This is day twelve as an artist-in-residence at Homestead National Monument. I've been blogged every day. First I share something about this unique location. Then I share the artwork I made.
So ... it was almost a week ago that I learned about the No-So Junior Ranger Program ... all thirteen pages of it! I've been working on it ever since. It was harder than I expected but was also lots of fun. It took me back to the farm implement exhibit ... looking for answers. It took me back to the all-weather flip book on prairie plants ... looking for answers. It took me to the Heritage Center to access the Homestead Land Entry Case Files (digitized files being created from the over 30 million documents stored in the National Archives ... for which all Nebraska records are available). What was I doing? Looking for answers, of course.
I finished yesterday but wanted Ranger Hunter Hendricks to be the one to "swear me in". We couldn't get together until this afternoon. Not all National Park Service properties have a "No-So Junior Program" but the idea is catching on. It really does make the experience more meaningful. What will I do with my pin and badge? I'll add them to my Cabinet of Curiosities! One had to be "curious" enough to seek out all those answers! It was worth it!
Part of a National Park art residency is presenting a public program. Here at Homestead National Monument that means being featured during the weekly Saturday night campfire series. My work was displayed on a table. I talked about how I applied, my proposal, why I wanted to come to this particular place, and what I stitched during the past twelve days.
I shared this evening's program with the Windy River Dulcimer Society.
In addition to playing familiar, generally pre-1940 songs, the group tells jokes and invites their audience to sing along.
We had a small campfire but allowed it to burn out. It's been too hot here lately. We only needed a touch of ambiance, not the additional warmth! LOL!
Now ... what did I stitch today? In the morning I created Waste Not Fresh Tears VI.
Like most series, it gets easier and easier. Selecting the buttons, determining placement, and stitching through the paper-fused-to-fabric is now pure joy. It also goes more quickly. I'm really enjoying this series and might return to it in the future.
This series has other possibilities too. I first created the xylene photo transfers back in 2009. At the time, I made twenty-five large transfers and they became my "Angels in Mourning" series. To these larger pieces, I added clock gears, scraps from hand-written ledgers, artificial flowers collected from cemetery dumpsters, and all sorts of trinkets. They were all framed and have been part of my solo show Last Words. At the time, I thought I might collage epitaphs onto the smaller transfers ... but I never got around to them.
So, when packing for this residency, I saw the transfers and thought, "Susan, it might be fun to stitch buttons to these! Take them along!" It was definitely an after thought when I grabbed a stash of Harper's Weekly pages from the 1860s and 1870s.
Because my original intention was to collage an epitaph onto the paper, many of the smaller transfers are NOT in the middle. They were off-set ... to allow room for "words". Well ... as it turned out ... I used the space to collage advertisements from Harper's Weekly. I even found an ad for homesteading acreage in Nebraska!
Some of the other ads were for buttons, a treadle sewing machine, and a new "frontier" novel. What could be more perfect for the last piece I'll stitch in Nebraska? Tomorrow I'm off to the Gage County Fair to watch cats being judged. (I thought this was happening on Friday. Thank goodness I checked the schedule before heading out!) Then, I have to pack up. I leave at 8 AM on Monday morning. I will blog tomorrow ... after all, I'm going to the fair!
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