A realization: if I make art baskets, I can integrate nearly all of the various components of my varied interests: fiber, plants, nature, fabric, bones, shells, pottery, recycled material, animals (their fiber, bones, horns, etc)...I could incorporate texture, color, scent...the list probably goes on. I could probably even use seaweed and or kelp. :-)

Which isn't to say that I intend to quit making fish!

Because I am aspie, one might expect that I would hyper focus in my work and narrow it down to one subject, done one way, in one medium, etc. I have done this at times. However, this sort of specializing is generally countered by a drive to explore and diversify. My appetite for the sensory pleasures around me can be somewhat voracious. Not as in food or drugs or such...it's more like...huh. Maybe it's some kind of a compensation or reaction from living in my head and thinking so much. The other side of that coin seems to be this sort of wild hunger for earthy things, for intensity of color or different color combinations, for things that smell good or interesting, for sensual textures and for the solidity and energy of the earth. It seems to sort of scare people a little bit to see a grown woman so intensely into things. I don't know. It's like getting high on the ordinary things all around me. It's not obsession, because once I've finally run myself down, I can let it fade gently away and just sort of bask in the afterglow.

Um. That sort of sounds like I was talking about sex. It isn't a bad analogy because actually, that's sort of what it's like. It's as if my brain has this wild orgy on all the sensory things in the woods or arboretum or wherever and then when I've finally had enough, I just feel so calm and relaxed and happy.

Hey, I never claimed to be normal. :-P