uglies

"all art has an ugly stage...keep going!" I seem to say this more and more and more, to my classes, to myself...it seems to apply to most everything going on around me of late. Relationships, cleaning projects, artwork, christmas baking...there's no point in stopping and bemoaning the ugliness...just KEEP GOING! step aside, if you must to catch your breath and gather your courage, but get back in there and work some more.
Recently I joined a roller derby league and learning the moves and failing, is ugly, but necessary. Looking ridiculous is really an act of sheer bravery. As ugly as it is, to be too afraid to attempt something out of fear of looking silly, is so much uglier in the long run. It'll interfere with your future in ways unseen, shrink your world and make appearences more important than passion for life...not pretty.
These little monsters are on their way now, their initial layer of skin is in place and they sit, brave and ugly. Exposed to the world in their raw forms. The process is rewarding, the wire cuts my fingers and make me bleed, then the glue and paper form a tough to remove film all over my arms and hands....then the sanding and the paint...it's messy messy, messy. like life itself, I love it. naked mermaid

tree goddess....looking rather ghoulish

all of them together make for a frightening montage.... ~shivers~

tree peeps in progress

Working on a collection of tree spirits, these are the raw wire forms, awaiting their paper skins and paint. They will all be featured in an upcoming show in Lakewood. I am having so much fun playing with wire again, spent a good two months teaching wire art, the forms, paper clay, painting...and didn't complete a single piece of my own! Have a few partially done, for examples and teaching purposes, but no desire to finish. ugh. normally I have something in the works and sketches and plans in my head, but it's been a numbingly difficult autumn.
Then one night while enjoying christmas specials, I pulled out some paddle wire and started twisting....this is the result......
there are a couple mermaids, a few little bug like ladies, plus the lovely reverent tree spirits. ( well, lovely in my mind at least, once they are properly dressed and displayed in their diaromas, you'll see what I mean)

At least this is a nice switch up from my sad poetry of late!

peaking under the rock

rock bottom
it's cold
and suffocating.
thoughts
can't escape.
feelings
larger than life.
the truth
harsh.

lost my grip.
forgot
why i ever held on.
let go.