seasons end

Photos like this that make me think about painting. (click for a very close look)

this one also made me think about reworking some of the darker cloths with paint and discharge tomorrow.

I'm waiting on a big delivery from ProChem including some new transparent paints that I'll be using for the first time.

I'll also rescue this poor teapot from the deck where it's been holding brushes all summer. The mason jars and plastic ware will be washed and boxed up with the rest of the tools of the trade as dye season draws to a close.

alien innards redux

I rounded up these Alien Innards - a 3D series I did some years back, with the intention of putting them on the next plane for NY...just checking them over to make sure that the time stuffed in a bag at the back of the closet didn't cause any wear or tear. On the contrary..they look ready to rock.  Handling them reminded me what fun the series was to make.

The "bodies" were machine stitched damask which does such very interesting things when it's stuffed with poly fiber and pulled tight. All the embellishments - layered transparent cloth, stitching and beading in some cases - was done by hand of course..when did I have all this time I wonder?  

excuse me

Some days nothing seems to get done easily. 

Are larger minds at work here?

doors in the universe

I am  sure I am not the only artist (no matter what medium) that has the problem of a backlog of finished pieces and UFOs that are threatening to take over what work/storage space one has.

Worse, they sit with sorrowful or accusatory smirks of "what were you thinking, witch?" or "you didn't try very hard to find a home for us, sniff sniff"..things along that line.

In the past drastic action was taken...midsize pieces that were made with fat battings went on to become fancy dogbeds and kitty hammocks at the animal shelter.


Several of these were in line, like so many jets on the runway, to be hacked up and re-assembled into grocery totes on the first day that sprouted a 25th or 26th hour.






Instead, these and 20 pounds of their like are on their way to new opportunities in Brooklyn and Bedford, NY.  

If the Fedex truck gets there in time, they will be seeing sunshine and strange public places for the first time in their existence!

How exciting for them!

Now they are off my back and I can go back to arguing with the crayons.

turning towards new

"For me it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."  - Carl Sagan

I have Glennis to thank for posting the above on FB this morning. Normally a fount of useless crap, cute animals and offensive political postures-
 this morning FB brought me the ever-useful "cod-upside-the-head" moment - the cream cheese frosting on a new idea cupcake I've been baking.

In conjunction with Elizabeth's most recent post, a dust-up over donating art on a well known mail list and an amazing GIFT that I recently received, there will be changes afoot with regards to the sale of my work on the main gallery.

More about that in days to come as we examine issues of value, worth and what we are here for. Normally I hate the editorial "we" but I will have questions, make statements and look forward to lively discourse.

and yes, this needs a lot more shuffling.

sweet sunday

this is where the fun begins. shuffling, pinning, cutting, moving, flipping, switching, unpinning, rooting about, more cutting....keep repeating until it moves from a whisper to a shout. I'm taking this one down from the wall for some preliminary basting and possibly more discharging later on. It's a beautiful day so I think I'll take it and my wet hair to the park for some fresh perspective, air and sunshine.

Yesterday Jim and Colin fixed my dryer which had gone from tepid to stone cold. Now I could toss potatoes in there and make steaming mashed! Hallelujah laundry!  Did I tell you I'm easily amused?
There's a  Braves game on at 1 and my GoodMan is cooking...it doesn't get any better than that!  Very shortly the house will smell (wonderfully) like a cantina - Jim is warming up for the annual chili cookoff next weekend.

new B&W

I've been at this one all day. about 40x50, there are about ten separate black and white pieces that I danced around the work table for hours before pinning. It's just basted to a spanse of fleece right now so I can live with it hanging over my shoulder for a few days. It's pretty bossy - and the white spaces are going to get even louder when I fill in with a variety of (very) white cloths. I wasn't devastated when the black bled some of it's warm into the white during the dye process, it happens so it becomes a part of the design.  Next!

some good friday news

It was good to just sit with this one in the morning and get all the "definitely" pieces basted into place..there's a pound of pins in it and with the slinky weight of the damask, taking it back and forth between the design wall and the work table is asking for a slash.

I decided against that mutant tangerine lurking under the tea bowl - it was a little too violent. While searching the (recent) stash for other elements, I put together three additional groups that will be up on the wall working it out soon. There will be lots of trials, with as much patience as I can muster to avoid hasty detours. I don't want to spend one minute working on something that has not completely enchanted me.

note to jerks...get a job

Alas, I've had to disable allowing Anonymous comments.

You would think they would get the picture but I'm sure its all automated. Although I moderate comments first I'm just tired of having my email inbox looking like the Augean stables. But I WILL NOT start the captcha nonsense.. If you don't want to mess about with comments and you have something to say .please send me an email  and I'll post it on your behalf.

 Blogger is not perfect but I know it so well I don't want to jump from the frying pan into the bloody flames!

and for some pleasing eye candy, I'm saving the seeds from this morning glory plant I call "Tough Guy" because it has thrived even though neglected.

transition days

The nights have turned chill enough to turn off the fans and window AC unit and sleep is deep ...except for last night.  I found a long misplaced toy yesterday afternoon so I dug the old school I-pod that fits it, charged it up and set it down low when I went to bed in hopes of tuning out the white noise I have been living with.

OMG...as the little girls say. I had forgotten that I had stuffed it with about 400 of my most favorite pieces of music and the music box serenaded me until nearly 3am..until the last notes of Gravity faded and I finally pulled it off my head. Who can sleep when the music is fabulous?. One day, I'll make a list...

.Nothing much going on in the studio. Still folding, fondling and daydreaming.  We put up another hummingbird feeder to cut the rioting in half and the poor remaining flowers are constantly being pummeled by those birds not brave enough to belly up to the plastic bars. They have knocked most of the flowers off the tired grape hyacinths that wrapped up the wind chimes on the upper deck.

season's end + new starts

I couldn't bring myself to write about it yesterday but Saturday was the last day for my pool this season. The weather turned cloudy midday yesterday and with the rain a steep temperature drop. As it was, the last week I was only in the water thirty minutes at a time before getting too cold.

I started this small, hand stitched piece last night while I watched (with delight) while the Braves swept the Nats.

It's time to spend the morning light in the stitching chair again...and a series of new, large pieces will be coming up on the design wall. Staying with the notion of combining hand work with the large pieces.

The turn of the seasons leads to much introspection both - forward and backward - new thoughts, new paths. I'm going to be taking on the sketchbook challenge to replace a recently found bad internet habit. Don't go there, you'll hate me for it if you do. Talk about mindless!

solutions

Only pinned to the wall for consideration so far - there's a whole trove of the "bound" pieces all ironed and ready to march. About 4x3 feet, it may just be a unit of a larger piece I have in mind.

Speaking of having work in mind - there's a sketchbook waiting. The latest theme over at the sketchbook challenge has captured my attention.







One can always be assured that hard work, like ironing, will gather spectators only too happy to lounge and observe the proceeding.

happy drudgery

I was in and out of the studio all day yesterday and got a lotta-mucha-nuthin done except to nearly fall into  a coma due to sensory overload.

It looked like a fiber land mine had gone off in here so today is all about really seeing what I have here -sorting, ironing and folding. yuck.

My grandma Nell is whirling in her urn as I've cooked up a little sit-down ironing station because my joints are killing me - I suspect I may have Lyme's..there was a funny looking bite a month ago.

 She spent years as a Professional Laundress - (Dresses a Specialty) and taught me everything even though she never actually let me iron anything but the hankies and napkins. She said that ironing was work that you had to get your back into and so it had to be done standing. Nelly was a tall  and sturdy woman who's genes I am always grateful for and whose quiet dignity and strength always inspired me. She would be tsk-tsking through her false teeth over this weakness of mine but I'd really like to see the bottom of all these baskets sometime today.