Coming out of the dark

On New Year's Eve, we took a walk up the hill on the trail behind our housing development, and I took this picture looking back at our housing development, nestled into the hills on the left up there.  And it feels like an appropriate illustration, because I've spent the last two months nestling in, focusing on home and family and inward, quiet things.  It's been a funny time -- pleasurable in lots of ways, but oddly inactive, too.  I've had little interest in creative pursuits -- so I've done very little in terms of art making.  Instead, I've been reading and looking (ooh, Pinterest!) and trying to sort out some goals after the whirlwind of creative inspiration from Festival of Quilts in England and the International Quilt Festival in Houston last year.  It's all swirling around in my head, and I'm chalking this quiet period up to an unavoidable need to let it all sift down into something that will come out in my creative voice eventually.


But I'm thinking that this inward time is coming to a close. I'm feeling the urge to get back to work on some art quilts in progress.  I've got images in my head that will make their way onto fabric.  It feels good to have creative energy stirring again.

Have you discovered Pinterest yet?  It's a rather fascinating (and yes, even addictive) site.  It's pure visual delight -- collections of images, sorted by other people who "pin" favorite images to their "boards" much the way someone would post a photo to an inspiration board or tear a magazine photo out to paste into an idea journal.  It's an invitation-based site -- that is, you have to have someone to invite you to join.  (Clever marketing, really.)  So if you'd like to check it out and have not been invited, leave a comment and your email and I'm happy to send an invite.  You'll have fun poking around there.

I'm going to go watch the Golden Globes now.  I so enjoy Ricky Gervais!