Art Fiber Fest

Or is it Artfiberfest? Or ArtFiberFest? I really do need to find out, huh? ‘Coz that’s where we’re going in Portland at the end of the month. Go here to find out more.
We went once before, about 5 years ago, I think. I can’t remember—and I realized just this last week that I have no record of those kinds of things—when I went to Artfest and when I taught at Art Unraveled and what was the name of that other retreat in Albuquerque that year—I know none of that, and I have no records anywhere, and I really have no way of finding out.

[As I read this out loud to The EGE, as I am wont to do whenever he’s in the studio while I’m working—that’s what he gets for coming in here—he says, “Sure you do,” and reads off the nametag that’s hanging in the doorway: 

“ArtFiberFest ‘05

Meals

Ricë Freeman-Zachery, Teacher”

—which just goes to show that at least one of the people in this house has a clue.]

Normally this stuff never crosses my mind, but I’ve been trying to figure out a timeline of retreats and when I met various artists, like Richard Salley, whom I interviewed this week and whom I first met when I taught at Art Unraveled in Phoenix some number of years ago. But what number? I decided it must have been 2004 and am going with that. But when did I first go to Artfest? And what WAS that retreat in Albuquerque?
Now that I think about it, these things are surely noted in my journal. Surely. But which one? And who has time to go through them all? You open one and just get sucked in. And then you’ll find the sketch for some project and think, “Wow! I’d forgotten all about that! That’s PERFECT!” and then you want to drop everything and start on that whatever-it-is, and you’ve got a whole ton of other stuff you’re supposed to be doing, and so you leave that volume of the journal out on your desk, and two weeks later you pick it up and go, “Huh? What’s this doing out?” and you think it might have been something you were looking up for work, and so you have to go through it and see what you were looking for before you re-shelve it.
It’s just a trial unto the lord, it really is.
But anyway:  we’re going to be in Portland the 24th through the 28th, when we leave and drive to Redding, California, and spend the night. Then the next two nights in San Francisco—we’ll spend all day Tuesday walking around downtown San Francisco, which we did last time we went to Art Fiber Fest, whenever the hell that was, and loved it.
One of our favorite things ever is meeting up with people. When I taught in Phoenix, whenever the hell THAT was, I met a woman in one of my classes. She was fabulous, and you can imagine how thrilled I was to run into her that first day at Art Fiber Fest. Every morning while we were there, there was a group of us who’d meet in the lobby at 5:30 in the morning to stitch. This was pure heaven for me. For me, it was 7:30 (the time difference), and that’s when I start to stitch every morning. For her, it was 5:30, but she’s one of those people who’s energetic all day long, anyway. The other two women were also time-screwed, so we were all staggering down in the cold dark in our pajamas with our drinks of choice—tea, coffee, juice—and settling in on the couches. Real Life should be just like this. Stitching, talking (it started out kind of mumbling and yawning a lot but ended up, by the time others woke up and came down to see what we were doing, to lots of chatter and laughing and show-and-tell. Man, that was some great shit.
By the time we worked our way down to San Francisco, a couple days later, she’d already made her way home. She came over and met us on Fisherman’s Wharf the day we spent there, and we had lunch and walked around and talked, and it was just marvelous (Hi, Debbie!).
[Not that her name’s Debbie or anything. . . .]
What I dream of is that, when we travel, we’d be able to meet up with people in various places, and we’d all sit and stitch or whatever and talk and maybe drink wine or coffee. Oooh! Wouldn’t it be cool if I had a Winnebago (shudder) and could travel all over and text people (which I’ve never done in my life, ever) and say, “Hey, we’re in Paducah at Bill’s Coffee Shop in an hour. [Because I secretly think I’m on The Today Show, where, the last time I watched them, years and years ago, they were already doing The Time Warp, where they’d say, “We’re back in 60 seconds.” Which just drove me fucking insane. Which is why it’s so much fun to say it myself.] Bring your stuff!” and everybody would be able to drop whatever they were doing and come and meet up and sit around and schmooze about ideas and making stuff, and we’d all be beading or stitching or sketching or writing or taking photos or whatever. It would be FABULOUS!
Except, of course, that I like being at home and I don’t think I could bear a Winnebago—that whole Taking Your House Out On the Road thang—but still. It’s an idea.
In the Real World, we meet up with people whenever we can, and I always have some stitching with me. Just in case. And if we’re traveling? There’s bound to be a bottle of wine in the luggage somewhere.
So if you’re somewhere along the way and want to arrange something, e-mail me.
voodoocafe@clearwire.net
No, I’m not going to be arranging anything—it’s all I can do to keep track of where we’re going and how we’re going to get there (I make all the travel arrangements and navigate in exchange for not having to actually drive, so that I can spend all that time stitching. It’s a good exchange, but it means that I spent the weekend doing all the Arranging of Things I intend to do for a while. I’ve got a stack of printed-out reservation confirmation stuff here as proof).