surprising Mabel

With the passing of each of the last landmark birthdays, 70 years and then 75, I wanted to throw a birthday party for Mom but didn't.  This year, for her 80th, I finally got the job done.  And it was a surprise at that!

Once I decided that I absolutely had to do it this year, about six weeks before the date, I called my siblings and father to recruit their support.  Everyone enthusiastically agreed.

I'm the youngest of my mother's four children.  We are mostly an independent, quarrelsome and know-it-all bunch. Even so, we collaborated for this party; everyone came together to make it happen.  What better opportunity to prove ourselves than on behalf of our mother? 

I'm a big party thrower and proud of it, so I took the lead. My sisters and brother gladly let me and helped by coordinating different details: a guest list, addresses, party place, decorations, etc. and a key part:  setting up the surprise.  My brother told Mom that his oldest daughter would be playing her trumpet in a holiday music show at a nearby community center.  How perfect, eh?  You could count on Mom to be prompt for her granddaughter's music recital!


Dad, a lover of pulling pranks, took on the party planning with enthusiasm.  He played 007 sneaking into Mom's address book and calling me with phone numbers while she was in the next room.  He amped the drama level by complaining about the bad weather all day before the party, saying they should stay home.  (The event was less than a mile from their house.)


My mom is never the person waving in the air to get attention, but like anyone, she appreciates true gestures of love.  I thoroughly enjoyed getting the wheels in motion for this one.  

Here's how it went:

We watched these doors A LOT while anticipating Mom's arrival.

The look we were hoping for.

Mom figures it out; Dad's already crying.

Even though the snow storm made carloads of Mom's siblings, cousins, nieces, and nephews turn back or stay home (which is a LOT of people), we had a wonderful turn-out and fantastic party.


Our cousin Christopher (from the east coast side of Dad's family), his wife Steff and his mother Lea flew in the night before for the occasion.  We had not seen Chris or Lea for 30 years (or even met Steff!)  Huge surprise!

Chris & his mom, Lea

Plus many friends... (I cobbled together a small selection of photos here from my brother, Steff and my own camera.)

             

  

 

See how Mom's pointing her finger? She playfully went around shaking it at everyone for conspiring.

Mom & Pam

Trouble.

Dinner was simple and elegant but of course, the fun part is when you bust open the cake!

We put together a 'card' that was a multi-page book of photos - of Mom from a baby to now but mostly of family.  People signed it at the party and we gave it to her at the end.

Dad made a sweet toast.

Mom this year.

Mom at 19

I think it's safe to say, the party was a big success.  Now what are we going to do next year?!

make haste slowly

My head has been in and out of my studio, even if I physically sit in it ever day.  We moved to this house over a year ago and left behind what had been and felt like my studio. I was in it longer than any other studio and I seriously possessed it. I made some of my biggest leaps and discoveries in it.  It looked like this........

Jack, when not under foot, would lay right outside the side door.

Me editing bay was right next to my work bench.

The bench, perpetually a place of work in progress, was always covered in bits of drawings, assemblages and stuff.

I made things there.

I spread out and tested installation arrangements and presentation.

Occasionally, I cleaned it up for parties.

The best was a disco.

Food was in the house and the studio served exclusively as the dance floor.

Work and play mixed fluidly.

There was enough space for more than one of us to work in there at the same time.

Enough space to run movie projections, make transfers or just watch.

At it's peak one summer, the entrance looked like this (decorated extra special for a garden party).  With the arbor, working outside was a pleasure - especially doing wet work like hand felt-making or paper-making.

I have made a few portraits over the years, and I consider all of my work to be personal, but here, I made my first openly and decidedly autobiographical body of work, titled, 'make haste slowly'. It dealt with family and nostalgia.

We set up tables with holes in them, lenses taped to foam core and cardboard everywhere, to play with pitch distances.

Eventually we had a video projection running where I wanted it - on the lens of a pair of glasses. (You can see finished images of this piece in the slide show below.)

Slide show of 'make haste slowly' installation.

Now, that particular body of work is packed in boxes in my basement. I still have the editing bay. Jack has been gone awhile. A tiny work bench is at my side. New drawings are tucked around me. More installations in the works.  Finally, I feel like I'm owning my new little studio. 

Sets

© Toni Matlock

This is the 'set' for some interviews that we did in our living room.  Making videos obviously means a lot of set up and take down of sets.  When the lights are burning and the camera is rolling a set becomes a sparkling macro-world. Then it's gone.  A place never looks or feels the same after you've been shooting there.  The space and objects are invested with the energy of your work and ideas like you've pissed on it.  Even when, like here, the shoot is in your own house, it's changed forever.