From project to project

I seem to be living from project to project, a not-so-bad way to be as long as the projects actually get finished, something us Attention Deficit types have trouble with.

First it was the baby chickens living in the bathtub and eventually moved into their baby coop, then it was sewing a costume for the July 4th parade, then it was constructing a run so the chickens could be transferred safely into a larger space.

Now it's preparing for a Senior Art Show to be held in Santa Rosa, California in late September. I didn't even know about it until our watercolor instructor invited me to participate. I accepted, pleased as punch to be considered, and then the conflict began. Uh, what to show?

After giving it 30 seconds of serious thought, my decision is to produce like a maniac and let the teacher make the decisions about what piece or pieces might be appropriate. I only care that it be new work, not something that turned out (how did that happen?) a couple years ago. Beyond that, it really isn't important to me whether I work in watercolor or pen and ink or a combination, whether the subject matter is dogs, botanicals, chickens, platters of food or something I haven't considered.

Oh, I do prefer small, I will say that. The only art classes I truly disliked were the ones that began with enormous sheets of newsprint and later, enormous sheets of good drawing paper. I always brought in something a little smaller than the smallest allowed and hoped to get by with it, a strategy that sometimes worked, sometimes not. For this show the size is not an issue unless it exceeds the huge 50-inch limitation that has been set, obviously not a problem for me even if I frame several related pieces together.

My immediate plan is to tear up about a thousand pieces of eight inch square good quality watercolor papers and just start working. For now I can do anything I want because I haven't landed on a theme, I've only committed to submit. So... that's the rest of my summer and the beginning of fall. Draw, draw, draw.

Oh, if you're wondering why I'm posting something dated April 6, it's because I had a senior moment this afternoon and misdated the page in my sketchbook -- but that just proves I'm old enough to participate, right?