"Fume box"

That's what Eleanor called the Morgan today. Which was entirely accurate, given the closed space, polyurethane, and turpentine. The last, AWFUL! I don't know how oil painters deal w/that. We put her on "save the ink" detail today, which will be great, b/c then people can see, identify, and use the printing inks, instead of trying to pry open old rusty cans full of ink trapped in thick layers of dried-up wrinkles. I taught her and Jim a new structure today: single-sheet, double-needle coptic. Next week we'll brave adhesives and start cased bindings. Susan also gave me a crocheting crash intro b/c I forgot how to do it since learning a couple years ago at Haystack. She also brought in samples of her work, one of which I sent immediately to Ben in Afghanistan. Then Jim and I finished the topcoat and stumbled back to the office to de-fume. He cut down 270 steel rods to sew into a test screen. I felt so full of toxins that I was compelled to make us both toast with melted cheese.

Today I also met: 1. Yuko Kimura, whose show I hope to see while I am here, since she made much of the paper at the Morgan, 2. A grad student from my old program in Chicago, and 3. a friend of Janice, who was the interim director at my residency last summer at Weir Farm Arts Center, and Janice's friend's sister and brother-in-law: the three came expressly to visit me, so I gave a tour of the Morgan, the hanji vat and screen/mould, and my suitcase full of hanji goodies.

This morning, I was alone at work and in a funky mood, so I strapped on my boots, donned an apron, and made some big, messy sheets out of a stinky vat (I added OxiClean to reduce the worst of the smell). I'm coming out of an unwise series of decisions that I made about sharing my work, research, and personal life with someone who has taken it for less-than-noble uses. I'm divorced from the whole encounter but occasionally there are kickbacks. Making paper helps a lot in moving through the negativity. And so does being here, which is exactly where I need to be right now. I haven't felt that way since I was in Korea on my Fulbright. Yesterday, after dinner with two board members where we talked about Korea b/c one has visited several times and the other will visit for the first time this fall, I mentioned to one of them how amazing it was that at least six people from my past have all converged here, from all different walks of my life. Marjorie said, "you're supposed to be here." I am.