Slide show of my first week at Hambidge Center

Here's some of the work done during the first week at this incredible place in the north Georgia mountains. The fall colors are astounding. I've spent the last five days intensely involved in looking, looking, looking all around me. The first couple of days drawings were straight from observation. After spending a good bit of time on one of the trails, the works have begun to change. They're becoming more symbolic of the experiences and the sights. I am not sure where these will lead but am willing to follow.




Part of my work here is to sort through old letters and scrapbooks, saved from my four years in undergraduate school--1965-1969. I've gone through things daily for shorter or longer times. I'd thought the memory travels might lead me somewhere visually but not so, thus far. I'm trying very hard not to push the process but to allow it to guide me in these days here.

I got away from home in such a rush that I left a number of my art supplies in my studio. Got here with only a couple of boxes of used oil pastels, some pastel pencils, my prismacolor pencils, and the small watercolor set I use in the woods. No big brushes, no acrylic paint, no paper! Since I was in Asheville on Saturday I went to an art supply store there, got a pad of bristol vellum and of newsprint. Trips into Dillard to the hardware store and the local cheapie store (Fred's) yielded some "decorator accent acrylics", foam brushes, cheap bristle brushes, metallic markers, and some tracing paper. Challenging but fun to see what these limited supplies allow me to do. So far, the only limits seem to be my imagination!

The loom sits warped ready for something to happen on it. Next week? Today? Not at all while here? I'll see what happens when it happens. I've been reading Trust the Process, by Shaun McNiff and have gotten permission from what I'm reading to work as I am. Of all the inspirational books about creativity that I've seen through the years this is one of the most helpful for me. Glad I brought it with me.