I Did A Thing, vol. 30: Isolation Creation

I hope this week and new post find you well. I feel like I am stuck in some kind of bizarre Groundhog Day scenario, but the calendar assures me that it’s mid-April. The snow on the ground outside belies that fact but – ahh – springtime in Edmonton is always a confusing time. But let’s talk about something fun instead. One of the main reasons I still have (most of) my wits about me these days is my art. I will never not feel pretentious saying “my art” but I am trying to be better about not trivializing what I make (and its importance to my well-being) simply because it’s not Art-with-a-capital-A; yarn art, in particular, doesn’t get nearly enough respect, in large part I suspect because it’s not something that old white dudes are likely to make. Anywaaaaay. My art.

More so than ever before, I have poured all my spare time into making things. Keeping my hands busy is a huge stress release for me, and being “in the flow” – whether through painting or crafting – is an escape. I am also hoping that some of it will rub off on my kids, i.e. having them see me engaged in creative pursuits (as opposed to glued to my phone for news updates) will make them more likely to do the same. So far, it seems to be working moderately well. Colouring books, paint-by-sticker books, homemade comic books, and playdoh seem to be the front-running favourites. But I digress. Here’s what I’ve been working on.

Faces of the Zodiac series

I’ve talked about this before, but I have only added one more painting to this series: Sagittarius.

I know I say this about all of them, but this might just be my favourite. I am very pleased with how it turned out. I love the shadows on her face, and her eyes in particular. She looks especially nice in chiaroscuro:

That being said, I felt my creative intuition pulling me in a different direction. Enter …

Major Arcana series

I have been wanting to work more with colour again (one of the reasons I went back to embroidery as well, see below) which is probably a psychological response to stress. Colour lifts up my spirits. I started a couple of pieces thinking I would be doing some kind of landscape or abstract picture, and then somehow went off on a wild tangent. I mean, I went from this:

To this:

I haven’t done any decoupage in YEARS. Since the late 2000s, probably, because even then I was a luddite who didn’t understand Pinterest and still made “mood board” notebooks like it was still 1995. Anyway, I liked the “organized chaos” vibe of throwing random fashion magazine cut-outs at an acrylic painting so I went all in. Decided this was perfect for a project I had been wanting to do for a while – a series inspired by the Major Arcana of tarot. The above piece is The Fool.

And this is The High Priestess, one of my favourite cards:

And here is The World:

If anyone is interested in how I make these, let me know and I’ll throw up a quick post.

Embroidery Stuff

As I mentioned above, I have also gone back to embroidery in a major way. Here, too, I wanted to stick with colourful, somewhat abstract designs as well as some of my favourite motifs. Such as my abstract floral doodles:

Inspired by that, I did a series of hoops:

This is the kind of thing that makes me so happy just looking at it.

This had an unexpected “under the sea” vibe – very Ursula the sea witch.

This one ended up reminded me a bit of Klimt’s flowers.

I also went back to another favourite motif: the evil eye.

With rainbows, of course.

Stay safe, friends. Till next time!