Week 14 Reflection

Painting: 7 hours
Drawing: 2 hours
Working on presentation: 9 hours
Writing abstract: 3 hours
Writing: 1 hour
Collaging: 4 hours

I didn't end up printing last weekend. Instead I painted. I like where it's going, but it still needs work. I also did another pastel drawing.

I also wrote a letter to my house:

Dear House,

We've spent so many wonderful years together, and you've watched me grow inside your walls. So many times I've lifted my feet to climb your yielding wooden steps. I've slid my hands along your glossy railing, ascending and descending. I've lain across your creaking golden floorboards, and you held me there: sturdy. When I was with you, it was okay to just be silent, to sit inside you and breath. And I knew that you didn't expect anything from me. You never asked me to explain myself or to listen to your aches. And at night, I slept well, knowing your sloped ceiling would rest above me, sheltering. Perhaps I shouldn't have slammed your doors so many times or stomped my feet against your floor. I never meant to hurt you; you were always so giving. Together we were complete. And it's hard to say exactly when we grew apart. But still, I think about you. I have your angles memorized, where your walls meet your ceilings and your corners form. And your sounds are embedded deep - the back door's thump, the heater's purr, the window's whine, and your soft whisper that echoes through the vents. I still love your smell of heat, upstairs, on summer afternoons, and the feel of your seeping chill, on winter evenings. I still walk through your narrow path in my dreams and feel you in the dark. And we still recognize each other when I visit, that faint familiarity. But it's distanced now, as it should be, because you are not my home. You may not understand. You may resent our separation, but I think, in time, you will no longer miss me. We will become old acquaintances, who sometimes stop to say hello. And I look forward to that day, when we can greet each other with cheer.

Love always,

Your third daughter

I started doing some collaging with photographs of my house. For the first one I drew on top of it with oil pastels, and for the second one I drew on top of it with pastels (I forgot to take a picture of the second one before I drew on it). I'm not sure how much these contribute to my work, but I had fun working on them.

I also have a plan for this weekend that I'm really excited about. I'm going to divide an image into 6 parts, then make a monotype of each part. Then I'm going to attach the prints together with linen tape, like the sketch below. Once it's all attached I'm going to draw on top of it with oil pastel. So the image will end up being 3'x6', and I can't wait to see how it will turn out.