missouribendstudio: the business of art

Thinking seems to be the main activity of my week, as I try to discern the next move forward. I feel like things are at some sort of stand still or impasse and I need to make a move in some other direction, but still don't quite know what that is. For those of you who've been reading for some time, it will come as no surprise that I'm still reading the first volume of Marcel Proust long epic and I continue to be fascinated by the writing that describes so accurately the workings of the human heart...motivations, desires, actions. I wish I could decipher my own thoughts, my own fears, actions and inactions so precisely. I'm constantly asking myself the same questions...what do I need, what's the next step, am I bored...do I need to learn a new skill, do I need to shake things up with a workshop, do I need to pare down my Etsy shop, is it now too full with 145 items, do I separate the found text pieces and have a second shop....do I just need to find a better way to advertise and promote...is there something I'm missing? Constant questions, constant looking left, right, up and down, listening, listening inside, listening outside....waiting for answers that will come from the place I least expect, I'm sure.

There is one step I'm taking...Johntimothy and I have some pretty nice websites designed by a graphic student who was here at USD a few years ago....a pretty creative fellow who has long since moved on. John's was the first site he designed and by the time he got to doing mine, he had a more experience and got pretty ambitious. It's a wonderful website, but so complex that I can't update it, even though he left lengthy instructions. So we're taking them down and rethinking our websites. I'm telling you this so you can have a quick look before they disappear soon...very soon! The work on them and all the information is pretty outdated now, but everyone who sees this site loves it....totally charming...but alas, not what I need these days! Have a look here for my "about to disappear" website and here for the website of my husband, Johntimothy Pizzuto. If you read this post a few days from now it may be too late...my apologies. New websites will be on the horizon!

Meanwhile, the river continues to build, slowly but surely. I continue to break threads and use that as a clue that it's time to give Violett a rest. Still lots of river left to build, but I think it might be interesting...sort of like that last hand stitched piece, where I questioned it up until I was halfway through and then knew it would work. I guess this will work....I know this is a good first test of playing with the sewing machine to realize an idea and it may end up in a closet, but at the very least I'll have learned a lot and spent a lot of money on thread!