More ATC action...

I had a few moments here and there while waiting for the potatoes and carrots to cook, so worked on adding some ink to the ATCs I stamped the other day and to the new fir cone one (I did the cone one this afternoon while waiting for my bobbins to wind.) I think the secret to getting things done is being reasonably well organized. I have many, many (*many*) projects in various states of construction at all times, with most of the things that they need incorporated nearby. When I get a few minutes (sometimes literally 2 or 3) I'll either pick up the next project or check that the things needed for the next step are ready to go.

I'm starting to really like the stamped ATCs. I have one more to finish using the first of the circle stamps (see two posts ago) - it needs some colour oomph yet...I'll do that one sometime this weekend.
I'm also pleased with the way the fir cone came out. It's a bit abstract, but I thought it was okay for a first collage idea.
Our boys were totally impressed that I thought to carve up my shoe to make stamps...they want to know when I'm going to cut up the other one. I've got my eye on vinyl erasers to make letters now - won't they be impressed! I do have some old lino kicking around here somewhere from my block printing art school days, but it's probably too old and brittle to be much good anymore. There are also some blocks I made to print Christmas cards when we were first married that could probably translate well into fabric stamps if I could only find them (and if they're not too brittle by now, too).

The circular theme is interesting (again, see post before last). I'd not only like to explore that further, but also the kinds of shapes that we saw from the air that were, on closer inspection, subdivisions. The repetitive geometry was beautiful. - Actually, the concentric arcs in the stamp are from the idea of the cul-de-sacs that we could see in one area. At some point here I'll start working with the shapes separately. Right now I'm enjoying the juxtaposition that one is a farming shape, and one is a more urban shape - macro in our world, of a huge scale that only really made sense from many hundreds of feet up in the air. The two industries are placed further and further apart, and yet, they fit together so well in a spacial context.

I love the compact efficiency of the circle. I was really amazed to see it used in farming on such a large scale - but in terms of irrigation and other machinery's efficiency, it makes complete sense. Many of the farms here have big linear rolling irrigation systems, not ones set up on a pivot. One of the beautiful aspects of the circular fields was that from the air we could see the service roads snaking in and out and around them, some in grid fashion, some just sinuous roads that were outgrowths of function, not of form.

Hopefully someday we'll have the opportunity to fly over Colorado (or anywhere else with so much to see) and I'll be in an aisle seat, with my camera and sketchbook at the ready. In the meantime I'll just have to make due with this faulty filing system I call a memory.

Sleep tight,

Lisa