December 4, 2015 -- sheesh, this blog is a bit of a mess now

When I stopped posting to the blog daily, things really fell by the wayside.  Then when I started back up it was hit or miss and then a countdown to my solo show and now I don't know how I want to finish out the year with the blog.  I am obviously not posting daily, so there is no real consistency.  Ah well...for now.

This afternoon I placed a couple of orders for replacement supplies since my show has been extended through the end of January and folks who purchase work in December can pick it up at the end of December and I will need to make more work to fill in the empty spaces.  Wow...what a run on sentence!

Tonight I have been sorting the paper stash into general piles/layers and when the new papers arrive I will sort the general piles down to colors.  In the meantime here is what the process looked like.  I love all of my papers!

the unsorted heap

mixed papers with metallic threads or flakes

tamarind, mango, raintree

Thai marble

mango, banana

mixed assortment of odd papers that caught my eye at various times

mixed assortment of what I call my neutral background papers

another mixed assortment of heavier papers

Unryu -- lots of colors

there -- all generally sorted and stacked again

Countdown is over -- last pieces dropped off!

This morning I dropped off the last two pieces for my show.  I still canNOT believe that my art is filling up the Village Theater at Cherry Hill.  Here are a few sneak peek photos (deliberately not showing much details).  Opening Reception is tomorrow!  I plan on taking lots of photos at the reception so I can make one of those little Blurb books as a keepsake.

November 28 -- 2-D work is done!

Well, with the exception of needing to outline (with a Micron pen) one very small part and having to spray the last two collages with low-odor matte spray.  But other than that, I am finished with the 2-D work for my show.  

Everything 2-D ( and most of the 3-D) has a title and a price...another wa-hooooo!

I am very ready for a little bit of television and then sleep.  I should be able to get all of the sewing done tomorrow. 

Whew!

November 27 -- the collaboration is complete

Wow -- I didn't realize that it has been several days since I posted to the blog.  I have been working long days and everything has blurred together.  Today I started (no kidding) at 6 am and Peggy (who arrived at noon) just left -- it is now 9:30 pm.  But the collaboration is complete!  Peggy finished up all of the work on the plaster cloth cat girl and also did the outlining for me on several collages.  I can outline with a Micron pen, but when it comes to doing outlining with a paintbrush I am awful.  I gave it my best shot before pleading with Peggy to fix what I'd messed up and do the others.  Peggy was great about it, not a problem.  I so appreciate it!

Here are a couple of photos of Peggy at work (but the photos are very closely cropped so that you can't see too much of the work before the show opens.)

Peggy working on the plaster cloth cat girl.

Peggy doing some outline work for me.

I am going to take a very overdue break...feed the cats, make dinner, watch some tv.  Hopefully I can start sewing tonight. 

November 24 -- day two of the collaboration

Peggy came back this afternoon to begin day two of our collaboration on the plaster cloth cat girl.  

At the next stage Peggy needed me to clean the old matte medium of of the cat girl's eyes.

 Now Peggy could work on the cat girl face-to-face.

Because my pen wasn't really working out very well (ink was beading up on the surface of the collage) Peggy also painted the outline around the crown on my self portrait of me as one of my guys.

 I worked on a lot of the other collages today, as well as putting several base layers of paint on the two former horses.

Peggy stayed until shortly after eleven tonight.  Now it is time for a break, time to feed the cats, time to make my dinner, and then back to work!

November 23 -- (self-imposed midnight) deadline -- ha!

My days/hours are running together and turning into a swirling blur at this point.  I haven't officially gone to bed yet, so it is still Monday to me and this is Monday's blog post.

My friend Peggy Kerwan (who I will always think of as "The Cavalry" from now on) did indeed come to my rescue.  This is one of the small great things I mentioned in the last post.  Peggy and I are collaborating on the painting of the plaster cloth cat girl.  I honestly exhausted every idea I had for painting/papering the cat girl on my own.  I took a chance and asked Peggy if she was available and if she was interested.  She said "it sounds like fun" but to me it is nothing short of the only way the cat girl was going to be able to be a part of my upcoming show.  Thank You SO much, Peggy!  Here are a couple of sneak peeks:

We discussed what I have in mind and with many of my inspiration source books Peggy was off and running.  I am giving her a freehand to interpret the animals and ideas I would like to see and I think this is going to be incredible.  It is just blocked in right now and it is already magical.

I started to block in some characters on my own on three canvases, including the White Rabbit.  These three characters were from tiles I made back when we were going to ceramics in Southfield.  They seem so odd to me in such a large format and on canvas, it is taking me a bit to get used to them and to the inclusions in the paper being an element of the overall pieces.  (man, what an awkward sentence but I am too worn out to try to reword it...ha.)  I noticed the White Rabbit's white paint shows up in the half-dark so I took a quick shot.

Peggy will be back on Tuesday after I get back from a doctor's appointment.  I am looking forward to seeing all of this unfold!

November 22 -- still here

I didn't ever go to bed on Saturday night, I stayed up working until a quarter to six.  Man.  I need to go back and update that blog post.  Same will happen for tonight's post...I will have to update it on Monday -- but I AM here, I am just more concerned with working than with posting at the moment.