Process

A few days ago I tried a little experiment with one of the cards I've recently made. I colour photocopied it, as well as photographed it and printed it on photo and plain papers, cotton and silk. Below is the original fabric piece on the left and the photo onto cotton with handstitch added, on the right. While both are fabric with stitch and very similiar at a glance, I prefer the silk and velvet original with actual fringe because of the feel and the initial piece seems more valid somehow because that particular combination of fabrics and stitch didn't exist before I made it and the second version couldn't have been made the way it was without the first. Yet isn't that the way art builds on itself? One thing I've noticed in doing this series of cards is how variations crept in - whether pinked tree edges and colours of fabric or the addition of borders. And some of the time the differences emerging arose from something unexpected, as in the card below, where inexplicably some of the metallic cotton melted under the iron (even though I have other cards with the same material that did not melt) and I liked the look and added fabric behind it, leaving a border on the bottom edge.

On the next card that I made, it felt natural to include a border, although it's not pictured, here:

Yet even without using the same basic design and varying it as I have with these cards, whatever I make is part of an ongoing process and it's interesting to make connections and notice shifts.

Stars in Her Eyes

Yesterday was the final day of Martha Cole's workshop and what a day it was. The photos show my workspace at the beginning of the day - you can see another quilt I began last year on the wall that I brought in case I had time to work on a second one. I completed quilting 'Entering The Flow' and added beads and buttons - there will be a third button I add on after I bind it. In the morning we talked about the steps of the creative process and the importance of managing the anxiety which is inherent in going through it. I was impressed to hear that when Martha is developing a body of work for a show, she might generate 700 ideas/drawings/photos, as a first step. I do not usually generate ideas this way - I tend to sense ideas wanting to push through to see the light of day more like seeds and I am curious to see which is the one that wins out and gets to actually manifest. I don't have the idea worked out - it is more like a jumping off point that unfolds step by step. Of course, I'm not creating 30 pieces for a show with a looming deadline, and in creating the ad-lib way I do, I run into problems that I might have been better prepared for if I had thought more in advance. I think I learn with each piece, though, and I just have a different way of working - at least at this point. I really resonated with Martha's passion, curiosity and expansiveness - and her sharing of herself. The workshop felt transformational to me in a deep way I had not expected. We were given questions to ask ourselves about our strengths/weaknesses/preferences in the creative process and about where we would like to be in terms of our work in 5 or 10 years. And we also reviewed how the workshop had been - our struggles, insights and changes. At the end of the day, we each presented our work to the group. I spoke about the theme of stars that emerged in the first day's work and carried through in some way to the star-like stitched radiations in the eyes and quilting of the flowers of 'Entering the Flow' - that also mirrors how I felt in the presence of an excellent model for me or 'star' (Martha) and a star-studded group. Working in that atmosphere was delicious and sustaining. No wonder the woman in the quilt has 'stars in her eyes'! I'm thinking of calling the quilt that, but I'll wait until I've got it completed to decide.