My Artist Home

Oct 08 2015

Hare Today

By melissasasichambers Exhibitions, My Artist Home, Tarpage

I was just explaining to my friend Peggy Jo how I’m a sprinter. Whether I’m running or swimming, setting up a new home or making art, I do it really, really fast — and then I take a break. I am not a marathoner. I can’t sustain energetic output endlessly. If I were one of the two characters in the tale of “The Tortoise & The Hare” I would definitely be the hare.

(Sleeping Hare by Celia Hart)

Something about being a sprinter makes it difficult for me to run multiple races. I need to pick one race — move into my new home — and not add on another race — get ready for my exhibition in December — until the first race is won.

The last room/sprint to finish in our new house was the big studio where Mike paints and I work on my tarpestries…

Race won.

Now I’ve begun to sprint towards my solo show in December at the Boise State University Student Union Gallery. The show will be of my tarpestries and I will have a variety of sizes including itty-bitty tarpestries.

Tarpitos?

Unlike my big pieces these have no particular narrative, they’re just pure pattern. So far I’ve done 14…

Whew! Time for a break. I’m out of breath!

Maybe another interpretation of the tale of “The Tortoise & The Hare” is that they both won the race — it’s just that the tortoise was a marathoner, and the hare was running a sprint.

Sep 21 2015

Enough IS Enough!

By melissasasichambers My Artist Home

I can not remember a time when I went without. I can not remember a time when I did not have more than I needed. I have never gone hungry. I have never gone thirsty. I have never been too cold, or too hot, for too long. I have always felt safe, and confident of the goodness of the people in my world. And I have always had more than enough of everything I could possibly ever need.

Way more.

In fact one of the many gifts of my life has been the largesse of the material world. Maybe not in coin, but most definitely in goods. I have always been able to “turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.” I can find it second hand and make it into something Anthropologie would charge you beau coup bucks to own, and as a result I have accumulated way more than I will ever be able to use.

I know I am not alone in reaching this stage in our lives when we gasp “Whoa Nelly, enough is enough!”

How did this happen? Wasn’t it yesterday that everything we owned could fit into our backpack?. . . Car? . . . Studio apartment? Can’t we blame this on the kids? Didn’t we accumulate all of this stuff in order to make a home for them? And what about the fact that I am an artist? I need this stuff as raw material for art — don’t I?

I have moved house many times, and every time I’ve moved I have purged and donated, recycled and thrown away tons of stuff. I do it as I’m packing and I do it again as I’m unpacking. This latest move is the first time that we are actually “downsizing” however, and that means I have a much smaller house in which to try and make everything fit.

It’s not working.

Yes. This is my garage.

And this is the storage room I’ve renamed the butler’s pantry/monument to materialism…

but which is in fact an embarrassment of riches.

If there isn’t a Twelve Step program for this kind of problem, there should be. I admitt I’m powerless over my ability to accumulate more than I need. I’m willing to take inventory. And I’m ready to give it back.

Most of it.

Well, a lot of it anyway.

When we moved out of our last house we had a driveway sale, and as the day wore on we switched our signs from “REALLY” “CHEAP” “STUFF” to “FREE” “STUFF,” “REALLY!”

I’m thinking I need to do that again at our new place.

Soon!

Aug 27 2015

Home At Last!

By melissasasichambers My Artist Home

I am so happy to tell you that that light I mentioned in my last post, the one I was just begining to glimpse, did in fact turn out to be the EXIT sign from Limbo!

What a relief!

It has been a week now since the sale of our wonderful artists’ home went through — yes, 3rd time is apparently an actual charm — and we are finally the owners of just ONE house!

We could not have weathered this process without our amazing realtor Linda Bishop, who fought for us time after time. She is a treasure. And a pit-bull. A pit-bull we truly treasure!

And, I would have been a lot less sanguine about this meat-grinding we went through without the constant upbeat support — daily emails and frequent phone calls — from my friend Peggy Jo — who is suffering through her own tumultuous sojurn through Limbo. YOU, my dear friend, are amazing!

So. Wanna see some pictures of the new house?

I knew you would!

I work in sections, “perfecting” as I go, and creating islands of sanity within the sea of chaos. Those are all photos of the sane islands.

Lest you find my “perfecting” process depressing in light of your own journey through Limbo, Mom, — here are some pictures of that sea of chaos which I still need to calm:

Feel better?

Ok, blog break over. Time to get back to work!

Aug 12 2015

Greetings from Limbo!

By melissasasichambers My Artist Home

Bet you thought I wasn’t updating my blog because we were taking a Summer Vacation!

Nope.

In fact we have been caught in the sticky fingers of that ghastly place known as…

where we have been ever so busy being chewed up and spit back out by the transactions known as “Selling Your House” and “Buying A Different House.”

This is what I have learned: when you are the Seller it is a “Buyer’s Market,” and when you are the Buyer it is a “Seller’s Market,” and if you are doing both at the same time it is simply “Not YOUR Market, Not NOW, Not EVER, So Sorrynotsorry About the Teethmarks, Market.”

And this is pretty much what it feels like:

The only reason I am able to even attempt a new blog post is that I think I can just begin to almost see the slightest bit of the tiniest glimmer of a light at the end of the tunnel.

“How’s that?” you ask. Well, we have managed to “Buy A Different House” and I have painted many of its walls, and had carpeting removed from the room which will be our studio, and we have moved in the contents of 4 “Storage Cubbys” leaving only the biggest pieces of furniture to be moved by Cross Town Movers on Saturday, and that, as they say, is All Good.

I have even started a new Monument to Materialism in our storage room which is off the courtyard to our townhouse…

Meanwhile we have been living in the “House for Sale” and bending over backwards in our efforts to get it to that golden moment when it is in fact, “SOLD.”

WISH US LUCK!

I may be smiling, but my back is killing me!

Jun 18 2015

Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy…!

By melissasasichambers 2D & 3D, My Artist Home

When my kids were little the three of us spent a lot of time watching Sesame Street together. One of the Bert and Ernie sketches had the two of them in a rowboat, fishing — without any luck, until Ernie had the bright idea to just call the fish. “Here fishy, fishy, fishy!” And suddenly fish were flying out of the water and into their boat.

There was another little “mini documentary” about an Eskimo child and her day to day life which had one line in it that Lina and I still quote pretty much any time there’s salmon for dinner: “I realllly, realllly like feeesh!”

Well. I DO really, really like fish, so I am having a great time creating a series of 10 small tarps which will be hung on the framework of the patio railing at Reel Foods on Capitol Blvd. starting in July, and running through September into October, depending on the weather.

I’ve completed the first layer on all 10 — they are cut and taped — and will start in soon on the second layer of Sharpie and paint pen “grafitti.”

Meanwhile, I am getting everything ready for our Open House this Saturday. (You can see my announcement about it on the TVAA website Community Post here.) My plan is to hang some of the tarps on our fence out front, in the hope of catching the eyes of passing house-hunters.

House-fishermen?