Moving little by little, I’m starting to lose count of the embroideries while I dabble with the paintings here and there.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not booking on the embroideries. They take a long fucking time. I tried to time them the other day, and if I don’t run into any knots, they do take roughly 5.5 hours each (for the pill bottles), but sometimes, there’s no avoiding those. I’ve found there are only two ways to avoid them: going slower by holding the thread on the back stitch all the way through and/or using a shorter thread to begin with. Both make things slower anyway! Threading the needle and tying the knot for each new thread is a pain. It takes time.

I wish I could invent some kind of tool that ties the knot at the end of the thread automatically. I’d be a millionaire.

When I started this project, I looked into buying an embroidery machine. They run about $400 for a decent one. That would have been something. They have a bit of a learning curve, but then I wouldn’t have improved any of my hand-embroidery skills. It seems to get slightly better each time I do these. They all also vary, and I kind of like that “look.”

Onto the paintings.

I’ve pretty much abandoned the stitched triptych for now. That’s going to also take a long time. I usually like to work on the most time-intensive stuff first, but since there are a few paintings to do, I’m just doing those all at once, and there are at least four of those–three small ones and the big one.

Here are the state those are in as of now:

This one is called Gimmel Machine, 14 x 11 inches, oil and paper patterns on raw linen. It will have Dan in it:

This one is yet-to-be-titled, oil on gessoboard, 12 x 9 inches.

Here’s the big one. Not much has been done on it as of now. It’s oil and paper on canvas, 48 x 48 inches (still no title, but a few ideas):

Then, I have a kind of experiment? It’s a small 12 x 12-inch oil on birch wood I’m titling King of My Country:

I don’t know whether it’s “done” or if I’m even using it. I’m not even sure what I was thinking here. I wanted it to go with another painting that’s a self-portrait, but whenever I finish any painting, I never feel sure or good about it right away. I need some time afterward for it to grow on me.