its not a doll, toy, watch, or even my lover man...but my current art journal with my assignments. yeah, i can replace it, but thats not the point.
You mean "lose" right?
signed...an old proofreaders persnicketyness persnickety proofreader.
Now if the persnickety proofreader was just as good at channeling lost items...umm????
I'll start my 3 week in my self-directed curriculum this coming week. Here is a peak at last week's activities:
Mindful Meandering
Visual Language
Machine Embroidery
I worked on a little machine felting and with the temperatures rising into the 50's I wondered if I should put the wool away and anticipate spring. Mellwood has an artists' gallery that was formed by tenants who have formed a seperate non-profit council. Annual membership is 40 and 20% goes back to the council. I'm going to roll this around in my head for a bit but I'm thinking it would ease my dilemna of whether I want to aim to sell from my studio space.
back of scarf
front
It took me two days before I could sit and watch the coverage of Haiti. I took it in by listening to the tv while my hands were either stitching, cooking, typing, ironing. For the first 2 days of the tragedy I had to read the news online. Sometimes the visual viewing is too much too soon and confuses my spirit...its like I have to seperate the words from the images in order for my mind to begin to merge the reality of the moment. Digesting collective tragedies opens up the door for all tragedies that have preceded and that will come and time seems ever more circular and convoluted.
Even though I was in both the studio and the workshop and kept myself occupied, my spirit was detached. Has this been your experience also? I was helped by spending some time with my Mama yesterday at a NCNW (National Council of Negro Women) Breakfast in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. There is some type of healing balm when folk gather together in good spirit.
Finding Your Own Visual Language (Dunnewold, Benn, Morgan) Monday
Image Transfer (McElroy) Tuesday
Digital Essentials (Hansen) Wednesday morning
Secrets of Digital Quilting (Smith and Smith) Wednesday Afternoon
Digital Expressions (Tuttle) Friday morning
Once a week I'll review my activities on my main page. The books selected will rotate as I finish a current one. My goal is to really engage with the excercises and evaluate the techniques for my personal development as an artist. Give me a holler if you're working through any of the same books...we can compare notes and support each other.
Machine Needle felted by Linda Kempshall <clickable
There are 3 additional pieces in her gallery also. If it was'nt for a little bit of common sense I would head over to the Mellwood Studio and hold up for the weekend ;) Just seeing this piece and thinking about the process and the texture gives me butterflies.
Well la ti da, looka here, looka here...this cold fluffy stuff that is so pretty to look at but whose reality is a bit harsh finally found us...the frigid temps wasn't enough, it had to go and snow! Its only a few inches but, still, ya know how I feel about the season that shall not be named.
But I was not daunted! No, beloved, I managed to keep myself distracted and warm and worked my plan in spite of it all!
FME Exercises (Shinn)
VL (Dunnewold, Benn, Morgan)
MM (Fritz)
What I've committed to doing this time around with my outlined curriculum (see previous post) is to stick with the exercises, ride them out so to speak, go a little further with them, versus rushing through them in order to get to the "fun" part. For example, take the expanded shape exercises (middle image above). Instead of doing 10-20 of them and then moving to the next exercise, I'm going to overlap the exercises and continue to do the previous exercises while moving to the next one. This will add some "depth" to what I do instead of moving through fast. Afterall, the purchase of books is a serious investment and it doesn't make sense to keep adding to my shelves without really getting the benefit from them. I'm even abandoning my approach to keep my books in pristine condition. Why? For What? No, this time I'm highlighting, making notes in the margins...really pushing myself to engage with the efforts that each author has made.
Other happenings this week was finding 4 painted whole cloths that was my first intended series. I didn't even remember doing them until I saw them and one of them just might become the background for the Audubon piece. How sweet it is to look at something with new eyes, eh!?
And another fresh discovery for this week is observing very little dye wash-out with acid dyes on silk which leads me to the conclusion that most of the dye adhers to the cloth. Here are the scarves waiting for a 2nd layer of something...I'm thinking of some hand writing, any ideas for me?
Looking at these colours, I must have Spring on my mind :)
Peace,
Well, well, well...look who is swatching! The plan (here goes...) is to knit my grand daughter a sweater. This will be my first knitted ...
