Lessons Learned

What I Learned This Week While I Didn't Create Any Art:

1) My friends are thrilled I'm an artist
I recently sent out postcards for the upcoming Fiber + Thread =Art exhibit, a bit hesitantly I might add. You see, I'm still coming to terms with the mantle of "artist", but my friends are ten paces ahead of me. They are just thrilled for me and this direction I'm taking in my life. Very cool. I need to step up to the plate.

2) You can learn about yourself and your art at an art exhibit
I was lucky enough to see Leni Wiener's exhibit at the Larchmont library this week. Her photo inspired collages have incredible depth, color and emotion. I didn't have a lot of time at the exhibit, but I learned a lot by going and it was time well-spent. One of the things that really hit home was that I'm a big chicken with my art. For example, some of Leni's fabric choices are very surprising, but they work great in the whole. I have some of these fabrics in my stash, but I've been too afraid to use them in representational artwork. I'd like to work on that.

3) Art can benefit from a nap
Some people can continue to work well when they're tired, but I'm not one of them. I wasn't able to create anything for most of the week, but I was able to set aside much of Friday free to create art. Fortunately, I took a nap instead. I took one look at the piece I had tried to cut to size the night before for the SDA member exhibit and realized I couldn't afford too many more mistakes like that. As much as I wanted to create, it wasn't going to happen productively while I was all blurry-eyed. Yep, naps are good.

4) Rejections can be informative
I received my rejection from the PAQA-South ArtQuilt Transitions exhibit this week. I also saw the list of accepted artists; it was like reading a "Who's Who" of quilt artists. It was good to know who will be included in the show. I have a sense of what kind of work these artists create and now I have a better understanding of the the caliber of work this exhibit attracts. I'm trying to keep track of what I enter and where so that I can learn what might be a good fit for my art. Every acceptance and rejection helps me judge my own work better.

5) I can render my mom speechless by giving her a quilt
It's my parents' 50th wedding anniversary today and I gave them my quilt, Nod to Georgia. My mom once told me she liked it, so I thought it might make her happy to have it. I had no idea the impact it could have. Wow

Comments

Vivien
What a wonderful gift for your mom! I am sure she will treasure it.