Invincibles

I have an overwhelming urge to make stuff.  Make things, and write, and think~ this is where I find my joys, and that is a good thing.  This morning it is raining, I've got a bit of a cough and would love to stay home, read, write, play in the studio, drink endless cups of coffee....but I have school, and meetings, and to-do lists miles long.... some of which comes from continuing to have ideas.  Every semester I *know* that I have lessons that I have taught a billion times- but I'm always reinventing them, so that means reworking them at the last moment (ahead of time doesn't work- because the new ideas happen regardless) and then ..... So some of my ideas are holiday powerpoints (just brief ones, to educate students about the holidays.  They can name some of them, spend money on most of them, and have no clue about what they are, where they came from or why it is a holiday at all- I want to change that, or everyone should know what Groundhog's Day is).  And I also thought of doing the reading responses will images- problem is I want to include *everything* when I teach something and then get behind...I like the depth, not so good at skimming the surface (except for things I don't like, like perspective).  When I make art it is the same way- when I have a topic I will research it to death and have been researching the same things for years and years, and the art comes along as I do it.  The art isn't the end result- it is just a side effect of learning.

Right now things I am interested in art wise include: scientists, archetypes, 6 word stories, psychology and drawings made by people with different thought processes.  Memories and dreams.

Images that I seem obsessed with, and I'm not quite sure why:  owls (never was an owl person before- always a crow person- from way back when), pomegranates (truthfully they are one of my winter symbols), valentine-shaped hearts (which is seasonal, but I usually tend to anatomical hearts rather than symbolic ones), buttons. Serious button issues right now- I want to put them on everything! 

Media I am playing with constantly: felt again (not the handmade felt that is all the craze, but good old twenty cent felt sheets), embroidery floss and beads, words, orange peels (collecting them- first I mastered peeling the orange so that I could create two intact 'bowls' of skin- inspired by a post online about turning orange peels into little oil lamps...and then thinking about Laura, a student in the art dept. at ASU long ago that made beautiful memory-based art incorporating orange peels).   My beloved dark bic crystal pens that make a huge mess and that I go through about every other day.....my camera, which is so well used that the color is worn off the plastic in places.  I really need a new camera - this one is still a workhorse but the screen is beginning to have issues- but a new camera is definitely a splurge that must be put off.

The studio in the house is our favorite room- we both use it the most, curling up in our battered leather chairs. It has the big computer (Sophia), my grandfather's desk, walls lined with book shelves under the multipaned windows.  My sketchbooks are here (some of them, others are at school), art books, school books.  Baskets of magazines, ephemera, old photos.  Leather train cases full of small random objects, and one with special threads and fabrics. Window sills are lined with bottles filled with beads, rocks, shells- from the curtain rods (I don't like curtains) hang all sorts of things- scissors, glass hearts, shells, wishing stones, teacups, crystal doorknobs, kilt pins, a red bakelite bracelet, other treasures.  The walls are filled with folk art and tools (T-squares, rulers, clipboards holding calendars).  My small table next to the chair has paint, tape, colored pencils, thread, ink, markers....lots of different things, all in reach.  On the tall shelves- one is in the photo- are other supplies- I tend to 'hide' supplies by putting them in things- old cigar boxes, baskets, face-jugs made by students full of brushes, jars of buttons.  Our afghans (lovies) made by Mother are here- and used nightly- a peach basket full of scarves knit by Melissa that I wear daily and that have become Turrello's favorite napping place.  The manz small tables (he gets all of 2 table tops for his stuff) that have bowls of man-stuff (lighters and pocket knives, certs, matches, stray coins, nails and screws and watches and business cards...reading glasses, ashtray, hair ties...).  Max's bed is under the desk, there is an Indian rug on the floor behind the chairs, a small apothecary cabinet from Java where I keep some practical magic, a yellow gumball machine that I am trying to figure out a use for.   The room is filled but useful, not as 'cluttery' as it sounds but by no definition neat.... it is a place for relaxation and creation and thinking and doing and watching.  (It really needs two computers, or at least two screens....since the big TV died, we watch the small computer screen, and I still work on Evie- but I like the big screen and the faster computer better, compromise, compromise.) 

And this is where I am writing, and now- this is where I have to do my prep for school, check all the emails and discussion boards, quit playing and get on task.  Lots of things to do today, places to go, classes to teach (origami and horror vacci), faculty meetings to attend.  Superintendents to schmooze..... but in my heart, I am right here, and my hands are covered in paint and thread.