Summer Lovin'

I'm havin' a blast this summer, and have been neglecting the blog!
While I haven't been making much physical art, I've been spending lots of time playing music (old-time, contra dance) and working at my internship with my local public library, telling children stories and working in youth services!

I've been keeping my eyes open for beautiful things in the every day - here's one I saw yesterday at the farm where I camped this weekend - pretty and delicious!!

That's an heirloom tomato, look at all the colors! It was in a neat greenhouse at Stick and Stone Farm in Trumansburg NY. I went up there for the Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance, and had a lovely time filled with great vibes and sounds.


I go back to college August 19th - so watch out for arty stuff after that!!

xoxo
Cady

Face in a Hole

Hey world!
I thought today I would bring you a not art taste of my life, through the recent face-ina-holes I've come across! Enjoy!

Let It Begin!

Today was our first meeting for Junior year in Fibers!!
I am so excited to start making work.
Tomorrow morning, I have my first class, weaving!! Yay!

Today we got to choose our studios for the year. I'm happy to be sharing with two friends, and also that the walls are pink.

Here it is, fresh and ready to be covered with soft things.

Home on the Range.

Well I'm home!

It was a wild couple of weeks, touring through National Parks with my mom and CJ, and our lovebird, Buddy.
We saw some seriously beautiful sights... here are a couple to give you an idea...





Soo awesome.

You can really see where the SW artists get their color schemes and inspiration, the zig zags, lines and shades of the rock formations were art in their own right.

In other news, it seems that the medium of tapestry has been worn out, before I even get started... Isn't this hilarious?!



The other awesome thing we did was go to a rodeo... it was so surreal, but I really enjoyed the culture.
It's nice to be home now though! Phew!
xoxo
Cady

NYC!

I just got home from a glamorous week with my best friend Lily in NYC!
We did all kinds of neat things such as:

- going to the all-hipster breeding ground the Brooklyn Flea market (click) , which had a vintage leather purse I was drooling over but resisted (kudos Cady!)

- seeing WICKED the musical, which I had already memorized from a early high-school obsession, but had never seen! I sobbed throughout most of it, but it was amazing!

- hearing Annie and the Beekeepers in Bryant Park, for free (click)

here they are jamming out. Super adorable (especially the bass player, just sayin'.)

- going to the New York City Ballet! It was the first professional ballet I've ever seen, and I was so blown away. The best part in my opinion was a half modern/ half classical dance, in which 4 dancers in all white tried to sway each other into their respective mediums. It was comical, but also so beautiful.

And then during the day when Lily had to work at her internships (she's fabulous like that) I went on my own adventures!

I got to go to the:

- Guggenheim, which had an exhibit called "Haunted" which was as good as it sounds

- The Natural History Museum. It was my first visit, and aside from being a little creeped out by all the dead animals, I loved it. I especially liked the exhibits about other people and cultures. Look at this amazing crocheted girl from Africa, and this crazy embroidery from the Middle East!



And look at this coat. It's woven from strips of animal skins, which is something I've never seen before. I'm curious to try something like this in weaving next semester - maybe repurposing old fur coats?


and lastly I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I've visited before, but I wanted to get immersed in everything. I again decided that my favorite time period is the late 1800s, with Renoir and Degas, and all their beautiful ladies. Also I got to see the "American Woman" costume exhibit. If you can get over there, check it out! It was set up like Disney World, and the outfits were drool-worthy!

I had a great week, but I'm happy to be back in Ithaca... Time to get back in the saddle and get some quality horse time in! Yeehaw!

<3 Cady

Summer in Ithaca

I'm back in my hometown, Ithaca, for the summer! I've been having a lot of adventures, several of which have been fiber related!

After emailing everyone in a 20 mile radius, I found a farm that needed help shearing their alpaca. I went out for the day to Indian Chimney Farm (click) and the showed me how to tie down and shear their three alpaca.

The dark guy in this photo is Paco - even though shearing doesn't hurt the animals one bit (in fact, it keeps them from overheating!) he insisted on screaming and spitting the whole time. The other two just laid there calmly, but Paco was crazy!
The way it works, is the alpaca's front and back feet are tied to a long pole on the ground while they lay on their side stretched out. My job was to keep a hand on their heads so they couldn't thrash their heads around trying to see what was going on, for fear of them hurting their necks. I also got to try shaving some of the wool, and learned to clip toenails!
Kim and Chris at the farm let me take home some fiber to play with.

Which I then took on my next mission: learning to spin!
My mom's friend Jean, her friend Kathy and I got together and learned how to wash the wool, card it so all the fibers are going in one direction, and to start spinning the fiber on a wheel!
It took me a little while to catch on, but by the time I went home, I was able to make some pretty yarn (without too many lumpies :)

Next up, I'm heading out to Kathy's house to learn to dye wool before spinning it.

Aside from my alpaca adventures, I've been horseback riding with my friend Alicia. Here are her pretty (goofy) horses from the winter:


Also I just got back from visiting a few friends in Maine:

which was lovely and woodsy.

and finally, I've been playing a lot of mandolin, finding people and places around town to make tunes. Monday nights on the commons is a free and open contra dance and jam, so if you're in the area, swing by!

I know that was a long post! I'll let you know when some art making takes place :)
xoxo
Cady

"business" card!

I never really learned to use Illustrator or Photoshop, so I've been trying to teach myself the basics lately. Tonight I made myself a business card! I'm going to print some of these up, because (drumroll please) I won the Student Assistant Grant to attend CONVERGENCE 2010 in Albuquerque!

For those of you who don't know, Convergence is a giant event hosted by the Handweaver's Guild of America. It's a weeklong giant fiber-fest, which is perfect for me!!

The grant means that they will fly me there and put me up in a hotel, and that I will get free admission to the Convergence event, in exchange for assisting with two classes! It's a super good deal, because that means I get to learn what the classes are teaching as well! One class is surface design, which is covering some techniques I've never done, and the other class is about re-fashioning old clothes, which I've been doing forever, but hopefully they will also have some more legit methods than my usual "try on and pin" ways.

I'm very excited to go, and will be sure to post pictures when I'm back! (I have a little while to wait though, it's not until mid-July!)

Mass MoCA

Today I joined the MassArt Art History department on their free trip to Mass MoCA. It was my first time at the museum, and I was really astounded by the space. I think the building itself was more impressive to me than most of the art, although there were a few things I liked.

A piece was being installed made out of long, knitted pieces of rope which was sprayed with red paint or rubber, I couldn't tell. I liked seeing the pieces not yet installed on pallets, waiting outside the installation room. It makes me feel like the art is happening, instead of untouchable in the gallery. I didn't take pictures, sorry!

I also really liked the trees outside the building. Similar to tomato planters, they were suspended upside down from wires, and were growing in all sorts of wonky shapes, trying to reach the sunlight. Really, really neat.

I DID take pictures with my friend Kate in the Sol Lewitt exhibit though! Here are a couple gems:





It was a very nice day.

In other news, I have been consuming a ridiculous amount of clementines lately. But they are small, so it's more justifiable, right?!

Twitter

Hey guys!
I got a Twitter account. If you use Twitter, follow me there, and I will follow you! I will post smaller occurrences there, like some of the dreams I've been writing down lately, or links to things I like.
https://twitter.com/cadyfontana
Thanks for reading!

xoxo Cady

Woolapalooza!!

So this weekend I went with Kate of the Yurt Alert to Drumlin Farm for the Woolapalooza fibers day! We saw all kinds of wooly things, including a whole bunch of sheep and other critters! I'm so excited about getting involved in the Fibers world - I could see one day working on a farm or owning a couple animals (including the pony that everyone knows I deserve.)





In fact, this summer I look forward to participating in Ithaca NY's new "Crop Mob." It's a group of people who get together one day a month to go to a local farm and help with tasks that would take the farmers ages to do on their own. It was started in North Carolina, but Ithaca caught on fast, being the eco-haven that it is. I'm sad to miss the first few, being at school, but once I'm home I definitely plan on attending!!

Things I Like

Lately I've been avidly following a few blogs, and they have me feeling very inspired! It's so great how crafty the internet is, really, I'm impressed every day by what people are doing.

Check out a couple of my favorites!

http://craftzine.com/

http://www.designspongeonline.com/

http://www.antlermag.com/blog/

http://www.cucumbersome.com/

http://psimadethis.com/

http://colormekatie.blogspot.com/

Those are my usual haunts, any suggestions for others I should check out are more than welcome!

And here's a little cameraphone image of one of my screen printed fabrics - I've got 3 yards of this, and I think it's going to be my curtains next year in my chic new apartment! Better quality images of this and others coming soon.

Holidaze

Happy (Belated):
1. Valentine's Day
2. Chinese New Year
3. Presidents' Day.

Or maybe more of a

Happy Self-Affirming, Reaffirmation of the Importance of Good Friendships Day.



Oh they keep me sane, when the opposite is quite where I'm headed.
(Jarrah has been my friend since I was two, Lily since 2nd Grade)

New surface design work coming (as soon as I bring my camera to the studio!)

xoxo

edit: Oh gee! I guess today is actually Mardi Gras! So that's fun. Happy that as well, everyone.

Age 3

My mom found this picture today and sent it to me. This is 1993, I'm three. Notice the sippy cup!

Win!

Exciting! The lovely knitter and dog over at grrl + dog picked me to win one of these knitted wigs! Very fun, I think that the art school crowd will fully embrace my new 'do. Here is the image of it from over at http://www.dneese.blogspot.com/

Happy Holidays!

I haven't been doing too much art, because I've been busy riding horses! Devil the Horse says "Merrrrrrrry Christmasssssss Neiiggghhhhh"!

1000 views!

woohoo!!