Getting Busy

I have a lot of motivators getting me back in the studio this week.  Three friends have now asked me to teach them to sew.  I am sad that this skill is fading away for other than quilters, it seems.  I even taught my son how to use the Bernina when he had to make a felt mole for his science class.  He got some major extra credit :-)  My cyber mentor Debbie is always encouraging, enthusiastic and unbelievably prolific in her artwork which truly inspires me.  I popped back in to some blogs that I've been following technically, but wasn't checking in often enough.  I'm newly inspired!  I was organizing photos on the computer this morning and was reminded of so many past projects and photos I had taken as references for creating new work.  All of this has encouraged me to make something.  Anything!

Sunday I head to the Road to California quilt show for inspiration, materials and art supplies.  I found out yesterday that there is going to be a four-day long creativity event her in So Cal (I believe through Cloth Paper Scissors) and have signed up to be notified when registration opens next month.  This is going to be a great, creative year.

My little inspiration and nostalgia shelf

I thought I'd share a couple photos of my creative space.  It's a cheery room that I'm so thrilled to have after so many years of having art supplies stuck in every nook and cranny of the house.  

Time to get to work!

Art on the Emotional Rollercoaster

Wow, I'd be one prolific and crafty woman if I made art whenever I feel cranky with my teen son!  I'm really struggling with the mom gig these days.  I should do artwork when I'm feeling like this.  Instead, I dive into chores or working out or, worse, snacking.  Not good!  I don't do well just accepting the stuff that so many other parents accept as just teenage attitude and rudeness.  Like so many teens, I think my son saves the worst of himself for home.  I find myself distracted by it and distracted from being creative.  Today I'm going to work on creating a new habit of working on art to work through mood.  We'll see what comes of it.  It's time to focus more on creativity and less time on feeling sad when His Royal Rudeness appears.

This is just to make me feel better.  He lost a bet with his godmother a few years ago and had to have his photo take with Ariel at Disneyland.  He was like an angry weasel in line with all the little girls.  We explained this to Ariel, to which she replied, "Well then, we'll just have to make it EXTRA special" and give him a big kiss as the photo was shot.  Priceless.

No Art, Lots of Parenting

I could never be that Octomom (who lived just a few blocks away, so I've seen insanity up close and personal).  Parenting is SO HARD some days.  I can't figure out why there isn't a single book on parenting with a chapter on preparing to get even.  We all know that time will come.  Our sanity as parents depends on knowing that there is a way to get back when we're at our wits end.  You know, when the kid is 16, their eyeballs do 360's at a pace that no human would consider truly possible (without getting stuck - we all know that old addage) and, if sarcasm were an olympic sport, our kid would hold a record to rival Michael Phelps. 

I was lucky.  When Kevin was about two, I managed to think to grab the camera when he was sitting on his little potty chair wearing nothing more than a huge pink-edged sombrero and a grin.  (I know, I'm going to the be Wal-Mart greeter of Hell for this one).  There are days when I want to print out the photo on one of those iron-on decals and wear that t-shirt when I pick him up after a HUGE band competition,  and maybe - oooooooh - after a football game.  Then there's always the wedding reception slide show.

The fact that mere mention of the pink-edged sombrero tells me I'm right on track.

I rock.  Bahahaha.

Dragging myself back into the saddle

I posted an entry, went back and read it and found I'd bored myself.  Really bored myself.  I have got to quit fussing and whining and fearing all things art when it comes to what I make and love to do.  Good grief.  I will not blather on about another encounter that stresses me.  In fact, I'm going to decide not to let encounters with other artists stress me any more.  My art-related resolution this year is to knock that crap off.  Time to toughen up.

So with no apologies, I'm sharing my current project, a simple but fun quilt.  

Here are three of what will be quilt squares.  Now that my yellow fabric has arrived, I can make the remaining "flower" sections and start piecing early this next week.  Yeah!  This is for a five year old who will appreciate the bright colors.  The impressionist style flowers are intended to be girly, but not childish, and grow with her.

See?  No whining!

Overwhelmed and Unproductive

Haven't I said this before?  I commit to too much, wear myself to a frazzle, then retreat! Retreat! for a while.  I know the grammar and punctuation are criminal, but I made my point.

After finishing the last art doll, I just wanted to have fun.  I got a bee in my bonnet about making a quilt and started putting it together.  Sewing remains the most cathartic thing in the world for me, but I'm just killing myself trying to make time for everything.  I've been on Weight Watchers since August now and find that the whole process of losing weight takes time.  It takes time to calculate the food stuff since they changed the freakin' frackin' program on me, it takes time to work out (then there's the recovery, shower, etc.) and then there's the craziness that comes with the holidays and my son's birthday all wrapped into one.  I have purchased exactly two presents.  Oh, and then there's the high school band stuff, the friends visiting from out of town and staying here (in the studio, to be precise, and I love having her), but OMG!  Stress alert!  I'm babbling again.

Now that I've vented, it's time to come up with a plan and a schedule and shut down the whining.  I may not get the quilts finished in time for Xmas, but I will get them done and will enjoy doing it.  I may decide not to do the sketchbook project I signed up for because I don't sketch and the failure is more stressful!  I'll doodle and keep it and be happy for the relaxed doodling time.  I'll reread Debbie's posts and chill.  Time to put a little more fun back into life this week.  My husband and I have recommitted to entertaining again (one creative grownup party this last week, the high school trumpeters party here this coming weekend) and rebuilding friendships that we were letting fall by the wayside.  I'll find the balance.  Really!

OK, I feel better.

Yikes, it's been a while!

I hadn't realized how long it had been since I posted.  Wow!

I met the deadline for the auction, but with only one piece completed.  There was a lot of negotiating with my husband to prevent him from making the purchase of my artwork, which I won.  My friend who solicited the contribution turned around and bought it, returning it to my husband as an early Christmas gift. It resides next to the last piece he bought.  Sigh.

So the piece that I didn't finish in time will simply be donated a little later, I think in February.  This gives me more time to work on the concept and fine-tune the piece.  We'll see what pops up.

As much as I am compelled to make these figurative pieces, I must admit that I feel an enormous amount of less-than-pleasant pressure to "perform" or produce work about which I continue to lack confidence.  In the course of working on it, I picked up a couple of magazines that featured quilts and was immediately inspired.  Sewing is something I can do in my sleep and a skill with which I have a terrific sense of confidence and ease, so I decided to get back into the swing of the machine.  I wanted to make quilts for my friend's daughters for the holidays, but don't think I'll really have enough time.  In any event, I have begun one of the two and love the time I spend on piecing.  I am using one of Jan Mullen's designs that look like abstract flowers of very bright red, orange and pink.  The recipient is only 5, but I tried to be sure the fabric choices would carry the quilt's use for a few years. 

My beloved "old" and dearest friend since childhood will be flying in to town this week to stay with us for a while, so the studio has been converted to a guest room.  While I may be too busy to post for this next week, I'll continue plotting ideas for future quilts, figurative work and sketching practice. 

I'm a happy camper today.

When at first you don't succeed....

I sculpt, then I smoosh, then I sculpt and smoosh it again.  For two days I've been working on the same piece.  The clay has been behaving oddly, I'm finding colour on my hands (panic!) that I can't figure out the source and have re-sculpted the mouth over and over and over again.  At one point, the face looked more like a skull in a Nazi officer cap.  Then it looked like a bug, followed by someone whose lips puffed up due to some horrific allergic reaction.  I've pulled out my "How to sculpt a face" book, watched a few videos on line (thank goodness for the pause button), and looked at other work just to try to get the basics right.  I am not attempting realistic, just recognizable. 

The face is finally finished.  My problem now is that this piece is looking just too much like a previous work.  It didn't start out that way, but is certainly headed down that path.  Deadlines are not always good for art.

This go round I have enjoyed working more than I did even a week ago.  Turning off the phone, television and shutting down Facebook helped.  Playing the Gregorian Monks was very relaxing, though may be a contributing factor in terms of the macabre appearance.  Hmmm, not sure why one should follow the other.  While this work is a little dark in terms of mood, it feels comfortable.  After I get the oven cleaned (homemade pizza is messy) and can fire the clay, I can move on to the next step.  We'll see how it comes out.