See my new migration series at International Sculpture Day(s) event in Healdsburg!I’ve been invited to participate in this event at stone sculptor T Barney Gallery and Sculpture Garden the last weekend in April! April 27 & 28, Saturday and Sunday, 11am – 4pm at 4370 Pine Flat RD in Healdsburg, CA.
Eleven sculptors working in different media, to celebrate International Sculpture Day(s). The drive is beautiful, the location and gardens are spectacular, and I’ll be showcasing my sculptural work (including my new migration series!) and my shrines. Food, wine, and make-your-own-sculpture activity!
I’ve been working on my migration series with my animal artifacts and driftwood, and I LOVE them! Horses, bears, and fish. Now an otter migration is in the works, too.
You can help me spread the the word by sharing this post with people you think might be interested, and I will be eternally grateful if you do!
Otters!
I’ll also have shrines, large and small, on display.
Shrine Series: Yellow Horse ClanI need more driftwood!Sooooo many boxes…put to work!
Here’s an entwined set of stories that gave me a flash of insight today.
As anyone who’s visited my studios over the years knows, I have a lot of stuff. A LOT of stuff. I have supplies for every contingency, every project, every medium I work in: Fiber, jewelry, assemblages, print-making, etc.
Because I’m afraid to use up the ones I love the most.
I’m afraid I’ll use them up, and the work will be mediocre. (Yup, I have Imposter Syndrome!)
I’m afraid I’ll never find more.
And yet, I’m getting pickier about buying new….er…new OLD boxes. They’re a lot more expensive in California. An old cigar box can sell for $25-$50. (I thought $10 was too much in New Hampshire!)
So I found a stash of small wood boxes at a very reasonable price at one of my favorite antique stores this week. (It’s the ONLY non-grocery store I’ve shopped at since March.)
But I hesitated. They didn’t seem all that special, they were pretty small. So I passed. I was very proud of myself.
Then, two days later, I found the exact same box in my stash. It was nicer than I thought, and it really was a great deal. ($5!)
Turned out I’d pulled it out because it was the PERFECT size to pair up with another bunch of boxes, all the same size, I bought before we moved here, for a series I’ve been dreaming of for ages.
Finding another stash of the same boxes, in exactly the size I need…. Do you know how rare that is? I made a mad dash back to the antique store the next day.
And I couldn’t find them.
I searched the entire store. I carefully searched the two spots I was sure I’d seen them in. Nope.
I was so upset at myself! I started to stomp my way out of the store…. And then I thought, why not ask?
So I went up to the cashier’s desk, and asked if the dealer might have taken them home to switch up their display. It was a long shot, and I was embarrassed to even ask.
The cashier was new-ish, was trying to help. But another person who works there, who knows me said, “I know where they are!”
She led me back to a totally different booth, one I’d barely glanced in because it did not look at all like the one I was sure I’d seen them in.
And there they were!
I almost started crying, I was so happy. I snagged them all, and today I scrubbed them up in preparation for painting and waxing them.
As I worked, I looked at other boxes. I’ve been hoarding them for over six years now. Why was I stalling on that project??
Go back and read the part where I was talking about fear.
Every time I start to put together those shrines, I am flooded by self-doubt.
And it’s holding me back from making the work of my heart.
So I started writing in my blort book. These are the journals that should be burned when I die. They’re where I write when I’m angry, scared, frustrated, stumped. And they are also where I write my way back to my happier, kinder, more patient self, with others, and with myself.
The insight I got to today?
I am really good at remaking my work. In fact, it’s part of my process.
a big shaman necklace I updated with a ‘better’ horse.
Updated shaman necklace with more balanced blue horse.
People loved them when I made them. People say they still love them now.
I’ve only sold a few of my shrines and big necklaces, and fiber pieces. They cost more than my entry-level jewelry, of course. But that’s also normal for the work I do. It can take years, even decades, and suddenly, it sells. I’ve gotten used to it. I thought.
But sometimes, when I look at all the work in my studio, I get overwhelmed with how much work is there. Especially after a period where galleries close (the recession in 2008, the Covid-19 recession), and a lot of work is returned. And, of course, if the galleries carried the work for awhile, then it’s older work, too.
So reworking stuff is a habit. I like to take an older piece and remake it along the same lines, but updated: Longer necklaces, and more pearls and gemstones for a new line I’ve created. Horse artifacts with more detail, more 3-dimensional. (Older animals were flat-ish, which was fine until they weren’t.)
That was my “Aha!” moment.
I can make that new series.
I will do my best work.
And if I still have them years from now, and I see what could be better, well, I’ll remake them! Just like I always have.
I’m gonna make this happen!
So today I celebrate two little miracles. One, realizing that working in media that allows me to rework old designs. As I know better, I can do better. And two, acting on that weird impulse, to ask an odd question about little boxes, in front of the one person who knew exactly what I was talking about.
Okay, THREE miracles! Knowing that blorting will get me to a better place, even when I’m stuck in the same place for six years.
How do YOU work your way through roadblocks and self-doubt? I’d love to hear what works for YOU!
But it needed something. So I spent the day adding tiny bits of sanded and plished driftwood, and…an otter!
And this is the version after two updates, the last of which was YESTERDAY. Now it’s called Shrine Series: Bear Clan Shaman’s Song of the River
It’s not that the first version wasn’t good enough. Nor the second. I liked them both!
But sometimes, one of my pieces just keeps ‘growing.”
It’s also part of my story.
I started with a big quilt, then moved to baby quilts. Then quilts for my kids’ dolls and toy animals. Then they became wall pieces, then wall hangings, and now including framed fiber collages.
My aesthetic was always ‘time-worn’, influenced by Amish quilts (reusing/repurposing pieces of worn-out clothing for the quilt squares) and Japanest scroll paintings (which, when damaged by time, were carefully remounted on new silk backgrounds.) Then wabi sabi, the acceptance–and new beauty–to be found in the worn and broken. The knowledge that, in ancient times, every effort was made to repair, emake, reuse, repurpose whatever took a lot of effort to create.
So every time I remake/repair/add on something to an older piece, it’s actually part of my process and aesthetic.
It only stops when it goes to YOUR home.
Unless, of course, your rabbit nibbles the edges, or your dog breaks your necklace, or your cat knocks my sculpture off your piano. (All of these are true!)
And then I come to the rescue, again. Grateful that these re-do’s and repairs are inherent in all the work I do.
Happy to be able to restore your broken and damaged work, so they can continue to give you years of joy.
I’m almost finished putting my window display together for Keene’s Art Walk 2013.
I actually added another box soon after taking this picture. I’ll try to get another shot of the completed set-up later this morning.
I finished exactly on time yesterday–I gave myself until 3:30 yesterday, and I finished at 3:35. Whoo hoo!
I was worried, because two dear friends, Jenny and Roma, finally had time to meet for lunch Tuesday. Our joint schedules are crazy lately, and we don’t see each other often anymore. And because I was so behind in pulling this together, I considered skipping lunch with them.
At the last minute, I realized that the pattern in my life for projects is, they take up exactly as much time as I allot them. I decided to risk shaving a couple hours off my prep time in order to spend time with them.
If you’d overheard our conversation that day, you might have thought, “Women gritching again!” We took turns listening about where each of us were stuck. We try not to “fix” things for each other–that never works! But we listen, ask questions, and support each other.
At first, I felt even worse. It’s been a very bad week emotionally and spiritually for me. (By spiritual, I mean when I feel my true self feeling achy and lost, un-centered, unmoored and off-course, that goes deeper than “emotion”.)
And none of our “issues” were easily “fixed”. I felt better when we disbanded, but not for any reason than that I’d spent time with people I care about, and who care about me.
But today, after reading my inbox, I see that everybody feels better. In one case, talking about other possibilities encouraged someone to find out more. Turns out they don’t have to take action on their situation right away, maybe not for a long time. Whew! Something that’s blocked them can now be set aside.
The other person just feels better, and knows no matter what she chooses to do, she will have our support.
And it came to me why I love meeting with these women:
We are always talking about our future, and how we can work our way toward it in an artistic way, with love, with creativity, with integrity.
We are always talking about how to be our best, most evolved self, while still caring and including the people we love.
It occurs to me that there’s bitching, and there’s bitching. There’s the kind of bitching where you throw away everything you thought you cared about into a wastebasket, but a wastebasket that never gets emptied.
And then there’s the bitching where you look at your hopes and dreams, examining them closely with the art of possibility, sharing how to bring them fully into the world.
And putting them back into a precious box for safekeeping, to be taken out and cherished another day.
Luann Udell 