new WIPS big & little

It's been a good day for the art. There's been progress on both the new WIPs, little unamed by hand is waiting for me to settle down and sew,  the big one below has been under the machine needle all day.  

Add to that a whole flock of vintage damask napkins and table scarves found their way into the dyepots today. For now, there's a dozen or more mason jars flocked around the little heater in my living room sort of poaching.  I promise not to get up in the night and start hatching them out. Dawn maybe.

Sesame Street

I've been enjoying all the media coverage given to the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street which, I happily confess, I used in loco parentis   when both my sons were little. It was so different than other children's programming and I counted on SS so heavily to entertain the boys that I religiously taped shows just in case it wasn't renewed.

We didn't go overboard in the consumerizing department but Jake had the large talking Big Bird that came with a cassette player in it's belly and books that went along with the taped stories. His mouth and eyes would move as the story was told in his voice.Jake tired of those book tapes pretty quickly and we discovered that you could feed Big Bird any cassette tape. Strauss waltzes were a favorite and one Frank Sinatra tape would cause Big Bird to open his mouth wide and roll his eyes up in his head gruesomely. One day when Jake was about three I came upon him in the living room feeding  Big Bird a bottle of Robitussin cough syrup. Jake had enough on his own face and clothes to make me call poison control. Big Bird was never quite the same.

passing time (on the left)

The internet provides endless opportunities for inspiration, solace and plain 'ole passing time. Equal measures for all.                                        Elizabeth Barton continues to kick my ass at Lexulous, (far more insidious than crack) even as she opens a solo show!

Visiting friendly old blogs and a few new places feels like being driven through interesting countryside like a recovering gork. Take a peek in on theWorstHorse,  come to from Whiskey River, and a very illuminating and thought provoking post here. Even the comments are important.        



In the studio, two new avenues of idea and action. Above, a large piece developing with the intent of mounting it to a canvas.  On the left, a new piece of hand music giving thought to an empty space in my life right now.

distracted

                         Without heart for much else, I have been cleaning and putting other things to work. I found  some unused canvases and have started mounting smaller hand stitched pieces with acrylic medium, basically mummifying the fabric in plastic.  Once dry, the textures are still there but the hand is gone. Hand? Given that we discourage people from touching the art was                                                     hand ever a consideration for this kind of piece? This is one of the Gray Grid series now up for sale at the Hand Music store                                                                 
                                             

bereft

My constant companion Jinx has been missing for two days and we fear the worst.

She started Firefly  with me just  after my birthday and she finished it with me curled in my lap on Sunday morning.  I am sad beyond words.



To all the kind hearts who have offered encouragement, hope and prayers, I thank you. My thoughts wander back and forth between imagined horrors and the hope that she is doing what animals do - find seclusion, curl up and wait for whatever may be.