Flood Fight

The Red River is on a rampage again this spring. We have been flooded twice by this normally placid river. In '79 it unexpectedly filled our basement while we were gone. We had gone out to my sister's, 350 miles west of here, for the weekend. One of my other sisters called on Saturday morning and said, "I have really bad news for you...your house is flooded." We thought she was joking. She wasn't. We came home - the water was within 1" of our main floor. We threw everything into junk piles for the trash trucks to pick up.

In '97 the Red rose again to unprecedented, 100 year levels. This time we hauled everything out of our basement dry, much to the disgust of our teenage daughters who were enlisted to help. ("This is so crazy - we are miles from the river - it'll never flood our house.") It did...dikes broke and all the water gushed across our flat city. We threw only one bed that somehow we had forgotten about after setting it up against the wall to get it later. And we threw carpet and sheetrock and insulation.

Now our city has a dike protection system. We are counting on it this year...everything is staying in place in our homes. This will be the first time the system is tested...so we are nervous but hopeful.

We are praying for everyone in Fargo, North Dakota who are in the flood fight of their lives. Two of my sisters live there and they have been working 'round the clock to build sandbag dikes in their neighborhoods. I can feel their aching bodies and know what is going through their minds. It is an emotional roller coaster of fear and hope. Several of my art students live next to the Red in Grand Forks. They, too, are fighting the waters, as they are outside the protection of the new dike system. Please keep the communities along the Red River in your thoughts and prayers for the next several weeks until the river crests and subsides.

On another note, there are a few days left of my grand opening sale. My website now has an online store! Go to www.jackiesart.com and click on my gallery. Everything is 20% off through the last day of March.

Lample II is finished - recycled art

Lample II is finished!

I love how it turned out...the barn wood, diamond willow and the recycled globe came together nicely. I finally had a use for 10 pieces of turquoise that I bought in New Mexico about 15 years ago. I bought them for a future project and really didn't think the future project would be 15 years down the road. But the turquoise matched the paint I used on the globe and fit nicely into the center of the diamonds in the willow trunks. I used glass amber nuggets in some of the diamonds, and left some of the diamonds unadorned.

I 'printed' leaves on the globe in turquoise and amber by painting on real leaves and them pressing them to the glass globe. The colors look nice individually and where they overlap , too. I bought a cut glass light bulb and that adds interest, too, when the light is turned on.

I debated on how best to finish the reclaimed wood and finally decided on Watco's Danish Oil. It seeps into the pores, so the wood is preserved, but doesn't add color or sheen, like varnish does, so the 'history' of the wood is retained. I love that!

My husband did an awesome job wiring the lample and putting the pieces together. It was fun to show the lamples at the Art and Wine Walk today - and fun to hear people's positive comments on them.

Weathered wood and diamond willow trees are plentiful in the Missouri River bottoms where my sister and her husband live, near Williston, North Dakota. We went there over the weekend (350 miles one way) and came home with a trunk full of wood and willow. We had a great time scavenging around their rural area - David, my brother-in-law, has lived there his entire life and so he knew great places for snooping around and finding what I wanted...and even some things that I didn't know I wanted! Did you know there is weathered wood with cool, small, round metals things nailed to it with a previous purpose of holding down tar paper and shingles? I didn't either but now I am the proud owner of several such pieces of wood! I plan to use the wood for table tops and shelves...maybe to go with my painted glass globes - or maybe not. I love thinking about the possibilities. David also knew where there is a stand of diamond willows. The trunks of the diamond willow trees have an awesome pattern of large and small diamonds up and down the length of the trunk. I'm going to remove all or most of the bark to help emphasize the patterns. Then those trunks will become table legs or posts for shelves...photos will come when I get something finished. We also brought home some trunks from a thick chokecherry bush - it bled red when it was cut! Sort of sad, but beautiful, too. I can understand how amber is formed from such gorgeous colored sap. Too bad I'm going to Minneapolis this weekend because I'm charged up and ready to go with weathered wood and willow! I'm sure the Vikings/Colt game will be fun, but I'd rather do art now that I have so much new material to work with! David and my husband and sister were great helpers, without them I'd have nothing - thanks for your enthusiastic help with my recycled art projects!