Summertime... and the living' is.... continuing.

I would love to be posting the finished images of the last two woven tapestries of the Calendar Series, but, oh woe, that is not to be. They are still 'resting,' awaiting mounting. In fact I haven't even nagged my dear husband/woodworker into making the stretcher frames for them yet. But a new week is coming....!

My creative energies have been used tearing into a far-too-long-neglected house, sorting things I no longer need and use, to discard and donate. The completion of a tapestry always does this to me: I get the cleaning urge, first in the studio and then it spreads like falling dominoes throughout the rest of the house.

I have also been doing an occasional sketch, most of them inspired by photos from the Sktchy app on my iPad. It is easier to do a 20-30 minute sketch of someone I don't know than to try to sketch someone I know, love, and want to please. Above are some of the sketches I have played with. What is amazing me about them is that I seem to have developed a 'style,' without really trying to! I post the sketches on the app, and also post many of them on Instagram (search for kjdspoering.) These are all done in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook (which has lovely paper) with watercolor, watercolor pencils, and ink. The exception is the woman drinking coffee, which was a special challenge and was done with floral dyes in the same sketchbook.

Other than this sketching and cleaning, I am surviving the summer heat and the political craziness with my pets and men (husband and dad) and am singing and playing a couple of times a month at assisted living places in the valley.

I am also at work planning a potential exhibit with some other tapestry artists whom I admire.... but more info on that to come soon!