Gathering Clay Leaves

It is misty, winter foggy out.  Now I know when people think of the San Francisco Bay Area weather---fog is on the top of the list and  it's always room temp here.  Well, it is, for the most part, but we have hundreds of micro-climates within miles. In a day we can witness all the seasons (yes, even a little snow.)  I know the climate in my front yard is different from my backyard. Two blocks down it is windy.  There's more fog here (I live near the east shoreline) than 8 blocks away where once stood dairy farms and cherry orchards.  My house has its own micro-climates as well as my work.  It takes on a rhythm.  An ebb and tide.  And depending on the day, fog or sun, rain or wind, I work fast or slow, messy or neat, singularly or repetitively,  intuitively or with a blueprint, or do not work at all.

For the changing climates inside my artist life, I have these canvas covered boards I can carry around and work outside the studio.  They are my sketchpads in a sense.  The tools and clay bits are from various pieces worked out on this board. It looks like a mixed media composition of interactions with my work and my day.

                                                     

 working on arms and leaf placement on Sheath (l.) with Leaf Gatherer (r.)  nearly done

    

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.        
                                                                                                ~Henry David Thoreau

flotsam and jetsam