Elephants, Giraffes and Zebra, Oh MY

Elephants, Giraffes and Zebras, OH MY>>>>>>

I attended a gathering last week where I really had a wake up call....stop feeling sorry for yourself and get back to working/creating....and since that gathering, I've put together three new surface designs, all using animal shapes.........ready to put them all under the sewing machine needle.  Now I have to find a "cool" day to get that started....seriously considering pulling my sewing machine back into the air conditioned house to do the sewing portion as I just don't seem to get the right amount of time to sew early in the morning when it's cool out in the studio room.  This is my plight every summer.  I've researched putting in a/c into that room, but the cost is very high for very low results...mainly it's because that specific add on room is on the south side of the house, full sun all day and I've got windows all around, bright light, meaning heat build up all day long.  Fortunately summer it's year around or I'd definitely have to make a permanent change. 

What usually happens has happened again...I start on one idea and all of a sudden I've had a flood of other ideas come at me using many different images and now I have a ton of ideas floating around on paper I can't keep up...this is how I like to work.  In no time I'll have a good series to finish off and hang in October.  I broke through my spell and I'm feeling fairly good about the outcome.

A huge thank you to my friends:  Dee, Marjan, Peig, Debra, Martha, Marjie and Carol...a good kick in the butt seems to work every time!!!!

Spring/Summer Project Finished

My Spring/Summer project has come to a finish...Dan Gannon, designer/landscaper, finished the last of what needed to be done yesterday and the huge pile of old pulled up shrubs were picked up this morning......looking very good.  Mulch and native plants were placed and this wonderful little patio area just outside my front door. 

And from the front sidewalk, this is the view...keep some iris and poppies and sage in their original spots with other plants in and around them.  What he planted three weeks ago have definitely started to grow in a couple of months, most will be filled in over the surface.  Under mulch drip system is working well and we are saving a huge amount on water. 


On the fiber art portion of my life, I have decided to do a small series on endangered animals that will  hang in the gallery for the October featured artist exhibit.....and I'm started a large project for myself, two pieces above my red couch on my gold wall...black w/red and red w/black silhouette images of endangered animals mainly from Asia and Africa.  And then I'm starting up on the three pieces I have on the back burner to use for submission into online art shows, etc.  These pieces will be far too expensive to put into the gallery;  not tourist worthy.

I feel I've made it over the hump of depression and I'm beginning to work more in the studio and I'm enjoying it more....I've realized that I need to ignore what "others" give me as ideas...they are nice to mention the ideas, but unless I come up with them myself I'm not going to produce at all.  Each day as a caregiver takes so much out of me and I have to accept that...do what I can and keep my head up focused toward a goal. 

Finding my Way Again

As most know, I have been really struggling to find a new niche for my art work...I've been toying with the idea of creating a series of work using flowers and I even created a few pieces, BUT I hate working with flowers....anyone could do this in their sleep.  I'm struggling because I need to come up with a new crop of work for the gallery by the month of October (featured artist) and on the other hand I want to encounter and create more creative larger work that wouldn't go in the gallery because of their size and retail pricing.  AND FINALLY I HAD A BREAKTHROUGH......

Laying in bed thinking I was going to go asleep, I thought of an idea to create to very large pieces to go above my red couch in the living room...it's a large high ceiling wall so I have space to go BIG...which I really like to do.  Big but within the confines of using my sewing machine on it....so I decided to create two pieces 84"long x 26"high, one black base, the other red base and each of them place silhouette images of Endangered Animals across the length with text behind on the background.
Black background with red images and gold text; red background with black images and gold text..hanging one over the other above the red couch on a gold wall.    That took care of the BIG idea....so I thought, why not carry this to the gallery, by creating a series 14" x 16" with endangered animals of north america...same idea w/text and image of the animals on background...keeping it simple so I can keep the pricing to a minimum.....so that's what I'm starting to put together...going to work  up a small one first to work out the kinks...already purchased the fabric for the larger pieces...just worked up the lettering for the text, ready to start cutting and fusing the text once I get the images set in place.....then the background stitching for shading and texture....I'm all of a sudden interested in working this idea to see where it takes me.     I've been doing research on the internet about the different animals and locations...there are actually thousands of different types of endangered something..animals, plants, insects, birds, etc etc....possibly this could work into something more for me. 

I feel relieved that I can not concentrate on the subject at hand and do some honest work instead of jumping from one idea to another...I hate that feeling as my work has to have a purpose of some kind.

The other work I want to produce is much more complex and time consuming..once I get enough smaller pieces for the Oct exhibit in place, then I can wander into the other ideas that I have in sketch and draft pieces around the gallery.....and this week, the weather turned HOT HOT HOT...which means I can only work in the morning out in the studio as it's just to hot once it hits noon.  That dang summer think has popped it's head up which means if it continues, I'll have to move my machine into the house to sew to get these pieces finished.