A Fresh Start

Well there's quite a mess to clean up when you haven't blogged for 3 years!  Guess I'll just plunge right in.  I've been needing some time to fully focus on the process of making with little concern for product.  As soon as showing my work is anywhere in the back of my mind, it's impossible not to think about the final product.  It's been a nice, long three year period of exploring in paint and stitch for me, but I have missed blogging, especially at the end of each year.  I miss having a visual record and seeing my thoughts as pieces develop when I share my work.  I also miss having deadlines to push me to finish things.

I thought about starting a fresh blog, but it seems appropriate to continue from my last post here--Dorothy Caldwell's workshop--since that formed much of my current direction, as did an abstract painting workshop with Steven Aimone, more on that later.  

My focus has narrowed some over the last couple years to pretty much entirely abstract work, but still in both paint and stitch.  I'll be playing some catch up here and blending in projects from the last few years along with current work.

One of my favorite projects last year was my daily stitch project.  Each day I hand stitched small, fabric collages that represented the day.  The piece above is my Jan. 2016 pile.  Here are a few of the individual pieces:

The colors and textures were largely influenced by the season, and they shift throughout the year.  I'm still finishing the months I got behind on, so daily stitching is used quite loosely.  I'm not sure if they will be joined together or if I will keep them in monthly bundles.  Right now I'm really liking how they join in long verticals.