Learning to Focus

Lili at her Painting Project

For a child not quite two, my grand-daughter Lili amazes me with her ability to enter into what she is doing with complete concentration and focus. And she is not finished until SHE decides it is so. Would that I could be so clear and sure about what I do. It seems odd to want to emulate a small child so often, but here I am, thinking frequently "How would Lili approach this?".

In the meantime, I am working on several pieces for my upcoming show at Paul Smith's College called Out of Season, with my friend Lee Ann. All of my pieces in this show are new and all are inspired by and related to my recent trip through Florida this past winter. The piece de resistance in this show (in my opinion and for several reasons) is my set of handmade postcards that I mailed to 15 friends from the road toward the end of our trip and which they returned to me when I returned home. I am displaying all the cards in a 3D piece at the opening. I also scanned all the cards when I got them back, and I printed them, so I can use them in some fiber work. 

Here is the post card I sent to my mom, shown below first in its original form then made into a deconstructed fiber piece, still in progress.
      

       

Cris' Collages at LPCA

These collages (each 8" x 8") were on my November 24th post, with information on how they were put together. Now they are the Lake Placid Center for the Arts in the Big Small Holiday Show, along with lots of small works by area artists. Worth the trip!

Trust the Trail

October Pond Lilies

Hints for the Cook - Girl Scout Series

In Using an Ax or Hachet - Girl Scout Series

Warning for Windy Days - Girl Scout Series

There They Go

On my way down through the mountains yesterday, I dropped off my five 8" x 8" collages at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts for the Big Small Holiday Show (a.k.a. Miniatures Show on the website but originally the show had the former title - much more descriptive, as I don't think of my pieces as miniatures at all). It always feels kind of like leaving your small children at school on the first day of classes - you know they are looking and behaving their best, but you can't help worrying a little and you hope people like them, understand them, and help launch them successfully into the larger world. And here they are for you to see:

In Using an Ax or Hachet - Girl Scout series

Warning for Windy Days - Girl Scout series

Hints for the Cook - Girl Scout series

Trust the Trail

 It is hard to see on the piece above the metal leaf that I applied to the trail going up the steep mountain among rocks and leading to the glowing disk. Maybe a photo would show the technique better - quite perfect for the effect I had in mind. I could not find locally the sizing that is prescribed for gluing down the delicate metal leaf, so I used double-sided adhesive. The fire tower on the left is a transfer from a newspaper using a Chartpak blender marker. The ravens are stenciled on, and the pressed leaf is a spring Tiarella.    

October Pond Lilies

The background on this one is a manipulated photograph printed on air mail paper ("oil paint" effect and faded back); the foreground image is a photo transfer using matte acrylic medium on hot pressed watercolor paper, enhanced with watercolor paint, and cut apart; and the image in the upper right is a scan from an antique print that was inkjet printed, along with the text, on gampi silk tissue and applied with more medium, allowing almost total transparency behind the printed image. I'm still working with the gampi to figure out the best way to print on this delicate paper. In this case, I sprayed the back of the gampi with the temporary bonding spray I use for fabric work and just stuck it firmly to a piece of regular printer paper. It went through my printer perfectly, after several earlier nerve-wracking and unsuccessful tries. (Many thanks to several friends on my inkjet transfer Yahoo group for their suggestions!) The downside to the temporary spray is that it leaves a sticky residue (of course) on the back of the tissue. Not a problem in this case, but not always what I want. 

Every piece is an experiment in one way or another.