Some New Directions

"I am passionately going somewhere, but I'm not sure where" Louise Bourgeois wrote that in her journal.  That's where I am right now.  Another artist, can't remember who, said she has a sign in her studio to remind her to "Stay In Your Lane."  The problem for me is I don't know which lane is mine.  It doesn't bother me though; every lane I travel down is fun … until it isn't anymore.  Then I change lanes.  Sometimes I'll be in two lanes at once. That's the case right now, an old lane that I haven't traveled in for a very long time along with one that is fairly new for me. The watercolor above is that very old lane when I actually used a brush to paint my watercolors.

A few years back I took a workshop on making an art journal.  It was canvas and gesso and very large, only two full pieces of canvas but large pieces.  I didn't like the result so I put it away for awhile thinking maybe if I look at it later I'll like it better. It recently surfaced.  The quarantine has given me time to really get into clutter that is my studio, purging is happening.  There will still be clutter, just not quite as much. 

So with the purging things began appearing that I had forgotten about.  That art journal was one.  About the same time my son asked if I had a sewing machine that could handle canvas; his dodger* needed repair and Melanie's machine couldn't handle the thickness.

I have an old Slant-A-Matic that can handle just about anything, new in 1955 and still works just fine so when my newer machines need an overhaul this one comes out.  I figured a good test would be stitching some of those gessoed canvas pages together. So I cut them into 6" x 10" pages, approximately, and stitched two together at a time to make 6 signatures.  Way better to use and easy to stitch.  I will eventually put them all together but for now I like working on the individual signatures.

Way better to use and easy to stitch.  I learned that my machine can definitely handle the dodger. I'll eventually put all the signatures together but for now I like working on the individual signatures. here are five of them without having added anything to them yet.  *For those of you who don't know, a dodger is a piece that goes over the hatch opening of a sailboat and it's purpose is to keep spray from going below and from hitting the helmsman in the face, hence,,,, a dodger.

This is one I started work on,  just added some color

And took this one a bit further....

Thinking maybe I'll make this art journal about my town and some of the things that I love seeing here.  That's not a given but it's the direction I'm thinking about.  Which brings me back to Louise Bourgeois and her journal, "I'm passionately going somewhere, but I don't know where."  We shall see where this goes.