All Natural

Living here makes it natural. This weekend I'll be sharing techniques that start with nature, both as literal material and content for making artcloth -- form and process. The occasion is two short workshops that are part of a fundraising event for the Hill Country Arts Foundation in Ingram, Texas, near Kerrville. The event: Art for Artists. I will be one of about 20 area artists who will lead demos and share work with supporters and community members. This workshop is primarily an opportunity for me to meet people in the area and to reach people who might want to attend one of my workshop retreats this next year.

 

Here's the rundown -- I'll post examples and photos thoughout the weekend,  creating, I hope, the first of a series of on-line demos and semi "live events." So check in when you can, and see if I have managed to pull it off.

 The demos and hand-on sampler sessions I plan for each of the two hour workshops are:

Using limestone rocks as resists for microwave dyeing

Printing fabric with pressed leaves using textile inks

Setacolor solar printing using natural objects and textures to develop imagery and layering of colors

So much for nature as content and medium-- but within this context, I want to remind the artists -- and myself  -- to look, listen and experience this thing we call nature, as if it were outside and objective, instead of the inner tide that is running the show.

 

This beautiful fall weather is time to connect, to own and be owned by wind and sun and earth. To be in and of the living beat of the world. All the techniques in the paint box, in the art store, in the schoolroom and studio don't turn us into artists. We become artists when we breathe.

More Moo

Moo cards came a few days ago and they are just as delicious as I hoped.

How shall I count the ways?

Moo cards instead of business cards: lots of choices, thicker paper, distinctive but not distracting shape, still fits in the wallet

Moo cards for hang tags: what could be easier to punch and string to the edge of a scarf or a table cloth?

Moo cards to put out at exhibits and openings: small, easy, relatively inexpensive

Moo cards to tuck inside thank you notes and correspondence

Moo cards to hang on my Christmas Tree

Upload another set, put a Christmas greeting on the back and send as the world's smallest greeting cards. OK, I know I have to put them in a bigger envelope for the USPostal Service, still it's a tiny surprise inside.

Make a family photo set of images to send to all the sibs -- I could get two fun gift sets out of each package of 100

Make a miniature tarot moo card set, with my own designs

Invitations (gallery show, sale, studio open house, party with the right 5-line invitation) Slip them inside mailable sized glassine envelopes with a sticky address label on the outside. Different, more noticeable than the standard postcard.

HeArtCloth Quarterly

The fourth wonderful issue of HeArtCloth Quarterly has been posted at Art Cloth Studios. This subscription-based magazine/journal/communize from Jane Dunnewold is on my must-have list of studio resources. Jane's teaching style and generosity come through with grace; the articles by other contributors and gallery sections of guest artists always introduce me to someone new, something intriguing, some way to look at the work I do differently. I get to know a burgeoning international community of those who love to make beautiful fabrics  --- all on one or more of the 50-odd pages that make up each issue (by the way, advertising-free). 

Jane always also includes work or words or both by least one YOUNG artist  -- sometimes I feel a bit stranded in my own generation and these features from art schools provide refreshing voices and also help me to feel that while I may be aging, the work I love has connection and relevance to artists of all ages -- and that there are still people coming along who want to work with their hands, hearts and the one-of-a-kind tactile art that gets me going.

 So, if you buy  only one fiber related book a year, this would get my vote. Click here for a few sample pages, and subscription information -- and while you are at the site, don't forget to check out the other offerings, essays and information.

Creative Success

Artist Lisa Call sent me via blog to marketer and cartoonist Hugh McLeod's site where I found his most popular page "How To Be Creative".

His compilation of a series of posts about creativity and marketing one's creative products is worth more than a casual read. MacLeod seem quite on target to me, but I wondered if I could come up with my personal top 5 "How To Be Creative" rules. Today was a perfect opportunity to keep a little thread going in my back brain, since much of the front (as well as hands and feet) have been devoted to a much-needed house cleaning (the studio still awaits).

Here's what I came up with:

1. It helps to narrow, not broaden, the field.

My most creative and interesting work has come after erecting some interesting parameters and staying within them. I could only develop a "body of work" when I made some decisions to focus on a personal vein of expression that could be mined again and again. Skipping around between media and content was, for me, a way to avoid getting beyond the facile.

2. Persistence is more important than inspiration.

And persistence means getting my hands on my work as many hours, as many days each week as I can. No excuses. No waiting for the muse.

3. When it's not working, back off.

While this sounds like the opposite of #2, it's actually a call to have more than one project on the table, more than one stage of the process in process. If I let something sit around on my big table in the studio, at what ever stage it starts feeling forced, eventually something shifts and the next step appears. Meanwhile, I can keep keeping on with another project that's in another stage of development. This is one reason I like dyeing and printing fabric. I can ALWAYS go mix up a bucket of dye.

4. Don't scrimp on the good stuff.

Eat beans and rice if you must, but don't expect to make art without the stuff of transformation necessary for your creativity. I gotta have dyes, paints, thermofax film, lots of fabric, WonderUnder and batting. Fancy tools and materials may not make the artist, but if you don't have the things that are essential elements for your art, you won't make any. Know your basics and keep them stocked. Do without the rest if you must. I still use a 1950s sewing machine because I haven't been able to justify the expense of a new fancy one, but in truth, it does the job, and I'd rather know I have the cash for new batch of dyes, a bolt of silk noil and -- OK -- a trip to Italy next May.

5. Know what works for you. Honor, protect and defend it.

I think the creative process is different for each of us. We each need feedback and interaction with others at different times in the process; we might need solitude and quiet, or raucous hubbub and a loud stereo at another point. Maybe you start with with your hands or maybe your ears or a swatch of red muslin. You might need a grand map and a fountain pen. You might need three days alone or five minutes looking out the window and the next four years collecting images and facts. Whatever it is you need, you better have it tagged and sorted. Know when to hold, to fold, to keep it very, very quiet.

This isn't as easy as it sounds, because it requires a good deal of self observation and tolerance for your own foibles. I've been fortunate. From childhood -- even professionally -- I've been nurtured by a culture that honors self-knowledge in the realm of creativity -- something quite different than personality, by the way. This culture of nurturnance of creative work and individual process is what I strive to shape for the workshops here at El Cielo Studio.