Some Studio Fun.....

As though to illustrate yesterday's blog post (so I thought I'd briefly share this) as I was working on preparing some new parchment panels, I had a new idea, certainly fun, possibly ridiculous, but such is the way of new ideas, a leap into uncertainty. Before stretching parchment over plywood panels, I cut out the corners so as to have a neat fold on the back. I am left with piles of little irregular squares, which I always save. What for? who knows? but they're collected in a basket I keep on my work table.

Then I thought back to a year and a half ago, when I used the small squares to do some studies for a textile series, Empty Center, which you can see here. Why not continue to play with these and make some itty bitty abstract paintings, maybe paint both sides to use the translucence of the parchment; maybe make a shallow box out of parchment to hold them, like a treasure chest....maybe. My "little gray cells" were happily whirling thinking about this. I remembered that when I was a little girl, the compliment from my father that made me most proud was "you're using your noodle". 

And an update at 4PM: I made a little test box from some scrap parchment, about 2 3/4 x 5 inches. I envision it painted.