At long last...

A belated Happy New Year everyone!

It has been so long since my last post, I'm not even sure how to begin again.  The past year has been a mixture of challenges, joys, and frustrations - as I suppose all years are!  But for me, that meant needing a period of time away from my blog.
Beyond Words was intended to be purely a place for sharing my artwork.  Over time, and a deepening of my connection to all of you, I shared more and more words.  More and more of my life, but still it was primarily prompted by my art, an image, a visual representation of me, or my view of the world around me.  Over the past year I stopped creating.  My body, my hands, my energies limited my activity to the pure essentials.  I fell into a depression at the loss of my artist self as I knew here, but had to accept my limitations, and find meaning through other avenues.   

Enter My newest love!

Meet Maki!

Maki is now two years old, a Yorkie Poo rescue, from Saving Paws Rescue, a local no kill, all volunteer organization.  This little guy is full of life and energy, and there isn't a moment I spend with him that I don't feel anything but love and joy.  He's been my life line during my toughest days.  Of course, now that I'm feeling that I can get back to work he's a little reluctant to give up the full attention I gave him, but he's becoming a pretty good studio mate!

And speaking of studio, it is finally, truly finished and organized, and absolutely the most amazing space I've ever worked in.  Here are a few views...

Remember the shelves I was working on last year?
Here they are, finished and filled!
Now I just need a cozy chair to curl up in!!

  

And I have been hard at work in the new year, finishing a sketchbook for the 2013 Sketchbook Project.  If you have never participated in one of the Art House Coop projects, I highly recommend looking them over, especially if you need a kick start to your creative butt!

The Cypher

We were provided with a moleskin sketchbook, which I took apart and re-bound.

I cut windows in every page, and sandwiched in translucent paper squares that I had done asemic writing on.  The surrounding frames were collaged with papers from a variety of sources, in a variety of languages - all unreadable to me, but beautiful in the rhythm and movement of the text and markings.

You can see a few more shots of this book, and other work I've submitted to the Art House Co-op in the past, on my photo page there: Karin's Projects!  

I am glad to be back, and hope to share again soon because of frequent visits to my studio! I don't know how often that will actually be, but certainly not the daily posts of my earliest years, and not merely once every 14 months either!  Thank you all who have reached out during my absence - it has meant everything to me...