The Book of Cities

So we went for a little 3-day trip out into the country, where the smoke haze made atmospheric effects of a most excellent quality.  Very inspiring for plein-air work.  Except that, after making one hundred plein air landscape paintings over 4 years, I seem to be no longer excited about it... 

Therefore, while my husband went out painting in the lovely haze, I made some collages in a 9x12 sketchbook:

(and one long thin piece of bristol board)

It was like a little mini artist residency and kind of funny: creating urban imagery in a beautiful but somewhat broken-down house in a tiny rural community, surrounded by beautiful rural landscapes which I no longer have any desire to paint *laughs*

And, returning to our home in the city, I continue along:

I begin very simply:

And try to stop before things get too busy:

... with greater or lesser success.

And so another obsession takes hold.  There's something really satisfying about working in a small sketchbook, all the pages the same size, a peaceful fluidity in the repetitious collage process.

It's interesting, I feel a lot of my work over the last couple of years has been very "serious", or has come from a very serious place in myself.  While it is in my nature to seek out and focus on things that bring some form of joy, sometimes that focus requires more effort than at other times.

And then as if out of nowhere come these collages, so playful and un-serious!  I believe this is how I see the city: it is a playground for the senses.

In the meantime, pinned to my studio wall are 24 small canvases, painted and stitched and waiting for the 12x12 stretchers which should arrive any day now... and in fact I'm feeling excited about those, too.

Multiplicities.  I suppose that's the way it is.