Studio Days and the Milky Way

Dear readers,

You may not know this judging by all the photos of my cats and garden but I am an artist. Educated sculptor, marble carver, crafter, angst ridden digger, delver, up-cycled, repurposed mosaic welder, secret lover of elves and the little wee forest people, hoarder of bobbles bangles and beads and most everything else - this is my fairy tale folks I hope you like it.  No seriously, I have been spending a lot of time in my studio as of lately tweeking  and getting it just right.  First there was the new desk that I painted to match the color of turquoise bead, then I distressed and sanded it, after all that   I antiqued it and clear coated it. What a job that was, and if I had to do it all over again I would of painted it in an oil base paint not acrylic.  The sales person at Home Depot told me it would be fine in acrylic, and by the way they don't sell oil base paints at my Home Depot.  Live and learn...

                                                                                                                          

Next is my lovely chest that stores all my beads,  beads have long been a passion for me ever since I  was a small girl.  I still have some beads from way back when I use to go to Ben Franklins Drug Store also known as Pinkys and buy them in a little clear test tube sealed with a cork.  I can still remember loving to pick out the colors and then stringing the seed beads one by one into little patterns on a necklaces.  Now my bead collection has grown as big as the Milky Way. I have always liked the idea of beads as a metaphor to planets. Like they are the microcosm to the great big macrocosm.  It helps my little brain wrap around the concept of the  infinite. Trade beads have always intrigued me there's so much history some good and I am sure some bad.
I try to imagine what they were traded for,  skins, rugs, food, Booze!  Who wore the beads where did they live,what were they like?  The significance and power of beads - what did they symbolize?  Even today we still put meaning into a stone a color a shape, powerful stuff!  I now store my beads in the perfect caddy which is easily  excess-able  and saves  oh so much time from all that digging and delving. 

This summer my husband and I took a trip to Colorado. It was an exploratory trip and we covered a lot of ground. While on our adventures we discovered Marble Colorado. Marble CO. is known for it's white marble quarries, thus the name. In fact the tomb of the unknown soldier was made from a massive piece of white marble from Marble CO. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is located high on a hill overlooking Washington, DC. The tomb was dedicated in 1921 and contains the remains of soldiers from WWI,WWII, Korea and Vietnam.  You may ask why am I writing about this now. Well I use to live in Italy, Pietrasanta Italy. The Saint of stone is where I spent years covered in marble dust.

This is  where I learned  to carve marble and was forturnate to live and work with some of the world best sculptors and artisans. Italy has many kinds of marble but one that stands out to me is the white statuary marble. This is the marble that Michael Angelo used to carve David. 






When you break it open it looks like sugar. Well while I was in Marble Colorado I purchased a chunk of marble, we put the chunk in the trunk and we drove it home. Now I have this piece of marble staring me in the face daring me to get my tools out and start carving again, make more dust again. This marble looks like sugar too. I am excited about the prospect of this chunk. I see a women's winged head, sleek, feminine and calculative. It's funny how you return  to the things you once loved, maybe it's a natural cyclical thing. I made a winged head probably 17 years ago. I modeled it after the 50 lira coin. For years I kept a blank key on my key chain of the winged Pontiac. I found it in an old abandoned building.

I use to tell people it was the key to my heart. Now I carry my grandfathers St. Cristoforo. It's interesting,  when you are more mature you  can start to connect the dots of past events, desires and passions. They start to make sense, but when you're younger their just dots in the great vast Milky Way of infinite directions.