“Your mind is a garden, your thoughts are the seeds…”

Over the last couple of months, I have fallen off the face of the earth. Again. At least off of the blogosphere anyway.

It has been a crazy couple of months for me, to say the least. Work has been stressful and I was in the process of being interviewed for a new job. Not to mention the start of the new COVID school year for my two daughters.

But enough excuses.

I certainly owe you several updates on my artistic endeavors.

The process

As you may remember, we left off with me sculpting a white human brain on black satin and attaching a red morning glory in the center. If you have no idea what I am talking about (or just need a refresher), check out the previous blog post here. Building up the brain was a long and tedious process, but you can watch a super sped up segment of it here:

After building up the brain cortex to about 1″ from the fabric, I had to transition from working on an embroidery hoop to the final frame. I really haven’t missed the process of stretching fabric with sewn-on beadwork onto glass.  I used to do it for my earlier artwork.  But for the last couple of years, I have been working on pre-stretched canvas.  So much easier!

For this project however, I was planning to put it inside of a shadow box, so I really had no choice.  I was holding my breath as I was sewing it in the back – really afraid that despite all of my measurements it wouldn’t be centered.  Not to mention the nerve-wrecking act of putting 3D beadwork down on its face…

It seems like it turned out OK though.

The interpretation

At the end of my previous blog post, I asked the readers what they think might be the meaning behind this work (and I welcome your comments below as well). While it is not quite what I had in mind, I received a wonderful quote in the comments.

“Your mind is a garden, your thoughts are the seeds. You can grow flowers or you can grow weeds.”

There are different opinions online about who has said this, so I am not going to risk specifying an author. But it makes so much sense! I just wish I could follow this advice more often…

While I am not yet ready to share how this brain has turned out, please check out the other currently available artwork in my Gallery.