Marilyn Ruseckas' Blog

Please feel free to visit my studio this month located at 105 Rt. 100 in Warren. It's right across the road from Mac's. Look for the Open Studio sign at the bottom of the driveway and come on up. I will be open to the public Wednesday through Friday from Noon-4:00 and on Saturday, August 14th from 11-4 for the Arts Festival's Studio Tour. Sorry, but I won't be available on Sunday, the 15th because I will be racing my bike at The Millstone Grind.

There are two conflicting dates. I will be working as an artist in the garden for Art in the Garden on Friday, Aug. 6 and Thurs. Aug. 12, so my studio will be closed. I am open for visits by appointment if these dates don't work for you, just call (496-9975) or e-mail to set up a time.

To see work at other venues, be sure to visit the Big Red Barn Art Show at the Lareau Farm on Rt. 100 in Waitsfield, the Artisans' Gallery on Bridge Street, Frog Hollow on Church St. in Burlington, or the Dragonfly Gallery on Martha's Vineyard. See you soon!

For the month of August, there is an art exhibit worth seeing in the big red barn at the Lareau Farm in Waitsfield. The opening reception is Sunday, August 1st from 5-7pm. It's a non-juried exhibit for Mad River Valley residents only. If you have dinner at American Flatbread, you can peruse the show with your drink while waiting for your table. It's a fun show. The artists are required to sit the show, so you meet different exhibitors. We all have four pieces in the show and if something sells, we replace it, so it's continually changing. Prepare to throw in a buck or so in the donations jar to help support the hard work of those who put it on! Thanks and hope to see you there.

Nice weather is here and I always get fresh energy and good ideas at the end of winter. I had a spring cleaning session in my studio yesterday where I washed all the windows, threw out a bunch of clutter, and organized everything. Now I'm ready to get back to work.

Recently, I sent ten pieces of artwork to Martha's Vineyard to Don and Susan at the Dragonfly Gallery. They will be opening in May and will carry my work throughout the 2010 season.  Being very hard working and thorough, they have made many changes and upgrades to the gallery and the website. This year, Don encouraged me to frame all of my work with anti-reflective glass, which is a good idea and makes a big difference in the viewing quality. I wish them well in the upcoming season and hope to get over to the island for a visit.

All of the work that they have there is posted on their website. Be sure to stop in and say Hi if you are in the area.

We hit a detour en route to meet Filip. We were supposed to be there at 4:00, but didn't arrive until 4:45. We had plans to go to the Vlaams Wielercentrum Eddy Merckx in Ghent that evening. As soon as we shook hands and said hello to Filip, he told us that if we wanted to go to the velodrome, we would have to leave by 5:30. We had driven all day, hadn't eaten, needed to pack up our gear, remove our pedals, and oh yeah, our shoes couldn't have a speck of dirt on them. Yikes, our shoes were covered with mud. With a thorough shoe brushing, a hasty packing job, and a quick ham sandwich, we got in Filip's car and drove to Ghent. We got to talk and get to know each other a little on the way. He said when we got there, he would introduce us to Hugo, who would show us what to do.

We got dressed and headed out to the track.

We arrived in Bakel and found the course set up in progress. We drove right through the start/finish area to find a small campground 200 meters from the start. We had electricity, but all outdoor hoses were shut off for the winter. We had to get creative for clean up. We set up camp and rode to the course. By the signs and the thick program, we found it was a Dutch national race. After the paved straightaway, the course went right into the woods. It was mostly single track and all of it was ridable at the time. There were some steep climbs and a sandy area, lots of tight corners, but no get-offs. We enjoyed our inspection and looked forward to the morning.

Overnight, rain began to pound on the roof. As we listened, the rain sounded softer, thicker, and sure enough it was snowing. We noted about 2" of snow when we went to sleep, but it had changed back to rain and warmed up by morning. All the snow had melted and we knew we were in for a classic mud race. Our races went off at the same time so we warmed up together in the rain and registered. There was no entry fee and they held on to our licenses as a deposit for return of the cloth race numbers for later use.

We both had successful races, having been called up last to our respective lines, we caught and passed riders from the back. Because of the wet weather, there were a few get-offs. Adam wound up 28th out of 57 masters 35+ and I placed 10th out of 26 women open. Our bikes and our clothes were a mess, but we were happy.

We left Bakel relieved, having one race complete. Now, with 6 days left until the worlds, we would drive right through Mol on our way to our next stop, Filip Sport in Hoeilaart. We left the next morning and drove south. We checked out Zilvermeer, reserved a campsite for the weekend, and even rode a lap of the course which was already being constructed on Monday.

We made stop in Amsterdam since we were so close. We rode our bikes through part of the city to see some sights.

Then we headed east to Almere Muiderzand where a cop told us we could camp in the parking lot of this yacht club. All the yachts were frozen in the harbor; it was unusually cold. We were heading for Bakel to do a race in a couple days. On our map, we saw a vast wind farm near Almere. We chose to camp near there so we could drive though it the next morning. Though it was foggy, we counted at least 40 of them and that was only a small section.