Change of Pace

I walked to work this morning - 3 miles. Only takes about 50 minutes. Yeah...the car is in the driveway and fully functional,  could take the bus which picks up at the apartment and drops off outside the office and I have a bike.  But there is something about walking - change of pace, change of perspective.

I had been enrolled at UNT in the MFA - Metals program for the past 3 semesters.  However, I have decided to not enroll for this Spring semester and to withdraw completely.  In doing this, I told myself that I was going to spend the spring semester just kind of walking around, taking it easy.  Being at UNT definitely helped me slow down in creating work. Before that I was listening too much to the "you can make money if you would do this..." And even though I never took the advice of the "money makers", it did create a hurried approach to my making. And with a hurried approach comes less thought.  But it was my first exposure to an Arts program.  It had a profound impact on my work - more focused and cohesive.

So I decided to take a step back.  Maybe I'm not quite ready to pursue a career as collegiate studio professor.  Instead, I'm going to walk around and tune in to the world around me.  Because it's during those times when I'm concentrating and eliminating distractions that I'm figuring out what it is that I'm doing.  That's when things make sense most.  And it's during that process that what I want to create starts to take shape.

Next project is making a pair of buckles.  I'll put up pics as to how they come about.

So I've been staring at this piece for the past several months. This is the last of the plate that went into making Print 01 (see Photo Gallery > Prints).

So finally decided.  I've gotten a lot of compliments on Buckles 3 & 4 of the 2009 buckles.  So I came up with the design of the water cut out.  That's where I'm at now with it.  Hope to start making the cuts next week.