some sampler ideas...

Learning that, I'm not so good at the whole Group Project thing

So after 15 years or so now of sincerely trying to be the good team player in the workplace and all, I've come to realize that there are aspects of the "working together" that I'm really not that good at.

I must say that my team mates were even two of my favorite classmates. My classmates are all amazing in their own right, and I say how remarkably diverse and cool they all are. These two in particular are patient and articulate, have a good sense of composition are colour, and during our brainstorming session spoke thoughtfully of ecology, western consumerism and assimilation. We had roughly five hours to transform limited supplies into our installed work. At the end of the day, I was more exhausted than usual. (My classmates had similar looks on their faces.) I realized how little I like to comprimise, how impatient I am when others are not as "ready to move on" as I am, and how generally how much more I'd rather to work alone.

Evidently, I need more of these projects.

Some Dyeing

The Finished Product.

Winding it from skein to ball.

The other side of the equation.

The turquoise being cooked.

The all important chopstick stir!

Or not too much stirring, for that irregular colour thing going on, that I'm partial to.

My Container Project at the half way point

One of the photos I transferred of me and my dad. That's me in the backpack.

Several weeks ago, in my surface design class, we were asked to create a "container".

I chose to create a study on DNA as they "contain" the blueprints of us!

To illustrate the DNA, I painstakingly crafted the 23 pairs of chromosomes (glass beads on wire) into somewhat of a karyotype layout.

I photo transferred several family photos onto silk using various techniques, and then

tucked questions and anecdotal comments into the pockets that the photos were sewn onto.

One of the interesting turns my project took, was the evening I showed it to a dear friend who is also an artist. She gave me some feedback and then we called her husband to come check it out. Being a physician, he asked me a few questions for clarification and then kindly and but decidedly, asked if I'd like to borrow one of his first year biology texts. It seemed that my chromosome construction, while visually quite lovely, was not so accurate. I accepted the advice and the textbook.

I really enjoyed doing this project, and would like to revisit the subject sometime in the future. During the working on it, I was taken with the intricate design going on in us, that we rarely consider. yeah...billions of miracles going on beneath the surface of our skin, and in each cell of our skin. Yep.