Yesterday my creative juices were just not in flow - and it felt odd because usually I have so many ideas pushing to be born. I reasoned that I have been creating pretty steadily and perhaps I just needed some time for seeds to lie dormant. I know that if I start playing with materials something often takes hold and a next process begins, but when I tried that, it didn't happen. I had cut a few potential scraps to applique onto my recently dyed sweatshirt, but that combination just wasn't coming together, either, so I left to go read one of the books that I have on the go, thinking that a change of pace might do the trick. The next few pages of 'The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World' by Lewis Hyde, told a Buddhist story of how the image of a rabbit ends up on the moon. This is a motif I have in fabric, that along with other rabbit fabrics were sitting out on my cutting board, and since there is some personal significance in the symbolization and timing of the hare in the moon motif for me, I was energized to go begin a quilt. I decided to keep it very small and to collage a few of the cut scraps, along with some of the rabbits onto batting. I love the challenge of designing - including with the handstitching. Each raw edge has its own best colour of embroidery thread and a decision as to style and size of stitch. While at the recent 'Lilies' fibre show, I was reminded that I'm most drawn to interesting combinations of fabrics depicting more imaginative then realistic representations. The three moon rabbits look like peas in a pod, and I'm imagining that's how they grow - as the pod plant grows taller and taller, it reaches the sky and the first moon rabbit is launched into space until the next 'new moon' rabbit bumps and replaces it. And so on. Now that could be a children's story!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Moon Rabbits
Yesterday my creative juices were just not in flow - and it felt odd because usually I have so many ideas pushing to be born. I reasoned that I have been creating pretty steadily and perhaps I just needed some time for seeds to lie dormant. I know that if I start playing with materials something often takes hold and a next process begins, but when I tried that, it didn't happen. I had cut a few potential scraps to applique onto my recently dyed sweatshirt, but that combination just wasn't coming together, either, so I left to go read one of the books that I have on the go, thinking that a change of pace might do the trick. The next few pages of 'The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World' by Lewis Hyde, told a Buddhist story of how the image of a rabbit ends up on the moon. This is a motif I have in fabric, that along with other rabbit fabrics were sitting out on my cutting board, and since there is some personal significance in the symbolization and timing of the hare in the moon motif for me, I was energized to go begin a quilt. I decided to keep it very small and to collage a few of the cut scraps, along with some of the rabbits onto batting. I love the challenge of designing - including with the handstitching. Each raw edge has its own best colour of embroidery thread and a decision as to style and size of stitch. While at the recent 'Lilies' fibre show, I was reminded that I'm most drawn to interesting combinations of fabrics depicting more imaginative then realistic representations. The three moon rabbits look like peas in a pod, and I'm imagining that's how they grow - as the pod plant grows taller and taller, it reaches the sky and the first moon rabbit is launched into space until the next 'new moon' rabbit bumps and replaces it. And so on. Now that could be a children's story!
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