Making Marks

Paper Quilt Update

Last week I wrote about the start of this paper quilt, and now I can show some progress. The paper part is completed. The original plan to put it in a shadow box didn't work, so I need to figure out how to display this piece. My thought is to paint a stretched canvas and stitch the paper to the canvas.

Working in a variety of media has its pros and cons. I enjoy trying new ideas and techniques; however, sometimes the learning curve can be frustrating. There are times when I think I should just settle down and focus on one medium or one combination of media. In some ways, this would make my creative life a little less chaotic.

But then I see an enticing DVD and my thoughts wander again. . . the options are endless!

One month of Scooter

Scooter has been with us for a month now! While we've had a few trials, most of this time has been really wonderful. He's a sweet, loving dog who is eager to please. We quickly discovered he was housebroken and knew how to sit on command. Since then, he's learned several other commands, such as come, down and roll over. He also knows "up" - to put his paws up on something such as the side of the bed to get a little scratch in the morning- and "off" - to get back off the bed. We're working on "shake" to make it easier to take his harness off and put it on. Today we started working on "bang" - we pretend to shoot him and he falls over.

When he came home with us, he was a scared little guy, but his confidence has grown. He's still very quiet - he might bark once a day. So far he hasn't figured out his own reflection, and he'll spend a couple of minutes investigating that dog in the glass. A rawhide chew is one of his favorite things.

Right now it's difficult to remember B. S., Before Scooter.

I've taken lots of photos of him, and this is how most of  them turn out: blurry, dark or he's camera shy and is looking away. It's not easy!

Work in Progress?

Three weeks ago I wrote about a sketch I had made for an upcoming group show, and I'm now working on the final piece. When I made the sketch in acrylic on watercolor paper, I liked how it looked, but I wanted to collage the next iteration. Influenced by the quilting book, I decided to paint paper, cut it and sew the pieces together. The image at the right is partially sewn (the bottom part). Now I need to work on the top portion. I've sewn since I was 13 years old, so this should be easy. However, my repertoire has been limited to fabric: I have rarely sewn paper. The feel is very different from sewing fabric, and I've broken two needles so far. The next big question is how to display this piece. I have a plan to use a shadow box frame, and I hope it works! It needs to be ready to hang on July 3rd.

On my nightstand is a new book that a friend recommended Life, Paint and Passion. I like having a variety of influences in my creative thinking; this book is certainly different from others I've read. I like the approach so far. The idea is to paint intuitively without regard to proportion or color theory or any other art concepts. I think this might be a great approach as a warm up activity, similar to Julia Cameron's Morning Pages.

Think Pink

Pink is all around me these days - in the garden, in gifts I received and in gifts I'm making. The pink bag in the upper left is my talented Mom's creation based on inspiration from one of Kumiko Sudo's books. She did such a great job with this treasure that the picture hardly does it justice. Pink in the upper right is from our garden, and these little flowers are happy even as it's started raining again in Oregon. In the next photo I demonstrate that I'm guilty of inserting as many pics of our cute Scooter as I can get away with. This is him on a morning walk, holding still enough for one picture. Finally, here's a photo of a decorative magnet I made using a picture of the peonies behind Scooter. The frame is polymer clay (with layers of paint to highlight the texture) and the background is an iron-on t-shirt transfer applied to another layer of polymer clay. (What can I say? I got out the pasta machine and couldn't stop myself.) What will this week bring?

Honorable Mention

I'm delighted to share that Blue Branch (left) won an Honorable Mention in Creative Catalyst Productions' Winter Show of still life pieces.

I wrote about Blue Branch in February right after I revised this and another piece. I'm glad to see that the revision was successful!

Right now I'm working on a series for a show in September. I'm hoping that people connect with the work, but, as demonstrated here, I'm not averse to reworking pieces that somehow fail to create an initial impact. I edit my writing all the time. I like having the freedom to edit my visual work as well.