Creative Wisdom: Baby Steps

The weather has turned - from hot and sweaty to crisp and blue and... it's just my FAVORITE!!!!

So there is no way I'm staying inside today. I might even do some long neglected weeding.

So today my creative prompt needs to take me outside. You? Stay in or go out at your pleasure.

Right now - pick up a pencil. Draw something.

I just had to be outside so I found a bloom. And a really cool radial pattern of leaves. Nature has amazing patterns to look at, be inspired by, draw.

Draw a weed. Draw a rubber band. Draw a sock or a shoe piled on the floor.

Just do it.

Faces on Friday

 My four year old still doesn't want to hold still or stop making faces.

No surprise there - and I wouldn't have it any other way.

 Friends at the park

 Car mirror while waiting to pick up a kid

 At the symphony

From a book of James Christensen's work

This week has been mostly in my sketchbook rather than on the 3x5 cards.

Looking back - I'm learning that all my chins are too short. hmmmm.

Artist Spotlight part 3: Melanie Testa - process

The past two weeks I've enjoyed introducing you to a favorite artist of mine, Melanie Testa. Today I'd like to introduce you to her artwork. Together we'll learn a little more about her process.


Lyric: I've seen just a bit of your visual journaling and it is just as lovely as your artwork. How do sketching and drawing help you in your textile work? Why did you choose textiles rather than a more traditional media?

Melanie: My journals are so import to me that I can't imagine not keeping them. I draw inspiration for stamps, marks, actual artwork, they help me to remain focused creatively. Just today, I met up with a friend and we went to the Met to draw, I feel so alive when I am looking at and evaluating what I see. When the line looks like what I am trying to draw, it is such a thrill. I can't take that for granted! But even though I utilize my journals and sometimes even share them when I write articles, the journals are private, they feel intensely personal to me.

As for why I work in cloth? I could not have it any other way. I just tried to imagine myself as an oil painter. I need the ragged edge, the dye, the stamps, the sewing machine.

L: I am fascinated by your juxtaposition of symbols and words with imagery from nature. How do you go about choosing which images to combine? How did you come upon the process of layering images with sheers?

M: Working with sheers came about as a result of journaling. I came to a place where I found my journals held more artistic focus and intention than my quilt art, but my quilt art was more important to me! So I evaluated the difference in approach and technique. I had been using tracing paper in my journals, I would trace a drawing from one page onto tracing paper, paint around and over the tracing, then glue that onto another painted page. The transparency is what held sway. So I figured out cloth equivalents to my favorite techniques. Silk organza became tracing paper and could be dyed with Procion MX dyes.

I started using words in my art because I was working with a man who used words in his paintings but I could not stand how he did it! I started using text and symbols because I knew there had to be a better approach. The words ought to merge with and become one with the piece almost as though in pentimento. As for using nature in my work, I find great solace in all things natural. 

L: Do you work from a plan or do you improvise as you go?

M: I like to plan loosely. Right now I just started a series if 20 Common Birds in Decline. I am working on an image of an Evening Grosbeak. the drawing of the bird needs to be perfected before I begin because the artwork is only as good as your original drawing. But the background and the collaged elements are not in the original drawing. I like to leave as much as possible to chance.

L: What is it about birds that draws you to use them so much in your artwork?

M: When I was a girl, I wanted to be a bird, to be able to flit, watch and leave by taking flight! I began bonding with birds when I was a teenager, my father had bought a bird feeder and a Roger Torey Peterson identification book and we began putting names to shapes and colorings. As an adult, I started keeping my own feeder, then bought binoculars, and now study and read all I can. Right now, I am an armchair bird watcher! Simply? The shiny sparkle of light in a birds eye bowls me over, I can't resist it. 

L: Your use of stitching is so well integrated into the composition of your work. Do you begin with your stitched lines in mind or do those ideas come afterwards.

M: I do loosely plan the images used in my work. As I print, paint and stamp, ideas will float past and reveal themselves, but it is only when I get to the sewing machine that I can listen to and enact a plan for the stitch.

L: If you went to a desert island for a week and could only take a shoebox of art supplies, what would it contain?

My backpack is about the size of a shoebox and often contains, scrap, batting, needles, thread, embroidery floss and beads, a journal and a small box of paints, one pencil, two pens (Pilot t500 and a Pentel Pocketbrush) and a niji water brush. My wallet can be left behind to accommodate more cloth, perferably hand dyed dupioni, my current cloth crush. :)

So dear readers, are you as in love with Melly's work as I am? Her process fascinates me and I've enjoyed studying it and sharing with with you.

I've finished the 5x7 piece from the ginkgo fabric that Melanie sent to me. Next week I'll tally up all of the comments on the four posts featuring her. Yes, you can leave a comment on each post and be counted four times!

I'll throw the lot into a random number generator (or have one of the kidlets shout out a number between so and so) and the lucky winner will be sent this lovely little piece of art. It is 5x7 and made with the beautiful piece of organza printed by Melanie. I do believe that she is posting the piece she made with the fabric I sent her on her blog this week as well.

It's All About the Attitude

Whistling while you work. Making lemonade from lemons. I'll bet there are a ton of similar metaphors. (I'd love to hear your favorite!)

After a late night of dancing - and what a wonderful night it was - I had to arise in the wee hours of the morning to catch a shuttle to the airport. I had packed the day before so all I really needed to do was to was hop out of bed, brush my teeth and go. It could have been a rotten day.

A little aside on packing. Us traveling quilt teachers do an awful lot of schlepping stuff. I had two maxed out checked bags, a carry-on, and my "small personal item" which is a rolling briefcase that just barely fits under most airline seats. I wear black and wear my black little back-pack purse - hoping they won't count it as a third carry-on. We also end up shipping boxes to venues as well. The baggage fees have raised the costs for guilds to bring us in but the real struggle is being able to get all the lovely quilts and supplies there for you the students. I teach a lot of surface design classes - paint and foil and screen printing and such - to quilters. I like to spare them the time and cost of running around trying to find supplies that aren't readily available or already in their stash. That means I bring a LOT of stuff for my students. In fact - I even prepare kits so that in many of my classes all you have to show up with is a pair of scissors and a notebook! I use this kit for both "Bead It Like You Mean It" and "Surface Design Sampler Platter."

OK - back to the story. So I'm at the gate of the airport by 5am - people trickle in and plunk down and immediately fall asleep. I'm a morning person and a light sleeper so I didn't even try. I had Melanie Testa's book, "Inspired to Quilt" to read and it is an amazingly lovely book! And hey - with as many kids at home as I have, any quiet "alone" time I have is savored - even in an airport at 5am.

It gets better. Two young men and their mother walk in with instrument cases and one of them, instead of falling asleep, pulls out his guitar, and with a lovely soft voice begins to sing and play. I love acoustic music. I can't really read while it's playing because I get caught up in listening. So I pulled out my sketchbook, shifted to a better seat, and began to doodle, and sketch.

This is my rough sketch. I actually pulled out a pencil and worked harder to make a really nice sketch while he played. When I do this I often tear out the sketch and give it to the subject if it turns out decently. It did so I did. (The other sketch is a copy of an amazing drawing from "Inspired To Quilt".)

So check out the Malpass Brothers. Christopher, the young man on the right is the one that sang to all the morning sleepers. The music on their site has much more of an old-time vintage country sound than the airport that morning. It was lovely.

http://www.malpassbrothers.com