goodbye....

My best friend Bug snuck out into the spring sun on Saturday night and was hit by a car before we even knew he was gone.  Animal control euthanized him next door.  I wailed in the front yard for an hour with him in a sack in my lap.  This really wasn't the way this was supposed to go.  But then you realize it is not up to you.  I loved him and I was loved.  Goodbye Bug.

A gift....

I got my husband the book "Making your life as an Artist" for his birthday.  Another artist/blogger who I admire was posting some quotes from it on her site, and my husbands birthday was a convenient excuse to get us a copy.  It is written by Andrew Simonet, a dancer/choreographer, and you can actually download a copy for free on his website Artists.org.  It is just beautiful, real lived experience of the life of a creative. The first thing he does is thank you for being an artist.  And he reminds you why your inquiry is important.  He says "our challenge: build lives as artists that are balanced, productive and sustainable."  He offered that one should have a mission statement, which is different from the artist's statement, bio, work proposal, but includes all the things that are important to you in life. What would yours say?  I am starting to think about mine. I think it is a brilliant bit of advice.  And in addition, the book is a beautifully designed little object.  I hope you will check it out.  

so many more....

in

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...

in

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.