Hard at work

You can barely move in my studio. I've delivered goods to three shows and packaged up more to mail, so you CAN get through the doorway. But my studio still looks like a whirlwind.

The long list of Coulds now runs smack into the short, unmoving Musts. They sort themselves quickly into the Nows and the Laters. To finish one set of printed bags, I found that even I could slap out 24 labeled pockets without dithering. The large quilts can wait. Tomorrow I mount my two medium art pieces and crank out cards. The rest will keep until the new year.

Here's my "office,"by the way, in a moment of calm. Larry the Lamb lamp came from the trash. "When you bring home this stuff," my husband commented "I think, 'Maybe she *should* see a doctor.' "

Thanks-giving

For today, from Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek:

"Hasidism has a tradition that one of man's purposes is to assist God in the work of redemption by 'hallowing' the things of creation. By a tremendous heave of his spirit, the devout man frees the divine sparks trapped in the mute things of time; he uplifts the forms and moments of creation, bearing them aloft into the rare air and hallowing fire in which all clays must shatter and burst."

That describes the artist's job to me.

And when the work is going well, "My mind branches and shoots like a tree."

Happy Thanksgiving.

collage in miniature

I have been collaging scraps of fabric into cards.

Little exercises in composition, and a chance to let the bits too small or fragile for real sewing still sing. I love buying artist's cards. I admire all the work, then bring cards home.

Cultural aside: Go see Lars and the Real Girl. It is quirky, surprising, lovely. No guns or car chases, just a good story well-told. The artists who made this movie deserve our support.