Well i am finally getting some things done. The house is s-l-o-w-l-y getting straightened up, lots of junk has gone away, and the best news yet, I am finally working regularly on my art.

It's a New Year - and New Projects!

I've signed up for more classes - its' a new year and I need new motivation. The past several months were taken up with family issues, my Dad had a stroke and, while he is recovering beautifully, it was still a stressful time for my Mom and my siblings and myself. For the moment anyway, that situation is moving along nicely and I can spend more time pursuing my other passions ....

Right now that means Bookbinding and Mosaica, and oh yeah, I've also signed up for another conversational Spanish class. I realize that I'm not making much progress in the Spanish language, but I insist on continuing to try. One of these days, some of it is bound to stick!!

Last week I started a class in Mosaic Mandalas, taught by my friend and mosaic mentor, Dianne Sonnenberg. It's a class heavily weighted in the designing and creating of mandalas, and the universal aspects of "sacred geometry". It's fascinating and I'm anxious to see what kind of design I create. More to come on that.

In the meantime, I spent a weekend on a 2-day bookbinding class. The book was similar to others that I've made, but the new enticement for this class was a matching slipcase for the book. It was a good class (as usual) and I'm very happy with my resulting book & case. I can see my skills improving since my first few books, and I'm realizing that patience and an even temperament are tools that are just as important as the supplies and hardware in the final result!!

Too Much Travel - I would not have thought it was possible . . .

... but it definitely is. Starting in August, I had scheduled 7 trips between August and November. It wasn't intentional, but it just happened. A few of them were more-or-less out of my control, but the others just seredipitously came together seemingly out of the blue. And my punishment for complaining about too much traveling is that now my husband is changing jobs, which entails some serious work-at-home, which means I really have to finally get around to cleaning out that junk room (also known as the home office!)

Bookbinding

Ive been improving my bookbinding skills with a class last month, this time a book I truly love- its large enough to use as sketchbook ,journal,anything--and despite being hardbound,its flexible enough to actually tolerate some hard use.

Ive been alternating between mosaics and bookbinding for a couple of years now, unable or unwilling to choose between them. No, its not necessary to choose, but the hours are limited and I've not made the best use of my time lately. Here I am, being a perfect example of that (lazy,unmotivated,ambivalent?) person I've been railing about. I don't actually think I'm lazy, but I do seem to be paralyzed. What is that all about anyway?

May , it's really nearly summer....

It's been months that I've been working with my mosaic teacher - she had accepted a huge commission job, which meant she needed a bit of help, and I was trying to learn a new technique - which meant that I needed some mindless practice to do , over and over and over again until I got it right!

The wonderful (and huge) project finished up a week ago, and was immediately installed on the side of a horse barn. And then, what a great surprise, I was invited to the party to celebrate the 6-or-so assorted artists who had made commissioned projects for the same local family. So, we put on our required Hawaiian shirts and headed out to the magnificent ranch - with its' magnificent artwork, scattered around the lawns, the outbuildings and the house as well. The host and hostess couldn't have been nicer or more generous - and a great time was had by all.

Now, I'm trying to get all my neglected chores out of the way, because I actually want to WORK on some of my OWN mosaics! I have ideas, just need the time - and also the fortitude to overcome that self-criticism which causes mostly paralysis - but that's fairly tragic.

So many projects, So little time . . .

Spring is just around the corner ... In fact, my bluebonnets are just beginning to bloom in my yard...there are only 4-5 blooms so far, and it will be another week or so before they are really blanketing the front yard, but they are well on their way.

I am trying to slow down a little bit from the overwhelmingly busy calendar I've been keeping. I was already busy in the beginning of February, but then I attended the annual conference of the American Society of Mosaic Artists... it was quite an inteesting and enlightening week of presentations and activities - including a 3-day workshop with British Mosaicist Martin Cheek... boy, did I learn and learn and learn. Now if only I could find the time to actually WORK on my works in progress.

The conference and the class and the volunteer mosaic work actually did take up a little over a week, and almost immediately afterward, I had that one-on-one class with my sister, who wanted to learn the basics of handmade books. That went well, by the way, and now I'm finishing up a project that I promised my eldest grandchild about 6 months ago!

It's an easy enough project, painting an old-fashioned school child's desk... primary colors, mostly blue, with a red seat and yellow back. Ought to be colorful enough for a happy 4 year old. It has to be done by this Friday, but the blue and red areas are already done. Hopefully I'll get it done, and then spend half the weekend traveling, so maybe "next week" I can work on my mosaic. It's always tomorrow, or next week or next month. Just keep pushing things out farther and farther . . .

. . . is this any way to make Art?

Reading, Bookbinding, Mosaics . . . and More!

January has gotten ridiculously busy... I'm in the middle of a Bookbinding project, and have decided to teach my sister to make a book...so we will have a "private class" in about a month, but I need to take the responsibility and be sure that I have all the details needed, as well as all the supplies, so I'm working on that. In addition, the Society of American Mosaic Artists are having their Annual National Conference in Austin this February, and, while I'm still a novice mosaicist, I want to attend the conference to get inspiration and I'm sure quite a bit of knowledge. I'll be taking an advanced class, so I'm also interested in getting some work done to be sure I'm actually ready for an advanced class. Those items are high on my list, while my job as a property manager for our beach condo is ramping up again as people begin to think about their Spring and Summer vacations. I'm reading a captivating book "The Daily Coyote" which is difficult due to all those busy items listed above.

And, I've been thinking alot about Mail. Yes, yes I know that it's probably a foregone conclusion that we'll be losing Snail Mail completely one of these days. Maybe there are still several years left, but as electronic forms of communicaion (and primarily ways of billing and paying bills) proliferate, the need for snail mail will drop consistently and significantly until the cost of a nicely written letter will become prohibitive. And - my interest in all of this? MAIL ART! I love it and intend to singlehandedly keep it going, no matter the cost. But even as I say it, when it costs $10 to mail it, I may think differently. Doesn't everyone love the fact of walking to your mailbox and taking out a handwritten letter from a friend? It's one of the real joys... especially for me. I wonder what the future of handmade Mail Art will be. I hope that I'm surprised and some new opportunity is just over the horizon that will enable us to keep our mail delivery... if even on a much less frequent basis. We'll have to wait and see, but in the meantime, I'm working hard to take advantage as long as I can!!