Picking away

I'd love to say that I haven't been posting because I've been too busy dying one fabulous yard of cloth after another--no such luck. Work's been crazy, then there was the new Harry Potter book that demanded to be read immediately (and it was worth it!). I do have a couple of things in process.

Here's that same old batik piece. I got frustrated with it because it was just too high contrast with those damned white circles. I grabbed a dirty screen (and I'm talkin' drips and smears of dye that I forgot to wash out) and deconstructed it with a not-too-strong mix of Pro Chem Chino and thickener. It's way better and could now be either a background for something more or at least something to cut up. I'm kicking around some ideas.

This next one was me just wanting to play with dye and beak-in a new screen. I grabbed whatever dye I happened to have mixed up, and once again a dirty screen. I think I deconstructed the blue then added the light brown (leftover Chino) the next day. Again, I'm not sure where this one's going. For now I'm having fun looking at it. It's making me think of Caribbean beaches.

So, this weekend I'm flying to Providence, RI to meet Dan, who's currently in CT on business, then we're driving out to stay with friends on the Cape. They're both artists so it makes for great conversations. I'm going back and forth with myself about whether to take recent work to show then. On one hand they're both role models (working, well regarded craftspeople whose work I respect and admire); on the other they're intimidating, at least in this regard.

I love the Cape. I'm taking a sketch book, a novel, a camera, a couple changes of cloths, and not much else.