poodles and play

fluffy poodles.

that's what i have been thinking about.  and beetles, both the car and the crawly variety.

i don't know why this subject matter has come to me.  john and i used to have a "new couple" inside joke about a poodle when we were first dating.  so maybe that is the culprit.  there was a poster by lynda barry out at the time.  i got it for john as a gift, and we thought it was incredibly funny.  

so what is it about us artists that get something in our head that we want to use as a theme in our work? some artists look for meaning and deepness.  others, like me, are just drawn to something for reasons unknown to us or anyone else.  

yesterday i played around with linoleum blocks.  i carved one to get back into practice.  it was really fun, and really nice to play around.  no pressure.  it's been the first time in months that i was able to do something artistic without thinking of the end product.  

i was lucky enough to have my booth next to signe and genna grushovenko at the cherry creek arts festival.  i overheard signe telling a potential customer that their technique (which is drop dead beautiful) happened by accident.  and i guess that's what it's all about.  

get something in your head.  play with it.  get messy.  fail sometimes.  and create something new.

so there it is.  my plan for the next few days, or weeks, or months.  ok, maybe not months.  i may run out of poodle and beetle ideas by then.