Tag: inspiration

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Bits and Pieces of Boxes

Today’s project was embellishing squares and rectangles that will become more of the little boxes that I am obsessed with.  I am embarking on a winter-long surge to build up my inventory of finished art with a goal of applying to juried art fairs in the next year.

When I was in high school, I remember going to some higher-end art fairs and thinking about going on the road for a year, selling what I had made all over the country.  At the time, I still had not discovered the art media that worked best for me, nor had I developed any sense of my own creative voice.

Of course, I’m still working on developing that creative voice, and I always will.  Speaking of which, I want to get back to my boxes, so I will leave you today with the quote that inspired me to start making boxes.

You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, “Why don’t you make something for me?”

          I asked you what you wanted, and you said, “A box.”

          “What for?”

          “To put things in.”

          “What things?”

          “Whatever you have,” you said.

Well, here’s your box.  Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full.  Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts – the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.

          And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you.

          And still the box is not full.

-John Steinbeck, dedication to East of Eden

 

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Listening To the Leaves

When was the last time that you were in a place so quiet and serene that you could hear a leaf fall?  I have that opportunity this time of year, if there is no wind, and the cattle are quiet, to listen for the barely perceptible swish of a spent leaf coming to rest among its companions now carpeting the ground.

Being creative is not only about observing things around us that often go unnoticed – this demands a high degree of awareness of the many things in our day to day lives.  Creativity is also being able to zone in on one of those little details, and for a moment, focusing on that one thing, shutting out all the other chatter and clutter.  Then, we must find our own way to capture that moment, that detail, in a way to share with others.  Listen for that one little leaf, and tell someone about it.

Check back next week, I’ll share some more of my little creative moments from the weekend – more ICAD adventures and moments of stitching.

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Autumn Postcard from My Corner of the World

I meant to get a post out on Tuesday.  I also had intentions of working on a promotional letter for a trunk show, or one of several ideas for classes.  In a corner rests a pile of things I wanted to take pictures to put on my forthcoming online store.  None of that happened.

I took what was to be a short walk to clear my head, and I stopped halfway up the hill to admire some fallen sassafras leaves.

While wandering in the woods, I gathered a bucket of sticks for kindling in the wood burner, and found a few twigs with lichen encrusting them, and I studied the ruffles wrapping around the sticks a bit too long.  At the top of the hill, I watched a couple of deer munching on acorns for a while, and then turned back to the west and watched the sunset in horizontal ribbons of blue-gray, peach and orange, striated vertically by the dark outlines of the trees.

After dark, I lit a candle in a pumpkin that volunteered in my garden this year and I carved a couple days ago, watching the flickering light while sipping on some hot cider.

I don’t feel that I wasted any time.

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Stencils and an Escape

Today, a few words about some more of my index-card-a-day experiments.  I won’t be going on much more about these, I promise (at least until next year’s ICAD edition).  The annual challenge is all about making something within the daily theme, with what you have on hand, and sometimes producing even when you are not at all interested in the subject.

The two above cards illustrate perfectly the concept of “use what you already have.”  Of course, taking on a daily mixed media art project, I already had a good stock of various art supplies.  The card on the left happened very quickly.  The prompt was “stencil.”  I simply reached up above my painting table and whisked my small collection of TSC Designs stencils off of their nail on the wall, and traced some of them onto the card with markers.  I’m interested in creating complex layers in my art, and this was an easy way to accomplish a few layers.

The prompt for the card on the right was “escape.”  On the day I was to create this card, I read the prompt while sitting at my painting table, thinking, “what a ridiculous prompt for a 3 X 5” card… what am I going to do?”  I was NOT inspired.  I stared at my table for too long.  No ideas were coming to my mind.  I stared some more, noticing how messy the newspaper that I used for a paint blotter had become.  I could still see bits of the newspaper text and images through the multi color paint splotches.  Eureka!  I could use the newspaper “drop cloth” as a base for a card – the escape card!  Quickly, I cut a 3 X 5” piece of the paper, glued it to an index card and used circle stencils to doodle on top of the paint.  I had successfully escaped artist’s block for another day.

 

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Seven Days

I was going to write about something else today, but while I was in and out of the kitchen and porch grilling dinner, I found this lovely creature:

It is a Luna moth.  I have only seen one other Luna moth, also where I live, a couple of years ago.  The one I found today was clinging to the doorjamb of my porch door.  Since I am short, I almost missed seeing it.  While my dinner cooked, I watched the motionless moth, taking in the rare sight for as long as I could.  These moths are not considered rare, but they are not always observed as they are nocturnal and only live for about seven days (more information here).

This evening I have been pondering measuring progress in seven day increments, one week to us, but an entire lifetime for the Luna moth.  I caught myself feeling bad about all the times this past week that I goofed off instead of stitching, writing, drawing or being otherwise creatively productive.  Over the past year, a few things have happened that reminded me of how short of a time we are here, and as a result, I have been more aware of how much time I waste in a day.  I still struggle with time management, and it is easy to get overwhelmed by balancing things I want to do with the things I have to do ASAP.  I know I am not the only one with these issues!

Finding the Luna moth today reminds me not to dwell on what I haven’t done, but celebrate what I have done, and to look ahead seven days to what I can try to accomplish.  I am going to head downstairs to see if my little moth is still on the porch, and look for some fabric to match that delicate celadon color.  I won’t spend too much time looking for the fabric, I have some older projects that I want to stitch.  How much will I get done in the next seven days?