Pacific Time Zones

Since moving to Seattle, we are in the Pacific Time Zone.  It is a strange thing for an east coast Southerner to be living at the far corner of our country.   I forget sometimes about the time change, and I have to think before calling my sister or a friend out East.

Living as far north as we do, it is funny but I don't find the winter darkness too daunting.  But the summer light, I find very strange.  The sun rises at 5:12 today, and it won't set until almost 9.  The light suffuses the sky around 4 and lingers until about 10.  Last week, my son needed to take some photographs for his photography class and wanted to take photos of the sunrise.  So, at 4 AM when the light was already lightening the sky to a deep blue, I drove down to a beach on Eagle Harbor.  My son, our dog and I sat in the 50 degree morning dew waiting for the sun to come up.  We were far enough around the harbor that we could not see the sun as it rose over the Cascades, but we saw the effects of the light on the water and its reflected light on Mount Rainier.  It was one of those moments where I clearly thought to myself, this is a special moment, take a minute and remember it, for before long your son will be gone.  (I clearly remember another of those moments when I stopped to make a point to remember the moment, that was when I first brought our son home, and I was in our bedroom nursing him looking out over our Virginia farm).  Scott who is now in high school took photos of the sun coming up and the reflections on Mount Rainier, and of the ferry as it headed out to Seattle for the first run of the day.

This photo of the photo doesn't do it justice.  He printed it on canvas to frame and hang in his room, but a lovely photo of the ferry as the sun reflects off the windows.

Here is a portrait my son took of me last winter in the fading afternoon light with black and white film.  I love this portrait, and I don't like many photos of myself. 

But back to Pacific Time Zone, I am happy to say that I have had a tapestry accepted into the Tapestry Artists of Puget Sound's exhibit, Pacific Time Zones.  I submitted a couple of tapestries, but they accepted my portrait of Linden.  I decided to weave this portrait using Helena Hernmarck's technique after I came back from her workshop three years ago.  I am so excited to be included in this show with so many other really wonderful weavers.  

I hope I can drive down to Corvallis, Oregon to see it hanging, but it is quite a drive from here.  The exhibit hangs in Corvallis at the Arts Center from August 18-September 20, 2016.

I was so disheartened by my results from my last weaving, that between getting ready for the Bainbridge Island Studio Tour and life with kids, I have not woven anything since.  Maybe this acceptance is just the boost I need to start weaving tapestries again!