Bats In My Belfry

A friend has saved me from a long creative slump. The last couple of months have been filled with busyness that has not included artistic efforts on my part, or work on this blog for that matter. Much travel, absence of routine, family health issues, and a loss of interest in doing anything in the way of quilting or book arts had left me feeling like I needed to take up something else like....well, I couldn't think of anything. Anyway, my friend suggested we work together on small weekly Art Adventures; we decided to meet over breakfast to figure out how we might make this work. We ended up at Luke's Joint, a new restaurant on the Arcata Plaza, and a serendipitous choice as the walls were covered with local art and the food itself was a work of art.

Not only that, the waiter was very interested in what we were doing, asked me about the book earrings I made (giving me the incentive to get my website back up again—I "forgot" to pay the hosting fees) and suggested we think about a little show at Luke's Joint for some future Arts Arcata. We determined that we wanted to work on small pieces (5" x 7") that involve multiple layers, eventually trying collaborative pieces where one person does a layer and hands it on to the other who adds another layer and hands it back....This is a technique we learned from the wonderfully creative book artist, Julie Chen.
However, I still had to go to the studio and face the blank page. The first thing that came to mind were the bats we found hanging from screens when we arrived at our cabin in Nebraska for our annual Fall stay. 

I was fascinated by these little creatures and read everything I could about them while in Nebraska. I ended up collecting interesting words from articles describing their life cycles. Using words that sounded good when read aloud I created the text for my 5"x7" artwork then used acrylic inks for the washes and black Gesso for the handcut stencils. So, my little bats help me fly out of the dark into a more creative light! What next?