It's a funny little world....

Lately I have been very much in my own head.

I have been dreaming that I am dreaming, which makes waking up to the mundane strange and difficult.

The Mister and I have been seeing a marriage counselor, because when he says X I hear X but what he means is Y and when I say Z what I mean is Z but what he hears is A. It's all very confusing and leaves us grumpy and out of sorts for no REAL reason.

Then there is this business of finding art shows/participating in art shows, which has me composing art behind my eyes at nearly every minute.

And lastly, the shop where I tattoo will be closing down at the end of the month, so I am tromping around looking for a new place to ply my trade.

All of which leads to inconstant blogging, and for that I apologize.

I thought I'd share a bit of my process with you today, from sketch to final work.

One night I dreamt I was a fox, curled under leaves on the forest floor.

I sketched out a rough idea (middle picture), made a fox head (top picture), painted the interior of a shadow box and made some leaves out of silk fusion. You've never done silk fusion? It's pretty awesome. My mom taught me how to do it, and it results in this shiny, textured paper that you can cut and paint and sew. I don't use it very often, but there are times when it completely fits the bill.

I am still in the part where I am making foliage to apply to my painted background--in order to have the lush textural feeling that dreams often have.

Speaking of, have you ever seen the film MirrorMask? It's a visual rendering of a dreamscape and OH MY. After you watch it, you just want to stare at a blank wall for a while and let your eyeballs talk to your brain. It's available on Netflix, so if you like visually interesting things or have a love of Neil Gaiman you should add it to your queue.

And now I have to go do some required Mom things.
More later, ducks.