March 1

The last time I was in my studio at Studio Place Arts (SPA) in Barre, I finished making six flying insects for the next exhibit at SPA, on Flight. They're hanging in the studio, waiting for their moment.

I figured some of them would come back to me at the end of the exhibit, and I could incorporate them into a big, wall-hung figure of an insect, so I had begun working on a head with a proboscis made of a funnel and wire, and eyes of beaten can lids.

So much of making art, at least for me, is trial and error. You think you've got a great idea, and then you start making it and it doesn't feel right. The wooden face was too flat, and the eyes too garish. So today I worked on another way of putting it together, and that may still not be what I need. I will put it aside and revisit it.

Now I wanted to make a piece, even a quick one, that wouldn't remain a work in progress, but could stand on its own (a little joke...). I had a bull's head I'd recently made, and was wandering around looking for what to use for the body and yes! An old record box that used to look like this:

but now looks like this, as of today! I often reuse and repurpose things many times over (I removed that figure awhile back). The only way to make that recycling stop is for someone to buy it and take it away!

 And finally, I'm working on a large wall piece of a mother holding a baby. I seem to make these habitually. This one was in a recent exhibit at J. Langdon in Montpelier, bought and taken away, so I can't deconstruct it any more:

and this is the one I'm working on now (with the insect eyes re-purposed as breasts) laid out on a table, with the legs leaning up against it. It's very much in progress, but I think it will come together.