RedBarn Studios

i need to reveal something….for the last year or so i’ve been struggling to create with fabric.

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!

Tags: defining one's art, mixed media, my muse, paper art, video moments by grace
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Over the years I have discovered that I like taking pictures. I love the spontaneity and the serendipity of the moment.
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By far I am not, nor do I profess to be, a professional photographer, just a lover of images….those single, fleeting moments in time that are captured by a camera.
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I am especially drawn to those photographs that evoke a response of some kind from the viewer, whether a smile or laugh or even tears.
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So, from time to time, I will post one of my captured moments. Sometimes it will have a caption…..or not.
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Here’s my first.
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self portrait

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(a very rare occurrence , let me tell you)

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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: Art, my muse, pic of day by k grace howes
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I’ve finished a new art quilt “At Odds”, ready just in time for the QBL Show coming up at the end of this month. My muse feels good. Detail of the quilting below.

I also have 2 new journals that will go in my etsy shop. One is done in a beautiful tan leather and is filled with sheets of 140lb watercolour paper. On the front page of each signature is a cutout of a dragonfly. Love those creatures.

The second journal is filled with 4 signatures of drawing & writing paper with a brown suede spine. On the front I placed a saying by William Wordsworth that I love…….”Fill Your Papers with Breaths of Your Heart”.

Update: SOLD!

On the inside I’ve added 2 painted pocket pages ready to hold those bits of paper we all seem to gather to us.

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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: Art, fiber art, hand dyed, my muse, paper art by k grace howes
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Earlier this year, back in January, I began hearing about Christine Kane. First from my FAB friend, Judy, then on a blog I read quite regularly, Lisa Call. I admire both these women and trust that they knew what they were talking about when it came the inspiration of Christine Kane.

They were right.

She is very inspirational.

Word for the Year

Around this time of year we all go thru a regular and uninspiring year-end ritual of choosing  our New Year’s Resolutions. Christine Kane has a new take on New Year’s resolutions….

CHUCK the darn things out the window!

Really…cause none of us ever really follow thru with any of them anyway. Instead, she suggest we pick a word for the year.

Just one word. That’s all, she says.

“Then hold that word in your mind throughout the year, and let your word guide you to take action” (feel free to read more about it here and here).

I had all intentions of doing that this year, 2008, but obviously my life and mind had other plans. Next year though, in 2009, I intend to follow thru. I might need reminding from time to time but the INTENTION will be there.

Ah…you have just read my first word.

INTENTION

In order to start the year off right one should prepare beforehand. A few days ago I wrote down a few words and phrases that I thought might work for me: being present, choice,  discipline, focus, presence, allow…nothing resonated. I closed my eyes and got in touch with my goddess soul.

She picked: INTENTION and SELF-DISCIPLINE. (didn’t she realize that it was only supposed to be one word?).

No matter how I tried over the next few hours I couldn’t shake that 2nd word and kept coming back to it time and time again…..so I’m going with it. Enough of letting things slide (business or personal). State my intention, live my intention and be self disciplined enough to get the work done so that it can be completed.

At the end of the previous 2 years I found I could label each year. The first was the “Year of Me”. In looking back I saw that I did things that pleased me as concerns my artwork. Obviously I needed to find out more about me,, the artist, now that I had nerve enough to call myself one. The second year I labeled “Finding my Muse” cause boy did she ever talk to me …even though she did disappear from time to time…the nerve of her!

INTENTION

For 2009 I intend to begin at the beginning….at the beginning of this new year instead of the end of it.  I intend to start how I mean to finish. Wish me luck on my new journey.

What I wish for you, however, is a year of intention and meaning…in your life and in your work. I wish you peace, abundance, focus and clarity. Finally I wish you JOY and the courage to find your word for the year and let it become your guiding force.

BTW, the tag line on Christine’s blog reads:  Be Creative. Be Conscious. Be Courageous.

I love it…why not just BE!

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: life etc., my muse, New Year, ponderings, word of the year, year of me by k grace howes
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Remember me talking about an art book I had recently bought , Kelly Rae’s “Taking Flight“? Well I so thoroughly enjoyed the book that when I saw that a group had been formed from it I had to join. So when Laura from the takingflight group asked us to share our “Creative Art Journey” and also posed some questions to help us along I felt compelled to respond.

Some of the questions she asked were:

How long have you been creating art?     What & where do you like to create?     How do you get your inspiration?     What are your favorite themes?   What are your creative goals?     Share anything else about your Creative Art Soul.

What truly resonated with me was the use of the word “SOUL” because I truly believe that’s where my art comes from….my creative soul. So here is my response:

My Creative Art Soul is always a work in progress. I started off with quilting (15 yrs now) that then evolved into art quilts (and pattern designing) and that has now evolved into mixed media, hence me finding (and loving) Kelly Rae’s book.

When I get stuck in my creative journey I like to visit new blogs (I regularly read about 50) and get inspiration from a new technique or the way a particular colour is used or the way an image (or artwork)
resonates with me.

My latest muse is using artists canvas to make my new mixed media art pieces. I love the serendipity of what can be done with these little gems. Just like my art quilts I work in a mosly abstract manner but I do have favorite images I like to use in mixed media pieces.

These last 2 years I have dubbed the “year of me” to find out what I like to do, what I want to do and to see where my art takes me. I love creating new pieces whether in fabric or paper. A long time passion of mine however, is to find a way to inspire other women to find their creative soul. Wish me luck in my journey…..the same I do for you.

So now you have it, a little about my creative art journey. Where is your journey taking you?

See ya next time, “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: book club, defining one's art, life etc., mixed media, my muse, ponderings by k grace howes
2 Comments »

I was telling a friend only yesterday that I have to figure out why I’m not blogging as much lately. It bugs me to no end but can’t seem to get the drive.

That’s not to say that I haven’t been doing art…oh NO!  I decided not to do any challenges or have any extraneous commitments for pieces that have hard and fast deadlines….at least not until the new year. I needed to relax a bit (took that to an extreme here I guess). Instead, what I have done is stuff that I consider “ME” stuff.

I told you already that I signed up for the Fibre-in-Form online workshop and I am loving it. In this first part I get to get messy with molding paste. It was like playing in the mud making mud pies. I got that stuff all over my hands. Who the heck needs gloves!

These first pics are the different substrates I used: muslin, canvas and artist mounted canvas (for the life of me I can’t find the piece of Timtex I played with.  If I find it I’ll post it later).

First, I gessoed the pieces to create a smooth surface then either slapped on some molding paste or pushed the paste thru a stencil. I AM LIKING THIS!!! For the first pic I pressed some sequin waste into the paste and got this cool honeycomb-like pattern; for the 2nd one I pressed a flower rubber stamp into the slathered paste (not really a good photo, sorry) and on the last,  I used an architect’s circle template on an artist canvas as the stencil.

What happens now is I get to add colour to each one but that will come in a later lesson. Although……………………I just couldn’t resist. I got carried away and painted the artist canvas…..painted a few of the circles different colours then swooshed the bright red across the surface with a squeegee. Playing for the sake of FUN. How fun!

Love all the raised areas. Molding paste, if put on thinly can be sewn on the machine so I will attempt to sew the two fabric pieces I did…….on my old Kenmore for sure. My stitch reg Bernina will not see this mess…..just in case.

Now I am working on some pieces with embossed wallpaper and couched threads. Because I am working small, no larger than 8x 10 for now, these new textural techniques I’m trying are fairly easy to get done. Last chapter in this lesson has us working with Tyvek. Yum!

See ya next time “in the Hayloft”,

Tags: down time, fiber art, mixed media, my muse, surface design, working small by k grace howes
3 Comments »

My art group decided last year to come up with a different project for us all to work on…we all made dolls.  Now I never played with dolls growing up (I kid you not…my mother still has the only doll I EVER played with for 3 short months she says).

So this was a chance for me to bring out the inner child. Well, come to think of it, I’m always trying to do that when I create, let my inhibitions fall by the wayside and work intuitively.

I picked a LARGE doll to make (pattern was impulse purchase at QBL last year..why oh why???) and the poor girl has sat on the sidelines more than she’s been worked on. Now I love the splendiferous dolls that are made by doll artists worldwide, especially the over-the-top beauties by Arley Berryhill (his dolls zing with bling), but nothing was happening, I just couldn’t get my mojo going on this at all.

The deadline for her completion loomed near and I still wasn’t feeling her vibe. I took her down, sat her on my sewing table and just looked at her.

Nothing! Still!

Sometimes when I need inspiration I turn to my regulars…those blogs I read regularly and invariably end up checking out the links on their sidebar.  I saw a box that someone was showing off on their site and it hit me…

……she’s a water goddess of the woods…. and her name is BE!

She isn’t finished.

I still have to paint her face and I plan to add some silk leaves and beadwork to her body. I did add a billowing skirt made of strips of fabric and tulle just tied onto her waste.

Finally…..

…she’s ALMOST done. Okay, maybe not. She did make it in time for the deadline but, alas, she was not completely dressed….the little hussy!

She will sit high on a pedestal (that I still have to make, paint and drape) and she will look out over her water in the woods and say….

“Ahhh……LIFE!  (took her long enough)”.

When she’s completely done, goddess attitude and all,  I’ll post her true unveiling. Until then,
See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: Art, fiber art, mixed media, my muse by k grace howes
3 Comments »

Here’s where my head is today…these last few weeks in fact.

Given the chance, that place inside will speak to each of us.” Mark Nepo

For the last few weeks I’ve been going thru a metamorphosis of sorts. I must be working toward that artistic ideal I so frequently seek….to do artwork that has meaning, has substance, calls into play the details of what I’m trying to express, technically, aesthetically and spiritually  and brings forth excellence….not perfection, just my excellence to create a piece that is my inner voice.

Nancy’s presentation last night has me thinking….thinking that I need to work more completely. I struggle sometimes getting what is in my mind’s eye, into a textile piece that conveys it’s meaning clearly and succinctly. So I’ve decided to go back to working with my sketchbook more often to hash out the details; the whys, the hows.

Lately, I start on a piece of artwork and then, at a certain point, stop. And because my message has not been fully sounded out beforehand, I am at a loss as to which direction to take. I am trying out new techniques with surface design and embellishments all the time so my repertoire of available techniques is always growing but which ones to use, when, and how is an ongoing issue of late.

So…I am waiting for that place inside to speak to me again. She has gotten me to this point so far and I know she will take me further. But in the meantime I trudge along, making the pieces that appeal to my eyes for now…and my soul again….soon.

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: fiber art, my muse, ponderings by k grace howes
2 Comments »