Lost

I have been having a little bit of what I call "studio paralysis." My head and my life have been keeping me from getting "real" work done in the studio and it has been frustrating, to say the least. I found my head in a loop of bad internal self talk about not being "good-enough", what the heck was I thinking about trying to do graduate school, that my work was hack, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da. Negative self talk, especially that stuff the spirals around in your head can be very detrimental to the creative process. Everyone has their triggers, the things that set them down that slippery slope. For me, it's stress and feeling overwhelmed by everything that I seem to pile on my plate. I don't know how I do it, but I am ALWAYS doing something. For me, in this life, there is little down time. When all the stuff piles on high, I sort of melt down and end up in creative paralysis. So, the studio, has been a lonely place the last two weeks. Life and responsibilities, definitely got the best of me.

But this morning, maybe, because I can finally catch my breath at work and at home, I had an ah-ha! moment. A piece (and in idea for a series) that was somewhat elusive, finally became clear to me. Maybe it was the reading I have been doing for school, finally sunk in, I really don't know what made it possible for me to think clearly today. But, I did. I finally did! And now, I know where things are going.

Where IS it going?

Well, we are going to get LOST. Not in the TV show, but more in a symbolic way.

I am thinking about things that we lose when we are children and how this has an impact on us as adults. We all have this experience, we hold something very dear and then for some reason, usually carelessness on our own part, we loose it and it is gone forever. Where do all the lost things go? What happens to them when they are found? and most importantly, what happens to us, when the object is only a memory in our minds?

So that's what I will leave you with, that the crux of my next project. I'd love to hear about what you've lost when you were a child. The thing that you once had, was so precious and now is LOST.

I love NY

Yes, it's true. I do. I was born and raised there. And although I have lived in VT for 20 years, There is a part of me that will always be a New York Girl. Last week, I took my youngest son to the city. We flew down and it was the first time he had ever been on a plane. We stayed with friends in Brooklyn and toured all over the city. We had a huge laundry list of things we wanted to do. Lots of things that every tourist wants to see, but then some more "obscure" things as well. Well we did, visit Obscura Antiques down in the East Village and meet the cast of the show Oddities. Four days wasn't really enough time to see it all and visit with old friends. It just means we will have to do it again. Hopefully, sooner rather than later.

Where the magic happens (for now)

 Not quite "Where Women Create" but it's my studio. The Spring Cleaning Bug has bitten me, so every room in the house is getting a little re-vamping. Hopefully, I won't run out of energy before I get downstairs. I think the studio needs a breath of fresh air. It definitely could use some organization!


I am proud to report that my boxes from Artfest unpacked and there are a few new projects on my work table.
But right now, I have to prepare my mid-term paperwork, so I'm off and running!
Have a creative week!
Lorraine

New Studio Assistant

I've been cranking away in the studio the last two weeks since I have been home from China. So busy in fact that I have needed an assistant to help me get some things done. He's been doing a fantastic job of guarding the sewing basket and keeping all the hearts I have been making warm.

The hearts are part of my studio project for school. I have to shoot a bunch of work this weekend. So maybe I will share with you a little of what I have been working on. The art that I have been making for my MFA program feels (at least to me) very different from what  show, sell and teach in the main stream. That's good, right? Doing some stretching. We all need to be challenged from time to time. So that said, I have to get back to work. 

Artfest 12. Thanks for the memories

This trip is going to be a whirlwind. Just wrapped up five wonderful days @ Artfest and now I headed to Shanghai for my day job. (Yes, Shanghai, that will be another post, I promise.)  The trip to Port Townsend, via Seattle was amazing. The experience of ARTFEST is something I will never forget. I wanted to thank all my students who gave it their all in the class room last week. They all made AMAZING work! And I am so proud of them.

If you have never been to Artfest, it is an annual art retreat held at an old fort in Port Townsend, WA. Set right on the ocean and full of history, has served as home base for this event for 13 years. Sadly, this year is the last year that Artfest will be held. A bittersweet experience for me, as it was the first time I had ever attended.

In consideration of  time: I am writing from gate 102 at the San Francisco International Airport; patiently waiting for my flight to board. I'll wrap up and share share some photos of the trip. There would have been more, but the camera has been acting up lately.

Country Roads

I drove down to Hinesburg today to pick up a load of barn board for my latest project. 

I visited with Lee Findhold at her place down on Gilman Rd, Wicked Good Farm.  Lee makes wonderful yarn from the wool that she cultivates from her goats and llamas. She sells her hand dyed yarns and other farm goodies on Etsy.  I got meet all her little critters. She also had a huge pile of old barn boards that we loaded up into the back of my little Saab.

Gilman Rd is a quintessential Vermont back road lined with old farms, pastures and barns. Today was such a beautiful day, full of the promise of spring. Spring in Vermont means birds singing and mud. There's always lots of it on the back road. Some how I didn't get stuck in it.

I stopped at an old cemetery on the way back and was taken in by the old stone markers covered with moss. My sense of time and place shifted for those moments when all I could hear was the wind and the birds.

There is something about that stillness.

I got back in my car and drove home taking in the clear blue skies of this perfect Sunday afternoon.

When I got home, I unloaded all the wood. Lined them up against the shed and just stood there for a while with them. Listening to the wind and the birds in my own yard. The noise of the creek gurgling out back.

The world passes around us at it's own pace. Yet, there is a stillness we can cultivate here in Vermont. A sense of beauty that is seen in the rusty roof of an old barn or the joy that a flock of chickens can bring. The song of a robin, the song of the creek. There is something to a quiet Sunday afternoon that can re-charge your mind and set you right.

I hope you have had an equally inspiring day.