The notebook was used in the weekend studio between 2006 and 2009. In 2008 I wrote "I need to live in places I can leave on my own two feet, with what I can carry." and "If you lived in North Pole, Alaska, you'd always have to wait for the next plane out. (Unless you owned a plane. Now it gets complicated.)" ... wonder what all that was about.
I wrote paragraphs about randomness and about workmanship, and decided not to bother re-reading those thoughts.
Here's something copied down, probably from a newspaper - "Almost no hyperbola can capture the magnitude of events on Wall Street" ... interestingly, after encountering the word "hyperbole" here - well, that's what it should have been, are there no subeditors these days? - it cropped up twice the next day, and not at all in the five subsequent days.
An "inspirational" quote - "It is by studying little things that we attain great art." (Yes, nothing is trivial.)
Some funny titles for possible quilts - Bowls with Holes; Random Abandon; Darkest before the Dawn - ah, I was working on ideas for the Breakthrough challenge, which ended up with potato printed rows of "eggs" with bits of bright fabric "hatching" out.
And ... what falls out of the book but a pad of smooth white paper ... drawing paper? My daily-drawing-of-an-object-in-the-home has been paralysed by the lack of suitable paper, the seeming impossibility of being able to settle on a size.
More words, from a "morning pages" bit of writing: "I dream of series"; "having creative excitement makes me less grumpy"; "I see one of my functions as being a passer-on of things".
A title of a piece of music - John Adams, Short ride in a fast machine - https://www.youtube.com/
Also in that notebook, a lot of uninteresting (now) pages. Nearly 10 years ago - much planning of quilts.
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| Bowls with Holes |
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| Holes cut from magazine pages - a random juxtaposition |
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| Observational drawing |
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| "Pincushions at dawn" - drawing shadows |
It's extraordinary how thoughts, drawings and jottings that meant so much at the time of writing can seem incomprehensible or at least uninteresting later. Some, however, can revive useful past thoughts and provoke new ones. Others may only remind one of the intensity of the feelings and explorations at the time.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your bowls with holes and especially the cut-through magazine pages with the unexpected juxtapositions. I often try out such things as I follow ideas at random - not all that often immediately profitable, but very enjoyable nevertheless. The more I follow such instincts, the more I realise that pleasure and excitement in the moment are what keep me going with all this arty activity!