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Earth Day 2022

Earth Day exhortation - recycled art

At High on Hooking we try to remember the Earth every day, not just on Earth Day. It’s not difficult, really. Since we moved to New Mexico almost seven years ago (my mind is blown every time I think of that!), the summer temperatures and number of days above 100 degrees F have steadily increased. Hell, when we made our plans to relocate to the high desert from Massachusetts, average summer temperatures here were less than 95! And while we were aware of the drought, no one thought that it would go on this long. Now it’s considered a megadrought, the worst in 1200 years! On my walks in the Bosque, I’ve witnessed the Rio Grande dribble itself into a Rio “Pequeño.” If I didn’t worry about the mud and the potentially toxic crap in the mud, I might venture to walk across it.

Between smog and wild weather and drought and fires, I understand why young folks have anxiety about their future. My own kid is pretty cynical and depressed about it all. Yesterday’s headline in the Boston Globe certainly didn’t help my own mood: As Earth’s temperature rises, Massachusetts residents’ sense of urgency on climate change declines.” We’re all tired of the doom and gloom, but I think the most terrible thing is that we seem to have lost hope. The past couple of months have demonstrated Americans’ inability to give up our gas-guzzling ways. A couple of weeks ago, city councilors in Albuquerque rolled back a single use plastic bag ban that had barely been in play since the mayor had put it on hold during much of the pandemic. They couldn’t even wait till June for the study to determine if it was effective was completed. Now, in addition to dirty, used masks, I’ve started seeing plastic bags again on roadsides and caught up in trees. Shit, if we can’t even get the mostly surface level stuff right, if we’re so short-sighted about garbage in our streets, how can we ever be serious about righting our sinking Earth, our only home?

Clearly, the adults of the world don’t care much about what we’re leaving for our kids. Just look at how so many treat Greta Thurnberg of Sweden.

Others diminish Greta Thunberg’s work because of her age. Ever since Greta first made headlines a few years ago and she delivered her now-famous “How dare you” speech, her age has been leveraged against her words. As Thunberg points out in her speech, her detractors are right in a sense. Thunberg shouldn’t have to stand before world leaders, telling them the obvious, which is that we’re being led directly into the jaws of the greatest threat to humanity we have ever known. Climate change.

It’s shameful that Thunberg has to do what she does, but the adults of the world are failing to ensure a future for the next generation. So it’s up to people like Thunberg to try to do something to save the world that the youth will inherit.

https://www.yourtango.com/news/why-do-people-hate-greta-thunberg

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Part of the reason she inspires such rage, of course, is blindingly obvious. Climate change is terrifying. The Amazon is burning. So too is the Savannah. Parts of the Arctic are on fire. Sea levels are rising. There are more vicious storms and wildfires and droughts and floods. Denial is easier than confronting the terrifying truth.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/why-is-greta-thunberg-so-triggering-for-certain-men-1.4002264

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Laura Ingraham, the Fox News host, called Ms. Thunberg’s United Nations speech “chilling” on her Monday night show, and ran a segment about how climate change “hysteria” is changing American youth.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/climate/greta-thunberg-un.html

Climate change has been caused by human activity. And no one likes being told that their actions have contributed to a freaking calamity, but at some point, we have to own up to it and make it so that human and other life can go on. So that the lives of our kids and their kids can go on. That’s what being an adult is about, isn’t it?

Thunberg has already had a demonstrated impact on how her generation views the climate crisis, with one recent survey showing that nearly 70 percent of people under the age of 18 believe that climate change is a global emergency compared with 58 percent of people over the age of 60. …Thunberg isn’t daunted by her status. The way she sees it, the demonization is a diversion from clmate science, to which skeptics have few answers.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/08/greta-thunberg-far-right-climate/619748/

Much of High on Hooking's art is recycled art
We try to use mostly recycled or reclaimed materials in the art at High on Hooking every day, not just on Earth Day. But we can’t always resist virgin wool yarns like in that sunflower.

At High on Hooking, I know that I need to do more to care for my and our environment: take shorter showers; buy way less crap; mend more; drive my little Honda Fit rather than the CRV when I’m cruising around Albuquerque; and really be more aware of how my actions affect it all. We can’t buy our way out of this problem. We have to change. In my art, I already already work hard to hook with materials that others might just discard. But it’s not enough. If I can’t adjust what I do, how can I expect others to do anything?

Earth Day 2022 is Friday. Will you mark the day as crucial for our home?

 

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Looking for rug love in the wine store…

Wine bottle label.
I have no idea who the artist is. Maybe you know? But isn’t it beautiful? Okay, wine is beautiful too.

Rug love in the wine store?

I’ll explain. I’m having a busy week. Big surprise, I know. But I was trying to figure out something new and exciting (and quick) to write about when Tom and I headed out to the liquor store. A snowstorm was taking aim at Albuquerque, and we were running low. Before you scoff, I’m from New England and lived through the Blizzard of ’78; snow forecasts = a run to the grocery store. By the way, we got almost an inch and a half today. I know, wow.

So, we’re in Total Wine, and I remember how I’ve gotten rug ideas from wine labels. Some of them are so creative, even beautiful. Then I thought that maybe you need rug ideas right about now. Especially for those of you back east and in the midwest who will live through your own winter storm tonight and tomorrow. Enjoy!

Wine bottle label.
Don’t the colorful flowers draw you in? The birds. What would it be like to share a bottle with this graceful lady? (I’m not particularly graceful.) But zoom over to the left, to the name of the wine. “Dirt Diva”! Love it! No problem drinking with this chick after all.
Wine bottle label.
I fear that this is more my speed, not so much the beautiful Dirt Diva. At least he looks happy. Or drunk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wine bottle label.
This – or something similar – is one of the first wine bottle labels that jumped out at me to inspire a rug. And yet I don’t think we ever tried the wine. Bummer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WIne bottle label.
I bet I’m not the only one who’s hooked a rug with this element in it.
Wine bottle label.
Has no one realized that “The Fugitive” is just the Invisible Man? They are never gonna catch him. I mean…all of them. BTW, here’s how the manufacturer describes this wine: “Not just any wine – the wine that you drink when you know if may just be your last.” Alrighty.
Wine bottle label.
Here’s where they start getting scary. Or weird. Or both. Why name it “Juggernaut”? Okay, maybe it’s a huge and powerful force. But am I going to turn into a Robby Benson Beast, only more frightening, when I drink this stuff? I mean, look at the grass under his feet. It’s blood red. Imagine your new boyfriend ordering this stuff on a date…

 

Wine bottle label.
Or 19 Crimes Hard Chard. Really? What’s the wine trying to say here? Maybe Jane’s husband tried to get her drunk on the Juggernaut and got more than he bargained for? For her crime she’s banished off to Botany Bay. At least she didn’t have to take him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wine bottle label.
Two of my favorites. And I think it’s fair to say that I became distracted from my original intention. I am NOT hooking a rug of a framed French convict on Devil’s Island or a skeletal Pope. Who comes up with this stuff?

 

Wine bottle label.
I DO know who came up this one and the next one. Albuquerque artist Sean Wells is a kick-ass Albuquerque artist whose artwork has been featured on La Catrina Vino, Cerveza de los Muertos, and New Mexico lottery tickets. She also happens to vend at many of the same events I vend at.

 

Wine bottle labels.
Another of Sean’s gorgeous and fun wine bottles.

 

 

 

 

 

Whiskey bottle label.
Okay, I’ll end with a pic of the elusive jackalope gracing this bottle of whiskey. Now something like this could make it onto a rug. And don’t lecture me about the pesky copyright laws. I know all about them. Have a great week. Maybe I’ll pour myself a bottle glass of wine now…

 

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When you finally meet a rug-hooking Facebook friend

Facebook friends
Me with Amy Buesing, former Facebook friend and now just…friend at the Albuquerque Recycled Art Fair last weekend.

 

So, Saturday dawned bright and COLD – about 35 degrees. At least the windstorm had passed.(If you’re from New Mexico, you know that spring goes by another name here: wind.) Tom and I toodled down the road a couple of miles to Albuquerque’s Open Space Visitors’ Center to participate in the Recycled Art Fair.

Got the tent up and all the rugs and such in place by 10:00’s opening. People were already showing up looking to score good stuff made from other folks’ waste. Music was playing. It was gonna be a great weekend. Certainly better than last year when it snowed and rained and winded the first day. All I had to do was wait for the customers to come to me.

And they did. To see what I was working on. I like to hook when I do shows. For one thing, it draws people in either to 1) figure out what the hell I’m doing or 2) tell me a story how they (or their mother/father/grandparent) used to hook. And, of course, there are the latch hook tales, but we’ll skip over that today. Fortunately, I love to chat up folks and to spread the hooking gospel, so no problem there.

Hooked rug for Facebook friend
The mug rug Amy purchased. In reality, being a double mug rug, it comes with two of those mugs.

The problem was that no one was buying.

And then, suddenly, none of that mattered. A woman approached my tent; I was in my camp chair working away muttering trash talk about people who weren’t buying my trash-to-treasures. She says, “Laura?” I respond affirmatively, pleasantly even, because I have to I’m that kind of person. And then she tells me who she is: Amy Buesing of Las Cruces!

If you don’t know Amy, and I know many of you do, she’s a member of my guild but can’t make the monthly meetings given the five-hour drive between Albuquerque and Las Cruces. I’m pretty sure that she and I became Facebook friends before I left Massachusetts and even knew there was such a thing as the Adobe Wool Arts Guild. We bonded over family matters and such. Last October she and Mary Ramsey, our guild president, roomed together at the ATHA Biennial. Neither had met the other, but hookers are game for that kind of thing. Mary told me that Amy and I would hit it off when we finally met.

Here’s the thing, I thought that would be in September when Sharon Smith of Off the Wool Rugs comes to give a workshop. But Amy surprised me. She was in town and, knowing that I had a show, she made time before driving home to come meet me. I was touched. So touched

mug rug
Duh! One of the two mugs that actually got wrapped up and went home with Amy. Fortunately, it’s easy to find a mug to go with this rug. Undoubtedly, I already have one on the shelf.

and discombobulated that, when she bought one of my rugs, I 1) almost didn’t give her her $10 of change and 2) sent her home with a mug that didn’t match the double mug rug that she bought. Duh! I’ll get the right one out to you later this week, Amy!

Not only did I get to chat with Amy and her friend/travel buddy Michele, but she must’ve brought some good luck for me too. I managed to sell a few rugs the next day, including the sunflower table runner/wall-hanging I just finished. And then I was invited by the fair’s organizers to participate in their Cinco de Mayo Folk Art Fest on May 5 here in town. Woohoo! And all because of Amy. Cathy Kelly, also of AWAG and general hooking fame, will be doing that one with me. Come visit us!

Have you met any Facebook folks years after friending them? Heaven or a horror story?

Dog on hooked rug.
Tynan’s back with “What’s on the frame today.” It’s being hooked out of mostly bed sheets. Not that he cares. He just wanted the treat I was holding. Have to get this one done so that I can remake the sunflower rug.
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Have we got news at High on Hooking!

The news from High on Hooking

I try not to do NEWS-based posts too often, you know, catching up with what’s been happening here at High on Hooking, but sometimes you just have to. Not only is the selling season coming on quickly, but there are a couple of shows right around the corner.

  • First up is the Spring Show put on every other year (even) by Albuquerque’s Fiber Arts Council. Many of you watched as I hooked and hooked my little fingers to the bone to have “Memory of Water” ready for the April 7 and 8 (Saturday and Sunday) exhibition. As I’m on one of the committees, I’ll be busy from Friday through the weekend. If you’re a local, please try to make it down and support the fiber artists of the greater Albuquerque area. It’s free; hours are 9-5 both days with an artists’ reception Saturday evening, 5-7.The news from High on Hooking
  • And let the selling begin! A couple of weeks ago I received official word that I’d again been juried into Albuquerque’s Recycled Art Fair. This year it’s a little earlier: the weekend of April 14 and 15, 10-4, and it’s at the Open Space Visitors’ Center on Coors. If you remember my experience last year at the end of April, you might also recall the snow, rain, wind, and all-round cold temperatures we had. Not the usual weather here in Albuquerque at that time of year (except for the wind, of course), but not completely out of the ballpark. So, PLEASE PRAY that this year we get the nice weather I moved out here for, that we’ve enjoyed all winter! This is a fun festival: food, music, family activities, and good art – treasures that came from other folks’ trash. Hope we see you there too.
  • Just this weekend I received notice that “Memory of Water” had been accepted into
    News: the mystery rug unveiled.
    “Memory of Water.” Framed, she’s about 22.5″x18.5″ and plastic bag on monks’ cloth.

    another show. Woohoo! This one’s also being held at the Open Space Visitors’ Center on Coors here in town, and it’s a fiber arts exhibit with the theme of WATER. It opens April 28 and runs through May 27. For New Mexican fiber buffs, it’s being put on in conjunction with the New Mexico Fiber Crawl happening May 18-20. Call me if you’re interested in this one. By chance it’s right down the street from my house; we can go together.

  • As many of you know, for the past two years, I’ve vended at the Albuquerque Rail Yards Market that takes place May – October, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. I love it there; it’s a people-watchers delight plus you can pick up good food, produce, and well-priced art and listen to different music each weekend. It’s just an all-round fun place to spend a few hours, and booths are more than reasonable at $20/any given Sunday. Unfortunately, last year I didn’t do as well as I had the previous year. Other artists said the same thing. So, this year, I’ve decided to cut my days at the market to once per month. I’ll still get the exposure and have a chance to sell, but I won’t worry that I could’ve been somewhere else.Or force Tom to help me set up and break down for nothing. Dates I’ll be at the Rail Yards are: May 27; June 10; July 8; August 12; September 9; and October 14. Maybe we’ll see you there…

I think that’s it for all the big, official news. Keep checking back to our home page; we add events as they come up. Now for the weekly “What’s on the frame” segment. Actually, this week we’ve got two frames and two rugs! Check out the pics for the scoop.

Hooked rug.
The “BIG Boucherouite” begins! It’ll be slow progress, something I can work on between projects and to breakup any hooking monotony. I’ve been cutting strips like crazy and still have more to go. A lot of the color-planning will be made up as I go. (Upcycled bedsheet strips on monks’ cloth, Anderson frame.)
Tynan the dog and hooked rug.
As usual Tynan brings you “What’s on the Puritan frame” news. The sunflower table runner (or wall-hanging) continues. Should be done this week sometime. (Up-cycled t-shirt strips on monks’ cloth.)

 

 

For your sake, I hope that’s spring’s either arrived in your neck of the woods or is right around the corner. My sympathies yet again for New England and the fourth nor’easter in as many weeks or less. But spring will come; it always does.

What’s the news where you hail from? Plans for when it finally warms up?

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Art as Solace

 

The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., A Man Without a Country

The murders in Las Vegas last week…

The lives, homes, and livelihoods lost to the fires in California… A guild-mate’s son and his wife evacuated from their home…

Puerto Rico and Mexico City and other areas that are still drowning without the basic necessities of life today…

Friends living day-to-day with health issues… And threatening insurance issues…

The anxieties of what seems to be a whole generation of children… Including mine..

Last week we were trying to wrap our minds around what would make one man angry enough to kill as many people as he possibly could. This week: still no answer. Meanwhile the political climate in the country drops farther into the toilet, and a President smugly tells reporters that he has a North Korean secret, Na-a-na-na-na! Americans are a nervous bunch these days.

Art as consolation
Image from http://www.punediary.com/quotes/2016/10/art-life-heartbreak-vicent-van-gogh-quotes/.

Everyone’s worn out from disasters, the natural ones and the man-made. Weekends, I’ve taken to not bothering with the news other than what I read in the paper and see on my home page. I’ve got to take a breather from the barrage of awfulness coming in. I’d much prefer to head off to the mountains – and we’ve got plenty of those to choose from here in New Mexico – to hike and hide in a cabin for a few months days. Not happening. For one thing, my rheumatoid arthritis has been acting up, screwing with my lower back. Time to try a new medication. I’m lucky; I have a good health plan we can afford and a good rheumatologist. But she can’t help with the other problem. Tom and I lost our empty-nester status last week. The kid’s back…

Maybe you read the post on August 16, “Studio under construction.”  Then again, maybe you didn’t. Long story short. Kid stormed/moved out in March. Tom and I left the room for months, assuming she’d be back before long. Finally, in August, we (meaning Tom; I told you my RA was getting uppity) patched the holes in the walls and painted. Because I’ve outgrown my kick-ass walk-in closet and laundry room as far as hooking materials storage goes, I ordered the big IKEA shelves with cubbies. I was getting me a studio!

Art as consolation.
There’s certainly nothing better than God’s art, nature. Is this not a most beautiful rose? It was the only one in the garden at Casa Rodeña in Albuquerque last Friday evening. A little miracle of color and design.

 

You know, somewhere just after that the hurricanes started. Why, why did I think that it would all go down the way we planned? Even before the shelves were delivered (a few days late, I might add), the stories of roommate and other issues started in earnest. Texts appeared on my phone after 10 p.m. Like a phone call in the early morning, those are never good. And…suddenly she and her minivan were back.

I’ll give her, she’s neater this time. So far. And there’s less yelling. So far. It appears that she learned that Mom and Dad don’t necessarily make the worst roommates. The devil you don’t know can be…the devil! So, no studio. Tom and I are off to Lowe’s tonight to check out shelving for the laundry room. That’ll help with my explosion of t-shirts, wool, ribbon, frames, and other hooking paraphernalia.

In the meantime, I hook. And not just because I have three more selling dates before the end of the year and an inventory is soon due into the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center. Nope. I hook because I can control whether or not I hook and what I hook. Color, design, materials:  those are all up to me. I hook to distract myself from the things I cannot control:  natural disasters; US politics and all they affect; gun violence; illness – my own or others’; my child’s anxieties and her struggle to become an adult. I hook to create something NOT BAD. More than that, I hook to ensure that there’s just a little more beauty in my world today than there was yesterday.

Art becomes diary-like, following and documenting the shifts in popular and not so popular culture, art encourages us to not just look at the past but to look forward to the future and to exist in a moment.

Erin Veness

Art as solace.
Tynan doesn’t make art. He presents it for me. But that’s okay; he and all dogs are their own special form of consolation for human beings.

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