(above: Holiday postcards)
In 2007 I've learned that I love the processes for surface design and I tend to like expanses of cloth versus cutting it up into small pieces to reconnect. I have at least one workshop lined up for next year that will cover surface design and one self-driven one, but there are 2-4 more I'd like to take also. One of them is filled already with a waiting list and I'm number 9 on it. I'm going to send on the wave of prayer a deposit (non-refundable) for another one. The 3rd and 4th one I'm taking a wait and see approach. Also lined up for 2008 will be at least 4 months of studio time with 3 of them continuous.
Here is my agenda for next year:
1. Continue working through Complex Cloth
2. Work through the DVD on Deconstructed Screen Printing by Kerr Grabowski
3. Take a Surface Design workshop with Juanita Yeager
4. Rent studio time at MACA
5. Renew SAQA membership, KHQS, LAFTA, Sankofa, & The Quilting Show.
6. Produce 4-5 quilts that I feel super-great over.
Additional Wish LIst:
7. Workshops w/ Bob Adams, Hollis Chatelain, Caryl Bryer Fallert, or Claire Benn/Leslie Morgan (putting it in the hands of God...actually putting it all in the hands of God)
8. Improvisational Printing, Breakdown Printing, Painted Quilts, and Finding Your Own Visual Language are the only textile books I'm going to commit to buy next year.
A few posts down I wrote of waiting on some news. IT IS OFFICIAL! None of this quilt dreaming would be possible without the funding from Kentucky Foundation for Women Artist's Enrichment Grant! I woke up one morning, a few days before the deadline back in early September, with the knowing that I deserved to ask for the funding to support my work and spent the entire day pulling together my proposal. It was liberating to feel that strong and dedicated about what I want to acheive, without doubt. Also, its such a blessing and great honor to become an extension of the vision and mission of the Foundation. Its vital for an artist to say "I AM" before she can expect anyone to say "THOU ART"...get it, thou ART...okay, so much for my attempt at being clever. But raise your ice cream bowls (mine is filled with a pomegrante sherbert) in celebration with me!