Been getting lots done lately, since the last week of August. I don’t know how, but I have. I think not paying attention is the key. I haven’t been too worried about it, and I’m giving myself plenty of time to contemplate without stressing. It’s like the best show, timeline-wise, I’ve ever had (so far).

It’s been rewarding making these special promo packages for the VIPs. Again, I regret I can’t invite everyone to the special dinner, nor can I make more than a limited amount of these first aid packages, but at least I can document them a bit for my blog. They took quite an amount of time and effort.

They are at last complete! Woohoo! I was waiting on the special Dan band-aids (Dan-aids), and they look great!

Now I’m packaging them up into shipping boxes so I can deliver them to the gallery next weekend. I’m starting them early because I’ll be out of town for a few days. I’m also taking a bookbinding class that starts this Thursday, and I have doctor appointments, so my time is thinning out.

My To-Do list is looking good. I feel so peaceful in my soul when things get checked off on that thing. I’m a serious nutcase when it comes to being organized.

I’m finished with writing the curriculum for my Multimedia Sound Drawing Workshop. It won’t happen until January 5th, but I needed to know exactly what I was doing to create the flyer and present it at the opening reception in November. There’s an order to my madness. I’m thinking we’ll get most of the sign-ups at that point in time. The class is limited to fifteen participants only.

I’m also on my last art piece, which is the sculpture and maybe a tiny bit stressed about it. I finished the painting on the raw canvas and wound up using a few different media. The staining didn’t work out exactly, and the gouache was fuzzy. Overall, it was an experiment. I think it will go well into the show, but I’m not so sure how it looks as a stand-alone piece. I need more time for it to sink into my brain, which is usually the case with most of the work I do right after I’m finished with it.

So, the floor sculpture—that’s the one that’s been a tricky endeavor and something I’ve never done before (talk about an experiment). It started off as a kind of crazy idea that I didn’t even think I’d attempt to make into something real. It was a kind of lucid dream sketch—silly, like so many other drawings I make in my mini moleskin sketchbook. It made me giggle a little. I wondered if it would be entirely stupid if I tried to make it in 3D or actuality.

Then, there was the “how?” Was it even possible? Was it something where I had to hire an engineer of physics or something? I knew I wasn’t smart enough to make it so it wouldn’t fall over in a slight breeze. I thought, maybe if I fashioned a curved lamp that was already balanced the way I needed it, that could be a good start, so that’s what I used for the basic armature in order to sew all the stuffed animals together, if that makes sense.

(mock-up)

Obtaining every perfect stuffed animal wasn’t the easiest, but that part is done. Finding the perfect parasol in the right size, getting the correct size drums one inch apart in size, etc. was a trick, too. I still have to embellish that parasol with some hanging ribbons and plastic gems, sew more of the animals, attach a hanging stuffed fish, put shoes on the thing somehow, hang various embroidered tags with words on them, and rip a bunch of seams off most of the animals as well. At this point, I’m waiting for Hannah to help me reinforce the armature so it’s secure and it really won’t fall over. This requires a couple of pieces of wood circles and some metal clamps, bolts, etc. She says she has a perfect plan, so I’m letting her take this part of it on.

I’ve set my final deadline for everything to be done three weeks before the opening. That’s when all the work should be dry, ready to be hung/wired, and professionally photographed for promotion, the gallery, and media outlets. It’s a reasonable timeframe, in my opinion. At this juncture, I’m six weeks away, and that seems like plenty of time, but I have no idea how long this sculpture thing is going to take since this is something new for me.

And that’s my check-in for now.