derriere curvature spongy

If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have  anything to laugh at when you're old.  (From a friend's posted old-age list)

Whew- I *thought* that when TY left the house that I would be looking for things to do, people to see, and places to visit.  What reality brought me is one skidding mess after another.  Every minute has been filled so far, and I drop into bed exhausted at some late hour because I got too involved in some stupid task or another.  OK< so one of the tasks has been watching 'Revenge' on Netflix and Season 2 was ready to start last night but I just couldn't take another episode that late.  

But the good part is that things actually are getting chipped away at, the dogs are getting walked and fed, and I have a new list to conquer today.  The bad part is that the studio is going unattended and the blog is being ignored, and the sink is full of dishes that must be attended to.  Look what I choose.

New studio project has grown from a hunk of cut metal I found at a consignment shop a while back:

I think it's one of those steel drum cut or torched tourist designs sold in Haiti and other islands. This one is pretty crude, and also pretty sharp!  Maybe I will find a wall to hang it when we get into the new house but for now it just sits on the floor, SO:

I traced off the basic lines,onto some transparent non woven stuff-  who knows what it is... Then I laid over a nice piece of damask sheet over the metal, sprayed it liberally with vinegar and water, wrapped it in plastic and repeated about three times to get it to rust:  Rust it finally did, but it also mildewed.  Oh well.

So, here I am drawing on the back side hoping the design will eventually become very thick and busy.  Once the basic outlines are on I will play with machine drawing into the flower and leaf shapes from the front.  Doing some research now on crewel designs, maybe a bit of appliqué?  We'll see.  It will have something to do with an ancestral tree I think, perhaps a Tree of Life.  The new machine foot cost me $57 but hallelujah, it has made ALL the difference in free form stitching.  I could kick myself for not splurging before this.  

***

But first I have to get this damn thing off my wall-  it's already, like a carp, grown to the size of it's environment and now has to live on a table.  You would think 2 4x8 sheets of comatose (that's what auto-correct calls HOMASOTE) would be enough for a design wall.  I have added two more rows around the top and left edges, but then had to move it all off the wall because I don't think all this ladder climbing to reach the top is very good for someone my age without a spotter... cement floor, lots of sharp edges on the way down.  

I do have a whole wall- almost 30 feet!- of the stuff on the opposite side but to get at it I have to move:

 ALL THIS CRAP I am hoarding for the new house

as well as move off the giant quilts I keep pinned to it, overlapping, because I've been too busy to make a XXL 'log' of them wrapped and covered and stored upright in the bathroom.  (I figure they might have a better chance of staying dry in the bathroom if the roof ever leaks because there is an additional ceiling over it holding the AC equipment. ) 

OK. that's all my dirty little secrets this month.

Let's talk about something more pleasant-----

Brazil-based artist duo Janaina Mello and Daniel Landini of Mello + Landini create tree-like installations with untwisted ropes fastened to the walls of galleries. Titled Ciclotramas, the artworks have gone through 17 different iterations since 2010, each involving some form of ropes that seem to branch through the air and splay onto surfaces like fractals or a network of neurons.

 Sarape blanket, wood, nails, enamel… an unusual materials list! Texas based artist Adrian Esparza deconstructs and then reconstructs Mexican sarape blankets, viewing them as “an evolving self-portrait.” He transforms them from their traditional, original form into stunning, modern geometric installations poetically exploring the idea of his identity as a Mexican-American growing up on the border of these two cultures. I would love to see this work in person.

And off I go to BOKETTO for awhile until the next gong sounds.