The going has been rough these past several months, waves of unfavorable events kept washing up my shores, making at times hard to contain the stressful residue of momentary discouragement... I have not been able to work at my work much.

Things are diffused in surreal moments in black and white, landscapes awaiting re-awakening through hands in motion, and a healing absence of thought.
I have not been working at my work much, I have had to tend to matters of life that kept me away from the bench, and away from the drawing table.

And yet, enduring these times, keeping the eyes on the prize, never letting go!

The Season of the Heart continues and it's full-blowing...and I have to admit, I resisted the hearts ALL those seasons!
​But not anymore, today I am out of the closet and I bring hearts with me!
Been enjoying myself in the studio these past few weeks, defying the cold, no firewood, and the broken space heater that sat next to me, nonetheless, pretending.

Well, I have no excuses.
I wrote before I was never into this 'heart' thing, admitted I toiled with some of them...but NEVER thought I would be caught in the act!
Gotta say though, all those 'heart' memories gave some itching to my hands, and I just could not resist.
Not anymore.

So here we go, blushingly disclosing my latest 'heart-shaped' happy ongoing experiments in the studio...it's play time, and I like it!

Picking up from an older project, almost a year from today.
Woke up in the middle of the night recently, eyes wide open, like something calling from afar and, all of a sudden, I saw this:

Notes and scribblings on copper to remind me of thing to make, sooner or later...
​My hands are itching to explore, a fresh push for new beginnings...

It's been hot in the studio and the showroom progress slow, but steady.
In between several breaks, fans twirling and innumerable glasses of water, I think I have the final overall setup down.

Got all the recycled black rubber mats in place (which my blessing of a 4-legged companion seems to like very much!), putting the rest of my show and booth equipment to good use, have white canvas I can use for curtains and lights to assemble, and then...ready to go in July!

It's slowly coming together.
After more than a year of gaps, false starts, regrouping and simply stalling I rolled up my sleeves (it's also getting warm here...) and picked up the first piece of clutter - my tent weights, actually, that had been sitting in the front part of the studio collecting a lot of dust..

A little over 200 square feet, front part of my studio in industrial Santa Fe, high up on the mesa.
The building needs work and repairs, it's a raw live/work space I landed a few years back, after my last troubled relocation, it's a C2 also (meaning commercial​ zoned) so I could technically open up to the public...

I do not own the place and got weary of patching things up to near perfection (I know, no such thing exists) and so decided to make do with what I have, which is a lot.
Basically, I am setting up a comfortable booth space with all my tarp and display cases and lights (still have to pull those out) and they are many.

I still have a few things to relocate (what am I going to do with that fence?), but definitely building and playing around with my electrical conduit bits and pieces, and using my famous trash cans for display allure and actual storage. 
Not sure what the 'tower' on the right in the picture above will actually be...
For now it has a gong hanging on it, a memory of child fun at my grandparents house, the stick is missing the top part, but I know I have it somewhere and it will be fixed.

I am planning of starting my studio visits weekends sometime this month, I just need a few more touches in place before I can turn to the fine tuning...
Whether you live in town or visiting, I look forward to welcoming you to my showroom soon, sign up below for an official invitation!

Recycling is in progress on the bench: these are the first two pairs of new earrings I am looking forward to add to my Slices collection this Spring.

These are leftover thin sticks bits and pieces from my cutting of squares and circles out of thick yellow brass...
​I wasn't quite sure at first if I should let them stand alone as a mini series or whether I should add them to an existing line...well, of course they belong to the Slices collection!
​They match the colors, and the simple, striking vibe. 

new earrings in the making, working on something simple and not too boring...

experimenting with copper sheet with pierced motifs, a simple circle cutout and foreseeing fun colors!

wondering how everybody is doing deep into this augus...just 3 days to close.
among all the turmoil outside, i have been finding refuge (literally) upstairs in my studio, under a very low ceiling at a desk under a bright skylight...
scored 18 of these little ones this month, and for now piling them up to ready them for future endeavors.

see you there!