More active days this week, but less progress, it seems! Doing just a little bit every day adds up, but some weeks it’s pretty slow progress. Let’s have a look.

Seeing Art

It was a First Thursday week, so I tried to catch a few people in the local art scene. I missed a few too, dammit!

Here’s one stunning work, where I caught the artist, Ellen Hochberg, in action. She is using her own art, cut into circles and dipped into encaustic wax, then attaching them, by the thousands, to a piece of fabric to represent just a very few of the folks we’ve lost to Covid in the US.

We had a great chat about the importance of acknowledging our losses, and the effectiveness of that red thread, massed together.

Cleaning Up Old Files

Back at home, I continued a painful close look at my storage use. Do I really need all those files? Unfortunately, I’m not great at noting which images actually got used, over the last 10+ years, so I try to keep as many as I can.

Here’s the thing: picture files (JPG or PNG or what-have-you) take up WAY less space than Photoshop files. AND, at least on the system I’m using, each version is kept! But not in a way I can easily tell. If I’ve got a heavily-edited work in progress — and let me tell ya, I do — each saved version is another 2 GB file, and that starts to add up. As I poked through files that looked suspiciously large, I found versioning on some in the 60s! Is this another piece of data I need to collect? Ugh, let’s not — just the layers is plenty.

How often do you clean up your digital spaces? Once a year seems plenty, but not enough to get ahead of it.

Reviewing Aerials Candidates

This is the series I’ve been working on, when I need a break from any other projects. Time to make it the focus, so I had a look at what’s accumulated. When I tallied them up, I see I have over 30 candidates that sort of, maybe fit together. Here are the top nine.

While they might be my current faves, they don’t quite yet make a series together, never mind the rest of the group. I took several out for a spin, to see if I could elevate them.

What’s next: looking for common elements, and making sure there’s enough contrast between the grid elements versus more natural lines. I also want a similar value treatment, but that seems all over the map at the moment. To be continued!

Binding Rectangles

For my vision of binding these rectangle pieces together, I found some lovely red, rustic cord, and some clamps to hold the pieces still.

But I also found out that book binding is hard. I don’t really want a cover, which the projects I found all seem to assume.

Still, tentative spots for holes are marked; maybe I should just forge ahead?

Scribbling

An open sketchbook on my desk at home is an invitation to add, edit, or turn the page. Based on a suggestion from Jane Davies, my only directive is to scribble! With thread? Sure! With a sharp stick? Yep! On the docket for this year: a review of what this sketchbook is telling me. Other than — I love scribbling.

Finally, in a not-exactly-art-but-satisfying project, I updated my studio window from holiday ornaments to leaf shapes, in anticipation of a yet-far-off spring.

Cutting up old collages and printed paper feels great! How was your week?

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