My nebula.

It is time for a bit of "start again".

I will be a resident of Dallas in less than a week.

I have been accepted to all the graduate schools where I applied. Now, I'm deciding where to attend locally.

I'm currently listening to French Pop music (check out Dumas!).

I completed the book Columbine, by Dave Cullen, which was astonishing. I also finished Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick to add to my Young Adult reads. I am currently reading I Am Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirkby, about a former Canadian journalist who lived in a Hutterite Colony in Canada until 10 years of age, when her family decided to start a new life outside the colony. So far, it's been fascinating and reminds me vaguely of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

I have taken a small break on creating art but will begin again once my studio is set up.

My internship is winding down and I will (sadly) reclaim my Sundays this upcoming month.

That is all.

New work.

In between a promotion at my job, cleaning out and packing in order to move, graduate school this-and-that, and an internship, I've managed to actually work on some new art. This piece, like its predecessors, is a product of a slow process. To me, cutting tiny pieces of paper with various colors and textures and composing them on a blank canvas is therapeutic. Seeing the work unfold over the last few weeks has been a tremendous joy to me.

This particular new piece is intended to be a representation of something jewel-like. In my frustration of not having the ability to fully work in metal, this piece is supposed to look like baubles arranged in a general space. The strips, hopefully, appear as facets or at least create the appearance of something three-dimensional.

For scale, the entire canvas is only 12 inches by 12 inches. So, while I'm not producing art like crazy, I will continue in this vein and maybe, just maybe, move the concept onto something more three-dimensional :)

To be continued.

I miss hitting metal.

It has been 2 1/2 years since I've had access to my former school's metalsmithing studio. Granted, I have used my jeweler's saw and a few other hand tools in order to make some random things in my garage studio. However, I've created nothing of substance and miss the tactile qualities of hammering metal greatly.

Something about hammering metal in an actual space that has a fine coat of metal dust and gear lubricant seems less obtrusive than hitting metal in my garage. The concrete floor of where my half-assed studio is now just echoes the blow of metal with a ring not unlike hitting a tuning fork.

I have friends who still work in metal and ultimately I'm envious that they can work often in the media I enjoy. Perhaps some of it is timing, since I've been pre-occupied with things that do not involve metal at all. Part of the envy is also that I finally removed my diploma from the Fed-Ex envelope that was sitting behind a bookshelf and actually framed it. My diploma declares proudly: "Bachelor of Fine Arts Metalsmithing and Jewelry Magna Cum Laude". I look at the framed piece of paper fondly now.

In other news, I've been accepted to 3 of the 5 schools I applied for graduate school and hope to hear from the other 2 soon. A portion of me is torn about where I'll end up in the next few years, but I feel confident about the progress.

As I move forward into exploring a career and another degree relatively unrelated to my past studies, I hope that working in metal can be slowly incorporated back into my life. Perhaps as a solace and something to ground my creativity.

For now, I continue to work in paper, for its accessibility, but I still plan to dream in silver :)