The End of the Year
It's near the end of 2008; can you believe it? I'm proud of myself for sticking to my goal of creating weekly journals. I went to a mini-tutorial yesterday at the Apple store so I could learn how to upload pictures onto my Mac and here are the last two (sorry, I haven't learned yet how to adjust the sizing of the pictures; I hope to soon):
First, there are Christmas trees on pieced altered fabric. The background looked too vibrant when I finished painting so I covered it with a whitewash to dull it. It's still not great, but it's better than before.
I really like my final piece of the year: ash blue reproduction fabric painted with white and violet/white paint, stamped with the word "snow", then stenciled with silver and turquoise paint stick. Running stitches in ice blue and white sashico thread complete the piece. It looks a bit dull here, but in real life, it has nice depth to it.
I think the journal process was a very good one for me. I've certainly learned a lot since most of my pieces were little experiments. I've discovered that I absolutely love enhancing cloth with paint, whether I use gelatin plate printing techniques, mad dashes with a brush, or paint sticks. I've noticed that most of the pieces that were created more spontaneously turned out better than the ones I thoughtfully labored over. (In other words, I did better when I allowed myself to play than forced myself to "work"). Keeping my blog current was, as I suspected, a good motivator in staying up to date.
On the negative side, I realized that I don't give myself that much time to create my art. My little journal pieces primarily became my art for the year; I just didn't create that many pieces outside of my weekly 6 x 6s. I don't think it was enough. On reflection, it's a bit disappointing.
I'm still mulling over my goals for next year, one of which is whether or not to continue with my journals. They've been a creative exercise, but I'm trying to realistically resolve the time issue. Can I still make journals, but create other art besides? I'll let you know where I come out on that internal debate. The resolution of that will influence many of the other goals I'm contemplating - sort of domino-style.
I don't know that I'll have anything noteworthy to post tomorrow, so just in case, best wishes for the new year! Happy and safe celebrations!
First, there are Christmas trees on pieced altered fabric. The background looked too vibrant when I finished painting so I covered it with a whitewash to dull it. It's still not great, but it's better than before.
I really like my final piece of the year: ash blue reproduction fabric painted with white and violet/white paint, stamped with the word "snow", then stenciled with silver and turquoise paint stick. Running stitches in ice blue and white sashico thread complete the piece. It looks a bit dull here, but in real life, it has nice depth to it.
I think the journal process was a very good one for me. I've certainly learned a lot since most of my pieces were little experiments. I've discovered that I absolutely love enhancing cloth with paint, whether I use gelatin plate printing techniques, mad dashes with a brush, or paint sticks. I've noticed that most of the pieces that were created more spontaneously turned out better than the ones I thoughtfully labored over. (In other words, I did better when I allowed myself to play than forced myself to "work"). Keeping my blog current was, as I suspected, a good motivator in staying up to date.
On the negative side, I realized that I don't give myself that much time to create my art. My little journal pieces primarily became my art for the year; I just didn't create that many pieces outside of my weekly 6 x 6s. I don't think it was enough. On reflection, it's a bit disappointing.
I'm still mulling over my goals for next year, one of which is whether or not to continue with my journals. They've been a creative exercise, but I'm trying to realistically resolve the time issue. Can I still make journals, but create other art besides? I'll let you know where I come out on that internal debate. The resolution of that will influence many of the other goals I'm contemplating - sort of domino-style.
I don't know that I'll have anything noteworthy to post tomorrow, so just in case, best wishes for the new year! Happy and safe celebrations!
Comments
It's highly commendable and enviable that you were able to do all those small pieces and follow through with your goal. But, aha - you discovered the spark of spontaneity that lets you really have fun and create! Yeah - that's a big discovery! Whatever you decide, I hope next year brings you new discoveries, health, joy, and creativity.