Keira McArthur

Third day is a charm. The first two have been about moving in, setting up, getting my bearings – where does the paint go, need a bookshelf, is there room for the sewing machine, where the heck is the gel bucket and why on earth did I bring a guitar …

This circus of a December has me back and forth from my gig work in Owen Sound and the residency in Hamilton – often requiring pre-dawn drives up or down the highway, trips into the cabin, re-arranging storage compartment to gather stuff I need, which has entirely made up for the Y workouts I’ve missed.

Sleep schedule is well distorted, so I often pass out somewhere early in the evening then wake at 2am & get to work – writing bios, planning workshops, curating music (for Wassail Dec 22 in Owen Sound). I’m blessed and grateful to have friends who are cool with texts like this one:  ok, I’m just walking around in aimless circles, need to crash for a bit. Is it okay with you if I come over & crawl into your spare bed now? 

Thank you, Mary, Suze, Christoph, and everyone else who has offered to be part of this process with me by offering a spare bed and bathroom, joining me in workshops, rehearsals and email threads, interviews and painting collaborations. In this way, with shovels full of miracle and wonder, the December mountains are actually moving where they need to go.

Turns out there IS room for the 1956 Singer, yay. It’s a part of my process, the non-expert sewing of quilts – when I need distraction from the pieces in front of me I can zone into this production work and clear my head for the next go. The finished ones will help me with the draft here beside my chair this winter, too…

Portrait work has begun – I have met with three of seven collaborators, and begun the process of determining format, content, research and development of their pieces.

It’s still possible to jump in with the Hamilton Portrait work: two $500-800 collaborations are available, there’s room for $100-$1000 collaborators who would like to contribute funds and curated input towards the final two large portraits of artists of my choice, and I’m now seeking writing and funding collaborators for the printed book.

I’m in the process of setting up a Patreon site to make it easier for folks to jump in – I will add the link here on this post, and write another that’s devoted, in full gratitude, to a personal exchange between me and you, around art, process, music and collaboration.

I’m warming up my practise here in the meantime – playing with paintings from the Bells series, now that I have a wall I can get back from to see. I like the darkness, and the hope in this one & look forward to hearing it ‘ring’ when it’s done. Maybe today….?

While I stare at that one I’m messing around with these small pieces on raw silk. They’ve been hanging around for a while waiting for me to play some more. Acrylic wash over stretched silk, then gel, now dry media – china marker, pencil crayon, chalk pastel. It’s on the wall now with a second layer of gel on it – drying. I’m liking the texture of gel and silk with the dry media. Not sure if there will be a recognizable image on these – if so it will have to wait, since I can’t find my vine charcoal …

I’m loving this.

Thanks for all the support, folks. Big love to you from the Hamilton studio!