On becoming conscious...my process...

So over the years I have had flowing interests in all things fiber.....

weaving, quilting, stitching, printing, dying, paper making and book binding......

which required an assortment of twine and thread and beads and paper, book board and fabric and needles, dyes and wax....and the tools for all these techniques

you know how that goes....

and as I made the paper and had the opportunity to travel to far off lands, I began to collect it too

(as we do...)

and then with the paper in hand I began to study printmaking.....and having let go of my loom, 

to fill that void

I acquired a large etching press.

And with that not only did I collect ink and plates and burnishing tools,

I also collected an assortment of tools and materials to frame my prints

mat board, frames, point driver, mat cutters

And as anyone who is into printmaking and has an interest in fibers and wax knows....

 the next lure

 is

encaustics.

and I collected all the stuff to work with that medium....

Burning in tools, more waxes, pigments, heating pans, cradled boards & brushes....

In addition to all that, over the years I've also collected sewing machines.

I'm counting......perhaps 6?

don't ask...

and tables and cutting mats and scissors and fabric,

pins and needles.....

and 

with all those supplies, I made sure in the last several years to take care of them.....

so I also collected beautiful rolling restaurant shelves and lots and lots of storage boxes.

Today I'm deeply entrenched in working with metal...

And I've collected a source of materials and tools for working that way too.

And then there are the Books

and Journals.....

and with trips and travels

oodles of ephemera for assemblage and inspiration

not forgetting aged, forgotten and not completed artworks

It is a 'soup to nuts' evolutionary creative practice for sure.

that took a lifetime to amass

And now as I sort my stuff......I realize I can't do this again.

Move with so much stuff that is.

Yesterday my friend Martin said...."well then, it's time to settle down".

And as I become conscious of my track record

not to mention my

astrological orientation

I thought it might be more likely that I

don't.

(settle down

that is)

Lightening up........

At 9:00 AM on Tuesday morning the moving pod was dropped off in the parking lot of my studio space in Albuquerque....

7 hours later, at 4:00 PM in the afternoon I was finished unloading it.

It was 90 degrees. 

I did this by myself.

Very carefully and very slowly.

"One more thing and one more thing....."

I kept telling myself in private conversation to keep myself from keeling over....

And as I was looking at what I was moving for the second time in a week.....

(and I think the 6th time in 12 years)

I was making some rules for unpacking.....

Rule #1:  

If I don't Love it or find it Beautiful or Useful....out it goes

and after that 

for the final cut

Rule #2: 

 If I don't think I'll use it in the next year...out it goes

I am also giving myself permission to be inspired, yet not distracted

 by what I re-discover in these boxes.

Let's see how that plan works.

Be careful when opening the overhead bins...

as some items

may have

shifted.

A change of plans/moving forward...

This week I thought I'd be on retreat in the mountains of  northern Colorado...

(I'd imagined this to be a summer filled with spending time in Nature)

However the Universe had other ideas and enrollment was down for such an adventure...

and as a result, that plan was scratched 'til next year.

So with my calendar clear,

 I decided to brave the inevitable....

And return to Michigan

to walk down this hall...

And address this...

The smaller of my two storage units 

Jammed to the ceiling with

the contents of my studio

that 

(almost two years ago)

 I could not seem to part with

(Goodness, is Dorothy in there?)

I keep asking myself 

"How could this happen?"

But no matter... It did

and now I'm off on yet another adventure to figure out what to do with it

Status report....

It has been re-jammed into what we call a 'pod' of relatively the same size 

And will be shipped cross country in the next several days to be sorted in the blistering heat

of a New Mexico 

summer....

It's always something