Pop Design Art & Interiors

 These pictures were taken at opening night of Pop Design Art & Interiors.  Everything looked great.  Here's hoping that our loads will be lighter when we pack up. . .

Pop Design Art and Interiors Set-Up Complete!

 Well, I worried and measured and lost sleep and drew plans and pillaged my house for furniture and containers and finally the Pop up studio display is installed!  I owe major thanks to my Mom for supplying a van for transporting awkwardly sized shelves and for having clutch parking abilities.  Thanks to Bryan (cool glass artist and organizer of event) for carrying said awkward shelves into the storefront, and thanks, as always, to Mary and Pete for watching Penelope while this Herculean Endeavor was accomplished.   Yes, I'm not overstating how I can fester small hiccups into large stress belches.(?)  I am really good a fretting even though I know it will work out as it always does.  Somehow logistics, especially regarding making connections, become really overwhelming to me.  It's not flying that bothers me, it's getting luggage checked, passing through security (I always think they'll catch me), finding the gate, avoiding being in the bathroom when they are boarding etc.  So for now, I can buckle my seat belt and browse the Sky Mall catalogue and hope that everything sells.  Now if I can just stop worrying about dismantling the show and claiming my baggage.  What's that about not sweating the small stuff?

Bits and Pieces

 I'm working on some tag designs in preparation for the Popup Studio which opens next weekend!
I like the dark houses above.  Then the first "beads" strung onto rope lights (the collaborative project for the kindergarten sing.)  I can't wait to see them all.  And finally, the three most recent rugs.  More to come . . .

The Push and Pull or ( The Warp and Weft of the Creative Process)

fresh rug ends to tie

 So, I've been missing blogging.  I think my posts seem fewer and farther apart yet I'm feeling busier than ever.  I'm finding myself going in lots of directions but not making much head way in any one of those.  In attempt to save you from enduring a laundry list of projects and a much longer one of worries, concerns, and anxieties surrounding those projects, I'll cut to the chase.  Above is a stack of rugs that I finally finished weaving today and are waiting their ends tied up.  They'll be a colorful addition to the Pop-Up Studio happening at the end of the month.

I received rejection earlier this month to a show at South Bend Museum of Art.  Again there were about 8 artists out of 200 something that were accepted.  Still, it doesn't feel so great.  I want to keep working at my craft and continue to look for more projects and exhibition opportunities particularly those that are free and close to home. 

I have been accepted to paint a mini mural on the wall that supports the train tracks that bisect Oak Park.  I submitted my painting "The Red Chair with Cushion"!  It will be fun to paint a really big chair.  I'll be taking lots of pictures to document the process, and it looks like I'll be getting started soon (this weekend hopefully) because they would like it completed by June 1st.  Also coming up: completion of the Kindergarten Sing Collaborative Art Project and Pop-up Studio set-up and opening reception.

I've been devouring lots of radio discourse surrounding the creative process.  One of the questions asked is whether creating art is a selfish act.  I know that I constantly struggle to balance my work and everything else.  Sometimes I am very good at focusing on creating and very good at shutting the world out of my studio.  Other times, I'm feeling pulled out of my tunnel and into the wide open.  This is one of those times.  I don't know if it is the beautiful weather or the business of ending a school year or Pen's insatiable desire to be pushed in a swing higher and higher, but at a time when I should be finding my nose very close to the grindstone, I am catching myself smelling the lilacs instead.  In addition I have a mile long list of movies to see, books to read, and museums to peruse.  There is so much to digest, mull over, to question, and a garden to plant!

And now a complete non-sequitur:  You know that those mysterious cicadas who emerge only every 17 years with fluttering wings to sing and mate only to go subterranean again?  Some of them fail to count the years correctly and emerge too soon or too late and sing their lonely songs absent of their roaring friends.  I may need medication to recover from this utter sadness. 

Oak Park Arts Commission Mini Mural Project (I stole this photo from the web and am ignorant of artist)

Block Printed House Pillows

This could have been a quilt.  I will make a quilt from this fabric some day.

I tried a different approach to this batch of  house pillows.  I wanted to use my printed fabric and infuse color with pieced scraps.  I made some sketches and ended up figuring out a design simply by beginning the process.  I often find this is the case.  I can't arrive at a satisfactory solution until I just start.  Then, circumstances will reveal a certain path to take.  Usually this plan will be better than anything I could have thought of through pure meditation.  My sewing projects are often like this and I wish I could incorporate that kind of spontaneity and receptivity in my paintings.