Here's something exciting! The Ghost Town Arts Collective's latest exhibit, Motley Fools, will be the first to be mounted in their new space (at Hwy 1417 and Hwy 691, between Sherman and Denison, TX). The opening is Friday from 7-10, and undoubtedly will be pretty much the funnest thing happening in town. Wish I could be there! I love these ladies.

(That's me in the purple!)

In fact, I love everything about the GTAC, and this Tarot-inspired card created by Heidi Rushing (the co-op's administratrix/heart/soul) is no exception. You can read about its thoughtful and lovely creation--and other Ghost Town and Heidi-related happenings--on her awesome burgeoning blog!

I like winter for lots of reasons. One of them is that if you plan to weave, it's much pleasanter to wrangle massive bundles of wool through a loom when it's cold! But somehow, this year, I managed to sneak through the season without weaving anything, which is a shame. Even if I don't know someone who needs a nice new handmade scarf (really, with mechanized looms, beautiful scarves are a dime a dozen), I try to do at least one annually, so that I can remind my brain and body of how the process works. It's definitely not a skill I want to lose.

To that end--despite the present sunny days, and their thinly-veiled threats of the oncoming desert summer--I'm going to make myself a new one.

I have a fantastic resource in my bookshelf, Marguerite Porter Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book, but sometimes I want something a little more complicated...and that's when I lose hours of my life playing with Weavemaker, a pleasantly anachronistic bit of software that allows you to work out patterns of your own (and then scale them so you can see what the proposed fabric will look like).

So far all I know is that I want it to be red and white wool. So There's lots of playing to be done. Here's my first "sketch"...a little improvisational riff on Finnish Twill.

The black and white blocks on the side and top indicate the threading and treadling patterns--the instructions I'll follow later.

What can be done to indicate a brain's further amazement, once it's been blown? Maybe the bits of cerebral matter get collected in a wheelbarrow, put in an air-tight capsule, have small prayers said over them in seven languages, and then get shot into space.

Does this adequately express how amazed I am that my fund-raising project has already been 105% backed, within four days of being launched?

HUGE thanks to everyone that has pledged!

My mind is absolutely, unbelievably blown.

Within two days of posting my Kickstarter project, it is already 85% funded--that's $1,700.

I am speechless (so it's a good thing I'm typing). I am incredibly fortunate to have such supportive friends...and lucky that so many of those friends have taken it upon themselves to help spread the word--including Froog over at the always-entertaining and witty Froogville, Christopher Baldwin on his charming and hilarious Space Trawler, and the numerous art school comrades that have passed the proposal on to their friends and families.

I hope that everyone in the world gets their fifteen minutes of feeling as cared for as I do right now.

An announcement I've long been waiting to make:

In an exciting development in both my personal and professional life, I'm traveling to Australia this summer! The entire month of June, to be exact. It will be my very first time abroad, which is super exciting. There are, of course, pretty daunting expenses that accompany this period of intense immersion, so I'm attempting to raise some funds via Kickstarter. I'd love it if you'd check out my proposal and consider making a donation! I've got a little video on their site that will tell you more about what I'll be doing while there, but in the meantime, here's the condensed version:

Together with accomplished Land Arts of the American West alums Blake Gibson, Joseph Mougel, and Yoshimi Hayashi, I'll join a small group of Australian artists, in a traveling collaboration facilitated by Bill Gilbert and John Reid.

We're currently scheduled to split our four weeks there between:

*Calperum Station in the Riverland Biosphere Preserve, investigating the Murray River and surrounding Mallee scrubland;
*The cities and communities of Canberra, Sydney, Kioloa, and Hay; and
*The Far South Coast of New South Wales, exploring the marine environment of the Tasman Sea and nearby eucalypt forests of the coastal strip.

It'll be an unparalleled field research opportunity for me. Local experts will introduce us to ecological and community issues surrounding each site, and the rest of my time will be devoted to documenting, drawing, painting, and writing in the field. After my return, I'll spend the next several months creating a body of paintings based on the accumulated studies.

Another way to help me fund my trip is to check out my shop on Etsy! I'll have a series of rotating sketches and studies for sale there, many of which have appeared in my posts over the past few months, and many of which will be super-cheap (like, in the $15 - $35 range).

 Yay!

Oh, I feel like I've been gone forever! Thank you, persistent reader, for checking back in.

I've been at home, and well in health and spirits--but have been swallowed up in the process of making a brief video, introducing myself and my work, for a project to be announced later this week. I've never made a video before, so I've been playing around with the new media--my approach to it is a little like a four year-old poking a jellyfish with a stick. In the process, I've also been sorting through some footage; most of it is me doing some plein-air work, and rather uneventful...and did I mention the video I'm to eventually to make is rather serious and professional?

This combination of things has resulted in my being FORCED to make a practice video. You know, to lighten the mood. And make five minutes of plein-air painting seem really action-packed. And to somehow involve the Aquabats.

There's...pretty much no way you'll be as amused by this as I am.

(But to be fair, I'm really amused by it, so you never really stood a chance.)

More publicity (for the paintings, which is gratifying), this time in Albuquerque Arts Magazine: "Body Images: Albuquerque artists explore the human form and its relationships."  (Melody Mock, writer.)

Here's an excerpt that pertains specifically to my work, which closes the article:

Cedra Wood uses a tiny paintbrush to create her small paintings, intricate in composition and content. Not only does she tell stories through her paintings; she also paints the psychological distance between people.

 "Where there is a human figure, there is a character; and where there is a character, there is a story. To paint a person is to create a hundred narratives, since every viewer brings their own associations and assumptions and sympathies to the image," she says. "A lot of my work is about the distance between people, and the way that we relate to each another, and to the environments in which we find ourselves – what better way to do that than to literally depict people?"

Having fun tonight, brainstorming whether, and how much, to decorate my violin, once it reaches the finishing stages...

I printed out a low-res copy of the back of the Guarneri I'm using as a guide, and then used ink and acrylic paint to see how I feel about painting that will cover the majority of the surface.

I'm torn! The patterning is fun and distinctive, but it seems a shame to cover so much of that lovely wood. I'll play with a few more drafts and see what I can do to strike a balance.