Just finished up the Ace of Wands; I have a nasty cold, and so that made finishing details and writing up its description for the book rather challenging. Heh–maybe the Ace of Wands is reversed for me today; there are obstacles in my path! Still, the joyous energy of this card is even more infectious for me than a rhinovirus, and I persevered through the sneezing and Kleenex.

Does the backboard for this piece look a little familiar? That’s not surprising–it’s a secondhand bamboo cutting board! I buy these by the armload from local thrift stores; the ones that are really badly cut up rarely get bought otherwise, but the wear and tear makes them perfect for my art. This one has been stained with some secondhand red wood stain that I got from SCRAP a while back, and the red really makes the scratches and cuts pop visually.

Also, this card is the sixth I’ve completed. In order to meet my goal of completing all 78 assemblage pieces by the end of the year, I need to complete 6.5 each month. I’m actually ahead of schedule, because the first half of January got eaten up by Curious Gallery, and so I’ve basically done my month’s worth of work in about two weeks. I’m going to try to keep the pace up, because as the year rolls on I’m going to run into busier times, like the summer festival season. So I’ll take advantage of windfalls of time when and as I can, and if all goes well I’ll meet or beat my deadline.

Finally, because a few people have asked–yes, these are permanent assemblage pieces, not just temporary arrangements. That’s part of what takes so long to put them together–you’d be amazed how much time I spend waiting for paint and adhesives to dry!