can’t stop. won’t stop.

i’m in a rut. a color organizing rut. it’s just so damn satisfying. my studio is overflowing with bits and pieces at the moment. my desk top is full, the floors are full. matter of fact, every horizontal surface if full. i am running out of space to work. it’s time to make a big sweep and send it all back out into the woods where i found it. but, every time i start, i get distracted by the colors. i am choosing to take it as a sign to follow my creative instincts. rather than the more obvious sign that i am simply procrastinating. sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.

copper colored bits of found nature

hold on…it’s too early for holiday photos

i swear i am not jumping the gun on holiday photos. i am big believer in one season at a time. in it’s time. but both these twigs, locust and sumac, have been featured on STIL in the last week or two, and were then left neglected in the corner of my studio waiting to be returned to the woods. today they caught my eye–both having dried in similar yet strikingly different ways. both curling in on themselves–but one along the longitudinal and the other along the lateral. it makes me wonder why? it may be as simple as the relative stiffness or flexibility of the midrib. or maybe it has something to do with the structure of the veins? or maybe it depends on the differences between surface tensions in the upper and lower surfaces of the leaves? see? it makes one wonder.

dried locust leaves and sumac leaves

color blocking

when i sat to make the collage i posted yesterday, i first started by sorting all the bits on my desk top into color piles. it’s pleasant work and satisfies something primal. i can image a similar exercise being used for therapy of some kind. my blood pressure dropped. my mind wandered. and i was in deep play. color blocking in fashion and design may go in and out of style. but as therapeutic play, it is timeless.

bits and pieces from a naturalist’s desk

turning a new leaf

on august 31st, i finished up a major five month renovation of the home next door to my own. because of the state of disrepair the house was in, the project became significantly more involved than we had planned for. long story short–it became all consuming. on september 1st, i handed over the keys to the new renters. so yesterday was literally the first day in five months that i woke up with nothing on my calendar and no mental punch list of problems to solve. i celebrated by going into my studio with no agenda other than to play. what a wonderful feeling that was!  this singular creation, a collage really, was a collaboration between me and my bestie kristin, who had come over to help me celebrate. i love it for itself–for its balance, color, and whimsy. but i love it even more for the freedom it represents.

composition of found nature bits

82 times

our driveway is 1/4 mile long through a dense canopy of mixed hardwood trees. after a heavy rain, i will often have to stop several times up the driveway to pick up downed dead limbs and toss them into the woods. last night we had rain. this morning the usual suspects were again littering my driveway. but today, for the first time, i was struck by their colorful variety. sometimes i feel like a toddler who has to be introduced to broccoli 82 times before declaring it not only edible but maybe possibly desirable.  so, after 82 times of tossing downed limbs into the woods, today i finally declared them maybe possibly beautiful.

collection of lichen and fungus covered twigs