>What Color is Your Thinking Cap?

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You’re the One  crochet and knitting with found objects

One way to cope  have fun with the switch between doing chores, whether they be household, or the daily to-dos for your art career, is to have different costumes.  Remember in grade school when your teacher would tell you to get your thinking cap on?  I was so disappointed that there wasn’t an actual thinking cap for us to wear.  Maybe it was just me, but I thought the idea of having something fun to wear could help a boring or difficult task more fun.

Who wouldn’t have a bit more fun if you did your errands dressed as a samurai?

Tibetan Temple knitting and crochet, wool, soy silk and acrylic

Maybe did your thumbnail sketches under the boughs of a beautiful oak?

A Walk in the Woods knitting, crochet and found objects, wool and cotton

Or even did your household chores dressed a little like Jackie Kennedy?

Jackie wool and acrylic, knit and crochet

There is  something to be said for costumes.  Even Havi wrote about them at her blog.  Having one can help you be brave, to act as if (I am thinking of my “New Job, Model Citizen” dress slacks that I wear when I want to project that air of confidence and competence at events such as art openings).  Having one can help your brain transition from mundane work stuff into art making time. 

Alice’s Repose crochet, i-cord, found object; wool and acrylic

I have a small wardrobe of aprons that I keep in my studio, and when I am having a hard time getting into the work on any given day, I put on an apron, even if I am not planning on doing any messy work that day.  This tells me that it is time to play, and I can feel my body relax and stop fighting the urge to have fun.

Just Desserts wool, alpaca and cotton; knit and crochet.

Whether it is a thinking cap, an apron, or something more elaborate, a costume can add a lot of fun to your daily routine.  What roles do you play, and how could you dress them up?

 

>Time Travel

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Twenty years ago when I was in graduate school, I wanted to do a series on water towers.

I took reference photographs.

Water towers on Route 33 near The Plains, OH.

Water tower on the grounds of Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland.

I took my two toddlers out and parked in the parking lot of the local credit union and drew in the back seat of the car.

Water towers, Route 33, Caran D’Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons on Arches Cover Black paper.

Water towers, Route 33, Caran D’Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons on Arches Cover Black paper.

And I drew from reference photos, in my studio.

Gaffney, SC, Caran D’Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons on Arches Cover Black paper, 40” x 30”.

(I couldn’t find my reference photo to put in this post.  Ironic, isn’t it?)

That’s as far as it got at the time.  There were a few false starts at paintings that ended up covered over, but these images were all that I had for a very long time.  Then I decided to revisit the imagery in my quilts (blog posts here and here).

And, while searching for a way to make some images that fit the parameters of a show calling for pieces no larger than 5”  in any direction, I remembered a technique described in the book Freestyle Machine Embroidery by Carol Shinn.

Carol took her source image and printed it out onto transfer paper.  She then ironed it onto a stiff fabric and filled in the image using machine embroidery.

Which I decided to do with the old drawings.

Route 33, Autumn Afternoon  Machine embroidery and photo transfer on twill.  5” x 5”

Detail, showing the layers used to create the feeling of the undergrowth.

Gaffney SC II, still in process.  You can see the twill on the borders.  I also use several layers of interfacing to stabilize the fabric and minimize distortion during stitching.

Here you can really see the texture of the stitches and of the twill underneath the iron-on.

I am using Golden Extra Heavy Body Gel to adhere the finished stitching to the canvas, pressing the work between two boards weighted down with paint jars.   Once the gel is dry, I trim the image close to the canvas and then paint the edges of the canvas with a coordinating color of acrylic paint.  In the future I may experiment with making the edges of the canvas covered in machine embroidery as well.

I really enjoyed working this way, and am eager to make new source drawings (of various subjects) to work from.  What treasures do you have in your studio that could provide a springboard for new creativity?

 

>What Does ‘The King’s Speech’ Have to Do With Art?

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If you haven’t seen ‘The King’s Speech’ yet, I tried to not spoil any major plot points, but if you want to go into the movie and be surprised, you may want to wait to read this post until after you’ve seen the movie.  Go on and see it, I’ll wait.

 

Over the weekend I was able to go see ‘The King’s Speech’.  I had heard lots of good things about it from my friends at Facebook, and my husband was also interested in seeing it, so it was an obvious choice.  Sunday afternoon we headed out to take in the early afternoon matinee.

Two hours later I walked out of the theater feeling energized and uplifted.  The simple story of how King George VI worked with speech coach Lionel Logue to overcome his stutter and lead his country during the dark days of World War II made me cringe, made me laugh, and ultimately made me cry. 

And then it made me think.  I empathized with Colin Firth’s Bertie, not only because he agonized at the prospect of having to lead his country during wartime, but also because he was a person who had not yet owned his voice.  He could speak clearly and smoothly under a few conditions, but he seemed to have trouble with even every day conversation. 

How does this relate to art, you ask? 

Well, we often talk about seeing a person’s voice in their work.  Some works are muddied and the vision is unclear, while other pieces make our hearts sing.  I think there are a lot of similarities between the artist sitting at the easel, drawing board, or sewing machine, struggling to get out of their own way and let their voice out, and Bertie, struggling to get out a single word.

Blocks that kept Bertie from speaking clearly included early childhood trauma and present family teasing.  How many artists have trouble creating because of what a teacher or family member may have said to them when they shared their early art?

The most important thing that struck me near the end of the movie was when we were shown how Bertie was afraid to take on his authority.  He didn’t believe he could be bigger, and he was afraid to be bigger.  This made him angry when it was pointed out to him. How often do we act the same way in regards to our art?  We may not stammer, but we find other ways to stop our work from getting out, whether it is spending too much time on the internet, taking on other people’s problems, or even making art, but maybe not the art that we really want to make.

Of course we know what happens with Bertie, all we have to do is look at a history book.  In the film you could see the change in how he carried himself. At the end of the speech his shoulders were squared and he walked confidently out to greet his people.  He had found his voice.

What steps can you take to let your voice be heard in your work?

 

>Year of the Rabbit

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Sometimes your inspiration can be directly traced to a specific event or object.  For instance:

The evil rabbit growth chart my mom embroidered for me.  I’m sure she didn’t think it was evil.  But those eyes freaked me out.  A lot.

Could you sleep with this looking at you every night?

And yet, somehow I managed to grow up and be a fairly normal member of society.

Then I started making my own rabbit art.

Good Bunny I 2007  Bic ballpoint on drawing paper

Good Bunny II 2007  Bic ballpoint on drawing paper

Good Bunny III  Bic ballpoint on drawing paper (my favorite of the bunny drawings, don’t tell the others)

Good Bunny III, detail

Good Bunny IV, still in process.  Machine embroidery, beads and sequins

Good Bunny IV, detail

Macgregor’s Bunny,  mosaic on repurposed name tag

Mad Hatter’s Rabbit, photo copy of Bic ballpoint drawing, colored with watercolor and colored pencil

Concept sketch for rabbit embroidery

Down the Rabbit Hole 2009 16” x 19”

Queen of Hearts 2010 18” x 18”

Waiting for Harvest 2007  Bead embroidery on Peltex heavy duty interfacing

 

Bunny Pierrot II 2010, acrylic on canvas

 

Clara Bunny 2007  Machine embroidery, stuffed plush

And suddenly Mr. Growth Chart didn’t seem so bad after all.  Look at all the work he inspired!

For more on rabbits and their symbolism you can read Terri Windling’s article at Endicott Studios and see more rabbit art at  Midori Snyder’s blog post.  Read about Chinese New Year here.

 

>What Color is Your Pair o’ Shoes?

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Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun.  Last summer I did a small painting for my friend Tricia’s show.  The theme was “shoes”.  I have been drawing and painting shoes from way back, and so I delighted in this opportunity to try something new.  I have a pair of toddler jellies that I found at a yard sale several years ago and this was a good time to play with that image.

Too Coy  2010 10” x 10” Acrylic and silkscreen on canvas

I had fun drawing the image and filling it in with color, but nothing beats my fabric, and I wondered what it would be like to blow the shoe image up and re-create it in fabric.

Boogie Shoes 2011 36 1/2” H x 31” W

This piece was done on whole cloth that I painted using SetaColour paints.  It was painted on a hot August afternoon, and I sprinkled salt on the wet paint and let it dry in the summer sun.  The batik was something I picked up just because I liked the color.  I love when things work together to help create a piece of art.  It’s almost like it creates itself.

Here’s a detail of the stitching.  The grid quilting was done with a combination of YLI Candlelight thread (used in the bobbin) and Kreinik machine quilting thread.  This was my first experience with the Kreinik machine thread and I was really pleased with how well it worked.

You might have guessed from my last post that when I find an image I like, I like to create it multiple times.  There will be more shoes in my future, including this one, in process:

Twelve Step, in process  hand-dyed and hand painted fabric, silk screen, applique

Are there any images you like to revisit over and over again? 

 

>What is Your Definition of Success?

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This topic came up in a friend’s LiveJournal this morning.  She wrote how she didn’t view success in terms of how much money she made from her work (whether as an artist or her previous career in social work), but rather in how she made people feel (through her beautiful work or how she helped her clients).   I don’t think it has to be an either/or type of answer (and neither does my friend), and I believe it is possible to have both, and in the case of some people it does seem that the better they make people feel (whether through their art or writing, or other pursuits such as being a sports or movie star) the more money they make. 

Last year one of my goals was to submit for a grant from the Ohio Arts Council.  I have learned over the years that when writing goals you need to make them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.  Which is why the goal was to submit the work, which is an Achievable target. Actually getting the grant is another thing entirely.

With that in mind, these are the images I submitted for the grant application.  All of the pieces had to be created within the last three years of the application.  I chose to submit the work from my water tower series.

Gaffney, SC 2007 40” H x 28” W 

Route 33, Summer Morning  2008 47” x 44”

Marilyn 2008 62” x 76”

What Lies Beneath 2009  76” x 42”

White Lies  2008 83” x 48”

Night Moves 2008 32” x 31”

Abundance 2008 15” x 22”

Winter White 2009 60” x 50”

Ophelia’s Sisters 2009 22” x 40”

Garden Party 2010 44” x 45”

Twilight 2010 38” x 40”

Andrews AFB 2010 80” x 54”

Because I had consistently created work over the past three years, filling the required image part of the application was easy.  Writing the artist statement, which I usually find painful and difficult, was easy, thanks to techniques I’ve learned using Havi Brooks’ Dissolving Procrastination book. This year I actually had the application in two weeks before the deadline, and I felt really good about it.

Then I got the email on January 4th, telling me I did not get a grant.

Was I disappointed? You bet.  I feel this is the best application I’ve submitted for this grant in the ten years I’ve tried for one.  I love my artist statement and I love my work.  It would have been nice to have the validation (not to mention the money) of receiving one of the grants.

But I still consider myself a success.  Because I put the work out there and applied. 

 

>Building a Good Foundation: Journals

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Keeping a regular written record, or a journal, is the best way I’ve found to keep on track with my various pursuits.   I doodle, glue in pictures that interest me, and (gasp!) even write in my journals.  They have ranged in size from this small Moleskine shown below to a super large wire bound sketchbooks , but the one thing they have in common is that the only rule is that there are no rules.

Lists help to keep me on track.  I started this practice when my youngest son was an infant.  Each Sunday I sit down with my journal and make a list of what I’d like to accomplish that week. Sometimes I go back and check off projects as they are completed.  Other times I list the projects or actions I took that day or week.  This was a real sanity saver when I felt overwhelmed by my duties as a mother.  I could look at the page and see that I had accomplished something that week, no matter how small it may have seemed.  Little steps added up to bigger work.

 

Lists can be used to brainstorm ideas.  This page was from the year I was going to attempt the “Art by the Inch” challenge.  I wrote my options for the time period and listed what supplies I’d need to gather to work on the projects.

 

This page was done in preparation for a class I was teaching to the Art Quilt Alliance in Columbus Ohio.  I wanted to make sure that nothing was forgotten, and I had a little fun drawing the contents of the table I was sitting at while I brainstormed what was needed.

 

And a goofy collage combining watercolor, colored pencil and a list.  So many options for something so mundane helps make the task fun.

 

>How Do Your Ideas Grow?

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One question I get a lot is “Where do you get your ideas?”  My initial thought upon hearing that question is “Where don’t I get ideas?” because ideas seem to come from all directions, at any time.  Of course it is because I also do a lot of what Julia Cameron calls “filling the well.”  This can include the activities listed in her book “The Artist’s Way” (morning pages, artist dates, regular activity), but I also find that other things also fill the well and help nurture baby ideas.

With that question in mind, I went to the local coffee shop with my journal and markers on hand.  This is the image that came to me.  Creativity as a garden, with all the elements that help to fertilize the process and help in the development of ideas. 

As a child I remember reading the story of Squanto, and how he taught the Pilgrims to fertilize their crops using fish, so that is why the fish are in the image (that I like drawing fish is a happy plus).  Each fish and mineral underground contains an element of what feeds my idea plant.  You can see here that my fertilizer includes reading, movies and dreams.

Actually putting the ideas down in some form grows from this fertile ground, including blog posts and working in my personal journal.  The harvest includes finished work, which can also be used as fertilizer to start the process all over again.

I also feel that self care, symbolized by the sun in this drawing, is of utmost importance in developing ideas.  If we are tired and depleted our bodies and minds can’t help but divert all our energy into just surviving.  My self care includes such things as rest, yoga, friends and good food.  Play is also an important part of the process.  Allowing some time to just goof off can help more than anything sometimes.

What nurtures your ideas?  I have put a link in the sidebar to a blank copy of this worksheet  (How Do Your Ideas Grow) that you can print out and play with on your own.  Feel free to share it with your friends (please link back to this post, thanks!) , and I would love to see what your garden looks like.

 

>Come Sail Away

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“Safe Harbor” 15.5” x 15.5” 2010 available at my Etsy shop

New year, new blog.  Or as Cobra Bubbles put it, (in the Disney film “Lilo and Stitch”) “New job.  Model citizen.” 

I’m not sure how I will fill either of those criteria, but I felt it was time to change things up and become a bit more focused.  I had outgrown the “AndiBeads” label, and, let’s face it, most of my blog posts there had nothing to do with beads. 

So what are my plans for this new start?  Well, obviously, to share my art with you, but also to provide some tips and tools to help you along in your creative journey.  Look for downloadable worksheets, some step by step “how to’s” and more on our travels together.

I am a firm believer in free-range creativity and allowing things to develop organically, so for now there isn’t a set publishing schedule.  Over time as themes develop, days may be designated as “time management Tuesday” or some such, but for now, just sit back and enjoy the ride.