Catching Up to September

The Indigo class was a great success. Lots of wonderful patterns created by the willing crew.

We spent 2 1/2 days tying, wrapping, clamping, stitching and dyeing our creations.

On the last day we made books and sewing bags.

Gosh it was fun.

There's little more beautiful than fresh dyed indigo flapping in the breeze.

And we had marvelous weather for the weekend.

Kathie even let us do some rusting from her great stash of metal.

She prepared us lunches and suppers! It was incredible to eat her fabulous food and to watch her prepare it with seeming ease. Thank you Kathie and you terrific attendees for a wonderful weekend.

It seemed like the garden exploded overnight into riotous flower and fruit.

The persimmons are like sculpture; I love to watch them mature.

And the winter squash, strewn among the fallen plums. The vines are dying. Summer winding down.

I stretched the Big Big canvas. I love to stretch canvas. I know; I must be crazy. But I do love the mundane studio tasks as well as the moments of joy when something in a painting satisfies me.

I've been at it.

Flinging myself at the paint; flinging the paint at the substrate.

I talked Shellie (my daughter) into trying non-representation. 

She was exhausted by the end of the day. 

She said that painting a subject is so much easier because you know what it's supposed to look like.

Or at the least you have a starting place.

Whereas in non-representational painting, you have to invent everything.

I agreed.

I think it's the most challenging painting I've ever tried.

I'm only at the beginning of my search.

But I'm loving it. 

Thank you for stopping by. 

Last Two Versions of the Big One

Day 29 above.

Day 30. Whew! 

After a full 30 days of painting each day I feel like the marathon runner who throws herself across the finish line. 

Now I can finally start new paintings. 

Bye bye Big Big. You've been a worthy studio companion.

My Month of Paintings

So in my last post I shared with you the first 5 versions of my month long challenge to myself to paint daily on the same painting. 

I can hardly remember why I started this challenge to myself other than that I had a failed painting on a 48x60" canvas that I didn't know what to do with. 

So I threw that canvas on the floor on the first day and just started painting meandering lines on it. And then one thing just sorta let to another. It was fun. Addictive.

On some days the changes I made were ghastly. So I decided to accept that. Believe me when I say it wasn't easy to accept the ugly. The badly composed. 

My inner critic was howling but I sat him in a corner and continued.

To make it even harder, I started posting the results on Facebook every day so that all my uglies hung out for everyone to see. 

As the wonderful Marcia Sandmeyer Wilson said on her site long ago, I had my underpants on my head. That brave.

I wanted to stop several times.

This version for example.

But by then the friends on Facebook urged me on.

"Joy, joy, destroy" as my idol Carlito says.

I destroyed.

And overcame fear.

I rose again.

And was glad I'd had courage.

Was able to get out a lot of silly.

And watch as things rose up ...

faded away ...

and became other things.

I grew tired of it at times.

But kept going.

Went off in some real strange directions.

And found that I didn't care any more.

I had lost some essential part of me that was fearful.

That always held me back.

Tomorrow I'll show you the last 2 days.

Thank you for witnessing my journey. 

I hope you find a way to realize your dreams if they are good ones. 

xo