Another actually not so random page from my inspiration alphabet, a perpetually ongoing project.
P for Permission among other things, ties in with the Raw Art Journaling online class I’m taking with Quinn McDonald.
and here are two permission slips, tailor made for me!
Am I finding an approach to creating art (in whatever medium) that works for me?
Were my struggles and basically dropping out of the design class I had wanted to take for so long all Hosni Mubarak’s fault?
Or am I just more of a verbal person than a visual one?
This is a mind map related to the piece I’m just starting. So many things seemed to come together in synchronicity. When I tried to think about drafting a blog post on these topics, my thoughts shot off in a zillion directions. Each bit seemed to make sense standing along but I couldn’t organize my thoughts into a cohesive whole.
And here is the beginning — more pix will follow as the work progresses. I want to create Moebius strip, so tested this concept with kraft paper (a gift from our lovely apartment manager who found a big heavy roll abandoned in a vacated apartment)
I cut and folded a strip to make a double thickness, since there will be batting inside the finished piece.
Then I twisted it into a Moebius strip to test the concept. This will also serve as a mockup as I continue working on this piece.
Time to cut the Tyvek (from a huge piece I bought at the Sewing Show) and get drippin’!
Not having a studio space where I can be messy, I invented the small-scale paint bag.
and here’s what this work in progress currently looks like, until I can get more white acrylic to keep going!
Autism Home Rescue has challenged her readers to respond to the prompt: What was your greatest achievement of 2010 and how do you plan to top it in 2011?
My comment is posted here because it’s more to do with fibre art than with homeschooling. However reading her blog I’m humbled by what others have to take in stride day after day after day.
“”I completed an art quilt, Geode, I had started in 2003, involving hours of hand beading. It was shown at one of the exhibitions at the Canadian National Quilt Show in Calgary and I got to meet other quilt artists and had a very encouraging message from the author of the fantasy novel that inspired it.
My plans for 2011 don’t include one giant piece like this one, but I plan to be more consistently productive in my quilting and art endeavours, and more diligent in promoting myself through networking.”
People, please, whatever you did last year, surely you can do better in 2011? Tell us about it and let’s spread the energy!
Appreciation was the virtue I pulled a day or so ago, reminding me to be more expressive when people do nice things.
So, a shout out to my DD, who is the most organized person in the family. Here are the “after” shots of my lair, er studio. No “before” shots are fit to be shared, and that is one hundred percent moi!
As can be imagined, the closet doors do double duty as bulletin board/design wall, soon to be covered with sketches for Elizabeth Barton’s Inspired to Design class through Quilt University. But it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that under all the masking tape and paper there’s actual doors.
My prized write-on/wipe-off globe. It just sits in the stand so you can put Antarctica on top if you feel inclined. The ginger jar is modern and I use it to store inspirational concepts, as suggested by Julia Cameron.
Scrap busting pillow and on the bed, Who Moved My Haloumi? a quilt that has turned out to be oddly prophetic!
Also much appreciated was the tactful way DD accomplished this rebarbative and gargantuan task, non confrontationally and kindly, and without throwing much out (although I know she would probably love to!) I just trundled back and forth to the recycling bins and the Dumpster with stuff and she tidied and vacuumed away very cheerfully. Since then, I’ve tidied away a few more bits and pieces and really made an effort to keep things shipshape. Why, I recycled the remains of one of last year’s calendars (I have to keep two desk blotter sized calendars, one for editing and one for everything else ~ just not quite ready to recycle the work one yet). I also scrubbed industriously at my whiteboard to try and clean it off. I hate how whiteboards get messy and you can never quite clean them totally. Mine is more of a pale green, blue, and pink board these days!
What’s your opinion? Are creative people more untidy and disorganized than others, or does it just SEEM that way? It’s one of my biggest struggles in life … please tell me I’m not alone!
at long last the baby challenge quilt has been birthed and now that I can see it as a single piece as opposed to blocks laid out next to each other, I’m liking it better and feeling that hopefully the family that ultimately receives it will like it to, or at least not totally hate it.
Photos of the finished quilt will appear sometime next week. In the meantime (1) I have to play by the Quilt Guild rules and (2) it still has to be quilted and stitched closed.
So for now, the photo above shows what it does NOT look like! I realized in time that the black and white pebbly fabric is not a good background. There’s enough blocks with it in to make a doll’s quilt, which is probably what I’ll do with it, AFTER finishing the projects I committed to finish.
My slogan for this year was “Create and Complete,” and I need to keep it for 2010 too at this rate!
Decided that posting pix of stash is probably counter productive because in reveling in stash and my plans for it I fool my mind into believing I actually accomplished something. Something other than shopping, that is.
The stupiphany of the day hit me like a ton of bricks. A thought that came out of nowhere as I was taking a short walk enjoying fresh air and sunshine this morning.
I finally realized that it’s a good thing that I can’t sing.
Never in my whole life was I ever allowed to be in a choir or a chorus. In high school I was told to mouth the words for the Christmas concert so as not to ruin the performance of the other 599 girls! When my son was two he was already telling me not to sing. Apparently even my humming is off key, although it sounds perfect to me.
Today I realized that if I could sing this would be one more distraction in my life. I have enough trouble with the things I am blessed to be able to do. If I was always rushing off to practice with the Sweet Adelines I probably wouldn’t be as good at writing, art, or quilting. And given that Islamic worship takes a different (and to me less distracting) form, I might miss choral music.
I was inspired by visiting Quilting Arts Virtual Studios Tour to challenge myself to also open my studio to the blogosphere. Several participants said the tour forced them to tidy up and get more organized, and that has to be a Good Thing, right?
So, no pix as yet, but stay tuned for Saturday, October 24 when All Will Be Revealed. Also a small giveaway will start at the same time to add to the fun.
Hmmm, now it’s announced I better set to and tidy up. Also I have peel and stick monkeys on the outside of the door, which have become invisible to me, but recent dinner guests thought that it was the bathroom door, LOL!
Last week worked for 34 hours but a lot of it was editing rather than art or fibre, to the point where I almost felt poisoned with increasingly dramatic nightmares. But I worked on the baby quilt challenge on Friday and did deconstructed screen printing with Susan Purney Mark on Saturday and that has started to redress the balance somewhat.
The Emperor and Empress of Japan were in Victoria recently, which was generally exciting and caused a lot of media attention. The Empress studied tanka poetry under a master writer before her marriage and has written critically acclaimed tankas.
I looked up Japanese poetry on Wikipedia, and from there found this link to rengas written in English – a fascinating group artform. Maybe we could write our own hypertext, who knows? I’m still reading Riding White Roads.
For a fascinating YouTube video of hundreds of mandalas, click here.
And for fabriholics, go to Spoonflower. This is an awesome service that lets you print fabric of your own design and order yardage. At least one textile designer whose interview appears on the webpage had yardage printed there and used it for a portfolio that she shopped around to fabric companies. She now has a fabric collection in production!
Last night I stayed up into the wee small hours just playing around with some of my jpg images (nothing whose copyright belongs to someone else, of course!). The colour editing was educational because particularly with photos you can’t always tell what colours are really there. But don’t take my word for it, go play! Oh, the possibilities are just endless!
I know I said I was going to be less like a chameleon, but I figure that doesn’t apply to clothing …
This felt bag is from Nepal via Fibres of Life fair trade handicrafts of Calgary. It’s beautifully made and hopefully will last a long time, ESPECIALLY as the silkscreened panel can be changed at will. I indulged myself and got the two shown here. The brooch shown with the cranberry panel is felt and a button and was an extra.
Hmm, I’m already thinking that extra panels could be easily constructed out of this and that for further fun and self-expression. Stay tuned.
One great thing about this one is that the handle is nice and long. Usually when I go purse shopping, I can’t find anything I like with a long enough handle.
This past week I worked for 40-1/2 hours, much in connection with the community quilt. Next week will probably be less productive as there are things on the home front that have to be taken care of. But hopefully I’ll fit in some creative endeavours too.
Here’s a study page I made in my sketch book to try out ideas for the loose leaf pages I’ve made for Quinn McDonald’s raw-art journal project.
For the journals to circulate in libraries, Quinn owns the copyright to the actual pages but this is just a study. The finished pages bear only a slight resemblance to this.
However other than signing and dating the pages, I restrained myself and included NO TEXT. Hopefully I’ve conveyed some meaning without it.
And they will be posted by Quinn when she receives them. I would say “shortly” but let’s be realistic, we’re talking the tender mercies of Canada Post being involved here!
Will post more about my trip to AZ last week ~ for a variety of reasons it has taken longer than I thought to settle down and hit my stride since my return. I saw so many people and although I dealt with many loose ends, I also generated more contacts to follow up on, and some of the loose ends themselves generated further to-dos to be dealt with here.
Of course no one dies with an empty in-basket.
This week I’m in the Valley of the Sun, a.k.a. metro Phoenix area, tying up loose ends from before my move, seeing friends (which is GREAT!) and revisting old stomping grounds.
It’s weird to be driving again.
Won’t be posting any pix until after my return, because I didn’t bring the camera cable or charger. In fact I really packed lightly this time, remembering all the junk I’ve toted along on previous trips that just had to be carried, thought about, repacked, etc.
If I could have one extra thing with me it would be one of my art quilts, probably the curvatures one, since that is the most original, for Show and Tell at the Mavericks tomorrow. Well, I will just have to be content with telling!
Productivity: 25 hours last week — it’s amazing how even when packing lightly how much time is eaten up with organizing for a trip of any length.
