I hate the lapses between blog posts but in reality who wants to read about my grief process. I continue to put one foot in front of the other and once every so often put same foot down too soon or too late and stumble. Then it takes me about a week to regain my confidence of moving in the world. With an ongoing focus of getting stronger in my mobility following two
total knee replacements in the past year and a half, the loss of my aged father and my husband’s health issues my muse has hit the road. I have been able though to do creative bits and pieces here and there but the big work just stares back from the wall. The smaller tasks do not necessarily fill my creative well but get things done.
Most recently I made a baby quilt for my cousin and his wife who are expecting a bambino next month. I always take these on with great fervor and then quickly remember how much I hate sewing a straight line! For me it is practically impossible even with the positioning foot on the machine. About halfway through I give up control on whether the recipient will like it or not. It is my process after all not theirs. When my daughter was born we received 3 hand-made baby quilts and we still treasure each one three decades later! One by grandmother, another by great-grandmother and the third made by a friend. All treasure.
I also bought a new computer which I sorely needed and have been challenging myself nearly daily to figure out where my images are. Some are on an external drive, some on the new operating system. Some I can’t read the title line so I have to open them up to see. After spending countless hours trying to ferret out an image for someone I decided it was easier to take the work downstairs and just reshoot it. Over 3200 images I have at this point…a nightmare!
The new computer also brought me a real-time full-view of my website and I hated the dark edges of the header artwork, so some tweaks were made to that. Meanwhile I cleaned up some of the images (those I could find!) and so now it is looking spiffy once again.
In between I am painting four new pairs of ‘chucks,’ delivering work to a gallery exhibit in Oakland, preparing work and signage for my solo exhibit the month of April in Sausalito, and taking a mixed media class from a mentor. I am close to thinking about the start of 3 pieces for Earth Stories which are due this fall. I pretty much have it designed in my head. I just need to physically do the work.
And hubby and I have been watching episodes of Doc Martin as a little British humor cures all!
Funny, in proofing this before publishing I realize that even in my lowest moments I am a freaking machine! Still..I am so ready to move on to my next chapter and whatever the muse brings…
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