onward!!

I think my month long diversion into beaded fruit and eggs has been beneficial to me and my art. While doing all that bead-work (and Thanksgiving cooking, cleaning and hosting) my brain was working things out. And I'm afraid (in a good way) that it has worked out quite a bit!

My head is bursting with new ideas, old ideas refined and everything in between. I've written and sketched everything down in my sketchbook and various legal pads, sorted in order that I would like to get going on it and even have gotten down to business.

First on my list are two artworks which have been languishing due to lack of enthusiasm and/or time for a while now. One (smallish) I thought was done two years ago, then I decided it needed more, and that "more" turned out to be an enormous amount of hand stitching with thick metallic thread. I have been working on it in tiny pieces of time here and there, but now I see the light at the end of the tunnel, so I am encouraged to persevere!

asphalt in progress

The other is a much larger piece that is part of my City Love Affair series. It got stopped in its tracks when I got tired of the tedious basting that turned out to be part of the process and distracted by other more immediate and faster paced art. I am excited about it once again, as I see a newish way I want work on it (after the basting) which will lead me to the next piece in the series which is in my head entirely at the moment.

basting very carefully so I won't have to rip out too much later

The third on my list to get done before starting anything new in earnest is the current occupant of my design wall. It is the other bridge in my City Lines series. The whole "cloth" base is done and now I am dying to get collaging with plastics on it. I have shared a bit of it a few weeks ago, but it hasn't budged since then... now that my house guests are off for a while and my studio (aka passage way) is allowed to get messy again, it will get very very messy!

the sketch is under a clear plastic for guidance

So. I hope to share updates on these three throughout the months of December and January. And if I get started on any of the other ideas my brain has come up with, I will share those too! And somewhere in there I have to squeeze in three costumes for my kids Russian school play... (I am taking a break this year from making costumes for the whole production). Onward with December!!