Still in progress on this one, but I’m stuck. I’ll probably file it away for a few months and come back to it.

So, now I have a nice frame. Just need to find something to put in it.

About a month ago, I had a head cold. This is even so typical for me at this time of year that I paid it no mind. If I *had* been paying it some mind, maybe I would have spent that day running around outside in the wind and cold. That day took an almost finished head cold and mutated it into a sinus infection - an all new expierence for me, and not one I really needed.

But hey, I’m game. These things happen. Two rounds of antibotics and decongestants later, I’m still in pain. Not so much pain as before, but not tip top. So I go back to the doctor. That was Tuesday. I got *new* antibotics and some perscription nose spray. Come Wednesday, I’m feeling a little better. And then thursday hits, and the pain in my sinuses gets replaced by a sharp throbbing pain right above my front teeth. This is close enough to my sinuses (in particular, the lower right side where I’d been having all the problems to begin with) that I chalk it up to stress. (HR thought it was a good idea to tell me that I had to “make up time” because I was out for half the day. At the doctors! I could have called out sick for the entire day and there wouldn’t have been a problem, but I thought I’d do the responsible thing. Silly me. Grrr… crush… but that was settled before the day was over.)

Thursday rolls around, and I feel like shit. I figure it’s the antibotics kicking my ass as they are wont to do. Bill tries to get me to call out, but no. Far too much work on my desk. Evening comes around and that new sharp pain above my teeth is joined by a nice swollen lump. So today has been two doctor’s offices, and yes, I have an abcess. And an appointment with my dentist tomorrow. And Tylenol with codene. Did I mention the amazing sparkley light headed making pain that happens when a doctor pops the abcess?

In all likelihood, this means root canal. Which I’m not looking foward to. on the other hand, I have this massive jones to re-watch Celestial Navagation:

JOSH: What the hell happened?
C.J.: I had woot canaw.
JOSH: What happened to your cheeks?
C.J.: I had woot canaw.
JOSH: Why are you talking like that?
C.J. (louder): I had woot canaw!
JOSH: Yeah, I heard you the first time, I was just amusing myself.
C.J.: I can suggest some othew things you can do wiff yourseff.
JOSH: Are you in pain?
C.J.(shouts): I had woot canaw!
(grabs her jaw with a pained expression)

So, I want to play with knotwork and triangular spaces. This happened.

Sometimes I start a piece with something specific in mind, like “make something with this specific joodle, or build within a trangular or circular framework, or make something that feels celtic/noveau/deco/modern/etc…”

Then there are other pieces that just happen when I’m not paying attention. Like this one. I like these the best.

So, we’ve got this tool called…. The Rasterbator. Er, yeah. But this is what it does - you upload an image, and it spits back a multi page PDF version that you can print out and use to paper your walls. (up to 20 meters large)

Sometimes I go overboard on detail. I don’t know if it’s a side effect of being nearsighted, or that I’m a little obsessive, but there you have it. The biggest difference between the “overly detailed” pieces I do now and the ones I did back in high school, would be that I have (possibly) learned a bit about balance and composition. Back when, I would start doodling and wind up with a whole page full of shapes and lines, with none of it really going anywhere. Then again, my whole purpose with those early pieces was not to produce a finished work so much as to avoid falling asleep in class.