Out and About Creating Art

I have touched on this before, and I will keep bringing this up in the future.  If you make something, it is so important to get out and make what you make in front of people.  I spent the weekend with two sewing machines and an embellisher/felting machine at a local art fair.  I am always amazed and pleased at the way people are attracted to watching someone create their wares.  I was sharing a tent with two other artists/crafters, and we always had an appreciative crowd.  Take any opportunity that you can to stitch, draw, paint, etc. where you can be observed.  Talk to people about what you are doing, encourage others to learn to make something.

I've also gone on here before about artist trading cards, and I am now making a point to carry some of my own finished ATCs along with some blank ones and a small kit of art supplies.  Last month, at a non-art event, I was approached by an adorable young girl who was asking anyone and everyone if they wanted a picture.  As is turned out, she had made a bunch of tiny crayon drawings and simply wanted everyone to have one!  What a great kid!  I have tucked the drawing I received into my art journal, and I wish that I could get one of my ATCs to her.  From now on, I will be prepared to encourage anyone who wants to make a card in return for one of mine.  This is a great way to get children to value creativity and art, get them to realize that art is valuable and should have a role in our lives.

So, I now have a challenge for you.  Take ten or twenty minutes, make something (try some artist trading cards) and give it away.

Daily Challenges

Of course, sometimes just getting out of bed is a challenge, let alone realizing a dream, creating a masterpiece or changing the world!  Look to accomplish little things.  I have posted before about daily projects, and I have started several strings of daily projects over the past few years.  I have yet to finish any of them.  As I have said before, if you get bogged down and break a daily sequence, just pick it up again whenever you can.

I am returning to an artist trading card a day project that I made up for myself.  It was supposed to run for one year, 365 cards.   I have been working in it for five years now!  I have finished January through May.  Here are most of the pieces for June and July:

It is June again, so time for me to pick up the project again.  Will I finish the rest of the project this year?  Time will tell.

Last year, I discovered a great website about art journaling, DaisyYellow and a two month challenge out on the site each year - the index-card-a-day challenge.  I started the challenge last year, and did not get very far:

I enjoyed the concept and I love the cards I made.  I lost the self discipline to keep going to the end. Now, I am rolling along with this year's challenge:

I fully intend to pick up and complete last year's remaining index cards (most of them!) after I get through the ones for this year.

Ideas and Inspiration

What was I thinking in my last post, promising to write about getting ideas?  For me, ideas for art pieces come from anywhere and everywhere.  If I lived to be 100 and sewed constantly until then, I still would not get out all the ideas that I have in my head.  For those of you looking for inspiration, it is a matter of training yourself to see and not just look.  Don’t overlook simple things, if you pass over many possible ideas, it is time to ask yourself whether or not you really want to make something.  Forget about the myth of waiting for inspiration, ideas are all around you. 

I might be captivated by a vintage textile.  My collages usually start with two or three vintage pieces that I like, and I build a composition around them.

A color combination could get me started:

I am surrounded by beautiful Appalachian meadows, forests and farmland, some of my art reflects the scenery I see every day.

Oddly, abandoned buildings hold great fascination for me.  My fabric boxes are my way of capturing the passage of time.  Those same boxes came about first from a quote in a John Steinbeck novel. 

Most importantly, just make things!  Make time to be creative at least several times a week.  Turn off the TV for an hour, and create.  Don’t be afraid of making a mistake, it will happen, but that is how we all learn.  I am always reciting my mantra that a new skill or technique will not be perfect the first time that you try it.  Keep going!

Getting Started with Art Quilts

A day late...

I'm often asked how to get started in art quilting.  There are many resources out there now for art quilting, not just books, but blogs (like this one!), workshops, retreats, online classes and more.  To me, the most important thing in an art quilt is that the finished piece is your own original design.  No patterns or kits, just your personal vision.  Too many people let themselves get intimidated by being original and creative.  Creating artwork in any media is no different than learning a language, playing a musical instrument, or any other skill.  Way back in our youth, we started to learn to read and write by first learning letters and their sounds.  The letters were put together in words, then sentences.  We learned grammar and punctuation, building to paragraphs.  Best-selling novels are not written by kindergartners!  Did you learn to sew in one hour? 

Two early projects that I made from The Art Quilt Workbook

Image and designs copyright RPS

Art has its own elements that need to be mastered a little at a time: color, design and composition.  Creativity can be learned or more appropriately, re-learned.  Too often , creativity is discouraged as we proceed in our education.  Yes, rules should be followed, but we also need to recognized when the rules must stick , and when we can stray from them. 

One of the exercises that I made from The Fiber Artist's Guide to Color and Design

Image and design copyright RPS

I have encountered three excellent books for anyone interested in art quilting and being more creative.  The first is Art Quilt Workbook by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston (C&T Publishing, 2007).  Another one is The Fiber Artist's Guide to Color and Design: The Basics and Beyond by Heather Thomas (Landauer Publishing, 2011).  One more is Art + Quilt by Lyric Kinard (Interweave Press, 2009).  All three do a great job of explaining the vocabulary of art design elements, and have a series of exercises to complete, highlighting the design concepts.  It is crucial to do the exercises - build your skill set.  Most importantly, make things!

Next time, a bit about getting ideas.

A Mid-winter Evening's Rambling

After getting snowed out two weeks ago, I finally had my local artists and crafters gathering at the library where I work.  The event was a success, and I think that most everyone who participated is open to getting together in the future.  There are a lot of creative individuals in this rural area, and they are makers in a variety of media.  March is National Craft Month, so we will definitely plan something for that. 

In keeping with my obsession with making beautiful and useful things, I am reading the recently published Craeft, by Alexander Langlands (W.W. Norton, 2017).  I'm glad to know that the maker movement is worldwide, the book is from a British author.  In my region of the States, the Foxfire collection documenting Appalachian craft and stories is still sought after.  It appears that it doesn't take too much effort to garner interest in creative pursuits, the tough part is carrying the interest through to actually learning how to do something and keeping at the learning, building the skill level. 

Started last January, cast aside

The persistence needed in learning a skill is not easy.  As I type this, I am surrounded by piles of half-finished art quilts, all started as projects to showcase a new technique.  I had a discussion earlier today about finishing these abandoned projects.  I vaguely remember resolving in January of 2017 to get most of my UFOs (unfinished objects) done by the end of the year.  One year later, I am still contemplating the same UFOs, in the same state of being incomplete.  One solution that came up in the discussion was if another year goes by and the projects still are not finished, it is time to pitch them.  If I keep ignoring them, I'm not interested in them anymore, it is time to move on.

Two small pieces, in the embellishing stage, but I keep setting them aside.

Time to pitch them?  I'm not happy with these two.

Word of the Day

The word of the day is bedight.  According to my trusty Webster's Dictionary, bedight (archaic) is a verb meaning to deck out; array.  Also, bedighted, bedighting.  The discovery of this obscure word came about from an enlightening conversation with my mother about a heavily embellished quilt that she is working on.  Of course, I have been known on occasion to open my dictionary at random and start browsing.  There is always some discovery to be made.  I feel the same way about libraries, museums, and traveling.  What will I discover next?  What have YOU discovered lately?

Image and design copyright RPS

I'm off now to bedight some artist trading cards...

Creative Seasons?

With the official arrival of winter last week and the realization that I have not accomplished much on my pile of art quilt projects this year, I have been thinking about my work habits.  I definitely notice that I do not sit and sew as much in the spring and summer, as I enjoy being outside and love to tend my vegetable garden.  I have made adjustments though; I've discovered that sitting on the porch and sewing is delightful, and there is the bonus of letting fabric and thread scraps fall where they may, to be carried off by the wind. 

Now that it is bitter cold and daylight hours are short, I am more inclined to stay in one corner of the house and work on something creative.  In the summer, I look for more things to do that get me outside, or at least out of the house: fabric dyeing, auctions and flea markets (looking for sewing machines and anything I can re-purpose it to art), and gathering ideas from my adventures.  For me, the ideas never cease.  How does your creative energy ebb and flow throughout the year?  Do you have certain times of year for specific techniques or stages of a project? 

One More on the Meaning of Abstract Art

I've been simmering about the disconnect between abstract art and ascribed meanings for a while now.  So, at work today, I was stunned to discover a wonderful new children's book on that very topic: Niko Draws a Feeling by Bob Raczka, illustrated by Simone Shin (Carolrhoda Books / Lerner Publishing, Minneapolis, MN, 2017).  The book is about a creative boy who makes many drawings of concepts, emotions and sounds, but no one sees in his drawings what he feels, until one day, he meets a girl who understands his drawings.

The tale still acknowledges a chasm between (collectively) Art and People.  I absolutely agree that no one has to like everything they see as a viewer and no artist will ever make a piece that everyone loves.  That is fine.  What I wish we would all work on is being more nurturing of creativity within ourselves, along with realizing that good art is a lot closer to our everyday lives than we realize, and that it does not have to be about anything.  My own fabric collages are a fine example of this; I do not ascribe any meaning to them, they are simply a product of my desire to make something and to have something lovely within my walls.

Image and design copyright 2017, RPS

Please do not copy or repost elsewhere

Trick or Treat!

I know it is not Halloween time, but I found a surprise "treat" recently.  I'm working on a chicken themed quilt, and I was going to cut into one of my vintage livestock feed bags for it.  This is the bag I selected:

I noticed some traces of faded post-manufacture writing on the bag, and by chance I looked inside the bag...

Some ambitious youth had made the feedsack into a trick-or-treat bag!  I am so amused by this, that I am thinking of making this a whole cloth quilt, and not using it for the chicken project.  I might just split the bag, and turn the "fill'er up" side out, pairing it with the remaining "right" side for a quilt top.  I would stitch the letters to make them show up better, and perhaps add color to the faded printing.  I'm not sure what else yet, but I will come up with something more to do with it.

What I would love to know (and sadly never will), is where the kid who used this as a trick-or-treat bag lived.  It is a large bag, it once held 100 pounds of feed.  I'm assuming he (this must be the work of a teenage boy) lived in a rural area to have access to chicken feed bags, but in a rural area, population is sparse, houses are far apart...  slim chance of filling a bag this size with candy.  Perhaps he was traveling to a city with visions of lots of candy.  I give him credit for dreaming big!

Influences and Essentials

One of the books on art journaling that I have from the library (Alphabetica by Lynne Perrella) has an interesting feature. The author profiles fourteen artists who journal and part of each profile includes each artists' ten studio essentials and ten influences.  I thought I would come up with my own list of ten.  It is not easy to rank a top ten - I have more than ten each of essentials and influences.  So, the lists I present today could be different on another day!  Some of my selections would always make the list, others are subject to my whims.  Of course, the selections are in no particular order.

Studio Essentials:
1. vintage Sewing Machines
2. ephemera
3. Procion dyes
4. fancy embroidery threads
5. variegated machine and hand sewing threads
6. fusible interfacing
7. vintage damasks for dyeing
8. a variety of different fabrics
9. funky yarns and lace trims
10. my personal library of books, magazines and articles

Influences:
1. Joseph Cornell
2. Viktor Schreckengost
3. nature
4. Tom Waits
5. Heather Thomas
6. Stuart Davis
7. Robert Rauschenberg
8. Kurt Schwitters
9. classical music
10. my mother

A Thought for a Down Day

I have been really stuck in the winter doldrums lately with making things and writing about making things.  Time to remind myself of one of my favorite quotes, which I will share here:

"Art is not to be awaited; it is to be chased down, cornered and beaten into submission with a stick."
(Michael Perry, Population 485.)

This quote sums up my philosophy that creativity and the construction of art objects is challenging, sometimes difficult work.  It is something that must be constantly cultivated, it does not happen perfectly at first attempt.

Image copyright RPS, please do not copy or repost

That is all I have today, time to get to creating.  I have a three day weekend coming up, hopefully I will have something new to share on Tuesday.

Art Journaling

I mentioned in my last post that I am enrolled in a three session class on art journaling.  So, just what is meant by art journaling?  As I am discovering from the class and from a small mountain of library books on the subject, it could be taken several ways.  Usually, an art journal is a personal journal that is illustrated with drawing and painting.  It could also be a journal about the art that you make, or a journal about the art museums and galleries that you visit, and I’m sure there are few other possible definitions.

                                               

I’ve attempted to keep journals of sorts for some years now, and I thought that this class would introduce me to a new skill.  As it turns out, I have already been art journaling to some degree.  My journal of life events is augmented with my own photographs, and sometimes drawings.  I have another journal of art quilt ideas and notes on the progress of my quilts.

Image copyright RPS.  Please do not copy or repost

Above is a journal page documenting the first fabric box I made for a guild challenge.  There are scraps of the hand dyed fabric I used, and one of the viewer's choice ballots that were cast for my box.  No, I did not win viewer's choice, but a few people noticed it!

Yet another journal is a record of the quilts I am making from the lessons in The Art Quilt Workbook by Jane Davila and * and A Fiber Artist’s Guide to Color and Design by Heather Thomas.  As I am still learning the ins and outs of sewing and art quilting, this journal is a way for me to record my mistakes and the things that I get right.  It is not easy to remember everything when you’re learning a new skill.

Image copyright RPS.  Please do not copy or repost

I also have the fabric book that I made from Fabric Embellishing: The Basics and Beyond by Chandler, Kettle, Thomas and Vleck.  Not only is this a sampler of techniques, I also added mentions here and there of events in my life as I made each page.

Image copyright RPS.  Please do not copy or repost

I guess I am ahead of the game a bit with this class, but I have already picked up more ideas to try, and I am really looking forward to the time with other creative people.

Scrapbooks and Ephemera, Conclusion

Hopefully, I have enlightened my readers about two fascinating collectors, Theodore Langstroth and Joseph Cornell.  I have good reasons for spending so much time on them in this textile art blog.  First, the odd subject-specific scrapbooks and dossiers are perfect illustrations of how one can find creative inspiration just about anywhere.  If you are looking for ideas, consider things that you love and look at what you have chosen to surround yourself with at home.  Make a list of people, living or not, whom you would find interesting to meet.  What countries fascinate you, what regions of your own country interest you?  What is your town known for?  What has been forgotten about it that people might want to know?  What mundane objects in your life deserve more attention?

Memories of past road trips, before interstates.  There is an art quilt idea here...

I know that not everyone is a collector of stuff.  Many of us want to get rid of stuff.  This leads to another reason why I profiled Langstroth and Cornell.  I'm beginning to believe that a good bit of what we throw in the trash, someone might be in need or want of elsewhere.  I am constantly amazed at the prices some people pay for things at the junk auction that I would have tossed out.  Yes, a lot of trash is just trash, but I wonder how much money gets thrown away each week in the way of objects that others would pay to have.  Not only am I thinking of the cultural heritage that is being thrown out, but potential aesthetic creation.  As I have described before, I use re-purposed vintage textiles in my dyeing and fabric collages.  I'm working on some craft workshop ideas where I work that will re-purpose select trash items, so this whole theme is on my mind quite a bit.  I could go on and on with this, but I should work on securing some compact discs that no longer play.

Marigolds in December

On this bitter cold and snowy day, I'm cooking up some fabric!  I saved some marigold flowers at the end of the gardening season, and I am just now getting around to dyeing with them.  

I am pleased, a nice variety of shades just by using different silks (dupioni, noil, organza, habotai, etc.).  There is a pot of dried hollyhock flowers on the woodburner right now, I'm hoping for some deep purple-red shades.

Speaking of cooking, I've wanted to rant a bit about a book I recently read on being a creative artist.  I'm not going to reveal the author, I'll keep this anonymous.  The author devoted an entire page in this book on why she hated to cook.  Her complaint was that it took away from her painting time, and that painting was all she wanted to sustain her.  I get it that is sometimes troublesome to stop progress on an creative project to take care of chores and yes, even basic needs.  But, we have to take care of ourselves, not just in satisfying our creative impulses.  I wrote a related post on this quandary on August 25, long before I read the book I just described.  Creativity should filter through to all aspects of our lives, that is one reason why art matters.  What ways can you foster more creativity in your everyday routine?

Continuing with Collage

Back on August 19, I posted about creating a fabric collage using one of my hand-dyed vintage damask napkins as a base.  The first step looked like this:

Image copyright RPS, please do not repost elsewhere

I did not get any further on that project, so it is now time for me to take it up again.  I fielded numerous questions on techniques at quilt shows in the past three months, and I realize that I can answer most of them by writing about the progress of this collage.  If you are one of those I advised to check my blog in the near future regarding your inquiry, the future is here!  By Thanksgiving, I plan on covering machine and hand couching of fancy yarns, designing-as-you-go, pillowcase binding, and other fun ideas.  If you bought one of my Creativity Kits, and are looking for ideas, the next few weeks here will reward you (I hope...).

I have the collage out on my table again, and I have selected a pile of threads, ribbon, trim, yarns and dyed doilies to select from to start embellishing:

Image copyright RPS, please do not repost elsewhere

Already, there is a problem!  Since I do not have any seam lines from piecing on this collage, I cannot hide the ends of trims, ribbons or yarns like I would on a crazy quilt or other pieced and embellished quilt.  Normally, I'd be careful to plan my embellishing order of sewing so that ends would get hidden by another piece of trim, as you see here:

Image copyright RPS, please do not repost elsewhere

Check back Thursday to see if I come up with a decent solution.

Recommended Reading for Creativity

I’m not sure how much reading one should do about creativity; I strongly feel that you become more creative by doing, but if you need a boost, or want to make an in-depth study, one book I would recommend is Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters, edited by Paul Maher Jr. (Chicago Review Press, 2011).  Waits is singer-songwriter whose recordings defy categorization.  What endears his music to me is how he combines a multitude of music styles (blues, jazz, traditional ethnic, folk, hip-hop, rock, vaudeville, storytelling, etc.) with mysterious characters and story lines into something completely his own.  That is what we all try to do as artists, we are indeed the sum of many parts.  The book is not a manual on creativity, but it is fascinating reading on the creative process of one musician, and there are many valuable insights into Waits’ inspirations and evolution as a performer.  Regardless of how his music hits you (his voice is an acquired “taste”), there are lessons in the pages of the interviews for all artists, performing and visual.

From a 1999 interview by Brett Martin in Time Out New York, Waits advised that, “… you can take James White and the Blacks, and Elmer Bernstein and Lead Belly – folks that would could never be on the bill together – and that they could be on the bill in you.  You take your dad’s army uniform and your mom’s Easter hat and your brother’s motorcycle and your sister’s purse and stitch them all together and try to make something meaningful out of it.”  Of course, I love the sewing metaphor since my focus is on textile art!  Waits is right on there.  In my world, I put together the works of Joseph Cornell, Viktor Schreckengost, and Claes Oldenburg in the same museum exhibit.

Who would be on your concert bill or museum exhibit?  That would make a great art quilt idea – an advertising poster for your show of your influences…

Inspiration in a Meadow

I often get asked the question, "Where do you get ideas for your art work?"  For me, the answer is: everywhere, in almost anything!  I have too many ideas, and not enough lifetime, I'm sure.  If you are searching for ideas, scale things back - start by considering only one design aspect.  For example, look at color.  Decide on a color blend, and then choose a pattern or move forward with creating a composition.

This time of year, the meadows around my home are full of feathery goldenrod and deep purple asters in bloom.

Purple and yellow are direct complements of each other on the color wheel, making them fun to work with in design exploration.  Last winter, I had the goldenrod and aster in mind when I made these three crazy patch square boxes:

The flowers really are not referenced in the embellishing, I simply wanted to capture the colors.  Even without recognizable images of the flowers that inspired me, I am still reminded of my lovely autumn meadow each time I see the boxes.

Quilting ideas

The actual process of quilting my textile art pieces always gives me trouble.  I'm bored with the usual quilting motifs; most of them just don't work well with my ragged edge collage technique.  I must quilt these creations, the stitching holds the layers together and it is mandatory to enter them in shows, the stitching through layers of fabric is the total identity of "quilt."  The quilt stitching is also a vital design element in the whole piece.

I'm not proposing any solid answers here to my own dilemma; I guess I am just ranting today.  I have some ideas that I am soon to attempt.  Recently, I found these line drawings while doing research on something else:

This page is from the October, 1887 Criterion magazine, located at the Marietta College Library.  I believe that it was part of an order form for embroidery patterns, but I am wondering if I could use the idea of line drawing and turn that into quilting designs.  The concept probably still won't work with most of my collages, but I could easily come up with another overall design concept to feature the line drawing-quilting.  Maybe I'll just use much bigger collage pieces.  Creativity is all about rethinking what you have done and figuring out how to do what you want to do.

End of Year Goals

Five art quilt goals I want to meet by the end of the year:

1. Get through workshop #4 in A Fiber Artist's Guide to Color and Design (Heather Thomas, Landauer Publishing, 2011).  A couple of years ago, I made three art quilts from workshop #1 in this book, and got sidetracked on moving forward with the other workshops.

2. Make at least four more pages for my sample fabric book from Fabric Embellishing: The Basics and Beyond (Chandler/Kettle/Thomas/Vleck; Landauer Publishing, 2009).  Another ongoing project that I set aside.

Image and design copyright RPS, please do not pin or post elsewhere

3. Find my copy of Art Quilt Workbook (Davila & Waterson, C & T Publishing, 2007), and do two more chapters/workshops.  Do you see a trend developing here?  Finish unfinished things!

4. Finish my ATC-a-day project that I started three years ago, or was it four years...

Image and design copyright RPS, please do not pin or post elsewhere

5. Start my entry for Quilt National 2019!

Creativity Is a Way of Life

Some months ago, I was having an amazing day working on a sewing project, things were going spectacularly well, and before too long it was a quarter to six in the evening.  I was hungry!  I become very crabby about having to cease my creative progress to make something for dinner, but once I started cutting vegetables and cooking, I felt much better emotionally.  I realized that the process of making something is for me, the key to my well-being.  It does not matter what I am making, there is something soothing about working with my hands and seeing an end result.  

I just completed my third batch of canned tomato sauce, from a garden that I started from seed.  Truly my own hard work from start to finish, and I will have delicious pasta sauces and soups this winter. Maybe if more people made things for themselves; useful things, beautiful things; this world would be a better place.