Large and messy

Manos, first sketches from my notebooks.

Making art isn't all fun. It can be tedious, heartbreaking, fraught with failure. But, I mostly have fun. Or try to. And I mostly succeed. For me, there is no money involved. No pressure to please anyone but myself and my friends. 

Color Wheel of Lies words.

And I love having big, ongoing projects going with huge themes. Like "stitched words" and "colors." It's hard to describe how exciting it is to have a large, messy, growing art project inside of me. 

Gorging on color, but not sugar.

How good it feels to be open to experiences of color, for example, in whatever situation I find myself.  I stumble across a drawing Newton made of a color wheel and it thrills me. That it is in his handwriting and that he has spelled blue as bleu... this makes it even more delicious. And it will be stitched into my Color Wheel of Lies project.

Color Wheel, Newton.

Or I'm at the SAFF fiber festival with friends last month in Asheville and I see this beautiful yarn called "Nightfall." It starts out in an inky black and drains into wild, beautiful cherry. And I think, look at how beautifully wool absorbs dye. And I marvel at the marbling and variegation of a single skein.

Richly dyed yarn at SAFF.

So now, something new. Hands have captured my imagination. And blackwork embroidery. And suddenly I see hands everywhere. They are elegant parts of the human body. And I start collecting the hands of the people in my life in a big, black sketchbook.

Elegant hand.

And I'm inspired and moved about the wonderful variety of fingers and thumbs and palms. They are breathtaking.

My hand. I imagine the doodles in blackwork embroidery.

And for no good reason, here is this other wonderful, messy project inside of me. And I find inspiration for my Manos everywhere. And again, it makes my life feel full, fun and magical.

What else? Luchadora masks are rocking my world!
Me pretending to be a Luchadora.