Writing the draft of an artist's statement has proven to be more challenging than I expected. It is hard to find a balance between being professional and myself.
In other news, I've been looking at various still life artists. Realistic depictions and dramatic lighting used by Dutch artists from the golden era have proven to be quite helpful as well as more modern still life artists such as Vic Vicini's paintings like the one below.

 Over Thanksgiving break I was able to get some more materials for my paintings including additional brushes and stretcher strips. I look forward to stretching more canvas as starting my next painting and experimenting with the possibility of block printing a suitcase on a series of different backgrounds though I'm unsure of how it will fit in with my other paintings.

Fresh start

    After much deliberation and distress, I have decided to change my project.  I will be returning to one of my five original concepts, one that I dismissed early on but has a lot of potential. My project painting and possibly block printing second hand suitcases.  The suitcases' placement and the background (solid color or pattern) will suggest a narrative to the viewer. 
     I feel that this is not completely different from my world map idea as the root motivation for both comes from my love of travel and different cultures as well a desire to engage the viewer in a narrative. 
     I've already started a painting of a suitcase that belonged to my grandfather when he attended the Carnegie Institute for technology of architecture in 1936/37 and am searching out other suitcases of various types and time periods. I am also playing with the idea of using various frames to contribute to the suggested narrative  of each suitcase.