New Beginnings

It has been so long since I have written.  I miss it like a dear friend, anxiously waiting for a quiet moment to catch up and melt the time away.

Life - and art – has been turned upside down in the past few months.  Or perhaps it is right-side up, as it is just as I would have pictured it, had I more imagination.  We are settled into our new house, and I’ve set up a temporary studio.  I hope to break ground on the new barn studio by fall, as the financial, technical, and visual aspects fall into place.  Having a space to work in the interim is affording me the time to carefully plan and reflect.

In the meantime, Alan & I are enjoying our new surroundings.  It has been a hard winter, but there is nothing quite as wonderful as the first warm breeze, or watching the fields slowly melt into green.  We have been greeted by flocks of wild turkeys and pheasants, and song birds and snow geese.  And by our own little flocks, as we are now raising chicks and ducklings.  The chicks are full of spunk and personality, and the ducklings, well, they just may be the cutest things I’ve ever seen.  Above are Pit and Pat, the yellow Pekins, and Ami and Amour, the striped French Rouens.  Their brooder is just outside my studio, so I get to enjoy the sounds of playful peeps and splashing as I work.

 

Embracing Uncertainty

Creatively I am in an exciting, if somewhat intimidating, space.  I resolved this year to challenge myself more artistically.  Larger designs, more ambitious… I don’t yet know precisely what shape it will take.  I do know that when I feel uncertain I tend to plow back into to familiar ground.  But the pieces I’ve been most proud of, those that have been the most worthwhile, are the ones that have pushed me out of my comfort zone.

I’ve been lucky recently to receive several large-scale commissions that will push me to stretch myself artistically, including a wall-sized multi-layered map of Cuyahoga County.  This plus a large Great Lakes map will become part of a collection of artwork in the new Cuyahoga County Administration building, set to open in July.  This is an exciting project for the county, which will be consolidating 60+ properties and some 750 employees into a new headquarters.  The 8-story building will be silver LEED certified, and include a rooftop garden.

Due to their size and scope, these pieces will eat up much of my time for the next eight weeks, so I will be closing shop temporarily while I focus.  But I will be back in touch soon, with stories to tell and pictures to share :)
Until then, take care, and hug your loved ones~

Chris