Slow progress

Back home and so happy to see the kids and Neil. Lots of hugging especially from Toby who jumped all over me! Very very wonderful.

On the mosaic front, frustrating but fruitful. As I lay in bed last night I had the idea of repeating a similar swirly shape in the top right of the piece, but in the background colour so that it was subtle - like a shadow of the form. As I discussed my piece with Sonia, she uncannily had the same idea.

By lunchtime I was questioning the extent of the vermiculatum in the piece (which for those new to this term means that you outline each object (worming round it) line after line. It just seemed that where the circles eventually met created focus where I didn't want it. Just not happy to my eye.

As I drove home, I thought about something Sonia had said yesterday - that I need to think conceptually about my work, not just visually.

So I did. To me, this image isn't just pretty swirls. I drew it as I was trying to externalise a deep internal process and experience. It represents things on many levels. A woman with a baby in her womb. A person with a child on their lap. An adult relating to their own vulnerable and wounded self. The 'adult' in the image can have varying relationships with the smaller, more vulnerable being. Despite the co-existence there can be indifference, rejection or love and nurture. It is the latter that I very much want to convey with this piece a sense of beings that are distinct, separate and yet connected in a good way. The more I looked at the pencil lines of the vermiculatum flowing round the two heads, the more I felt that those lines don't convey an exchange of something sacred, loving, nurturing. In fact the lines can read like they are pushing against each other.

I talked it all through with Neil and listened to his thoughts as he has a 'good eye' then played around with the pieces on the board some more - including spreading some beautiful, tiny pink stones in the area between the two heads (hard to see how nice they are in this photo). The image at the top is as far as I have got - nothing stuck down, just swirly ideas in my head. Waiting for it to come together...maybe in my sleep!