The Kindness Chronicles

Ideas to help us make the world a better place!

Guess what? We're born good. We're born with a desire to help. I knew that already, but science is starting to understand it too. Between my daughter's fascination with neuroscience and my favorite podcast, Radiolab, I'm more than a little bit hooked on reading brain studies. Dr. Richard Davidson is doing research that leads him to believe that we are naturally attracted to altruism and that we can train our brains to be happy. If you have a minute, read this post of his, asking us to simply notice the good things more often. 

Little kindnesses:

Some things are so easy that I don't even notice I'm doing them until someone points it out.
I'm on Facebook a lot. I make it a point to only post helpful, positive links.
I try my very best to never whine in public.

When I make a meal that freezes well I always make a triple batch. One gets eaten later and one ends up going to someone who could use it. I freeze things in zip-loc bags so recipients don't have to return dishes.

On a recent teaching trip I was up and down on airplanes all day long. I left at least one, sometimes two, little notes tucked away in magazines in the seat pockets. I hope they make someone smile. It made me smile just to sneak them in and think of someone reading them. I think we get more out of serving others than we realize!

Bigger kindnesses:

I helped a young woman who wanted to alter and combine two different patterns to make a dress for her to wear to the temple. It only took an hour or so (it was a pretty simple pattern) and I think she will do a great job sewing it up. I think many of you could do the same kind of thing - make yourself available to get someone started sewing. Teach them the basics of how to use thier machine.

Check out what these friends are doing:

Linda Kittmer

Lisa's blog "something about nothing"

Linda Teddlie Minton

New Zealand artist Catherine Parkinson
The indomitable Jane LaFazio
Tracie Lyn Huskamp
Hannah Koch
Deborah

Please join me in the Kindness Chronicles. Grab a button here and post it on your blog.
Send me a note and tell me what you are doing and I'll link to your blog next month!

Video Tutorial: Beading Looped Stacks

For Your Inspiration: Spring in North Carolina

All this glory...

in the short walk to the bus stop each morning.

 Photos taken on my iPhone and punched up in the Snapseed app.

New Work: Links (part 2)

So far I photoshopped - scribbled - screen printed. Time for stitch.

Next I created a shibori stitched circle (running stitches around, and around, and around, and around.... ), gathered them up tightly and painted on some foil adhesive. I didn't wait long to snip the threads and pull it out as I didn't want the glue to dry over the threads. I was very careful not to mess up the glue as I pulled out the threads then let it dry. 

I could have applied the gold foil next but chose to layer and quilt the piece next. I was hoping the foil would cover some of the stitching. I simply followed the designs in the printed cloth, loving every inch of the wide open space on my Handi-Quilter 16 as I free-motion quilted. I thought for a bit about continuing the circular quilting onto the white cloth but chose instead to balance the circles with some simple vertical lines.  Too much of a good circular thing is...  too much.

The foil went on next - just the gold to start with. Between each step the work goes up on the wall so I can step back and get a longer view - see how things are going. At this point I saw I needed something to balance the larger gold circle but didn't know what and was too far along to do anything drastic without testing first.

Easy solution. Take a picture, print out a few copies, doodle until something looks right. Three more circles on the lower left were my solution this time.

A few pins to test out thread weight then I decided that I needed red in the shibori circle - then more red and gold in the lower circles. And then it was really, really late and I needed to go to bed. 

So - I think first of all I need to take lessons in how to photograph white work. I have a really wonderful and fancy new SLR camera that I have no idea how to use. I'm working on it. Slowly.

I'd love to hear your comments and critiques.

New Work: Links (part 1)

A couple of weeks ago I did my usual thing of looking at the calendar to see what was coming up the next week and realized there was a deadline I had forgotten about. A LOOMING deadline. 

Good grief - why is it that I can't get myself to work on these things ahead of time? Of course I begin to mull things over in my head as soon as I know the requirements for the show so it wasn't a huge scramble to come up with a new idea. It would have been kinder to my self to have begun at least a week earlier though so that I could have more time to test variations on my ideas.

The theme of this show was "Rituals." It is a juried invitational - which means the curators invite a number of people to participate - but the final artworks still have to go through a jury process and have a chance of being rejected. I think it's a good thing. The organizers start with a set of known artists whose work they admire but the artists are still encouraged to do their best work, knowing it isn't a sure bet.

I started with a portrait taken by the talented photographer, Julia Wade. It's been a favorite of mine for a long time and she gave me permission to create artwork from her photography. Remember - just because you've paid for a piece or art or photography does not mean you own the copyright - that remains with the artist.

In thinking about the theme of "Rituals" has had me noticing their importance in my life. I have rituals that range from a tiny repeated gesture that brings me simple comfort to the most deeply important spiritual practices that are central to who I am. The common factor among all of them is that they link me to the world around me, to my family and friends, and to the generations before and ahead of me. 

I played for a day with photoshop and different iterations of the portrait until I came up with something I liked then spent another day fussing with my wonderful (but persnickety) wide format Epson printer.

Next I created a thermofax screen with swirly circles on it and printed some white on white cloth. I think circles are a major theme in much of my work. When I'm thinking about them deeply, as I was in this piece, they represent something whole, something never-ending, things that are connected. Most of the time - they are just my favorite shape to play with.

Check in tomorrow for the rest of the story.

Studio Class: Thermofax Screen Printing April 18

New Studio Class
Thermofax Screen Printing

Wednesday April 18th 

11am - 2pm

$65.00 includes lunch and ALL supplies, fabric, paint, and a large framed screen to take home.

Enjoy a few hours of creative playtime with Lyric as you learn the basics of what makes a good image for a thermofax screen. You'll learn how to choose, how to edit, and how to send an image to a service provider or use your own machine.

After creating your own unique image, make a screen using Lyric's thermofax machine and learn how to prepare it for printing by taping the frame to a screen or binding it with duct tape.

Learn how to use the screens with a squeegee or as a stencil, what kind of paints to use, what kinds of fabrics, how to discharge and layer imagery.

Are you ready to PLAY!?!
Sign up now - space will be limited to 8 students.
$65.00

Fee includes ALL materials, you don't need to bring a thing!

Wear old clothes or an apron.
Wednesday April 18th 

11am - 2pm

Creative Wisdom: Robert Genn's Five Skills Worth Learning

Zen (detail) by Lyric Kinard I subscribe to Robert Genn's newsletter (link below) and this particular post struck a chord. I asked for and received permission to share it with you. Five skills worth learning February 14, 2012 Drawing mastery is understanding our world and understanding relationships. Contrary to popular belief, drawing doesn't mean trailing a line around things--it means seeing and reporting the relative distances between things. Drawing is a non-literary way of looking--and the skill to put down what you see in a two-dimensional way. Drawing mastery takes time and patience. Soar IV by Lyric Kinard Colour mastery involves knowing the properties of pigments, both in theory and as chemicals that have certain effects on one another when juxtaposed or mixed. Colour mixes that call for opposites on the colour wheel (complementary), as well as nearby on the colour wheel (analogous), or even so closely related as to appear to be one colour (monochromatic), make for lively and sophisticated effects. Colour mastery takes time and patience. Dream (detail) by Lyric Kinard Abstract understanding doesn't mean arbitrary sloshing and messing. Abstract art is controlled visual magic based on laws and methodology. Abstraction generally involves implication, suggestion and mystery rather that obvious description. Like a good poem, a good abstraction attacks your feelings before your understanding. Abstraction within realism adds zest and excitement to otherwise dull subject matter. Abstract understanding takes time and patience. Compositional mastery is a variety of traditional rules that beg to be broken. That's why composition is the queen of the skills. With composition you learn to control and play with the eye and move it within the picture plane. Composition includes the golden mean, the rule of thirds, big and small, dark and light, activation, circulation, focus, pattern, stoppage and a pile of other ploys, many of them developed by you and unique to yourself. Compositional mastery also means the avoidance of lineups, homeostasis, and a jungle road of potholes too tedious and disheartening to include in a 500-word letter. Learn to compose intelligently in your own vocabulary and you can get away with murder. Compositional mastery takes time and patience. Dream (detail) by Lyric Kinard Emotional evolution means combining basic skills--such as the above--so that a unique voice and engagement occur. Finding yourunique voice may not be everything, but it's way ahead of whatever comes next. Emotional evolution takes time and patience. Best regards, Robert PS: "Skills aren't enough on their own. Emotion has to come through. But when you've got the various skills sewn up, that's one thing you don't have to worry about." (Zoe Benbow) Esoterica: You can choose to make unskilled art if you wish. Unskilled art has its allure. The mere act of moving paint around can produce joy. Knowing little or nothing in the "how to" department and failing to inquire about it can probably make some people happy and may even be good for the soul. But if you persist in this direction, your unskilled work will be like that of so many others--and you will begin to bore yourself. On the other hand, the skills I suggest are worth learning for their own sake--and they will stand you well no matter what you try to do. They are hard won. We value most what is hard won--and so do many others. Skills worth learning take time and patience. Yes, please go ahead and forward this letter to a friend. This does not mean that they will automatically be subscribed to the Twice-Weekly Letter. They have to do it voluntarily and can find out about it by going to The Painter's Keys website. Subscribe Free! Your name and email address will be kept safe. To Unsubscribe or Change Your Email Address, please click Safe Unsubscribe or Update Profile/Email Address links found at the bottom of this email. (c) Copyright 2012 Robert Genn. If you wish to copy this material to other publications or mail lists, please ask for permission by writingrgenn@saraphina.com. Thanks for your friendship.