Tantivy

I am continuing to work on the Red/Black series, but took time off to go to Tullahoma to take Sarie to a birthday party when Jenny and Alex were taking Drew to a mini-triathlon in Murfreesboro. I went Friday evening and returned Saturday afternoon. Being lector at the 8:00 service Sunday morning had me hopping out of bed early but when I returned home I crawled right back in for a little nap. No studio work.   Yesterday and today, though, I worked and got a few things done. The organic piece is just about finished. I like the leaves over the black. Vicki (sister) called it compelling. I hope that it did not compel her to close her eyes! Here is the strata piece after the pour and a little work. Bubble wrap to make the dots, etc. Turned out that I didn't like the dots and made some changes. Here it is after the changes.  That is glare on the left. More changes have been made but I forgot to photograph them. The blue in the upper right is smoother and more organic ...

                                                                   How it began I have been working on an abstract painting. Abstract is not something you do because you can't draw, but a very intentional, mathematical and also intuitive thing. Here is my process as far as it has gone. There is still work to do, but I want to talk to my teacher, Sandra Paynter Washburn, first to get some direction. This is, after all, my first attempt.                                                                    First steps I poured and spread Crimson, burnt orange, gold and yellow on the paper. On a whim that I have since regretted I glued some broken eggsh...

Despite having been born to and raised by two of the cleanest and neatest people ever to inhabitant this earth, I am a slob.  I just didn't get the neat and clean gene. Is not that I don't like neat and clean and want it, but that, like an absent minded-professor, I have my mind on other things and just walk over and around things instead of seeing them. I have tried all sorts of methods from 3"x5" cards (Sidetracked Home Executives) to Flylady to long lists to get me on the right track but to no avail. Finally , there's an app for that.   This is designed to help you with your routines and ...*TaDa* you get STARS for doing things. The stars go away magically during the night and you begin again the next day. My routine is very basic; most of you would laugh at it but for me this works.  Gotta love those stars!! You spend a minimum of 15 minutes working a a Zone.  I have someone to come in and shovel us out every other week, so my zone work is the st...

I have a few somewhat unrelated things to show you. Not that my mind jumps around, you understand, but, well, my mind goes in many directions - sometimes all at once it seems. The garden of my mind is a jungle. First, here is a dragonfly that someone  Sara found dead while we were in Sanibel. I really wanted to bring him home to add to my collection of wonderful things but I didn't have anything in which to safely carry him so I took a photograph. I was particularly interested in his wings, as you can guess. They are the very definition of delicate. Vicki and I have decided to participate in the challenges (and they really are) of Danny Gregory's EveryDay Drawings. Yesterday the assignment /challenge was to draw something metallic. Vicki chose a very difficult object - a fork.  I know it seems simple, but try drawing one. I went much easier with my earring and then my bracelet. I drew in ink, which is another challenge for me. I had a little trouble holding the boo...

Well, maybe not carpenter, but I did use a saw and a mitre-box (both mine) this week when I decided that I needed a place to put paper towels, cling film and wax paper in my studio. Old dog. New tricks. Again. I had lost the pegs that hold boards, etc. in place for cutting but found that a Faber Castell Pitt pen was just the right size to use. (below). A dowel would have worked but they were what was being cut!  Unfortunately,  I didn't realize that the mitre-box would fit over the front edge of the table to stabilize it until the work was all done.(top right) Then again, I only cut three pieces of dowel from two longer lengths, so I didn't have much struggling to do. Here is the finished project. The dowels slip into the holes on the shelf supports and hold wrap, or anything on a tube. I can easily remove them to take them to class if I want to, but they aren't on top of other things or falling off onto the floor. I feel very clever in a limited ...