When I’m looking for what my next piece will be, I am drawn to my “sacred spaces” – in this case I was inspired from an image from my wedding at a lake house in the fall 5 years ago.

This was started at the Camano Island show back on Mother’s Day weekend, and it had been in process since then. I wanted to use vibrant colors – in the tree alone are all kinds of greens, yellows, reds, and some teal/blues. I continued the jewel tones into the water. The sky contains a lot of yellow, with some purple and teal to tie it all together. I experimented with some new textures for the water and sky as well. Gotta keep things interesting!

And, like always, this was under a deadline and it really came down to the wire. I needed to turn it in this weekend for the MN State Fair, and due to some poor planning on my part I had a lot of hours of work left going into the week. It felt impossible. I literally spent every free waking minute gluing. So much gluing. My husband kept me fed, and all other responsibilities went by the wayside for a week. It felt like the college experience of getting ready for an art critique, but my days of being able to stay up late for nights on end and still be able to operate at 100% are basically over. I still love the adrenaline rush though.

The other piece that I was absolutely determined to do was build a custom frame. I wanted something unique (beyond a standard black frame) to highlight the tree. Also, since this would be hanging in the ginormous space of the Fine Arts Building, it needed to be pretty substantial. My husband thought I was crazy when I first sprung it on him that this was what I wanted to do, but of course he was up for the challenge and with me every step of the way (including making multiple trips to Home Depot when it took me a few attempts to cut the glass – oops!). In the end, I think it was worth it, and I’m excited about the framing possibilities in the future.