Preparations for East Side Pride

I secured booth space at East Side Pride, a festival in McSpadden Park (near the Commercial/Broadway Skytrain, for any local readers). I am very excited. It has been a while since I have publicly shown my work. And I love the East Side Pride festival. It is held on the historical anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which was a major event in the history of gay rights.
 Now, as the date of the festival approaches, I have to get busy and create more art. Not just the big, controversial sociopolitical statement pieces I've been inspired to create lately, but smaller, happier pieces that would be more marketable at a festival. I have been working with small canvas, which is much different, and challenging in some ways, compared to the large canvas I usually prefer. I have also rediscovered my old love of creating God's Eyes or Ojos di Dios. These are, for anyone who is unfamiliar, a spiritual object that was made by the Huichol tribe in Mexico. It is a fairly simple, straightforward weaving, but the results are beautiful. I am enjoying the work of creating them for the festival, and am considering making some as gifts for family and friends. There is something meditative and relaxing about creating simple weavings. It is a different sort of creativity than the frenzied chaotic creativity of painting. It is more grounding, in a way. When I work with textiles, I feel connected to the generations that came before me, who also worked in this simple, basic way to create sacred objects. Between my art, school, work, and socializing, I don't have a lot of spare time these days. But I love it.