food

a glimpse into my diet - monica lacey 2013

I often feel pretty darn lucky to have access to such abundance when it comes to food. Even with this much food in the fridge I'm thinking it's time to get groceries. It's all relative of course. I'm looking forward to summer when I can get back to growing some of what I eat! See Juliana's photo here & Minka's here. Don't forget to check out my fundraising page & contribute if you can - there are some great perks!

portrait

sit still - monica lacey 2013

See Juliana's photo here & Minka's here.

black & white

So I have some news to share:  I got accepted as artist-in-residence at Elsewhere in Greensboro, North Carolina! It is a 'living museum' housed in a former thrift store, and the artists who go there (6 at a time) get to create work on-site using all the crazy materials that remain from the owner of the thrift store (who was a hoarder in the best possible way!). It's a huge honour to be accepted (it's highly competitive) and I am so excited to go there and get inspired! I'm sure I will live on that fuel for a good long while. The thing is, I can't really afford it. This artist gig doesn't pay that well (yet!), so I created a crowd-funding page in the hopes of raising some money to help with the trip & cost of the program. If you feel moved to contribute, which you can do here, I am offering some great perks - including prints from this photo-a-day project! And then when I get really famous (which I will, mark my words!), you'll be able to say you helped with that success.

My image for today is a close-up of a sculpture I made by knitting reed together using broom handles.

tangled dreaming - monica lacey 2013

See Juliana's photo here & Minka's here. Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!

spring

Spring? Let's just say that here in PEI, we're not quite there yet. Hence my response to today's theme.
See Juliana's photo here & Minka's here.

spring? - monica lacey 2013

art

If you are reliably there, it begins to show itself - soon it begins to arrive when you do. But if you are only there sometimes and are frequently late or inattentive, it will appear fleetingly, or it will not appear at all. Why should it? It can wait. It can stay silent a lifetime. Who knows anyway what it is, the wild, silky part of ourselves without which no poem can live? 
- Mary Oliver on inspiration & creativity

In my brief & humble experience so far, I've found that being an artist full-time means a couple of things for me:  a) I'm working constantly, all the time. I go for a walk and I see things that become ideas for projects. A random conversation becomes fodder for a new piece. I can't really turn it off. b) the actual inspiration, a.k.a. the fuel to create a physical piece, comes in great spurts and waves and can only be summoned by showing up regularly to the studio and leaving a few 'crumbs' around, like bits of things that are interesting to me and may lead somewhere.

This is what happens when I 'show up' and get to work.

my work table, march - monica lacey 2013

See Juliana's photo here & Minka's here.

shenanigans

Since we got a kitten, there are plenty of shenanigans around our apartment. Johnny the cat provides us with endless entertainment. In the mornings when I do my yoga practice, he likes to sneak onto the mat while I'm in downward dog, casually lies down and waits for me to lower down on top of him before he runs away. Sometimes he likes to attack my hair when I'm lying down. This is a shot of him playing with the elastic I use to tie up my yoga mat. He loves it. See Juliana's photo here & Minka's here.

johnny, sunday morning - monica lacey 2013

colour

tulips for the grey days - monica lacey 2013

Around this time of year I like to keep my house stocked with fresh flowers, must keep hopes up after all.  March now though, we're in the home stretch of winter. If you need a little pick-me-up & don't have any tulips, watch this. And this. Minka Bartels is our guest photographer for the month of March - welcome Minka! See Juliana's photo here & Minka's here.  Big thanks to Lee Clarke for joining our project in February!