Happy New Year Everyone!

What time is it?  Can I go to sleep yet?!

Embroidery

Oh, how I love to do embroidery these days!  I made this for my friend Annie, an email penpal that I met on the internet.  We have been writing to each other everyday for almost two years.  We talk about designing our lives as an artful experience.  I started embroidering regularly after reading a great book about some modern embroidery artists called, "Hoopla" who use embroidery to explore personal experiences, express political views, create graphic design, and facilitate community art projects.  I had already been embroidering vintage skirts with quotes from literature but I wanted to do more.  I have been embroidering everything such as postcards, vintage gloves, a window valance and even the wrapping paper that I used for Christmas presents.  

Here is another work in progress that was inspired by an artist named Richard Saja who uses pieces of toile fabric as his canvas.

Those are two meerkats with party hats, a giraffe and a woman with a tail.  I tried an owl in the blank spot between the tree and the woman's head but didn't like the look of it and took it out.  Now I am going to try a spider web. 

I have also been reading a book by Rick Hanson called, "Hardwiring Happiness," which is about retraining our neural pathways towards positive thinking.  I have been looking at images of neural pathways online and am considering a large embroidery piece using them as my inspiration.  Maybe working on the embroidery will also assist me in changing my own habits of negative thinking and feeling.  

Its all part of designing an artful life.  I'm working on it...

Christmas, circa 1962

I will never forget the Christmas that Santa brought me this toy kitchen.  I have kept it carefully packed and stored away for years.  Today I brought it down from the attic and set it up on a shelving unit that Jeffrey made for my studio using old picket fencing.  I can't believe how evocative it is of that time in my childhood and how much I love it.  There is a turkey in the oven that used to rotate with battery power, and the dishwasher and sink both have containers in the back to hold water that can actually run through the faucets.  I have dishes and food too, but I think I will save them to use in some future artwork.  I gathered a few other childhood inspired items and added them to the shelves above the toy kitchen. I have been happily working in my studio all day on a variety of projects.  There is so much to do in the new year and I think I am ready!