Any day now…that's when my new book will arrive. It's like a due date for a baby. A target date but in the end, you really never know when it might happen. I do have some book news though ~
I am teaching a Lutradur class at Angela's Happy Stamper in Reston, Virginia on February 21st. It'll be a great event with Claudine Hellmuth. We'll both be there all day. I'll sign books in the morning while Claudine teaches, then we'll swap and I'll teach in the afternoon while she does her book-signing. I hope all you DC locals can stop by to say hey, take a class and/or buy a book!
I've had plenty to keep me busy this past week, or has it been longer? Too busy in fact to do what I recommended in my last post. Now that the crunch is over, I want to take some quiet time, seek the solitude I need to get my head together and plan out 2009. I have a lot of great things in the works and I want to do them right. I want a balance of work, family, artmaking and for lack of a better word, sanity. I want to feel and be in control. Does anyone ever get it right?
So what have I been doing? I finally finished my article for the April/May issue of Quilting Arts and a piece for the Ranger designer wall at CHA using Claudine Hellmuth's new Studio line. I was so happy to get that finished and out the door (this was Friday, it was due there on Friday) that I forgot to photograph it. And I'll never see it again. I'm pretty sure though that Claudine will have photos of the design wall on her blog after she goes to CHA. Here are some sneak peeks from the article and part of the mess left after the CHA project.
I am happy that the days are getting longer now, even though I feel we have not yet seen our true winter. I pray for good weather in 10 days, the day millions(?) will descend on my fair city to welcome and witness our new President. I am eager to get my new website redesign underway now that my designers are back and ready to roll. I am excited about seeing the silly movie, Bride Wars, this week with my daughter Samantha who has finally set the date (May 22, 2010) and then lunching with my grandbabies on Thursday. I am keen on getting a plan for 2009 in writing. I want to continue with my 15 minutes a day drawings (I've been slacking on that). I want to do great things. I want to have fun. I want to go to bed satisfied and awake eager and with a plan. I want days of sunshine. What is it that you are thinking about on this winter day? What do you want? I'd love to know.
I get up every morning determined both
to change the world and have one hell of
a good time. Sometimes, this makes
planning the day difficult.
E.B. White
  
   
  
   
   
 
What do I think about on winter days? I think about how glorious it is to be indoors with all that extra time for organizing, art and being by yourself. I am one of those people who is very gregarious and also very much a lover of my solitude and winter gives me that solitude here in Ottawa. Kind of like a buffer from it all for awhile to grow and get a chance to get your wings in order. I being a solitary worker when it comes to my art enjoy this very much and I go out and get my people fix at art group meetings and workshops and through my job and return to the winter indoor world to journal and plan and do. I get so much on the go that I do tumble into bed with my head already planning the next day and arise anxious to get right into it. Some of it is just the reaquainting yourself with supplies and plans and dreams. Very exciting. Summer has too much going on in it and it’s wonderful and one does art differently at that time of year but I always look forward to the isolation of winter to get back on track and try once again to be the artist I am stiving to be. I am actually getting a great amount of solitude here in Ottawa as we suffer a long bus strike as that is how I travel in the city. I will be very ready to get out there and be gregarious. Deborah
My two words for this year are CREATE and TRANSFORM. I’ve decided that this is the year to do the art I’ve been holding back on for too long. With that in mind, I’ve signed up for 3 workshops, one of which is yours at MN Center for the Book Arts – I’m really really excited about that!
Have recently realized that I am not having much fun lately. That’s gotta change!
I’m thinking about sanity and if it’s necessary where art is concerned. Edgar Allan Poe said “I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity” 🙂 The creative mind has to be free. I think that’s what I want for 2009 – the mental freedom to have original vision.