workin'

My studio may have our new stove taking up space and pink sponge painted walls but I am so, so happy to have a space to call my working home.  The look needs a little tweaking but it is a really good space with lots of light and I love it.  Eventually the walls will be painted a creamy white and the floor will change from yucky brown to either creamy white or ebony.  I am hoping we will be moving the 200lb monster stove out of there this weekend so I can spread out and settle in a bit more but that is still up in the air.  Progress is being made in the kitchen but as you know with any diy project it always seems to be one step forward and two steps back.  The entire contents of my pantry are on the dining room table for the 3rd time since moving in (long story short we have to rebuild the pantry shelving and we ran out of flooring so things are running a bit behind and we are living/cooking/snacking off the table.  But enough about all that because these mid 70's temps have me doing a happy dance every day.    I've heard people saying they feel like they missed summer but I am in h-e-a-v-e-n.  In fact I'm heading out to weed in the garden before dinner so I'll wish you a lovely evening and see you back here soon : )

things that have gotten too big around here...

1.  the kapla block tower sage built (lasted a day and a half and fell when no one was near it)

2.  the nyt stack (which i am definitely planning to go through for images and text soon)

3.  the messes i seem to need to make on a daily basis as i get things where they need to be (sorry c!)

4.  the zucchini i missed the other day (perfect for a double batch of chocolate chip zucchini muffins : )

more soon...

growing, painting and putting down roots-

my how time flies when you are in diy mode.  just to make an excuse for not being in the studio catch up a bit i'll fill you in on what i've been up to over the past two weeks.  i've painted two bedrooms (one the palest, airiest blue and the other the darkest navy black), refinished our old kitchen table which my mom generously gifted back to us, raised the garden fence from 4 ft to 7 ft high to keep out the deer, purchased a rug that matches my two sweet dogs, started the not-so-fun-but-the-price-is-right project of painting the oak kitchen cabinets the same black as the bedroom (benjamin moore aura matte paint in 'soot'...love.love.love.) and started to harvest the 1st bit of produce from our new garden.  there are peas, beans, chard, kale, arugula and lots of tomatoes filling the one bed we managed to clear and i planted two types of winter squash in the other bed which i am weeding bit by bit.  the heat is almost unbearable and so i have been trying to get out there a little in the morning but even at 8am the humidity is oppressive.  we are trying to do a lot with a little and so we are working like crazy but the kitchen will be our stopping point. all work and no play is no fun so we have also managed to do some exploring in our new/old town, do some stargazing in our backyard, visited evanston, enjoyed the beach and brought friends back to michigan to stay with us.  it's turning out to be a productive and busy summer and i am just way too tired to mess with capitals letters.  more soon...

new work!

Happily ever, ever, ever...

11.75" x 12"

Magical Thinking (or how dreams take flight)

13" x 11.5"

I am so, so happy to finally have new work to share here.  I can't even describe how good it felt to be back in the studio listening to music and painting into the wee hours late last week.  I am sharing my new studio space with a few moving boxes and a new stove awaiting it's place in the kitchen (more on that project later) but have enough room to work.  I love the color and energy in the top painting and the blue sky in the 2nd piece looks very much like the big blue michigan sky that I'm falling in love with all over again.  There are transformations and magical things going on around here and there is also lots of sorting things out and hard work.  Wishing you a lovely, lazy beauty filled sumer week : )

nesting...

::sun room before and after::

Greeting from Michigan!  We have been here about a week and a half and have been crazy busy nesting, unpacking and settling in.  C had to travel both weeks and so we worked very hard on the weekends doing two person jobs like ripping up (pink) carpet, laying hardwood flooring, taking down a mantle and (pink) tile work and beginning to tame a wild and over grown garden.   While he is away I have been busying myself with painting walls, prepping the fireplace surround for new tiles and weeding, weeding, weeding.  I am really happy with the way the sun room was transformed and we have been enjoying all of our meals there this past week. I haven't painted the windows yet and I have to say the natural wood is growing on me (maybe I'm just tired of painting?) The wood  mimics the color of the sisal rug in the room and the white oak flooring in the adjacent family room.  I think I will leave them for now but paint them white eventually...what do you think?  There will be more rooms to share as we continue to reinvent each space over time.  But getting the 1st two rooms (almost) done has quelled my nesting instinct and is helping this new house feel like our home.  I have been doing some encaustic work the past couple of nights and while my new studio is bigger and brighter, it is oh so much messier than my old space!  I'm trying to let go of my need for order go so that creating art and creating a home can happily coexist this summer....wish me luck : )

moving day...

It's been awhile, right?  Moving day is tomorrow and the days leading up to it have been full of activity and emotion.  I am doing my best to manage it all but it's a lot.  I can see that now that I'm in it.  From a distance it didn't seem like it would be so much, but it's a lot.  Packing is almost complete and friends have offered us dinner.  So tonight we finish up here, say some more goodbyes and then tomorrow we get up early and start a new chapter.  Going back to Michigan brings us full circle and I've been giving that whole notion lots of thought.  I'm looking forward to settling into my new studio and getting back to work.  There are shows to prepare for, commissioned work to complete and new ideas to work out.  I'm looking forward to getting back to this space, back to cooking and back to many, many things that have been on hold these past few months.  I hope your summer is off to a bright and shiny start and I'll see you here soon : )

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.