" Winging It" Fabric PostcardIt's been a strange month... seems like everything I did involved questions and clarifications with answers being needed immediately. With the sheer quanity of them all, I really had no chance to rethink my replies, second guess the decision, or console my self in the bittersweet wallows of remorse. Things moved fast this month. But Sharon B's introspective query of "how I see myself as an 'artist/craftswoman' " was a question I had all of May to examine and now a month of days later it's really no clearer to me than when I started.
So to help me get closer to the answer I asked my self a few more questions & these thoughts came to mind regarding my art and I'm not sure whether this is a confessional or a claiming of random thought but this is what I "see"....
1) I don't allow myself to have as much fun as I should while creating. I'm most always drawn off course by should haves or could haves... including cooking, phone calls, relationship "maintenance", chores, the list goes on...
2) I tend to be repetitive with color and theme, but I love certain colors better than others and love working with them
3) I bore easily half way through a project, especailly if I feel its a bad one or it's not going where I want it to go. My truest joy is when a project gets that "life of it's own" and surprises me.
4) I have too many ideas which keep me from beginning something
5) I love the thrill of the hunt but have too much "stuff" for my lifetime. More reason to just throw caution to the winds and see what happens, make the biggest crazy quilt in the world?
6) I'm on the internet and inside books too much "oohhhing over" what others create. Just more awesome ideas for my head.
7) I often wonder if I wouldn't be better off to just choose one thing ie, theme, and try sticking with that I'm always changing, shedding, expanding.. ( future personal trademark, series perhaps? )
8) I would love to find a jump off point where no ones ever been before. (Yeah, right!) yet at the same time I'm afraid of my originality and how it may be perceived.
9) Although I detest deadlines the last hour has sometimes been the brightest burning one.
10) Finally, I need to get off my duff and seriously take it further by going here to Writing the Artist's Statement site originally linked to by Gayle at Sparkle Jars
In the mean time I'll keep doing what I'm doing and try to keep these kinds of creative interruptions away...
Taken from Quilters Home Magazine
Till the next time..... Jane
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12 comments:
did you cut and paste this from my brain? :) I can relate well to every point you made. I dont think we are alone, though.
I'm in the line that seems to be forming here behind you Jane--and I love the postcard-
Love the postcard and the cartoon, Jane. I am a terrible procrastinator, recognized as far back as first grade which was eons ago! At the moment I'm trying to whittle down my UFO piles bit by bit....but it's awfully hard to resist trying new things!
I'm not big with words but fortunately many people including yourself have written their thoughts that match mine. I can relate to all of your points especially the thrill of the hunt :)
Aaaah, there is nothing like the thrill of the hunt! I also have enough to last me a lifetime.
Have fun with the artist's statement. I think it made me realize it was more about the process than the result...maybe that's why I have so many unfinished projects!
I could relate to every statement you presented and appreciated your post.
Your postcard is beautiful!
Hello Jane, Love your PC and the name is perfect. Glad to hear that the "S___" is now a thing of the past as a threat and nature is Spring forth. Great time of year. hugs judy
WOW, I love your PC, its so rich. I sure understand your thinking on this Months TIF. When I joined the TIF, I made the decision to try something new each month, and not to worry about failing. I am trying to stick to that each month, so this month, when I finish my TIF, I will post it and the process, but I will also post my "failure". Reading your post helped me make that decision, Thanks.
Let me try to give you a little bit of comfort when I say that I've gone through every single one of those feelings you've listed. I feel now as though I've come out the other side. Not very far out, perhaps, but at least I'm on the other side! So take heart. You'll get there too - as long as you keep working at it. (This is not to imply that my work is any better or more professional or anything like that. I'm just more clear about what I do now than I ever have been.)
Jane, you have voiced some universal sentiments, for which, thank you!!!
I couldn't even do the TIF this month. Was so blocked on expressing something so personal...so I love your butterfly in "Winging it"...it looks trapped somehow, but just about to burst out of its space.
I have found in my own work--just throwing this in--that having a regular schedule for creative time in the sewing room is very supportive of my so-called "process". Every day almost, between 8 am and noon (it is so wonderful to be retired)I am in there working away...so whatever time slot you have, you might think about just committing to it....
One other thought: A great art quilter, Erica Carter, once told me something that changed my life. I had asked her, "What do you do when you just hate the project you are working on?"
She smiled benignly, and said, "Oh, that is the best time! Because that is the time you will take risks..."
I've learned that with every project there comes a point where it looks just awful to me, and I am in a jam, fear that I have wasted my time, etc. I know now that this is when I am supposed to start getting radical in my problem solving.
Now I see that stage as normal and expected, and don't get emotionally sucked into it. I just keep on working, trying to be unattached in my ideas and brave in my solutions. Thank you, Erica!!!
Google her and you will find a lovely woman and committed textile artist....
Thanks again for being so open and honest here, Jane...
You hit a rich vein of self doubt amongst us all Jane, and I'm right up there in line with everyone else.I too have avoided realising a piece for this challenge but I have been niggling away at the idea all through the month and it may yet lead me somewhere. But not by the end of this month! Thanks for voicing what many of us think and for sharing the lovely postcard.
Hey, Jane, I hear you, but I think you're way too hard on yourself. You are obviously so creative - I always love your stuff. Connie
You have some wonderful texture in this piece and I love the way you incorporated the butterfly. Fun piece!
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