Still Sorting and Finding Surprises

 I had totally forgotten this one that I had tucked away.  I still like it though it is totally different than anything else I've done.  Women at the Well, it's small, a bit over 4 x 6 inches. No idea what I'll do with it but for now, I'm enjoying looking at it.

Sorting and keeping track of my son as he first did "The Hook" and this weekend "Chicago to Mac" sailboat races.  Moms never stop worrying about their kids do they?

The Art Tribe Is Back at The Gallery Uptown

 

So what's an Art Tribe, in this case a group of artist friends who get together occasionally for lunch or wine and cheese to chat about life and art and sometimes to talk about doing a show together. In the past we've done some collaborative pieces but this year we did something a bit different, our theme is Beauty in the Ordinary. The Tribe members, Carol Cousineau, Bette DelVecchio, Barb Fugazzotto, Sandy Meyer, Annie Morgan and I, each did individual works.  Margaret Benefiel is another Tribe member but couldn’t participate this year.  She’s with us in spirit.

You’ll see paintings and collages along with scarves, table runners and assemblages and some surprise pieces. 

The exhibit is up now and the reception is Friday July 11, 5:30 to 7:30.  Hope you can come see, it's a great show!

Almost at the end of The 100 Day Project

 It's been fun exploring different ideas and I've been good about keeping track of what I've done each day.  I'm feeling fairly confident that I will be able to continue this practice of an hour of play before getting serious about a project.  Here is some of this weeks play -- flowers drawn with non-dominant hand on scraps of paper.

 

I think the last few days of the project will be spent trying to decide what my next series will be.

Redoing Space and Some Paintings.

I am so easily distracted. I keep finding things I had forgotten about or have been ignoring and then start working on the "find" instead of the clutter clearing.  This piece is one that I have been ignoring. I had buried it among a bunch of papers that needed sorting.  I knew why it was buried, it needed something but I had no clue what so I finally just threw more paint at it without giving any thought.

The old horizon line is obvious and my first thought was "sand the whole thing back" but the more I looked at it I began to think maybe this can go somewhere. What do you think?

Something a little different

This week I spent a little time every day working on a face.  At one time I did these often and usually in a recycled book that I had made into a journal.  This one is one a plain page in a sketchbook.

The image is from a wetcanvas weekend drawing event and I think I've done a drawing of him once before but that was a long time ago. He was fun but I prefer doing this type of drawing in an altered book sketchbook.  I may think about going back to it one of these days.

Meanwhile, I continue to work on the clutter clearing and am making good progress.  As I work on that and see different things in the studio I'm really wanting the space clear so I can get on to another project.  Three quarters of the way home!

The Project Continues

“I like finding things I didn’t know I had lost…..”

Kristin Peterson

My morning project has changed a little, a new question as I start my morning.  Now I'm asking myself: What am I willing to let go of. What needs to go away so I can move forward with clarity instead of distractions?  Another plus to this new project is that I’ve found some things I had totally forgotten about that may stay in the studio for a while. The image above is one; it’s small and may become a focal point for another collage.  I can see if I want to do more with things like this once most of this clutter is gone. As I said, this is still part of my 100 Day Project, just a slight variation.

An artist I follow, Louise Fletcher, posted a blog about letting go.  When the student is ready the teacher will come.  That blog post connected.  She is posting about getting rid of some hurts in her life as well as old art.  For me it was my art.

An aha moment – I can do the same thing with the clutter that surrounds me and has been distracting me -- too many choices.  I’ve always been interested in trying new things – in all aspects of my life – from swimming across the lake I grew up on to riding an elephant with my son when we visited a circus. I was always willing to give it a shot, still am for that matter.  The same with my art.  If I saw something that looked like fun I would buy what was needed and give it a go.  Some things stuck, some didn’t.  But the things I bought to try the didn’ts still have a home in the studio.  Time for them to go.  I’m also sentimental, I have things on display that remind me of times past, some good, some it’s time to let go of. 

This is one to let go of… a reminder of two small items that cost me a $400+ repair on my LeBaron.  I did love that car but not this bill.  The LeBaron is gone, these can go too.

Other things leaving are art supplies I know I’m not going to use.  So far I have two good size boxes filled for StudioJSD’s DeStash Bash in July.  One more box is in process.  Progress!

Almost At The Halfway Point

I'm still enjoying my 100 Day Project, just playing with no thought to what the result might be and only posting on my blog.  Sometimes the result is not so great but I still had fun and the result is useful.

This one is a mess but it was great fun testing different stencils to see which I want to keep and which will go in the DeStash Bash box.  And there is collage fodder in there.

Another play day was magazine image transfers and like the mess above I will need more practice. These were done on substrates that I can use for collage so much of it can be covered up and only a small section will be visible. Do you see where the small section at the right came from in the lower left image?

In between I've been doing some collage and a lot of sorting.  There is much in here that can go away.