More of the Corpse

As promised, here are a few close up shots of my Exquisite Corpse. So many beautiful details. Hope everyone is as awed by the lizard as I am.

All those great comments go to everyone else that worked on this. Thanks!

Gail's:


Mary Anne's:


Leslie's:


Corryna's:


Deirdre's:



Mine:

Exquisite Corpse

Woo hoo, my corpse came home today. Very beautiful. Watch this space, I'll post pictures. Just as soon as I finish typing my 1,667 words for the day.

Update: word count for the day finished so here are pictures.

I started with a photo of a large paper poppy in my yard:

I drew the image on fabric and worked on one square:


Then sent it out into the world. Thanks to Corryna, Deirdre, Mary Anne, Leslie and Gail for creating art out of a few nebulous lines on fabric. This wouldn't have happened without you. Isn't it amazing! I'm so happy with the result.

Time Flies By

So November is almost over. Baring a miracle, I won't be able to complete the TIF challenge for this month. The irony is the topic is typography and the reason I don't have time is I'm doing NaNo again this year. Only 50,000 words in a month, but it doesn't leave extra time to put any of those letters into fibre.

Of Birthdays

My friends kidnapped me for my birthday and took me to a fancy restaurant for appies and drinks. We had a wonderful time visiting, then went to Quantum of Solace, the new Bond movie. Okay, I still can't wrap my head around a blond Bond. It just doesn't work for me. I'd planned to go to tango, but this was much more fun. Aren't friends grand?

Milongero Embrace

I recently completed a survey on tango and relationships. I find it interesting that 88 1/2% of the respondents prefer close embrace to traditional music, almost 54% prefer close embrace to nuevo music and only 28% prefer open embrace to nuevo. So why does our tango community so often dance to nuevo music?

Confusing the Telemarketers

Ha, I found a perfect way to get rid of a telemarketer. And it only worked because the telemarketer was stupid enough to tell me where she was calling from. She wanted to talk to him about a listing in a directory of some kind, so I put her on hold and said I'd see if my boss was available.

"Paul, do you want to talk to this woman from directory name?"

"Does she want to advertise?

"No. I think she wants us to advertise with them."

"Nope."

Back to the woman, I continued the conversation.

"I'm sorry, Paul isn't available, can I take a message."

"I just need him to confirm your listing for directory name."

"I can do that for you." She hesitated, reading off the business name and address, but said she had to get the fax number from him.

"I can do that for you."

"No, I need to speak with Mr. — so I can confirm the listing."

"You want us to pay for it?"

"Yes."

"Then he isn't interested," I said. "If you want us to buy advertising, he isn't interested. If you want to buy an ad in our magazine, he'd be more than happy to speak with you."

"That is presumptuous. How do you know that if you didn't talk to him."

"I already asked, he isn't interested," I said.

"Okay, now I'm confused."

Oh goody. My work here is done.

Word Count

I'm on track for word count. Too bad it is such drivel. Ah well, that is what first drafts are for.

Elections

For the first time in my life I'm watching the US election results on TV. I'll be very interested to see the results.

Silly Season

What am I thinking. I am doing NaNoWriMo again this year. 50,000 words in a month? Yeah, no problem as long as I don't think about the work involved in re-writing. 800 plus words so far today, so I guess I'm on track.

Renewal

My studio is a safe haven, the place I go to when my world isn't working. In there, I can let the cares of the world go, focus on creativity, and come away renewed.

I used the black and white piece and developed it further, adding green to hint at renewal. I think it still needs more, but the beading I thought of doing will be impossible. Note to self: bead first, add gel medium second. I think it needs more green. Off to paint some more.

Safe Haven

Yesterday, Paula left a comment that she also has no idea how to translate this month's challenge into fibre. I hadn't actually gone as far as thinking what my studio meant to me, so I also had no ideas what to do.

Then I had a conversation with my son and I realized my studio is a safe place for me. Inside this room I can forget about interpersonal conflicts--something I don't handle well. It is where I go for pleasure and re-energizing in a stressful world.

Now that I live alone, the need to close the door isn't as strong. But it is still the place I go for renewal. I'm not sure how to translate this into fibre. I'm thinking safety, but the idea of renewal might have some intriguing avenues worth exploring. Hum, I have the start of two black and white pieces. What if I added just a hint of green on one of them to symbolize renewal...

Oh, I might be on to something.

Studio Update

October's challenge was a nudge in the direction of taking photos of my transformed studio space. I meant to do this in August after I completed the painting and moved my fabric into the new room. But September was busy.

I tried to complete the black and white quilt for the online challenge but it fought me every step of the way. I let it fester in the old studio space while I moved fabric, paint supplies and furniture.

And I have to confess, I still haven't moved everything out of the other room. I promised myself I wouldn't move things until they had a home. Bad idea--there are bits and drabs on the floor still waiting for a home. And look at how messy my new space is already. Did you see how neat Sharon's is? I'm shamed I tell you. Shamed.





And in the old studio, bookshelves are up, books moved and a comfy chair in place in front of the corner fireplace. Which I'll be able to use once I take the quilts off the hearth and actually put them away like I'm supposed to.

How does this translate into fabric? Hum, guess that's why it's called a challenge.

Just a Peek

Here is a hint of what I'm working on lately. Soon, I can cross it off my list of things to do, hopefully by the end of September.

Long Dark Silence

Wow, I haven't posted anything all month. Nothing to say... instead here are a few pics from my new Nikon D40. OMG, what a lovely toy. Now that was something on my list of things I eventually wanted to buy. I won't bore you with the 100 and some pictures of the jelly fish either.

Lists

This month's Take it Further Challenge is lists. I'm really bad for keeping lists. When I was younger, I'd make lists and forget them or loose them. Or I'd get discouraged when I couldn't cross things off my list and instead, watched them grow like some kind of fungus.

I started making lists again a couple of months ago when I felt so overwhelmed with things to do. And once again, watched my list of to be done exceed my list of accomplished. Guess I shouldn't add more tasks before I complete at least part of what I have to do. Ooh, that's it.

I was working on a piece for an online challenge, but it wasn't working out at all. This created extra stress in my life I really don't need, so I've decided not to finish it for the challenge. That will give me more time for the next round of the Exquisite Corpse (a real cool one this next piece).

So for this months TIF, I'm going to work on an in progress piece that I can then either cross off my list or see closer to completion. I have several. Here are my options:

Colour Me Dense But...

I went to the bank today for a few things. I'd made an appointment with one of those helpful people that answers questions on mortgages, rates. The usual. Pretty normal meeting. At least until I was leaving and he said: "If you need anything else... tea, coffee, a drink. Anything." Um. Okay. I might be dense, but did he really mean what I think he did?

Mezzo Termine

I started this in June, set it aside because it wasn't working, added more in July and it still bored me, so here it is worked some more. Now we are getting somewhere. The challenge this month was balance. Balance is often a middle ground--that place between our obligations and our desires. How much we take on is often curtailed by the things we need to do. It can be tricky balancing what others want from us and what we are willing or able to give. Of course, some times it feels like the gap is wider, and the balancing act harder.

Studios and Such

Where we work affects how balanced our time in our studio feels. My studio is quite out of control. Between fabric and painting, there isn't close to enough room. Using a journal has only emphasized the problem. I start cutting fabric for a project, and it gets scattered over my cutting table. Then I want to work in my journal and have to move everything.


At the beginning of August, my youngest moved out. Sniff. Out came the primer, and three coats later, the chocolate brown room was white. Now I'm painting it periwinkle in anticipation of a new studio space. The room is larger and has a closet I can store seldom used items (like my patterns). Woo hoo!



This month I've also spent much more time with friends than I often do. A friend recently moved back from Calgary, so we've spent time together reconnecting. Plus, Eduardo is here from Argentina this month as well, so I've spent more time at tango than I have in the last few months. These things all take time away from stitching. Does paint on a wall count as a project for the TIF challenge? Hum, how to balance everything!

Balance

This month Sharon's challenge is: "What is balance to you? Do you maintain a balanced life? How do you balance aspects of your life? That is the challenge this month - balance."

I've written about balance before. I re-read the post (and fixed a typo!) and still agree. For this month I could look at the challenge as a balance of time. Right now my time is crazy. I'm working on several art projects, have one more lesson left in the studio journal course—because one week after receiving it, I haven't even started it yet. The next Exquisite Corpse is waving at me—pick me, pick me—but I don't know what to do with it quite yet. Hum, pulls over journal and doodles some ideas.

I'm making great progress on my black and white quilt. Most of the fusing is done, but the quilting will take forever. I have a great idea for further dimensionality after what I did last month with the chicken wire/gel medium experiment.

I'm starting to realize that although deadlines are great, I need a vision for where I'm headed before I set out. For the first half of the TIF challenge, I'd dive in before I knew where I was going and rarely liked the results. The journal course was exactly the push I needed to see that. Thank you Sharon. I highly recommend any one of her courses as she is a wonderful facilitator.

So I'm going to drag the journal a little closer and map out a direction for the next TIF. I already know that it will use the July TIF and go further with it. After I completed last month's challenge, I was musing on the meaning of middle ground (mezzo termine), thinking how it can be a place in physical space, but also a place of balance between two points of view. Then Sharon posted her challenge. Ha! I was already on that wave length (again).

In my journal today, I ruminated further about this idea and realized that for artwork, I work better if I work slowly. It gives me more time to flesh out ideas from start to finish, to see where something will finish before I start it. This is tricky as one of the things from this challenge was to complete a project each month, so it feels like a failure if I don't. Although I could consider July's finished it is still lacking oomph so is it better to leave it incomplete or take it further and actually like the end result? I realize I need to stop over-extending myself and actually balance my time.

Oh right, I also need to make a 13x13 quilt on the theme 'caffeine' by August 15th. Too bad I quit drinking coffee. That sound you hear--it's only me going out of balance.

New Knitting Ideas

Hey I used to knit. But I wonder what you are supposed to do with this? Decoration for sushi maybe?

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