Red Poppies who walks in beauty

Last two weeks I spent in a battle---me vs flu.  It wasn't pretty.  I really wanted to get 2 more sculptures completed, but working in clay was not possible. While I was coughing up half a lung (or at least it felt that way) I did some sketches and cut out paper dolls (Matisse channeling, I guess.)  It reawaken an interest in doing some collages and paintings in the near future. 

 

I did think for a feverish moment that I should give up clay.  It is so much work at times---mentally exhausting as well as labor intensive.  Then I realize I only think this way when I am not working creatively or have the flu.  Once I get down to work I forget time and space.

When the woman you live with is an artist, every day is a surprise. Clare has turned the second bedroom into a wonder cabinet, full of small sculptures and drawings pinned up on every inch of wall space. There are coils of wire and rolls of paper tucked into shelves and drawers. The sculptures remind me of kites, or model airplanes. I say this to Clare one evening, standing in the doorway of her studio in my suit and tie, home from work, about to begin making dinner, and she throws one at me; it flies surprisingly well, and soon we are standing at opposite ends of the hall, tossing tiny sculptures at each other, testing their aerodynamics. The next day I come home to find that Clare has created a flock of paper and wire birds, which are hanging from the ceiling in the living room. A week later our bedroom windows are full of abstract blue translucent shapes that the sun throws across the room onto the walls, making a sky for the bird shapes Clare has painted there. It's beautiful.

The next evening I'm standing in the doorway of Clare's studio, watching her finish drawing a thicket of black lines around a little red bird. Suddenly I see Clare, in her small room, closed in by all her stuff, and I realize that she's trying to say something, and I know what I have to do.” 

                    Audrey Niffenegger The Time Traveler's Wife