another piece that is in progress… forever?

This is a card I found in a bookshop in Victoria BC.

 

This is the image I made to use in a design similar to this card. I started it two or three years ago, and just can’t seem to finish it. It is based on a photo of my best friend Martha, and somehow the shadow and light did not work.  It’s no wonder that this piece  does not work. I have never had a class in shading or light source, I just know that it is important to get it right and maybe that is why I just can’t finish it. However, I just can’t cut it up either. I think there is something to learn from this piece, so it still hangs on my wall in my studio.

Wild Woman # 2 in progress

Here’s #2 in the Wild Women series. I have finished the composition and am working on the threadpainting and the details. I am happy with how it is turning out. I especially like the highlights on the arm. When I walked into the studio this afternoon and looked at what I had done last week, I was disappointed in the arms because they looked so flat. I tried that little light piece and it was not enough. When I repeated the thin line in orangey fabric, it worked just fine. I will get the same thread that I do the face with and highlight it a little more with thread.

 It does not take that long to do  these, what takes a long time is the getting around to doing them. Hence the 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there. I hope to have them done before September.

Last night my husband was watching a very scary video, and when he watches something I do not want to see I usually come out and sew. But just hearing the scary music from the video and the screams and all, I was too scared to walk across the driveway ane be here all by myself. What a baby… It was written by Dean Koonz, who writes psychological horror. I can deal with good scary, my favorite movie being Arachnaphobia, but if it is too close to reality, I get nightmares. Anyway, enough said.

I have entered Wild Women #1 (me) in a small show here in Santa Barbara at the Architectural Review Board’s gallery. That starts in March and runs for a month.