The art of avoidance

I am avoiding housework, putting it off till the last minute, as always. I was browsingthrough pictures to share of here, where I currently live and I found this. The best gold work I have ever done I think. I just thought I would share it.
I never heard if the person who got this scroll liked it or not. A common enough thing in the SCA. People seem to forget to say thank you a lot. It was a rewarding piece to do and one of my "well let's see if I can"... It took a very longtime and a lot of gold leaf to really cover the gesso and shine up like a mirror. If I recall rightly I used the gum arabic based gesso I tend to like, the paints are gouache and aquarelle. The ink will be an oak iron ink. I liked the intricacy of the tiny squares. they annoyed the crap out of me while giving me a real satisfaction I rarely feel when I do scrolls. The art of medieval style illumination and calligraphy is challenging for me because it requires patience and stillness which I don't tend towards. I like to get stuff done and be done with it. Once it is done, that's it, either I give it away or it collects dust someplace. Which is probably part of the reason I tend not to mind donating so much of my time and materials to a volunteer project. As long as it remains fun and is interesting I will continue, the moment I feel taken for granted or it becomes a 'job' then I will probably move on to something else. ( I have many boxes full of computer bits waiting to be transformed into art in the cellar)

The current projects I have on my to do list are pretty intense, large pieces requiring some research and a lot of work. I am looking forward to two in particular. It is a good job my studio is a fabulous place to work because I am going to be stuck in there for a while!!!!




This is where I live. Okay, so it's a bit of the view from the balcony. You are looking atthevalley which is Agno towards Lugano. The airport is in this direction so the small planes fly past the house all thetime. I find that comforting. I like the sounds of smaller planes, turbo props and single engine planes. I grew up with these sounds so they are familiar to me.
What is new about living in the foothills of the Alps is the way the season scome and go. Spring goes UP the mountains and autumn comes DOWN. Rightnow the green ness of spring is scramblingupwards are a very swift pace. It is kinda cool to watch.
Today is very hazy. You cannot see the hills across teh valley or the mountains in the other direction. every thing is shrouded in this haze. The wind carries a nip to it, can smell snow on it even though there isn't any snow any more. When the wind comes from the south I can sometimes smell the sea on it and that stirs up all manner of restless ghosts.

The garden is greening in a major way, the parsely is sweet and edible, the basil is growing for a nice change and the lavender is budding along with the established roses. I am hopeful that by the time my inlaws arrive the Westerland and gräfin roses will be in bloom. That would be oh so cool.

Tonight we are having a BBQ with M's workmates, so the house will be full which explains why I am avoiding housework... grrr arrrgg. House cleaning is a ness evil. I tend to it go until it gets annoying. More important things in life than a spotless house. Like whileing away time blogging, hey how about that!

anyway, enough blog-babble...

until later - be excellent to each other!