Change – sometimes it takes looking back, to see where we have come…

As many of you know, dear followers and collectors, in the past three, years I have changed my art medium. I'm still creating the figure, but instead of the plethora of materials that I used before, I have simplified. No more: buttons, zippers, CD's, broken mirror pieces, seed pods, rusty metal, bottle caps, shredded money, rocks, keys, broken jewelry, beads, safety pins, nails, jingle bells, puzzle pieces, on and on… (you can see some examples on my website) Over the last 25 years I was recipient of the the broken and curious STUFF that we all somehow accumulate and then don't want. I saw possibilities and would use them on the sewn fabric body of my figures, becoming a metaphor for our human condition, the things we carry, or just kind of fun! As I age, I crave simplicity. Perhaps too, in response to our increasingly complicated lives. Now, I create with just clay, paint and sticks. In the meantime, my studio and attic still held all of that stuff — bags and boxes and bins— until, this last month — when I went through and cleared and sorted. I donated boxes of these "raw materials" to ArtScraps in St. Paul — a creative resource for workshops and artist materials. Fur coats (that I had once used for hair) I donated to Cuddle coats, where they will be used to comfort injured wild animals. The attic also held some pieces from the past, stashed away because they didn't work. Now, with some changes, they now have a new life. So all of this clearing out has freed up energy and space in my studio and in my psyche. There is a gentle sadness too, in this letting go, saying goodbye to this part of my creative life.