Unless I am seeing pieces like this on my walls, everyday, I forget I made them. Seriously. The first one is on my wall in my bedroom, so it did trigger a search for my previous attempts at pieced art quilts. I dug into my Flickr archives for some of these, since the originals were on a previously defunct laptop.
As I recall, I was not impressed enough with my product to think I was 'on to something'. Whatever made the difference this week, with Impromptu, I am not going to examine too closely. Just having the experience of doing it and looking forward is the right thing to do, I think. Anyway, in my tiny little mind I want to feel that I have made a breakthrough of some kind and want to use the experience to gather some momentum. 
The fact that my improvs led to bed quilts is my insecurity in what I was doing. If they became functional then there was a reason/purpose imposed on making them. But with art, functionality is irrelevant. 
The reason to make art is for art's sake. Which for me means the search, the experience, the pushing of boundaries, the hopefulness of the next thrill, that has to be enough.
Melody,I am day behind,but want to wish you many, many more happy years of colorful creativity! I thought 65 was old--until I hit 70 last year. But I figure the next 30 years or so is still time to grow. So let's continue to celebrate as we hit 75, 80, 85 and way beyond! Many happy returns!
ReplyDeleteMary G in Chicago
I am laughing at your confessions of insecurity. You do not have even one bad quilt or work of art. Everything you do is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteMelody, everyone one of these quilts is a work of art. I can't tell if you were referring to some of them when you said they had been turned into functional pieces. But I think function and art can go together. In my mind, it's the attitude and the outcome, not what it is used for.
ReplyDeleteSorry about your friend. You must live with the fond memories you have. You work like I do, intuitively, and that is such a liberated way to work.
ReplyDeleteJust WOW!
ReplyDeleteThese are great! I'm currently making a flip & stitch table runner, which is more functional than art. But it is giving me a chance to do this technique with scraps and enjoy watching it grow. I have a lot of scraps, and can see from your examples that there are lots of ways I can use them by building strips and blocks, then assembling them. Next project, I am going to keep that in mind! BTW, happy belated 65th! I got there a few months ago, and it's not half-bad, compared to how I used to think this age would be! Hope you have a great year, full of fun projects and great health!
ReplyDeleteMelody, I think you're right about functionality being irrelevant.Think of how kids enjoy the process and are not looking for the end result being art to hang on the wall.
ReplyDeleteWinter , and the new year are always good times to just play and explore new ideas.