Monday, February 20, 2006

A Colorful Life



My old laptop was repaired and returned and it has ALL my pictures on it, so I was visiting last May's flower shots. I also found shots of my sister Brooke visiting us right before she and her family left for Singapore last fall.
This reminded me of an email from Brooke that asked questions about our family history. She is the youngest of four kids, and is 18 years younger than me. I was married at 19 and moved away, so you can understand that while we are related, we had very different childhoods. And because my parents divorced when she was about three, she knows very little about what went on before she was around.

Coincidentally Dave and I were discussing how little he knows about his father and grandparents and decided to ask his dad the important questions before it was too late.

So I have been thinking about history and what makes it important to our lives, and how it affects the person we have become...and with a little stretch of the subject matter about how our history affects the art we make. Big subjects.

This blog is usually lighthearted and funsy, but it could also have an introspective approach occasionally, as Dave's does.

Writing about our family will not pretty. And I have avoided it because I am not sure I can do it without evoking sympathy. I have no use for sympathy about the past. It is all healed in my heart and mind, but it was the stuff that made us all the way we are, isn't it? I mean the choices we made in dealing with the struggles and whether we let them overtake us or we chose instead to fight for ourselves and triumph in the end.

However writing about the past means writing about our mother, who is still alive and doesn't have access to the computer and won't be able to defend herself, so this doesn't seem fair for me to have my say without any recourse for her, not that she would read if it she could. So I have decided that I must make a separate private blog just for our siblings.

But what about art history? I believe that the artists that are written about are those that left information about their art and that information falls into the hands of those that need a thesis project or a magazine article or a book idea. We who were forced to study those dry texts in grad school wish the artist could have written INTERESTING descriptions about their art and life, and not left it to the imaginations of the historians. I would hate to have someone else explain my art after I have passed on. Eeeoouuuw!

Of half my output I would have this to say: I made this as a class sample. It was for the express use of teaching my students how to do xxxx. Pay no attention to this as art. It is merely an expedient to the end result.

But then the rest of it does need some explanation of purpose. I'll try and tackle some of this in the coming weeks. But not in a way that one would find in a college textbook. Not a chance!

7 comments:

  1. I also had a family life that I survived. At times I am amazed I made it out alive. and I don't discuss it because then I'm doing "Oprah" and that's too bizarre.

    I'm reading the "Accidental Masterpiece" and even paint by numbers is considered a type of art. Don't be too hard on yourself as you are making beautiful fiber art accessible to many thru your classes.

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  2. Anonymous11:42 AM

    First, I have to say again - I am so happy with the look of your blog now. It matches you!! All organized and beautiful!! I am so lucky, I guess, to have grown up in a very stable family. So I have no angst to use in my art life.

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  3. Anonymous2:17 PM

    I read your blog and have been pondering this art history thing for an hour or so. It dawned on me the fine art is often understood through an understanding of the artist and what whas/is going on in his or her life at the time particular works were created, but in the world of craft, it seems that the emphasis is more on the how and not the why. So what happens when art merges with craft? Even though the art quilt is an accepted form of art, I believe that the books about, or by, particular artists focus much more on the techniques than on the raison d'etre. So hurrah for you to once again break down percieved barriers! I'd love to know what makes you create what you do, and I'd love to delve deeper into what makes my other fiber arts heroines tick too.

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  4. I too often reflect about how my childhood was different from that of at least some of my siblings. I am the eldest of six children - sometimes I think I have a "big sister" sign flashing above my head. My youngest sister, another redhead, was born when I was at university and my parents separated the following year. I am pleased to say that my siblings (and me!) get along really well together and, despite living in six different places in three different countries, are closer than ever.

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  5. Anonymous4:43 PM

    Ah Melody we all have stuggles within our families. I think that the tv/movie & psychology notions about what families "should" be has done a lot of image damage as we look and see our families don't look like those families at all.

    I love the idea of a private blog for your family. What a perfect way to haved questions asked, and thoughtful replies constructed. Nice that your careful of your Mom too. Good for you!!!!

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  6. Oh Melody - families, yes they do make us who we are today. I'm sure we could all write a book and the publishers would think it was fiction!
    I truly believe that my life that I've lived these nearly 52 years in - is how and why I make ART!
    Its an interesting topic and I'm sure we all have our versions.
    Would we have made ART anyway? If we would have had that perfect family?? Who knows? Probably only the creator (who ever that is in each of our religions) knows for sure.........
    THANK YOU for making us all think about this!

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Hello,
So nice of you to drop by. I love your comments, and if you would really like a reply, please email me at fibermania at g mail dot com