It has been a long, long two years

Life was looking good the Fall of 2019.  The annual Arts Alliance of Yamhill County  sponsored Art Harvest Studio Tour  was great.  Driving around Yamhill County with the 2019 Fall colors is pure joy. We were fortunate to interview and film several of the Tour artists. We went to their studios and learned a lot about different art mediums. 

Master Painter Jess Anderson

We visited Master Painter Jess Anderson at the studio just outside of Sheridan, Oregon. 

 

 

Felt Artist Jennifer Bencharsky

 

 

We visited Jennifer Bencharsky who does beautiful felt work and lives in Newberg which is on the other side of the County. 

 

As the Tour does, it gave us an excuse to travel from one side of beautiful Yamhill County  to the other and see some fantastic art and meet and talk with many great talented artists. You can see those at Arts Alive: Art Harvest Studio Tour on Youtube.

 You all know what happened in 2020 and this year 2021.  The Art Harvest Studio Tour cancelled both years. All of the Arts seemed to go into a stress induced shock and a kind of hibernation. For Liz and I at Meadowlake Studios the Arts Alive video interviews were shut down.  At least we hope it is hibernation because there are signs the Arts are beginning to wake up and roam around the landscape again. 

One art exception to hibernation might be writing and writers.  Literary journals expanded across the internet.  I guess for many writers the social isolation was a fantastic excuse to finish that novel, write short stories, work on a movie script, and scratch out some poems.  

Unfortunately with our video productions stymied, with my Poetry On Demand events at art and wine gatherings cancelled, going out to crowded restaurants for dinner or out to clubs to hear music was impossible, I went into a personal hibernation, which I'm finally beginning to wake.  

I really missed the Poetry On Demand events. During McMinnville and Newberg downtown association wine and art nights, we set up a table in a busy wine tasting bar, sat behind our manual typewriters, wrote poems as topics were given to us under pressure to finish while the people were sipping wine or having dinner.  It was wonderful to hand a freshly typed poem to the person who had given the topic and see their reaction to the poem they had prompted. The past two years I missed that stress and creativity.  One good thing. We did publish a collection of our 2018 and 2019 Poetry On Demand poems.

I've been off and on with this blog over the years. I have excuses. Now in late Fall 2021 as I am beginning to stir from my almost two year long stupor, shaking off the stress, emerging lean and hungry, I will try to pick up this blog which I've neglected.