I am about to finish my biggest piece ever – a 48″ x 60″ wood panel now covered with a number of layers of paint, paper, pencil, molding paste, old journal pages, photographs and metallic pigment.  I have worked on this piece off and on for many months, with long stretches of time where it sat by itself in my studio.  This piece has been about experimenting and trying new things, and I feel somewhat attached to it because it is so full of so many trials, errors and happy mishaps.  I have another large panel (45″ x 70″)  that is perfectly blank right now, purchased for a commission, and I am excited to take what I learned creating this first large piece and applying it to the new one.  I’ll be posting photos tomorrow of the journey of the first piece as well as the beginning steps of the second piece.

In addition to these big works, I am piling up creations for my upcoming book.  The story of this book will be explained in much greater detail soon, but for now I will share that I am in experimentation mode, trying this and that and creating panel after panel, not worrying about whether anything I do will ultimately make it in the book.  This is the time to create, create, create and piecing everything together will happen soon enough.

Sparkletopia is humming along nicely, and I am really happy with many of my most recent discoveries, particularly illustrator Liza Corbett, whose work I must say I am now completely obsessed with.   I’ll be posting an interview with her on Sparkletopia in the coming weeks.  There is so much talent in the world it makes my head want to explode!

I have moved beyond the worst of my moodiness over the cancellation of my trip to Tibet, and have already purchased a guide book to India with my sights set on a January 2009 journey.  With these May travel plans removed, I suddenly feel like I have a wide open space of time to play with, and I am pleasantly surprised by my initial thoughts of just wanting to run around my backyard during that time.  The sun has just popped out  from behind the layer of chilly fog that has taken over Santa Monica over the past couple of days and I am looking forward to a quiet night.

I have felt a tremendous sense of quiet from many places and people…emails and blog postings are fewer and my usual marathon blog reads haven’t happened in a while (although I feel the need to say I read many, don’t always comment and have lately mischeviously prided myself on being a bit of a lurker on many sites).  This doesn’t make me feel less connected to anyone, and this is one of things I appreciate so much about my friendships – that these quiet spaces and stretches are OK, and that through these moments we are no less in each other’s hearts, no less in arms of safety and comfort.

“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself.” -Zen Proverb