hitting the reset button-

(new work on old wood)

A shift has occurred in my head (and in my heart) and I was finally able to get back to work this week. The real, creative and healing work of putting together colors and images, playing with familiar themes and solving visual puzzles which open doors. I was here a few weeks ago talking about experimenting with the 'hot box' but that was a creative disaster which left me feeling frustrated and uninspired.  In hindsight I can see that trying to figure out something new just compounded my feeling of being displaced, lost and in limbo.  But a trip to my parents house, a few pieces of very old barn wood and the fact that we close on our new home in Michigan in just two short weeks helped trigger the reset button this week and I got back to cutting, gluing and painting with r& f pigment sticks and oil bars.  Once I have a few pieces together I will find a way to hook together some extensions cords and do all of my hot wax work out the back door in the stairwell. 

 And yes, I did say our new house in Michigan!  We did not end up going with the farmhouse I mentioned a few posts back for a variety of reasons and we were getting worried about having to move into a 2nd rental while we continued to search in this market with very low inventory.  But then, things changed in the blink of an eye and we found a really good, solid house with just the right amount of space inside (including a 1st floor studio), a wood burning fireplace, and a fenced garden on one acre in Ann Arbor.  It is by far the newest home we have ever lived in and it will take a bit of work to make it seem like our own after being in hundred year old houses for almost two decades but we both knew as soon as we walked in that it was the right house. We close on the house Memorial Day weekend but we will not officially move until mid-June when the kiddos finish up the school year.  The good news is that my studio space will be up and running on day one so that amid the unpacking, the tearing out of carpet and the painting I will have a space to breathe work.  So excited.