Before we dive into more 3d material, I thought it would be a good idea to warm up with a little colour and arrangement. After some much-needed fresh air, I pieced together a digital board that felt juicy to me, doing my best to arrange a snapshot of what I was feeling at the moment. It’s spring in Paris. All I could think about were precious pinks, glossy finishes, and embellished details. Sweet, luxurious, and sultry. Butter layers. The textures of new and renewed life. 

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We had two consecutive nights of steady rain last week, followed by a vivd thunderstorm that I will not soon forget. One of my favourite sensations is the change in the air, as a low pressure system passes. From that low heaviness, a conjured strike of lightning and a deep rumble. Delightful. We slept with the windows wide open to the soundtrack of passing showers. It made me think of the drama of the storms back home and the way it echos through the mountains. And of course, the show is a bit different, depending on which valley you’re in. Here in the burbs, the acoustics are a bit different. After the down-pour and some well-received sunshine, Ile-de-France is in bloom. The bees are busy.

I’ve tried to dedicate more time to pause and smell the roses (both literally and figuratively); taking extra moments to admire the aesthetics of everything I see around me. Paying a little more attention to the details of my creative affairs has felt like a luxury to the senses. We are, after all, in Venus retrograde. Seems like a good time to honour that spirit. 

This week’s board also contained snap-shots of project concepts that I’ve had floating intently around my head. I’ve worked once with a bead loom once and thought about planning a new piece around it, incorporating some embroidery. I did a little searching, knowing that I needed a refresher on technique and quickly found the jackpot of inspiration. I looked at free-form embroidery; having a colour palette in mind, but working intuitiely, without any set pattern. I even decided to give this a try last fall, to get a handle on it, gain some insight into which materials to use, and of course and.. to practice securing beads onto the hoop, hand-stitched.

I’ve been thinking about garment construction, or at least garment customization. With the direction we appear to be collectively moving in and looking at my own situation with a discerning eye, I realized I have all that I need at this very moment to begin. I feel like the present process unfurling is more of self expression, less of attainment. As a dear friend said to me over dinner, late Saturday night, “I’ve realized that I don’t have to prove anything”. It’s time to just be and enjoy the process. Now appears to be the right time to jump in the pool and play with all of that creative energy. 

Oh and finally, those Glossier lips and Vilde Rolfsen’s plastic bag landscape. Lately, I feel like I am lapping up aesthetic like a little kitten hovering over a bowl of crème. Soooo delicious. There’s something that feels rich about this time, like my eyes are gazing upon a cornucopia of fruit, wherever I go. Thankyou. And at home I’ve been bubbling over with staging; playing with the arranging of everything from velvet cushion to vectors, finding myself feeling more readily affected by visual and spatial composition. I’m thinking a lot lately about perspective and how many there really are. And now, I’m going to create my own inviting landscapes to explore, while getting up close with my subject.