Tomorrow ~ Penland

hydrangea in Jim's garden

So, tomorrow is the big day....I head off to start my summer session at Penland.  I'm very excited, so very excited and have been doing everything I can to prepare, even though it's hard to know exactly what that might be.  Some of my preparing has looked like this....get supplies, do wash, but some has also looked like this...breathe, stay open, and like my dear friend Sue says, stay in my joy.    Thanks to everyone and their kind, thoughtful words that help me make the absolute most of this experience.

Trucker's chapel, complete with a neon cross, yeah buddy.

I've been staying in Asheville at good friends Paul and Jamie's home.  Thanks to them for the wonderful, relaxed time it's been.  So grateful for that.

Here are a few shots from the road trip down here from Michigan, and from my time in Asheville.

Apple pie for the road, which I thought was crazy,
but was Jim's idea....actually turned out fantastically fun
to have an old school "picnic lunch stop" and eat pie.Oh, pie, how I love you.

See how happy Jim and Daphne look after road trip pie!?

So many varieties of flowers, how
wonderful.

UNC~Asheville Farmers Market

Beets, just one of the many amazing vegetable
choices at the market.  So fab.

I've had some great times visiting with friends, some great food, including dinner at the new tapas restaurant Curate, some great local beer (yeah) and overall a super great time.  I can't wait to start my new adventure at Penland.  Please send me a card, a letter, a postcard, anything....snailmail rocks, people. And I'll do what I can to blog and share what's going on with me.

Hugs all around to good friends old, and new friends coming, to my girls and my family....I'm on my way!

Ypsilanti Farmer's Market

Jim and I headed over to Ypsilanti on Saturday to go to the Depot Town Farmers Market.  It's a nice little market with some great vendors.  They don't have a rule about everything having to be grown by the vendor, but nevertheless most vendors had great locally grown, and sometimes organic, produce.

Friendliest Couple Ever

There was also this awesome couple from Go! Ice Cream.  One of my favorite flavors was Sweet Browned Butter.  Oh, the indulgence.  So delish.

For the most amazing, interesting, lovely jams, we fell in love with the gals from Moon's Harvest Society. Strawberry Tomato, and Strawmerries (strawberries soaked in white wine and then made into jam, how merry!) and Chocolate Covered Strawberry Jam, and on and on.  Oh, so divine.  They were great to talk to, and they also sell tea, the sample they had Saturday had dried mushrooms in it.  Paul Stamets' name came up and it was literally a mushroom love fest between us. Packaging gets a lot of attention with these women, as an example, they use Weck Canning Jars.  Love. Must have.

This is their great poster explaining their inspiration!

We had a very nice time, and after we were done we headed over to Ypsilanti Food Co-op.  What a great place.  You can get bread (brick oven, wood fired) from their bakery at the co-op, and at the farmers market and a few other places.  It's amazing, with a rich history.  Check out the Bakery Here and the Co-op here.  Ok, btw, the bakery is 100% solar powered.  

Yes, one of those bunches of leeks did go home with us.

Micro-brew paddle of tasters and to the left tempura zucchini.
Best zucchini I ever had,  thick fresh slabs, just cooked to perfecetion.
Aaaah save me!!

While we were in Ypsi we ate at the Sidecar Bar and Grill.  What a great place this was.  If you come to visit in Michigan and I am here, this is where I am taking you.  Whoever you are.  This place has been around since the 30's and has outdoor seating that would blow your mind...in the front, around the side, another side area, and a big back area all outdoors with flowers and lovely brick and vines.  All this and GREAT service and food.  Both, yes, both all in the same place.  Plus a killer list of micro-brews and bourbon.  What more, I say, what more could a girl ask for??!!

Pickles, I guess a girl could ask for pickles.  And here they are, right on the table.  Yum.  Loved this place.  

Guess who loved his beer? 

One more place that stood out in Ypsilanti....I'm just saying.

Ypsi - Had a blast, can't wait to go back.  Take that Ann Arbor!!

Penland School of Craft

aerial view, Penland campus

So here it is, my official post to share a gigantic, big-adventure, life-list, happy, crazy-excited, enterprise I am about to embark on.  In April I found out that I received a full scholarship to the Penland School of Craft. Full, as in classes paid for, and room and board paid for.  I have such gratitude for such generosity.  

What is Penland about?  According to their website, Penland is "a national center for craft education located in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains" and its "focus on excellence, its long history, and its inspiring, retreat setting have made it a model of experiential education".  If you haven't gone to the website, well, then, abandon this blog post right now and hit it.  You won't be sorry you did. 

I have no idea what to expect during my time at Penland, but I do know it has the feel of adult summer art camp and serious work combined into one cool package and I can't wait to find out what that might be like.  According to their student handbook "While at Penland, you can expect to work hard, learn a lot, make friends, and forget about the rest of the world in an isolated setting without the distractions of phone, TV, or daily newspapers.You can also plan to have fun, eat well,and get the kind of rest that comes from total immersion in something you love".  Amazingly awesome. I honestly can't remember ever having an adventure like this by myself, no family, no friends, no significant other, just me.  GULP.  Well, just me and a bunch of crazy artists, new friends I haven't made yet. Um, hell to the yeah.

The Pines Portico - dining hall, rooms, life

A big thank you to my dear friend Rachel Williams  and one of my favorite profs at LSSC, Dr Melanie Wagner, who both wrote beautiful, amazing letters of recommendation for me.  I have no doubt that the letters helped significantly in my getting the scholarship.

printmaking desks and studio
one of these will me mine, yeah.

The class I am taking is John Hitchcock - Print Blitz: Alternative Screenprint Methods held in the printmaking studio.  Scroll down almost to the bottom of the page on the link and you'll find the Week 5 class.  I really don't have any experience in printmaking at all, but have had interest percolating for quite a while now.  Interest percolating and a sense of it running parallel to some other work I've been doing.  My watercolors tend to be little illustrations, which I think lend themselves to printmaking. And during my drawing class at school one of the things I loved most was pen and ink.  Some of my work done during that time period had the strong feel of printmaking.  So...parallels and interest and I'm ready to take the next step right off the ledge and into two-and-a-half weeks of wtf. Yeah.

Here's the address for snail mail while I am there:

Michele Pietrzak
Penland School
PO Box 37
Penland, NC, 28765

I'd love to hear from you while I'm tucked snugly in the mountains of North Carolina, that much is for sure. Please write, send a postcard, make a silly drawing on a paper placement, fold it into origami and put it in an envelope, just send me something sweet and fun to open while I am gone.  I'd really love it.

Gratitude.  Excitement.  Promise.  Happiness.

Summer Camp 2013

Well, it seems as if we're at that time of year again, SUMMER CAMP at the Mount Dora Center for the Arts.  It's hard to believe that another whole year has slid by and the halls and classrooms upstairs are going to be filled with the sounds of upwards of 50 children.  A big "SORRY" to the folks downstairs in the Gallery and Artisans on Fifth!  Just think about that, all those kids and all that noise being your upstairs neighbors. WOW.

I'm super excited about his year's theme WILD ABOUT ART.  It's a great animal theme, which is so easy for planning interesting and fun and meaningful fine-art activities.

This year, again, I'm doing the first three weeks of camp then heading off to travel and visit (more on that later).   My weeks are How Does My Garden Grow, Wild Animal Safari, and Marine Life and Water Conservation.  I have some great projects planned, lots of mixed-media painting, some mobile making, Sculpy sculpting and other surprises.  I really can't wait.

At the Teacher's Planning meeting I was able to see what the other teachers will be up to in the other classrooms (3 art, 1 clay) and it looks like we have an amazing and talented group of people this summer.  There are some great creative projects planned.  How wonderful to be able to work and play with them all day.

I do love summer camp.  It breathes a fresh breath of life into the Center and gives me an opportunity to have community with fellow artists (young and old) each and every day.

Now do you know why I feel so abundantly blessed in my life?  That's right.