transmissions from the deep (or thinking a little of others for a moment).

photo by nancy o'mara

we are not in new mexico, where that picture up there was taken. it arrived in my email today from nancy who lives in santa fe. this is from a morning walk she took along route 66 on june 8th. perhaps others out there among you may want to imagine that you are there and then the way i want to. i am not in a bad place, mind you. aitor and i have arrived in providence where we were greeted with loving arms by my friend (and former roommate) marya errin jones. she also happens to have spent a good chunk of her adult life in new mexico. that is also where this long stretch of our journey began...just to tie things up in the neatest of bows. say, albuquerque and providence are rather far apart.

marya and i have a lot in common at this point in our lives; we are both recovering physical theatre performers turned crafters (who both still perform in spite of our ire and best intentions). so this gave way to much discussion about the multiple selves required by the industries of creative expression (as in "why would someone take me less seriously as a performer when they find out i crochet?") marya also keeps a crafty blog and channels a deceased druid monk. i guess i have yet to add 'psychic medium' to my list of skills, so therein some of our common ground ends. but really, i am busy enough as it is. i don't know how marya has the energy to do all she does and channel the dead. she crocheted all night while i made buttons and aitor drew. it was dreamy.

photo by tara bursey

i have also been meaning to mention tara bursey's portable library project, wherein she invites artists to create a week's worth of tiny, archival journals on-the-go. i am happy to say that not only will i be participating and making my own mini-library, but i will be doing so from the road (because why wouldn't i take on another project? and what could be more on-the-go?) i do believe that tara still has a few packages to distribute to willing artists and is still accepting expressions of interest. follow the links above if this sounds appealing. and don't be afraid if it seems daunting. tara is a very singular curator with a great mind for both the populist and the esoteric (and her own special place in between).

i would also like to remind all you friends and enemies out there about my open mail call. i didn't realize quite how much i would miss getting mail on my travels.

this rolling life.

if ohio passes by slow then pennsylvania passes by even slower. pennsylvania seems to be in the middle of everywhere one might want to go on this part of the map, too. i think they worked it that way so they can make toll coin off everyone possible. i am road weary and the sprawling vistas of the southwest are far behind us, so there is little to report. we did have the good fortune of being diverted off the freeway through wheeling, ohio, on our trip today. it's a small former mining town on the verge of the state line with pennsylvania with a pittsburghesque quality to its layout. i guess mining towns look like mining towns.

i thought i might use this opportunity to let you all in on some little secrets about our perpetual motion operation here. after being bought out of all my loose buttons in st. louis (thank you again), i have been wildly trying to make more buttons every night in our motel rooms along the way. i stay up making them until i pass out into a pile of button parts. aitor tucks me in and then stays up even later doing his work. in the morning we pry ourselves out of bed minutes before check-out (sometimes he needs to be lured with bad motel coffee and sometimes i need the covers pulls off of me and hidden). earl grey tea in hand (from tealish in toronto - i still have the dregs left from the stash i left with), i get behind the wheel and we start moving. after aitor gets his morning fix of caffeine and nicotine (and sometimes a wee nap), he steps up like a real prince and finish off my night-before's buttons. this is how many of the buttons you may own get their pins in them:





seriously, isn't he a gem?

in case you were wondering, he's working out of some pieces from a vinatge lazy susan that i got at a thrift shop in indianapolis. it will also be used in my display at craft shows. what can i say? studio space is at a premium in a 1987 pontiac 6000 station wagon.

corn fed travels and thinking of home.

we're in, like, ohio. i am sorry to say that in countless travels through this state, i have yet to be wowed by anything. please, please, show me how wrong i am. i should mention that i have yet to go to cincinnati. but we will in a few weeks.

anyway, since life is so bland and the roadside attractions so contrived (i'm not even going to dignify the roadside crap hole we fell into today with a mention), we took to photographing our arms.

driver:



passenger:



what have we learned? russian/british blood tans less easily than hispanic/basque blood and jewish ladies have hairy arms.

so let's move on to more illuminating subjects; city of craft 2008 applications are now live and online! all you have to do is send and email. no fee to apply! why not do it right now? it's easy. isn't that exciting? i'm excited.

and look at that amazing potser that shannon gerard made. isn't she amazing?

missouri loves company (or double-edged blessings in st. louis).

today we groggily got up and staggered out into the blistering muggy heat of the current midwest. at the generous suggestion of my mysterious friend shannah (she is mysterious because we have not yet met in real life), we travelled into a little university district on the edge of st. louis called the delmar loop.

really, it is hard to express how painfully hot today was. boris (the car) does not have air conditioning and today was the first day i actually felt sick from the heat.

shannah was right, though; the loop is a perfect neighbourhood for me to try to peddle my wares in. i had asked for suggestions after figuring out i had $70 left in my bank account - no matter how you slice it, that is not enough money with which to drive to rhode island. don't get me wrong; i like visiting stores and meeting independent business owners, but i am not so fond of doing so under duress. i am also not fond of having too little money to accomplish the actual things i have committed to. it stresses me out.

after hopping from store to store to loiter in various air conditionings (i am not usually such a fan), we stumbled upon a little shop called fifi's. it was closed with a sign on the door saying that the new ownership was working hard to reopen soon. behind the windows was busy work (you could tell because ladders were involved). then aitor spotted a 'we carry sublime stitching' sign in the window. it was like a hobo fencepost symbol for travelling neo-crafters. jenny hart, your logo is enough to make me knock for a business card. the shop looks great, by the way, and i wish dennis and emily the best in teir grand reopening. if you are in the area, you should check it out once they are running (very soon).

but our biggest surprise would come from a visit to rag-o-rama, a mostly clothing shop with other branches in indianapolis, columbus and atlanta. it's one of those places where you queue up at a buying table to see what old clothes they will buy. i usually don't deal with the bigger of these buy/sell operations (with notable exception from red light in seattle), but the staff there were really nice and supportive about my stuff so i waited the hour-and-change to have my turn with the buyers. the buyer, nate, poked through my stuff decided to take some of the loose buttons and then went to make a call to the owner for consultation.

"okay, we'll take them," he said when he got back.

"them? all of them?"

"yeah - it will take me a few minutes to count them all."

so there you go. gas money worries are behind me for a little while. but now i have a crud heap of buttons to make before we get to new bedford on saturday. a blessing with new obligations attached, but a much appreciated blessing nonetheless.

at least i left with enough money to hole up in terre haute, indiana, tonight to get some hunkering done.

oh, and as for shannah, we shall meet her for real in september when we come back through these parts for the strange folk festival. until then, she remains a benevolent ghost in the machine...with a great knack for the cosmic natures of mathematics.

good night, plains. rest well. and cool down!

ozrk vilge (or further travels down the road).

i wish i could photograph every amazing old falling apart sign i have seen on this trip, especially the ones along the more dilapidated stretches of old route 66. not only are they beautiful but i feel a sense of urgency in documenting them. sadly, time and the lack finances required to purchase more time make it impossible for me to add 15,000 stops to our trip. i get sad when i have to whizz past something amazing, though. this country is very big and very full of amazing.

the sign above is from some ozark-themed tourist crap shop in missouri somewhere. it was a few minutes after closing so they wouldn't take our money for cruddy postcards. the picture was free.

tonight we bed near st. louis.

thrift sore.

today, among other boring makings of things, we went to a bunch of thrift shops looking for frames that aitor can use for his illustrations. i also need a mirror so that people can see how awesome they look in my crocheted hats and neck warmers at fairs. we stumbled onto the massive print above and aitor got kind of kicky because we couldn't possibly take it with us. but look how amazing it is!

bag flags.

this is how i fold plastic bags to keep them organized on the road - we save the plastic bags we end up with and reuse them at craft fairs.

the idea for doing this folding came from a play i saw written by sonja mills. it was called flag and pile. i am not sure if this is the kind of bag folding mentioned in the play, but this is how i pictured it and it has been very handy while ambling. this should prove calming in case anyone reading this is contemplating the usefulness of live theatre or other art.

oh yes, we are currently hiding out in a cushy oklahoma city motel room, trying to get things done and staying away from the blistering heat outside.