Tuesday, July 18, 2006

About Channeling Nancy Crow...
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Lest you think any less of me than you already do, allow me to 'splain what it is that I am up to.
I find myself diving into the Nancy pool about this time every year. Can't see it coming, don't have a clue why, don't intend to discover why either. But the fact is that when I see her work, it looks like it would be fun to make something like THAT. So I do. And it is. Fun.
However... She dug the trench, she brought in the gravel, she poured the asphalt and she road the big machine that smooths out the lumps, whatever that's called.
So it is easy for me to jump on my bike and roll down that road. Look Ma, no hands! Woowoo!
I am under no illusion that I am making great art, or conquering a difficult challenge. I am only playing. I am allowed to play.
I AM ALLOWED TO PLAY.
Quiltmaking should be fun and if while I am having fun, I might discover something that takes me somewhere new and turns the work into something more than just a playtime with fabric piece. Who knows? But if I edit myself, if I begin by worrying about 'copying' or being unoriginal, then, I might miss the fun of trying it out, or playing with the ideas.
We are all too worried about doing something that smacks of someone who came before us. I am not making any claims that this last piece is 'MY OWN DESIGN'. Even if it sorta is. In the end, it is all the journey, and the process, and where we go from the experience.
Plus the piece looks good in my lavender bathroom.

13 comments:

  1. Halleluia and Amen! Play is good.

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  2. Anonymous2:36 PM

    I thought Nancy Crow copied you!!! (The disintegration of the concepts of sharing and enjoying the highest form of flattery -- being copied -- in the quilting world is a very sad state of affairs in my humble and unqualified opinion.)

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  3. Anonymous3:16 PM

    After I read your piece I said "AMEN" ...then I opened the comments - to comment - and saw Deborah said AMEN also...I did not know she said it...I did not copy her...the AMEN came on it's own...naturally...likes squares, lines, rectangles, circles...all the same but different. Enjoy!

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  4. Art and its influences. The thing is Art--all the arts--influences us. Each of us sees or hears or experiences art and reacts, emotes, whistles, dances, whatever, to that art. The Arts change us and that's why we love them, love that dynamic, that ebb & flo, that ying & yang. We have dialogues with all the arts and those dialogues, that exchange of energies is what charges our own artistic batteries.

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  5. I give you permission to have fun.

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  6. Hi Melody. You don't need to 'splain anything! The interesting thing about your "Nancy" quilt is that it doesn't look at all like Nancy. It looks like Melody, but one can see where you were coming from. Well, for one thing the colors are pure Melody and not at all Nancy. It's a very fun quilt.

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  7. You should channel nancy crow more often. Nice work-I mean play. Love the green. Love the purps, love the piece.I mean amen !!!

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  8. Anonymous10:35 PM

    I loved the line "Plus the piece looks good in my lavender bathroom." You go, girl!

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  9. It's interesting that you should be writing about this now. I was in a class of yours last winter and came home with some class exercises that were waaaaay more You than they were Me. I have finished one of the pieces just this week and have gotten lots of favorable comments but felt kind of dishonest. It's very obviously Channeling Melody (and that would make a good name for it...).

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  10. Anonymous8:22 AM

    "Plus the piece looks good in my lavender bathroom."

    gee, it would look good in my lavender bedroom.

    I have two pieces that, when quilters see it they say "oh,you must have taken a workshop with Melody Johnson." Yep and I had a great time. Play time. YOu are good at letting us know it's ok to play. YOu are right. It IS important.

    teri

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  11. Anonymous11:58 AM

    Thank you Melody--I am off this weekend to a week-long studio retreat, and I had no idea what to do, now I'm packing up some fun fabrics, and going to play. After all, it's not brain surgery!
    Linda

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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