it's a new day ....

yes, it's a new day ... one that all of us will tell our grandchildren about. "where were you when ..." regardless of our positions, or our beliefs, who we voted for or who we hope for... this day a new president will be sworn into office and he has the task of helping us save our country, our lives - our dreams. i choose to believe in his ability to do so, because i want to believe my own ability to do so, too.


these pictures are ones that were sent to me from just a fraction of the Obama supporters who bought one of my pieces. i had envisioned a collage much larger than this one, because i asked each and everyone of them if they would send a picture, but i guess most people are camera shy.... it is ok. the comments and notes that i received from customers over the past several months have been so nice - it brings me back to the energy at the rally in st.paul ... feeling a part of something that was so much larger than myself. so much larger than anything i've ever experienced. something is happening .... and it is happening TODAY!

i'll be watching the inauguration on tv ... and then heading to the university for the first day of the design workshop that i am teaching at the school of architecture! exciting day, all around!

juggling...

the time for a head-down-production-phase has begun. it is already mid-october and i have a busy 2 months ahead of me with a handful of local shows {first up: jewelry artists mart at the WALKER on november 1} and a big 'non-local' show {ONE OF A KIND SHOW in Chicago on december 4-7} to prepare for. i have been working to build some stock on the pieces i debuted at the fall flair fashion show. these earrings will be available in the new fall acrylic colors (and red, of course) as well as a variety of woods. i've been wearing a black pair every day this week. they are so light-weight. love it.

last friday i was a guest-juror for the final review of a design workshop at the school of architecture at the university. i am warming-up and reacquainting myself with the school, as i am intended to teach one of these workshops myself soon. it felt good to be back in that environment, despite feeling self-conscious at first. my work process has become very internal and i realized i have vocalized my thoughts/process/reasoning less and less since leaving IKEA. it was all really quite fun! i warmed-up by the end, and ultimately the whole experience confirmed how important it is to really understand your own approach/process ... to acknowledge the variables in any situation and to have a means for making sense of them in order to come to a designed result. it also confirmed the enormity that can be architecture....and while i am so strongly based in it, i am also overwhelmed by it. perhaps it is simply that i haven't embraced the variables at such a scale? i still have much to learn.....
one thing that i do know is that i am a juggler - one who juggles many things - and my productivity level actually thrives when i have more than one compelling project to manage. in the past i have put a lot of pressure on myself to limit my interests - to focus - because i felt that i should, because that is what mature people do, they focus. but in the past few weeks small things have been added to my list, like going to the post office every day. don't get me wrong, i love having a reason to go to the post office every day, but that along with other small tasks like it make me realize that one can only juggle so much before things start falling. today alone i dropped the ball twice...forgetting to return simple messages to people. {well i didn't entirely forget, they just hadn't come to the top of my remember-list yet} now, it is not the end of the world, granted, but it makes me feel like i'm losing some of my "edge" - like i'm getting old ... or should i say mature?