Coronavirus Found time?

When everything was closed and all appointments and meetings were canceled

I thought that I had found some time and how could I put it to use.

Of course, I was going to draw and exercise every day, 

clean out cupboards and shelves, organize my studio and read more.

How have I done these past two weeks? 

My plan did not work as I had expected

This is as far as my drawing has gone, just a start.

I wanted to draw some colorful zinnias

 I did finish one piece for the New Image Artists' upcoming exhibit.

This is a detail of an artwork I titled IMPERFECT INTENTION.

Last month I had started to unravel a sweater and 

used some of the yarn to cover part of another large scissor(s).

Having more birthdays approaching there was a need for more cards.

I am always looking for ways to use bits and pieces of unfinished or experimental work.

Years ago I had tucked striped fabrics just to see what would happen when it was ironed.

These two cards with their embroidered butterflies illustrate one result.

 I remembered spending a lot of time working with cardboard slide frames.

AWAKENING THE OBSOLETE is complete with ten 12 by 12-inch panels.

 Painting some of the frames with stripes and filling other with striped fabric, 

 and, filling frames with tiny drawings or paintings 

were more ways I used the obsolete slide frames.

 I had wanted to develop a new format for notecards. 

Starting with some 8 by 11-inch stationery I added slide frames. 

When folded this card just fit in a standard business envelope.

So a new format for notecards that include tiny bits of art in each frame

In between long bouts on the computer, 

I have been walking in our neighborhood. 

 MacArthur Blvd. with lots of white blossoms

 A small white tree at the corner.

And one yard had many colors along their retaining wall.

Now, the big question, will I get back to drawing?

Will I come up with some more use for 

unfinished and experimental work?

Will I clean a closet?

I do not want to waste this 'found' time.

Cards and Slides and Recycling

It seems to have been a long winter and the cold weather is almost all gone.

I feel I have wasted a lot of this hibernation time 

and haven't added to my blog in a while but I have been thinking

about recycling.

This blog post will show bits and pieces of my work during the last very cold days.

 As I have mentioned before that when I need to work and 

do not have anything pressing, I work on notecards.

A while ago a friend gave me some beautiful old lace. 

Cutting some of it apart I stitched it on a few cards. 

 The colored pages in some magazines have beautiful ads and articles.

I save a lot of them for use in collages, notecards, and gift wrap. 

Often there are ads featuring rugs. 

These I cut out, resize, and sometimes recopy. 

Above an embroidered hyacinth on one of the rugs from a magazine ad.

 This rug I recopied and changed the color bit before adding some embroidery.

Saving the colored pages is a bit of recycling 

but I wanted to see what I could do with the thousands of slides I still have.

It seems waste to just toss so many old slides 

so I spent the last month trying ideas....

 Rather than keeping the slides whole I started taking them apart.

I had many cardboard frames and removed the film.

They stayed whole.

 The plastic frames opened like a book. 

Another way to redesign something?

 Now I have an endless supply of film. 

With the holes on two sides of the film, 

there must be unexplored ways to stitch through them.

 This will be in the next blog if something unusual does happen.

Some of the cardboard frames are dirty or have printing on them.

So, I have painted many of them black but am having 

a hard time finding a paint that goes on smoothly.

 Anthropologie, a favorite store of mine, has innovative thinking designers,

not for the clothes (although their many fashion designers are exceptional)

but for the store walls, shelves ceilings and windows. 

Each time I visit one of the Anthropologies in the Washington area 

I am fascinated to see how the store has changed.

The picture above was a backdrop in the Anthropologie window

when I visited on March 14.

 This window reminded me of what I was doing with the slide frames.

I filled a 12 by 12 inch board with these black framed marker colors.

Before painting the black frames I had been playing with the clean white frames.  

I was using them to fill with tiny abstract compositions.

I must admit that this was fun using colored pencils, markers and paint. 

I have now filled two 12 by 12 inch boards with these tiny abstractions.

With 36 on a 12 by 12 inch board, I have used 108 slide frames.

Is this a useful recycling project? Only time will tell.

Now back to painting more frames and figuring out how to use the film.