Kicking Back this Weekend...

Just resting and exhaling this weekend after a VERY long stretch of hubby working. (that's 2 whole work weeks including the weekend in between.) Lucky me... it's a beautiful, sunny day and I can go dog walking for unlimited time!!!

Don't have a new camera yet. I'm still making art, though. Shifting gears for kid's summertime and just making art for me right now. The reality is... I can't stop making art. I can't NOT do it. It's too much a part of me. I saw a great poster on Etsy, exactly at the right time. It said: "I just want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares." Sounds kind of sad and funny... it resonates. I always go back to Corita Kent and her rules for art. My fave: "The only rule is work." So, I will work.

Celebrate the Solstice!

Illustration for the corgi book that is slowly being completed. (linocut)

Wow, the longest day of the year... and the beginning of new things. I've been painting on canvas on the easel... alongside 2 other artists. (we have tandem easels!) Sharing the paintings would be nice except some little elf broke my camera and... well, it's complicated.

Check out our daughter's new flip flops... golden like the solstice with butterflies. Perfectly summer. Dance around a midsummer bonfire or campfire tonight!

Planting by the Moon

Here is a new art quilt I've been working on. I actually did the drawing when I made the Mermaid quilt a few months back. But... I've been suffering from feelings of 'where am I going? what am I doing?' with my art. I haven't had many shows lately and am starting to re-evaluate why I do art and should I keep working hard on it without many prospects. Guess I need to get out there and make new connections! Or maybe just stop.

Hopefully I can get out of this funk or maybe it's a bridge to somewhere else. Then comes the commitments to home and family... and the time that takes and how important it is to cultivate that side of life. Hmmn. Just thinking out loud. Thanks for listening.

After the Party

Our son turned 8 about a week ago and these are the remnants of his 'first party'... the family party. (minus the train pile-up which he created to make room for the new toys and books he set up in photo no. 4 :) Yesterday was his 'kid party' where they played many field games, got hot, sweat and thirsty... played many more and finally pooped out. But, after drinks, chips and cake the kids were quickly resurrected. Oh to be 8 again!

Now that the party's over the girls in the family are treating ourselves to an outing. We are go to the Farm Chicks. Can't wait! Happy Sunday.

Testing, Test Prints...

I finally finished a few of the carvings for my corgi book. Still getting the bugs out regarding paper size, trimming of linocuts etc. I'm thinking about how to fit it all on the page without too much overlapping. (some is good, though!).

In the first photo I cut the paper a bit bigger just to see what it would look like. It doesn't work. Much prefer the lower photo's layout. Back to carving! Happy almost Memorial Day weekend and the kick-off of SUMMER! (hello white linen :)

Book and Flower

I finally printed some of the pages of the book I've been making about our corgi gone missing on Boxing Day. Yesterday I sketched in some rough ideas in the dummy book to think about scale and subject matter. A person could sit forever... about to draw an idea... when it comes to putting images together with words. It must be similar to adding music to lyrics.

The violet water soluble Daniel Smith ink was super impossible to clean up. It seemed like it was oil based... finally was successful with paper towels and Dawn dish soap. Very strange because the other colors clean up quickly with warm water. Go figure.

The middle photograph is a peek at the beautiful paper flowers my daughter gave me for Mother's Day! (she made them at pre-school) They are made from magazine paper and sewn with a button in the middle... pipe cleaners for stems. So cute... a great craft idea.

Egg Dye

All the kids and I colored and decorated eggs on Easter Sunday a few weeks back. It was so much fun! Later that night, all the stuff was still sitting on the kitchen counter... stinking of vinegar. My daughter wanted to dip some of the eggs again to see if they'd change color and it was then I remembered I had a 'ready to dye' packet of silk fabrics. So, I cut them into small strips and we started dipping.

The fabric turned out quite pretty but, now that I've read a little more about dye, fears are coming on. The water was not boiling hot and we did not soak overnight. So, they probably will run like crazy if we use them in a quilt and wash it someday.

Does anyone know how I could set the dye? Or is it set? (the solution was just one egg dye tablet and equal parts vinegar and water.)

PS still carving on the linocut book... on page 9 now.