Still settling down

It feels like this move from Argentina to Panama is taking forever to accomplish. We have been here for almost three months now, but still having this "we're camping" feeling. Our boxes are due out of the port of Buenos Aires today, but no one knows for sure if that ship will sail - and I mean it literally.

Among the new flat related activities, and still without a desk to speak of (or a good internet connection, really), I've been working on this:

They're new designs coming soon to abbrigate*, inspired by the traditional portuguese lover's embroidered handkerchiefs. I think that they are beautiful, even if you can't read the messages. But reading them in all their unorthodox orthography glory certainly adds to the charm.

Speaking of embroidery - now this is a long topic - the Museum of Art and Design in New York has a wonderful book about it, more specifically a catalogue of one of its exhibitions, featuring plenty of interesting artists who use embroidery as a medium. I was a bit disappointed to see that portuguese artist Lourdes Castro wasn't featured, since she was already using embroidery back in the sixties, I believe. (here's a pdf for a more comprehensive outlook on portuguese contemporary art, you can download this pdf; a very succint presentation of artist Lourdes Castro is available here)

The catalogue is, however, a very interesting source of inspiration served as the final push to get hold of the (sewing) needles. It felt, from the beginning, like a whole new world was opening ahead of me and that this was another perfect medium to go on illustrating. I'm in love with it, can you tell?

Just don't ask me to cross-stitch. It's still a taboo after all those years in school, filling enormous surfaces with tiny little crosses. No. Maybe one day, but certainly not now.