Day: June 4, 2014

How can you help but love a woman…

who wears her wedding dress,

out to the pasture, to shovel hay and manure?

Is she the morning mist, a fallen cloud,

an image sent by the cherubs to quiet my heart?

Where can you find a farmer’s wife,

who wears $200 French imported green boots,

she bought for $8 at a consignment shop, to do her chores?

Did I conjure her up?

Search for her on match.com?

Sail to the far corners of the earth to find  her?

How can you help but love an artist,

who practices her art every minute of every day?

In love and work, clothes and laundry,

in the kitchen and living room,

in the car and in the kitchen. in her imagination,

in her dreams.

Where do you find such a woman,

to love, did you find her in a little blue bottle,

ask the genie to grant  your wish?,

ask your fairy to wave her wand and

spin her out of yarn?

And how can you help but love such a woman,

who saved a lonely and broken man,

and pulled him back from the abyss.

How can you not

give thanks every morning that she is there,

and real to the touch, not a vision,

but flesh and blood.

Sssssssh, come closer, good friend,

and I will tell you a secret. Rejoice with me.

You can only find such a woman in a barn,

at the edge of the earth,

in the mystical space between light and dark,

in a place where angels hitch rides up to heaven,

and the cows take their secrets to the grave.

It’s Red’s turn now. Lambing is rough on a border collie, his or her world is upended. Docile ewes become ferocious head-butters and protectors of their lambs, small sheep suddenly appear who can’t be herded, whose mothers won’t move. Red has been butted, kicked, run over, now he is reestablishing the natural order of things. The lambs can now move fast enough to keep up with the herd, and the group of sheep is beginning to act like a flock again, Red is a gentlemen, he is persistent, strong and uses no more force than necessary.

Today, he began collecting this rebellious and motley and new crew into the pole barn and keeping them there.

Maria came back from Gee’s Bend a month ago, and her work has changed, she is trying all kinds of new things on different materials in different forms. Today she produced one of her first pieces of linen art, she calls it “Achieving Myself” and you can see it more clearly on her website when she puts it up for sale this afternoon (yes, I have scooped her again) if she decides to sell it. It was partially inspired by the Mary Ann Pettway of the Gee’s Bend quilters who talked with Maria about opening up to different forms – this is an old piece of linen from the 1940’s or 1950’s. Also by an interview she heard with some civil rights leaders who were trained in patience and non-violence during the civil rights movement, they talked to their followers about “achieving ourselves,” a powerful term.

True creativity is a never-ending evolution, we do it one way today, another tomorrow, we use one kind of fabric, then we re-think what fabric is and means. Photography is like that also, we pass by something 1,000 times, and suddenly it is a photograph of meaning.

You can see her work here. Achieve yourself.

In the morning, the light dances around the farmhouse and the pasture, surprising me, tempting me, lifting me up. It finds me, or I find it.

The first Bedlam Farm Open House of 2014 is coming up, June 21-22 (details on Maria’s website events page), I haven’t written much about it, but we are excited about it. The first Open House was held at the first Bedlam Farm, the Pig Barn was turned into an art gallery and we had more than 2,000 people in two days, it was wonderful and sobering.

Our new farm is smaller stage, but a nice one. The Open House is an art show where Maria and other artists will show and sell their work – paintings, my photographs, quilts, notecards, potholders. Maria has been working on the Open House for months, she has some wonderful stuff ready. It is also a chance for the readers of my books and our blogs to come and see the farm and share our bounty – Simon, Lulu and Fanny, Red and Lenore (Frieda will be growling from inside, she’ll get to come out a few times), the lambs and the sheep.

I’ll do some sheepherding demos with Red, we will organize donkey-greeting and cuddling tours (bring carrots).  You will get some face time with Red and Lenore and check out the new lambs. There will be a sizeable contingent from the Open Group At Bedlam Farm, a creativity-sharing and encouragement group that has become a powerful and successful Internet community. The creative output on the Open Group is wonderful, there are now about 800 people sharing their work there.

Some members of the Open Group  At Bedlam Farm will be sharing their work at the open house – Deborah Glessner will be showing and selling her photography, Jeff Anderson will be sharing his writing about his experiences raising his son Jay. I will also be talking about my work – the new Simon book and the “Talking To Animals” project and also, the story of the Open Group, a lifelong dream for me.

The poet Mary Kellogg will be here reading from some of her poems, and George Forss, the famed photographer will be at the Open House available to take portraits of people who with to have them. I’m not sure what he is charging, but knowing George, it will be a bargain, an incredible opportunity for people to have their portraits done by one of the world’s most acclaimed photographers.

The farmhouse will be closed but Maria’s studio will be open and Simon loves to cuddle with admirers. We cannot offer refreshments or restrooms, but those are nearby, we encourage people to try check the Round House Cafe, the Battenkill Bookstore, Jack’s Outback store and the other wonderful things in my town. You can see a partial list on Maria’s site. Sorry, but we cannot accommodate dogs, they will make Frieda and the donkeys crazy.

If you can’t make this one, we are holding a second Open House on Columbus Day weekend. Hope to see you.