Working
Mending Bone
9 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches
collage (dress pattern, buttons, linen tape, acrylic paint on baby wipe, film strip, gesso, dictionary fragments, and anatomical illustration) on paper bag
Then I Shall Be
9 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches
collage (altered Polaroid, sandpaper, anatomical illustration, dictionary fragment, poplar leaf, brass brads, and wick anchors) with gold and copper leaf, tissue paper, India ink, and acrylic paint on paper bag
I spent the afternoon cleaning and putting away the mess I made last week. There were scraps of paper and junk everywhere. Thankfully, I can shut the door on it when I’m fed up with it and don’t want to look at it any longer. But, since I’ve finished the Hemp Bound Journal (yay!), I really had to clear away the debris before I could start on a new project. This may be the cleanest this room ever gets, so I thought I’d take pictures before I went to work dirtying it up again.
I didn’t get much else accomplished today. I’m not quite sure where the day went. I did manage to slap a coat of gesso on a crappy old painting I found at a yard sale. I think I paid $2 for it, which, considering I don’t have to stretch or prime it, was a damned good deal. A coat of black gesso slapped on with a credit card (no brush to clean!) covered the hideous Madonna (under)painting. After that dried, I layered some dress pattern pieces, gluing them down with acrylic medium. I don’t have a specific plan for it yet (paint or oil pastels will be involved), but at this point, it kind of looks like a road atlas.
I haven’t decided what I’m going to do, journal-wise, now that I’ve finally finished the Hemp Bound Journal. I’m thinking I might tear down some black Stonehenge paper I’ve got. The surface is a little hard and slick for my taste, and I don’t like how much it buckles with wet media, but it might make a fun change from the earth tones I’ve been stuck in lately. Something more colorful would be nice, and black paper would lend itself well to gel pens. Hmmm. I think I will do that. Maybe tomorrow, even.
And now, gratuitous dogblogging:
This is an older picture that I’ve Photoshopped. It was taken last April, in the country. Harriet liked to stick her head through the holes in the livestock fence, and graze on the grass on the other side. She also would stand like that and call to the bunnies. I think she was trying to convince one to hop in her mouth. Not one of her more brilliant plans, as it turns out. Rabbits are surprisingly unreceptive to that sort of mind control.
It is done. All the furniture is in place, and everything is pretty much unpacked and put away. I still need to find a small shelving unit to go next to my computer desk, and there are drawers and drawers of supplies and assemblage/collage junk that I just crammed together when I moved that I’ll need to sort soon, but at this point my studio is functional.
And, Pandora approves.
Pandora (AKA Mistress Eeevil Kitty)
Pandora is in charge of making sure that my work table is kept clear and that all stray socks, wash cloths, and scraps of paper are deposited by the front door. She’s 16 this month and is still going strong. Every morning, I wake up to her running crazed laps up and down the hallway.
Pandora is the only cat I’ve known who is absolutely fearless. While I was moving the furniture around last weekend, the dogs both hid. Not Pandora! She was constantly underfoot, checking out what I was doing and looking to see if I’d unearthed anything Interesting. I’ve moved around a lot since I got her and have never seen her stressed about being in a new place. As soon as her carrier is opened, she’s out and exploring her new queendom. Every trip to the vet is a new adventure–she schmoozes with everyone and noses around, getting into everything she possibly can.
The Studio
That’s Elliott in the last picture. He’s a mamma’s boy. Whenever I’m working, he sleeps under my feet. When I’m not working, he sleeps under my computer desk. The desk looks like a hunk of junk, but it’s an antique primitive piece. I should take better care of it than I do, but I don’t have the space to store furniture I’m not using. Plus, it’s the perfect size and height for what I need.
And, because we haven’t had a landscape photo in awhile…
red paper boat 