What's in a Year?

"To The Moon."  Oil pastel, watercolor pencil, india ink on paper

A year has flown by since my last post.

It's been a watershed.

"View of the Interior."  Oil pastel, graphite, pen and ink, india ink on paper.

I came home to myself. 

"Pain."  Oil pastel, watercolor pencil, pen and ink, marker on paper.

I rested and gave myself space and time.

"Alighting."  Oil pastel, marker, watercolor pencil on paper.  

I acknowledged my deep yearning for color and considered never weaving again.

"The Transfusion."  Oil pastel, watercolor pencil, marker, egg yolk on paper.

I read incessantly about women painters - Hilma af Klint, Remedios Varo, Mary Corse, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Suzanne Valadon, Pamela Coleman Smith, Christina Ramberg, Joan Brown, Gwen Abercrombie (the last three courtesy of Donna Seaman's Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists).  Revisited Lenore Tawney, Louise Nevelson and Lia Cook.

"The Beginning."  Oil pastel, watercolor pencil, pen and ink on paper

“The Beginning” - just messing around

Since it was already woven, I started working with the stainless steel and cotton yardage that I had woven before my move in August 2017 in the hope that it would ease my transition (I was right).  I began fashioning this little ribbon piece into a 3D version of the drawing "The Beginning" above I had made six months earlier.

"Ariadne's Thread."  Stainless steel, cotton, wool.

Before long I was back at it, forming these cylindrical "skins".

"Ariadne's Thread."  Detail.

Ariadne's Thread got me out of the labyrinth and back into the cosmos, my preferred habitat. Those grey skins were getting droopier and droopier - where was the life? So I took my last section of yardage and burned off all of the grey cotton and what emerged was light itself.

"Laniakea."  Stainless steel.  

The Summer Solstice saw the opening of my first solo show at Flow.  An honor to show up in the community where I had participated and grown artistically over the last 10 years.

This fall has seen me focused in the studio and I feel like I've regained the energy I had been lacking over the last few years.  I'm no longer trying to pigeonhole myself into weaver/ painter/ fiber artist.  I chafe against those labels. Gonna stick with artist.  Certainly woman artist.  Yeah. That feels right.

Untitled.  Stainless steel, cotton.