Annunciation

Today I am finding all kind of things to do besides finish the piece waiting for me in the garage. Now that I know exactly what needs to be done to finish I am suddenly bored. No matter how hard I try to convince myself that I will love playing with gold paint and coloring perfect lines of green I just don't believe it.

Sadly, it's much more exciting when I have no idea what comes next. Usually I am able to work on many pieces at one time, I just switch when I get bored. Somehow they all eventually get finished. However, this piece is a commission with a deadline and so I don't have the luxury of taking a break and starting something else.

Instead of working I have been making bread, working in the garden cleaning leaves out of pots and rearranging plants so they don't look so scraggly. Now I am listening to "An Old Fashioned Christmas" on the record player and reading blogs about other people who are busy being creative. Earlier I washed 26 Ziplock bags.

So now that I am thoroughly convicted of my terrible lack of discipline I am scurrying off to shut myself up in the garage for hours! No breaks even for tea! After all (to quote someone I love very much) "I get to do this!".

I leave you with this beautiful painting and poem on this the 5th day of Advent.

"The Annunciation' 1876-79', by Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898)

...
She didn't notice at first the air had changed.
She didn't, because she had no expectation
except the moment and what she was doing, absorbed
in it without the slightest reservation.

Things grew brighter, more distinct, themselves,
in a way beyond explaining. This was her home,
yet somehow things grew more homelike. Jars on the shelves
gleamed sharply: tomatoes, peaches, even the crumbs

on the table grew heavy with meaning and a sure repose
as if they were forever. When at last she saw
from the corner of her eye the gold fringe of his robe
she felt no fear, only a glad awe,

the Word already deep inside her as she replied
yes to that she'd chosen all her life.

Annunciation by Robert Seigel
from "a pentecost of finches"

..

Dreamy Autumn Days

When I signed up for this blog I had every intention of posting something substantial within the first week. Only now almost 3 months later am I sitting down to write something!
After a helter skelter fall full of travels and birthdays and deadlines I am finally able to sit down with a cup of Cappuccino Rooibos tea (which can be found here among other treasures) and write. Hooray!

A ceramic piece made by our friend Rick Van Dyke given to us for a wedding gift.

I am working almost every day now in the studio, other wise known as our garage. I am currently finishing a piece that my friend Ben commissioned and can't wait to post pictures of it as soon as I am through. It has been a fun and challenging project for me. I feel like it's a great start to a whole new body of work. I spent most of last year making block prints and it's time for a bit of a change into something more risky. So, I am experimenting with drawing and collage again and finding that I love the immediacy of it after all the printing. It's just fantastic to be making marks on paper again.
It has been so fun to be puttering away out there in the cold weather with a warm hat cutting paper and drawing mustard greens and ships and nests all onto wonderful seagreen/grey fabriano paper.
I am losing hours while split pea soups simmers in the house on the stove and I am loving it.

Since it's been a long haul to get a space cleared in the garage I am posting a few pictures of my work space and some of things around the house that make me happy right now.

My inspiration board.

The wee art space.

Inks and things.

Paper Waiting to be made into something beautiful or pasted onto my drawings.

Organized colors.

Picking our first Mustard Greens on Thanksgiving day. It was unfortunately rather balmy at around 70 degrees, thus the t-shirt. Thankfully the next day it was back to chilly.

The Autumn is my favorite season for just about everything, food, clothing, weather, holidays and light. It's the perfect time to be cozy, the perfect time for dreamy music and mohair scarves and the perfect time to settle into a rhythm. We have been gone so much of the last few months that being home and quiet is a real treat for me. It's also really exciting that the cool weather seem to finally be here for good.
Now, I know it's December 1st and for many of you living in the northern states I am sure it seems silly to be talking of Autumn this late. But it takes a while for Autumn to reach Texas. I really appreciate it when it gets here no matter how late. I am content to be carving out my own little rhythm of working, learning, making, cooking and gardening. I hope it becomes steady and solid and at the end of the winter I discover that I have a treasure of creative projects to show for it.

Ornaments waiting for their tree.

Sunday was the beginning of Advent and we got out all the Christmas stuff... I guess that means I have to admit Autumn is almost over. :(