Stephanie with the Unicorn

This was when I was working on revising the unicorn. I am not happy here, if I remember correctly with the folds of the dress on the bodice.

Stephanie

For the past several years, my twin nieces have served as my inspiration and muses  for a series of work entitled: “Duality”. Here, the  concepts I explored included transitions and innocence. In my own way I documented their journey from girlhood to young adulthood while focusing on the female archetype. An intentional dualism emerged. At times this duality formed contradictions or situations that were paradoxical in nature. 

The twins have a younger sister, Stephanie, whom I have never used in my work. At this juncture in her life and mine, I felt that she, at the age of fourteen should be included in the fold. And yet, I was uncertain of how to forge two into three and also evolve the duality concept. 

 I happened upon a gallery guide that I had collected while visiting Rome many years ago,  and paused for several minutes at a portrait of Raphael’s “Lady with a Unicorn”. Raphael’s ‘Lady’ depicts a mysterious portrait of a young woman with a unicorn in her lap. I  felt like Stephanie could be her, and, in a way, I felt that she could be me at the same time. 

A good friend of mine told me that she felt the portrait was a feminine archetype of ‘Divine Mother Essence’. I mentioned to my friend that the piece had been an extreme challenge, especially considering that I had become a mother for the second time within the last ten months. This friend asked how I had been able to work on something this time intensive. I told her that in addition to working extremely hard, I had been asking for guidance, and had been using stones as meditation tools before I worked. I went on to tell her that I had been drawn to a particular rock called bloodstone, which is fabled to have been the stone that was below Christ when he died. According to legend, his blood stained the green stones with permanent drops of red. Though, I was not sure why this stone was important to the painting. 

My friend and I consulted a reference book of symbols at her home,where we read that the unicorn is an emblem of the sword or the word of God. Christ is represented by this animal, and his invincible strength by its horn.  Additionally, according to legend the unicorn is tireless when pursued yet falls meekly to the ground when approached by a virgin, thus the animal represents purity and virtue.

Furthermore, after researching more on symbolism, I found the answer to my dilemma concerning how the concepts in my work will unfold. The emergence of a third component to a dualism reconciles any antithesis or opposed principles into synthesis. 

In the case of my appropriated portrait of Stephanie she portrays a new unity represented by the quintessential mother who holds in her hand the secret to a greater harmony in the world. 

 These are pics of the studio finished with a still life in the middle of the studio and paintings of two students who have started working in the studio with me. My yoga instructor has given me her class that she was teaching in her yoga studio. So far, it is a small group, but I was so happy at that time to just be IN THE STUDIO at all, and that it was completed.... as I am back-logging. 

Alex's Table

This is a picture of the studio newly and finally finished with the table that Alex built with some samples of different types of techniques for under-painting on the table. Since this time, I got a stain on the table, and have sanded it down, and now we have to add several layers of linseed oil to make it look this way again. It is still beautiful. I suppose everything is always in a constant state of 'do' and 're-do'. 

"Sand, Sand, Sand, Stain, Vacuum, Stain, ... Repeat."

We had intended to go camping this weekend, and as it turns out, both Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be rainy and cold. I think that I just wanted to get away from working on the garage. For the past two weeks, I've been concentrating my efforts on the stairs up to the studio. The estimate we got from our contractor was too high, and this would be one of those projects that you think you could do in a week at best and it turns out to be a month long pain in the ***.

Staining is very gratifying, and yet hard to do when you lay a coat of wood conditioner on the steps and then your baby starts screaming in his *exer-saucer* because he doesn't like it when you start staining steps. Sanding however, is a different story- it takes FOREVER, and you can't really tell if you are doing a good job until your stain goes on and you see the scratch marks from the orbital sander.

I have different areas in different levels of completion- with the banister of poplar being the first to get done. I am working my way down three steps at a time. Since my time work is done in short increments, I did the first three steps with one coat of red mahogany and then had to stop with the rest of the steps wood conditioned. I started the following day with conditioning the remaining steps again with the conditioner, then staining with the red mahogany and they just didn't look as nice as the first three so blast it!

Right now I am waiting for the next three steps to hopefully take on more stain so they look like the first three, so I am letting the stain sit on for an additional 15 minutes. The moment of truth is in a few minutes. I am planning on layering two coats of red mahogany with a final coat of a mix of dark walnut and jacobean. The banister already has those three coats and it looks pretty good. Then I have to apply a final few coats of poly-urethane.

AFTER all of this, I need to prime and paint the risers, and the side boards, sand the quarter round up in the studio against the baseboard, touch those up, and lay the floor on the landing of the stairs.

Will. This. Ever. End.

"Oh Organization, How I Have Missed You."

Things that make me happy: organization, giving junk away, biking, the hub, the kids, outdoor bar-b-Q's, cooking, ponds, nature, etc. But, what really makes me happy is to see junk off the floor and organized in my garage. I can now get the Bob Stroller out without ramming it into paint cans and buckets. Alex installed two sets of shelves in the garage, and our bikes are up on pulleys (for me) or hooks (for him). While this organizing takes away from working in the studio or on the studio, using the stroller and exercising is part of my everyday life. I can't tell you how happy I was when I labeled the bins and put everything in its respective place.

We still have many boxes and things at Oma's and I have to say that after managing with the amount of things we have now, I am wondering how much we need the junk over at her place. I'm a little scared of everything we have over there. I truly need to re-assess if we need everything that we packed up last fall. The garage with all of our summer things and lawn equipment as is feels neat and tidy, and I love how our bike gear is finally in a spot next to our bikes rather than on our landing blocking the way to the basement.

Where Is This Going...?

And by 'this' I mean my life. It's been a solid four months of family and baby and kids here in Klemptown. While the kids are beautiful and everything- I'm kind of wondering where is the 'me' in between the laundry and the feedings and the general home managing. On top of the monotony of the everyday, I feel everything is half done and there seems to never be this overwhelming feeling of accomplishment- just pure exhaustion on many nights when my head finally hits the pillow.

Our garage is completed for the most part... I think- minus painting the outside. However, we are doing some of the interior finishing work ourselves, and that is what Alex and myself have been concentrating on since the establishment was essentially 'done'.

I decided to lay my own floor, as Alex really doesn't have the time, and I am able to do this myself. Any monkey could lay laminate floor, it just takes time and requires a lot of up-down work. Lots of time. I had to steal away for an hour here or there in between feeds for the past... month or so- it's all running together at this point. In addition to the floor, Alex is laying quarter-round at the bottom of the trim where it meets the floor and I am going to stain the stairs. Then, there is the moving in and organizing, also I need some shelves which I am considering building myself.

In addition to this we are concurrently organizing the lower area for all of our tools, garden what-not, strollers, etc. I feel it never ends, and I can never really get caught up.

And I don't know if any of my three followers noticed, but it's been a long time since I wrote in the blog. I'd like to keep it up again, and go back to it...I think I may be coming out of baby fog a little bit...just a little bit.

The studio in progress.

Happy New Year

This is our New Years photo which we sent out in place of the Christmas Card. I wanted to do the family pic- and with the baby being born right before Christmas, we opted for a New Years card which I think I finally sent out close to February. Some months are like that.

The pic was taken in the upper part of the garage- my studio which was in the 'just dry-walled' stage.