“Genius, the power which dazzles human eyes,
is oft but perseverance in disguise.”
I got a whole free day yesterday in the studio, hallelujah! Of course what took the most time was still working on getting started projects finished up. First I went through all the old quilts and didn't find any additional squirrel damage past the two I whined about last week. I took three bags of trash to my dumpster and debated whether to dump a few really bad quilts too but decided instead that they will make more dog beds for the rescue guys.
Then I started on a sweater I pulled out to wear the other day- it had two splotches of acrylic paint on one side, little things about a half inch long. I took it to the studio because I had tried 'normal' things to remove the paint at home but nothing worked at all. So I wanted to give my brush cleaner a shot. I worked it in let it sit, rinsed it off and lost a tiny bit of it but not enough to wear the sweater again. Then I tried the orange grainy hand cleaner for workmen and that removed a mother layer so by then I had medium gray splotches instead of black. I reworked the orange stuff in and let it sit for a couple of hours, rinsed and didn't notice much difference, so took it home and threw it in the washer after one more attempt with the spot remover I had used that morning. It completely removed the paint and this morning I am wearing this sweater again! Yeaaaa.
Then I worked on the book cover and added a title from pieces of cardstock printed with letters. This took some t=work because the cardstock kept peeling layers off so I had to glue things twice, weight it, then check again for any ore peeling. (Auto correct wont' type cardstock, insists I want 'yardstick'. So we are having a fight.)
And here we are in February, not my favorite month by any stretch. Looks like our calendar is pretty full lately, but all I have on my head is selling the little house, cannot leave to get back to Boston until we do because I don't have any winter clothes down here. I was dumb- put everything winter-y in storage up there thinking we would have a condo by now. Silly me. So either I buy a three day winter wardrobe to go up, stay in a hotel, rent a car, and see my friends and family by arranged appointments, or I sit here waiting to sell. Rocks and Hard Places. So, let's talk art because that's what I do doodley do. Lifted the doodle dos from Kurt Vonnegut years ago.
Amy Douglas is an English artist who restores old Staffordshire figures into eccentric recreations. Staffordshire figures were found throughout British homes in the 19th century, often bought at county fairs and collected as “toys” for the mantelpiece. When they arrive to Douglas—broken and eroded away by time—she modernizes the pieces by adding touches of present-day quips and scenarios. Each one has been given a title that makes them humorously unique; for example, “I Lost My Head” depicts a beheaded man joyously swinging a wreath decorated with various craniums; “Chicks Rule” features a chicken-headed figure riding a horse with a human face.
Japanese carpenter/designer/artist Masaaki Saito. Here are more examples of his beautiful, handmade tableware. His wooden plates bring me back to 17 century daily life in Sweden (and other places?) before china, metal and glassware was on every man's table.
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