Word of the Day: Struggle

I was looking at the photos from the recent AQS show in Paducah. I looked at them (thanks, Leslie, for posting!) and thought they were unbelievably gorgeous. The work, the time, the creativity. I also thought that there was no point in me ever enering anything in Paducah, because that work is different from what I do. It isn’t that I probably couldn’t do what Sharon Schamber and Caryl Bryer Fallert do, but I really don’t want to. I love the work that I do and want to continue on the path that I am on and not make something just to enter it into Paducah.

Today when I read the Word of the Day, Struggle, I thought of these feelings I had when looking at the Paducah photos.

Deng Ming Dao, from 365 Tao writes (abridged by me!):

“Goals  are important. Forbearance is also important. But the very process of struggle is equally essential…Without it, we cannot know any true meaning in our accomplishments.”

“A writer will write significant passages as if they were dictated. Each might say, ‘It happened so fast!’ But in reality, it took all of them years of dedication and struggle to come to that moment of climaz. Thus even the virtuoso performance is the tip of a lifetime of struggle, and the gem of meanin is set in the metal of long perseverance.”

Struggle has a negative connotation at first glance, but this passage is great because it acknowledges past work and sums up success.

I think that we have to acknowledge our past work as we achieve success in the present and the future. We have to acknowledge how much we have learned and struggled to get where we are at this point. Caryl Bryer Fallert and Shawn Fanning (founder of Napster) did not have immediate success. What appears to be immediate success has some kind of backsory. Caryl Bryer Fallert had years of machine quitling experience behind before winning best of show at Paducah. Shawn Fanning knew about the Internet and programming before he created Napster.

I don’t think that a person can have instant and immediate success. There is always something behind doing something for the first time: family, classes, related experience. There has to be a foundation.

TFQ turned me on to a Flickr group called Mod Sampler Quilt-Along. It is related to the blog, Oh fransson! It seems that this is where people are gathering now and sharing their quilts in a way that is different from the Paducah show. TFQ and I had a long talk about the AQS show and how it relates to new quiltmakers. She is starting a blog and I hope she will write more about our discussion, but if not, I will pick it up later.

Note: You can see the beginning of the WOTD project on the January 1 post. While I am still doing the project in my journal, I am only posting WOTDs here when they really related to something I have seen or done. My last WOTD post on February 1, 2009 explains a little about my thinking.

Sketching #12

Creative Prompt Response: Source (#12)
Creative Prompt Response: Source (#12)

When I think of what is the deepest source of things for me I always come back to water. I love looking out at the ocean and over other large bodies of water. I love looking at lakes and rivers from the air. I love the color of water. I tried to create one of those water statues to represent my source.

Journal Bliss by Violette Clark

Violette's book Journal Bliss
Violette's book Journal Bliss

Violette Clark, a Canadian artist I wrote about on the Creative Prompt page, has a new book out. I first heard about Violette on the CraftSanity podcast with Violette Clark during a recent road trip. The podcast is one of the earlier ones and it didn’t mention Violette’s new book  I haven’t seen the book.

Violette has a great style. If you take a look at her website, you will find it full of creativity, cheerfulness (my favorite) and joy. She has a blog and message forums for her fans to discuss everything from her blog posts to how they are inspired by her work.

Check back for a review of this book!

Book Review: Ocean Waves

Ocean Waves (A Quilting Mystery) Ocean Waves by Terri Thayer

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
You cannot blast through this book. I did and I didn’t understand it at all, which meant that I turned back to page one and started over as soon as I finished it. Terri once told me that every word has to count so writers these days prune, prune, prune. I may have realized that with her other two books, Old Maid’s Puzzle and Wild Goose Chase, but it came home to me with this book when I knew the killers and didn’t understand the ending.

Dewey’s character is developing and I like to be able to see that in the book. I also enjoyed seeing her develop as a quiltmaker and am glad she didn’t bail on her class.

Terri has a knack for characters I love to intensely dislike and this book was no exception. One was a control freak and the other had a huge chip on his/her shoulder. I am glad I won’t be seeing THEM again.

This was a pretty exciting book. The ending was fabulous. Terri did not fulfill my fantasy of killing off Kym, but I liked what Terri did with Kym in terms of moving her along with her life. I would have liked a little more background on what has gone in Kym’s life since she was fired from QP, especially since, despite Dewey’s heroics, Kym doesn’t move beyond her self centeredness.

The sad part about books, though, is that we only get a few days of Dewey’s life and I could really use more. Perhaps Terri should write a blog by Dewey…in her copious amounts of spare time!

View all my quilt and non-quilt reviews.

Everybody Draw Now

Soule Mama’s recent post really fits in to the Creative Prompt project. She also points to a NPR story (which, sadly, I missed) about drawing. Go and read all of Soule Mama’s post because it has a fantastic point of view.
clipped from www.soulemama.com

Keep Drawing!

I heard artist Mo Willems on NPR last night (Getting Adults to Draw). He observes that “people stop drawing when they decide they’re not good at it…[but] Nobody stops playing basketball once they realize they’re not going to be a professional.

Hear, Hear! Keep drawing!

He says, and I firmly believe, that in order for children to want to draw and to continue that into adulthood, they need to see the adults around them draw. They need adults to draw with them. No matter what our “skill-level” or whatever hang ups we may have about being – or not being – “an artist,” if we want our children to draw/paint/knit/sew/make, we must be doing it too. And really – what a wonderful assignment for us as parents, you know? Of benefit to us all…

Draw3
  blog it

Creative Prompt #12: Source

Summary: new creative prompt for the week.

The word of the day the other day was ‘withdrawal’, which really spoke about going to a space where you can rejuvenate yourself. This reading made me think of a source of creativity and where that comes from. What is your source of creativity? How often do you draw on the source?

See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.

Post the specific URL or deep link where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted in the comments area of this post. It is an easy and good way to keep all the artwork together.

There is more creative goodness on the Creative Prompt Page.

Essay on Notebooks, Creativity and Podcast Influences

Summary: essay on art vs. craft and my rambling journey to find out my truth on this subject.

I have a notebook in my car. It is a spiralbound Strathmore sketchbook. I bought it about six months ago when I ran out of gas receipts on which to write directions, radio ad URLs and to do lists.

It is a bit of a sad sketchbook. Its promise isn’t really realized because it stays in the car. I don’t usually bring it into the house. It is a little bit bent from being jammed in the pocket of the driver’s side door. I don’t use colorful pens, pastels or pencils on the pages. I usually don’t sketch in it. I haven’t decorated the cover. It is utilitarian and serves a function

This sketchbook, by some strange twists in my mind, reminded me of an unsolicited “pep talk” someone gave me about being an artist at a recent art quilt gathering. The well intentioned person had just seen the Eye Spy quilt.

Finished top with borders
Finished top with borders

Somehow, this quilt was seminal for me. This very plain (as in non-artquilty) and ordinary quilt for The Child jolted me back into art quiltmaking.

I think I started writing this blog do just that – to record the process, to give myself some accountability and to inspire myself at a time when I was trying to build creativity into the few nooks and corners of a very full life and overstuffed schedule. I realized, that day, in showing the Eye Spy quilt that it worked!!! It took some time, but it worked!!!! In recording my process, I was ready to come back to working on some of my half finished art quilts.

At that gathering, I was trying to explain these feelings to the group and mentioned something I heard Wayne Thiebaud say when asked if he was an artist. His response was that he was a painter and that he would let history judge his work while he went on and painted every day. I love the fact that he has chosen to do his work and worry about what people think later.

Perhaps it isn’t humility; I don’t know the man personally, after all, but success that allows him to think that way?

In any case, my well meaning co-attendee said that I should say I am an artist and think of myself as an artist and then I would be an artist. She related her experience of doing the same thing and how it had changed her life.

I certainly want success with my quilts, but I don’t believe that by making stuff and saying *I* am an artist automatically makes *me* an artist. I don’t think that other people have to say that I am an artist to be an artist either. For me, it just doesn’t seem that easy.

Regardless of what I do I want to be happy. I am happy:

  • making my quilts
  • discussing and learning about art, design, creativity and quilts
  • making tote bags
  • layering paper and photos to make scrapbooks
  • responding to creative prompts
  • being inspired by other creative people
  • admiring the work of wonderful, creative podcasters and bloggers
  • etc.

Is this enough? For now, yes. Forever? Probably not. I am very cognizant of not wanting to ruin what I have by moving into being a professional artist. This is at the same time I am aware of the desire to expand what I do and publicizing it.

This whole discussion was brought to mind by a couple of episodes of the Creative Mom Podcast, to which I listened this morning. Amy has a very intellectual way of looking at her creativity, which I admire and think I share in some ways. I admire, as I have probably said many times, I am sure, her calm and even, yet enthusiastic tone.Her tone in itself is inspiring because of its poetry. Not literal poetry, but a poetic sound.

Art vs. Craft

In one of the podcasts, a mom Amy knows from schoolo asked her ( December 17, 2008 episode) after seeing her gauntlets, “are you one of those crafters?”

When I hear the word ‘crafter’ I think of plastic canvas and hot glue guns. Every tool and supply certainly has it’s place, but that is not me. I don’t think of myself as a crafter even though I live with the quintessential definition of craft: I want to surround myself and my daily life with practical, simple and beautifully useful items.

When I think of artist, I think of Wayne Thiebaud, Georgia O’Keefe, Michaelangelo, and Dorothea Lange. That is not me  either.

I wonder where I fit into this creative landscape of color and creativity? I don’t know so I guess I will continue what I am doing and follow in Wayne Thiebaud’s foosteps by letting history decide.

Sketching #10

Beacon #11
Beacon #11

Ok, girls and boys and I am finally caught up with all of the prompts and I have an idea for an upcoming prompt! Is it fair for me to do prompts ahead of time? Hhmm.. I think that if it gets done, it is all good.

There is an interesting contrast between white space and color in this drawing. I am wondering if the door needs some more detail. Not sure now, but can always go back and add it later. I’ll have to look at some doors and see what I think.

Please contribute. Summer is coming and it will be a great time to be creative.

FOTY 2009 Progress

FOTY Progress, April 2009
FOTY Progress, April 2009

Here are my latest FOTY blocks. I love them! They make me feel so cheerful. Can you tell I have received a lot of blues and pinks?

Some of these fabrics I am going to pull out for a project for which I am collecting fabric. Not sure which ones, but I’ll post a pic when I get a little further along.

Sketching #11

Creative Prompt Response to Light (#11)
Creative Prompt Response to Light (#11)

Somehow this story that I seem to be creating is really important. I don’t feel like I am a good enough artist to really do it justice like some of the artists in recent books I have read, but I keep plugging away.

I did a series of the creative prompts all at once listening to music and it was really a different experience. I really got into a creative zone and that felt good.

Creative Prompt #11: Light

What you see or how heavy you are?

See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.

Post the URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted in the comments area of this post. It is a good way to keep all the artwork together.

There is more information on the Creative Prompt Page.