go away winter

In the past few months Seth Gould and I have done two trades. First was the enamel book and claw hammer trade. Second was calipers for business cards. Today I finished the cards and today he delivered my sweet claw hammer. Isn’t that hammer dreamy!

We caught the tail end of the summer at the beach last week. It was splendid. Now it is back to work. I am busy enameling the Core Book for this year, sending off the Core Show postcard to print (send me your address if you want one), applying for grants, getting my work photographed, and most importantly hanging out with my niece.

I have been thinking a lot about the abyss and what happens when you stare into it. In fact it was about a year ago that I was sitting on my friend Molly’s back porch when I declared (and let it be noted I don’t often declare), “People always say don’t stare into the abyss, but you know what I’m not staring at it, it’s staring at me!” I meant it truly and I suppose I have been thinking about it ever since. I talked about it all through my spring class here at Penland, because I felt like I was finally standing, staring blindly right into that abyss. Then just today I picked up this book by Joseph Campbell called “The Power of Myth” and read the line, “One thing that comes out in myths is that at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation”. Maybe just maybe this is why I am so drawn to folklore, isn’t folklore just a version of myth?

If you stare into the Abyss long enough the Abyss stares back at you. —Nietzsche