Friday Ahead

The Octo Report- Poor thing has started a desperate lean. I can't stick anything in the pot that would be strong enough to hold the stalk upright so I have tried to turn the pot around slightly so when it falls it will hit the wall rather than smash the pot onto the stone patio. This has nowhere good to go from here.

I finished the shawl from the Blue Heron metallic rayon- it was easy to knit this stuff, and it has a wonderful drape. I weighted all the points along the bottom and top edges with some great beads I picked up yesterday- now I only wish I had something to wear it with!

That's it for the picture part. Onward to a quote part:

What one has most to work and struggle for in painting is to do the work with a great amount of labour and sweat in such a way that it may afterward appear, however much it was laboured upon, to have been done almost quickly and almost without any labour, and very easily, although it was not. Michelangelo

Whoa, no I am not comparing myself to Michaelangelo quite yet, but Robert Genn posted this quote this morning and it hits me where I'm workin'! I am trying to make a full sized figure hand applique figure look spontaneous, but it just keeps getting more and more stilted as I struggle along. The drawign I did is nice and gestural, even the tracings off of that for the templates retain a more free-form look, but once I start turning those damn edges, all that is lost. I next am ready to embroider on the facial details and just know I will blow it on the loose-as-a-goose idea I am working for. Tiny little stitches are just too laden with INTENT I guess. How does one get past INTENT anyway? Or should I?

I'm fielding phone calls from TY who is in NEw Orleans for Mardi Gras, his first time. He was asked to go by a business associate/friend who is in multiple meetings so is on his own to wander, but found a husband of one of the women on the business meetings who took him in tow on a fabulous tour of the city culminating in a visit to an airplane hangar where they were finishing up one of the floats. He's hitting all the great restaurants and was looking forward to the WWII museum which apparently is a draw for war afficianodos like he is. Frankly I'd rather be doing a beignet tasting across the city... But I am so jealous he got to see the floats in progress! He promises me pictures, hope he comes through.

Meanwhile I have a whole notebook page with 'stuff' I have to accomplish on my time off from housewifery. I am knocking them off piece by piece but every time I cross one out I add two more. So today I am simply not answering the phone which should keep me out of adding too much more.

Yesterday I got the furniture in the studio moved back in place now that the new homesote wall is up. I have 5 sheets up which means the whole 20' wall is able to be used for display, plus I have 8' on the opposite wall that I will use for work in progress, as well as the 3 sheets of thick foam insulation board across the garage door that can be used for smaller work like collages- the foam won't take heavy objects. Already the place is looking more usable, and when I get the homesote white again with the flannel it will help brighten the room back up- it's quite amazing how the wall o' brown stuff sucks the light out of the room!

I was then able to set up the machine at the garage-door end of the room which will be a great place for it, out of the way and plenty of room nestled in between the new bookcases. Gradually I hope to get all the books over there into one place, and possibly have enough room to add my threads and sewing junk so it will be easy to access. And one of these days when the deadlines aren't biting my ass I will get the flannel up on the new walls so I can hang stuff again. I really need a 'studio manager' who will come in at night and vacuum up dead bugs, sweep the floors and empty the waste baskets. Then they can hang the flannel for me, and hem the pants I keep buying! Being of a short persuasion, they are always too long so they hit the basket of things-to-do, I forget about them and realize I have no pants and go buy new ones, repeat. Then repeat again. Sigh. Now that the machine is set up again I may get to it- I set them on the chair so I will remind myself...maybe one pair a day as a warm-up exercise for my machine!

But FIRST, today is the opening of the Fine Craft Fair down at the Convention Center so you know I will be first in the doors. I can do the place in a short time because I can tell from the center aisle who to skip and who to go investigate closely. This year I am by myself for this project. Every other year I've attended with friends and perhaps I will go back for a second pass but today is just for me. Besides, being a 'single parent' for the weekend I have to do it quickly so I can get back to Molly. I find I run out of steam by lunch time anyway and hate dragging friends along to eat the awful food they sell at ridiculous prices. So, Molly can expect me back for lunch. Hopefully with a few new purchases- my last sale money is burning a hole in my pocket as I need to 'pass it forward' to some other artist!