Adios January, thanks for the snow day. North Central Texas doesn’t usually get much, if any, snow but January delivered a fantastic day of beautiful, deep(ish) snow which made for a cozy day of studio-ing small stuff in the house with the kiddo.

I’m currently wrestling with a painting that just won’t end. I can’t figure out how to finish the 48”x36” canvas of a comet/meteorite/shooting star and a canyon that began six months ago. It started to feel like I was just spinning my wheels so I put it aside to work on small paintings and little weird things.

“How you do one thing is how you do everything” is a quote I’ve thought a lot about lately. When ya feel like you’re scattered in a million directions, it’s hard to see how all the directions are related. I really need them to fit together in some way because that would mean they’d eventually meet at a common intersection.

I refuse to believe the things we’re compelled to make or write or sing are just arbitrary whims that don’t fit into a larger picture. And sometimes I need a serendipitous experience, sign, or smoke signal to push me to keep creating without guilt and be reminded that making something that rains down from the mysterious ethers of the universe isn’t a wasteful indulgence.

NEW STUDIES

One consistent thing over the last few years has been small paintings on matboard. It’s still the most conducive way to keep my studio practice going as a work from home mom to a full speed/no brakes four year old raccoon child.

AMULET NECKLACES

The studio may have been lighter than normal on painting last month but it was heavy on my latest obsession - crocheting necklaces. I know, I know new obsessions are kind of a pattern in my life - I’m just gonna ride this wave out like all the other crazy waves.

It’s been a few years since I’ve picked up a crochet hook and I’ve beaded necklaces since I was a teenager - it’s really nice for the two to come together.

The bright colors of the waxed cord and beads are a stark contrast to the darker nightscape paintings that have been on the easel. Like all recent work, each necklace has its own story and the clay critters are shrinking to become charms. The altars are morphing into amulets.

What is the aesthetic inspiration for the necklaces you ask - I could’ve written a long-winded essay but instead I made a bomb ass vin diagram to explain.

The Shop is now stocked with Amulet Necklaces!

Documenting my landscape through paintings and storytelling.

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