The Space In Between

Hello everyone....it's the start of Memorial Day weekend here in the U.S.....any special plans you are excited about? I'm having a quiet time, as my husband is at a family reunion which I couldn't attend since I'm now a working gal with a new job! But, I'm going to enjoy the time in the studio, reading and musing about any number of things....in fact, I've already begun. When I was last here earlier in the week, I mentioned my revisitation with the humble dot as a repetitive mark. I will say that sitting quietly at the studio table, making unlimited points of ink on a page allows me to muse endlessly....about the dots as moments in time, individuals in a sea of humanity, grains of sand that was ashore with each new wave. And the proximity of those tiny marks....well, that's another whole catalog of thoughts. The pattern that emerges on the page relates to the proximity of the dots. As I played with varying their distance from one another I thought about the space between things and how one can always find an empty field between two "somethings" to insert something else....and isn't that a way to think about infinity? There is always space between, even when it doesn't seem so at all. When two things appear to have no space between them, it's really just an illusion, isn't it....a function of our limited perception? There are always moments between moments....when time opens up and out. There is always a space between.

And all that reminded me of my astonishment some time ago when I relearned a little something about the basics of the universe in the wonderful and quite aptly named book by Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything. I've just gotten my worn copy off the shelf. Not that I have any real understanding of quantum physics or physics of any kind....yet, these notions on page 141 give me pause....

"....if an atom were expanded to the size of a cathedral, the nucleus would be only about the size of a fly--but a fly many thousands of times heavier than the cathedral....." and a sentence or two later "It is still a fairly astounding notion to consider that atoms are mostly empty space, and that the solidity we experience all around us is an illusion. When two objects come together in the real world--billiard balls are most often used for illustration--they don't actually strike each other. 'Rather', as Timothy Ferris explains, 'the negatively charged fields of the two balls repel each other...were it not for their electrical charges they could, like galaxies, pass right through each other unscathed.' When you sit in a chair, you are not actually sitting there, but levitating above it at a height of one angstrom (a hundred millionth of a centimeter), your electrons and its electrons implacably opposed to any closer intimacy."


Many more dots to go, but I have to say that I really enjoy making these tiny marks....watching the spaces in between open up like a floating whisper. A small but infinite joy.

There are some fresh dailies for the week posted over at MissouriBendMusings if you'd like to check them out. Now, it's time to wind down the day and get some shut eye. I'm working tomorrow, but then Sunday and Monday are mine for the musing!  Hope you have a fine weekend....see you in a few days.

Endless Repetition

Monday greetings! Hope you had a great weekend. A few things to share with you at the beginning of this new week! May as well start with the dailies....as I didn't make it back here on Friday as planned, there will be quite a few.

May 15, 2012

May 16, 2012

May 17, 2012

May 18, 2012

May 19, 2012

May 20, 2012

May 21, 2012

Today's daily brings me to the ultimate topic of this post.....repetition of a single unit....in this case, the humble dot. I've recently been finding myself longing for a new direction of sorts....maybe not a new direction, but a new voyage of exploration. I'd also been hearing the little voice in my head reminding me of my desire to get to the essence....often it comes to me as the notion of "the one thing" and the search for the "one thing" that will let me express the unsayable. At some point over the weekend there was a convergence of those desires and I realized that what I wanted was to find the "mark" that I would make....the single mark that would be repeated to see where it led. This sounds rather mundane as I describe it here, but I thought that it would help me move away from dependence on the recognizable image, so that I could get to some new landscape of mark making that might let me talk about the layers underneath....the longings and yearnings we might never be able to put in words. As you all probably know, especially from the Nocturne series, I am often most happy when making repeated dots. The dot would be "the mark" and I would set off to sea making random dots to find out where they led. There are endless possibilities, it seems, with just one mark. I'll explore this and see what happens. I did it with today's daily and then this afternoon I started another piece....multiple dots of white ink on a very delicate, almost translucent handmade paper made with cornhusks....hard to see, but here is a section of it. It will probably get dipped in beeswax at the end, but not sure yet.

And one last bit of good news to share! If you have a chance to see the upcoming issue of Sew Somerset, I'm one of the featured artists! I got my issue on Saturday before it hits the news stands...very exciting to see your words and work in print.

It's back to work-work for me tomorrow, but life will continue developing along other fronts as well. Thanks for reading....enjoy your week....may you be inspired and find joy in the simple pleasures.

Time to head on the deck for a glass of wine and the last few chapters of my latest book!

Doing and Being

May 8, 2012

May 9, 2012

May 10, 2012

Hello dear friends! I fully intended to do a post last Friday, but, the day escaped a little too rapidly. The daily drawings above would have been posted then, so I'm now playing catch-up....of course you can find all the dailies over at MissouriBendMusings. Maybe the reason I didn't post is that I'm finding that I'm spending a little more time "being" rather than "doing" when I'm not at work in the library. I have realized how "on the go" I always feel, as if there are never enough hours in the day (which, as we all know, there just aren't!), but that if I don't take time to "process" experiences, I'm out of sorts and kind of exhausted. Just a gentle reminder to myself that being is as important as doing.  I spend time now reading on either the front porch, which is sheltered from the wind, or on the back deck looking out over the river. For me, reading comes under the heading of "being," as I can go at my own pace and savor it all very slowly. So, as soon as I finish this post, it's back to "being" out on the deck....with my wonderful husband, a glass of wine and my latest book! Cheers....but before I go, the most recent dailies are now in the shop and here, for a quick peek!  For other views and details, you are welcome to visit MissouriBendMusings. Have a great week and many thanks for the continued support and cheer coming from all corners of the earth!!

May 11, 2012

May 12, 2012

May 13. 2012

May 14, 2012

Settling In To A New Week

Greetings, hope you've had a nice start to the week! Since I work on Saturday, my weekend is Sunday and Monday and I'm still trying to get used to it. Today was the end of my weekend, most of which I spent pulling daisies out of every nook and cranny in the big garden bed in the back. What a weed!!! Now, we can finally see what else is there and rethink the whole thing and how we want to fill it in. The daisies aren't all gone quite yet, but give me another session and I'll have every trace of them removed....I say that so confidently, knowing full well that they will continue to pop up here and there for an eternity! But, beyond the daisy pulling, other tasks were accomplished and soon we'll be able to actually plant the tomatoes, squash and pumpkins out in the other bed...along with a few other items, yet to be determined. We never quite know what we're doing, but we learn a little more each season, which is mostly a question of not over planting. This year we planted two apple trees and have carved out a little more space for other edibles, so I'm excited to get things in the ground. That's outside....here's the report from inside the studio....dailies for MissouriBendMusings and 2 new pieces for MissouriBendStudio.

May 4, 2012

May 5, 2012

May 6, 2012

May 7, 2012

Scene From A Lost Fairy Tale

Timeless Words (not yet listed)

I am still pondering the imponderable....wondering how it is that I am now working 30 hours a week (plus travel time to and fro) and I have time to be in the studio, work in the garden and also to read, which I never seemed to before. It's still a mystery, as I'm not sure that I can give myself credit for being more efficient, but I must have stopped doing the things that were irrelevant.  Anyway, life is good....I'll take any moments of contentment I can!!  Have a great week and thanks for reading the posts here....always great to hear from you.

May!

Welcome to the first week of May....kind of hard to believe it, actually. The way the garden looks right now, you'd think it was early June....the irises are in full bloom and the peonies are about to open already! I hope it's a nice long summer....with no disasters to befall anyone. I hesitate to invoke last year's flooding along the Missouri, but we are thankful we don't have to repeat that episode this year! Now that I'm working, life is full of new experiences, new ways of doing things and my circuits are nearly overloaded. But, the dailies continue....a nice way of balancing and keeping things from spiraling quite so freely out of control! I'll share the newest of the dailies from MissouriBendMusings and a piece I added to the MissouriBendStudio shop last week, along with a couple amazing views of the clouds last evening just about sunset....beautiful!

April 28, 2012

April 29, 2012

April 30, 2012

May 1, 2012

May 2, 2012

May 3, 2012

Ancient Text (Reading the Signs)

Hope you guys have a great weekend...see you at the beginning of the week!