circling around

looking through older work the other day I noticed some things in the piece below...

the varying whites with a strip of grey

do you see those tiny curved lines in that grey piece, on the righthand side?

that fabric is a light silk painted grey with watercolour and those lines are crease marks that remind me of the ice lines of the river I've been inspired by for months

in fact, this whole piece speaks to that

hmmm...

in no time materials were gathered - varying fabric along with textured and painted papers, and a piece of actual resolved work has begun

all the sampling I've done, the things I've tried, the materials used, previous work - including this one, have all combined to finally give me all I need to now do the work and make the piece

no more sampling, just the doing

and as that was all getting sorted out and the working materials organized I came across this piece from a few years ago...

also inspired by frozen water, only then it was branches embedded in the layers of ice in the little lake here in Salmon Arm

this one is a small sample using paper and silk to form the layers of ice with painted paper cut in thin strips to resemble the branches

or perhaps they're the trees that lost their branches in the winter windstorm... I never did decide which

looking at it whilst thinking about the Yukon River had me thinking about the pilings, with the frozen river behind

and another thought was forming...

there's lots here to work with though I have a few other ideas of things to incorporate into the pilings so with this one there will definitely be some more sampling and experimenting

I wasn't looking to do either of these but when inspiration strikes there isn't much that can be done about it other to ignore it or go with it

I choose to go

I've been looking at this icy work for so long now, trying different ideas, testing materials

never knowing if or when any of it would lead me to finished piece of work but yesterday I could see both of these, done and hanging

I've never had such a feeling of clarity, never been this sure of something

I have sketchbooks and boxes of various experiments and samples, all of which I have loved doing and learned so much from but nothing had ever pointed me so firmly in a direction to a finished piece of work until yesterday

and then it happened twice, in less than ten minutes

can't say no to that