Adding More Media

Here's a view of my garden from inside my studio. I like looking out at the plants under the trees. I spent some time sitting in my studio today, more so than I have been for several weeks. I've been avoiding my studio, because I thought my chair might be giving me a backache, but it's not my chair. It must be something else. So today I spent some time inside. I really like sitting at my desk. It helps me feel centered and composed. From there I can move on and create something. It helps me to sit there for awhile. I know I'm more visible outside, but I think I need to spend a little time there each morning.

This morning I searched until I found my scraps of copper and I put asphaltum on them. There is one piece in particular that I know is large enough to make into two bracelets. I spent about three and a half hours drawing on it after I prepared it. When I'm finished, I'll put it in ferric chloride to etch it. Then when I've cleaned it off, I can cut it in half lengthwise and shape it into bracelets. When the kilm is turned on in the Enamel Guild, they will let me put it in to anneal it. That makes it soft and easy to bend. It will give me a chance to get back to doing some metalsmithing which I enjoy.

There was a woman who came into my studio today who had worked as a graphic artist, but she started out by studying fine art and had taken a class in printmaking. So even though I started to explain the process to her, she understood it already. That's unusual. Not too many people understand how an etching is created. After she watched me heating the plates and applying asphaltum, she said she was surprised that the method was still the same as when she had studied it in school. She mentioned that so much of the art world had been taken over by technological advances including the computer. So I explained that although I thought there were some advances in the process, my instructor had taught us the traditional method and I liked using that.

I think creating things in the traditional manner is important to keep the process alive. There are ways to use spray paint to create the look of aquatint, and I think there's a way to use Sharpies to create resistance. But I'm still doing it the same way. I like that for now.

I find myself gradually bringing my supplies to my studio from home and gradually getting back into the various media that I'm conversent in. I need to paint a sign for my studio and someone else has asked for a piece of painted canvas. So in the next week or so, I'll be taking up my paintbrush again. There's still room under my display table to store art supplies. After the painting, the only thing I have left is enameling. I'm not sure when I'll get back to it, but eventually I'm sure I will. And there's paper art. I'm really anxious to have my computer in the studio where I can work on various ideas I have.

This morning when I arrived at my studio, I found several plastic bags leaning against my door. They contained five pieces of artwork done by an artist who was a long-time member of Spanish Village. She is no longer living. I never met her, but have heard her name on numerous occasions. I'm not sure why someone delivered some of her artwork to my studio, but I have taken it in and will investigate when I have a chance this week. I'm sure what seems like a mystery has a perfectly logical explanation. I like that an artist's work allowed her to reach out and touch me over a seemingly unbridgeable gap.