Explorations

One advantage to being homeless, at least in the sense of not owning or renting, is the ability to help friends out by house-sitting. I can see the attraction -- the lack of bills to pay for the bricks and mortar for starters -- and the opportunity to pick up and go has its moments.

Especially when sunrise turns the Front Ranges to pink....



and when one heads out to take the dogs for a walk in the crisp morning, to find a path littered with crystallize structures Benoit Mandelbrot would get excited about.



The countryside isn't the only thing I've been exploring: I've resumed work on My Past Life, a project that I've picked up and put down several times in the last few years. One reason I've been visiting it sporadically is that I know what I want it to look like when I'm done, but I keep finding that certain elements, like the artist book to accomplish the fibre sculpture portion, requires skills that I haven't yet acquired.

The illustrations are a good example: I had originally thought of doing a unique book with monographs, but eventually decided that a limited-edition that I could sell would probably be a better idea.



And that's meant learning how to create images in a different way that I have in the past, so I took a beginning etching class at Alberta Printmakers. I'm very pleased with how my spawning sockeye salmon on copper has turned out.



After inking, I tried out different papers to see how the colours and textures affect how the ink is picked up. Having done a lot of reading about different techniques, it was interesting to actually get my hands dirty: I love the smell of printing ink....



If you're a regular reader, expect blog entries to get somewhat sporadic over the next few months -- even more so than lately! I hit the road in a couple of weeks for points east, and eventually south-and-east, learning and experimenting with image-making, words, and fibres.

And, with luck, getting to catch RUSH in concert somewhere this fall.