Pseudo-tapestry!!

A very (very!) busy week in Artlandia!  

Drumroll...

Pseudo-tapestry!! "Lust," 67 x 48" (with yardstick at left for scale). 

Detail

Noooooo!

 It was very exciting to see it all photo-ready! It was quite a roller coaster getting there...

Early in the week, after working toward this piece for more than 2 years, I opened the door to the (one and only kitty-free) room it was in to photograph it and...three little kitties all ran out.  (I am still not sure how they got in, and they can't have been in there very long).  I closed the door behind them, turned around and...Noooooo!  There was a big hole (and some tiny holes).  Yes.  I cried. 

Not least because I'd been pushing to finish it and was photographing it for a major fellowship application, due in 3 days.  I did what any mature, responsible artist would do...I called my parents and cried.  Then I went and had an adult beverage with a friend. After taking a pause and listening to some excellent live music with a very kind and sympathetic friend, I came home, had a cup of coffee, and spent all night repairing the damage.  Once upon a time, a much younger me had really wanted to be an art conservator and worked as an art conservation technician, never have I been to grateful for that experience, as I was while I repaired and in-painted the background. 

After about 2 hours of sleep, I got up (the Wonderpup poop schedule yields to no one ;) ), and then I remembered that I still needed to finish editing my project statement, photograph the (now repaired) artwork, upload my portfolio, and ask for a letter of recommendation (which is due a week later than my portion of the application, and which I had been on my way to doing, but then put off, in the aftermath of Kittygate when I was unsure whether or not I would be able to repair the piece and apply.)  After caring for all the creatures, I went straight to the library and I'm happy to say - application submitted.  (Fingers crossed!!)

after repair

I decided to add one of my favorite bug blocks on top.

 I also put up and photographed this in process piece which has been on hold while I've been working on the pseudo-tapestry.  Since I only have one large wall in the kitty-free room, it had to go up in the other studio. Even though my feline assistants had never before really damaged anything on the wall (I think the chain on the pseduo-tapestry was too tempting and they tore the paper leaping for it.), after Kittygate I put a piece of cardboard over it when I'm not working on it and will need to think about future strategies for kitty-proofing.

As we can see, I had both canine and feline
assistance photographing this one - the camera
didn't know where to auto-focus with so much to look at, haha. That black poof is Max's tail, which has become fabulously fluffy. 

 Over the weekend, after the application was in, I started carving the torso of the new full scale figure. Momiji is an excellent assistant with block carving.

Mo, holding Honey's tail like a blanket.

A quick kitty story - Mo just had his 6 month birthday and received his grown-up collar.  I like for each kitty to have their own color (and bell sound), so I gave him a blue collar to correspond with his kitten collar...but within 24 hours it had gone missing. I put the back up collar - red with a red bell on him while I looked for the missing one. I haven't found it yet, but decided that he looks very dapper in double red. Max is a little younger and hasn't yet outgrown his kitten collar, but I'm thinking that when the time comes for his grown up collar, it may be safety orange with a reflector strip. 

I also cleaned and organized the press room and de-fluffed the cover that keeps the press and press blankets kitty-fur free.  Mini was not happy about this at first, but then she forgave me when she realized that it wasn't going anywhere and she'd get to re-fluff it.









I always try to make sure to give equal attention to all my creatures, but it's gotten harder to include them all on the blog each week now that we are 5.  However, one thing I especially enjoy is how, recently, they've all started to come greet me en masse when I walk in the door, and I managed to get a picture that includes all 5 of us in a single frame (or at least fragments haha.)

I think she looks like a Romantic-era hero here.
- looking off into the distance.

Honey and I also went on an outdoor adventure this week and visited our favorite tree.