a beginning

there's a picture of me as a child, at my favourite place in the whole world: Marsh Lake, Yukon, on the beach

I'm wearing my favourite green coat (it had a hood and I loved hoods on coats) and I am standing on the beach in front of the cabin

I remember that day, it was very cool but I was toasty warm - we were getting ready to go home, the car was being packed up, and I went to the beach to say goodbye

I always did that, right before we went, filling myself with the look and sound of the water 

I'm beginning a new body of work borne of that place - not sure what I want to make, what the focus will be... not sure of anything really except that it must be of there

and this is always my struggle

what to do when nothing in particular is speaking to me

what to work with when the same holds true for my materials

fabric, stitch, paint???

the other day, whilst browsing instagram, I came upon a post by an artist showing a glimpse of a sketchbook full of tiny collages - 100 of them, to be exact

the challenge, to do them all in a day

yikes!

the whole idea of it was so tantalizing though - one would have to work so quickly in order to complete 100 in a day - no time to overthink or get in a dither over which fabric, what paper, put it here or put it there?

just do it

I thought it would be a great way to quickly record some of what speaks to me about the lake, a kickstart if you will - surely out of 100 little collages there would be many that would help give me some direction

I spent a couple of days planning and gathering and on Tuesday I began

of course the first thing I observed was the realization there was no way I could do 100 in a day

I wanted to stitch mine, not glue them and stitching is much slower than gluing, just threading the needles takes up many minutes of each hour

and then of course, there had to be embroidery

no matter, I would do what I could and continue on another day, and if need be, another after that

the first twelve were based on water, then I went on to driftwood

as they were completed I placed them face down on a piece of paper and jotted down a word or two that had come to mind whilst working on it

they're not titles, per se, more reminders of what I was trying to capture

I've written those words beneath each as they are mounted in my book - they not only speak to me of the lake, they also take me back to the making of the collage itself and what was running through my mind at that time

water

the collages are tiny, not more than 1 1/4" x 2 1/4"

big enough to capture a thought, little enough be done quickly

driftwood

sand

some are exceptionally simple, marks on paper, not a collage at all, but they don't have to be...

as long as they tell me a story

seagulls

wild roses

evergreens

I'm making twelve for each subject and when I'm finished there will be 108 in total

at the moment there are almost 80 in my book - shown here are less than half of what I have already done, but there's enough inspiration and ideas in these images to keep me busy for a long time to come

when completely finished I'll sit and reflect a bit on what I've done... what I like, which ones tell it best

and then I'll work to develop the ideas further

 add to the story

refine my thinking

 try new ways of expression

and find my way home