Bad news for my husband - How do I tell him?

Me: "Darling, I feel I need to tell you, I can't go on like this.  Whilst you have been working such long hours, I got lonely... I needed to get out of the house and do something and ....I have fallen in love with... Indigo."
John: "What?  No!  It can't be true....How long has this been going on?  Who is he?  ... and did I miss you going to Mexico?

As my time at the ACAD, Contextural, Self Directed Summer Residency 2013 draws to a close I feel I ought to review what I did and didn't achieve from ttheh nerve centre of my studio space:-

• Met and worked alongside very interesting and inspiring established and aspiring artists.
• Nice to meet you, Anna. Nice to rekindle a friendship, Carmela.  I hope to be able to stay in touch with many... Barbara, Susan, Eleanor, Madison, Anna Maria....
• From the size of the list, above, it is clear that this year's June day-time participants were more numerous than in previous years. And several, like me, were in regularly during the day for a few or many hours.  We were an active bunch.
• As I said in my previous post, I worked in the dye rooms, the print room and the home studio.
• I learnt that I can establish and manage an indigo vat (synthetic indigo, soda and thiox).  Dying cotton, silk, wool, stone, chalk...
• I learnt that when a vat looks dead it isn't!
• I now have many projects on the go and hope I don't lose the momentum but actually manage to take some to fruition - particularly as I want to take part in the end of residency exhibition at ACAD.
• I think I have my work cut out for me for the next year  and that is before I consider the collaborative project I have on the go (puppets), the commissions (shibori - more on that in a future post), teaching - serious demands of students for more felting..., machine embroidery in Calgary, High River and maybe A.N. Other place, and possible mark making workshop in a Calgary school.

Now I have to shut up shop at ACAD as our friends are currently packing up to visit Alberta next week and I turn into a hostess.  Just how I am going to transport the indigo vat home is a mystery yet to be solved, just as this blue maggot is a mystery - what will it turn into?

Thanks to ACAD for allowing this collaboration and thanks to Contextural for arranging.

I particularly enjoyed today - getting Anna Torma together with Arlee Barr was such educational fun.

 Not exactly a stunning piece, but is an example of me!  Experimental - coffee filter paper, stitched shibori and indigo.