I spend a good portion of time on my daily hikes looking either down at the ground or up towards the sky and tree tops. On the ground, I find many natural materials that I can use either by drawing inspiration from their form or by incorporating my natural treasures right into the sculptural work.

On this particular walk, I came across an area of empty snail shells. I began to wonder why the shells were empty. I created various stories to explain this phenomenon. In the end, I brought the vacant shells back to the studio and began to create some snail-like creatures emerging from the shells.

I have also created an Octopussy sculpture to accompany the paintings. Here is an in-progress shot of one of the sculptures and an up close detail of one of the "suckers" on the tentacle.

Here are three new paintings, including a detail shot of a completed Octopussy.

I continued working on the smaller plant today by creating another layer of tiny teeth that fanned outwards. While it may not seem like much progress from the previous day, this type of detailed work is more time-consuming than imagined. Also, showing daily progress while working in sculptural mediums is proving to be a challenge which I have created for myself during this month.

I started a second, smaller carnivorous plant sculpture. I am trying to plan ahead in terms of transporting these artworks back to the states, so I am leaving the wire stems uncovered and flexible to make it easier and more compact for shipping.

Enough said.

This was a day for writing and reflection.

I took a break from sculpting the carnivorous plant today to return to my Man O' War paintings. I have also begun a new set of images, titled Octopussies. Together, these paintings will create a new body of work, called Under The Sea.

The two-part resin that I am using to create the sculpture requires over night to cure. This forces me to slow down my process. I also have limited myself to the 5-lbs of resin which I brought in my luggage. These limitations are an exercise in restraint. I can only progress at a certain rate and I also must be very deliberate in how I use the material.

Here, the sculpture is shown upright with two of the tiny-toothed flowers next to it.

Before arriving in Spain, I was creating a series of carnivorous flowers. Here, I have decided to make an entire carnivorous plant. I spent today creating tiny-toothed flowers that will eventually be attached to the plant.