"Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent; with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play."~~Henri Matisse
Ever have those times when you wake up in the morning and something starts talking to you? I woke up yesterday morning very dissatisfied with how the mounting technique for some mixed media work was coming along. I have gone to great lengths to order everything to do it in this particular method, even ordering acid free coreboard which then needed the edges painted because I couldn’t find it in black. But I awoke with a nagging dissatisfaction about it all. I got up, looked at the work again, and said, oh, it’s ok…but then later the nagging unhappiness came back. So because they measure 14″ square and of course, no canvases are made that size, I found my self shopping for a new idea, then shopping online and ordering more stuff and spending more money. But at least I have peace now…these composition pieces are going to look much better, I think. And they deserve to.
Compositions #2
The time until I hang the exhibit is going fast. Today I feel I made much progress. I worked on Black and White Compositions #2, #3, and #4. These are compositions on canvas, made with cut pieces of cloth but they will not be stitched. I don’t know if anyone realizes this or not (surely I’m not the only one!)…our type of work is much more time consuming than the average painter. For me, there is the creation of the cloth, then the composition, and lastly, the layering and stitching part. It is slow work. In the interest of time, I am creating a few like this that will fill in my exhibit in a different color palette.
I also finished the handwork on the back of “Fading Glory” during tv time!
Tomorrow I will get up and do more of the same. More mixed media Compositions are in the works too. Can’t wait to get started on them.
I guess I really should get out more; I learn things. I just returned from seeing Fiber: 2010, an exhibit sponsored by Missouri Fiber Arts (MoFA) and the Foundry Art Center in St. Charles, MO. The exhibit consisted of all kinds of fiber work, tapestries, woven pine needle items, felted items, some quilts, and other types of fiber pieces. As I began to walk through the show from the first part of it, my first reaction was this: How did I ever get in this show? The tapestries were exquisite…the work was wonderful. I hadn’t even gotten to my piece while I was thinking this.
I expressed this sentiment on FB and a friend commented back that my work was wonderful and almost seemed to wonder why I was thinking what I was thinking. This year is the first year that I have juried into a couple of regional shows. These are out of the mainstream of what I mostly jury into. I have only entered the Arts Council shows, where there is hardly any fiber work. It is mostly paintings and some mixed media. So comparison is difficult…like comparing apples and oranges. Essentially, there is no comparison.
Although I was in awe that I did get a piece into the 2010 Form, Not Function exhibit, I still didn’t have the same reaction. Form Not Function was mostly all layered and stitched work, like I do myself, so my piece was hanging with “my own” type of work. Perhaps it was because Fiber: 2010 was at the “Foundry Center”, this really huge, awesome gallery space. That may have had something to do with it…but it was also seeing the quality of the other work that was displayed. There was a lot of variety. And my work was hanging in the same exhibit as all of this other wonderful work….that must mean….my work must be pretty good too! Wow.
Now I do know that jurying is subjective and it’s all about what the juror likes. But I gotta tell ya’…it made me feel pretty darn good that this juror who is big in the arts (and fiber in particular) thought my work was good enough to be in this show.
I make my art to please myself and not so much about pleasing anyone else. It’s just fantastic icing on the cake to find out someone else likes it too.
