signs of spring

Unfortunately, Chicago got hit with a snow storm on Monday, March 23rd...so these pictures are from a week prior to the snow! BUT hopefully that was it and we are now on our way to a real SPRING!

 Before my school/workday there was a Cardinal at our bird feeder. Thank you Billy, my wonderful husband, for keeping the bird feeders stocked!

 When I walked to school that same morning, this flower was captured in a bed of ice...

That same day on my walk home, the ice had melted and the flower and leaves were in a mucky puddle of old water!

On nice days over my lunch hour (which isn't really an hour) I like to take a walk to clear my head. Those are BUDS on the trees!

Kids riding bikes in spring jackets...definite sign of SPRING!

BUT the real signs of spring for me are the flowers that are peaking through...

                                Enjoy what spring you have....
                                                                                                Lucy

what's with the BIRDS?!

I am planning on having a page on my web site www.getlostintheprocess.com which goes into much detail about my latest project...BUT creating the page is more complicated than I would like so for now I will just do my latest post on the project...

Right before Christmas my friend Laura and I were poking around Anthroplogie and I saw their wonderful window display which featured really cool stuffed birds. I did not have my phone with me so I made Laura take pictures and send them to me. I did not know what I would do with this bit of inspiration, BUT I thought something would develop.

On our car ride down to spend Christmas with our eldest son and his family I was reading the book, Show your Work and for whatever reason the project "Create Peace Birds" popped into me head. I knew I wanted to have art objects out in the world that could be touched and moved. Sort of like Flat Stanley- remember that book? I wanted the pieces to have a message attached and for the pieces to be moved from place to place. Those Anthropolgie inspired birds had never left my mind. Theirs were about the size of a real bird. I knew I wanted mine to be much larger and more whimsical. Thus I worked on a template and created my first bird.

I make the birds out of the paper/fabric I created this past year. I hand dye and paint muslin, then treat it with a mixture of glue, water and iridescent medium to create a canvas like fabric. I created my own stamps and stencil the word Create on one side of the bird and Peace on the other. Each bird has sewn on buttons for eyes and its feathers are pages of my old journals. They are quite wacky.

I write a tag for each bird and attach it around its neck; "Please move to another public space..." with the #-bird, #createpeacebirds, #heartfeltcreate on the back of each tag. I sign the bottom of each bird with the same hashtags and the date. Then send them off into the world. I have been giving them to friends to launch into the public spaces. Funny though, not many birds have made their way out of my friend's homes yet?!

I would like to make 100 birds this year and see where they fly to...I have created an etsy Shop and am planning on selling the birds there as well. We shall see where this takes me next...

                                       Buttons being sewn on the heads of each bird.

                             Each bird comes in a box if I mail it a shopping bag if it is local.

 We have had a few "cold/snow days" which gave me extra time to make these girls!

                           I enclose handwritten directions for releasing each of the birds

                                          These are the original inspiration birds.

I would really like to send a couple of birds to the ISIS groups around the world. Would art make them think a little bit about "Creating Peace?!"

                                            Lucy