
As if granting my wish the sky did, indeed, open up. It snowed. And snowed. And it just kept coming. In a period of about three weeks we were bombarded with about seven feet of snow. Having so much snow fall in such a short space of time was even astonishing to this native Iowan. Needless to say it's been a long winter. So when the temperatures reached 60 degrees yesterday, it was as if we were handed a gift from the tropic gods. I was in heaven! Finally, I was able to resume working from my studio. Bliss! Now, I realize that there's part of the story you're missing here so let me fill you in. All through the fall and winter I was happily working from said studio, which is actually a three-season room. I put an electric heater in the space which kept it reasonably toasty. But then the ice dams starting forming on the roof. And the leaking began. In the most awkward of places - it was basically seeping through the top of the window frame which means that it would just slide down the window and splash on the windowsill which sprayed all over anything within a three-foot radius. Not good when you work with paper, like I do. And because this leak was in such an awkward and horrible place I couldn't just catch it in a bucket and work around it. I had to shut off the heat which was warming up the ice, contributing to the melting effect, remove quite a bit of my stuff and just shut up the studio. There it lay dormant for the next several weeks, inhibiting any creative output. And dampening my creative muse.

So I'm happy to report that, with my energy restored, I'm writing this blog from my renewed space and it feels great. And I feel like I can tackle some projects which have been laying on the backburner for quite some time now - namely, a bespoke piece of artwork which was requested by a friend as a birthday present to her husband. Thankfully, I was able to tide him over with a mini piece of artwork in the meantime. I can't wait to get started!