so many more....

I have about 60 of these 4x4 inch squares now.  I think that is only about a third of the amount I will need.  Each square has hooks on two sides and eyelets on the other two, so that they can attach to those next to it.  Some will remain plain, some will have masses of eyelets and others will have the eyelets and hair like masses.  I can make the hair like masses in a different way than I had originally planned, which will go much faster.  I am really liking how it is quilt like...but I want it to be BIG...like five by six feet.  And I need to find a more permanent way for it to stay fixed together to go on the wall the first time, as I will be out of town when it is installed.  I need to make the installation fool proof.  Not quite sure how that will happen just yet.  

I love the weird little overlapping eyelets.  I could sew those all day. 

drawing....

I finished two commissioned drawings this spring break for a friend who works at the Mayo Clinic.  She is a Hematologist and wanted a drawing of bone marrow for herself.  Her husband is a Neurologist who specializes in nerves of the hands and arms, so she wanted something to give to him.  He emailed me a paper he wrote on ganglia attached to nerves in the hands with all sorts of words I didn't understand, and a couple of cool pictures of such a surgery; this is the area of the hand cut open, with the nerve pulled out and some sort of surgical material propping it up.  It was a fabulous to pick up a pen after such a long time!

I need to pump up the blacks a little still, and clean it up with an eraser, and then this is ready for delivery.  

this is so good...

So I have been reading my art crush blog, Lisa Congdon, recently, who writes great posts about what it is to have an art career.  And how to do it.  I found one of her posts recently that linked back to a column written by Cheryl Strayed for The Rumpus.  It is brilliant.  It addresses how to get out of your own way, how to do the work, how to practice. And it is a practice, this creative life.  Just like exercise and meditation and eating well and taking care of oneself.  You have to do the work even when you don't want to.  Even when the work is shitty.  You just have to work.  This line sums it all up for every one of us creatives, even though it is addressed to a writer:

"Write like a motherfucker."

I am trying to.  

SPRING BREAK!

I am so thankful you are here.  My son has been at school and my husband at work and the house quiet except for the refrigerator hum and netflix.  I have gotten a lot done.  Completed two commissioned drawings and been sewing hook and eyes.  And watching House of Cards, the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Season 2 of the Fall.  Jamie Dornan and Kevin Spacey are such amazing creeps.  Images soon, and only one day left of my break.  

Installation images...

Thank you so much to my husband who braved the temperatures to get some shots of my piece at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts fully installed!

"Ligatures" is up another month or so if you would still like to see it.  

March?????

I can't believe it is March.  I hadn't meant to go so long between posts, but after finishing the piece for the MN Center for Book Arts, it was time to jump right into class prep and planning.  And then it was time to go to class.  I am teaching Drawing 1 and 3-Design this semester.  This is my second semester of 3-D Design and I think we are getting some pretty good results.  My students just finished a helmet/headgear piece dealing with line and planar shapes and I am really pleased with the results.  Take a look at two: 

Another two got into the Juried Student Exhibition.  Congratulations!

Corinne Botz....

was recently in Hi-Fructose magazine, which is where I discovered her.  Look at these fabulously creepy photos.  I have been thinking of creating little tableaus for my dolls that I could then photograph, and these have me so excited.  

"Parsonage Parlor"

"Red Bedroom"

"Attic feet"

Much of her work flirts with fear and death.  You can visit her website here.

Keren Kroul....

Congratulations on the Minnesota State Arts Board Initiative Grant!  It is well deserved.

 I can't wait to see the work that gets made by Keren this year.  She paints these lovely, large multi panel watercolors that are map like depictions of memory.  Her use of color is really quite lovely.  But I think one of my favorite parts are the negative space shapes.  Please visit her website to see more work, and venues at which you can see it in person.  She is booked out nearly three years!

"Unquiet Mind"

"Gray Matter"

"Gray Matter" detail

"Abstractions/Constructions"