Mondays are for warm-ups...Every Monday when I return to my workshop after two, sometimes three days away, I still experience awe...I look around and see that everything is as I left it...waiting for me. I spend the weekends planning and knowing in my head what I'm going to do come Monday...but I arrive and each Monday I've asked myself "okay, now, what am I going to do?". I take a deep breath and start where I left off...unlike the first few weeks were I did busy work (beading on Red) to get use to the schedule, the space,...all the while churning and kneading ideas over and over.
The Poetry Series really excites me...I mean really really excites me, but I'm also aware that I feel very reverent for the work, for the process. And today, after years of not writing any new poems, it came to me that I need to write a new body of work that speaks to the future and is more current. Writing poetry was just as intense and physical as creating quilted art, conjuring feelings of awe, reverence, and soul breaking open experience when something is working and I'm one with it.
I was in the workshop today for seven hours taking breaks every two hours for about 15-20 minutes. I started and finished 8"x10" piece called 725-Prerequisite Study. It was to audition the quilting pattern and threads which I think will work very well for these pieces. Its important to me that every layer speaks to "rememory". I almost added a Sankofa motif but decided against it because the quilt itself is Sankofa.
Here is a peak at it...I'll show it in it's entirety after it arrives to one of the Pay-It-Forward recipients.
It maybe a small piece but it took a big mess to get it done. I usually straighten up before leaving because it makes me have more clarity when I return. But I was too tired and left the mess as is:
Ooh I think I'll really like this piece too. Sometimes I so wish I were able to write peotry effectively. I love words and their meanings but, alas, poetry eludes me.
ReplyDeleteBTW, isn't it amazing the mess we can create no matter the size of the piece?
I think my mess is messier than your mess!! I,too, admire the ability to write poetry.
ReplyDeleteI seldom clean my mess. Sometimes between canvasses I will clear it up but unless I need the space to work it seems like a waste of precious time. My brushes lay in the water all day ready to snatch up and put to work. Before bed I clean them. The only thing I do faithfully is return all old (previous canvas) paint tubes to a basket and only leave the ones I am currently working with out on my tiny table. This is just to save time when I need to squeeze out more paint. There is something very exciting each day about walking in and seeing yesterday's work and mess still there waiting to be continued. When I sit down in front of my canvas and open my palette, I slip back into that space - like reentering a dream from the previous night.
ReplyDeleteI love it that you now have the space to work and to leave things midpoint.
It's going to be fabulous! You go girl!
ReplyDeleteI am in the middle of NOT cleaning, and therefore, can not work. On anything. I'm loving the colors and envy the PIF people who will be receiving.
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