just keep on,

quietly and earnestly,

growing

through all that happens to you.

You cannot disrupt

this process

more violently

than by looking

outside yourself for answers

that may only be found

by attending

to your innermost feelings … “

- rainer maria rilke

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just something for me to remember as i walk this path that has chosen me

G

i’ve been trying to think of reasons why i am drawn to mixed media and painting in particular and, after some thought, this is what came to mind (plus a sprinkling of recent paintings)…

~  i feel at home with this medium…..i feel so comfortable and connected with acrylic paints and the papers i work with

~  i like that the result of any session in my studio is almost immediate gratification….whether 10 minutes or 2 hrs

~ i feel that my true self is being expressed…….especially thru my spirit girl paintings

~  i get to play AND get messy (i mean that literally…..all in the guise of work…ha!

toodles all,

G

from what i understand, after much coaxing on my part for her to come back out, my art quilt muse decided to take an indefinite break (of course she didn’t let me know this before she just up and left!).

so earlier this year, instead of looking at all my fabrics and feeling the guilts for not creating with them or fondling them so lovingly (yes you all know bout that….i’m not the only one who’s had a long time love affair with her fabs), i rearranged my studio and put all the fabrics AND my beloved bernina away.

SHOCK!   HORROR!

yes i really did.

and the relief was palatable.   immediate.   freeing.

my hands were still itching to create so i began playing with paper

and painting

and discovering

where she (this muse who definitely has a mind of her own!) needed to go next in her creativity.

for the last few months, altho i was keeping to myself, i still went into the studio to play.

i know it’s early days yet for this new work but i’m having fun.
the days of avoiding my studio and the constant search for my creative mojo seem to be over.

here’s a peek at where my inspiration has been taking me

don’t where this is all leading but ideas have been stirring
and this girl is excited!
wish me luck.

toodles all,

G

p.s. i usually upload videos to youtube but have decided to try out vimeo (check out my other vids here).

btw…am looking for some feedback. if you create videos and use one of these 2 video services over the other, drop me an email let me know why you prefer the one you use.
What frustrates you and what can’t you live without that it provides? Thanks for you help!

i looooove me self help books. i love the dig…the excavating to my spirit soul.  i used to buy one book after the other all the time but found that i read and read each book but never actually got to the end. after a while they just got put aside. they didn’t hit any sweet spots.

credit:kelly rae roberts

kelly writes in such a way that you feel that you and her are sitting, chillin at your fav coffee shop, drinking a venti latte (cause you know this will be a long session) and talkin to you best girl as she breaks it down for you.

kelly starts of by giving you the one-two punch…..facing one’s fears (agrh! you say and complain “do i have too?”).

lemma me put it like this.  you know in that investment commercial where the agent tells the person to “stay on the green line” as the path unfurls before them? well i think conquering your fears is like that.  unless you take over and control those meddlesome, pesky, full ‘a noise things, your little green line never moves forward.

so it seems fitting that 1st kelly dishes out about breaking it down, not pushing them away or stuffing them in a draw to deal with later {read never, ever, ever here} but, rather, facing them and tellin them who’s boss.

so now that i’ve delved and journaled and thought and told them gremlins about themselves and put away the key to the lock (cause i now control them suckers) i feel i’ve cleared the path to move forward, to C R E A T E the life that’s waiting for me.

thanks miss kelly rae!

credit: kelly rae roberts

p.s.  if you think you are ready for your creative bliss to take you places…..read kelly’s book first and hit your sweet spots, then you too will begin to soar like a bird in flight.
fasten those seat belts honey!

believe it or not, this music in this video is composed by the position of the birds sitting on the fence. how flipping cool is that?

a little background…

the composer, Jarbas Agnelli, a Brazilian film director and musician, says “it’s possible to see poetry everywhere”. He saw a photo by photographer, Paulo Pinto, and thought the position of the birds reminded him of musical notes (you can see more of his explanation here…be sure to click the link under the video to get to English subtitles).

Why am I sharing this with you?

…being able to see the possibility in the ordinary is rather extraordinary wouldn’t you say

…seeing beauty in the simple, everyday stuff of our lives helps redirect us back to ourselves and what’s important to us

would that we open our eyes a little wider to ALL the possibilities

Train yourself to see beyond what you ordinarily see, focus more positive energy on the tiny moments, know that the bigger things will right themselves into correctness….and YOUR hidden music will be revealed.

Toodles,

i know, i know…..i’ll get back to showcasing my art soon but indulge me this small respite while i reconnect to me.

My head is clearing and the high from the weekend is slowly dissipating. I’ve even gotten back to writing my morning pages again.

My writing is revealing something interesting though. I thought I’d jump right back into art but I’m finding that my head is not gravitating easily towards artwork just yet.

About the only thing I’ve been able to do with any consistency, while intensely concentrating on Symposium, is reading books and watching short clips about being present in one’s life, much like the book…Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert’s amazing book on finding and accepting oneself in the present.

So, after 2 yrs of complete immersion, I find there’s a need to concentrate on centering myself.  I am writing much more than before and, surprise, surprise, I am enjoying it (never ever thought of myself as a writer at all, always left that up to my sister, SL Sheppard, a novelist/poet/playwright).

Right now I feel I am meant to be working on my path forward, more an internal process than external, the latter of which artwork is supposed to be. I know that we are all in sometimes subtle ways, constantly redefining ourselves and this is my time.

My experience with Symposium has revealed some things about myself that I suspected but wasn’t willing to touch with a thought just yet. So, words are flowing onto paper and ideas are taking shape in my mind….I’m just taking things in stride.

No rushing allowed.

Most of the time I work intuitively…..my abstract pieces are usually born through feeling and touch and intuition, picking up and auditioning fabrics and finding those that fit the piece.

Recently though, especially since the Orchid Show pieces (below), I been feeling the need to work in a representational manner. One of the tools I use to gather information and to have a starting off point for these pieces is to mind map words.

Part of the Orchids: Sensuality Stitched Show

I am not very good at drawing…..this is not a whine nor a complaint but a fact…..so instead of getting frustrated at not being able to draw images that I see in my minds eye, I mind map those images with words instead. These words turn into ideas for surface designs or stitching or the images themselves.

It still fascinates me what happens when you release control and just start writing without checking for content, grammatical errors, words that don’t fit or giving in to distracting thoughts. The flow, if allowed to continue, is almost cathartic. Images into words tumble out (most of the time that is).

Sometimes one of these words pops out at me and I take that one and run with it. Soon the page is filled with “images”. From this cacophony of words I pick out ones that resonate and start the quilt.

I haven’t finished this one I’m working on, still needs to be quilted, but I like where it’s going. Here’s a sneak peak.

What do you do to release control and let your work flow through you?

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I have been a bit absent of late….blogging in a rather hit & miss manner (no kidding, you say!).
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Although I have been working on my fiber art and journal projects
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(above – new canvas journal I’ve been working on & below – cropped photo of orchid quilt for group exhibition…see, told you so!),
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and taking pics of in progress work,
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and pics of cool and interesting things,
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and thinking and sometimes starting blog posts (new post from my Inner-views with another fiber artist in next few days)
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but….for some obscure to me reason…..never actually sending these thoughts of mine out into the blogosphere.
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My thinking right now as to why that is?\’a0 To some extent, it’s that my art is evolving/changing enough in what I’m producing, probably more than I can keep up with or formalize a goal for, so catching you up in blog posts is almost near impossible. New year…new habits (maybe, sorta kinda…mmmh).
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Also been thinking A LOT about my Word For The Year (a la Christine Kane). I’ve gone thru at least 7 different words that I thought might be good to implement as I go forward but none have captured the complete essence of where I am in my life and in my art at the moment.
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I also didn’t think any of the words I came up with would propel me to excel or push me forward any……that is until a few days ago\’a0 while reading a blog I ran across…
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…you know, you click on a link on someone’s blog list and when you get to that blog, as you read you click on another link in their blog list then another and another and before you know it you are at a site you’ve never read before but it resonates with you then you have another blog to add to your RSS feed…(deep breathe here..ahhh) — but I digress, big time!
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So, with ALL that said, I’m still here, plogging along, doing my thing. **Just a heads up…this post became way toooo long (a lot to say after that absence huh) so I’ve divided it up into 2 individual posts. See next post for my word of the year**
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(Note: please take the time to read Christine’s post about your 2010 word, she explains it so succinctly and has a tool that you can use to help YOU choose your word).
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~
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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

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For my recent zine, “The Inner Eye“ I had to include an interview. Since my zine is an inspirational art zine I, of course,\’a0 chose to interview an artist.
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The only thing with that was that after I came up with the questions I was nosy enough to want to know how other artists would answer these same questions.
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So I came up with a plan and chose to pose the questions to a few artist friends and include all their answers in the zine. Over the next few weeks I will post some of the answers from these individual artists. Since yesterday’s post was about Nancy, I’ll start there.
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I’ve known Nancy for a few years and was invited by her this year to join Fiberart Options, a fiber art group. In the last few months I have gotten a better chance to get to know her.
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She is a wonderfully warm, engaging and inspirational artist, who is always willing to answer any questions we might have about our art in order to help us succeed. And…she loves to laugh, which is always good for the soul.
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Her recent work is very much nature inspired. She paints her beautiful art pieces with Tsukineko inks on sumptuous hand dyed fabrics, then expertly enhances them with her quilting stitches.
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Inner Eye: What informs your artwork?
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Nancy Cook: My work is informed by the traditions of botanical illustrations and quilting mediums.
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IE: Why fabric/thread/paint as a means of expression?
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NC: I love the textures that result from the quilted line, it is a way that I connect with my past and women from many cultures and across time.
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IE: Who continually inspires you?
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NC: Women artists, especially fiber artists, women politicians and role models like Oprah Winfrey.
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IE: What, if anything, precedes the full blow idea for a piece of art?
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NC: Sometimes I wake up with an idea that is pretty close to full blown and that is a gift from the gods or muse.\’a0 Other times it is looking, really looking, at a tree seed specimen.\’a0 It takes time, perhaps a magnifying glass and, often, sketching the piece multiple times, before the full blown idea emerges.
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IE: What matters most to you about the work that you do?
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NC: That it satisfies me in terms of concept realized, quality of the production.
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IE: What do you ask of yourself in terms of your art in the next 5 yrs?
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NC: Have sufficient recognition that it will not be rapidly consigned to a garage sale upon my death.
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This last question I thought was the best answer an artist can give…
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IE: If you could not pursue your art, what other way would you spend your time?
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NC: I haven’t the slightest idea.
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I loved her answer especially because I believe that in in order to produce the best art we can, whatever medium we choose, our art should consume our souls. Nancy’s answer (to me) shows exactly this. You can find Nancy’s work on her website and more about her on her blog.
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Be on the lookout for upcoming inner-view posts, including nationally known quilt artist and designer Sarah Ann Smith and one of our own local artists, PJ Howard.
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NOTE: **you can purchase a copy of the first issue of my zine “The Inner Eye” in my Etsy shop.**
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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

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\’93Under the harvest moon,
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When the soft silver
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Drips shimmering
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Over the garden nights…\’94\’a0\’a0\’a0\’a0\’a0 –Carl Sandburg

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~
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Our Guild logo is the sailboat to coincide with our name, Lake Norman Guild. One of the themes for a guild challenge this year was “Sailing under the Harvest Moon” (which also happened to be the name of our Quilt Show this past weekend).
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Instead of using the whole theme though, I decided to concentrate just on the harvest moon.
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In my research I learned that the harvest moon is the fullest moon occurring closest to the autumnal equinox.
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An equinox, which happens 2 times each year, occurs when the centre of the Sun spends about the same time above and below the horizon at every location on the Earth.
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Therefore the night and day are equally as long with no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise.
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The moon shines brighter, takes on a beautiful golden hue and looks larger than it appears because it sits so low in the sky.
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It is so very bright at night that farmers work thru the night harvesting their crops working by the light of the moon, hence the name “Harvest Moon”.
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To depict this larger than life phenomenon, I painted 2 different Stewart Gill metallic paints along the edge of the hand dyed gold fabric, creating the illuminating moon.
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Using a silver grey Caron D’ache crayon, I extended the haze of the light around the moon and onto the field of wheat to show some reflection.
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The thing that stumped me for a bit though was the fabric we had to use in our finished piece.
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Originally I cut leaves out of the fabric to float on water (sailing theme) but they really looked out of place. In the end I liked the way I used it to portray a suggestion of a fence line across the field.
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The quilt measures 20.5″ x 17″, a small piece again but the smaller size enables me to try out new techniques without committing to larger pieces.
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I have been told lately that my work is taking on a particular “style” (big smile here) and that’s definitely something I’m striving for, to create a body of work that represents the essence of MY creativity.\’a0 I’ve got much more work to do to reach my goal and, in fact, I am a part of the year long SAQA Visioning Project to help me move forward.
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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,
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