slow like molasses

January has been a slow moving month...not that the time has moved slow, but I've been aware that in spite of returning to some regularity with my art, I'm moving slow...steady but slow, slow like molasses slow, but not as sweet.

Mo has been dragging me to the Y and the 40 minutes on the treadmill has me sleeping better but I'm not yet thinking this is going to be a routine and is more than likely her new year resolution that will fade around mid February.

I found my iPod, but the cell phone is still missing and I can't find my point and shoot camera.  The iPod was in my desk drawer...a drawer I open almost daily! What was that about?

I do believe I'll be completely finished with The Mid-Wife and The Jockey (I work on my quilts for a very long time and yesterday self-doubt set in on whether I'll even come close to my creative goals this year). The 23rd of the month is my time frame so that they can be professionally photographed on the 25th.

I'll be back tomorrow night to do a summary of my week in the studio...peace

a ufo from my throw back days

Sunday night summary

I've been setting up spread sheets to track my goals and I think for me to ump it up this year, a weekly summary is best for me to be accountable. I'm not going to track time in additional administrative task just yet.  I've printed off my goals and they are taped up here at home and will be taped at the studio and on my tablet and pc calendar.  This might be overkill but I know me and its not.

• I spent 7 hours in the studio; 4 of them spent on working on a quilt for exhibit.  
• 3 hours w/ Digital Quilting and working with my photo files, printing, transfering methods for a minimum of 10 hours last week.  
• I snapped a few pictures with the tablet and did a short in-studio video, but not with the D40. 
• I prepared paper and fabric for zentangles but didn't do any.

Here is a short video of results printing on foil using Golden's digital grounds.  I used a brush to apply the grounds, but I'm thinking a foam brush will get a smoother even application OR either I need to apply more than 2 coats.

First of all...

on the last day of the year, Happy birthday to me! Thank  you God for another year of living behind me, and by your Grace, ahead of me.

After much pondering and pontificating, and to make the most of this propitious moment, I'm ready to proceed and pen my artistic goals as I stand at the precipice of 2013. (This post brought to you by the letter p).

My overriding business goal: Complete Access to Market.  As a result of this this, these things will happen:

• complete business plan
• a website
• professional images of my art

Business Goal #2

• Submit to a minimum of 5 exhibits

Business Goal #3

• Track expenses
• Track time in the studio

My overriding creative goal: To create more quilts

• Start the series that is a tribute to the novels of Toni Morrison          Bluest Eye (1970) and Sula (1974)
• 2 more boat quilts
• 2 more Crowbonics quilts
• 2 more portrait quilts or narrative (jockey, mid-wife)
• 20 small quilts wrapped around frame, 12" x 12" or less

Educational goals:

• bear with me on this one, it is only about the 4 time I'm giving this a try...but follow a regiment of working through at least 3 technique books this year.  (It feels so wasteful to have books I already own at my  disposal and not use them)
• take pictures everyday weekly*
• zentangle daily on paper and on cloth*

* ammended on 01/04/2013

Community/Social goals:

• Goodfolk Festival, I pondered if this was a business goal, but I had so damn much fun that I would do it again and this is also why the concentration on 20 smaller pieces, for the booth there and hopefully sharing it with the same 2 friends since we proved to co-mingle well together already.
• 2 Teaching gigs
• 1 artist's date each month

And my word for the coming year is DISCERNMENT, (I know, not a P-word), to catch sight of, recognize, and understand.  Since I'll be receiving loads of business information, I want to make sure my grasp and focus is good and that I'm able to determine what is specifically right for me given my own heart, mind, and circumstances.

I bid you, as always, Peace...


     

What's ahead for 2013?

In November I was notified of acceptance into a pilot program with the Small Business Association.  A statewide program for 50 artists called Access to Market.  The 4 goals of the program for each artist is 1. Professional images of art, 2. A website, 3. A personalized business plan, 4. education on moving our art or craft into a wider market. 

The first class was held earlier this month and covered product development and placement.  Although there was a mix of artists/crafts people who produce for wholesale markets, there were also artists/crafts people who create one of a kind pieces.  The bulk of the presentation focused on creating for the wholesale market with adapting those ideas where applicable for artists, like myself, who create solely one of a kind pieces.  When I posed the question to the organizer, it was her belief that artists should have a foot in both worlds but ultimately each of us would decide our market.

I left there questioning if I should aim for a foot in both worlds and if so, what would be my wholesale items.  I've pondered this for weeks now, but keep coming back to not wanting to wholesale.  It would not be remotely appealing for me to embrace a "production" mindset.  Creating 500 artsy pot holders, or 500 scarfs, 500 textile bracelets, etc.  is not enough honey for a dime is what I repeatedly return to after pondering the questions.  

I create one of a kind pieces.  This is how I want to spend my time.  I explore new ways to work with cloth in creating my quilts.  This is what is important to me from the bottom to the top and back down and up again.  Time is what I have in abundance, but what I do not have in abundance is physical capacities even though I push as much as I can.  Do I want to sell my quilts, yes!, yes, I do.  Exhibiting is vital to me and ultimately, I want 2-3 galleries around the country to carry my work.  I want to have 1-2 interior designers to consider my work annually for their residential and corporate clients.  And lastly, I want to be involved with teaching or demoing with outreach groups via non-profit organizations.  End of story.

So what will my goals be for 2013?  Give me a few more days and I'll let you know...

Peace,

Negotiating Study (c), 2007, 125.

Having a party...

I lack the discipline to not share my quilts in progress.  I get so excited that I want to have a party and just hang out and drink wine...sharing here is the closest thing to doing just that in a way that provides immediate gratification among community.  Thus, my chances of creating something to submit to exhibits that prevent any form of public photo sharing seem low unless I change my ways. Something I'll ponder in the distant future...but for now...lets get down and party...

I had no intent of going in today, but my son called and needed a ride home from work after pulling a double shift, so to make the most of bathing and dressing and going out, I headed to the studio after dropping him off here at home.  The day went lovely, after an hour or so spent socializing, I finally mosied back to my sanctuary.  The front windows and glass doors needed washing, so I piddled with that until I was as close to streak free to make it worth my time...turned on public radio, rearranged some boxes that really didn't need rearranging, picked up scraps from the floor, put some fabric away, and then finally I was ready to pick up The Mid-Wife and resume quilting.  Her body is quilted and I think her face is finished or very close to being finished and then I was ready for the background...fruit, hanging fruit came to mind since she delivers babies...so I doodled a bit, see above.

Still not ready to commit to stitch, I recalled a method to audition quilt lines that Juanita had shared with me...cover up the piece with clear acetate and use a dry erase marker to sketch the thread lines.

It is generic fruit, buds that haven't come to fruition yet.  I also have to decide how and where I want to sew on the 40+ teeny tiny baby dolls that will embellish this quilt.  If I go with this hanging fruit, I'm thinking the babies will fill the empty spaces from top to bottom.  She will also get a necklace of pinkish/purplish pearls.  Oh, and I also came up with a full title, She Who Sees and Touches the Future.  By the time I got this far, the synapses was firing off and that led me to pulling out the praying crows and thinking about a background and story for them, (see them in the botton right corner on the photo on the left side?).

All this will stew for a few days and hopefully I can return over the weekend.  Now pass the wine and turn up the music!

Studio View

photo credit: Linda Ospital

Ties that bind...

The cold weather slows me down considerably and I'm trying to work out my winter schedule for studio time. My goal is to at least get in 2 days each week and 3-4 if the temps are mild or unseasonably warm.  I'll return to a daily journal practice and might consider setting up a corner for beading on the graffiti-scraps...I have about 30-40 of them that I'm not sure I'm even going to layer since it is a heavy canvas.  I'll also return to working through digital design as it relates to quilting.  And the Market to Access program should also help keep me focused.  I tend to get a little surly when I go more than 3-4 days without any hands on creativity.

I have 2 juried show that I want to submit work to but I'm infamous for missing deadlines but I'm going to plug a schedule into my calendar as opposed to steadily working and then diving in at the last minute to rush to finish the quilt, get it photographed, and budget for submission fees.  I've gotten to old to rush at anything. I've been 87 years old since i was 24, or so I've been told. That is another way of saying "old soul". Well my body has caught up.  A few days ago I had to laugh at myself for the way I'm wearing my hair...sectioned off with 10 plaits.  I use to plait my great-grandmother's hair up the same way...oil and massage her scalp and plait up her hair and that is the way she wore it...opting to put on a wig for church on Sundays.  She was in her 70s when I had that duty...I'm in my early 50s

Here I am in my studio showing my very first quilt to Linda Ospital who was interviewing me for a state archive project.

In this photo I can see my father and my great-grandmother.  I started this quilt in 1990 and completed it in 2003...it is all hand sewn except for the binding.

Hanging out

Being at the studio on Black Friday was a very odd thing...it didn't feel any different from any other Trolley Hop except it was an all day affair...the amount of people on Frankfort Ave and at Mellwood appeared even lighter than a regular Trolley Hop...just don't know that small businesses and art galleries can compete with the big box stores on that day.  That aside, I really don't retail anything from my studio and use days on Open Studio to field questions from wondering visitors about what I do and hang out and connect with friends with a little art making in between.

Brittany came yesterday to hang out with me.  She saves shells from mussels and was interested in dyeing or painting them.  We experimented with acid dyeing with procion mx on a few and gesso and paint on others.  Brittany also makes purses from re-purposing fabric and hand embroidering women on the front.  Here is the start of one of them...

I've known Brittany's Mom, Deborah, since elementary school and we reconnected in the late nineties after we ended up working for the same organization.  

I completed most of the quilt lines on Oliver Lewis, The Jockey and tried to work on the Mid-wife but the day was wearing on me by then.  Tried to pick it back up today but couldn't concentrate well enough to do without making mistakes.  Something occurred yesterday at the art complex that greatly bothered me...another occurrence in a long line of crass and crude behaviors by leasing staff.  There is only so much Ass-holism I can let slide off without it effecting me while there.  This particular thing even found itself into my dreams last night and was on my mind the first thing when I awoke...not good...my head space is too precious and time too short.  If I'm still bothered, and even if I'm not, by Wednesday, I will at least voice my view to the appropriate person.

On another vibe, I was accepted into the SBA's Access to Market program for artists, designed to help artists market their work to a wider audience.  It is a pilot program that is funded via a federal grant and only took 50 artists across the state.  

Catching up with myself...

I went through a major rearranging at the studio.  It took me 3 days out of 2 weeks.  Then when I finished I went through a empty spell about creating anything.  After some days of just sitting, looking around, and wondering about nothing in particular, I decided to just do something...so I grabbed up the canvas scraps I graffiti-ed and started bead work on them.  Slow hand work is good for the soul.

I have at least 20 of these graffiti-ed canvas scraps.  It was my intent (there is that word again...intent, sighing) to get them finished for the small art show/everything under 100 at The Kore Gallery.  But if I get 5 of them completed I'll be happy...this is the first one you see above.  After I started beading on the second one, up jumped the mojo, I went to work quilting this...

Between the jockey and my latest music crush, jazz vocalist, Gregory Porter...I was feeling a full immersion art-gasm!  The music is fine! but the lyrics are some of the freshest and energizing I've heard since Lizz Wright!  Go youtube Porter right now then come back and tell me what you think!  I have his Be Good CD and just like I do with Lizz Wright, I want to order all his cds.

I'm also looking for another photo to portray.  After spending the Spring and early Summer drawing the jockey almost every day, it wasn't until I did this real fluid drawing that I found some semblance of style that felt good for me to portray realism in.  I love it and want to do more of it.  I have a photo of my Great Great Grandmother that I'm leaning toward...here it is.

I'm not doing a big Thanksgiving meal this year...just gave myself permission to let go of it a few days ago.  After letting that go I thought about my cousins and my Uncle's wife who is a very proud Wampanoag Indian who has never recognized the holiday as it is celebrated...being Native American, the take on Thanksgiving takes on a different perspective.  To quote a line by poet Margaret Walker..."let a new earth rise, a new world be born".

GoodArt by GoodFolk

Okay, Good Folk Festival has come and gone...my friends have returned home...and my retreat from the daily grind has ended.  With that said, I'm doing it again next year!  This was the art fair for the 99% or definitely the 47% of us!  The art was fascinating! The artists were engaging!

Our booth was set up right in front of the main stage and other than a band that had a blood chilling screamer, it was all good.  Since I so seldom go out juke jointing anymore the exposure to so much live music was a rare treat.  But I was holding my breath to see and hear Tyrone Cotton who I had not seen in a very long time! One of my favorite all time birthday memories was Tyrone singing a happy birthday tune to me in his bluesy style from the stage of the now defunct Twice Told Bookstore and Coffeehouse.

I've dumped all my "stuff" back into the studio and today I'm going in to begin straightening up for a few hours.  The remainder of the week will be dedicated to rest and grandbabees.

Come and see me!!!!!!!

and even buy some art...if not from me, surely you'll find something to your loving and price point at The Good Folk Fest!  Go to www.junkabillyart.com for more info.

I'm sharing a 12'x12' booth with Mary Jo and Bev.  I've ran myself crazy yo-yo-ing about what I was able to do and not do.  Bev has reminded me at least 3 times in the last few weeks that this was all about having fun when we agreed to do this.  I think I'll feel better come Friday...I wanted to complete 3 quilts before then...realistically, if I get 1 completed, (just needs binding) I'll be doing good.  The 2nd one is 1/3 quilted, the 3rd one just finished the design top and layered with batting but no backing yet.  The 3rd one will get lots of embellishment with about 40+ 1/2 inch baby dolls so I'm considering just quilting through the top 2 layers and then fusing a backing on the top.

The 3 can be seen in this really short clip.