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I like nature but not its substitutes... 

Mondrian opposed art to nature saying that art is artificial and nature is natural. 

I do not share this opinion... Art's origins are natural. (Hans Jean Arp)

What's it all about, Alfie?  

Somedays I feel like cashing in my chips as far as blogging goes.  Then I find some unimaginably cool 'thing' out there in the ether lands and my first thought is to get it on the blog.  I only have a handful-  OK, two hands and two feet-full -of posts to go to hit 2000, an unimaginable number when I started this ten years ago.  It's morphed a couple of times from being a straight journal of wisecracks to some more pithy disclosures as well as spreading a thin layer of art education wherever I tread.  I do try to locate links for everything I 'borrow' to show you-  if it's impossible to find, I either remove or plead for help.  I try to find connections or threads of similarity or relationships when I show a couple of different artists.  I also try to show three pieces so you have a bit more of a taste of what they do.  There, that takes care of the stolen art thing.

Now, I also use this forum for my own brain dump. You're free to skip the writing at the beginning any time-  I tend to go on and on, sorry.  But I use the blog as a way of exploring what's happening in my life as well as what I need to do on whatever project I'm fighting working on.  There are sometimes my whining seems endless I know-  I do try to keep it to a minimum, however, it DOES help me see things in a new way to resolve whatever problem I am having at the moment.  I tend to not take a lot of pictures of the in-progress stuff because I am so insecure about it-  I usually sort of give a project it's head and let it run and I follow along.  Most of my artistic decisions are more intuition than anything, but it's intuition based on a pretty standard art school education-  I have to stand back and intellectualize what the hell I am doing when asked.  So PLEASE ask me-  it helps me form more concrete ideas from the quick sand ideas I start with!   

This is how I used to use my crit group all those years back in Boston.  We would challenge each other to defend our choices so would get pieces to a point where they could be understood before bringing them in.  I so miss this group but attempts to replicate it here haven't been very successful- maybe it's just difficult finding like minded folks at this stage of life?  Maybe people here are too transient?  I am trying out a new group just forming here in the next town this week.  We'll see how that goes-  the problem is I don't want to be the old gray leader, or the quilt-art historian, I want desperately to be with people I can learn from!  And no, I don't need any 'classes' and I don't want to sit around doing a 'project' together.  And I want to laugh a lot.  Is that too much to ask?  We'll know on Tuesday.  My biggest issue is whether they will be grossed out when I open a can of sardines for my lunch. 

TY has taught yoga for years now, and I won't go because I am not a fan, but one thing I did learn from him is 'monkey brain'-  that ceaseless chatter in your head for no reason.  The imaginary things that keep you from doing real things...  Julia Cameron talked about fighting this with her idea of Morning Pages.  I tried this practice for a long time and it was very successful when I was most stressed.  You simply write in longhand stream of consciousness of whatever enters your brain.  you do this first thing in the morning before you even brush your teeth, maybe 20 minutes of concentrated writing is all you need to get all that shit out of your mind so it won't bother you the rest of the day.

Hence the squirrels, in case you didn't figure it out already.  Better to get them on the page and out of my head.

OK, back at the studio this morning, I took my photographs of the alligator quilt, made a text note with all the necessary sizes and wrote all the pertinent information for the files.  At some point I'll do a statement.  I still need to actually sign it and make the label for the back, and make the slat.  But I can wait on that, no hurry because the piece is so very close to finished and ready for the archives.  Other thing I did was to work on a pattern for 2 bed quilts for the new house.  This is just a 'maybe' project, but by a year from now I may feel stronger one way or the other about doing it.

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We need a little levity here-  I have an obsession for rulers and measuring tapes.  I bought some wash tape printed with numbers and use it all the time for wrapping stuff in the studio and gifts.  And Teddy sent me THIS- wish I had those long thighs, but I would still grab these if I saw them on a rack!    They would look great with my black tube top. (!!)           

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I stumbled across Christine Mauersberger's work the other day on a random trail through Pinterest and fell in love!  This series is all stitchery worked on found materials, wool blankets and clothing from a thrift shop.  Go to her blog for her different series of work.

This guy is part of the Super-Sandy-Squirrel Club.  You can join too, the only requirement being a zipper down your belly.  Send proof and I'll get your membership card right out.