The work on the left is a work in progress and the work on the right was just finished. The left is a composite
self-portrait and the one on the right is a portrait I did as a commission.

I was trying to work with color, but I don't think it worked. The
picture actually looks better than in real life. I think where it
went wrong was that I was trying to use pink, blue, and yellow
with an ambiguous baby face for a comment on gender
assignment, but I got lost and it just plain looks bad.

My studio -->

These are the baby dresses I got to take apart and to do
the crochet insertions. I was thinking of using the text
"play with me" on one of them.

I'm not completely sure what I'm doing here, but I was thinking about
baby blocks with these letters, so I worked up a pattern I could also
use this for the insertions on the dresses if the block doesn't work. I
guess this and the insertion pieces reference the sexualization of
children I see in popular culture.

The latest piece I have been working on is a
child's dress with crochet inserts. The inserts
say 'play with me"

This is the present state of the dress with the first
insert completed and tacked in. The whole dress is
still lacking the sleeves, bottom insert, and trim.

I put this one in a nook in the library directly across
from the DVD player. I left it there, but I may move
it because I don't think anyone has noticed it yet in
the week and a half it has been there. I put it
across from the TV to make a point, but I think my
point was made too well.

I did some traveling around Maine- out to the coast and one of my favorite vacation activities- visiting old
graveyards. My favorite old name this time was "Hepsibath C. Sukeforth", who died in 1897.

I've been throwing around the idea of using the regular version of
the "Now I lay me" prayer for some time- I have been thinking of
ways I can modify it. This is one example that has to do with DNR
orders. I said the regular version of this prayer every night as a child
and it scared me to death about dying in my sleep. A version hung
over my bed most of my life. This is the version I might say when I
am older.

The image to the right and below are
two patterns I worked on today, but
they are for very large works. I just
wanted to show what has been going
through my head and some design
choices. I will probably never get to
making these works, but I like the
images. The image on the right is from
the funeral of my great-aunt before I
left. I liked the way the worker is twisted
like a danse macabre image.

I'm still trying to feel my way through
this piece. The letters became white
because that was the traditional
color for children in the early 1900s.
The wood box is temporary until I
receive an order of square
plexiglass rod to build the boxes. I do
not know if they will continue to hang
on the wall or sit on a shelf. I like
them next to the dress. They will be
offset or staggered, not in line for
display.

I am thinking more and more that the dress should
hang in the middle of the room. This would make it
more of a stand-in for a person than a sculpture on
the wall. However, the idea of clothing lends itself to
hanging on a hanger on the wall.

I wasn't able to post last week because I was not feeling well- my finger and parts of my right hand swelled
up from a bug bite and the heat and humidity got to me after all this cool weather. A 3 AM ER visit got me
back on track and I am feeling better now.  

This shot shows the new location of my little intervention piece. I think maybe it should
have read "Living isn't merely reading" instead of "Living isn't merely breathing"

With this work I was trying to work out compositing images in the way memories are recalled as
fragments. It is held off the wall by wire. I was trying to loosen up a little, too, with technique.
The ends are not woven in like I usually do.

I have been thinking about my dress
piece and I used photoshop to try and
imagine what it would look like as an
installation. The other dresses would
have different texts. Hold me, touch me,
love me...

This image is of a lung x-ray with Tuberculosis and is
a response to a situation in Peru where healthcare
reform included a TB eradication program (designed
by WHO) which resulted in drug-resistent TB. This is
a sample piece for what I conceived of as a complete
wall installation. There would be other images an text-
maybe "The road to Hell is paved with good
intentions". I was working with a more abstract image
this time, but I am not sure this will ever come to
fruition.

These are the good images of completed works from the summer.