My doll club has been trying to break into the art gallery world. We do one of a kind art dolls, which we really should call mixed media sculpture. One gallery loved our portfolio, but turned us down because they do wall-hung art and have no pedestals.

So we put together a portfolio of wall-hung dolls! We call the collection "Out of the Box." One of my entries is "Ctrl Alt Delete" for whom I've been collecting parts for some time. He is rigged to be converted into a marionette. Like so many of my dolls, he's hard to photograph. The large pin connector below his eyes is supposed to be his nose. His mouth is the wide green thing below that. His ears are little speakers, one round, one rectangular. His feet are mice. I need to get some closeups.

When I can find some black braided fishing line, I'm going to spring him from the case and rig him up as a marionette.

Am I the last person in the world to notice this or are my two cats weird? I just discovered that not only do they NOT like their fresh water cold, they like it decidedly WARM!

DCWORX.COM is up and running

Hubby-person/partner has been slaving away at getting the web site up for our Hand Print Banners project. It ain't quite art yet, still a little rough around the edges, but it's UP!!!

Hand Print Banners is something we've been doing for most of the new century. (Now, that's fun to say!) It's a bit of a small voice crying in the wilderness, but that's how great ideas usually start, and I think this is a great one. And it's all HIS idea, I'm just the charge artist on it. He is the most creative idea machine I've ever known. But he can't draw for beans! Which is just as well, otherwise what would he need me for?

Please visit www.dcworx.com and click on the Project button below the D of DCWORX to go to the Hand Print Banner section. Let me know what you think. Does it make sense? Do you see what we're trying to do? We will be adding more and fine-tuning - got a misnamed graphic missing and a stray thingie in the middle of the PUBLIC ART EVENTS section. Got a ton of pictures, but we have to be careful to avoid anyone being recognizable, especially kids.

Then, it's on to the other pages, like his RiverGlass and the ePub pages. Why have I only got three hands? I could get so much more done.

An artist friend once said, "What I want to do, for ME, has eluded me."

Boy, did that resonate for me! For 35 years, I did "art to order" by designing theatre costumes and scenery on assignment. People would ask what show I would really want to do and I had no idea! Still don’t.

It does get hard to hear your own drummer in the clammor of making a living. You have too long attended to outside influences to follow the advice, “Just let yourself go.” Yeah, sure. You're in the habit of ignoring what it is you love and what speaks to you. Of course, you know what you're supposed to do, but the question is really how to do it.

Many years ago Shelley Berman said something that rang a bell for me. I will have to paraphrase very roughly but the gist was that when he was caught dozing or staring into space, he would say he wasn't sleeping, he was creating. It's actually true for me.

I do my best thinking in that lovely place between being awake and sleep. In the dark, head under a pillow so there's no visual input available, I wander around in my mind. I sculpt, or draw, or paint in my head. Or I will "see" something already finished. If I go to sleep thinking about something, I can pick the thread right up when I awaken....which happens several times in the night for this old girl. I also prefer soaking in a tub to showering and have learned to doze into that place there. Especially if I have a few candles burning instead of any electric lights.

Music helps, too, but it must be something that I don't know the words to. Classical or jazz, or what they call on NPR music from the hearts of space - Philip Glass type stuff. It is essential to be in non-verbal mode.

I long ago learned that I dare not put pencil to paper until I can see an image fairly clear in my head, which I must close my eyes to see. If I start sketching too soon, what the pencil does seduces me and I lose the image in my head.

There's a strong element of right brain orientation here. When what you want is WAAAAAY off to the right, over several hills and across untold distance, that definitely calls for a Philip Glass soundtrack.

Take heart, everybody in northern climes above the equator, Spring IS on the way. Here in Houston, my azaleas, narcissis and redbud have all begun to bloom. And bindweed rules!

I'm working against the clock on a doll that has to be photographed on Saturday. The theme is "Out of the Box" so I'm doing Pandora. Due to the diaphanous nature of Greek costume, she has to be a full body sculpt - cold porcelain over papier mache over a wire armature. The more I work in c.p., the more I like it! This is a homemade air dry clay whose only fault is a tendency to crack as it dries because it shrinks. Not really much of a problem, tho, because it can be patched absolutely seamlessly with more clay after it dries. You just work it in stages. Modeling also can be built up in stages. And I can get such a nice smooth finish!

As I sculpt, I marvel at how differently we use our hands in different activities. I am irrevocably left-handed. I draw, paint, write, sew, wield a kitchen knife all with my left hand - although that last one distressed my grandmother so much she would leave the room.

However, I shoot and operate a mouse or trackball with my right. Both of these resulted from practical considerations. My left eye doesn't focus so Dad wisely pointed out that since it already felt unfamiliar in my hands, I should learn to shoot right-handed.

I remembered this when it got to be so much bother to switch the mouse back and forth on the computer I shared with the right-handed husband. Now I'm very skillful at computer drawing and stuff with the right hand, can't do a lick with the left.

Sculpting I do totally ambidextrously, often using both thumbs simultaneously to achieve the necessary symmetry.

I have come to realize that being left-handed in a right-handed world is no handicap at all, but an advantage. Ha!