If you’ve been to my Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram accounts recently, you’ve probably see lots of yarn bombing photos.

We started a yarn bomb group at the ideaXfactory last fall and since, we meet every week, have been getting lots of projects done.

When we found out the St. Patrick’s Day parade is scheduling to go right by the ideaXfactory, we decided to decorate.

You can see from the installation photo, that the building is sadly in need of some new paint, and we don’t have a sign yet. So I decided to knit one.

For the other sides of the column, we recycled another project we created for the Art Museum yarn bomb last January (here’s the stop-motion video), but it was a little too small. Yesterday afternoon was a great time to sit outside in the 80-degree weather, and crochet up a few odd pieces to fill in.

It turned out to be a bigger job than I thought, but now all that’s left to finish is the fourth side of the column, and we can probably get that done in time for next weekend’s reception for the Missouri Art Educators Conference.

Now I have to go back to crocheting shamrocks for the parade today. Here’s where I got the pattern for the shamrocks, and thanks to Mochi for modeling my first attempt.

My friend Penny made all sorts of creative little pompom creatures and plants that are attached in the top branches.

For First Night Springfield, the ideaXfactory will be participating in the downtown New Years’ Eve celebration, with the new Art of Space “Knitting Space” installation, and Russ is building a neon and LED sculpture environment. Here’s more information about ideaXfactory, tickets, and other First Night venues.

We were planning on hand-on yarn activities, but because of the low-light necessary for the art environments, we are moving the hands-on activities two doors down to our friends’ SquidFoo Art Gallery and Hacker Space. Hopefully the evening won’t be too cold, and we’ll also be able to work out on the Boonville street.

We won’t be able to teach anyone how to knit or crochet in one night, so I’ve been thinking of some easy yarn techniques that people who show up can do — yarn flowers made on plastic lid looms has been very popular so far. Also I’m thinking of pompoms, tassels and braids.

Here’s a bike I started to test out the different techniques. We have two more Sundays to prepare our yarn bombers crew, materials, and supplies, so if you have any other ideas for simple yarn techniques, please let me know!

Sometimes I stress out when trying to organize events and collaborate. Here’s a nice short PechaKucha presentation reminder to relax and lighten up, and in fact, why to even collaborate at all: Collaboration and You, by Shantell Martin: ‘Get out of your head and into your body, Hell yeah !’

Earlier this month, in memory for Panbanisha the famous bonobo who knew language through years of growing up in a conversation and story-rich environment created by her human caretakers, Russ and I created Panbanisha.org.

Russ knew Panbanisha and her famous brother Kanzi before me. Between semesters at the Kansas City Art Institute, he would travel to the Language Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia to help his sister Sue create aluminum and stainless steel tool sites for the bonobos and also for chimpanzees Sherman and Austin.

Later after we were married, on a visit to Atlanta we arrived too early and found the front door locked. Being restless artists who pass time by creating something new, we found an electrical outlet on the porch and created a multimedia program on an Amiga computer with animated graphics that said, “Door is locked. Let us in!” with animated arrows pointing to door. Back in the early 1990′s, before PCs were capable and Macs were struggling, we were using Amiga computers and video systems to create 3D renderings, art presentations, and multimedia programs.

When Sue and Duane arrived, they were astounded that we had created this program in a couple of hours. After that we embarked on almost a decade of work creating a “talking lexigram keyboard” that we called Language Vision. It was a system of nested symbols called lexigrams linked to computer touch screens, laserdiscs, video games to help the bonobos develop their cognitive skills and to study their abilities. We also created monkey maze games funded by NASA to study cognitive abilities of monkeys and Sherman and Austin. When NHK of Japan visited to document the research, we assisted with filming, editing videos, produced in-house documentary videos, and watched Panbanisha chase our dog.

All this was before the internet, blogs and social media. I don’t have a lot of photos, because most of our energy was focused on creating the work, but we have old magazine articles from Time, Newsweek, and other print publications that I should scan someday.

It’s hard to describe how all this intense creative work and thinking about the origins of language and self-awareness effected me, except to say it was profound and became integral to my personal identity. So when we received word that Panbanisha had died of a cold (later determined to be pneumonia), we were terribly sad and concerned about the well-being of the other bonobos.

Since October I have been passing a ghost bike everyday on my way to our studio. The white bike had placed by family and friends in memory of a young man named Eric Floyd who was killed crossing a busy street on his bike. It wasn’t his fault – the street had no pedestrian cross-signal. It wasn’t the truck driver’s fault – he didn’t see the bike in the dark. It was just a terrible accident, and a few days later, to mark the event and location, someone placed a ghost bike at the corner of the intersection. As time passed, flowers and other personal items were added by others.

When Panbanisha died, the ghost bike gave me the idea to create something for Panbanisha.  Knowing there would be other people around the world feeling a sense of loss, we decided the best ghost bike would be a website. Russ secured the domain name, and after some late night hours, we created Panbanisha.org.

It was tearful accumulating photos and building the site. But like any family that suffers the loss of a loved one, part of the healing process – not just for us, but others involved.

Unfortunately however, our good intentions have been misconstrued. Some bloggers and media are saying the site was created as a fund-raiser immediately put together after Panbanashi death, and I’ve received rather unpleasant email to that effect. The fund-raising effort and new Bonobo Hope website had already been in development for several months before the tragedy. A donate link to that previous effort was only added to Panbansha’s site as a way to let people contribute to the future well-being of the family of bonobos in Des Moines, Iowa, who are incredibly rare, endangered, and culturally valuable.

I’m not sure what motivates some people to look for the bad in things, to create blogs and write articles to hurt others. For those of you who know Russ and I well, you know we don’t do creative work motivated by money, we do it because we believe we can help an important cause. For myself, I’ve also always seen the internet as an amazing way to connect and inspire people, and I’m happy to be here, sharing my ideas and art. I probably don’t say this often enough, but thanks for visiting my blog and reading this.

My friend Penny first told me about it and suggested we start a group. What a perfect project for someone who wants to polka-dot and stripe the world!

So I started collecting images on a pinterest yarn-bombing board, and ordering books on contemporary knitting, collecting yarns of many and varied colors (held together in a vintage white-themed work-space), rounding up knitting needles and crochet hooks, and contacting people who might be interested in joining.

We’re meeting down at the  ideaXfactory (new contemporary art and eXploration building) on Sunday afternoons, and remembering how to knit, and teaching others. I say work, but it’s been fun, and so far we’ve had a great response. In case you’re wondering, that’s an Art of Space installation in progress behind us.

There has been one casualty however. While unloading supplies, a stray ball of yarn bounced out of my car and down the enormous storm drain in front of the building. It sort of happened in slow motion, and then there was only a single strand of yarn left caught on the sidewalk.

I started pulling the strand, but the yarn just kept rolling off the ball sitting down there in the deep dark sewer. For one wild moment, I imagined sitting there on the curb and knitting from the storm drain all afternoon. But actually it’s a lot more fun being inside with the rest of the crew.

If you’re interested, here’s more about the group that meets on Sundays on the ideaXfactory website.

When the first one moved in from across the street, we called it a “he.” Then we found out it was a “she.” One day last spring, I was working in my office and heard a lot of loud squeaking coming from under the floor. I was pretty puzzled by it, until the next day I went to the front door and noticed Mochi looking outside at some furry little animals that were scratching at the front door. It looked like they were try to get inside to see her. Maybe they thought she was a momma groundhog.

I got a few photos of the first three, then three more swarmed towards Mochi, and I shreaked, “look at all the baby groundhogs!” and scared them all away. So I never got a photo of six all together.

It’s kind of fun to drive up and see them out on the lawn eating clover. Sometimes Mochi chases them across the grass, but never really tries to catch them. She is mostly just curious, but when one runs in front of the door and wakes her up from a nap, she snarls at them.

Sometimes I’ll just walk by the door and see one looking inside.

When we decided to host the next PechaKucha Night vol. 8 on November 3 at the studio, I drew a streetscape of our sort of lonely industrial street for the event poster. When full moon rises over the street, I imagine that Russ’s sculpture is reaching for the moon. And every day the groundhogs are throwing more dirt and rocks out of the hole, so I imagined PechaKucha Night Vol. 8 as sort of an underground network of a variety of people and creatures in the groundhog tunnel.

I thought the PechaKucha founders in Tokyo might like to know the story behind the poster, so I sent them photos of the groundhogs. I guess they liked them, because the little guys and poster were featured on the international site last week.

The exhibition is top-notch, displayed at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio, and segments of the show tour to all sorts of places for two years. They also do a really nice book. They also have very strict rules about no publication of work before the opening in May.

So it’s pretty tough for me – who is used to sharing and thriving on feedback – to keep the camera and the internet turned off while I’m working.

But now I can share the one that didn’t get in the show.

This is part of the series, my silly pun on old-fashioned postcards people use to mail from tourist and vacation spots saying “Wish You Were Here!” It’s called, “Niagra Falls – Wish You Were Hair.”

The other one, you’ll have to wait until next May to see it….

Actually I was also inspired a bit by this poster of a Lost Wormhole by Australia designer Michael Kleinman that I saw on Laughing Squid. Funny, but then it’s also the kind of thing that does funny stuff to your brain, right?

The other thing about one of those iPhone5 blog posts, was the advice to check manicure before clicking the shutter.

I’ve got a problem with that too because I accidentally chopped off half of my index fingernail a few weeks ago. While it’s on the mend, it still hurts to work with new skin exposured, so I’ve recently had an adventure with glue-on nails.

Being a novice at such things and despite reading the instructions that clearly state not to get the glue on your skin or in your eyes, I somehow managed to glue four of my fingers together, two from each hand.

Though that part is embarrassing, I am proud of the fact I was able to open a bottle of nail polish remover with my teeth, pour it into a soap dish with my elbows, and soak my captive fingers apart. I guess this means the yoga practice is paying off.

Tonight the Springfield Regional Arts Council is having a big art awards banquet. Happily our friends at Springfield Pottery who run the Claymobile among an huge amount of other arts-friendly stuff they do are award-winners.

So I’ve been driving out to the airport often to help organize and decorate for the Ozzie Art Awards.  Yesterday we drove a big truck full of white trees for party decorations. I’m anxious to see how this is going to work out.

We are lucky the new Springfield-Branson National Airport is a beautiful compared to our old one. For the past two years I’ve also been working with the visual arts committee for the Arts Council to help Sky Galley (a combination of five exhibition spaces) with changing exhibits of by art of created by our regional artists, universities, and public schools.

It’s the first time I have exhibited of my own artwork at the airport, but the current exhibition is a textile and fiber art show titled, “A Sense of Place,” so guess who has a lot of places documented in textile art?

The spaces are big, so I took a lot of work out there while we were hanging the show. It was great to lay them all out on that huge floor and watch people walk around them.