Simple Surprises

It’s been a beautiful few days in and around the studio. The summer temps haven’t closed us in yet, and the house is open to the outside air, gently stirred by a silent ceiling fan. I’ve surrounded myself with music most days, with minimal intrusion of world events. This is my therapy, a lifeline, a time to be open to new ways of seeing.

Simple surprises are everywhere, like the little patch of wildflowers that I planted early last spring. They were mowed down with the grass late in the season, and I had forgotten all about them. But this spring they started re-seeding, and I’m now being gifted with new flowers that didn’t bloom the first time. There are many, many Black-eyed Susans, Lance Leaf Coreopsis, and a bunch of other tickseed varieties as well. And in the little bed closer to the house are my daylilies.

Fun and magical things are happening inside the studio too. I thought it would be a good time to play with the gelli plate for a little while, and then to find some surprises for collage in my paper stash.

This is a collection of circles and squares, punched out of magazine pages. I love spreading them out, in the same way we all used to do with our grandmothers’ jars of buttons . . .

 

. . . and here are some of the gelli prints:

Don’t you love surprises?