Processing overabundance

These first five images are all taken by the wonderful and talented Brenda Paik Sunoo, a photographer and writer and artist and traveler and all-around good, thoughtful person. She and I connected through the internet's ethers via hanji. Surprise, surprise. She documented my workshop at Mills last week and I picked the ones that make me look the best. Surprise, surprise. Here is my beating demo with the wonderful dowels cut by the maintenance department.

Formation aid! It set up beautifully. So now I know it must be just me and Cleveland water that doesn't get along.

Adding formation aid to the vat. I love that transformation.

One of my excuses for getting the expensive beverage for lunch the day prior was to re-use the glass bottle to test beaten fibers.

It's hard to see the pinpricks of light in such strong sunlight, and then all I wanted to do was keep this piece of damp hanji around my neck to stay cool.

This is from today, in Seattle, at the Wing Luke Museum (before the kids arrived for my workshop, when everything was nice and neat. I wish I had a snapshot from the end, when the entire place was turned upside down). I have been in Washington since Wednesday and it goes from sun to rain to sun to rain. I had a nice turnout for my UW lecture at the East Asia Library, before which I got a haircut with a stranger on impulse (usually I go to Korean hairdressers. This is my first non-Korean haircut since 2005 or so). My decision was based on seeing the above pictures of my bird's nest hair and my deep weariness, which made the idea of someone shampooing my hair + being allowed to close my eyes while sitting seem quite attractive. Patsy picked me up in Seattle and drove me to Federal Way, where we had the best Korean food I've had since Korea (aside from my mother's, of course). It was super fresh, beautiful, and well-seasoned. The chef picks things like dandelion greens from her own garden, and had just made another dish with herbs she had picked in the mountains a day or two before we ate them. After shoveling as much as I could into my mouth, we headed to her gorgeous home, where I treated myself to a bath and gratefully crawled into a soft, warm bed.

How awesome is this pin that Vivian, the community programs manager at Wing Luke, made for these events?? When she first offered me an apron, I felt I didn't need it. But once I saw the button, I put it on right away. I was so impressed by the place. It's not only beautiful and full of provoking and valuable exhibits, but the staff was amazing. Super friendly and super professional all at once. This is a rare combo. I felt like I was family and that I was being taken care of very well. I had just enough time to have a bit of tea and food before the families rushed in. I was worried about not having enough hanji, and the situation looked dire after the first 30 to 45 minutes, but then the initial rush of mom bloggers and kids coming from a prior event petered out and the rest of the time was much more manageable. As I imagined, everyone loved the joomchi activity. I loved seeing how quickly kids who walked in figured out that there were a few basic steps, which involved throwing around wads of wet paper and banging on it.

Between my Seattle days was my Tacoma day: a talk/reading for APCC and a workshop in the afternoon. My students are fascinating and exhibited one of the bigger age ranges than I usually get (I have a teenager! And she is really good with her hands). Today after the museum gig (and a visit to Daniel Smith in the morning), Patsy took me to Uwajimaya to shop, browse, and enjoy cream puffs. See if you can locate the washi in this picture. Then we went to the 90th birthday celebration of a beloved member of the Korean community in Washington. I met Korean American politicians (state senator, state representative)! I've never done that before. Meanwhile, I have not slept enough nor rested enough but really can't complain: if someone 35 years my senior can be at my side and drive me around and host me and take excellent care of me, then I can do my job and be grateful for it.

Oh, and! My poet friend Joe started his book tour for his new book, too. And, submit to be part of a new magazine! It's past time for bed, so I can finish up my workshop on Sunday and then enjoy the treat to follow.

California, check. Heading north!

Blessed in the morning by the turkey at Mills. I did mad amounts of prep for this workshop, so I was glad to see the resident turkey twice in three days.

I was very concerned that this was too sunny for students and I was right. We eventually moved the beating stations but left the papermaking stations in the sun. Though it exhausted the students, it was a good way to keep people moving and taking turns. I am grateful for the vitamin D, because I just flew today to Seattle, which is cloudy and rainy (which is also fine, and normal—I'm not complaining!).

Faith, grad student / TA / super fun artist who also knits paper, beats in the old-fashioned manner I presented as grandma style. We requested that maintenance cut three sets of dowels for us and they worked like a charm. I am a total convert. Light but effective, and you can adjust how heavy they are by where you grip them.

Brenda (a photojournalist who does lots of wonderful work in Korea and beyond, based in SoCal) took a break from photographing to beat fiber with these funny things that Lara found at the hardware store. What are they? I have no idea, but they work for cooking fiber as well as beating it.

Papermaking! Of course there were technical issues, because I had sent all my instructions via email and didn't personally supervise the construction of tools, but it all worked out fine in the end.

Drying paper on pellons. It's terribly convenient to have trees adjacent.

In the parking lot before my final dinner in Oakland, right on the lake, with the family of the family that was hosting me. All of my hosts thus far have been ultra wonderful and generous, opening doors of their homes and sharing the family fun and warmth. Gratitude all around.

Goodbye, Oakland. Fascinating that the airport exhibit called "paper work" included no papermakers or artists who make their own paper. But today, just an hour or two after landing in Seattle, I got to meet someone who is a true paper junkie. She doesn't make it but she understands it more intimately than maybe even some papermakers (it's a ridiculous claim but if you could see...you'd agree). Claudia is a binder extraordinaire, one of those people who does so much and knows so much and makes insanely wonderful work. What an inspiration! For more inspiration, I did an interview with Velma that is now live on Bookbinding Now! Listen and be soothed by Velma's voice and work and process and philosophy.

Tomorrow, March 14, I give a talk/demo at UW Seattle at 3:30pm at the East Asia Library (in Gowen Hall).

Friday, March 15, I'll be in Tacoma to do a reading and then start a workshop for the APCC.

Saturday, March 16, a 1 to 3pm Family Fun Day event involving joomchi at the Wing Luke Museum.

Sunday, March 17, back in Tacoma for the rest of the APCC workshop.

This is why I can barely blog, but I keep trying (and haven't even switched my time zone to the west coast yet!).

Familiar faces of fiber

Back at Mills, but this time to teach papermaking: scrap wood to weigh kozo while soaking, cooked fiber and cooking liquor, vat. Class is tomorrow but today is all about prep.

The hot plate works! I'm always skeptical when I can't see fire, but we're on batch two. The curved wooden piece is great to stir with though we don't know what its original purpose was. My talk yesterday at the Mills library had a wonderful turnout, a lovely spread of goodies, and lots and lots of interesting and interested people asking lots of questions. I sold out of books, so I'll be traveling that much lighter when I fly to Seattle on Wednesday. Alisa Golden did a wonderful write-up of my lecture, complete with images of some of my props. This is what I love about the Bay Area book arts community—enthusiasm and generous support of each other.

Final chill

The days off go so quickly! Today was all San Francisco. Key drop off, brunch, dessert and tea, walking around for errands, sitting to watch fish.

Gorgeous day, both chilly and hot all at once. Good to see an old friend, and to take a slow but fun morning with my lovely hosts.

Ice cream makes it all sweeter. Big two-family dinner and now, packing for tomorrow: Oakland. I speak at Mills College, their library, at 2pm on Sunday. Turning my watch forward now!

Ocean as magnet

Yesterday was overcast and a bit rainy but I had to see the water (besides, the reward is too delicious and so close).

Today was much sunnier, but also much windier. But I am a bit more opened up after a yoga class yesterday with Naomi. I sat there trying to remember when I was last in a yoga class and I fear it may have been the last time I was in California, two years ago (almost exactly)!

You can't see any of it here but everything is sparkling because the wind is blowing sand constantly. I was happy to be on sand after walking over three miles on concrete to run errands (shipping art for a show in Hungary, the bank, watching the neighborhood shift, remembering when I lived here briefly, almost 15 years ago).

Not mine, but glad someone went barefoot. I'm working hard at relaxing, which probably means I'm failing. But I am definitely enjoying the sliver of time off before I get back to work this weekend.

At the water's edge

Note to self: it helps when I can install artwork for people instead of giving them all sorts of instructions from a distance, thinking that it will make sense to anyone but me. I was very happy to have been able to hang this (so subtle; it has changed a LOT in the almost 4 years since it was born) to everyone's satisfaction, safely!

My last morning in Davis looked sunny, though the forecast was rain. I left my umbrella behind while strolling and got caught in the rain. So I ran down to hang out with huge, active ducks by the water because of the tree canopy. When it came down harder, I stood directly under a trunklike branch to stay dry. This little one kept me company.

I snapped this before making a payment for some hanji that is enroute to Seattle for my event at the Wing Luke Museum, though it may also be put into play for my talk/demo at UW Seattle. My talks at both Davis and Berkeley were wonderful: generous, diverse crowds with lots of enthusiasm. The traveling exhibit goes over well, though it's packed in with my clothes for a month, gifts for hosts, and supplies for workshops, so it's tricky to be discreet in my entrances and exits as I pack and unpack hanji and underwear simultaneously.

I wasn't able to walk a lot of the arboretum in Davis but this was a root sample. I have scheduled my first two weeks on the road so that I am only in one place for up to three nights. It's easy to feel rootless but my friends have been such kind and generous hosts that I'm okay, and love the quiet time I get in their homes that feel to me like refuge. Mostly, I am so grateful that every single day of my tour (at least for the California leg) involves daily hugs. Now, a walk to the Pacific!

Landed

In California! Tomorrow, Tuesday (March 5): I'll be speaking at UC Davis in Everson 157 at 4pm. Lots of hanji, art, objects, photos, videos. I am being taken care of very well by a good friend and Tam even came to visit from Reno! She came bearing wondrous gifts and also practical things that I had forgotten in NY and we ate cupcakes and walked around and lots of catching up. I have not slept enough and remember why travel is exhausting but wonderful. I saw palm trees today. Have to remind myself: in Cali, not east, and not where these good folks last night were going at gate B6 of O'Hare.

Buttery

Today is my last full day before I fly to California to start my west coast book tour. Yesterday I had my final fling with NYC, which included schlepping books to AsiaStore (yay! A NYC retail location for my books!), being a nice citizen by telling someone in front of me that his backpack was zipped open, promptly getting on the wrong subway, somehow making it to lunch on time but slashing my finger at the entrance, accidentally taking a huge hunk of butter thinking it was cheese and then eating ALL OF IT in hopes that by eating the evidence, no one would notice that I had made that mistake, hanging out with a dear friend, having dinner with family, and then trying to sleep with the knowledge that the equivalent of my yearly butter intake was in my system all at once.

Let's hope I make it onto the plane without further mishap.

One final note, more serious: I was very sad to hear that the mother of two of my dear friends and colleagues in Cleveland passed away last weekend. She was the benefactor who made the Morgan's hanji studio possible and I am sorry that I was never able to meet her in person. Thank you and rest in peace!

Also,

this. Thank you to the thoughtful and dedicated women behind the Dead Feminists.

Last islands of melt

Not my finest moment in pdf to jpg conversion, but it's the one flyer that has the exact site of my talk in Berkeley next Wed. If you can't see it, it says the talk is on March 6 at 4pm in the IEAS Conference Room at 2223 Fulton Street on the 6th floor at UC Berkeley. I'm past one hump of packing, organizing, and shipping (17 pieces went west today). There's still a lot more to do, but I took a break only to find that my book at Codex was included in an artist's review. Thank you, Cari! It has already been purchased, which is kind of sad because I liked holding it and pretending it was a pillow.

I keep seeing the same girl outside the window jumping on top of one last low patch of snow. She loves getting up there and stomping on it. The rest of the ground around her is asphalt and halfway-green grass. I wish she (and all of us) could get some real snow, some real winter, but I'll have to be content with the dirty patch out there for this year.

Welcome messes

Yesterday was wonderful because I had finally slept a decent amount AND I cooked up onion skins for some "please let me stay sane" activity to simmer alongside the computer work.

Hanji necklaces, part of the whole host of gifts I am taking with me for my many generous and kind hosts. I am staying in about seven different beds / sofas / floors during the course of my six-city tour (though San Francisco is a seventh: no events, just seeing lots of friends and pretending to relax).

Before ironing, in too bright of a light to see anything interesting, but a satisfying new teaching sample. I started to build my boxes for my solo show* coming in Portland but I got tired and am examining the results of today's dye pot (very different, because it was onion until I threw in an old sheet of cochineal-dyed hanji so the whole thing got thrown in another direction). There is a lot brewing, for the coming fall and summer 2014, but for now I have to stay grounded and finish these boxes!

*The show is called On Foot. It makes me laugh and then it makes me sad I haven't finished weaving a paper shoe that I started last year.

Closing up shop

Yesterday was my last day of printmaking. I was too spent to be overly sad about it, but it seems clear with the lengthening days that the next season is coming, and fast. No more burrowing into the dark spaces of the winter. In fact, I fly to California in days for my book tour, which I think of as an extended performance. These bits above are woven paper, one unprinted (right) and one sent through the etching press, paper litho.

It's hard to see here, but some of this is chine collé and some is me wanting to print onto woven hanji (the green and the diagonal pink) but still wanting to catch the rest of the letters. Still drying under weights, so their fate, who knows!

This is hard to read, but there is a collagraph/monoprint and a second print over that with paper litho, and the weaving is chine collé on thin hanji.

Fumiko prepped this one for me on a day when I was really frustrated. The circles are blocked out by the foil of chocolate coins that a classmate brought for lunar new year a few weeks back. This was printed onto handmade paper that was already folded and cut for a book...

...that had been blank but is now a print sampler! The circles on the left are from packing bubbles, inked for other monotypes but then pressed onto paper later (no press, just hand pressure). The binding straps are more paper litho, copies of old cigar box labels from Steve.

The first hanji weekend of 2013

This is my favorite from Terttu's photos of my talk on Friday night. So many friends and new acquaintances and paper people all in one frame.

Crocheting hanji by Cecile, one of my calm and quiet like an expansive ocean students. She teaches art in public NYC schools, so that is no surprise.

Jeni is thigh spinning some hanji and later insisted on tacking a paper bead. BIG credit to her for taking the plunge!

Ronni's woven hanji cover in progress. She came to class less than 12 hours after returning from Puerto Rico. Amazing, considering how tired I am after a good vacation.

Melissa also thigh spinning. She is a furniture restorer and we had a good talk about lacquer.

Amanda's vessel pre-finish. She said it felt like weaving a spider in the process.

Then she bound it off and trimmed it all! Sweet. I learned sooooo much in this workshop, which reminded me of why I love teaching. I was also reminded of how much fuel I need, when I kept eating and eating and eating afterwards. This was a fantastic kick off of my book tour!