The Wisdom of Walt…

Walt Whitman that is.

A fellow blogger has had her life turned upside down  in the recent past, but has also triumphed through it and is seeing the blessings of God shower her life.  She shared this on her blog and I thought it was a true piece of wisdom. Probably because it describes my life as well.

“Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you?

Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you? – Walt Whitman

A type of grass from my neighbor’s yard, might be pampas but not sure.

Making Cloth, Making Art

Some of you might remember these pieces of jar lid resist fabric I posted pictures of a couple of weeks ago. Well, those white circles were just too much contrast for me. I wanted to paint them bronze. Last night I sat and meticulously painted each circle. But not all bronze dyes are made alike…as you can see in this picture…

..it’s too brown!  Today I tried some transparent acrylic paint to make it go more golden…

This is more what I had in mind.  I prefer to use dye paint, but acrylic was faster….just how many days do I want to put into this cloth? I still may mix some yellow dye paint and try it.

In other news, I have been working on my Visioning goals this week.  I got  two small pieces stitched and matted, and worked on one experimental sample, then started another.

Want To See Some Art? Wow.

I don’t usually post videos, but this was so touching and ingenious that I wanted to share it.  Linda over at Creative Textile and Quilting Arts posted this and I am re-posting it.  This is a Ukranian artist creating her interpretation of the invasion and occupation of the Ukraine in WW2.  She does it with a light box, music, and “sand painting”.

Artist Statements

Yesterday morning I was reading some information on Alyson Stanfield’s site about the Artist Statement. She had a link to a blog by a girl who had followed Alyson’s particular advice about having a good artist statement and how to arrive there.  I found it interesting how her artist statement changed as she followed Alyson’s advice.  Here is the link to Deb Paris’ blog if anyone wants to read it. http://deborahparis-apaintinglife.blogspot.com/2009/01/statement-by-artist.html

I found myself going to read MY artist statement.  Recently I had to submit one with entries into the Form, Not Function exhibit in New Albany, IN.  I submitted one that has been written for at least a year, maybe 2.  It seems, according to Alyson, that artist statements can be pretty important.  I hadn’t really done any recent revisions to mine, but gave it a brief glance and sent it on with the entries.

After reading all of this information  (does anyone spend too much time on the computer like me?…but I learn so much…), then going back to my statement, I could see where one particular line didn’t fit at all with the entry I sent.  Now my statement was originally written as an overall statement of the genre of my work.  It was NOT written for the specific work I sent for jurying, and I’m  still not sure if it was supposed to be. Rayna Gillman sent me her statement and artist bio so I could get an idea of what is supposed to be there. I know I totally messed up on my bio, speaking mainly about where I have come from, but not really speaking much to today’s accomplishments. Oh well, live and learn. Looks like I need to do some more work!

This past weekend I learned that judges in a certain show wanted to give a best of show award to a certain artist, but because of the way her statement was worded, they didn’t.  Wow…maybe it can really make a difference.  In her case, another person was involved in making the art and it sounded like the judges were confused about who actually did the work.

It’s something to think about.

Photo of the day…pine trees on my lane…if I was a kid again, this is where I would play.

A Bit of This ‘N That…

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged…I have no excuse…just busy doing other things.  Last week it seemed like I spent the whole week working on silk scarves.  I needed to deliver some for consignment on my trip to Evansville, so I was dyeing a few, making a pile for consignment and a few for my stash as well as photographing, then listing my stash on etsy.  I am trying to be regular with etsy since it is the holiday season and sales will be happening.  I sold several scarves last year out of my etsy shop and I would like to be ready for shoppers!

Here is a silk chiffon I dyed.  It is a 44″ square.  I usually do more than one layer on these, but I think it’s beautiful the way it is and I’m not sure I want to add more to it.

I also joined the Visioning project on SAQA this past week.  The project is supposed to help me get organized, aim for goals and hopefully reach them.  At the same time, there are artists more advanced than I that will check my page and give me helpful hints. Yesterday I spent some time writing on my page about my goals just for this week.  While I was soaking in the tub yesterday morning, I had several ideas float through my brain, so writing helped me to get it in print, which helps me focus better. I also didn’t want to forget those ideas, so I write.  I have a solo show in late 2011, and I am hoping that the Visioning project will help me get prepared for that, if for no other reason than I will make commitments and stick to them.

Silk Charmeuse, deconstructed screen printed and thermofax screened

Friends…

My husband and I moved to southern Illinois about 8 1/2 years ago.  We lived in Edwardsville, which is across the river from St. Louis, MO.  I left several good and close friends when I moved. Most of them were friends I had made after I began to learn quilting and our friendships involved quilting together.  The quilting community has good people and good friendships.

Yesterday I made a trip to meet up with one of my friends to celebrate birthdays and exchange gifts and spend time together.  We try to meet up twice a year. It was good to see her and we went to the Alco store to do some shopping before having lunch.  We found really GREAT  bargains on area rugs.

My friend has taken up knitting since I left…this is what she made me for my birthday….thanks, Vicki, I miss ya’ and love ya’. Isn’t it gorgeous!

More This ‘N That…

Last week I was playing around with some ideas for new art. I painted some construction fence designs to have cloth to use. I actually found that painting the cloth with fabric paints was rather therapeutic. I enjoyed doing it, although I don’t know if I would have the patience to do all my work this way. Painting a stenciled design is slow going at best. Here is the progression of the cloth.

Then I wrote quotes about fences on it.

I also started some new small pieces for the art fair coming up in December.  Free form piecing was the technique of choice and using scraps of fabric in the same color scheme made sense.  I could sit and do free form piecing all day long. I used leftover fabrics from a larger piece I did earlier in the year for a show. Funny how I pieced with the same colors I painted…

Now, to layer and stitch.  I just laid the mats on them to see what they looked like.

This week I don’t think I’m being nearly as productive, but I do have a couple of rag quilts to work on for a girl from my church.  She wants them for Christmas presents, so I got started cutting all the squares and batting for those yesterday.  Today I am making a flopped recipe for gingerbread squares.  Ah, life.  Tomorrow I am meeting up with a good friend to celebrate her birthday.

Speaking of Art…

Lots of textile and quilt artists enter the art quilt shows.  Me, not so much.  I joined the Arts Council in the next state and town 1 hour away from me, in order to participate professionally with other artists and to promote textiles as art.  Last fall there were 8 members who were asked to participate in a Textile exhibit.  It was an awesome exhibit and everyone’s work was so different from the others. (Of course, I could be partial, being a big fan of textile art and surface design.)  But I did hear it got rave reviews and probably introduced textiles as art in an area that supports a lot of painters.

I came across Joanne Mattera Art Blog today and found it very interesting.  She has two posts called Marketing Mondays: How Dealers Are Considering Artists Now.  There is a part 1 and part 2. She has been interviewing art dealers to ascertain how they are viewing the art market at this time in our economy.  I found it very interesting and hope that it might be for someone else!

Structural

About Food…And Right Brain Thoughts

Warning!  If you don’t want to read about food, skip this post!

I am home today!  I don’t think I have been home on a Saturday for the last two months!  So today I am making our “weekend meal”.  Yesterday my husband brought home some fresh picked turnips from the farm, dirt and all.  I cooked a small pan of those and mashed them with butter, salt and pepper, and sugar.  Yumm.  I am also fixing “Deviled Baked Steak”…how appropriate for the season! (I just thought of that while I write. :=)  Round steak dredged in a seasoned flour blend, then browned in oil.  Topped with sliced onions and a tomato-brown sugar mixture, this steak dish bakes for 2 hours into melt-in-your-mouth wonderfood. I will be serving it with mashed potatoes.

I am also trying out a new bread pudding recipe called Caramel Bread Pudding. The caramel sauce prepares in the bottom of the dish while the bread pudding is baking on top. (I’m so domestic today! :=) Actually, I’m probably avoiding cleaning the garage, a task I really need to get around to!)

Since I haven’t been home on Saturdays for so long…we have been just grabbing whatever is in the house to eat on Saturday nights and Sundays (that gets boring), so this will be a treat.

So…what have I been up to this week?  One of my goals was to get my Etsy shop loaded up with my ArtFul Cloth bags since I am having a showcase on Tuesday, October 27th.  I needed to have at least 10 of them listed just to be ready.  Since I have recently gone through a hard drive crash with SOME of the bag pictures on the desktop, I had to do the photography and editing all over again. :=(  This is my first showcase and I have no clue how it will all go, but I am ready.

I have had a textile piece on the wall for a long time that I felt inspired to work on yesterday.  By that I mean, I had some ideas on how to proceed!  So I spent some time with it.  Why is it, when the urge and inspiration hit (and it’s been awhile since I’ve had time or the frame of mind for it), the phone rings.  I could have not answered it, but felt I needed to.  But the whole time I’m finding myself irritated and wanting to get off the phone, which I finally did.  I didn’t want to “lose the moment” or the time.  These times are precious when they come and with the weekend coming and the prospect of my husband being home, I wanted that hour and I wanted it uninterrupted and my mind free to create.  I’m beginning to see that in the left brain world that we live in, no one (except artists, of course) understands the right brain world. The society we live in is not extremely willing to give it place, to give it time or attention.  We are a left brain society for the most part and give honor to the left brain achievers with regularity.

I believe to be successful, an artist needs time to think, really think, to dream, to ponder, to meditate, to notice, to scrutinize.  Coming from the work oriented background that I do, I find it difficult to even give myself that time.  It seems “wasteful” somehow.  When I was growing up, I remember being accused of “daydreaming”, but now I know what that is…it is the right brain wanting to create something.

I read about all these artists creating in their journals every day and it seems totally unreachable to me.  I do spend time online every day “enriching my mind” mostly with news articles and some artists’ articles as well as picking up email and taking care of business.  Perhaps I spend too much time there? I’m a one woman show…with marketing and office work and all promotion on my shoulders as well as creating new work and trying to earn an income to pay for my business expenses. The time may yet come when I will let some things go…I don’t know yet.  All I know right now is that I have an art fair coming up in December that I would like to have some new work for, but I have no ideas.  I think I must be taking a breather after being so busy for the last two months. Perhaps my brain needs a rest…zzzzzzzzzz.

This ‘N That

I have been running around a lot for the last two months solid, so it is nice to finally be at home without having somewhere to be this weekend.  I have been catching up on some cleaning and doing some cooking, for a change of pace, as well as anxiously looking forward to creating some of my own work again.

But in between the cooking and cleaning, under the pretext of  “I need to use up this dye”, I have been creating some cloth.  It is time to clean up the patio workspace and using up the dye is a way of rewarding myself for it. This is two fat quarters in coordinating shibori patterns.

And another coordinated set of fat quarters…

This one I poured several colors on.  The pattern was made by clamping it with small spring clamps that are two inches long.  I was totally surprised and delighted with how the patterning came out on it.  It was a paint rag and I think it has some metallic paint on it too. I will be making more of this pattern.