shifting the art around

I picked "Pirate Circus" (center) up from Phoenix & Dragon yesterday. It's been on display in their learning annex since the show last fall and it will be heading to another display opportunity in NY.

"Front Runner" will be taking its place shortly.

I had mixed feelings about both these pieces even while I was still working on them. Even though they are only a few years old, I feel very distanced from both of them. The banner series I had in mind didn't go forward because..well, I just fell out of love with the project. I had envisioned majestic battle flags fluttering  in the air - not these imposing but ponderous works.

As an artist, have you ever found yourself derailed by the limitations of your medium or technique?

a week evaporated

 Despite whispered reports, I've not gone into witness protection. Just days full of details.  Measuring, cutting, pinning and hand stitching sleeves is my reward for finishing five major pieces all bound for better things than languishing rolled up on the shelf in the closet. There is more tedium on the horizon - photography and forms to fill out, but most of you know the drill.

 More thinking about how Diego Rivera consistently lit his subjects from below, as if there was a mirror on the floor in the late afternoon light.

And just this morning I unearthed one more very large WIP that is equal parts wonderful and awful. This one is headed for major surgery but will be born again transformed.

at the High

the Flower Carrier - 1935 - Diego Rivera

 Linda and I ventured into the city yesterday to see "Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting" at the High Museum.

I found Frida Kahlo's work sad and depressing and could    only  think how a caring therapist or the right meds could have helped her. Given her physical calamities, she had every right to her sorrow but it was tedious alongside the lush exuberance of Diego Rivera's work.  If you are in or near Atlanta don't miss this show.

Lush Life rescue

What I really need to be doing is cutting and fitting five sleeves onto the black and white series. The biggest, KV, is pinned and I'm stitching away. Hours of mindlessness.

And here's more..."Lush Life" dates back I don't know how many years. There is so much I love here and I hope I can save at least some of it. It's another example of being in love with specific elements  of a piece and totally disregarding crucial design concerns.

The first order of business will be picking out all the insane, loopy and the ill-advised machine quilting buried in the tender damask and a half inch of a felted cotton batting that weighs a ton.

 I'll just sit here and pick.

chapters end

I finished "Karma V" this morning. I never did count all those french knots. Final size - 44"x36".  Nothing new on the design wall right now but soon.

This one is still under the needle but there isn't going to be a lot of stitching. The truth is that I was in love with each of these pieces of cloth on their own and don't want any of the colors or textures to be secondary to any unnecessary surface embellishment. Color field painting has always been a favorite  

b

a tear soaked headless blue horse

Here I am happily working away through the rerun of last week's episode of Downton Abbey blissfully unaware of what was heading down the pike at the end of the one that followed.

Jimmy, it was good you were not here for this one because the weeping and swearing was just awful! You would have woken up growling.

It's crazy that I get so emotionally invested in one or two TV shows a season. The funny thing is I've only just started watching this show and have barely gotten the names and faces straight before the writers started knocking people off!

Juicy

Jake's cat Juicy has lived with us for a while now but he is still extremely shy, mostly of me.

He misses Jim, who has become his best bud.

A consummate opportunist, he has made camp in the first place in the house that gets the morning sun, my sewing chair in the studio.

(the little quilt he is claiming was made for a cat and says "you can help by sleeping here")

adrift

That's me. Headless and blue. Talking about being on my own and actually living it are two different things.
Jimmy left mid morning and was 20 minutes out when he somehow realized that he had left the power cord to his laptop at home. Colin saddled up and got it to him with little to no time lost.
At least it's a beautiful day for driving in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Meanwhile, up in New York, my Pop is having a hard time of it. Life that is.

love all year long

Have I really committed to several hundred french knots? Looks that way...

It turns out that one of the UFOs ("blue headless horse" is the unhappy working title) is going to be machine quilted after all, so this one will be my "hands on" work for some time to come.


In case you were wondering, me and my Goodman celebrate Valentine's Day all year round so we don't do the Hallmark hokey-pokey. There will be much boo-hooing in the driveway tomorrow though when he drives off to the mountains for a few months at a work location.

color comes to light

There has been some scurrying about here at Lacativa Abbey. My Goodman will be hitting the road for a new job and needed just the right sized tub with lid to safely transport his printer and such. My WIP bucket was just the ticket and there were only three things inside. Waiting, waiting and the time is here.

I'll be needing handwork now to keep me company while he is away.  Work is good, being away from home for weeks at a time can be tough.  We just figured out how we can make video calls via FB...funny from one floor to the next in the same house but it will be wonderful when he's five hours away.

This last great expanse of fleece came out of the UFO box too and it's big.

I found it very interesting that a blank white canvas of this size can be intimidating but this black one prompted so many visions of what will come next, it's exciting. For the moment, I'm just going to let it brood over my shoulder.