Eileen Cooper

This a plug for the art of Eileen Cooper whose work I have loved ever since I first saw it in 1980.

Below is what I wrote to Eileen about her latest work.

I must admit to feeling of discomfort when looking at these new works as things seem to be in flux in a lot of them.  The ‘dwelling’ is being swallowed by the foliage and the figure is hunched as if she is trying covet what is going on below. Everything in the picture appears unbalanced as if teetering on the edge. Likewise, in ‘Desire’, unlike the introduction, I don’t see the women as being in bliss but as someone who is being pushed by the aggressive tiger in the panel which seems more alive than the woman. And who is the woman hiding behind the panel, why is she hiding? She seems to be threat otherwise why is she hiding?

I am loving looking at these  works and trying to divine my feelings as to regard to them. They are not quiet in least or serene despite the theme of dreams, in fact they give me a feeling of nervousness and being unsettled, of past memories and fears for the future.  I suspect I am reflecting a lot of the anxiety I am feeling in my life at the moment, so next year I will see something totally different.

If you look at the site, its a bit of awkward  site to navigate as you have to hit the back button to view each picture as a larger image but its worth it.

Other news of note:  I have been accepted on to the docent program at the Blanton Museum of Art, starting in the fall.  At last some structure in my life!

Not getting very well with the BJP this year

In fact, most of the time it is not going at all.  Fortunately since my last post on this subject, my arm pain has gone away and so that is not what is impeding my progress.  I am still attending Weightwatchers® but not really following the program. I attend so I don’t put on too much weight and so far I managing to maintain the 24lbs I lost to date ( I had lost 32lbs but that is a distant memory these days ).

I think a couple of things have just stopped me from doing much creatively so far this year.  The main one is that my space is no longer my space.  In December I moved out of the room I had been using for my beading projects  and moved in a more public room- the games room upstairs. This was because my daughter moved back home temporarily but by the end of January she was had moved to Houston.

So in theory I could have moved back into the spare room but had decided by then to make the games room into my space.  I got it nicely arranged with new shelving and new storage.  It was getting quite cosy but then in March, my husband’s job was moved to another location, still within the Austin area but a much further drive.  We decided then that much as we really didn’t want to move (mainly because of the effort involved and current economic climate) we needed to move to the south of Austin and into a smaller house.  So since then we have been concentrating on that sole project.  So consequently my little cosy space which I had created is now in storage and will be until we manage to move, which at the rate we are going, could be a long wait.

The other issue has been my own health and as it turns out something that has been needlessly worrisome because the Doctor I see is not a good communicater or for that matter a good doctor.

I have manage to keep some of my art supplies away from storage but soon  that will be in there as well, as the feedback from other sources, tell us that the house is too cluttered.  So soon we will be down the basics of living whilst our stuff hides out in the storage unit!

So my plans for this project are falling way behind and probably the original intentions will not be completed. However, before all the upheaval I manage to bead 12 of the doodles I made and I have made progress on 2 of the flags as they will be, once they are complete.   So my project will now be to complete all the 12 doodles for BJP and then once I am in more conducive environs, to complete the 52 flags as I originally intended.

Some new photos by my wonderfully creative daughter

I sit

 

I stand

 

Sometimes I get bored

Aren’t they wonderful?

Still hanging in there

Well, my bjp pages are going slowly but I am getting there. 

2 things have been impeding my progress. 

The biggest obstacle has been a mental one,I think , as this is a project about Weight watchers and my progress.  Basically, my progress has been going backwards.  From losing 36 lbs since joining Weight Watchers in August 2006, in the  last year I  actually gained 14lbs   The good thing is that working on these pages has forced me to refocus on my goals and since I started actually tracking my eating, my pages have been coming along faster.

The other thing that has impeded my progress is a bad case of tendonitis which I think was cause by combination of cutting fabric at work over the Christmas period and sitting at the PC too much.  Of course, sewing  and beading doesn’t help but given that I really haven’t done that much recently, I don’t think its the root cause of my problem but it does mean I have watch I don’t over do it .

Anyway, here are the 5 pages I have done recently.

About 6 months into taking notes at the WW meetings, I began to simply copy the slogans being used by the meeting leader and they become less like doodles.  However, as this project has been moving along, my notes have reverted back to the doodle approach  and become more personal.  I think this is an additional factor in my current success with my weight loss as I am actively thinking about the process rather, sitting back.  I think that when my doodles became less personal and only focused on what the meeting leader had written down, it had less meaning and really didn’t belong to me, I was only half occupied by the intent of the message.  Writing down the topic of the day and personalizing it, is reinforcing what I want to achieve from this, health and fitness.

Below are 2 recent doodles.

The other decision I have made is to  do less beading on the actual drawing, instead I will bead the flags when I make them up.  This will mean the project might end later than August but to keep the integrity of the drawings, I decided this was the best way forward.

BJP update and Chicken Scratch

Well, I finally beginning to kick in with the BJP and know that the 52 pages will be achievable before the end of August.  I now beginning to think about the design of the flags and whether I will actually bead or embroider on the back of the flag.  I thinking  a spiral to symbolise the never ending journey of life,  symbols for  Man or Woman, life, basically very simple symbols in keeping with the notion of the flags.  No doubt colour will come into the equation to although I already know the sequence of flag colours – blue, white, red green and yellow.  The page sizes are approximately 8.5 x 5.5 and the flags will be about 14×12 in the end.

Like a lot of you I am a follower of Sharon B and this year she is doing a monthly challenge called Stitch Explorer where she invites people to explore  a slightly unusual or lesser known stitch, or a style of embroidery.  This month was Chicken Scratch.  Being fairly new to this line of work, I thought this would be a great way to spend some of my spare time when BJP wasn’t beckoning me.  So I might not do every month but I gave it a try this month.  Below are my attempts so far.

I think I am going to move away from the check fabric tonight and try some free hand designs.

One thing about the BJP pages, despite working on them most nights recently, it doesn’t seem to be helping in the battle of the bulge, far from it, having gained about 5lbs in weight since beginning it.  It will be interesting to see what my weight is like at the end of August.