Working Without a Plan

I picked up the figurative piece that I started a couple of months ago and just put down because I didn't know what to do next.  Unfortunately, I've been tweaking at it today with "Say Yes to the Dress" playing in the background (it's that, or I have lengthy talks with the cats so I don't feel the solitude) and the stitching I've been doing looks like unfortunate "pick ups" that are popular on wedding dresses.  Yikes!  It's one of the projects that I just pick at, poke at and mess with, all without a plan.  I fear it's looking like there was no plan.  The exercise is, however, therapeutic.

This week I had the greatest fortune to find two former teachers from my first year living in the Philippines when I was ten years old.  One of the two taught art, the only art class I've ever taken.  I found her web site and blog and spent a lot of time reading it this morning, marveling in her beautiful work and creative spirit.  She made a comment that really smacked me upside the head, today in particular.  My friend Debbie has made the point as well, and I'm really trying to model the notion today.  Forgive my clumsy paraphrasing!  When we copy and copy, our own creative skills atrophy.  That word - atrophy - was what made me stop in my tracks.  As I've blabbered about before, I find myself spending much more time looking for ideas and prompts in books, magazines and film than I do making art.  The one thing that I do that is 100% mine is the figurative work that I started making about fifteen years ago.  So this morning, after reading Ms. Carrasco's words and re-reading Debbie's, I marched into the studio and got to work.  Ok, first I hemmed a pair of new jeans (two sizes smaller - whoohoo!!!), but then I shoved everything aside and picked up the piece that'd been resting all this time.  It's still a bit of a hot mess, but I've really enjoyed the time surrounded by my hot mess, needles and thread.

Thank you Debbie.  Thank you Ms. Carrasco.  Thank you Ms. Braden for telling me that you are still in touch with Ms. Carrasco so that I could find her web site.  Thank you for encouraging me without even knowing that you have done so.