every-single-day

It has been a Roller Coaster

I was commissioned to create this labyrinth with a local hospital. It is 12 feet square. I found and traced off the image, the hospital provided the wall space and the projector. And there was a painting event where the patients painted it in groups. There were three groups in all and they completed in within 4 hours.
I sealed the image on Friday and am done with the job! It was a very interesting experience.

So I finished the job around 12 on Friday. I cleaned up and met the director of the project for lunch on the grounds of the hospital. While cleaning up, I took my wedding bands off. Don't you know, my diamond fell out of my pocket? I only figured this out about half way through my car ride home. I had to pick up my Man from the train station and couldn't turn around and race back.
Not to worry! The ring is safe, found and locked away for pick up this week. Thank the Goddess.

My Man and I have decided to sell the house and move to Flagstaff Arizona. We have no friends, family or jobs out there. We are just going to do it. I have begun to send my resume out. We have been working feverishly to get the house in order.
So on Saturday, we had a tag sale. We did well. Sold many big items, stuff we don't want to move, Made a whopping $432. We even had a "tag sale crasher", A guy who brought his mangy old leather coach to sell. He was asking way too much considering its condition, but he was courteous and took all his belongings with him when he left. Has this ever happened to anyone beside me/us?
So that was great and tiring.

Then on Sunday, we moved everything out of the basement (my soda ash soaked studio) and painted the floor. The backyard was-a-mess! When we were done we decided to inventory some china and crystal that we inherited. Sun drenched and again very tired, it was a good day.

Today, we hung out a sign, reading "free", on the tree in front of the house and gave away everything that didn't sell at the tag sale. We were thinking of giving it to Goodwill but this ended up saving us a ride. Beside we packed the car for a morning dump-run tomorrow. Then we put all of the stuff that had been in the basement, then the backyard into the garage. It was the stuff shuffle, all weekend long!

I have slowly been telling friends and family about the move. As we were doing all of this, I checked my email. I got a few emails in a row from my retreat group pals. It made me very emotional. I thought I had mastered myself when I went out to continue working. As soon as I saw my Man, I started crying and asked for a hug. We have been wanting to move for so long. It has been a dream ever since we met. I/We want to do this. But I have such an awesome and varied support system, it will be very hard to step away from it! David is so good to me, for me. We both feel the same way. I am so happy that he is my mate, my life partner. My Man.

So we finished all of this by about 12:30. Promptly napped and then walked downtown to an awesome restaurant, this was the first time we've ever gone and it was a great experience. I had Red Curry Tofu. It had pumpkin in it! The tofu was firm, my favorite and it was very fresh. We shared a Spicy Papaya (Som Tum) Salad. It had a fabulous spicey dressing. Here is its description: Shredded green papaya with long beans, tomatoes, garlic, chili + ground peanuts with an herbal lime dressing. YUM!!!
Then we walked home the long way to get some exercise in.

I came home to an email asking me to confirm my availability to give a trunk show lecture one month from this week!

So I am on an emotional roller-coaster. Any of you readers from out that way?

Fluffybutt!

Mom! I was thinking that you should give this to Janet and Rick.
This is made of paper, silk, machine sewn and hand drawn. I decorated the paper and painted the silk.

I would like to give a shout out to Robert Genn of The Painter's Key. I have subscribed to his weekly newsletter for about three months. It says it is a twice weekly newsletter, but it only comes once a week. :) Only his essays are mailed to you, you will not recieve responces and your email box will not get cluttered by joining his email list.
This newsletter works for me. He talks about art, creativity and approach. I like what he has to say and even entered my site in his database of visual artists.
This is not one of the lists that I sign up for and then back out of, try it out.

And because I don't want the book group that is forming to get lost in the blog shuffle I am re-posting this:

I have a invitation.
Does anyone want to join me in a blog/book reading of The View From the Studio Door, by Ted Orland? Ted Orland coauthored Art and Fear which if you haven't already read it is a fantastic commentary on what "an artist encounters each time they enter thier studio and stand before a blank canvas". In this book Ted Orland explores the "broader issues of what stands on either side of that artistic moment of truth: What are we really doing when we make art?, For that matter, what is art anyway?... and how do we place our art in the artistic community?"
These are excerpt from the back of the book.

This is my idea:
We will each read the book.
We will post about what we have read on Tuesdays, so that it will be easy to surf around and read each others thoughts.
If you do not have a blog, you may read the book on your own and post comments to my blog.
The official start date is June 1
Send me a link to your blog and I will create a participatory list of readers.

This is the button I have made for this group. Please use your own server to post it on your blog. Bandwidth theft is an issue we all need to be aware of.

If you have emailed me and your blog is NOT listed in the list to the right of this post, please email me again!
Thanks!

Two by Two...

A reader saw this post and fell in love with the Blue Bird. She wrote and asked me to make one for her. I did and this is my result.
This is the second time in a month that I have recreated a piece of artwork.

I have a invitation.
Does anyone want to join me in a blog/book reading of The View From the Studio Door, by Ted Orland? Ted Orland coauthored Art and Fear which if you haven't already read it is a fantastic commentary on what "an artist encounters each time they enter thier studio and stand before a blank canvas". In this book Ted Orland explores the "broader issues of what stands on either side of that artistic moment of truth: What are we really doing when we make art?, For that matter, what is art anyway?... and how do we place our art in the artistic community?"
These are excerpt from the back of the book.

This is my idea:
We will each read the book.
We will post about what we have read on Tuesdays, so that it will be easy to surf around and read each others thoughts.
If you do not have a blog, you may read the book on your own and post comments to my blog.
The official start date is June 1
Send me a link to your blog and I will create a participatory list of readers.

This is the button I have made for this group. Please use your own server to post it on your blog. Bandwidth theft is an issue we all need to be aware of.

Use of Tool

JJ and I created this together. I put one fat quarter of this fabric up for sale in my shop. It is priced to sell at 12$. It is a trial run to see if surface designed cloth will sell.
It utilizes the tools I spoke of in my last post. I love the shapes and look forward to further explorations.

And did anyone read Deb's comment on the 'branding tool'?
I am pretty certain that is a Barbeque tool...the W stands for WELL DONE. The south is full of BBQ fanatics and I have seen these used. If you request your meat well done, the chef will use this tool to mark your meat. Do you think they have too much time on their hands?

I laughed really hard when I read this. I had an inkling in the store but being a vegetarian sort of buffers me from this sort of information.

Such a Beautiful Tool...

I stopped by a local thrift store on my way home...
This is the strangest thrift store I have ever known. There are a bunch of older women running the store and they overprice everything, everything (in thier opinion) has great value. I have overheard them gossiping about customers, they like to find out what you are going to use the objects they sell for. They have hung a sign over the register that says, "No Haggling! Our Prices Are Firm."
I paid 8.45 for these two very awesome objects.
I tried not to purchase the brand, thinking about bad karma, the poor animals, but the oddity of the thing and the fact that one of the three letters is an 'M', won out. I may just start signing my work with an 'M'. The brand has three letters, an R, an M and a W. I wonder if there is a way to see if this is a bonafide ranchers brand?
But Deborah made me start thinking about cooking utensils in an all new light when she sent this fabu thing through the mail. I don't know if I blogged about it, and I am feeling too lazy to search through my broken archives. Anyway. She got me some German cookie molds. The batter dip, deep fried kind of cookie, for use in my soy wax pot. I love them! And they have made me want to haunt thrift stores in search of more great kitchen utensils.
Thank you Deb!!!
And then... I go over to Deb's blog and who is she photographed with? Claudine Hellmuth, whom I just blogged about yesterday. Am I jealous?

We Are Back!

No vacation photos yet, I like to look at them WITH my Man first. We had lots of fun. We went to the Grand Canyon again. Saw some California Condors! Played miniature golf, ate way too much! And hung out in Flagstaff.
I got some good fun times with my Man. I love him to pieces.

Instead of vacation photos, I have taken studio pictures.

This is a laser transfer image. I don't know what to call this process. It is like laser copy lithography. Gum arabic, oil paint and linseed oil are all that is needed. I learned it from Claudine Hellmuth's latest book. Check it out! I love the look of the prints this technique makes.
I used this image of Arrow.

Check out this before shot! It is a pop-up image so if you open it you can do a side by side comparison.

I (by this I really mean JJ and I) took the industrial sewing machine out of my studio. I set my Grandma's sewing machine up but instead made it into a table. This way I have a bit of Grandma to ponder.

Here is the before image-for side by side comparison (once again).

And this is my design wall.

It all looks quite different to me! Thanks JJ! We hung shelves, bought boxes to store my stuff and used brute force to change things up and make the studio more art-making friendly.
It is all about going to you room!

I have to go cook dinner now. No more waiting at a table and having my water poured and being asked if everything is good. Coming back from vacation is always a sugar low!

6 out of 10

This is the Tryptich I made for the MicroCosmos challange. As I said before, because I used a recycled envelope and didn't entirely cross out the previous zip code, it never got to Ricky Tim's place. Call me a dope!

Yesterday I went to my quild show. I had entered He Threads My Needle into the show which automatically means that it gets judged. Now please go check out this post.
The judges awarded me a 6 out of a possible 10 for Quality of Stitching. Did you go to the link I asked you to visit?
I know. This is a guild show, and a traditionally oriented one at that. The quilts who won ribbons really showed the tastes of the judges and my work just doesn't fit the mold (thank goodness). I think I will stop entering my own guilds show.
I always get bummed after the guild show. I get encouragement from fellow guild members to enter and then wonder why I bothered. None of the judges get art quilting and continue to judge based on traditional perspectives on the medium.

I am away on vacation starting tomorrow. Very excited! I need to go get ready now.

Catching Up.

I really don't know where to start. I feel all discombobulated.

The photo isn't great, please excuse me.
I started this piece on Monday. It already has a home; I traded a full set of slides of my work for an 18x24" nude. As soon as I was finished, I started on a second one. I couldn't bear to part with it so soon and wanted time to think about it.
I could also talk about the triptych I made. As an entry for the Ricky Tims challenge. Deborah and I agreed to enter this show, my entry was returned to me, I never got in. And it was all my fault. The package never got to where it was supposed to go because I recycled an envelope and didn't obliterate the previous zip code well enough. I am a sad sack. I'll need to reformat the photos to show you my piece, so that will need to wait.
My good friend JJ and I also did boatloads of work on my studio, we got my industrial sewing machine out of there, built a storage system for my quilts, rewired a light for my sewing table, hung some shelves over my new work bench and I am sure the list goes on. There is no end to JJ's ingenuity or pluck.
So today I am off on a day of play. Tomorrow I will be painting a 12 foot square canvas labyrinth with the good patients of a local hospital. It is going to be fun.

I don't know how I ever figured this out.

It seems my blog is actually working. It doesn't exactly look like it used to, I have no idea how to make the archives come back, but I can use. it. I have a new web host now. This last month has been computer HELL. And of course it all had to happen after my magazine article and podcast interview came out.
I have tried to stay as far away from the computer as possible. I have even cried over it! Silly, I know.
I have been making art, doing creative stuff. Trying not to think about how addicted I am to my own blog, all of you people. I have been making improvemnets to my studio! I have lots to show for all the time away! And in one week, I will be going on vacation. Crazy.
All of this emotional energy and I can still say that I have a roof over my head, lots of access to good food, I have a wonderful husband, great cats, family I wouldn't trade for the world. and now with a few quirks, I have my blog back.
Hi friends.