Studio Update: Exploration of Fragments

Undisclosed Location

Greetings! Time for an update from the studio. In my last post, I reported on my prolonged state of ennui and proposed a shake-up to cure the malady. I thought I'd draw from observation...from the landscape in front me. Well, that didn't go so well. Rather than giving me a new direction and spark of energy, it was an exercise in frustration. I half expected as much. I don't work from the outside, but from the inside....through my hands. So, on another afternoon, I just played in the studio, making small drawings and then cutting them up into smaller drawings that I could stitch together. The fragments seemed to tell another story and I like that...watching something surprising unfold. The unexpected....that's the cure for ennui! This little piece above is now in my shop, along with over a hundred other little pieces awaiting good homes.

That little nest above, perched precariously on the tiny ledge of the column just under the roof of our front porch, is filled with 5 baby barn swallows. We watched the parents build the nest and anxiously awaited the hatching of the eggs. It's been weeks now and we've watched those 5 little birds grow day by day. Most of the time they spend with their mouths wide open awaiting every morsel of food brought to them by the tireless mother (or whoever is making the endless trips back and forth to the nest). But at this point they are so big, we're not quite sure why they haven't left! I hope they haven't crushed the one that was always shoved to the back. There doesn't seem to be room for them....time to leave the nest birdies!

We are in the heart of summer here with hot days, warm nights and the usual pesky insects. The days go by far too quickly and already I find myself thinking of fall. But, I quickly bring myself back to the moment to bask in the warmth of summer days....fall and then winter will come in due time.

Quiet Meditations

Hello everyone....Thanksgiving is behind us and that means that the Holiday Season is upon us in earnest! There is no snow here yet and the temperatures are fluctuating between rather cold and positively mild, but that's just fine, as I'm sure that when winter really arrives, it will be here quite long enough.

Those quiet, little Navigations pieces I showed you last time are continuing...thank you so much for the positive feedback! But, the name "Navigations" didn't seem quite right and I realized that they are more meditative....so the series is renamed Meditations. Here a couple more of them....but again, very hard to see, unfortunately. The very qualities that I love about them....the quiet lack of contrast and the delicate marks and stitching....make them most difficult to photograph. Let's see how these latest two show up, along with their details for a better view. I will get them onto my website soon, but in the meantime, if you would like to see better views and/or more details, don't hesitate to ask.

Meditation no.3

Meditation no.3 (detail)

Meditation no.4

Meditation  no.4 (detail)

We had a trip to St. Paul, MN to be with some of my husband's family for Thanksgiving....way too much good food, of course! Good to be back home now, getting caught up on laundry, etc. and settling back into a routine. Something about this cold weather makes me want to cozy up with a book and a taste of scotch (my latest interest!) to warm the bones! Hope you are enjoying a fine day!

The Finish Line

I crossed the finished line on this piece with the black branches, which at this point at least, is still officially without a name....a most unusual state of affairs. Almost always the piece makes it's name known during the creative process and this work has had plenty of time to reveal itself to me, that's for sure. Maybe I wasn't listening....maybe it was whispered a bit too softly. In time, I'm sure I'll be told, but for now I'll just refer to it as the piece with the little black branches...rather clumsy I realize!

I'm getting excited about opening up a new Etsy shop with the daily drawings. I'm so glad to have wonderful readers and supporters out there who have given me the boost and confidence to go ahead with the idea....thank you again.  I'm proceeding a bit slowly, so I have all my ducks in a row, but I will keep you posted so you can come visit when it's officially online!  In the meantime, as the days go by, I am accumulating more of these intimate drawings on teabags.  My husband came home the other night from school announcing that he had a gift for me, handing me an old plastic bag feeling like nothing but air. Of course I thought it was a joke, but no, it was full of the teabags he'd been collecting at work!  Yippee!!  There are only so many jars of ice tea you can make, especially if you're not all that prone to drinking it!  I'm back in teabags now!

 1 - 28 - 12

1-29-12

1-30-12

Tomorrow is the last day of the month and the last day of the 15% off sale at MissouriBendStudio if you are so inclined to take advantage of it.

I also have a special treat for you....I'm launching a new monthly series and it will post on the last day of the month....stay tuned and I'll see you tomorrow afternoon!  Enjoy your evening!

Pages from the Book of Open Windows and Counting Days

I've just got a few minutes here, before I head into town to go to my one-afternoon-a-week job, performing librarianesque duties at the National Music Museum in Vermillion (now, that's something to Google...it's world reknowned collection of musical instruments...right here in Vermillion, South Dakota!).  So, I'm off soon, but thought I'd share the resolution of the piece I posted several days ago, Page from The Book of Open Windows. A bit of randomness here and there and it announced itself finished and allowed me to move on to the following piece...a bit more subdued, but still, I do like it...a page from The Book of Counting Days (complete with detail shot below).

Hope you are having a good week....so far, so good for me.  Back into the studio tomorrow for more fun, merriment and a good dose of angst!

Two In One

I got a little chuckle yesterday when I read Gloria Freshley's most recent post from her blog, Gloria Freshley Art and Design...as she was surprised and delighted to discover the back side of a printed fabric.  It's often the case that we find the beauty in the unseen and undiscovered.

I had the same experience a few days ago when I decided to tear down a larger drawing that had been laying around for many years.  I liked parts of it, not enough to keep working on it, but just enough not to throw it away, so in moment of do or die, I started to tear it down into smaller pieces.  The drawing started out about 11x15" and was on the handmade paper that my husband makes periodically, so earthy and sturdy and lovely to work on.  I'd painted the piece a kind of minty green and it had been dipped in beeswax, with some drawing and sewing on it already, much of which I'd ripped out...but that made it even better...the trace of the earlier sewing and the holes left behind.  So, since I've been working smaller lately, I thought I couldn't go wrong by tearing it down and reinventing the piece.  As I thought about continuing to sew on one of the new small pieces, I casually turned it over and fell in love with the backside...unpainted paper flecked with bits of of color left from the ink on the prints he'd torn down to turn into the paper, made all the more luscious and rich by the addition of beeswax.  So exciting! I finished the little piece and added it to my shop titled Lost Book Page.  As you see, I think of it now as a book page, a fragment torn from an ancient volume, so there is recto (front) and verso (back)...2 pieces in one! I know, for me, which side is the front and which is the back.  Here it is, back side and then front side below.

Here's to the happy surprises...keep your eyes open!

Mending Paper

So, here I am again...searching, thinking, ruminating on what makes it all work.  In the studio, I seem to be unsettled, that is, unless I once again begin to make those tiny stitches on paper.  And now, I've begun thinking about the idea of mending, patching tears, and piecing bits together as a way to point toward some larger idea that I cannot put into words.  I seem these days to be drawn more toward random marks, less refined, almost clumsy I'd have to admit, that evoke a kind of being in the moment, and a trace of the search.  This little piece seems almost too radical, some sort of black sheep that I should keep in hiding, but here I am bringing it out into the light.  I'm drawn to it as something that just is what it is....paper patching holes with stitches that mark the time that put them together once again.

All of this plays into my thoughts this week surrounding ideas of balance, as I contemplate the post for Monday's "A Walk Through The Universe".  I welcome comments and your thoughts about balance...what it means in your life, how and where you find it, and perhaps how it manifests itself in your life and in your art.

Back to making stitches.

Lost and Found

Started stitching on top of the drawing.

Well, I'm back after a bit of a break. Johntimothy and I had a quick getaway in Omaha, which is about two hours from here. For us, it's going to the "big city", which means visiting the museum and the contemporary art center, the gardens (for the first time) and the zoo. Lots of sensory input, which for me, as wonderful as it is, often sends me into an artistic tailspin! It takes me time to process things and as much as I find myself in a hurry so much of the time, I operate best in a slow unfolding of time. This is a lesson which I must relearn periodically, as I did yet again this morning. Yesterday, I was all excited to be in the studio, to sort of pick up where I left off, but found myself adrift and at a loss. Actually, quite lost and so frustrated. I always try to analyze what's happening inside when this inability to work seizes me. I think there are wires crossed in terms of making the work that is inside me to make...the kind that is made with slowness and takes time...and the work I put pressure on myself to make so that I can create art that is affordable for people to buy. There is an inevitable conflict that arises and I have to just give myself a time out and sort things out internally. Just before I went to bed last night, in the faith that today would be a new day and my internal compass would right itself, I adhered three used teabags to three tiny sheets of Japanese paper. I didn't know what I would do and the only inkling I had was that I had a craving for stitching...just like when you get a craving for some food, but you're not quite sure what it is. This morning I went down to visit those pieces of paper with the lovely mottled teabags awaiting me. I made some little stitches on the first one and knew I'd made it back from lost. On the second one, I thought I'd test out this new white marker pen I got, but after making some tentative marks, I knew that it was really the stitching I was craving and now I am there making tiny stitches over the marker...ever so much more interesting I think. Tiny stitches...the slowness of time...making the work that I am called to make....why do I always have to be reminded of who I am?


I am also so very thankful for such a supportive husband who has never put the pressure on me to make the work that does not come naturally to me. It's a pressure I put on myself and although he completely understands how I get off my own track, he is quietly happy to see me find my compass. 

A Square of Chaotic Stitching

I've done a slight bit of studio reorganization in the last couple days, since I added some corkboard to my "pin up" area, which until now has been a not-nearly-big-enough magnetic board.  I uncoverd this little stitched piece that I did a couple of years ago from under the menagerie of stuff attached precariously to that magnetic board.  I looked at it again as if meeting it for the first time! It reminded me that, although I badly want a sewing machine for some aspects of my work, there is nothing quite like the mark made by one's own hand....the hand-drawn irregularity of it all cannot be duplicated by the machine.  Once this little piece tells me it's name, I'll post it in my shop.

I'm looking forward to a break from the routine...we're going to Omaha to the museum, to the zoo and to the gardens this weekend...not to mention eating at interesting restaurants.  What fun!  Have a great weekend!