Some Thoughts About Making Art

I guess I really should get out more; I learn things.  I just returned from seeing Fiber: 2010, an exhibit sponsored by Missouri Fiber Arts (MoFA) and the Foundry Art Center in St. Charles, MO.  The exhibit consisted of all kinds of fiber work, tapestries, woven  pine needle items, felted items, some quilts, and other types of fiber pieces.  As I began to walk through the show from the first part of it, my first reaction was this:  How did I ever get in this show?  The tapestries were exquisite…the work was wonderful.  I hadn’t even gotten to my piece while I was thinking this.

I expressed this sentiment on FB and a friend commented back that my work was wonderful and almost seemed to wonder why I was thinking what I was thinking.  This year is the first year that I have juried into a couple of regional shows.  These are out of the mainstream of what I mostly jury into.  I have  only entered the Arts Council shows, where there is hardly any fiber work.  It is mostly paintings and some mixed media.  So comparison is difficult…like comparing apples and oranges.  Essentially, there is no comparison.

Although I was in awe that I did get a piece into the 2010 Form, Not Function exhibit, I still didn’t have the same reaction.  Form Not Function was  mostly all layered and stitched work, like I do myself, so my piece was hanging with “my own” type of work.  Perhaps it was because Fiber: 2010 was at the “Foundry Center”, this really huge,  awesome gallery space.  That may have had something to do with it…but it was also seeing the quality of the other work that was displayed.  There was a lot of variety.  And my work was hanging in the same exhibit as all of this other wonderful work….that must mean….my work must be pretty good too!  Wow.

Now I do know that jurying is subjective and it’s all about what the juror likes.  But I gotta tell ya’…it made me feel pretty darn good that this juror who is big in the arts (and fiber in particular) thought my work  was good enough to be in this show.

I make my art to please myself and not so much about pleasing anyone else.  It’s just fantastic icing on the cake to find out someone else likes it too.