I've been struggling with what to call this new series. Aerial Landscapes? Border Control? Emotional Terrain? My new series hovers between a physical map of Europe's borders and the emotional turmoil of the migrants crossing the borders. Not like I could relate at all to what these migrants are enduring but I want to dig into what goes through their  minds as they cross this physical terrain, inching closer to freedom and, hopefully peace, every day. What happens when they see that border fence? Is it terror because it's closed or relief because they're one step closer to a new, and hopefully better, life.  What have they left behind? I can't even comprehend the emotions around that.

There's a delicate balance between the physical and emotional worlds in these pieces I'm making. Each decision is carefully considered. Do I want to show something physical here (like a lake or a river) or do I want to show an emotional hurdle? Is there a way to show both at the same time? What do these migrants see when they come upon a river or a lake? Frustration that they have to go around it or happiness to see something beautiful. I have this strange longing to jump into the landscape the migrants are experiencing and see it first hand. It's how I want to see through this new body of work.

After so many successful years blogging about craft artists, I succumbed to Instagram. The one thing that Instagram doesn't have though is space to discuss one's work, hence a new blog to track my musings on my art and process in the studio. 

After putting my Foreclosure Quilts to rest earlier this year with the culmination of my Washington DC quilt shipping off to live in the Smithsonian (!), I was eager to jump on a new body of work. And it's coming together but it needs some elaboration to go with it that Instagram just doesn't provide.

So stay tuned for a bigger picture about my new series of aerial landscapes about the border controls happening in Europe right now.