To october, sleep, and love love love

Welcome to the magical world of Mel Kadel, oh my is it wonderful. My good friend (and stealthy accomplice) Lucy Fandango introduced me to her work and I am so glad she did. Visit her website melkadel.com to see more of her work, I had trouble not putting the entire gallery on here.
I think the reason her work is so wonderful is that there is a kind of darkness to her figures, and yet her use of color and line work is playful and light hearted. I'm sucker for any kind of pattern work, or incorporation of fabric, and of course, faded color combinations like yellow ochre, tea, and pea green. The titles for her work are almost as good as the work itself, which is often a difficult thing to accomplish. Many artists seem to have a lot of trouble coming up with titles worthy of the work they produce. But she does.
1. Sunflowers
2. Homemade rainbow
3. Splat city
4. Grand Ole Fort
5. Unscared
6. It's Personal
7. Getting the love knocked out

The list:
Har mar, bougainvilleas, cacti, all is love, little spoon, marriage, family, sleep, november skies, mud slides, breakfast tacos, chance encounters, unpredictability, bad timing, broken oath, barkitecture, ACL, chocolate milk finger spouts, distractions, the coolest mom in the world.

Anywho, will update with wedding photos and other such exciting things later this weekend.
love love (and bugs of course)
Betty

The Hours of the Day

Artist of the moment: Louise Bourgeois
My current hero. Ninety-eight, feisty, brilliant, Parisian, sculptor, fabric re-arranger, simplistic phrase spiller, artist, idol.
I've written her letters, though I can never find her address. But type her name into Google and you'll understand. The pieces I've chosen are fabric works, mostly books, that are the epitome of what I'd like to do. In fact, what I'm working on at this very moment. Her goal in many of these books, is to take pieces of fabric from her past and re-compose them in a manner that brings back a series of memories. Stories from her past that are significant simply through pattern and color. Her paintings and sculptures are beautiful as well, though her fabric series attracts me most. I look at her as a type of sentimental controversialist whose goal is not only to interpret her world, but to stir up other peoples'. This is a tribute to her, her resilience, her age, her vivacity, and a hope that one day I will be 98 and still producing installations composed of giant ceramic boobs and metallic spider sculptures.

August to September, in a list:
Sun showers, full rainbows, third time's a charm, double trouble, exams, professor-student connections, pre-natal development, cherry tomatoes, string cheese bullet belts, the ultimate birthday party, haircut, red wine, dark chocolate, Blue Skies, price-is-right magic lamps, light bulb hair pieces, familiar faces, cloth memory renderings, 4am European visitor, No me digas!, ceiling of wing cases, costume party, undefeated, late nights, hand built shelves, and a set of new x-acto blades.

Oh! September. I can't wait for october- wedding, skydiving, birthday, ACL, etc. I hope all is well.

love, and some thai jewel beetles,
Betty

Summer to Fall

Because I can no longer focus my blog on traveling, I've decided to shine the spotlight on art. Art! Wonderful and magnificent art. The first four pictures are my current favorite pieces.
1) I'm unsure of the title and the artist, but its a great photograph nonetheless- album artwork for Brightblack morning light.
2) My new favorite artist- David Ellis. He paints to music, creating, not only a piece of art, but a performance piece to accompany it.
3) The incredible Lousie Bourgeois. I recently saw a series of her fabric pieces at the Austin Museum and I was speechless.
4) Matt Sewell- a UK artist who travels around painting unappealing objects to make them more aesthetically pleasing (garbage bins, run down alleys, dump trucks, etc.). He's awesome.
5,6) My apartment! New art corner and living room.

Summer to fall, in a list:
midnight lighting storms, Spinal tap sing-a-long, sleeplessness, indoor soccer, found and lost, patio plants, frozen pizza, new jobs, home made smores, class registration, double majors, broken bones, a box of a thousand luggage tags, new paintbrushes, new friends, old friends, paying bills, Amelia Earhart's flight journals, wedding preparation, couch the size of Hagrid, old fashion post cards, brain munchers, new neighbor mysteries, excercise routine, striped pants, architecture library, akron/family, sewing classes, and you may now call me Reverend Teaspoon.

Let us press stop on the august playlist. Let us move on into September where new friends await. Let us dwell only on happy thoughts, like the color of fresh salmon, and the magnificent way our bodies work. Let us make dates with old friends. Let us work, and play alike. Let us leave behind those habits that, in the end, are more harmful than helpful. Let us not brood on what cannot be changed. Let us learn to be just a little bit more consistent. Let us give our feet a chance to move, and to look for those crunchy leaves of fall. Let us learn everything that must be learned, and recite it in turn to bored professors, and unmotivated students. But instead of letting their moods irk us, let us delight in knowledge and create a home in what we know, and a future in what we don't. Let us dive freely into words like tenacity, gallimaufry, and risible. Let us fill this lacuna with bright yellows, smiles, and long sleeve shirts. And let us find, once again, that zesty taste for adventure, the "flighty temptress", the spark of wonderment, the love of life, and all it entails.

I hope your summers have been fabulous.
always love, and sometimes bugs,
Betty

The adventures after the adventure

So a few people have been asking why I haven't been updating my blog. At first my response was something like, Why would I update my blog when I'm not in a far away land adventuring and doing amazing things? But after thinking for a bit I realized that although I'm not climbing machu picchu, or speeding across the salt flats of Bolivia, or white water rafting in the jungles of Ecuador... (why am I in Texas again?)... I am doing more normal, day to day life kind of things that are just as life changing. Though in a very very very subtle way.

The transition from South America to good old Dallas, Texas was a rough one, though over the last month or two I have found things to do that amuse and entertain me (see above). I worked at the pub for about a month and gathered a little bit of money together. Long hours. Strange nights.
I took a two week trip, traveling from Pride's Crossing, to Martha's Vineyard, and finally to Branson, Missouri. It was incredible. Family is the one thing I wish I could carry with me on my travels.
I've been going through and editing my old blogs, adding pictures and elaborating the stories a bit.
And after returning from my trip I packed up and promptly moved to Austin. I've been here for a little over twenty four hours, and feel as if I'm still vacationing.
But tomorrow starts the job hunt.
And lastly, last week I got one of the best compliments anyone has ever given me. It was a postcard from a friend that said I was a "sneaky custodian of surprise and joy".
That's all for now.
Its not much. But its still an adventure.
Love and bugs
Betty

The winds and I have sworn companionship

Hello All! I believe this will be my final post. I am closing in on the end of my trip, I have less than a week until I´m home, and I have to say the last two weeks have been some of the best. Erin and JC arrived almost a week ago and we´ve explored Cusco, treked through the mountains of Peru, and visited one of the most incredible sites in the world. Guess which one I´m talking about!
Machu Picchu. Duh.
So let´s see. We left Bolivia about two and a half weeks ago. On our last day in La Paz, as I was doing my shopping, I wandered into a weaving shop and basically found an internship that is absolutely perfect for me in every way. The shop is run by a woman from Cambridge, Mass., who started traveling in the seventies and settled in Bolivia almost thirty years ago. She opened up an organization for kids in Bolivia that teaches them art, (including weaving from an old indigenous woman!). All of their artwork is sold at this shop and the money goes towards building new facilities for this art house. She gave me her email and said that if I was in Bolivia again, they offer internships and volunteer opportunities and the employees get to learn how to weave. Quite exciting.
From Bolivia we traveled to a small town called Puno that is on the edge of Lake Titicaca. Unfortunately, I got a bad stomache bug and couldn´t go to the islands with the rest of the group but a few days later was able to visit them with Wilson. The islands in the middle of the lake are unlike anything I´ve ever seen, hand made entirely of reeds grown out in the middle of the lake. They demonstrated how they make the islands, and there are over forty of them with about 25 people living on each one. The greatest thing I heard was that if there is an argument among the families, they simply cut off their part of the island and don´t have to deal with it anymore. We took a boat ride in one of the traditional reed boats, which are made to look like pumas gliding in the water. And on the way I met a woman from South Carolina who quit her job and moved to Bolivia to work in a school for a year. I almost cried when I heard her accent an told her so, at which point she gave me a big grandmotherly hug and patted my hand.
From Puno we headed straight to Cusco where we´ve been for almost two weeks. About two days into our stay, we were separated into groups and placed in different homes throughout the city. My homestay was incredible, with a lovely couple who made great food. We went to spanish school in the mornings, ate traditionally all week and chatted with our families to improve our spanish.
At the end of our homestays we moved back into the hostal and I waited impatiently for Erin and JC to arrive. They were here for about two days before we headed off into the mountains for our final trek. We trekked for four days all the way to a small town called Aguas Calientes. Erin did a fabulous job and didn´t die, despite her one lung. The trek was absolutely beautiful, as always, though pretty tough. When we finally got to Aguas Calientes, which is a town at the base of MaPi, we spent the night there and got up at four the next morning to make it to the top by sunrise. I hiked up to the top, which was pretty incredible, and met Erin and JC up there to tour the ruins. MaPi is not only incredible in its construction and size, but especially because it´s on the top of a mountain. Climbing the stairs up to the top, I realized how horrible it must have been for the people who lived up there because I was ready to pass out by the time I arrived.

Anyway, we have less than a week left. Two more days in Cusco and three in Lima. People are starting to trickle home and the rest of the group leaves tomorrow morning. V. sad.
I absolutely can´t wait to see you all and I hope everything is going well.
Love love love love love and bugs
Betty

TISA, right?

Hi! So let´s see. The trek. The trek! Oh my the trek!

Starting a little over a week ago, we traveled by bus to the start of our trek. Besides walking for eight hours a day, it was fairly uneventful. The scenery was beautiful, as always, and we saw a number of exotic birds and lots of llamas. We made our way through almost every kind of weather, starting in snow, working our way through cloud forests, and ending in the hot humid climate of the jungle. Our trek ended in the tiny town of Coroico, where we rested for two days. I was so sore I spent most of the time either in bed or waddling out into the square to find food.

From Coroico we had a twenty hour bus journey. Twenty hours! We ended up in another little jungle town which paved our way into the jungle portion of our adventure. We traveled by jeep to a small river called the Yunga, which feeds into the amazon. From the riverside we hopped on a boat and traveled to our jungle logde. It was a great ride, we saw all kinds of crazy looking birds and monkeys, and we actually got to feed a bunch of capuchins. My favorite bird was a big ancient bird with an orange mohawk and blue circles around his eyes. The lodge was pretty basic, but delightful all the same. There were a bunch of hammocks on the front porch, beds with mosquito nets, and some of the best food I´ve had all trip. Out front was a big tree you could climb and jump into the river from its branches, but after finding a crocodile on the shore one morning I avioded swimming in the river. Each day we had a different activity planned. We hunted anacondas...which is actually a lot more exciting in your head so Ill leave that up to your imagination to think about. We looked for crocodiles at night... really exciting and really creepy. The only way you can find them is by searching for the orange sparkle in their eyes which to me just looks like hunger. Everything we did, we did by boat, so inbetween activities we sailed around looking at the weird plants and animals. On the final day we swam in the river with pink river dolphins and fished for pirhanna in the swampy areas. All in all it was a great trip, except for the fact that I am covered head to toe in mosquito bites and can´t stop scratching them.

At the moment we are back in La Paz, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite cities. Two nights ago we went to a curry house that has something called the vindaloo challenge and the deal is that if you can finish the vindaloo, you get a free t-shirt. Naturally, I took up the challenge and have been regretting it ever since. The curry is almost all pepper seeds and they give you about twice the portion.... I finished it but it took me two and a half hours and I lost my dinner soon after. I´m not really sure why I thought it was a good idea.

We spent yesterday biking. But it wasn´t just any biking day, it was biking something called the Death Road. Not only is it an extremely steep and rocky ride, but one side is a cliff that masures anywhere from 300-900 meters. (Mom, there´s a reason why I didn´t tell you about it before I went) But don´t worry! We were fully geared up and had excellent bikes and the journey was great. And I got another tshirt that says ¨I survived the most dangerous road.¨

And lastly, our group has now lost four of its members, and my closest friend Richard left yesterday. I am a sad panda. But Erin and JC join us in less than two weeks!!!!! And then its only about a week and a half before I am home again.

I love you all, you know I do

Betty

Chuchaque en la manana-REMIX

(hangover in the morning)
It was one of the girls birthdays last night, so I´m going to keep this short so that I can go hunt for some water and a coffee.
The last week has been excellent. We took a three day jeep journey across the salt flats of Bolivia. The salt flats are unlike anything I´ve ever seen, filled with lagoons and strange lakes, potassium deposits that look like snow, and beautiful flamingos that live off of the salty shrimp in the shallow waters of the desert. We visited an area properly named the Salvador Dali Desert, as it was a garden of oddly shaped rocks we got to climb all over. Each night we stayed in a local lodge sitting on the edge of a beautiful lagoon and had plenty of time to watch the sun set. I woke up early each morning and climbed the nearest hill to watch the sun rise, as well. The sky is so big here, like Texas, and it makes me a little bit homesick. After that we visited a hotel made enitrely of salt (I licked the wall!) and an island in the middle of the salt flats covered in cacti. One thing about the salt flats is that it is vast expanses of white where you can take a number of exciting pictures, looking as if you´re climbing out of your hat or being crushed by your sunglasses. As a group, we spelled out tranquilo (which means calm and is the theme of our trip) and I still haven´t heard the end of my sad life as a ¨U¨. I never knew my arms were so short!

After the salt flats, we traveled through a number of small towns in the desert. One of which had a train graveyard- a perfect version of an adult playground. We spent hours climbing all over trains and reading the grafiti, one of which said ¨We need a good mechanic urgently¨in spanish. After that, we made our way to a mining town called Potosi. There we toured the mines- outfitted in full miner suits with bandanas over our mouths. We climbed down in to the mines with our guide and met many of the miners and brought them gifts of dynamite, soda and coca leaves. I´ve never been to a mine before, but the treatment of the workers and the pay is hideous. Apparently, though, there is one miner in Potosi who makes over 5000 US dollars a month and owns a mansion and ¨changes cars and girlfriends like he changes socks¨. Otherwise the average wage is 1000 bolivianos a month (which is the equivilant of about thirty dollars) and it takes more than five years to be promoted. At the end of the tour we had some extra dynamite.... so you can imagine the explosions. As it turns out, I like dynamite. Its nice and destructive.
At the moment we´re in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. Its a big city, almost all black market, and we´re about to hit the town to visit the Coca Museum and a few churches.
Tonight we start preparation for our trek into the jungle- machetes! We leave officialy on Sunday and return a little over a week later. We have three days of trekking, three days in a jungle lodge (with a swimming pool!), a safari, and a few days in a small jungle town. Yay.
All for now.
Love and Bugs
Betty

and soda

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