Week of April 20 I think it will be valuable, for my last posts for this class, to do one for each of the areas we studied.
Art
Working on the Patrick Dougherty installation at Bernheim is one of the best things I have been involved in artistically. To be able to work with someone who has an international reputation, to be able to see just how far use of natural materials can be carried, to see his approach to working with the large number of volunteers that he uses, and simply to see first hand how his works are constructed - these are among the reasons that I am making the drive to Bernheim as often as I can. The work starts with the grunt work of dragging three saplings of the proper height and diameter (Patrick has a lot to say about this as he is the only one with any idea of what he wants he finished project to look like) and setting them into 2 foot deep holes (which is a part of the grunt work I was not involved in), tamping as the dirt is being filled in. This is his framework and what makes the piece secure, despite its ultimate airy look. After setting the framework, there is more grunt work of raking up the loose dirt and spreading mulch so that if it rains we are not working in the mud. This took the first two and 1/2 days. Finally on Wednesday afternoon the weaving began. Patrick uses scaffolding, rope, and string to create the shape he wants the framework to take but by the time all the weaving is done, all of this support is removed. The saplings have dried into shape and also are held by the intertwining. The weaving has several layers. There is the first pass which creates a sort of loose skin. then the skin is filled in with more branches. the last part is the exterior weaving, which is what creates the illusion of movement in the piece. As each of us gets more experienced, he trusts us to weave different layers. I was privileged to weave a part of the exterior layer (though it was on an inner wall) last week. Patrick tends to weave the most visible parts of the exterior himself. This week I will be involved in the finishing of the project. By the time I get there on Wednesday it will have been a week since my last work day. Much will have been done but, I suspect, much will be left to do before the grand opening Thursday afternoon. I am scheduled to work Friday as well. I asked, "Will we still be working on the piece Friday if the opening is Thursday?" Patrick asked the project coordinator, "When am I leaving?" When she told him he was leaving Saturday, he answered me, saying, "We'll still be working." Along with everything else, I have learned what it means to be a dedicated artist.
http://www.bernheim.org/dougherty.html

thinking
http://chronicle.com/article/Shift-Happens/131580/
This article is about the book "The Structure of Scientific Revolution" by Thomas Kuhn, which was published 50 years ago and how it is still important and controversial today. It is a long article but for me it was worth reading. Approaches to doing science are not really so different from approaches to doing everything else in life, even art. To do good science you have to have a creative mind, just as artists do. And philosophy is relevant to  science just as it is to all parts of life. In science, just as in art and just as in the well-lead life, philosophy matters. Your initial mindset matters. And what you think may not be the same as what others think, even if you are using the same words; the post-modern argument applies in science too. All of us who are doing good work, whether we are politicians, artists, bankers, horticulturists, or scientists are using the same kind of tools - critical thinking and openmindedness. This is why, even when I can't really grasp what my husband is thinking about, I can still on some level understand what he does.

social change
I have no children living at home and, when I am in school at all, I am only a part time student, so I sometimes feel have to do something more to validate my existence, to make a difference in my community. I choose to volunteer. I work at Yew Dell Gardens for several hours every week and I have been involved in the Patrick Dougherty work at Bernheim. I also am the chair of LATFA, the Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists and I help with jurying artists for the Crescent Hill Art and Music Festival. Clearly I am selective about what I get involved in. And I sometimes wonder if it is enough. The volunteer work that I do makes me very happy and it is done for organizations that provide other people pleasure. But sometimes I think I need to be more directly helpful to people who are in need. The most socially active thing I have done recently is challenge people sitting in their cars with their engines running, asking them if they need to do that, given what we all know about 1) conserving fossil fuels and 2) AIR POLLUTION!!!!

Artwork

This is the completion of something I started earlier in the semester when we were to do a piece using natural materials. It is framed pretty casually because I do not think it will last for very long; when I was sewing the squash onto the paper, it was like sewing through apricots. So I expect to see some rotting going on some time. I call works like this my impermanent collection. They are not meant to last forever. Sorry about the crummy photo. I am not a photographer. This piece is called "The Order of Things: One of These Things." The name refers to the Sesame Street song and the close-up is a photo of that one thing.