rooted in place

"rooted in place"...

an appropriate title for this post though it could equally have been called 

"from here to there and back again"

the comings and goings of the last four weeks have been some of the most pleasant days I have spent in a very long time... uplifting visits with family and friends, a few days away in a favourite city, a lovely drive to the mountains

even sketching one whilst standing in almost-the-middle of the road with a dear friend and partner in crime

now it's back to quiet, and my consolation is time back in the studio

this week I have painted, pasted, stitched, cut, drawn and written my way through a number of delightful forays into creative work

one such adventure was an itch that has been on the list for many months which is now well under way

making textile versions of the pilings along the Yukon River

this week I scratched that itch

layers of cloth coloured with earth pigments

I'm working on four different pilings, the one shown in this post is the smallest, clocking in at just over 5" tall

next up is to add a few straight stitches here and there

I found some of my fabric painted to look like water and laid it behind to get a sense of what that might look like

my favourite was recently done, seen in the first photo of this post and the last: a piece of linen coloured by letting a blue-black ink seep up as far as it would

as with much of what I've done over the last year I'm not quite sure exactly where this is going but I do know it's an important piece of the puzzle and having a few to work with allows me some latitude for experimentation

and as if four wasn't enough there's another idea brewing for pilings of a different nature

thankfully I have another week of studio time before staring down the fence yet again!

Take care,

Jillayne