Okay, Break Time's Up

April 1st?? Really??

Apparently I am the intermittent blogger as I am the intermittent "something" in a lot of other ways. So what's been up in the mean time?

Quilting: still haven't quite finished the Big Pink Happiness quilt but I have finished the quilting of four (count them 4!!) other quilts. One mandatory waiting in the sewing room and Margaret working on the final two of the seven quilts total.

Arting: here's where a lot more of my time has been going. I'm overcoming the fear of the acrylics and I'm enjoying the playtime here.  I've tried out bunches of techniques with water media, love the waterbrushes and love the Pentel Brush Pen (if that's it's real name), almost the same as a water brush but filled with ink, sepia for now. Cutting and tearing paper, sketching here and there, and completely in love with Inktense pencils.

The difficulty now is finding my own imagery, what speaks for me on the page, and does it communicate anything? Technique is one thing, learning all about various options in media, but technique can only take you so far.  There is something within me that is so loud these days, I'm amazed other people don't hear my brain screaming out loud as I walk by.  CREATE, DAMMIT!!

Also finding the value in my lifelong habit of cleaning up before you begin which I had to break myself of initially because you can't be so hardfast about it that you end up never starting on the art until the whole house is spic and span, which, for me, never happens all at one time.  But small steps, clearing and organizing the materials needed, make me aware of where everything is, what still needs to find a home, and lead to beginning with a cleared work area, a fresh space outside and within.  I don't know how this habit began.  I do know that I kept my toys straightened up as a child with a very satisfied feeling about it.  Who cares? Anyhow, it serves me better now that I have eased up with it.

So. Today I will clean some, sew some, paint or draw some and revel in all of it. Question is, how do I give a face, a body, a form to the reveller ? Remains to be seen.  Journey's on!

March Flop to April Fool

Ok, for March I did almost nothing, no painting, no new creating, though I worked on quilting 3 quilts.  I did not spill over on anything so no March themed stuff for the sketchbook challenge.  I spilled over with nothingness.

Not that I didn't want to start 2 new quilts, I did. But I operate on Time Out with myself.  If I have a mandatory something I should be doing I do not allow myself the pleasure of starting something else.  I have to complete 2 of the 3 quilts in the next week and I have been saying that for a month now, and of course, the quilt I want to work on is the third, non-mandatory quilt. The heart wants what the heart wants. So I put myself in Time Out until the "work" gets done which means I will resent what I now have to do and find a dozen ways to not do it.  Self-defeating.

So a couple of days ago I let myself off the hook.  I was art-starved.  I wanted to do a ton of things but was being the cruel taskmaster and I had had enough.  A day off to play!  It was wonderful, not that much came out of it, just a bunch of different colors of Angelina sheets to get myself under way for a Wynken, Blynken, and Nod project that I've had in my head for 2 years and now really, really, want to make.  That, and a sunflower. And a fairy person. So a little bit of each got to be considered and headed toward becoming something real. A little progress on the Fun Stuff.  And now back to the grindstone of quilting.  I want them DONE, off the table, so I can get on with the real meaning of art making in my life: to be playful.  A far cry from the serious artist-type I started out as, many years ago, but I think I like this artist a whole lot better because she is much more fun. As ever, photos to follow.