Deadlines and holidays and medical stuff and family,  oh my.  The chaos is my comfort zone. I even added a few nonessential projects along the way - to distract me?!   

But none of this feels like stress.

I love this part of the storyline.   This unknowing.     How it is all going to come together? 

None of my business.  

My job is to simply show up and do what I can where I am at the moment with what I have in front of me. And somehow that is always enough.  

Homeless Jesus has a home for the next few weeks ( he has to be home before his birthday...) but for now, he is living in my studio!    This is such an honor, working on this sculpture is simply amazing.  ​

I am working on multiple sculptures of my own, under strict deadlines, but this additional project is SO worth it.

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Have you heard of the Homeless Jesus sculpture by Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz?  The bronze sculpture by Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz depicts Jesus, identifiable by the wounds on his feet, sleeping on a street bench wrapped in a blanket.
There are replicas located in prominent urban locations, such as Buenos Aires, Capernaum, New York, Madrid,  Melbourne, Rome and Singapore, Homeless Jesus now dots the globe. There are six replicas in Canada alone.

Thanks to an interesting series of events - I was asked to restore the Homeless Jesus sculpture that is currently located in Bay Village, Ohio. This particular sculpture made national headlines this year after someone made a 911 call about a homeless man on a bench. 



​  20 minutes after a replica of the sculpture was installed at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Bay Village, Ohio, a community member called the emergency department, mistaking it for a person in need. Saturday Night Live lampooned this story in a skit on their Oct. 17 show.

It really is a thought provoking piece. I knew what it looked like from images on the computer, but when I walked up to it in person - it is powerful. 

​"The statue has been described as a "visual translation" of the Gospel of Matthew passage in which Jesus tells his disciples, "as you did it to one of the least of my brothers, you did it to me".[2] Schmalz intended for the bronze sculpture to be provocative, admitting, "That's essentially what the sculpture is there to do. It's meant to challenge people."

This particular piece has been roughed up a bit and needs touched up ....so 
JESUS IS COMING to my studio!!! 
  (the resin Jesus, not the risen Jesus)   He'll be hanging out in the warm space getting all pampered and then he'll be picked up and delivered back in time for his birthday.  (translation, I have him until December 22) 


This is a surprising extra project to tackle on an already busy month, but how could I not?!?!


   
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We have a fixer upper on our hands! 

Found this amazing dollhouse / kitchenette (literally found, as in on the side of the road on trash day)  Drove by it and couldn't stop thinking of the possibilities, so I turned around and went all the way back and popped it in my car!

Happy I saw the dollhouse side first, if I had only seen the kitchenette side, I wouldn't have given it a second thought.  But now that it's mine, I am thinking of all kinds of ways to alter it.  So many ideas...

Mainly though, I am REALLY looking forward to transforming the dollhouse into something more suitable for my style. I'm thinking there will be a nice library, coffee bar, well stocked workshop, patio garden....all the essentials.

For now though, we are 1 day accident free.  (I made the sign, that's all the time I had to devote to it, haha)  but, no injuries. worth noting. 

My new logo does not feature robots, or dolls, upcycling, or tools or anything else I am known for....
instead I chose a heartbeat. 

Why?  

Symbolically, I am fueled by making and couldn't stop if I tried. 
And my pieces just seem to build themselves, I lose track of the "how" somewhere between the initial idea and the finished piece. They have a life of their own. 

But more literally - I am amazed my heart is still beating - to me, that is the magic.

This time 4 years ago, I was in the scary middle of another ICU stay after my heartbeat came to a screeching halt.  

I have made it an obsession to rebuild my heart - deliberately and without any distraction. I started trail running - slowly, in all weather, lift weights, eat insanely clean - zero sugar for months on end, no diet anything, vitamins.....gallons of water, and SLEEP.   No medications.  

I've lost some weight, which is great, but I'm more excited for the improvements in my heart rate. I have a pulse and my blood pressure registers. That's amazing, magical.

So, for all that (and more,  that'll be left unsaid) the heartbeat is my symbol of choice. 

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About this time every year - for the past, ahem, 20+ years, September  meant new glue sticks, sharp new scissors, boxes of sharp new crayons, vibrant markers and loads and loads of paper - notebooks, new packs of cardstock, white paper, manila paper, all the paper.....

I have always taught art and even though I am not doing that this year, that did not sway me from the school supply aisles!   I am hooked for life. Kids art supplies just pull me in.  

It is odd not having new projects to plan - but I am not complaining, because now I can really focus on what I love to make, and right now that is robots. So I planned a "collage theme" for myself and just started recreating what I make in the studio with wood and nails with paper and glue. 

Having a lot of fun too!   Prints are slowly being uploaded onto my Etsy shop and soon to be here on my website for sale as well.  They are sharing a lot of their magical knowledge. Hope you like them! 

Of course Shake it Out was the first Florence and the Machine song that captured my attention, it is not my all time favorite - but, like all her songs - the lyrics grab me and take me deep within.  Few artists can do that consistently.  I couldn't help but think of these lyrics when making my hearts. - I have several sizes that I'll post soon...  

Anatomical hearts keep showing up in my work - I've done them as paintings, collages, textile art and now these clay pieces.  It's personal. I have a bit of a heart problem - it actually crawled to an almost stop a few years ago, while I was driving on the freeway around this time of year ... (and then, not driving at all) 
   The road back was not fun - but I am actually trail running daily now and make it a point to "talk" to my heart while doing it - little pep talks and encouragement and lots of Florence and the Machine songs to keep it pumping correctly.