However the questions intrigue me, and I've been thinking about them.
What am I working on?
Sorting out the studio (and bits of the rest of my life). This is turning out to be quite a creative pursuit, rather than a dull, frustrating task.Light and air - room on the shelves, at last |
(At first I wrote "materials that could be used..." - which is the trap I've been falling into for years, holding on to things "just in case". Now there's been a category shift: they have to have a foreseeable purpose.)
Light and air - the table under the studio window is so important, as is the notebook |
During that time, so far, the drawing is sometimes, or even largely, diddling about.
Large drawing in progress ... channelling Senufo art |
How does it differ from others in this genre?
My drawing... hmm ... anyone's drawing is so unique, so personal to them. Try copying a drawing by an old master, a contemporary artist, your child ... re-making their marks is educational, empathic.Why do I create what I do?
One of the Big Questions arising out of the studio purge is ... what do I actually want to be getting on with? At this point, I don't want a lot of STUFF hanging around - meaning, stuff that I've created in a fit of enthusiasm and am not sure what to do with because it's not something I'm all that pleased with, after all. (There's much to be said for the oriental practice of putting work away for some months, and then if you have any doubts about it, burning it.)BIG calls out ... big bits of fabric can be folded up; storing paper or canvas is less easy. Big books fit on shelves. Little books are nice too.
Little dust catchers, mostly, made in fits of enthusiasm |
Another reason for creating what I do is the need to have something in my hands, something growing. I usually carry a little pouch with a little project, to pull out when sitting on the tube or in a park, or at coffee with a friend.
Portable project |
How does my creative process work?
In the past few years, my starting point is different. No longer does it depend entirely on a chance conjunction of two fabric scraps on the floor, though that may feed in to the process - it's accidental conjunctions of ideas that stir a project into life. Once I'm thinking about a theme and its undercurrents, the next step is to figure out how to show what I want to say.Thinking about possibilities is an important part of the process. Maybe I've been doing too much thinking, and that's why nothing has been made for a while.
Aesthetically, I'm trying to strip back to the essentials ... those become apparent in the milling about among the undercurrents.
Going to exhibitions and/or reading about artists online - and writing this blog - is an important part of my creative process. During the studio purge I'm finding things from decades ago that still interest me, and now they have a different context to fit into.
Literature collected at art exhibitions, over the past four years |
4 comments:
Margaret - Sheila invited me too and I went for it. I enjoyed finding other blogs on the hop so thought that perhaps others might enjoy finding me. But best if all I answered those questions - and feel quite liberated in the process. So thanks for writing this even if you did go slightly off piste ( as it were!).
Hilary
Love the triangle people in the large drawing. These could work in a similar way to the figures (Mimis) in Mirjam Pet Jacobs' work.
http://www.mirjampetjacobs.nl/Galleries/textile/mimi%20series.html
Sandy
Margaret, I'm so glad you decided to consider and answer the questions. I've seen such a shift in your work and your interests in the last few years. It's helpful to hear what you have to say about that, the why's and wherefore's as it were. I think a major purge would be good on my part too, but I haven't built up those ruthlessness muscles yet! It's good to have affirmation also that it's ok to go off on tangents. There's no good reason for the guilt that sits on my shoulder when I want to spend my time exploring other things than actually making quilts, but it's there a lot of the time. You're a great role model and inspiration!
Well thought out and well said!!
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