. . . continued the experiments

Here is another experimental woven canvas. In the top third, I have included a couple of strips of upholstery webbing that I found in my stash of stuff I knew would come in handy one day. I also wove about six rows of course twine through the canvas pieces, about halfway through the piece. Toward the bottom is a course of wooden skewers interwoven horizontally. I covered much of the piece with my plaster/gesso/glue formula and then it sat there for a while. Saturday morning, with what for me is wild abandon, I just took a brush and blue paint and painted the swirls. That looked a little too clean, so yesterday I dry brushed a brownish-black over parts of the texture and then added a bit of "rust" in places. I also put more of the plaster concoction over the high points of the blue swirl. I liked it, but it was a bit dull, so out came the tomato-red spray paint. Let's call it ready for prime time.


Sunday I went to the birthday party of a lovely 90-year-old friend. The party was huge, which is a testament to her wide circle of friends and family. My connections with Frances are more through my hometown than through family, although she is related to my husband in some dim, way in the past manner. Frances and her husband were friends of my mom and dad. Her youngest daughter was a friend of my brother John who died at age 16, and, as I was reminded yesterday, played the organ at his funeral mass. Janie, her middle daughter, was my high school heroine, older and way cooler than I could ever be. And Jeannette, her oldest daughter, was a role model later for me as a wildly successful business woman. The party included family members and friends from high school whom I had not seen in many years. There was a lot of "who is that?" and "I have no idea" and "oh, my goodness, of course that's who it is" and, to me, a ton of "Oh, you look just like your mother." And there were a couple of new generations to catch up with, children and grandchildren of people I still think of as kids. I suspect Frances was the oldest person in attendance, and Betsy was the youngest. It was a reminder to me of how important old friends and family are.


And at the party I was told that another fine lady, at age 71, died Saturday. Another role model for me, another person connected to me through my family, my husband's teaching career, and my hometown and my current home. Her husband was my husband's most respected mentor, and hired him to teach and coach at a new high school, the one that my children attended. She and I would sneak out and smoke cigarettes together at school functions where, as spouses of the principal and the coach, we were expected to be above reproach. For a time her son was the parish priest in my hometown and my sister-in-law was his secretary. My brother's family became quite good friends with Father Mick and by extension, his family. She was funny, irreverent and always interesting. I hadn't seen her in a few years, and I'm sorry about that. She will be greatly missed.