Have we lost our head?

 

Step by step - and there are so many - this little one is coming along.  Finally the clay is all applied and dried, his simple (and I do mean simple) face is finished.  His shoes have been added and paint is drying...

...and now he's starting to get dressed.

 

 

Still looking a little 'wonky' but guess that's part of the learning process -- perhaps it will give him a bit of character.



 

"The good life is a process, not a state of being.  It is a direction not a destination". - Carl Rogers 

 

I Ask Once Again...

... where is Spring?

 

The very first day of spring we awoke to snow on the ground.

 

 

Puffy, light snow that looked like miniature snow balls on the bushes and leaves.

 

Or perhaps it was like powdered sugar, leaving designs on the walkway.

It was very early in the morning and bitterly cold as I took these photo's and I kept thinking that this was Nature's trick on us -- telling us "you just think its spring".

"If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" - Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Earth Song"

The earth is filled with song.   Sometimes it takes a quiet soul to listen.  Some sounds I hear nearby are the plop of frogs jumping back into the pond; the crackle of dried leaves underfoot; the sound of rain on the roof and the chimes ringing outside when the a breeze blows.

There are of course noisier sounds around me.  The heavy sound of thunder and crackle of lightening; the worrisome 'crack' as a tree branch breaks under the weight of snow or ice; the loud cawing of crows, making themselves heard every morning.

 

I know there are sounds within the forest that I cannot or do not hear but I continue to listen just in case they make themselves heard to me.

"The longer one is alone, the easier it is to hear the song of the earth."  - Robert Anton Wilson

Learning As I Go

  

I'm experimenting again!  This time I followed the tutorial by Gritty Jane wherein she made a 'healing doll' using newspaper and paperclay.

After wadding up newspaper I covered it with masking tape.   The arms and legs were a little bit more of a challenge for me with the legs ending up longer than I had anticipated.  But turning up the ends to make feet (for shoes later on?) I found they would be just right.

After that came the paperclay covering - and as you can see by these pictures there is step after step of paperclay for one section has to dry before I can move on to another.

My lesson learned as I kept applying clay, was that this type of figure is going to be very 'irregular'.  Its impossible, with this format, to create the same exact doll each and every time. This is a good lesson for me.  It gives me freedom to experiment (whether I like it or not) and to not box myself in with the thought that each one of this series should look like the last one.  Patience Penny, patience!

"The combination of experience and experimentation will ultimately yield a personal sound." - Mark White

 

Boxes on top of boxes

 

I am surrounded by small boxes -- boxes stacked upon each other -- boxes which I've altered in some way or left just the way I found them.  Boxes filled with ephemera.

Although I know that it would be far more efficient if I stuck all my little pieces and parts into nice, see-through containers - I cannot bring myself to walk by a box without bringing it home.

The delicousness of stacking yet another box onto a shelf is one of my secret vices.  Not being able to see within gives me many minutes and hours of joy while I lift the lids off and explore the items I stashed along the way.

There are rusty items in one and old watches in another.  There are buttons in one and little scraps of paper inside another one.

I know in my heart of hearts that overall, few of these items will ever be used.  But oh the pleasure I have in going through them all -- looking for something I just know will be inside the next box I come to -- or better yet discovering something found long ago that has been residing forgotten inside a closed box.

"A collection owns a bit more of you each time you add to it." - Joshua Baer

The Fabulous "Mr Finch"

A recent discovery - Mr Finch.  He is an extraordinary, magical fabric artist. 

Please visit his site Mr Finch. If you've never seen his work you are going to be amazed and bedazzled.  If you've seen it before you will be amazed and bedazzled all over again.

What are my some of my favorites?  The most perfect of moths.

The snails are so wonderful - how does he do it?

 

Magical mushrooms...

 

 

...and an owl in flight.

 



I am in awe of his work - taking fabric to new dimensions.

"Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake. - Henry David Thoreau 

"Earthshine"

earthshine n. the light of the sun reflected

by the earth into space, faintly

illuminating the darker portion

of the moon at about the

time of a new moon.

 

 

Don't you love that definition?  In this series of 'earth' works I just had to dedicate this piece to 'earthshine'.

 

 

What subtle colors would capture the earth, moon and space? 

 

 

What 'shiny' tidbits did I have on hand to add to the ambience?

 

Piece by piece she came to life - silently sitting there on the shelf - witnessing the wonders of the universe.

"If you could see the earth illuminated when you were in a place as dark as night, it would look to you more splendid than the moon." - Galileo Galilei, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems - 1632

 

 

 



If You Only Knew!

If you only knew how many 'heads' I have made over the past few weeks!  These are a few...

...and here are more.  Each one a 'search' for perfection.

 

They sit here waiting for their final coatings...

...they sit here ready for arms and a body.

Each head has seemed like an interminable practice.  I finally had to talk to myself, other than my usual mutterings, reminding 'me' that these are not molds, they are each hand created.  Some will be to my liking, some will have fatal flaws and some will be 'okay' and perhaps that is what creativity is all about!

"Even imperfection itself may have its ideal or perfect state." - Thomas de Quincey