New work
Posted: August 11th, 2010 | Author: Astrid Monique | Filed under: In The Studio | 1 Comment »

What the what!?! I haven’t posted since before I left for my April trip to Venezuela! I have a lot to catch up on.
It was transformative. I came back with lessons that I have always known in my mind driven into my heart and into practice. The trip had many planned purposes – for my partner to experience my wonderful and extensive extended family; for my immediate family to get the chance to travel together as adults and share with each other in completely new ways; to have one last chance to share with the beloved matriarch of our family, my Abuela Teresita; and to rediscover a country that inspired the dreams and creativity of my youth. We accomplished it all and so much more in the span of just a few weeks. A few lessons learned:
By far, the highlight of this trip was working in my grandmother’s glass enameling studio once again. She taught me so much and is with me in spirit as I work everyday. Here are some of the images from the studio that sparked so much of my desire to do what I do:
For the rest of the photos from our trip to Venezuela please follow the three links below:
My friends have been diligently adding to my ever ongoing card catalogue project (http://astridmonique.com/blog/?p=23) but I’ve been completely derelict in posting their wonderful contributions! I unexpectedly received an envelope full of index cards from one of my dearest friends, Elpiniki, months and months ago after she and her fiance came to visit. She made these from photos taken on their flights to and from Seattle. If a little bit of sky is all that separates me from my loved ones then I’ll just have grow wings and to learn to fly…especially to New York City.














Elpiniki Talentino made these cards but you can participate too! see: http://astridmonique.com/blog/?p=23 to learn more about my card catalogue project.
To see Elpiniki’s artwork follow this link: http://www.elpinikitalentino.com/main.html She’s all kinds of wonderful.
and he’s an origami tortoise named Lafayette. He really does a tremendous job of guiding my shuttle. More than one would ever expect of a little paper reptile… but one must always remember to expect the unexpected in the studio. It is the place where all magic is possible.

this:

Just another Friday night in the studio. I’m soaking, peeling, & drying out thin, translucent layers of tree bark from a trunk that washed up on the Washington coast. It’s just occurred to me that what I’m really doing is stripping away from the growth layer just underneath the bark. Growth layer from a dead tree…”Oy”, that means the goo I’m covered in right now is the tree equivalent of placenta. The things I get myself into, I swear.



I’m not sure why or at what point during the making of this piece I felt the need to fashion myself a headdress. Looking back it just seemed like it needed to be done. Yup, that’s how things roll in this studio. The piece pictured here isn’t actually complete so who knows what kind of voodoo will will still need to be whipped out in order to finish it up.
