My Fiber Art Filofax

Dear Helen,

I have been a very bad blogging partner, I'm afraid.  You know why -- family matters, a bit of personal upheaval, other matters to attend to, a strange stomach bug, and a good-sized dollop of procrastination.  I have a lot of comments on what you've posted so far (and I'll post here again soon) but first, given that I can't entice your forgiveness with cake (a lovely slice of Victoria Sponge would be nice, yes?) I will show you pictures of my Fiber Arts Filofax.

Like you, I originally used a Filofax in my law firm lawyering days.  I had a lovely blue one (it seems shockingly ignorant to me now, but I don't think I ever knew what model it was).  I loved using it for keeping appointments and to-do lists and addresses and all.  But once I retreated to the life of a stay-at-home mom (and part-time home-based lawyer) the filofax got relegated to the back of a drawer in favor of online calendars and lists.

And then you pointed me to Philofaxy.  Oh, how I love that blog!  Finding others who are smitten with paper and pens and leather books and all things stationery is as wonderful as finding quilty friends!   You reawakened my dormant Filofax love at the very time I was organizing a whole lot of things in my life, and next thing you know, I have several Filofaxes in which I am happily keeping track of things.  It makes me very happy. 

Let me show you my red A5 finchley.  I do love it, although I must say that when it arrived, I was a tad dismayed at how dark the red is.  I tend to like red to be a strong, bright, fire-engine red.  I would call this color "burgundy," or "maroon," but not red.  (This looks a bit lighter than it really is.) Still, it is wonderfully soft and beautiful and I have come to love it.  I love the feel of the Finchley leather, and yes, it lies perfectly flat on my desk.  I have dedicated it to Fiber Art matters only, although that may change eventually ... I am finding that the perfect organizer set-up is an evolving thing. 

As you know, the finchley has two pen holders.  I keep a pilot rolling ball pen on one side and a mechanical pencil on the other -- but what I use most for writing is a Lamy fountain pen (fine nib, since I know you're wondering) which either sits in the rings or I clip horizontally onto the zip pocket of the inner front cover because it's too fat for these pen-loops.  (By the way, Lamy calls THAT color "dark purple."  Hah.  It's maroon.  Or burgundy.  What is it with not calling a color what it IS???  But it matches the red finchley beautifully and it makes me happy to match.  Ridiculously happy.)  I mostly use the pencil for sketching and drawing doodly design ideas and write everything else with the pens.

I made my own dividers with personalized tabs, as you can see here, using heavy decorative paper from the scrapbooking section of a local craft store and bits of washi tape.  For this filofax, I used the same happy polka dot paper for all of the dividers -- the way the dark red (burgundy!) dots match the color of the FF is very pleasing, yes?  I had a good time decorating the dividers with quotes and images I had -- bits cut out from magazines or printed from the computer.  I have the following tabs:

Calendar -- holds a vertical year planner, which I use for noting show deadlines, fiber art related meetings or due dates, dates of retreats and workshops, etc.  Behind that is a month-on-two-pages calendar, where I make notes on my goal to do something creative every day.  By the way, I also decorate the back side of divider pages.  (The back side of the red dot paper is this acid green stripe, which I quite like.)  You can't read it well here, but this quote says "Creativity comes to those who seek it" and it's stuck on with pretty washi tape.

Goals - I started this section with a list of creativity goals for 2012, and I've found that I keep adding pages -- a page of accomplishments, another with thoughts about what I want to convey in the art quilts I make, etc.  I have to confess that this is the first year in which I've actually written goals down that have anything other to do with work-related objectives, and it's proving to be a very useful thing.  Here's my decoration on the Goals tab:

The quote says "The harder you work, the luckier you get."  Appropriate for goals, isn't it?


Projects -- This section is actually subdivided by top tabs, also hand-made, for various projects.  For example, the 12x12 project gets its own section, as does "Maps" as I have that series going and lots of notes on that topic.  (I had a brief moment of indecision, when "map" was chosen as our current 12x12 theme -- which section do I put THOSE notes in?  But I've got them in Maps because, well, it involves a Map.  I don't feel the need for cross-referencing.   Yet.  :-)   I put inspirational material into the subsection of the project to which it applies... at least so far.

I am not letting myself be bothered by the fact that this quote says "loose" rather than "lose."  Intentional?  Maybe, but it makes me smile when I see it, because if I can't lose that fear, at least I can loosen it.


Blog -- Here's where I make note of ideas to blog about, notes of blogs or websites I've read about and want to check out, etc.

Ideas -- This is turning out to be a bit of a catch-all section, at least as it comes to ideas that pop into my head when I'm working on something else.  For now, I figure that if I note them in here, I'll be able to find them later, or I can look here if I'm stuck and looking for some random trigger.  I love this image -- clipped from a magazine, I think.

Technique notes - this section, at present, contains notes on specific techniques or ideas about using them.  I started this section when I was making some notes about cutting and using stencils and it wasn't specific to any particular project.  If I'm reading a magazine that shows a technique I want to remember or think about using in the future, I'll make some notes here -- including a reference to the magazine and issue where I saw it so I can find it again.  Again, this section may change, but so far it's handy.

UFOs - I don't have so many unfinished items that they require a whole tab of their own, but I did decide that getting some finished this year is on my goal list and keeping track of what UFOs I actually have is critical to that.  And you know?  The list wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be when I sat down to make it.  The photo above shows the inside of that divider, which aptly says "It always seems impossible until it is Done."

I also have a blank tab which at this point holds plain paper, and so far I've been using this for random sketching when I'm out and about and don't have an actual sketchbook.  I keep thinking I should put some decent paper in this section, but right now it's just plain old copy paper, cut down to A5 size.  Good enough for on the spot sketching.

I considered adding a section for the  City & Guilds course I'm working on (or rather, I *should* be working on) but I mostly keep those notes and sketches in a specific C&G bound journal.  Maybe I'll change that when I get back to work on the C&G assignments.  That's the beauty of FF, isn't it?  I can just add another tab and keep going.

In case you're wondering, I DO use the pad that slides into the back cover of the Finchley. I love that pad, and find it's my main note-making place, and when I'm done I move the page into the proper section.

It's interesting to me that we've opted to keep track of different things in our studio FFs -- and I have to admit that reading about your organization made me look at mine to wonder if I needed to supplement.  So far, though, I don't feel the need to keep track of time spent on projects -- while it'd probably be interesting, it reminds me too vividly of all of those law firm years where I was required to write my lawyer time down in tenths-of-an-hour increments.  So now I don't count time unless I HAVE to!  Similarly, I don't keep detailed records of the financial side of my fiber art, although this also makes sense and probably is more necessary as one gets involved in selling artwork.  At this point I throw receipts into a manila folder in my file drawer and add them up come tax time!  Maybe some day I'll get more organized and by then you'll have perfected the system, developed the perfect page, and I can just follow your system.

I considered a "Call for Entries" tab when you mentioned it -- it sounds so Organized and Efficient and Forward Looking!  But at present, I've decided that when I see a call for entry, if I think I will pursue it, I create a Project subtab and put the relevant entry info, along with my notes and sketches for the piece I anticipate entering, in there.  So far I've not needed a section for miscellaneous entries, mainly because life has been too distracting lately and making things for shows is down on the priority list... way down.

There are so many things I like about this organization system -- before using this filofax, I had several different journals and notebooks and I'd tend to make sketches or notes in whichever was handy.  Mostly I used a moleskine sketchbook and was operating on a "just use the next blank page" system.  Some people use this sort of journalling beautifully and then tab the pages them in a way that allows them to link the related pages even when they're not next to each other in the book.  (Diana Trout comes to mind.)  But that was driving me crazy, and I always felt like I had the wrong notebook at the wrong time.  I love how I can move pages around in the FF.

The biggest pleasure, though, is that using this system has made me really THINK about what I'm doing, what I want to be doing, where I want to be going, and the like.  I feel much more intentional about what I am doing, and this helps me keep track even when I end up detouring to work on something new or unexpected.

One last picture for you.  You  know that I'm continuing in an online sketching and painting workshop taught by Jane LaFazio, called "Watercolor Sketchbook: Designs from Life."  This class was actually a spin-off from the mixed media one I took a few months ago.  One of the assignments involved sketching and painting something from nature and then abstracting some designs.  Everyone in the class got so into doing those pages (and produced all sorts of great pages) that Jane decided to plan a whole course around that.  So far, we did a week of flowers, and then vegetables, and this week is "from the factory" -- manmade objects with hardware as a focus.  Here's the page I did on Friday:

It is very fun to take something and then think about design elements from that.  I have a box of different picture-hanging gizmos sitting on my table, and I think those will be the subject of tomorrow's page!

Beginning to work in a series

Dear Diane
Sometime ago I wrote and told you about the little breakthrough I had in discovering the thin lines in my work, remember? Well, I have had another breakthrough. At least I think it is a breakthrough not a breakdown but I will let you be the judge of that.

I am just starting the Working in a Series course that Lisa Call runs. This has caused me to consider what my series for the course should be.

The general advice on this ( not just on this course but on other art and writing sites too) is that you start by identifying what your passions are then narrow and narrow and narrow. After I discovered the example of George Rodrigues who has a collection featuring a canine in a certain hue I am calling this Blue Dog thinking. As opposed to Blue Sky thinking, get it? Well, it amuses me.

Anyway, I think this is probably easier if you are a visually inspired person to begin with. If you love landscape getting from that to beaches to shells to conch shells as a subject seems quite linear to me. The trouble is – and I know you are the same- I am inspired by conceptual things. Words and Ideas. And so many of them Not so easy to pin down.

So, I had in mind that I needed to do this exercise when I started to read a catalogue called Ethiopian passages  Café BocBoc with tea and thick hot buttered toast and I got seriously excited. Really, really excited abut what I was reading. So, I rushed home, grabbed my creativity journal and wrote down all the words that made me feel that way from the two introductory essays. 

Then I looked back over about the last two years sets of journals in which I had jotted down ideas for quilts and found that many of those same words were already down on my pages. So I did a composite list (over a special pot of Moroccan Mint Tea) and ended up with a big page of words about big things. Things like Exile, TransNationality, Culture and Hybridity. Words that tend to get written with capital letters. Not helpful! I knew I was closing in on something but it was a bit like hunting a polar bear in a blizzard.*

 Which is about the stage I was at when I sent you the private email bemoaning the fact that I knew I was interested in other cultures and found my own boring to put into art but that I was afraid of stealing from other cultures. You told me to find my own viewpoint to those cultures, remember? I tried to do that but it only got me as far as knowing that it was now like hunting a polar bear only by air, looking down rather than face to face on the ground.*

I am sorry - this picture refuses to rotate no matter what I try.. will you just tilt your head for me?

 Now, one of my mottos in life is : everything can be reduced to a flow chart. I reduced entire years classes on my law degree to a two page flow chart for revision purposes. So, I began to draw. And this is what I got.
Which makes it immensely clear to me if not to you! In essence, I am not making art about the other cultures or about my own. I am interested in the place between them and the process of movement from one to the other.
I expended this into an artist statement at first writing it with lots of tentative phrases like “I would like to” and “I want to” in it and then refining it to make it much more declaratory. The end result was this:
 

I make art about the Place Between. By this I mean the place between both physical borders between countries and the experiential boundaries between peoples. I  create pieces about the physical movement from one culture to another, stopping short of assimilation, and also about the attitudinal movement from one culture to the other culture stopping short of colonisation.  My Art  deals with  the loss of homeland and the gaining of new experiences. It is about the conflict zone, the place where tension exists, where resolution and accommodation must be found. I am interested in the hybridity and trans-nationality created when cultural fusion occurs and in the disconnection and disturbance when it does not. I am concerned with the macro events of forced migration for political or economic reasons and the micro experiences of relocation. I explore personal histories and narratives to illuminate global truths and to examine the tension between concepts of diversity and cultural authenticity. In doing this I pay particular focus to the experiences of women, the functioning of cohesive religious groupings and the social justice issues which cause or are caused by clashes or culture or expectation.

Now that sounded rather ambitious to me. It felt like me yes, but a me way, way, way into the future. Except there was a little feeling that I had probably started down the road a bit with some of my Twelve by Twelve quilts. So I looked back at both my Theme and my Colourplay galleries. Out of 24 quilts only two did not deal with the issues of conflict between expectations or cultures in some way, albeit that some were more obvious than others. Of the two that did not they both dealt with movement – one swimming and the other a physical moving house.

I was truly amazed!

So now I now that I have an overarching theme that I understand and can articulate to myself, and visualise thanks to my little chart, I have to narrow it down so that I can put it into individual quilts I need to start focusing on a recognisable visual langauge in which to consitently portray my interests.

I will spare you the narrowing process which involved more journalling and the distraction of making Wordle pictures.
I know there are may way in which I can deal with the overaching theme and many potential series with sub series to come. However, I had to remember I was not choosing my life’s oevre. I was picking a topic to focus on for an eight week class. So, I have decided to do portraits of Camila Batmanghelidjh ( whch is ironic as I still have to google her to get the spelling right!) As a Persian refugee with disabilties from a wealthy family now working with violent and disadvantaged children in deprived areas of London I think many aspects of her life illustrate the themes I have set out. And I had been thinking of basing a quilt on her for a show about Women and social Change I had been invited to submit for so my coursework can operate as preparatory work that that bigger quilt too. 

This is a quick ( less than four hours in total) twelve inch test quilt I made. It is sloppy in places because I wanted it to be like a sketchbook page to start me off and i was testing out working with ink and neolcolour crayons for the first time. It was very useful to have a springing off point and I learned that the brand of supposedly water resistant marker I used was not anything of the sort!

Really, it doesn’t matter what I pick for this course. I just have to pick something to work with to learn the lessons Lisa has to give. There is certainly a freeing feeling already. I have tons of other ideas but they are laid to sleep quietly for a while. Eight weeks seems like a time I can manage to keep them sedated and I don’t resent being without their company for that time. Although I do feel a bit of fear now I have told you my plans in case I cannot follow through.

I cannot imagine that I will do portraits of the same woman for more than a few months but I can see that portraits of women in general could keep me going for a very long time, especially as I intend to use this course to focus on the backgrounds. The idea of a series is that somethings stay constant ( for me, the person, the method of drawing her, the size of the quilt) and others change – in this case, the background, which I will change to tell different aspects of her story. That seems to be a formula with enough structure to enable me to find my visual language ( to steal a phrase from Commited to Cloth) and broad enough to keep me intererested. It is of course a natural development from my fledgling African Ladies. ( If one’s geography is bad enough to consider Persia as being in Africa!)

And now I have publically declared my intention it so I hope you will keep me accountable in not wandering down side roads! And will hold my hand when I get scared that I am wasting time or doing bad work or being a silly pretentious artist-wannabe or when any other number of fears arise.

So, now I have worked out what I am doing, I had better go and actually do it!

Write soon and tell me what you are up to,

Love, Helen.



















* Its an analogy. I would never hunt a Polar bear. They are too cute and I indentify too much with their big bottoms.

Studio Filofax

 Dear Diane,
I cannot believe it has been so long since I posted here. You know there has been illness and a holiday, but really - how can those two events,both of which gave me time away from the day job be an excuse? We were talking about rituals to get us started in creativity and so I have applied one to blogging and am at the very table at which this blog was conceived in Cafe Boc Boc with tea and doughnut, trying to do better!

There has just been a little girl at the ice cream counter whose attitude to life sums up creativity ( and female guile) well. Her father ordered her a single scoop of icecream and told her to choose her flavour.
"Pink Mint"
"The pink is strawberry and the mint is green. Which do you want."
"Pink Mint"
"The mint is green."
"But I do pink." In this she was telling the truth, judging by her pink trainers and pink trousers and pink backpack.
" Don't be silly. Which do you want."
"Pink Mint!"
The father rolled his eyes at the waitress. "Give her a scoop of strawberry."
The girl put her hands on her hips. "With one of green too. I'll mix it up in the pot. Pink Mint."

One thing you mentioned last time was that we should post about our creativity notebooks. Ho, ho! I think when you suggested that, it was before we both rediscovered Filofaxes. (Should I explain to readers how our Inner Eighties- Professional discovered the Philofaxy blog and asscoaited links, burst forth into the shops and how we now both own multiple new beautiful leather binders and spend time on SKYPE discussing leather flexibility, paper inserts and top tabs? Whats that? It makes us look obsessive? Ok. I won't mention that in public then.)

Except to say that part of my illness recovery has been to set up my Cherry Classic A5 Filofax ( bought for a song from Amazon warehouse because the box - but not the product - was damaged) as my studio Filofax. Using it has quickly become just the starting ritual I was looking for. My eagerness and excitement about creative possibilities can at times turn into a stumbling block. Where to start? Where to focus my energies? How to absorb all the information? How to be realistic about what I can achieve in the time available? Applying the business like organised side of my personality to my creative life has turned out to be both fun (in the stationery- nerd sense of the word) and practical.
Want to see where I am so far?

First of all I blinged the cream dividers that came with the Filofax. As my primary source of inspiration is Africa, I stuck in some eyecandy on the front and back of each divider. I am using Ivy stickers which are just the right size for the tabs to label them, rather than the recommended permenent marker, all the better for being able to easily swap their order in the future. The extra tabs are Post It Index tabs (why do they cost so much?!). Tucked in the front pocket are some L shaped pieces for card for use as 'viewfinders' to isolate parts of a picture for design purposes.

Right at the front is my activity section. I find it useful to track how much time I spend on various activities. This is both motivating, given I set a varying weekly target for studio hours and also educational as it help me better estimate how long a task takes and so to plan better for the future in terms of what I can commit to. None of the Filofax diary inserts were perfect for this so I Printed out these monthly sheets and simply use plain paper to record my activities, summing up at the end of the week and transferring total to the diary. I guess once you have worked in a law firm where time recording is king,  the habit never goes away! This sheet is more detailed than usual as I am at home for a full day.

My first tab is Finances. Here I manage my ( generous) monthly budget for quilting supplies and it is also useful for tax purposes to have a detailed record of how much things cost so I can calculate the  profit element of a quilt. I use the preprinted Filofax expense sheets but I am not going to show you the incriminating evidence thereon!!

Next the Learning tab. There are so many techniques in which I am interested but not yet proficient that I can get quite excited-dizzy with the options. So I have set out clearly my ' personal learning plans' i.e a list of goals with realistic target dates. I have top tabs for each section, currently, Photoshop Express, Working in a Series classes, Surface Design and Portrait making. each section has a yellow sheet setting out my goals, the resources, I have or need to acquire and the aimed for completion dates and how I define completion. I also list the steps I need to take to achieve each goal.  Blue pages in each section contain notes.

I have a tab for Calls for entries.I do save full details and entry forms electronically on Evernote, but it is very useful to have a summary here for planning purposes. However, I find it helpful to have a visual overview of the year so I can see entry dates and when quilts are to be delivered ( and therefore finished!). Filofax do make a year planner but there is very little room to write on it so I made these templates myself using Word. I have the same template with the self imposed target dates for my personal learning plan too.
Behind the next tab 'Forms' I keep entry forms and labels for current shows.  Need to buy a top opening envelope insert for this section. The 'Pattern' Tab is for when I write kit patterns for The African Fabric Shop or for magazines and is a space for me to jot down the steps I took making a quilt ready to be turned into coherent instructions.

 'Articles' is a tab with a list if ideas for magazine articles.  The 'Quilts' tab is ironically empty as this is a new set up, but will contain a sheet for each quilt with a photo, and records of size, cost and time to make it, where it has been shown etc. 'Travel' is for quilt show related travel bookings and tickets.

I have an ' Inspiration tab' but that is empty at the moment.Not because I am not currently inspired but because I am using Pinterest and my Cuban Filofax together with a traditional notebook for my current themes. I may use this tab. I may ditch it. Lets see. That's the wonderful thing about a Filofax system - the flexibility. Finally, the 'Website tab' has notes on my website settings and blog topic ideas.  There is nothing behind the alphabetical tabs yet but I intend to use them as catch all area for notes and clippings : G for Galleries, E for El Anatsui and so on.

So, thats the business end of my system. Then comes the Brown Cuban sketchbook Filofax and its companions Chocolate Classic and the traditional notebook. But I think I will save those for another day! Now its your turn to show me yours!

love,
Helen

In Contemplation

You can't believe it, I bet.  After all that silence, two posts in less than a week.  But I did something today and I think it was helpful.

I thought about the art quilts I've made, and which among them were the ones I considered my best work.  I identified three pieces that I think are my best work so far.  Then I sat down and in my trusty Creativity notebook (we will have to do posts on our respective books, yes?) went through for each one and listed what I liked about it, what features it has that I feel great about, how it made me feel when I was working on it, how the process felt, etc. 

Not surprisingly, most of the elements were the SAME THINGS in all three, although the pieces are not all the same technique or style.

And you know how we were talking about the list of 7 characteristics we wanted our work to have?    Identifying what I liked in previous work was a good way to help sort out with a bit more clarity those characteristics. 

By the way, I remembered where I'd read about that list idea.  It was in a book about Vermont printmaker Sabra Field.  (I realized I remembered it differently -- she used characteristics, not words, and there were more than seven.)   Here is her list in case you are interested:

Large scale
Simple
Serene
Austere
Deep color
High contrast
Spacial penetration
Surface pattern
Metaphorical
Evocative

Gathering, Incubating, Organizing

Oh dear.  I must apologize for the rather long expanse of time that has gone by since you posted and I left you hanging, pondering about rituals and statements of intent.  You know from our personal conversations why blogging has not been uppermost in my mind ... but really, one of the reasons to blog like this with you is to make myself keep moving forward, however incrementally, with your waiting for me as a big motivator.  So in penance I am foregoing a piece of See's candy from the box which Roger has just put on the coffee table.  You undoubtedly recognize the sincerity of my apology if I am giving up chocolate over it.

So first, to the interesting insights you raised in your last post.  I like the idea of a ritual to start creativity.  Maybe the ritual is an awareness as one crosses the threshold into the studio, and some level of statement of intent: "Today I am going to do X."  Like you, I'm suspicious of candles in the studio although I quite like the idea of that as a cozy, comfortable feeling.  A few years ago at Christmastime I hung a string of sparkly white lights around the top of two walls in my office, and I love the light they give and the sense of sparkliness they give to the room in the evening.  So maybe a special lamp or some goofy string lights would do the trick too.  But the purpose of the ritual is to make a moment that recognizes the intention, yes?  And maybe consciously thinking of the intention is enough.  Which makes me think -- maybe a small whiteboard or chalkboard to write the day's intention as I go in.  So often I go to do one thing and end up thinking about another.  Confronting that written sign might be a good thing for me.  Hmm.  I like that idea.  I just came across a small whiteboard that Caroline had to have for a math class some time ago... maybe I'll give this a try in my office and let you know how it goes.

I applaud your goal to not just meet a deadline, but to work toward a quality goal vs a temporal one.  I suppose that the trick is to start the project in time to meet the goal AND spend enough time to do it AND make fixes or even redo if quality issues demand.  And/or maybe to assess with each step whether it's where it's good enough to move to the next step.  You asked if I get caught up in the self-analysis.  Yes, I do.  But my issue has more to do with stopping midway as I'm assessing what should some next, or what will make it be what I want... and I get hung up, and discouraged.  You may finish things and have them end up less than you'd like -- I get stuck midway, with lots of things unfinished.  I guess the ideal is something in between!  Work carefully, consciously, finish, assess, and move on!

I have been working on my words.  And I know, it is hard.  Here's where I am so far, although I'm having a hard time distilling this down:

1.  Personal

2.  Evocative

3.  Contemplative

4.   Complete - as in, not lacking something

5.  Elegant

6.  Colorful


Despite this long time, I don't have anything in fabric to show you.  What with holidays and other things I've felt like I've not been able to OUTput -- it's all been about INput.  I've been reading, and looking at images and just absorbing and soaking.  I keep picturing what I think is a scene from the movie Fantasia, where a wizard comes upon the vast mess Micky Mouse has made, and casts a big magic spell to get it all under control so everything is swirling around him, sort of spinning around and moving upwards around him, gathering into one big tornado.  That makes it all sound very intentional, when really I've felt more exhausted and creatively empty than anything else.  So soaking things in and just doing a lot of LOOKING has felt like the extent of my creative ability. 

But that has led me to think about what it means to be creative when you're not actually MAKING anything.  I've written about this in my blog before, but I really  notice that I have fallow periods where I'm just not in the mood to produce anything.  I actually think it's a routine for me at this time of year.  It could be laziness (and lord knows I've got that in me) but it's important to me that this be about pleasure and satisfaction for me.  So when I'm not in the mood to sit at the sewing machine or shift fabric bits around, I don't.  I think of it as incubation. 

Some years ago, I started using this time between Christmas and my birthday at the end of January as a thinking and planning time, sorting out goals, looking at what I've done, what I hope to do.  Your recent blog post about your organizing system got me thinking about being more structured about my jottings... which have generally landed in whichever sketchbook/journal I happen to have in front of me at the time.  As a result, I've spent the last few days on a serious organizing kick.  My office is cleaner.  I've sorted out files drawers worth of papers, and gotten my desk organized with a system which will, I hope, help the flow of paper in and out of there work smoothly.  I feel like I'm getting ready to start the output phase. 

Any minute now.  :-) 

I will post more thoughts soon but for now that's an update, at least.  Clearly I need a session at BocBoc over tea and cake to get things on the right track!

Rituals and statements of intent. ( And tea and cake, of course.)

Dear Diane,

I know that you too are ill and having jammies days. The good news is that with three days off work and then a half days worked before this weekend I am beginning to feel better myself so I hope the wellness is spreading over the Atlantic. I have been re- taught the lesson I keep being taught and then promptly forgetting,i.e. that rest and relaxation is not simply a waste of time. I feel I have so little time for creativity compared with all I want to do and learn that I must cram it into every hour. Which works really well until my body stops working and refuses to sit upright never mind walk up all the stairs to the studio. 

I did manage to read a little of a book called Inspiring Creativity, which is an anthology of essays by creatve coaches  and a couple of things resonated.

First the concept of rituals to begin creativity sessions. I had been following a number of articles and web links about that very topic about the time we started this blog so rather than harp on too much I'll give you like links below. I am still mulling over how to apply the concept... I am far too careless for candles in a studio I think! But I am thinking about rituals I can create focusing on clearing my head ready to concentrate on creativity.

At this time of year I like to take stock and plan. I would not say I make New Year Resolutions as such but I tend to review the past year and contemplate how i'd like the New Year to be and what I need to to to achieve those goals. Such an approach of course works far better if you actually review those goals from time to time before the year is over. the SAQA visioning project works well for me in that respect. But I thought this coming year I would combine the ritual with the relaxation and the planning and the clear heads. I have made appointments in my diary for the first Saturday morning of each month under the heading Reflection Morning. I plan to start with yoga at home, go to my local beautician for a massage or pedicure and then to Cafe Boc Boc with a journal for tea and cake and a rumination session. On My Own. That I think will be the essential part don't you think?! that seemed like a good ritual.

The other thing I read in the book  which caught my attention was about statements of intent. 

Always start with a clear intent of what it is that you want to achieve with a painting. When a painting fails,very often it is because there are too many differing or conflicting objectives included at once, or alternatively there was no good reason to paint it at all. I cannot see how it is possible to paint anything unless you know why you are painting it and what your aims are.It is only with that vision for the painting that you can judge which medium will work best and similarly address all the other considerations that play a part in creating the right effects and impacts. For me it is crucial to have a clear objective for a painting.

When I first read it I noticed the phrase " when a painting fails". I always find it difficult to understand how you can say that a painting or a quilt 'works'. I mean at a basic level, if the three layers stay together it is a quilt and it works. Beyond that is seems a rather subjective and undefinable concept. But, then I thought some more and realised that, yes it is a subjective thing, but it is up to me to define what I want that work to do. It might be just that I want something finished and no more. Or that I want to improve my grasp of  a technique or to impart a message. Whatever it is, if I do not have a clear idea of what I am doing at the beginning how can I decide if I did a good job?

i know that sounds oh so obvious but It dawned on me that it is a good tool to help me recover from the 'not good enough, again' malaise with which I tend to suffer. I need to formulate a statement of intent but that needs to be both challenging and achievable. I tend to fall between two stools. On the one hand I take a realstic approach in relation to time available and aim for just meeting a deadline I always achieve that. but so often I am disatisfied with what I do which is because 'Produced' is a meagre intent and gives me a temporal rather than artistic goal. On the other hand whilst I say ( to myself and to others) that I am aiming just to particpate or just to finish, what I really intend, without actually admitting it ( to myself or to others) is that I want to produce a work of art equal in my eyes to those done by the artists I admire. Those would be the full time, professional artists with years more experience than I have and who often have formal art training. And so I feel that I spend my time dilligently finishing examples of mediocrity.

And thus, I set myself up to fail even as I succeed in a way that leaves me empty. So from now on I am going to set a statement of intent for each piece which is higher than Finished, lower than Gobsmackingly Perfect. And that statement of intent will be as much about learning and improving and producing as it will about achieving. Because if I am for a particular thing and feel I did not meet it, I will not have failed, I will have learned what not to do and then I can set my statement of intent for the next piece to be to apply that knowledge and get over that hurdle.

I think that that is the most I can expect of myself because I will always want to improve. I drive Dennis mad. We have a newly renovated house which needs art work. I want to acquire pieces bit by bit direct from artists as I see something which speaks to me and as we can afford it. Dennis is puzzled by the need to buy work from other people when I can make art. Everytime I make a piece he asks if we can please put this one up on the wall. The answer is always no. I don't want to spoil my new house with mediocrity all over the walls. This despite the fact that this piece is destined for the hall. We invested in several works by this artist in the old house and this one never made it onto a wall for lack of space.

Now, I like this work. I like the clarity and I like the message. I am not phased at all by the fact that is is, literally,a finger painting, because the message behind it is powerful and outweighs the simplicty of the construction. It is is Nelson Mandela's representation of the bars of his cell window and the key is a replica to his cell. The Great Man himself dragged paint with his fingers and then left well alone. Save to put his signature on it. But if I had done it? Too simplistic. Not skilled enough. A bit if a cop out. Not worth sending to a show or gallery. I would love to know if Mr Mandela wanted to throw this in the bin and was persuaded not to or whether he had the self acceptance I lack. Of course, I suspect he could sign a used tissue and it would sell!

Do you suffer from all this internal criticism and self analysis, or do I just need to get my head out of my backside, stop making a deal out of things and just make some flippin' quilts?!

Not that those two options are necessarily mutually exclusive!

Oh, in your last post you talked about seven words to describe what you wanted your quilts to be. Did you formulate your list? I found it harder that I thought but this is my draft list... I am not quite ready to consider it finished yet!!

1. Interesting
2. Elemental
3. Meaningful
4. Brave
5. Different
6. Recognisable ( as by me)
7. Layered

Ok, this post has taken far too long to get to you so I shall leave it be now.

Happy Christmas,

Helen.

Articles:

Do you take your creative rituals seriously enough?

http://lateralaction.com/articles/creative-rituals/

How to develop a creative practice

http://tribalwriter.com/2010/11/11/how-to-develop-a-creative-practice-and-why-it-actually-does-make-you-more-creative/

Routines and Rituals

http://www.sashestudio.com/2011/06/routine-rituals-morning-pages/

My coffee shop creative ritual

http://reptitude.com/creativity/my-coffee-shop-creativity-ritual/

Do you have a creative ritual

http://www.artfeltbaubles.com/blog1/2011/07/01/241/

Harnessing the power of ritual for creative innovation

http://francischolle.com/2011/01/harnessing_the_power_of_ritual_for_creative_innovation/

Artistic freedom - The unfounded fear of ritual and routine

http://coachcreative.com/abigcreativeyes/2011/01/29/artistic-freedom-the-unfounded-fear-of-ritual-and-routine/

A ritual that sticks

http://www.habithacker.com/ritual/

Creative ritual or mundane routine?

http://lateralaction.com/articles/ritual-or-routine/

Late to the Tea Party

I'm a bit late to reply to your posts (is your tea cold?  Go make a fresh cup... I'll wait....) 
But that is no reflection on how much I appreciated your response to my artistic angst.  And in the meantime, while I was thinking about what you said, you had your own revelation (with help from Dennis) so I am lead to this conclusion:

It is hard to see our own voice in our work with our noses pressed up against it -- but it's there and apparent to others.

Perhaps we should print that out and post it on the walls of our respective work spaces. Really, I suppose the point is to relax and do what we love and our voice emerges.  But you have no idea how much I appreciate your specifying what you see in my pieces that reflect my voice.  And you have mentioned some of the things that really do float around the back of my mind as I am thinking about what to do for a challenge or a piece I'm working on.  (And thank you for reminding me about Kaffe Fassett being drawn to my quilts.  It still makes me very happy when I remember that!)

I like working with subject matter that is ordinary and humble.  My choice of dandelion as our first 12x12 theme was clearly motivated by that.  There's something about finding some meaning in items that people tend to overlook that appeals to me.

I like looking at things up close.  I'm more specifically aware of that in the photos I take -- and how much I love using my macro lens.  Honing in on some part of some small thing to notice its beauty or elegant shape or interesting texture is something I keep in mind when I'm taking photographs.  How silly that I don't specifically think of that with quilt making, but clearly that same impulse is there.  The photo above, which I took this week noticing my paint pan sitting on my desk, is an example of that.) 

And I love texture and pattern that comes from translating an image into fabric.

It is intriguing to me that you respond in terms of story.  It's not something I think about at all, in viewing or in making pieces.  And I think I should -- not as in "I am doing something wrong if I don't" sort of should, but in I think it might add to my own understanding of why I've been moved to do what I'm doing.

I also was struck by something I read in the Quilt National 2011 book.  One of the jurors (I have just looked -- it was Eleanor McCain in her Juror's Statement) talking about what she looked for in pieces as she was jurying them for the exhibit, asked "What about these works of art demands that they be formed from cloth and thread?  Is there a message and meaning that can only be revealed through this medium?  What in the quilt form is important to the art?"  Is that something you have thought abouyt as you've been making your pieces?  I must admit that I've never consciously thought about those questions, or linked the medium to the art content with that linear of a thought.  I'm aware of texture and pattern and developing both of those through the choices I make along the way -- but WHY is this a quilt as opposed to something else seems like it's worth consideration. 

I have written about this before on my own blog, I think, but I read about an artist in another medium who keeps a list of seven adjectives posted in large print on her studio wall. They are the words that describe what she wants her work to be, and when she is working on a piece, she runs through the list to check that what she's doing hits all of her "targets."

I have often thought about what my list would be, but (as is typical) I get distracted and wander off to something else before I finish my list.  So that will be my task for the week.

In any event, thank you pointing me back to myself.

And as for your most recent entry.  Wow.  I love the journal pages you've made and I suspect Nikki is very happy to know that providing you with that book spurred you to a creative burst like that.  (See?  Tell Dennis!  The right journal CAN work wonders!) 

Your beautiful pattern pages make me think, again, that there really IS something useful about that repetitive practice and trial that is at the heart of the City and Guilds process.  Experimenting and sampling can lead to exciting discoveries and it need not be playing with fabric. 

And it does rather demonstrate the truth that our own style/voice will emerge?  You've been doing a repeating symbol all along and didn't even realize it. 

I laughed at Dennis's reaction to the "mess" of paint and surface design work.  In the sketching/watercolor class I've been doing, we had several weeks where we were supposed to apply various substances to pages as backgrounds for drawing and painting. And it felt like such a mess to me!  I didn't like it much although it was interesting to see the different results.  BUT when it comes to applying stuff to fabric?  It doesn't seem like mess at all.  So, apparently, for me it feels messy if I'm working on paper but it's art if it's fabric.  Go figure.

If you had to come up with a list of seven words or phrases to serve as your "target" words for your art, what would they be?


I should note here that because of holidays and family things, I've not had a lot of studio time.  I've drawn some eggplants to experiment working with purples in the watercolor class for the weekly assignment.  I've pulled out my camera to capture the vibrant fall color in the yard.  

But I'm starting to feel the pull toward something I started a few weeks ago, so getting that done is at the top of my fabric list. 

How has the revelation that you actually DO have a repeating symbol affected your thinking about what you're doing this week?

Diane