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Regular studio happenings, new pattern designs and gardening at 8K.

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Jan 23

Our mission (and our tagline) is : keep art in hand. What does that mean? It means all of our designs evolve from an original piece of art — first slide —and then the studio team adapts the original painting or mixed media to a product —see the final slides. I’ve always wanted to blur the boundary between fine art and design, a boundary that often makes no sense to me, and to make fine art accessible to a broader audience by making limited-edition products that are original and anything but mass-produced. So that’s what we do.

Our studio director @ted_maertens is re-photographing new and old products for some press headed our way. The scarf colors really are that saturated and luminous — and mirror the original mixed media. So it all comes full circle. Love it when that happens.

Jan 22

I resolved to play more this year. Over the past couple of years I fell into a habit of focusing exclusively on Isa Catto Studio, or on our non-profit partnerships, or on advocacy and adjacent side projects. I was beginning to burn out, was neglecting friendships, and worst of all my health. —c’mon Isa cancer needs to stay in the rear view! And I forgot the art of spontaneity. Of course I know it’s important to give yourself permission to goof off but somehow I let some judgemental and dour inner critic overwhelm me. Being driven has its place, but everything in moderation. And when the RPM is too high, creativity takes a hit. Lesson learned. So…..
❄️🎿❄️

More snow and a little sunshine and out we went. We were layered from head to toe, from long underwear to outerwear, to guard against frigid temps but had to peel down once we got moving. Most are on the slopes, but we like to be a bit further from the madding crowd and on a different set of skis. Luna is, alas, too old to join us but Rose lives for having fun in the snow.

How do you guard against the all work and no play syndrome?

Jan 17

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that my dreams were saturated with jungle imagery after a trip to the Amazon last November. This time I woke up and did a quick sketch and this is the resulting painting. Maybe for our next collection? I was thinking a List-It but maybe a textile? I looked back at my photos and realized this “dream” plant was a composite of several photos I took of ferns and spores. Always a mystery our subconscious lives. If you are a local and want to hear about why I happened to be in the Peruvian Amazon come to our talk tomorrow at @aces — here is the link: https://aspennature.org/activity/potbelly-perspectives-conservation-and-climate-in-the-peruvian-amazon/

Jan 9

It feels good to be back in the studio, feels good to be dipping a brush in paint. Throwback to last summer’s painting with my first large scale flight pattern series — the Black-Chinned Hummingbird. It’s hanging back in its old spot in our studio gallery after living in our pop-up these past six weeks. I just started my second large scale bird pattern series based on albatross flight patterns so that WIP is coming up. Soon.

Jan 4

When I was in my twenties I had a recurring dream of walking though dense forests not unsimilar from the Virginian woods of my childhood. But I also dreamed of jungles so thick with foliage and vines that the light was constantly disrupted and fugitive. Those dreams drifted away but some of the imagery made it into my early paintings. Decades later I am dreaming of jungles and diffused light once again, stirred up no doubt by a recent trip to the Peruvian Amazon. I decided to use my brush to explore the imagery behind these dreams in hopes of stumbling on a meaning but I have yet to get there. Jungles are universal symbols of the subconscious but there is something else that I cannot grasp. In the meantime, I’ll keep painting.

Jan 1

Happy New Year! I love the “quiet” of January. Here’s to a slower pace, regrouping in the studio and last, but not least, a great semester abroad for my favorite studio model @fionashw. We will miss you and will see you in, gulp, May. And thanks for joining us beloved nephew @greggy_slife!

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