I’ve been hanging out in Michigan for the month of January. I’ve been looking forward to this month-long retreat forever, it seems. In August, we bought a home overlooking Paw Paw Lake in SW Michigan. The town of Watervliet is a short drive from Benton Harbor and Lake Michigan. My only stated goal, this month, was to watch the lake freeze. Don’t know if it will, but I’m having a great time watching the birds and the lake. Here is a picture from earlier this month. It’s the view out of my window, where we have a living room/dining room/studio(don’t let my DH see that last description!)
Today brings snow flurries and a large area of white ?slush on the lake. I’ve been mostly indulging myself, sleeping and eating and working whenever I choose. Also exploring and taking pictures. I’ve been journaling and looking for a calm center to begin working from. Just today, the inspiration seems to finally coming.
I was interested to see on the quiltart list June Underwood’s description of a long series of work with the focus of a particular landscape. I also watched a PBS documentary on Cezanne and how he focused on the landscape of Provance. Enviously, I searched my mind for a focus that I could use to work on-and realized that I already have a focus, it’s just not the same. I have been working with circles and shrines since the tsunami two years ago, and realize that these are really my focus. I can build on my own personal imagery rather than feeling like I need to choose something concrete like landscape. Perhaps it is more difficult to measure success of work when it does not have a concrete beginning, or a recognizable framework. But I’m feeling really buzzed now that I have settled on this realization. So it’s off on a long series for me. I’m already feeling like I need to get back to Indy and my printing press and do some serious printing on fabric-to create the fiber pieces that are beginning to dance in my head. This is good!