Here's just a little artistic inspiration for the day, found thanks to Claire Fenton, one of the blogging artists whom I like to read. The documentary and art have an interesting imbedded twist about marketing and sponsorship, too. Here's an artist who gets his unusual media to pay the way.
Seasonal Palette
There is a hint of fall in the air, even here in deep South Texas. We opened the windows last night and slept with a cool northwest breeze -- at least until the neighbor's dog cornered a raccoon or armadillo or whatever under his porch. Ah, the peaceful country life. Nevertheless, like a chef in a big city kitchen, i find my color sense turning to autumnal hues, longing for the leaf turning rusts and reds and golds that are at least a month away from the hillside!
So here's a little visual inspiration, no matter what colors your actual geography is gifting you with today. For me, it's a tiny little look into the future.
Above: Beautiful rusted fabric -- a great way to get autumn hues -- by artist Adrian Highsmith. She used this fabric in a series of textile collages for a recent art exhibit in New Braunfels.
Pomegranates are among the early signs of autumn here. This photo has found its way into a couple of new textile pieces -- one will be part of the faculty donations at the Houston International Quilt Show -- and I just realized that I forgot to photograph it before shipping! But, the piece above, finished just today, uses a similar color scheme and another print from the photo above. Look for the companion piece in Houston.
(P.S. I hope the leaves will at least have a tiny bit of russet by the time of my next El Cielo workshop, October 17, 18, 19. The topic -- Altares: Dias de los Muertes. You'll choose the memory or experience to honor; a person, place, former self, even the birth/life/death cycle of an idea, creating personal symbols and meaningful imagery. The techniques: constructing a art cloth altar with fusing, machine quilting, hand-stitching and embellishing of fabrics you've created with photo transfer, flour paste resist and hand-painting. If interested, email me at susiemonday@gmail.com.)
Above, Not yet, but coming. This photo was taken a couple of years ago, when our fall produced some lovely hues. That's not always the case, but these early cool fronts bode well for color on the hillsides.
Complaint Free Art
“Complaining is not to be confused with informing someone of a mistake
or deficiency so that it can be put right. And to refrain from
complaining doesn’t necessarily mean putting up with bad quality or
behavior. There is no ego in telling the waiter your soup is cold and
needs to be heated up—if you stick to the facts, which are always
neutral. ‘How dare you serve me cold soup…?’ That’s complaining.”
—Eckhart Tolle, “A New Earth”
Infinite Variety/Creative Choice
Infinite. Abundant. Words that have both spiritual and material connotations. One of my favorite writers, Annie Dillard, speaks of the fecundity of nature in her first book of prose, Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek:
"A big elm in a single season might make as many as six million leaves, wholly intricate,without budging an inch; I couldn't make one.a tree stands there, accumulating deadwood, mute and rigid as an obelisk, but secretly it seethes, it splits, sucks and stretches; it heaves up tons and hurls them out in a green, fringed fling."
And I worry sometimes about having too many ideas. You may worry about having too few, but my experience with artists is that's its always too many. I suggest that for today, just today, you and I take a page (a leaf?) from the elm and just make what needs making, at whatever stage that is, for whatever purpose, and if the caterpillers come, or the shoot withers, or the bud never opens. Well, there are at least 5,999,999 more to come just this season.
The photo that sparked this thought (and, now my desire to reread Dillard's classic narrative of her year on Tinker Creek) were taken on a campus walk with friend Susan on the Rutgers campus. This little garden must have a horticulture department at its source -- the variety of late summer pods, and blooms and leaves, colors and shapes and textures, is enough for a lifetime body of work. Surface design, indeed.
Does anyone know what any of these flowers are? They were all unfamiliar to me. And If that spiny leafed plant will grow in my climate, I want it. Surely that would be deer resistant!
Teaching with Web 2.0
As I research options for my on-line course -- probably "Text on the Surface" after feedback from a number of readers on and off the site -- this video by Dr. Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropologist, came across my path. Synchronicity was working overtime -- Linda wanted me to see if because of the implications for her Mass Communications teaching and research, and it opens ups a whole host of possibilities for teaching with the aid of electronic, digital interfaces. He presents an overview of the educational issues of teaching and learning in a web 2.0 world, and says that no one, no matter his or her age, is starting from scratch with this media --"There are no natives here," he says, explaining that most of what is happening of relevance to educators today had been launched within the past 3 years, and that daily hundreds of other interfaces are being created, tested, marketed, and used or discarded. So, no excuses, you aren't too old. Even today's 18 year old is faced with the same challenges of learning these new tools. Most of them, Wesch says, are still working just superficially, with no experience either at actually using the creative potential of these new tools.
It's a fairly long piece -- and specifically directed to university professors teaching young people -- but if you are interested in the landscape of kids, media, information and teaching, it's well worth the time. Although my ambitions for using technology aren't that ambitious, I do think that as a teacher the meta-message about the learning environment is one that must inform my work, in and out of the studio. Obviously, my "learners" are already looking for something meaningful; most of you who might take a course are already self-selected -- no course credit here. You might just try the first 30 minutes, that covers most of the big ideas-- though the remainder is a fascinating look at how his students recreated world history and cultures through a simulation based on "rules" of anthropology and using web-based tools.
One of the key ideas in this longer piece is well presented in a shorter, visual piece, "Information R/evolution." That how we have traditionally thought about information, as a thing, that can be catagorized -- filed -- in one kind of linear way, is no longer the case. Now information can exist simultaneously in more than one category, can be user-defined (rather than "expert" defined) and is no longer defined to a material form. "There is no shelf."
Wesch also produced "The Machine is Using Us," an great piece produced in 2007 that became one of the most-watched videos in the blogosphere ever. If you haven't seen it, the link is here.
If you are interested in creating web-based learning portals for yourself, fear not. Here are a few places I have found to play around. The first two are wiki-like aggregators that you can customize, keep private or publish to the world. Flock is a social network friendly browser that puts Flickr, My Space, etc all on your home page, Ning is a social network site that lets you build pages and whole sites around interests and then lets people subscribe to them. Stumble is a nonlinear "earch" engine that lets you find web pages you didn't know to look for!
Please remember: YOU CAN NOT BREAK ANYTHING DOING THIS. You probably can't even screw up your computer unless you have no virus protection and use a PC and that's only if you start downloading a lot of strange applications. Check the site, make sure it's real and exists with actual content, not just links do other webpages,
No one is going to grade you or make you feel stupid except yourself. Yes, you are entering a public arena sometimes, but you control that. Most of the sites that I am exploring have a "private" function where only you have access to the material, links, tags that you upload or make use of. However, I would also challenge you to release some of your fears about going public on the web. I don't believe that I have opened myself up to harm, to stalking, to any physical danger by having a blog or by participaing in wikis (used authored sites). I have made many interesting connections with people whose ideas and input have stimulated my learning and my life. It is a new frontier, and we all can grow with it.
I'd love any meta-sites that you like to use. New ones appear everyday. Some last, some don't -- we are in the equivalent of the wild wild west frontier days here -- nearly lawless, but there are fortunes to be made.
Material Inspiration
Don't you love it when an artist uses unusual and intriguing materials that completely surprise and enchant? So it is with this installation by Caroline Lathan-Stiefel at the Mason Gross Gallery at Rutgers University. I have seen Lathan-Steifel's work in magazines but never up close, and what she does with a pipe cleaner is simply stunning.
Lathan-Stiefel makes me want to push the envelope with other materials. too. (Like my sister ACN artist Rayna Gillman does with old kitchen tools and printing and soy on fabric.) Perhaps this work will inspire my garments for this year's FASA Runway Show. Can't you imagine an entire ensemble or two constructed with similar techniques and materials?
Interesting enough, just up the street from the art school's gallery, and at another Rutger's art must-see, the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, is a work with similar linear interest. Russian abstract expressionist artist -- nonconformist, though apolitical-- Evgenii Mikhnov-Voitenko in this undated work, an untitled oil on canvas, was working with a similar vocabulary of shape and line. Here's the detail, then the entire work. I love how the synchronicity of creativity speaks across oceans, decades and even the choice of media.
Catching Up or Starting Fresh?
I find myself getting back into the blog after nearly a month away. Not even an intentional vacation from the page, rather a retreat from on-line life in favor of a packed August -- between exhibits, deadlines, workshops, and designing several new web-based projects, my calendar suffered a meltdown.
Perhaps more to the point, I've taken a vow to leave the computer in the studio -- or packed up in its tidy little briefcase -- during early morning and post "work hours," in the interest of sanity and domestic harmony. If this (blogging, et al) is important as part of my work, of my bigger picture of self in the studio, of the business of being the artist and teacher I want to be, then its worth doing as part of my work day. Frankly, the laptop was taking over my living room -- even the bedroom -- at all kinds of inappropriate hours. Inappropriate, because, well, live people deserve my undivided attention when I am in the same room with them. In order to step back from the brink, it seemed necessary to just shut it off for a bit, and decide how and when and what was most important to continue.
So we will see what that means. Exactly.
One issue, as I've come back online with the new month, was whether to try to catch up the record and my readers with all that's gone on -- two shows, three workshops, two trips, new art cloth projects and techniques, new classes planned and promoted. Yikes. No way. So we start fresh with today. With what's right now, as I sit here in the University Inn at Rutgers, a day early into town (New Brunswick, N.J.) for the Art Cloth Network meeting.
I have a visceral "new year" reaction to the first week after Labor Day, from 16 years of school calendars (back when schools still started after LD). The month has that new pencil, new notebook, new box of crayons feel and energy, so what better time to start on a virtual new slate. I've always considered myself lucky to have this second fresh start during one calendar year, don't you?
So here, besides the blog, are my fresh starts:
1. More time for just doing nothing. Letting quiet and peace make a space for what's new.
2. Saying "I'll think about it. Let me tell you tomorrow" before I automatically say "yes," to a request, no matter how important or how much fun it intimates.
3. Take a yoga or NIA class weekly -- I need the class structure to move myself into fitness. The sweets of summer have gone to my waistline.
4. At least two "no drive days" each week. With planning, I can do that. Without planning I spend way too many hours in the car.
That's enough. See number 1. And number 2, even when I am the one doing the asking.
Newsletter, finally: Fiber Arts Exhibits, Workshops & More
I set a goal last spring to start a quarterly newsletter to send to workshop participants, collectors, friends and family -- an emailed summary of the events and activities of my art life, and a few articles about the images, stories, natural history and materials that inspire my work. You may have received it if you're on my mailing list (or not, my list is still a mysterious and unwieldy thing) and if you didn't you can either check it out today by clicking on the link above for a downloaded pdf.
I will be repeating some of the information about shows and events, with more detail, here on the blog, so if this is your preferred window into El Cielo Studio, read early, read often!
Some reflections on the process:
The new tools available for work like this are nothing short of astounding. As a young woman, my first job was as a paste-up artist for
a shopper/neighborhood publication -- Suffolk Life -- out on the end of
Long Island during a brief residency after college. Each morning I took
long strips of headlines and shorter sections of shiny column width
text and built pages, ads, etc. It was tedious, exacting and
challenging for one whose acqaintence with a ruler is tenuous, but I
suppose to those who had once set metal rows of type for newspapers,
it was its own miracle of technology. Now, not only do I not need hot wax and strips of type, I don't even need paper. The photos float in; the type face changes with a whim. The choices seem overwhelming.
Publishing a newsletter takes bravery, chuzpah, ganas. As artists we who intend to sell our work (or teaching skills) must come to terms with shameless self-promotion. That little voice (well, not so little) announces with regularity, "Who the heck cares about your shows, work, ideas, blah, blah, blah." And then, get an "UNSUBSCRIBE" notice and it's immediately confirmed. (No matter that its only a few out of the several hundred sent.)
It's never going to be good enough. Just like making a piece of art work, doing something printish (or electronicish) is prone to its own learning curve. I hope the next one will be more interesting, helpful, compelling, intriguing. I'd like to get all of my work into a more consistent style and spend a little more graphic designer mindset on it. The choices seem mindboggling, so its quite easy to let the template designers do all the work for you. By the way, the software I used was PAGES, part of Apple's iWork suite of tools. If you're on a Mac I highly reccommend the modest investment for this software. It's taken time to get a hint of its capacity, but its been well worth the learning curve.
Eames Stamps
Alert from Alyson Stanfield, Charles and Ray Eames are featured on some new commemorative stamps.
Ray Eames worked with Learning About Learning Educational Foundation and was a supporter of our programs there -- she helped us get Gregory Peck to narrate a short film about our work. Her design projects with Charles and their team have always served as a wonderful model of collaborative creativity. And, for a cosmic reminder of our place in the universe, there is no better message than Powers of Ten, the Eames short filmic journey in and out of the cosmos.
One thing I remember and admired about Ray was her uniform. She wore a simple dress day in and day out, made up for her with various plain fabrics and in a distinctive style. She had opted out of "fashion," and found something that took that daily decision -- and all the thinking, shopping, planning that can go into appearance -- off the radar. I fear I like diversity too much (can't even seem to keep my hair the same color for very long) but I admire the impulse to pare things down to what's important, to make time for creativity over consume-ativity.
Seems to me, as I face this week's long list of "to do," that perhaps my life needs a little paring down. OK, Give up complaining, that's a no-brainer.
Improvisation on Cloth
Surface design on fabric has remarkable potential as a realm for improvisational work. Because of its multi-layered nature, as one builds up imagery with both translucent and opaque media happy accidents are always happening. And with such techniques as rusting and deconstructed (or breakdown) screenprinting, one is always working with unexpected causes and effects.
It's with this improvisational impulse that I am planning this weekend's Fool Moon/Full Moon workshop -- though it will also include some left-handed, impulsive-and-gut-instinct journaling as well. But the outer work will take a number of improvisational surface design techniques, with a lot of play time built in. Jazz musicians work magical improvisation upon a structure; we get to do the same on fabric sometimes. I haven't decided yet if I want us to work toward some "end product" like a small art quilt or art cloth where all the techniques are used one on top of the next -- with the end result a piece of fabric for a whole cloth quilt or garment.
As I've been planning the workshop, I ran across an interesting (1968 vintage) Dover Publication called Design by Accident by James F. O'Brien, subtitled, "How to create design and pattern by 'accidental effects' Complete instructions for artist and designers." I've come up with several interesting ideas from the book, mostly using his techniques not on the fabric but to make improvisational designs by overpainting varied materials that dry or resist or otherwise create high contrast designs suitable for a thermofax screen. He does a lot of work with drips and splashes, crawls and marbling. I can't wait to try my own versions.
Here's a few suggestions from O'Brien's book:
Soak a piece of illustration board in water, place it flat on a table and drop a pea-sized piece of graphite in the center of the wet board, blowing downward to spread it out. Take a toothpick that has been dipped in liquid detergent and touch it to the center of the graphite area. Allow to dry, then spray with fixative.
Coat a piece of illustration board with Elmer's Glue-All making random brush strokes. While the glue is still wet, apply a coat of India Ink again applying in different directions. Allow to dry.
Dribble a stream of rubber cement from a squeeze bottle onto illustration board. Allow to dry, Spray with ink or watercolor using an airbrush. After dry, blot up any damp ink from the surface, then rub the rubber cement off to reveal the design.
Reading this book, just made me want to play a lot with "unlike" materials to see what interesting effects we can come up with -- any suggestions? If you've recently done something improvisational with fabric, add your ideas to a comment, or send me a private email at susiemonday@gmail.com. Thanks!
5 Ways to Jumpstart your Creativity, Pt. 5
5. Move
This tip will be no surprise to anyone who is a regular reader. As much as I denied it for much of my life ('cause I am also somewhat klutzy -- OK quite uncoordinated, see bruises --and not gifted at movement patterns -- ie can't learn a dance step to save my life), I am a highly kinesthetic being -- and movement is an sensory experience that deeply feeds my creativity. But, as a person who hates routine, having an exercise routine has been difficult, until I discovered NIA about 5 years ago. Although I rarely make a class now (when I do it's at the incredibly fabulous Synergy Studio in San Antonio) because of our out-in-the-country life, Linda and I try to dance for at least 25 minutes each morning. From NIA's website:
"Nia is a body-mind-spirit fitness and lifestyle practice. Through expressive movement—The Body’s Way—Nia empowers people to achieve physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.
Life lived in a body the Nia way is life lived in relationship to the sacred geometry of life.
"Our philosophy “Through Movement We Find Health,” means we believe in the power of self-discovery through movement. In practicing Nia you fall in love with being and moving in your body – you experience the power of Self-Healing."
Another movement exercise I like is the one in Tywla's Tharp's The Creative Habit called "the egg." Briefly, one compresses into an egg shape on the floor (or even in a chair if your mobility is limited), and expands into a different shape of body with a title, like "exploded egg," or "sleepy egg," or "upside-down egg." Try it, its fun. And the book is a great one on all matters of creative routine building.
Frankly, whether you like to walk the neighborhood, climb rock walls, dance the tango, shimmy up trees, put yourself though a rigorous session at the gym or jumprope, movement is one key to creative thought and accomplishment. Our brains (as well as our bodies) need to move, and no matter *how limited your movement abilities or proclivities, start today, and in a year, you will have more movement under your feet, and, I think, more ideas in your work. I know I work better if I take time to dance or walk up the hillside outside my front door.
*I recently read of a study about a group of people who were told to imagine themselves lifting weights with their arms while in a relaxed self-hypnotic state. At the end of the 6 month study, these subjects tested with stronger bicep strength than before the study. All they did was IMAGINE themselves getting stronger by lifting the weights. From the site Peak Performance On Line:
"Despite differences in the pattern of activation, imagery has the effect of priming muscles for subsequent physical action, and this clearly has potential benefits for the performance of many sports skills. It is also evident that the neural impulses passed from the brain to the muscular system during imagery may be retained in memory almost as if the movement had actually occurred(2). The implication of this is that physical skills may be improved even during periods of injury when physical practice is not possible. Moreover, there is growing evidence to suggest that a combination of imagery and relaxation can accelerate the rehabilitation process following injury or surgery(5). "
2. Advances in Sport Psychology (2nd ed), Champaign IL: Human Kinetics, 2002:405-43
5. Rehabilitation Psych 46:28-43
JUST IN: A recent post on Shape and Colour provides more wonderful inspiration vis a vis movement.
5 Ways to Jumpstart your Creativity, Pt. 4
4. Travel.
OK, every year can't bring a capitol letter Vacation (like last year's 3 week trip to northern Italy). Every month can't include even a weekend outing to someplace a bit closer to home (though I apparently think so with April's trip to Rockport, June's to Corpus Christi and this month's trip to see my sister in Salida, CO). BUT, even with gas prices what they are (and I don't want to hear another word about that as long as y'all are out there drinking bottled water), travel is truly broadening and amazingly good for the creative juicer whether it's in real time and space or a virtual trip across the universe via web sites and other-people's-trips.
Think about these possibilities:
First of all, whichever trip you take, take a sketchbook and journal, ideally a digital camera, along with you. Collect ephemera and souvenirs, take photos, better still sketch and watercolor, interview the experts and the locals. Be adventurous. Don't stick to the tourist destinations, but find out how people live, what they create with their hands, what is eaten, what it' s like to live under that sun. Write in a cafe or under a tree. People watch. Try the contour drawing trick (Pt. 2 of this series.)
Then:
Prowl the downtown and tourist destinations in your own community. I am never more flabbergasted than when I ask San Antonio residents how recently they have visited the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park and hear that its been a.) years, or b.) never. Hey, some people pay big money and take lots of time to come visit some place you drive by every week. One little day trip or weekend outing can cost little in time and give you an enormous boost to creative visioning when you travel with that intent in mind. You can even take public transportation to a lot of these sites.
Choose a country, city, natural wonder or other vacation destination to study for a month or a season or even a year. Pick some place that fascinates you for its visual, historical or symbolic power. Check out books from the library, even audio tapes and movies. Go to museum exhibits and concerts that originate in your vacation place. Learn a little of the language. Start an imaginary itinerary. Keep a travel journal "as if." Draw from photographs, literally and figuratively for your muse.
Spend just a weekend at a retreat center, state park, or natural area, or an out-of-town workshop venue (like my El Cielo Studio retreats), or some place else that takes you away from your ordinary day and your ordinary city/suburban life. The place might be a spa, it might be a swimming hole or a river raft trip. If you can't afford to go further, spend an entire day at a city park. Take food, drink, books, a quilt to lie upon. Listen, look, experience the weather from dawn to dusk. Live in the natural world, so that means no cell phone chatter, no IM, no radio or ipods. I think of this as a trip away from technology. You can even do it in your own backyard or on the balcony.
Start planning and saving today for that dream trip next year, or the year after. Be realistic, but not too realistic. My experience has been that once I commit to a plane ticket, I will find both the time and the money for everything else, even with the EURO rates lately. It is all too easy to think you'll never have the money or time to see a part of the world that calls to you. First step (if your destination is out of country, get that passport this month). It always helps me to do this one with companions, then its harder to back out.
Eavesdrop on someone else's travel. There are tons of web sites where intrepid travelers tell you all about their wanderings, and then there is Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations on the Travel channel. Another great trip I've taken lately has been with Bill Buford in Heat, a great audio book or read about his education as a cook with Mario Bateli and in Italy. You may notice a trend here, see the next suggestion.
Cook your way around the world. Try a different recipe from a different country each week. Seek out an ethnic grocer if you can in order to buy the ingredients, or order them from an ethnic grocery supplier online. Cooking and art go together in my mind. I think of ingredients the same way I think of colors. I like to look at new ones, and new combinations of them. I eat visually as well as with my mouth. Food is an amazing way to explore another culture, country or part of the U.S.
Then, what to do with all this input. Create with its energy. With the new eyes you had to have. With its content -- sketches, paintings, fabric altars and quilts, photo albums, amazing travel journals. Artist's postcards and ATCs, you'll figure it out!
5 Ways to Jumpstart your Creativity, Pt. 3
Detail art cloth, Shaman/Cruxificion
3. Do something different.
Sounds like a no-brainer. But once in the studio it can be remarkably difficult to figure out exactly HOW to do something surprising, off-the-wall, out of the box. Our habits and patterns of work and technique are familar friends and stepping outside our comfortable tools and processes can make us feel uneasy.. or trivial... or unskilled ... or.... So these jumpstarts are designed for those times when what you are doing feels stale, repetitive or, dare we say, boring?
Try one of these to trick yourself into trying something new and different (Remember, no one said you have to keep doing it, spend a fortune on new materials, show it to anyone, save it or even like it. This is about pushing your personal envelopes in order to have something different show up in the mail box.)
1. Take $5 to the dollar store and buy somethingdifferent to make art with -- could be kid's crayons, a book to alter, a dishtowel to include in a piece of art, a foam brush to shape or distress, a plastic basket to use as a stencil. Take new eyes with you.
2. Consciously take one of your visual ideas through one or more of these "unifying" concepts: scale (do the same thing larger or smaller), weight (add or subtract), progression and/or direction (could you do it upside down?), repetition and intensity.
3. Take a not so successful piece of work and add it to another piece, or cut it up and use it the pieces, or find just the part you like and edit to that, then expand into something new.
4. Consciously copy the style of an artist's whose work you either like or don't like - but change the medium.
5. Look at your current work and write 100 questions about it. No answers, just the questions. See where this takes you.
6. Make a photo collection with your digital camera in your neighborhood , or, even better, in a new (to you) environment -- drive to a different part of town, go to an industial park, seek out a water way or country lane. Take digital photos from the perspective of one of the sensory alphabet: light, color, sound, movement, rhythm, space, texture, line, shape, Edit to make a slideshow and use the photos to inspire something new.
Sometimes it just takes a little down time! Lauri Panova Smith took this great picture of our dog Rodeo during one of her photo walks:
5 Ways to Jumpstart your Creativity, Pt. 2
Next up:
2. Draw contours, blind.
If you've ever taken a life drawing or other drawing class, the teacher probably had you work this way -- it's a classic drawing exercise, popularized by Kimon Nicolaïdes in his book The Natural Way to Draw (1941) and there are many examples and instructions on other web sites. If you haven't had formal drawing training, well, all's the better and no time like the present. Explore your own sense of line by spending at least 15 minutes (even better, 30) drawing the contours you find in a tree, a photograph of a person, your face in the mirror, your non-dominant hand, a shell or piece of driftwood, any slightly complex natural object is more interesting I think than a manufactured something. Do so without looking at the paper, only at the object.
Use a large sketch pad or newsprint pad (you DO have one of these, right?). Choose a drawing medium that you like the feel of: charcoal stick, graphite, soft pencil, marker brush or pen. Something that doesn't have to be replenished or dipped in paint is best for this exercise.
Put your drawing tool on the paper and your eye on the subject of your drawing. SLOWLY trace the edges and internal contours with your pen (etc.). As your eye traces the subtle and intriguing "edges" keep your drawing tool moving ever so slowly on the paper. Do not look at your paper. If you come to the end of a "line, (or the page)" briefly look down and replace your pen on the paper to trace another line. NO JUDGEMENTS about whether this drawing "looks like" the subject. If you slowly embrace the lines, you will discover something new about the object, your hand, your impatience, and about line itself.
What I like about this exercise is the meditative place that it engenders. This is a good jumpstart for those days when everything is frantic, when you are off the edge of your chair and multitasking like mad. Seems a bit counterintuitive to slow down, right? But after even 15 minutes of blind contour drawing you will return to the task (forget taskS) at hand with a steady hand and eye, focus and discipline.
The photos here are from my Jumpstart workshop last weekend. The drawings were actually faster versions of this exercise, and I hope everyone who was present will try the slowed down classic sometime soon. Look on this link to see some examples of blind contour drawing by article author Helen South.
P.S. The Natural Way to Draw and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain are two of the best drawing courses you can give yourself. Both take discipline and steady work, but together you will find that you do learn to draw -- though you may not have an innate talent for drawing. Essentially drawing is a SKILL that helps one to connect one's eye to the page, not some magical gift that you were born with or not. As kids, we quickly assigned the label "artist" to the kids in the class who were "good drawers," (and most art teachers did the same). Unfortunately this meant that many of us with different innate visual and creative skills -- for color or shape or texture -- ended up deciding we weren't artists or at least not very good ones. After several drawing classes, I'm still not very good at it. And drawing realistically --contours and values and perspective and all that stuff -- just doesn't interest me very much and isn't a large part of my process. BUT, I also don't let it scare me anymore, and I enjoy the occassional side trip into its world of line.
5 Ways to Jumpstart Your Creativity, Pt. 1
Cindy painting to music.
How easy it is to slide into routines, keeping our work (art or other) on familiar paths, running on autopilot along rigid tracks or inside sight-limiting ruts. It takes a spark of creative energy to jump off the same-old same-old, and that's what this weekend retreat was designed to do.
Fly's painting.
For the next five posts, I will share one "jumpstart" exercise from the many we tried on for size. Some are more-or-less original, others are certainly not mine, and I'll credit their source. Others are compilations of a bit of this and that, but all five of these were mentioned this weekend by participants as having helped provide a little spark of energy, a bit of creative juice for the soul. I think of these as ways to start my time in the studio, interesting "starters" for getting back into a piece of work or for shaking up my ideas when things seems stale, unexciting or too frightening to face.
Five Ways to Jumpstart Your Creativity , Part 1
Jean's painting.
1. Paint to Music
I think this was the universal favorite exercise for the weekend. And surely nothing could be simpler.
Squeeze out some good colors, and a range, of paints on foam meat trays or another unintimidating palette. Assemble an assortment of brushes in different sizes. Use some largish paper and either work on a table top or pushpin the paper to a wall or easel.
(Donna's painting, right)
If you have an ipod or MP3 player, you might want to purposefully assemble a set of 4-to-5 minute songs ahead of time, but you can also just put a selection of CDs on the player and push "random." I like using instrumental music best, the words won't be too directive, and you'll find yourself forced into responding directly to the sound, notes, tempos and rhythms of the music. Initially, you may want to paint on a different sheet of paper for each piece of music, but you may want to try a larger painting to several cuts on the same sheet, too.
Diane's painting (below)
Probably the best music to start with is something percussive and earthy, maybe some African drum music or Celtic dance music. But don't let your music stay too rooted to one genre. The joy of this is taking out those back-of-the-shelf CDS (even albums if you still own a turntable!) and putting on something unfamiliar. Some of the music we tried this weekend: Yo-Yo Ma "The Cello Suites, Inspired by Bach;" "Mama" produced by the Drum Cafe; Grupo Romm, "Gracula's Internazionale" (A CD we bought on the streets of Florence), "Concerto RV 532 for Two Guitars & String Orchestra" by Vivaldi, from a compilation album published by Williams Sonoma; "Caliente" by Willie and Lobo: and some Neopolitan songs from bass clarinet jazz musician Bill Colangelo's slef produced album "Grandpa's Songs."
Don't be too literal. Get out of your way. Just let your muscles respond to the music. See what happens. One participant found that for the first time she could work abstractly with paint once she released any idea of depicting a symbol or image. Another woman, a fiber artist, was reminded how fun it was to work in an unfamiliar medium. See what you come up with, and let me know your favorite musical selections for painting.
Lauri's painting. (and it's upsidedown, sorry)
Cindy's painting, after 3 songs.
Creative Grammar
Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation website, has creativity advocate Ken Robinson's Apple Education Leadership Summit speech on its website. For a cogent argument for creative education -- and one that makes links between the education crisis and the environmental crisis -- see this 16 minute video on the link.
Which of your educational experiences do you really remember? Was it a worksheet? Didn't think so. I'd love to have a collection of some of your most meaningful educational experiences, so leave a comment if something comes to mind.
I was lucky enough to be part of an amazing children's theater program that reinforced the value of creative thinking that my parents nurtured in me and my siblings. We were children of books read out loud, of museum visits, of trips across the country with maps and postcards and camping in state parks, of birdwatching and planting gardens, of paints and playhouses. Our dramatic adventures and inventions were watched and applauded. My parents spent hours waiting for me outside of the Baylor Theatre when rehearsals ran late. I took creative work and its value in the family for granted, only finding out that many, most perhaps, kids didn't have this luxury. And while my family was comfortable economically -- we weren't wealthy -- choices were made that didn't have much to do with trendy clothing, fancy meals out, or hotel rooms during those cross-country trips. But our values were supportive of education, of problem solving, of appreciation for the arts.
Baylor Children's Theatre, our own Waco Teen Theatre and later, college courses in the theatre and art departments at Trinity University nurtured my creativity, teaching me to use and reuse, invent and improvise with a sensory alphabet of elements of form: line, shape, color, texture, rhythm, space, light, sound, movement. When I go to the studio, I carry this alphabet with me. When I teach, these are the building blocks for creative exercises and invention. So where Ken Robinson may define the problem, I like to think I am working on a solution. Later this summer, I hope to finally announce the publication of New World Kids, a book that my colleague Susan Marcus and I have been birthing for several years. We're close. Stay tuned. (The photo above is one of those in the book.)
Interview on The Dabbling Mom
Writer/editor and blogger Alyice Edrich occassionally interviews artists on her blog -- and today is my turn! Read the interview on her blog site, the Dabbling Mum. A Funny Thing about Inspiration
Where have I been? Wrestling with the muse in the studio, my friends. (And setting up newsletter templates for FASA.)
With the deadlines for two shows just over the horizon, I've been working diligently on the design table. Funny thing happens; for two days I cut and laid out fabrics working with the idea of making another medium sized Sirena (mermaid) piece, intended for my exhibit in Rockport. (Coastal town, right, makes sense?) Finally I realized she just was not swimming into the picture -- two small a background perhaps, too strident a color palette. So now what?
Looking around the studio, my eye fell on my "in table" and the bright Mexican embroidered tablecloth so generously given to me by Donna LoMonoco. A couple of little voices spoke up: "You've been working on the wrong side of the beach. We creatures are ready to dive in." And so they did: two slightly scary Sea Harpies and a Sun Dog. (I know sun dogs are the little circles of light that come through the tree leaves, but this one is winged and has a rather forked tail.)The piece came together pretty fast after that. And so I seem to have added a new category to the angels, saints and sinners who show up in my work. (They are definitely on the sinner side of things, not really evil, but ready to cause a bit of trouble.)
The lesson, for me, is to know when to quit. And to know where to go for inspiration when I need it. Mexican and other folk art always inspires my eye and my hand. These figures don't look like the animals on the tablecloth, but they share a their shapeliness and quirky form. They are members of the same family, I think.
Sewing is next -- I've this piece and a Stella Maris ready for stitching. I will post after pictures closer to the exhibit dates -- but meanwhile, if you live in the Corpus Christi or Rockport area, I hope you'll put the opening reception on your calendar: Saturday, August 9, 5-7 p.m. at the Rockport Center for the Arts. I'll also be teaching a half-day version of my Field Guide to Color workshop for the Fiber Artists Society of the Art Center of Corpus Christi in Calallen, another small coastal town close to Corpus. That one is 9-1 also on Saturday, and for registration info, call Paula Gron at 361-985-1137.
ATCs in the Mail
For those commentors who were the first to add their suggestions to the post about little changes and keeping things fresh, the ATCs are almost to the mail box. I'm waiting on addresses for a couple of you. But here's a preview and a little sharing with the others who added after number 5. It's fun to read comments, and I always enjoy the conversation.
On other studio fronts: I presided over my last meeting of Fiber Artists of San Antonio (not the last I'll attend, the last as President - presiding is the operative term). It's been a great ride (hey, take a look at the great story about the Runway Show on May 3) and all of the boardmembers, committee chairs and members who were active, engaged and participating have enriched my life immeasureably. As we become more connected internationally and nationally through avenues like this blog, like video conferencing, some experts point out that we (the big we) are becoming more isolated from civic participation, the in-person volunteering, politicing, even soft ball teams are losing membership in many communities.
I like both kinds of communication: the internet connects me with those who inspire from afar. The local fiber artist group inspires me in a whole other sense, toward the do-able, the in-person contribution, the personally present. And of course, I come down on the side of active communication and active creativity over the passive partaking of hours and hours of video, gaming, music etc. that increasing fills the space inside our heads.
Update: After Photos
Here it is. Six photos worth a thousand words. (See post before last for the BEFORE pics.)
You can see examples of the kinds of projects we'll be tackling in this weekend's Text on the Surface Workshop.
Note: I had a note that the comment section of my blog was acting up earlier. If you had trouble posting, sorry. I think its fixed now.