This photo was inspired by my good friend Deborah Glessner, a librarian and photographer and a member of the Creative Group At Bedlam Farm, a thriving and gifted community of creatives who share their work every day in community and safety. Deb takes her camera out almost every day and looks for ways to take creative and surprising photographs, I do the same thing. I think we inspire one another. I am so grateful for knowing her.
Tonight, we laid out the final candidates for my portrait show at the Round House Cafe in September.
All but three made the final cut, it was exciting to see them all lined up for the first time. George Forss printed them up and he did a beautiful job. Maria found some nice but inexpensive frames and mats (she used to work in a frame shop, among her many other skills) and she and I will put them all together.
We both agreed on the final cuts, I’d love to put all of them up but there isn’t room. There will be a reception for the public and for the portrait subjects and their families from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, September 18th at the cafe, 1 Washington Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.
I think the show is uplifting and warm and at the same time, it captures my intention of photograph people I love and respect and who work very hard. That is the spirit of my town, I hope to capture the powerful sense of community that lives here, despite years of government neglect and vanishing employers.
Maria has been so supportive of this project, I have great ambivalence about photo shows for many reasons, but I think this one was very to do. I will keep up with my portrait. At the top right is a color photograph of Kelly Nolan, who inspired the idea of this show for me. I hope one day to do a Kelly Nolan photo show, I need to find a place.
I’m not sure who buys portraits in a portrait show, bu we are working hard to keep the price far below the norm for black and white photographs in shows. The frames and matting and printing will end up costing more than $1,000, sometimes I think people are crazy to have photo shows. But I do hope the show will put some light on the hard-working and good people who make up a community.
Gibby the Romney is scheduled to come to Bedlam Farm tommorrow, Monday morning. The truth is, Maria and I couldn’t really bear to leave her, she is a beautiful sheep with unusual markings. She’s a jumper, but Red and I will handle that. Giselle, her fellow ewe in need of rescue is coming also.
We couldn’t leave Giselle in her temporary home all alone. And all of this gorgeous new wool will make Maria and her many yarn customers very happy. We will have four new Romney ewes, they all are beautiful and grounded animals with amazing wool. They will have transformed our flock, given Red some good and hard work to do.
There were four ewes in need of homes, we took one, and then Treasure and Donna went to work. I have to be honest, it was me more than Maria who wanted to take in these sheep, their plight just got to me.
Their very loving owner was evicted from her farm and she is very pleased they are finding new homes.
And we do have room and a herding dog, blah-blah, you’ve all heard the rationalizing before.
And here’s the kicker. Biddy and Giselle may be pregnant, they’ve been living with Romney ram for two months. So it could be even more exciting, especially since the lambs would be born smack in the middle of winter. I love Biddy’s markings, very cool.
The infrared camera sees the drama and glory of the morning sky more clearly than I can see it with my human eyes. This morning, there was a gathering sky, and then the morning sun broke through and the camera captured this morning, and the peaceful beauty of. “Hush” is always the word that comes to me.
Our friend and Episcopal Minister Dahn Gandell has been posting photographs on her Facebook page of Maria’s potholders touching lives in Tanzania, she says they mean a great deal to the people she is giving them to (she took a bunch with her.) Rev. Gandell travels through the world helping women in need.
Dahn has also invited Maria to come to Calcutta (Kolkata now) to teach free former sex trafficking slaves to make potholders and other fiber arts.
As some of you know, Maria has been raising money for the trip. Her efforts have been successful. She has been getting donations through our Post Office Box – P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816 and has set $6,000 in contributions as a goal on her new indiegogo.com page, which has raised.
As of this morning, that page has raised $3,558. That money and the money raised on our blogs – and a matching grant of $1,000 and also through the P.O. Box totals more than $7,000 and makes it certain that Maria can go to Calcutta in February.
If people wish to continue making donations, they are welcome, and the money will be used to help the women Maria and their families that meets and teaches in India. My role in this – helping to raise the necessary funds – is now essentially over, other than to cheer Maria on, encourage her and support the trip in every way I can.
And to miss her when she goes. She will be writing about this trip regularly on her blog.
Any additional funds she receives will be put to good use, it is an expensive and complicated trip. She is determined to help these women in any way she can.
The potholder is larger than itself, I have known that for a few years now. When Maria was broke and frightened and struggling to make a life as an artist, she seized on the humble potholder as a way to make her art and possibly make a living. It was inexpensive and useful.
I remember the first winter we were together – 2008, I think it was – Maria made several hundred potholders in her signature way – from discarded fabrics.
They changed her life, they gave her the confidence to believe she could make affordable art that people would buy, that the could make a living at it, that she could follow her own true nature and stop feeling like a slave to the wishes and judgments of others. She also showed that the humble potholder could be turned into an art form, and still be useful in kitchens.
It is simply amazing to see women in Tanzania, and soon, India, grasping its meaning and potential. Maria is profoundly touched by the idea that she can import her own story, and the story of the potholders, to women who have exploited and diminished in so poignant a way.
If you wish to contribute to this journey, thanks, you can do so by going here. You can also support this passage in ways other than by offering money – by wishing her well, cheering her on, following her story. She now has enough money for airfare, hotel, food, visa and vaccinations, supplies, fabrics and expenses – and thank you, thank you, thank you. I am excited for her, and for once, beyond words.
A number of very beautiful spirits have written us saying they can’t contribute now but are wishing her well. From our perspective, that is surely a contribution.
