Warning: Tornado of Words and Ideas Building!

I'm on my fifteenth (at least) version of the two line show description that I need to provide ASAP to the U of R for their press release for my upcoming exhibition. Ah, wordsmithing revisited. This reminds me why I don't write for a living any more -- EDITING AND REVISING!! It's not the words themselves that are causing this funnel cloud of activity, I can write copy pretty easily -- when it's not about me! I also feel a desire to distill what my work is about down to the most interesting, accurate explanation possible and I still feel tentative about defining that. So as I'm whirling like Dorothy's house around the center of the funnel, imagine that all these words and ideas are getting sucked right up and are swirling around with me. No wonder I want to invent a new language -- there are too many words to choose from in this one!

In case it won't become obvious soon enough, this is countdown month -- I hang my exhibit, now titled "Notations," at U of R's Art & Music Library Gallery on May 19th -- and I have MUCHOS work to do before that day on all fronts. So I am trying to be disciplined and write the definitive two sentence statement about this body of work, order a temporary sign for the gallery window, design and order postcards for invitations to the opening , update my resume and write a brand spankin' new artist statement to accompany the exhibition --and get it all done in the next few days. But here's the difficulty of what should normally be easy to accomplish, I am still so immersed in fleshing out the work and discovering what it's all about that it is HUGELY hard to get the distance I need to really extract the marrow of the ideas behind the work I'm doing. And really hard as well to pull myself away from engaging with making it to even think about writing statements and designing postcards. But of course I am doing just that and as I make friends with the need to do so it becomes enjoyable and stimulating. However, my attention does drift off a bit now and then back to the works in progress!

For the next four weeks, I'll be dashing back and forth between finishing up current pieces and starting at least two new pieces to round out the body of work I want to exhibit. It's exciting to watch it start coming together -- I am eager to hang the Pages pieces and decide which new pieces to start. I am ever so grateful to Heather Layton and Janet Berlo at the U. of R. for the invitation to exhibit. Seeing my work in a gallery setting offers an excellent learning curve, extremely important to my goal of developing a good-sized body of work on this language theme that I can submit to other venues for future solo exhibition opportunities. Seeing this work installed will give me a more objective perspective so I can continue to develop it, strengthen what is really working and what needs rethinking and determine where to take the work next from here.

Tomorrow I head back to my studio and print new yardage to continue this series. I'll keep working and producing as much new work as possible this next month -- I welcome affirming thoughts to add to my own that everything will come together wonderfully, easily and that the pieces will look beautiful together in the exhibit space!