Sketching to stay warm

Just wanted to pop into my blog to wish everyone that stops by a happiest of new years.  I coasted through December and the year is behind me.  I've been mulling over directions and steps to take in this 2014 but haven't decided on anything. 

My blog break reflects my desire not to keep repeating how much strong STRONG dislike I have of cold weather but since the temps are predicted to drop to 1 degree F with a wind chill of minus 20 degrees F, I need to say it! I hate cold-ass weather!  There, I'm good for the moment.

I don't know when I'll be brave enough to return to the studio.  In the meantime I'm just sketching around.

Peace,

More Piddlin' Around

I should have my ass in that chair running that sewing machine.  I just woke up from a nap and have flipped through a couple of books, did a sketch assignment from the book Spirit Taking Form on drawing my dream studio.  It is a round clay building with a patio looking out over a busy city street. On the patio is a longe chair and a table.  Flower pots, probably with silk flowers whispered the plant murderer,  are around the door. The door is a heavy wood door imported from Nigeria and has carvings that tell the story of the poet-art quilter peasant woman.

I dabbled in my journal and pinned face to the design wall which was the outcome of yesterday's piddlin'.  It can be seen on my Facebook studio page.

Wall of inspiration

The small amount of time in the studio has been spent sitting in my comfy chair and staring off into space and feeling content.

Knowing Myself, Showing Myself

Watching the clock, but can't even tell the time...so the song lyric goes.  Let me hit the repeat button..."I hate (Mama always warned us of using the h-word) do not like winter".  Such a cruel trick of fate, I say, that my geography even includes below freezing temperatures.

As always, December finds me slowing down from any activities in the studio.  I've been reflecting on the year.

This is what I wrote in February:

Joining The Kore Gallery at the end of January necessitates a do-over for 2013 goals.

The Kore Gallery:

• Keep a minimum of 5 pieces in the gallery
• Take gallery photos bi-weekly
• Maintain FB page
• Develop website

The Chitlin' Circuit Studio:

--> Complete Access to Market (A2M )

          Business Plan
          Personal Website
--> Complete 10 new pieces
          2 Crowbonics
          2 portraiture
          2 Graffiti quilts
          2 inspired by Toni Morrison novels (Bluest Eye, Sula)
          2 Boat
--> Complete 20 small pieces
--> Maintain spread sheets on time, expenses, sales, etc.
--> Submit to 4 shows
--> 2 Outreach art activities
--> Continue Learning Curve (working through books/online workshops)

Most of my creative time was spent on surface design.  I completed about 20 or so small pieces, most of them where the Mojo paper quilts, most of which have found new homes and where purchased from the co-op gallery.  XX and The Mid-wife were the only larger size quilts I completed. I have two others on the design wall that are near completion but they do not fall into the category of quilts I outlined in my goals.

the A2M program was completed.  I do not have a business plan and will not create one.  After immersing myself in art/business lit for the year, I'm coming away with some tips on promoting and organization, only to conclude I'm serious and passionate about creating but "business" is not what I'm doing.  I am not trying to make a profit. I want to sell my art to buy more art supplies and share what I create with others.  I do not want to run workshops, but am happy to have others come to my studio to explore technique and talk art and life.  End of story.

The co-op gallery fits the bill for me...it is a partnership, it provides the space to show and sell what I create. It is flexible...just reduced my gallery sitting from 12 hours a week to 6.  And it doesn't come with the weight of being self-employed.

Getting back to my goals...I have 2 sketches for the Morrison quilts.  I created the website for the gallery and have my own near ready.  I used WIX.com.  I kept the spreadsheets for a quarter of the year until the laptop I used went belly up.  Learning Curve was hit and miss...not structured that way that I'd like to maximize benefits.

Submission was to 2 shows...with 1 acceptance for next year...The 20th Annual African American Art Exhibit at Actors Theatre of Louisville...both XX and Crowbonics: The Prayer will hang and there will be a purchase catalog created.

And for closing here is the outcome of the fabric shown in the previous post.

Breakdown printing

Carter, GS, has learned to do the duck dance from school and is very entertained by it as i am watching him while I dadadadada the music to it.  We told Papa to watch and learn.  I put him on the bus this morning and slid into the studio where I am piddling as a form of self care. 
I have some dried screens, very old dyes, and some print paste going bad so I am seeing what sticks with Breakdown Screen Printing. 

I don't expect much from this but while doing it I kept wanting that ethereal appearance like with encaustic paintings. It is sopping wet in this picture and with the materials being old the depth of color will be no way near this.

I cannot get enough of this picture.

Cold weather, foggy mind...

My time in the studio as already slowed down due to cooler to down right cold temps.  A month earlier than what I expected.  This year has been a good year thus far.  (no hospital stays! yeah babee!)

My goals have been a guiding force for the year and I've held to them even though I didn't achieve everything I set out to do.  I move slow but steady.  I know at least one thing I need to let go of for next year....being a office holder in the artists' group at Mellwood.  Artists are hustling trying to make art and hold jobs and attend to family and health and studio turn over is too frequent to keep momentum going on projects.

This was a year I immersed myself in reading marketing books geared at artists.  I kept thinking I was missing something in the Access2Market program with its emphasis on wholesaling.  Two or three of the books I've read take a tone of slight arrogance and too expert-y which comes across to me as a 'hustling books mentality instead of living what is written about'. 

The exception, the one that reads like real talk, is The Artist's Guide by Jackie Battenfield.  I don't regret reading the other books which I'll not name.  I seem to constantly need the affirmation that I do not want to be a "business" in the strictest sense of the term, yet I'm serious (as defined by absorbed) with creating with cloth and I'm joy-filled when someone even inquires about my art and when someone purchases a piece I really can't feel my feet on the ground!

Kore Art Gallery

 



Most of what I do for the co-op is online and my winter hours will reduce my gallery sitting to 4-5 hours each week and about 8-10 hours in the studio...maybe 15 in a good week.  My body started to rebel a few weeks ago.

My major focus for next year will be the Novel quilts...at least starting the first one and possibly continuing with a smaller series like the Poetry quilts or paper quilts.  I'd like to take on 2 or 3 workbooks...but I always fall off the wagon about 1/4 of the way into the year.  My real challenge is not to fall into the rabbit hole of surface design.

I returned to the book Spirit Taking Form tonight.  Need to slow the train in my mind and find artistic clarity.

Peace,

Warming up

This is a practice study for free motion quilting for the lungs and heart. 

Human anatomy

In stitch, a heart and lungs.  I am reconsidering hand stitching the outline of these innards and then sketching arteries and such with machine thread.

Companions

Waiting for a decision...

Love the cloth?

Yes, she said.  Then you must not despise the iron, said the peasant-woman to her post pubescent girl-self.