Old sketches
Frieda suggested that I get out my sketchbook and start in again. Is there value in doing this? I guess! The first sketch pictured above contains the genesis of three quilts that I actually made. Just like that, bing bing bing. Then I also found the original drawing of Triumph of Tulips.
Recognize this?Hmmm.
I know that I had no real ideas when I started in sketching these things. The subconscious has a great big lock on its door and I can't seem to find the key until I pick up a pencil.
Of course one must find the time, or make the time to sit and doodle.
I whine and complain when I am not making quilts. I cry that I have no ideas. I make a real pain of myself. My husband reminds me that I go through this wilderness REGULARLY.
There is a balm in Gilead, and for me it is the sketchbook. It is at my fingertips.
Now where is my pencil?
There's no text yet, so I know I shouldn't comment, but of course I am. WOW. I just love your drawings. They are art all by themselves. I think that I said that yesterday, too. You have such a lively line, Melody.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever done a whole cloth piece with your dyed fabric? Drawn/painted it like these drawings as you would a watercolor and then made that into an art quilt. Just curious. I think it would be marvelous.
On my computer screen your text is there but it is going from edge to edge of screen. and the side bar is coming up at the end of the page.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand your feelings when you think you have no ideas and you want to start working on a peice. It is really hard when you see people who are so unbelievably prolific. I have come to terms with the fact that I seem to make one big quilt a year. Sometimes some other little ones come along. But really it comes down to one major peice. Sometimes the little seed of that next quilt is in my head germinating for over a year before I even start. Maybe when i stop moving so much and I am not homeschooling my kids any more that will change? maybe not. So in the mean time i knit, read and create any other kind of art that calls me. When i lived in texas I took pottery classes for four years. Often times the two influenced each other, and similar motifs showed up on both or led me to a new idea for a quilt. So don't stress about it and put pressure on yourself, for me that always kills inpiration.
I agree with Sonji about trying some painting. i love the lines in the tulip peice.it might be interesting to emphasize them more and pull out some paints or watercolor pencils and have at it.
If only I could be happy with one quilt a year. I want the peace of not feeling like failing if one work doesn't follow another. I was not given the gene for that kind of contentment. Maybe when I get older, but wait!!! I am older. Oh well. If I could draw like you do I don't even know if I would quilt. It's such beauty in black and white. But I do understand why that isn't enough to make you feel contented.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these sketches! I love seeing how an idea germinated. I don't have any sketching confidence, but I guess the idea is just to DO it, right?
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about signing up for a class held locally called Creative Design and have been dragging my feet, but seeing your sketches has sent me over the edge and I am going to do it. It is every Wednesday morning for two hours.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if judy has a mac cause I am having the same problem with your blog. No other blog is out of kilter like yours.
I'm using Windows.. and the sidebar is on the bottom. It's OK, it's just a different look. And it actually frees up all the links that are normally inaccessible behind overlapping stuff when it's on the sidebar (the clock and the stitchymcknitpants)...
ReplyDeleteI love these sketches of yours. Remember the quilts from the top sketches, and ofcourse we recognize your prize winner...
I've been searching your archives to feed you your own words about being a visual artist first, drawing and painting most of your early years. I can't seem to find the quotes, but when I do, I'll fire them off to you. Of course the Sketchbook is the Balm of G for you. It's how you're wired--heart to brain to fingers to paper, and then to fiber. (BTW read the new book "Gilead".)
ReplyDeleteLove the sketches... and the additional photo in the post below. I'll weigh in on the formatting issues, in case you care... your blog is all folded up when I view it on my husband's laptop on which he uses Firefox (a fairly new trendy browser), but it's a-ok on the desk top where we use explorer.
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ReplyDeleteGerrie, is right, I do have a mac, There must be a glitch in the formatting html stuff that is making the layout go out of wack.
ReplyDeleteI had to down load firefox to look at realestate listings in Illinois and the program is very buggy on my mac, I constantly have to force quit. It is weird how different computers/servers show us different views of the same websites.
Debora if you come back and read these comments, are you the same Debora who hangs out with my sister Deb Silva in Portland, ME?