Monday, October 16, 2017

Some other bits

I'm finishing a bad cold that involved a lot of coughing. Fine intricate sewing is difficult with a heaving chest and watering eyes. Instead, I focused on things that supported the studio and a new sketch book course with Jane LaFazio. http://janeville.blogspot.ca/

I'm not sure I love this course. It has very specific outcomes, which is pretty contrary to Karen Ruane's way of teaching. I've been spoiled by her lack of banging us over the head about an outcome.

I spent a good hour talking with a dear friend about being artists, having a huge stack of work in the closet and few opportunities for exhibiting work. She has two very close artist friends, one of whom has won Governor General Awards for his art, and they have sheds and supply rooms filled with art that hasn't seen the light of day since created. I wasn't so concerned about the exhibiting piece, I had made up my mind several years ago that those kind of opportunities would be like parties where I get to wear a ball gown. They happen, or they don't, but either way, I have a "ball gown" closet filled with choice items.


I was more concerned with how to stay focused. If work isn't exhibited beyond a show and tell of fellow artists, how do I (or you) know if it's any good. There is the most important benchmark that I, or you, know that it is expressing what I had intended, it is well executed and it is good in my own terms. It's not about the medium, or the gestures or the colours, or even the message. It's about what thrills an artist when they sit down and get to work. I was having some struggles with my thrill factor.


Usually fabric, thread, colour and a gesture towards a garden or flower or water is enough to keep me interested. I know I don't like to include text and I know I don't like to include a discernible image. If the work is about foxes, there isn't a fox to be seen. No, it was more that little voice that was saying, "What the fuck?" Not terribly articulate but pretty accurate.


My friend, who really knows her art history, her contemporary art scene from Germany to Spain and the US, has a motto. "Paint (work) like you have a dick."


A light bulb went off. Of course, that was the problem, I was looking to the future work as if I had no spine, as if, somehow, I needed to worry about what I wanted to say. I was looking for affirmation. "Sucks to you, Piggy." I decided. I am going to just go for it and not worry that I love, and am besotted with gardens and flowers and streams and their colours. So what if no one else likes it? Bah to them, I'm going to have a riot of thread surrounding me and love it.




1 comment:

  1. Very Nice Work Thnks for sharing keep up the Good work..

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