Tuesday, January 15, 2008

-42 Baby!!!

Well okay, technically only -39 right this very minute (being -46 with the windchill factor); but it is creeping steadily downwards by degrees (hee!). I've ...ahem... noticed ...ahem... a fair amount of ....hmmm..... shall we say.... grumbling about the weather on a fair number of quilt and fibre blogs lately. I just thought I'd sneak that lil ol trump card in there while I had the chance (heck no! not a competitive bone in my body!)

Onwards to creative pursuits... though not much to report, except that my 'blue daisies Shiva painty applique thingee' (note to self: think up better name) has taken an interesting turn. It is no longer quite the way I saw it in my head, but I'm not entirely unhappy with it either. Some puckers happening - but those'll sew out and my stabilizer has proven woefully inadequate. I used an iron on muslin which I bought at Evil Mart the last time I was south. Lesson learned!

I was talking with EP earlier about our creative processes. My style is that I am inclined to start with an idea "I love", outline or sketch a "relatively happy with", and then work the piece until "I hate it, can't imagine what I was thinking in the first place or where it all went so terribly terribly wrong". Finally, with some effort and a really hard push, I can fight my way back to "it's 'okay" or on really good days "not half bad". I then tend to blank out about a piece and will even often forget I did it. The reason for this blather is that the funny thing is, while I have often been my worst critic, I was way more stressed about what others thought about my work. Now I find myself less concerned with the opinion of others as the work becomes more and more 'done for me' and about exploration and development. Okay, yes, I do realize that this is coming from the same person who has to go and throw up before an exhibition and cried buckets because she sold everything - but hey, I'm allowed my .... artistic and creative insanity, because it's not like I'm cutting off an ear or anything.

Odd though, what I have found in this "process" is that while I was quite comfortable with the older panic - the hide my head under a jacket, don't even look sideways at my art - me; it is this newer confidence that has me freaked to my very (cold) toes.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Well now that's my moaning mouth very firmly shut!