sanctuary

So, I've been working on a few new pieces this week. Hopefully one or two will be ready to post next week- in the meantime, wanna see what else I've been up to?

I found that being in the middle of several little pieces at once puts me in the middle of a big mess in the studio- I eventually ran out of places to put half-dry, half-resolved things- especially when most of my work surfaces tend to get pretty littered with little bits of paper, and big old books etc. that I'm not ready to put away. Not to mention pallettes, paints, brushes, coffee-cups...you get the picture. I knew that hanging stuff on the walls would be a great solution- out of my way, and up where I could see from a distance what was missing- so they could go from being half-done to all-done.

However-

We moved into this house about 8 months ago- and one of my favorite parts of the place has been that there was a bedroom I was allowed to claim for my studio. It's upstairs- with windows, and a door- not down in the basement tucked in between storage shelves and laundry piles. It's soooooo wonderful- except the walls were painted with a porrly executed 'ragging' technique in a terrible, gross mauve color scheme. I didn't think that swirly gross mauve would be a good neutral background for artwork I'm trying to figure out.

So, despite being midway through stripping wallpaper in our bedroom, not quite finished painting the kitchen, and needing to caulk and paint the trim in the living and dining rooms (this house was great- but ugly- lots of surfaces to deal with before it suits us), I decided to do this:

I'm so excited to have room on one whole wall to hang finished, framed pieces- and on the opposite wall to clip up work in progress. The room feels so bright now- I can't wait to get back to work! Hopefully I'll carve out some time this weekend. No excuses- unless the wallpaper in the bedroom starts calling to me...yuck.