After Maine

New York was on the schedule after Haystack, and it has been very full as well. I have been able to see more friends than usual because I extended my trip, but was sure to make a visit to Pace Paper in Gowanus.

The interns were pulling sheets and by the time Akemi had shown me a bunch of artwork, they were ready to load their ginormous Lee McDonald press. This thing is insanely powerful. Afterwards, we had dinner with Amy and Tatiana after they finished up their work day at Dieu Donné. It's so rare to be able to get so many paper ladies together, so it was a great treat.

I was able to meet with people who hadn't yet gone on their summer vacations at museums and parks, and saw out of towners whose visits coincided with mine. Of course I visited NY Central for the last time before it disappears, and saw my old boss and mentor for an extended afternoon after scoping out a new classroom space in Brooklyn where I may site a pop-up workshop.

A big highlight was seeing my dear friend Elizabeth who was here from Mexico, and she introduced me to Laura, whose work I have always admired (and we share a photographer!). These are older pieces she made out of handmade paper. She was an old friend of Dieu Donné from the very early days and it turned out that she had seen a bunch of my work at our photographer's studio just that week.

I won't even bother trying to show you the magnificent work in her studio because someone has already done a gorgeous photo shoot. But this is tapa cloth from Papua New Guinea, and underneath is lace bark from Chiapas.

Elizabeth is working and Laura is documenting. This has been a strange work/family/catch up trip with very little down time, and I'm finally ready to do the drive all over again next week and be in one place for a month before the next trip.

In the meantime, Velma has an excellent request for help, on shifu and healing, that I want people to participate in if possible!