a mission and a mystery

We'll start with the mystery. That's the photo, above. More on that later. (a tease, I know.) Next, the mission...

...the San Luis Obispo Mission, which I visited yesterday on my trip to the gallery in that town (see yesterday's blog entry). I wasn't going to make a 300 mile round trip and not see something special, so, like a good little Espiscopalian girl, I visited Jesus. It was worth it.

Just look at the texture and color on this stupendous old wood frame:

The nave of the mission is a marvelous study in the simplicity of line:


And look at the wonderful lettering on this old church bell, not to mention the patina:

Okay, back to the mystery.

When last seen, I was struggling with the depiction of texture in my new piece for my friend. Let's call this "Cathie's piece." I was focusing on those wonderful dark shadowy contour lines in the woodcut version of Cathie's photo of Utah (posted a few days ago).

Using an overlay printed on a thin fabric like organza didn't work, so I was going to try to make a screenprint of the lines and silkscreen the lines on my cloth. I will try that. Later. I am taking a class that involves making silkscreens mid-month.

Meanwhile...okay, this blog entry is too long already for one day. Let me just say that I have been to the Salvation Army in search of texture. Yes, texture.

And I was successful.

Here is a picture of my dog Sanjagirl sniffing some texture.


So, the picture at the top of this blog is a piece of some Salvation Army clothing (think Michael Jackson attire -- the middle piece in the photo), altered digitally. I can print that on cloth and use it, and I can cut up the original jacket and use that, too.

Lots lots more on this, I promise.