Sometimes when you take yourself so far out of your routine, you suffer from a major freak out in getting back into the swing of things.  It’s a little frustrating.  So well, this week I have been really trying to get myself back on track and move my studio work forward.  This has been a little bit of a tug of war but I realize that the only way to move forward is to “keep it going” as Ling Nah would say (footnote: Ling Nah is my friend from the Vermont Studio Center.  We met last cold January while doing a residency.  She has since returned to Singapore where she teaches, renovates her flat and completes amazing drawings within architecture.  Check her out… http://www.farm.sg/index.php/tanglingnah/).

In the studio, I seem to have a series of experiments and scribbles as well as a touch of the comfortable.  One of the things I have learned is that when I am looking to work a bit outside my comfort zone, I need to also work on something that maintains my morale.  What that means is that I can’t feel defeated by experiments so I work on something I technically already know how to make.  This doesn’t mean these pieces don’t give me trouble but at least it keeps me active as I try to sort out the new NEW stuff.  I figured I’m loving to work with the Architect’s Daughter motif so I am plugging away on a new one inspired by some of the ramblings that happened in my studio in Spain. 

And you must be wondering about the hand image… yeah, I’m wondering too.  I thought they looked a little bit like birds.  It seems I thought they were going to be something else but well… things change and I can’t seem to keep much of an attention span as of late when it comes to doing what needs to get done.  For me, they were the beginning of a thought about recieving  and how sometimes that is something that seems miraculous.  It’s something I’m ruminating over…

Right now I am working on an installation of which I was awarded a PCA grant.  It seems to have taking many forms at this point however, I think my latest incarnation is going to stick.  It is a piece about where people find hope.  I’ve been writing extensively about this to really wrap my head around the truth of that.  I have come to a small conclusion that when people hope, they are igniting a change.  Hope is stretching for, reaching up, fulfilling desire, asking a question, looking for an answer… so here I am posting my scribble of what I think “hoping” looks like.  It is a piece entitled “The Gift” and I will keep you posted where to find it (very soon!- I HOPE!!!!!).