Refraction. Oil on panel.

Some oil works. I've been doing the underpaintings in red.

Float. Oil on panel.

Hey, do you think you could return my child to me?
Not as a baby girl not
as a butterfly not
as a monster, but a young human
safe
and
healthy
A person in the world
Do you think you could bring him
back to the time when I left him here
Maybe I had asked for something then?
I don’t remember what it could have been.
Did I trade him for something?
Did you take him against my will?
Can you bring him back against his?

Or that 12 year-old, that child on the precipice of self-knowing
The birds sing like he’s still here, but I know he’s not
Golden underworld Eden
Ropes and vines and humming life
If I accidentally left him here, could you please give him back?

What if that 12 year-old is stuck here in the same way that maybe I’m actually standing in front of the bathroom mirror tripping on Salvia divinorum
Dreaming this alternate life
And here he is
Stepping out of the woods, returning to my arms
back to my car back to his body
Embracing

Downpour (Prairie State Park), Watercolor

Continuity, Acrylic on Canvas

Milkweed with Aphids, Watercolor

Wide Open (Prairie State Park), Watercolor

A few different iterations of the prairie. I've been forced into looser painting by both the demands of my body and the demands of my psyche.

Levels, watercolor.

 

 

My contributions in the 2027 We'Moon, Over the Moon.

Cyanotypes on fabric.

Quartz crystals and string.

White Vervain, Honeysuckle, and Gayfeather

Honeysuckle

Sawtooth Sunflower and Goldenrod

Goldenrod

Black-eyed Susans

Winged Sumac

Beaked Panicum

Foxtails

Foxtails, Daisy Fleabane, Goldenrods

Woolly Croton and Goldenrods

Sericea (invasive in Missouri)

An underexposed test strip made in indirect sunlight. I love how ghostly it turned out.

I also used the same transparencies to make wet cyanotypes, embellished with gold ink.

I've had plenty of adventures this summer, so nothing but gratitude here, but I miss the ocean bad. It's been 385 days since my last pilgrimage.

I learned how to construct a garment on a sewing machine this week at KCAI! It was pleasantly challenging, and I felt like I was in a state of flow all week. Learning this process gave me an even greater respect for the people who make and design our clothing  - there's a lot that goes into it... not to mention the undervalued gendered aspect of clothing production, both historically and present-day. I keep thinking of the people (especially women) in countries where clothing is constructed who aren't being compensated as well as they should be for this form of skilled labor. 

Piecing everything together... I used the free motion foot to "draw" with the sewing machine.

Pinning things on/trying out compositions

My finished piece, from the back

The garments made by our class

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

The Bloch building at the Nelson

I found a book to read while taking a coffee break