New Work

Feeling fairly stymied at the moment but amazingly there is some new work coming out that I am quite happy with. I have just about completed the 3rd in the Dragonfly series. It is on a lit base (will upload photos when I have some) and covered in a glass dome. The following photos are of the dragonfly - once again based on the preserved seahorse, and yes, I acquired this humanely; do you really think I am going to go diving for illicit seahorses? They come from a place in Tassie that breeds seahorses for the aquarium trade - bit of a casualty rate, apparently.

They are pretty amazing little things, seahorses and just right for my dragonflies.

Meanwhile, I am hanging out for the school holidays. Starting to ask myself 'what am I doing here?' pretty much every day. Some days it seems utterly pointless to be working with kids who really don't give a stuff. But hopefully two weeks off from the end of next week will cure that. A bit anyway.

Where to from here?

I don't know about you, but I find it alarming to wake up one day to discover that suddenly and without warning, Christmas is about nine weeks away. How did that happen? The department stores are already gearing up which aside from following along with the blatant commercialism is actually quite good from my point of view - I find wonderful treasures for my art amongst the decorations and lights.
The alarming thing is more that what has to be achieved at school and other places between now and then hardly bears thinking about. I am itching to get into the studio, but I just don't seem to get there and the thought of cramming assessment, reporting, and other boring things into the remaining weeks is quite exhausting.
On the up side, I went to the craft fair in town the other day. It is such a lolly shop for people like me who are excited by all the fibre, fabrics, beads and other luscious stuff. Of course I spent too much money, but now I have these wonderful bits and pieces to inspire me.
I just wish there was some time to focus on the inspiration and follow through with the work. I have been looking at some of the fantastic work on other blogs - very inspiring, but also a bit depressing. Right now I am weighing up whether to have another solo show next year or not - am I going to have time to do it justice? On the other hand I don't want to give myself over to just working on curriculum and lesson plans 24/7. Will have to get my act together and get on with it.