"You've been selected for Jury Duty"!

In bold, red letters across the top of the folded page it said JURY SUMMONS. Failure to appear for jury duty is a misdemeanor ........ it continued. Only weeks before I had said to Peter that I would love to have the experience of serving on a jury: here was my wish granted. The list of instructions about what to do next was concise and emphatic.
Sunday evening March 21, I did as instructed and phoned the number on the summons ... darn my group wasn't called. But the message was to call again the next day after 4.30pm to see if my group had been called. It wasn't until Wednesday I finally got the call to be at the Superior Court of Pierce County by 8.30am with the admonishment to dress comfortably, park in designated areas only and make sure your juror parking sign is easily visible in your windshield.
Walking down the hill to the County-City Building the early morning air was cool on the face. Enter here said the sign ... WRONG door! said the security guard emphatically - this door is only for employees. Squeezed between two large, grumbling, men whose ample bodies could not fit between me and the door I placed my bag on the scanner bed and walked through the security gate which (of course - Peter would say) beeped. It's the metal eyelets on your shoes, said the guard as she waved the black wand over me from head to toe.
Room #123 on the 1st floor read my instructions. Handed my jury summons to the man who asked if there was any reason why I could not serve for the term for which I have been summoned? No. Then scan your bar code here, he continued, and read the screen. Is that you? Is all the information correct? Yes. He handed me some papers and directed me to find a chair and read the information.
Settling in to one of a large number of cranberry colored chairs in rows across the room, I read the pamphlets and watched the parade of my fellow citizens of Pierce County filling the chairs. Tall, short, young, older, very thin, grossly obese, some looking very confident - others equally unsure we gathered. A short but large and somewhat rumpled, balding man with large, crooked, aviator styled glasses took to the microphone and droned on for more than an hour; reading every word that was printed on the brochures we were handed. He repeated and repeated and again repeated so many of the instructions one wanted to ask him to please stop! But he had the microphone and he wasn't about to stop! Why had I decided not to bring some music to which I could listen?
To my amazement my name was called to join a pool of potential jurors quite soon. Just as in kindergarten we had to line up only here it was by number not alphabetically. Thirty of us were led to the court room and asked to sit on the benches ... in our numerical order. The judge told us that the case was a criminal case .. the charges were assault, attempting to disarm a police officer and harassment and the questioning, to find a jury of 12 plus 2 alternates, began. We were told to raise our number if we wished to speak! The attorneys took turns to question us.
Is there any reason why you could not serve on this jury? ( 3 people were excused) Had anyone every been on a jury before? Was there a trial? Did you reach a verdict? What was it? Had anyone had a bad experience with a police officer? What was it? What was the outcome? Were there any charges filed? What was the result of the charges? Do you know anyone who has been Tazered? Would you challenge a police officer if he came into a court room where you were and gave you an order? Would you challenge a police officer for any reason? And many more questions.

What I found fascinating was to watch the watchers! For example one of the attorneys would ask a question ( apparently innocently) and then swing around to carefully scan the group and watch the potential jurors reactions!
Of the people excused two stick in my mind: one was the young man who had been arrested for breaking and entering, resisting arrest and impersonating a police officer who "thought the charges were all dismissed but couldn't quite recall" and the woman, dressed much like a flight attendant in the 1950s ( only thing missing was the rakish hat) who'd been arrested for gambling. Twelve people were eventually asked to go to the jury box and then began the "picking off" (my phrase) ... with stilted language "The prosecutor respectfully thanks juror number ....for their service and asks the court to excuse him/her" ... then the defending attorney did the same. Each time someone was excused, another person from the benches went forward to fill an empty seat. Twelve were now selected and the young woman next to me, and I, were chosen as the alternates.
We were sworn in by the judge and the opening statements by both attorneys given. At the end of those, we were excused with instructions about when to return.
The testimony of the various witnesses didn't always make sense to me. Not that I couldn't understand but that I wasn't certain they were telling the "whole truth". Being a health care worker for 35 years I know well how differently people react in times of stress and if adrenalin is flowing lots, then the brain works quite differently: there would have been lots of adrenalin pumping in all the people present. The incidents happened, in a court room, early October last year and the questioning by the defence attorney, for example, about how many seconds elapsed between two events seemed nothing short of ridiculous. It was also disturbing to have the defendant's attorney actually alter, in his closing arguments, a piece of evidence. I do not believe it was a misquote by mistake.
At the time the jury was dismissed to deliberate the alternate and I were excused, with the proviso that we were not to discuss the case with anyone until we heard from the Judicial Assistant (JA)that the verdict had been reached, but that we were to remain available to serve in case any of the jurors could not be there. There was no question in my mind that the defendant was guilty of two of the charges: assault and harassment. But I felt there was no proof beyond a reasonable of the third charge and thus I felt vindicated when the J.A. called to say that the jury had made the same decision. It would have been very interesting for me to hear the way the jury argued their opinions. I felt that one man on the case would have found the defendant guilty on all charges, based on comments he made about "life" when we were in the jury room. But unless I meet one of the jurors somewhere, I have no way of knowing.
When I was in Bellingham last weekend celebrating our daughter-in-law's birthday, we saw this brilliant, huge heron (pictured below) sitting on a log in the rushing creek patiently waiting for lunch. He looked so wise somehow and I couldn't help but wonder what he would have thought about the whole process I'd just experienced.
It felt like a huge responsibility to determine at least a portion of how someone elses life might be affected by a decision I made. I am grateful to have had the experience and at the same time relieved I wasn't chosen for the ax-murder case that was being heard in the court house at the same time.

Let the Pattern Sorting begin!

In a corner of my studio today sits an empty chair awaiting my arrival. Note the boxes on the floor surrounding that chair. It's the day of the great pattern sorting. Some people have collections of ceramic elephants, some have postcards of places they have visited or wish to visit while others have books lining every horizontal surface in their homes. The list of potential collectables is probably half as long in number as there are people. Even in homes where there is little other than the very basic items of life, I have found collections. There may not be as many items as there are patterns in those boxes ... and other storage places ... but for now, following the very successful conclusion of the RAGS Wearable Art show and sale, it's time for the annual pattern sorting. The decision about whether to keep that 1980 jumpsuit pattern, with the bell bottom legs and decorative full length zipper down the front, weighs heavily upon me ... to the chair ... in the hopes that I
will return, from under that pile of patterns, fabric etc, ... to write another day.


Much later ... would you just look at those boxed patterns: labeled and shelved and even a sack full of "no further use" in this studio patterns, ready to deliver to a painter friend who may incorporate them into an amazing work of art of a different nature! Next to tackle the fabric, thread, buttons and general "stuff" pile on the work table.

Eastern Washington Meanderings

Topographical maps have always fascinated me. I find wonder in the idea that the lines and contours of the earth are able to be transferred to a two dimensional "picture" I can study. Today it would have been wonderful to have a topographical map to look at as we traveled the blue highways of the northern areas of Eastern Washington from Republic to the Methow Valley where we are now nestled in at the Chewuch Inn, in Winthrop, for the final two days of our mini vacation. But let me return momentarily to Sleeping Lady Resort and share a few images I captured there to remember our time spent among the whispering, long needled pines. Can you see the sleeping lady lying along the crest of the mountain? She's a little difficult to make out but once you "see" her she's quite clear. We bade her farewell, not unwillingly, when we found that the resort was to be the site of a meeting of about 200 trial attorneys for the next 3 days! The energy would certainly have been different that when we shared the entire place with a delightful Feng Shui practitioner who was there in Leavenworth to help a couple site a new home they will be constructing!
I wanted to share the image I captured of part of a spectacular glass sculpture, created by Dale Chihuly and his team of glass blowers and installers, specifically for the view of Icicle Creek that it overlooks from the top of a granite boulder. I loved this detail of the light showing through the more than one thousand "icicles" created by the glass blowers. We left Sleeping Lady sure we will return there for another quiet retreat. But now we know to ask with whom we will be sharing the facility!




Peter wanted to see Grand Coulee Dam on this trip and so it was to that direction we headed through some of the most stunning scenery. I don't do well when trying to describe incredibly beautiful scenery ... suddenly adjectives seem irrelevant or wrong somehow. I will allow a few of the images to speak for themselves.We traveled east around
Wenatchee,took the road north and then east to Coulee City.










Between Coulee City and Electric City we passed the famous landmark of Steamboat Rock state park: we were unable to determine just what it was in this monolith that caused it to be named for a steamboat!















On up the eastern shore of the huge lake created by the dam, pausing for lunch at Electric City ... we shared the bar with a wonderfully colorful group of locals gathered to have lunch at the Electric City Grill. It was around 1pm when we had lunch there ( not choosing either the Breaded Gizzards or the Bar Kicken' Broasted Chicken!) and we were a bit nonplussed to see a woman sit beside us, order a "vodka and seven" and watch the young waitress pour at least 2 1/2 ounces of vodka into the glass and a tiny bit of "seven" ... 7-up! We were reminded of our good fortune in life. Electric City is not a place either of us would have chosen in which to live. Grand Coulee Dam is certainly grand and impressive to see. Photos that we might have taken wouldn't do the mammoth structure justice. Only a small trickle of water issued from the dam and as we have seen every place on this dry side of the state, the water levels in the lakes appear to us to be very low.

Driving on through Wilbur to Creston, we found the wonderful piece of folk carving pictured here beside a restaurant that was shuttered and abandoned. Turning north our route took us alongside the huge Roosevelt Lake ( created by the Grand Coulee Dam) to Gilford where we crossed the FREE ferry to Inchelium and from there north on a brilliantly constructed road to the point where we joined Highway 20 westbound to Republic. The scenery along this drive was diverse and so beautiful - and we found Republic to be a very interesting town and the motel we chose spotlessly clean and comfortable. Republic at about 3,500 feet was crystal clear air and very chilly.


At the Tamarack Cafe we partook of a splendid pizza and engaged in conversation with a delightful group of sophomore and junior high school students, from the local school. We were amazed at their willingness to chat with us and even more amazed when the mobile phone of one rang, and she got up from the table and went outside to answer and have her conversation!!!!

Breakfast next morning at the Sportsman Cafe was as enjoyable for the conversation we had with the locals as it was for the good rural food.
Before leaving Republic we ventured into the local thrift shop where just about anything you could want was available: we paid for our 2 teaspoons and a wonderful down vest and packed and were on our way.
Wauconda Summit on the road to Tonasket was quite snowy, and beautiful, on both sides but the road clear and dry. Meandering waterways we saw along the way were varyingly snow embellished and there was certainly more snow on that pass than any we have traversed. Driving over Loup Loup summit was also very snowy but the scenery spectacular and we virtually had the road to ourselves only rarely seeing another vehicle as we drove down into the stunning Methow Valley: it was almost six years ago that we were here for 4th of July celebrations.

My Reward

Driving Highway 2 through Index on our way here yesterday, Peter suggested I needed to avoid the telephone poles. I think they add something to the photo! The mountains along the way were breathtaking.

Just outside Leavenworth, Washington ( on the eastern side of the state over Stevens Pass on Highway 2) along a road that meanders along through a rural neighborhood one comes to a fork in the road. Turn left for Sleeping Lady Resort was our choice and it is from here that I write: the only sound is YoYo Ma playing Cello (thanks to the amazing tiny speakers I purchased to attach to the iPod function on my iPhone!) and Peter turning the pages of his book as he lolls in a rocking chair in the corner of our beautiful cabin in the woods here along Icicle Creek. The sun comes late into this deep valley and it is casting beautiful light across the wooden floor. I am luxuriating in my reward for a few months of very hard work in my studio.

Last week at Larson's Mercedes Benz dealership showroom in Fife the 16th annual RAGS wearable art show and sale played itself out over 3 1/2 days. Those who organized ( the fabulous women of the RAGS Guild) and we artists who had spent the previous months creating our goods to sell, were cautiously hopeful that people would turn out again and make purchases - one third of which is given to the prevention and intervention programs at the YWCA of Pierce County. However we all know of the current economic challenges and I am guessing I was not the only artist who wondered if he/she would take back to their studio most of what they brought to sell. Our amazing $80,000 gift to the YW for each of the past 2 years we didn't think was possible to repeat.

The results for the whole show will not be known for a month when totals will be revealed at the YWCA's annual luncheon but I was thrilled to part with a major portion of the works I had created and many of the artists were likewise pleased. I am always grateful that people enjoy wearing my work and I have also learned to not be crushed when someone says "No thank you". My marathon days of cutting and sewing for sometimes as long as 12 hours were rewarded .. and now the restful days are here: my reward!

Sleeping Lady Resort is a unique place built by Harriet Bullitt ( see www.sleepinglady.com) in the mid 1990s and a place we have tried to come to a couple of times in the past, but not been able to get a reservation: the secret is to come in the off season. Nestled in the woods among the beautiful long needled pine trees you find on the dry side of the state, it is an ecologically conscious site with much to offer. It was my birthday gift from Peter, last birthday, to come here and so we are here to loll and do as little as possible for a few days.

In the corner of our little cabin is a telephone ;

what a relief that it isn't mine to answer but it

looks beautiful, in its own way, nestled there

in the morning light!

Walking out the door, the fragrance of the pines is amazing and one only has to look up through the needles of the tree outside the door to imagine the potential for creating something wonderful by interpreting those pine needles into a design ... but for now it is surely time for the first nap of the day.

Playing with jello!

If you were to ask me where I've been and what have I been doing, one of my answers might be - playing with jello! Not the gooey bright green, harrrowing yellow or terrifyingly bright red stuff of childhood delights. But the plain old, unflavored gelatin.
About a year ago my friend Colleen introduced me to "Gelatin Printing" following a reading by her of an article, by Jenn Mason, in the Jan/Feb. issue of 2008 periodical Cloth, Paper, Scissors (pages 14-16). Colleen is an amazingly creative paper artist who has a fabulous sense of color. Under her tutelage I began to play with this medium and after trying out paper images, I switched to making monoprints on fabric - I was hooked ... ( that terrible hackneyed expression follows) ... and the rest is history.
The accompanying images are of a garment I called - "Veiled and Unveiled" - (created for the competition mentioned in my previous entry) at the Larson Gallery at Yakima Valley Community College tiitled "Nature by Design: New Directions in Fiber and Jewelry. At this time I remain in the dark about whether or not my pieces were accepted. However the fun for me was in pushing myself to do something new and different. I usually avoid slithery fabrics like the plague! They have a mind all of their own underneath the needle of the sewing machine. The fabric is silk organza ( doesn't get much more slithery than that) and the cloak is meant to convey my thoughts about the amazing mysteries that go on inside our bodies ( design by nature) that we mostly are unable to see or feel or even know about. Just one example: one doesn't see the blood circulating through veins and arteries or the exchanges of nutrients or any one of millions of "events" going on constantly.And what is it that is allowing me to sit on this chair and tap my fingers on this keyboard? Not any one thing for sure ... but millions of events and most of us don't give a thought to any of these ongoing events.
Printing bodies and a few parts of bodies on gelatin and then onto the fabric gave very interesting images, which I found quite wonderful, and my delight was furthered by attaching them to the inside of the cloak - seen and unseen events going on "inside" - and hand stitching connections to the various body images. Difficult to describe but very challenging and in the end fun to do. Whether or not the jurors will think it's worthy of inclusion really doesn't matter - it was the pushing myself to do something new and different that made it all worth the effort. And the gelatin printing is an incredibly fun and inventive way to play: check it out.
And the other answer about what have I been doing - designing, cutting and sewing long hours for the RAGS, Wearable Art show and Sale to occur March 12,13,14 at the Mercedes Benz dealership in Fife. This event raises money for the Domestic Violence Programs at the YWCA Pierce County in Tacoma - our 16th year of raising funds for these very worthwhile projects. Hope to see you there.

Pushing one's own envelope further out ...

The Larson Gallery at Yakima Valley Community College is calling for entries in a competition titled "Nature by Design: New direction in Fiber and Jewelry". I have previously entered this gallery's every other year Art to Wear competition and even been accepted several times. When the prospectus dropped out of the pile of mail my interest was tweaked. Reading the jurors comments my interest dropped into the garbage bin of my mind ... "show me something I haven't seen.........." she asked. My immediate thought was ... there's nothing that hasn't been done already by one of the amazing, way more talented than me, creative fiber/textile artists I follow in the media. I put the idea aside.
It took driving on a rainy day through downtown Bellevue to re-tweak my interest and resurrect my curiousity from the bin! For days now I have been transforming photographs into printable sizes, running silk fabric through my ink jet printer to capture the images and sewing, sewing sewing. This has been a very new adventure for me ... certainly pushing my envelope way out. One garment is finished, working from images such as the one captured here. It certainly looks like Nature by Design to me. Now to work on the other one. Wonder what the jurors will think?

When is an Elephant Bed ... not for an elephant?

When it is a coccolithophore!!

On a beautiful Friday in January, I collected three women friends and we journeyed to Bellingham, gasping regularly at the Cascade and Olympic mountain views. Significant amounts of new snow in the previous days, the air so clear and the sky a brilliant blue, meant that we could see every peak: unbelievably beautiful. Our plan was to have lunch with the northern Darling family and then visit the new Whatcom Museum to see the current exhibitions.

There is a new restaurant in the Fountain District of Bellingham, opposite the Re-Store, aptly named The Fountain Bistro. It recently opened in a former KFC building and it is a delight for the eyes and great food for the tummy!
Following a visit to show my friends A Little Darling School (the fabulous preschool and kindergarten owned by Jason and Netta and directed brilliantly by Netta) who by the way were as impressed as everyone we have ever taken there, we adjourned to the Fountain Bistro where Eva proceeded to charm everyone around her in the restaurant and we ate a delicious lunch.

Whatcom Museum (www.whatcommuseum.org) was next on our agenda. If you have read my recent postings you will know I have been much involved with elephants for some weeks! (www.tacomaartmuseum.org) We then stepped into a different world altogether by visiting Bloom: The Elephant Bed - an amazing and wonder-inducing installation by John Grade, a local Seattle artist.

"Inspired by natural cycles of creation and destruction, John Grade's abstract sculptures reference the formation and erosion of landscape. Bloom: The Elephant Bed reflects the artist's fascination with microscopic organisms 

(called coccolithophores) whose limestone shells formed the chalky White Cliffs of Dover in the United Kingdom. Geologists call this exposed layer of calcium, laid down over 200,000 years ago, the "Elephant bed."
It is simply spectacular. I had seen the show before and so had the pleasure of sitting quietly in a corner and watching people's response to this amazing creation. The huge sculptural pieces hang and move quietly in this gallery, with twenty six foot high ceilings, in a slightly eerie manner. People are amazed, entranced, curious and amused: they walk around the suspended giant pieces quizzickly. Angling oneself underneath you can stand up inside of them - a slightly disorienting/dizzying experience as the piece moves gently around you.
On April 10th the giant pieces will be carried through Bellingham in a procession and lowered into Puget Sound where, because of the construction materials used, they will slowly dissolve! Be there.
At the Whatcom Museum there are other very worthwhile artworks to see from a Boise, Idaho couple's collection. Check the website ... it's worth a visit.