Over the holiday period of 2020 I was asked to consider a word to go forward with in 2021. My immediate response was 'experiment' and I am definitely heading that way!

I was really productive on the work and home front over this holiday season — may be due to the lockdown, may be due to a new attitude toward work/life balance that I decided to take. I found since the launch of my studio early 2020 and the subsequent restrictions, that I was not spending enough time on my own art. I was focused on planting seeds for the studio and artists that join me there. While I know that is necessary, what I realized was that creating my own pieces was critical to achieving studio success. Why? because I'm happier when I do and I'm more relaxed tackling the admin side of this business.

So here's what transpired. I was spending a morning on my sketching and journaling and voila! a new direction emerged for my work. I'm so excited. It came together in a matter of hours. Now, mind you, it is no doubt a matter of all of the thoughts, ideas and directions I've considered in the past synthesizing to this path. I played with the idea of changing my series' focus however I had to quickly discard that as I'm sure I'm not through with the concepts and every time I looked at a new direction it came back to the same basis of ideas. I'm totally fine with that, obviously I have more to say, lol.

What did emerge was the way I present the ideas. Traditionally a painter, I've only dabbled a bit in mixed media - but now? Now I am exploring it to great potential. It came to me as the options for grounds other than canvas and wood came to mind. I have a number of elements (samples, extras) from my interior design days that are crying out for use. One thing led to another and the pic you see above are some of the projects I'm exploring and creating. Paintings on fabrics, wallcoverings, paper and then installation directions that challenge the notion of a typical presentation (framed or gallery style mountings).

It's going to take some time to create all of these but it is so much fun and my intention is to share them in the spring (well, I'll share in progress shots too).