Nearly there

The living room is nearly done. I couldn't stand the chaos one more second and put most of it back together even though there are odds and ends to finish up. The new bookcase that Carlos built is gorgeous and so much more our style than the old one. The books that I know we're keeping went back up on the shelves. There is a delightful, gaping hole (with appropriate wiring!) ready and waiting for a new tv (someday, hopefully not too far in the distant future, - you know, I should prop up some framed pieces in there in the meantime...), and I got out a few of my Oaxacan carvings for the top shelves. I'm not sure that they'll stay there as they're looking a little busy visually in a group like that and it's hard to appreciate their finely-painted detail so high up.



The Eames chair is very well-loved. Carlos bought it from a showroom on Park Avenue in Manhattan in 1970 for a then-princely sum and it's the one and only piece of furniture that we've continuously had our entire married life. I adore that chair - not only is it exceedingly good-looking but it's really comfortable too.

We still need a mantel on the fireplace and we had an inspiration yesterday that we're going to try out tomorrow to see if it works (fingers crossed).

There are supposed to be three small paintings hanging above the fireplace but two of them didn't have frames so I didn't hang them back up yet. Hopefully the frames will be done by the weekend and all of that white space will be a memory.



I placed a few things temporarily on the top of the fireplace. Among them are two pieces of mate burilado, examples of the traditional Peruvian craft of gourd carving, which dates back over 5,000 years. These are obviously more recent.



I matted and framed another of Carlos' old intaglios, Red Light, to hang beside the fireplace. It's hard to tell in this picture, but the lighting really shows off the relief.



A small painting that Carlos keeps insisting isn't finished yet (is an oil painting ever finished??) that I won't let him touch because I love it just the way it is. It's waiting for its two companions to return from the studio with new frames.



And everything that didn't make it back into the living room is now residing in my studio, which as a result, is an ungodly mess with not a clean flat surface (and very little floor space) in sight. Makes it hard to get anything done, but the view into the living room is sublime.

Recycled theme postcard

With this postcard I am officially Caught Up. For one don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it minute. I'm going to bask in the glow of current-ness and then look for something else to get into...

Another collage necklace

I'm having a blast making these. The latest is 1" by 3" and incorporates a watch gear on the bird for a steampunk vibe.

Up close with the Crow

A number of people asked where they could get their very own Jim Mullan bird, so here's the scoop. The Left Bank Gallery in Massachusetts and the Christopher Park Gallery in South Carolina were both a pleasure to deal with over the internet and provided phenomenal service.



If you end up succumbing to the lure of the bird, remember that it's all Sandy's fault, she's the reason I got started on this new bird kick. Thank you Sandy!





Just to give you an idea of scale, this is the crow with the jay that I posted about in August.

Collage necklace

And now for something completely different...



A tiny bird collage to wear. The little frame is only 1.5" square and it hangs from a length of hand-dyed silk ribbon. The scrap of printing is from an Indian newspaper I tinted with ink. The mah-jongg tile is from a neat store in Oregon (that I dearly wish had a website - I got the most unusual shoes there but the brand name is Pretty - try googling "pretty shoes" and see how far you get... argh).

My friend Natalya sent me a link to a talk on Ted by Sir Ken Robinson. Sir Ken addresses creativity in the education environment. It's a really interesting speech and here are a few quotes from it that just jumped out at me.

If you are not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.

Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value.

Alphabird

I'm finally getting some overdue projects done - one of which is a postcard exchange with a group on Postmarkd Art. The theme is alphabet. I stamped different letters on each card in the series and kept letter A for myself. Not sure what the bird symbolizes, but he insisted on being there.

One more set of postcards and I'll be officially Caught Up. Don't blink...

Tweet peek

The beautiful Jim Mullan crow arrived this week and he's stunning. The lightstands are in Carlos' studio because we're shooting his new paintings to update his website but I will post a good, well-lit picture of Monsieur Crow in the next couple of days. In the meantime here are a few peeks at some of the exquisite details.





And I've decided that three steampunk Mullan birds is the perfect number so I'm on a quest for the final addition to the trio.

When I was teaching in Sisters, Oregon this summer one of my students had a bag full of funky little wooden birds that she had purchased at a tag sale on her way to the conference. I coveted those birds - they were all different colors and shapes and had the coolest vibe. She gifted me with two of them at the end of the workshop and I am so grateful (and I didn't even whine or beg or anything). Aren't they great? They're only about 1.5" high and are obviously hand-carved and hand-painted.



I finished the first of a new series of quilts with a bird theme and will reveal it soon. It's really interesting to re-visit a theme after many years have gone by to see if you can say something new. My last bird quilt was in 1994, but I definitely see a new approach to birds as subject.

Do you find yourself re-visiting old themes? Or do you say everything there is to say in a theme and move on?