty brown landscape.
Artists ready for the festival to awaken.
Sunday morning dawned a bit breezier than Saturday so a couple of us bungied together and hung on.
We love a crowd!
Not as many shoppers on Sunday, but we always have a good time together.
Thanks Andy, for purchasing the Peacock Coasters!
Andy, Maryhill’s caretaker purchases coasters with gold line drawings of a Peacock made especially for this venue. Thanks for the photo, Colleen!
Peacock coaster on Turquoise, 4" x 4".
Andy chose a green set; pictured above is turquoise with an iridescent cap for sparkle.
Baby peacocks
As usual, I cannot post about Maryhill Museum without including peacocks! This time, I found some babies! Aren’t they sweet?!!
North to Alaska! A Working Vacation…
August 12, 2010
Welcome to Palmer Alaska
Half Moon Creek is an amazing glass gallery, Bullseye Resource Center and studio. The owner/partners treated me like a queen and lined up a full class of incredible students. Four days together without a hitch or a glitch. I adored each student and the tiles they produced were nothing short of inspirational. I can’t stop thinking about my experience, it was one of those adventures that I’ll remember the rest of my life. The land and the people.
After landing in Anchorage, we headed south along the shore.
I’ll try not to overload you with over 1000 photos that I took, but only a few to tantalize. I arrived a day early and took a quick trip south of Anchorage to find glaciers, whales, bear, moose, eagles, and everything wild that I’d read about Alaska.
broken off glacier
I found a glacier just before going into the tunnel leading to Whittier. Or a piece of one, broken off, I later learned.
Elk at Wildlife Refuge, south of Anchorage, Alaska
I found elk, bison, caribou, and moose at the wildlife refuge but never saw one in the wild. Didn’t see any bears either. I was really looking forward to seeing a bear.
I took hundreds of photos, but don’t want to spend my time processing & editing!
It rained and clouds settled in during my entire week there, with rare exceptions. I didn’t care, I was THERE. In Alaska! I planned to experience every moment, in the moment from my class to the daily treks after class. The sun only sets for a couple of hours in August, so I had all day to teach and all night to explore.
Morning of Museums around Palmer & Wasilla
We played tourist to the hilt, going to all the museums in Palmer & Wasilla before class began and generally exploring the area.
Summit Lake in Clouds
Hatcher Pass was so cloudy and rainy we couldn’t see Summit Lake just beyond the wildflowers! Can you see it? We didn’t see Independence Mine either!
Little Susitna River
Which river photo to show from our drive back to town…..how about this one!
Knik Glacier from our B & B
View of Knik Glacier from our B & B….
Knik Glacier with telephoto
And zoomed in. A spectacular view every day in spite of clouds or rain.
First day of class
Day one in class saw a full slate of students working diligently, modeling glass paste and getting to know one another. Chris and Christian had the studio well stocked and our every wish was their command! Not to mention the catered lunch with truffles for dessert!
Using Steider Studios Glass Medium as a binder for small components
We had one kiln filled with beads, buttons & cabs; and another kiln filled with small sculptures.
Susitna River
Day two, I forgot to pick up my camera in class, we were so busy producing samples and discussing possibilities. That evening, still playing the role of tourist by night, we drove out to Talkeetna, the staging camp for Denali, hoping to see Mt. McKinley. No sun, no mountain view. But the clouds made for a dramatic view of the river!
Will the sun shine today?
Day three of class … yep, more clouds with a wink of the sun.
Samples from Day 1 Powderology
These are samples from day one of Powderology, our second day together. Two more kilns full of tests yet to view and discuss!
Viewing samples, comparing notes.
Excited students dove into their samples with gusto, curiosity, and risk-taking attitudes. I think I surprised them with how much could be done with powdered glass! I caught a couple of them talking about exhaustion!!
Matanuska Glacier
That evening we drove out to Matanuska Glacier.
I am so inspired by the colors I can’t wait to start my ‘Glacier Series’!
Still light at the B & B, I grabbed a few shots of surrounding color.
Last day of extended Powderology course
How many different ways can you visually say the same thing? Using wafers; full vs tack fuse; kiln-carved; and so much more.
Working with glass powders
Last day of class everyone worked long and hard to finish all the experiments they wanted to tackle. We filled three kilns plus a load of wafers earlier in the day.
At the end of the day…
Ten very happy students and one extremely happy instructor that last afternoon! Who looks more spent, me or students?!!
Reindeer Farm
After class we headed out to the Reindeer Farm. Had high hopes of seeing Santa, but alas he was vacationing in a warm sunny part of the globe, we were told! Do you know how expensive it is to ship an antler home? A gift for my garden! OMG!
Our last morning the sun came out!
We woke to sunny skies on our last day. Yes, this is what the sun looked like. Did I say the landscape is incredible? Awe-inspiring? Beyond spectacular? The memory takes my breath away.
Our view coming into Palmer Alaska
Our last drive into Palmer was gifted with a sun-filled sky….joy still welling in my heart to see this photo of it!
Collage of projects
Back at Half Moon Creek unloading kilns, giving a final critique to everyone who could be there & packing up my tools & samples. Wish I had been more diligent with photography in class to show you how much our students accomplished!
Hatcher Pass
Then we headed back to Hatcher Pass to see what we missed due to cloud cover the first part of the week. I could show you a hundred more pictures, but will try to refrain!
One last view of the first glacier segment
And a speed trip back to Whittier, where it was still cloudy, and raining; accompanied with the eerie news of Senator Steven’s plane crash.
It was the trip of a lifetime and I can’t wait to go back. For the incredible people, the enormous landscapes, and next time I really, really hope to see wildlife in the wild. Oh, and Denali. And Valdez. And Seward. And Homer. And bears! Next summer I’ll bring Powderology Plus back to Half Moon Creek! Alaska is awesome, I can’t wait!! Thank you Christian and Chris for the invitation, you were wonderful to work with!
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