.....and this weekend, I'm going to rent a car of some kind and drive directly away from my late Thursday class in the direction of Indiana.....There is a remarkably interesting annual festival at Greencastle, Indiana, which is just south of Indianapolis. It features the second most boring stretch of highway I've ever experienced -- roughly from Fort Wayne to Indianapolis (what's the MOST boring, you ask? The drive from about Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to the start of the Badlands, when suddenly it's almost worth it...). (If you make that drive in July or August, don't be so foolish as to think you can carry nice cool bottled water in the car, or have ice in a chest --- everything practically vaporizes in the heat).
Judging from the vendor list, the festival has grown again, so I'll scoot down there, finish the drive on Friday morning, hit the festival at 1:00, when it opens, and get back on the road by about 4:00. That way, I can be home again by late evening -- or stop at another motel and expect to be home by noon Saturday. I even notice a half-dozen yarn dyers whose names don't seem familiar -- This is where you find the NEW artisans -- the smaller shows with low table costs. They test the waters, increase production, and within a year or two move on to the bigger festivals. And it's at that point that I really begin to pay attention: The world of new dyers seems to divide into those who continue to grow, change, innovate, and those who replicate colors and textures they've already created. In the latter case, I'm sorry to confess, I lose interest.
But quite a few fall into the first category, and I look forward to seeing who has done what over the past while, and from show to show as they develop and feel more powerful. Life is about exactly that -- gathering our own power year by year, finding the path that leads to growth and away from stagnation, the mere replication of things already known, things already done. svb
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