I'm Tired

I'm tired of the computer...I have been on it for days without end. All I want to do is to do a little art. Well, I did do a little art, about 8 x12" but right now I am not going to show anyone.

I have spend big bucks to get my Adobe PDF program so now I can post my lessons in PDF. I have spent days in Word creating little pictures to illustrate what I am discussing and trying to find just the right color among however many colors the computer can generate. I sure am learning a lot but I think right now I would rather be a little stupid.

I did spend some time coasting through the web looking at various collage artists and mixed media artists. I love collage and I love fiber and I am looking for my own way to combine the two and also to include paint, in a way that is all mine. I also love surface design and have purchased 30 4 x 4" carving blocks to make stamps and also gasket rubber to make bigger ones. It is so soothing to sit down and carve stamps...just abstract shapes, etc. Organic or geometric, it doesn't matter, they are both interesting to do.

So I have lots of images of other people's work to look at and study and figure out just why I like their work. I like to put the image in my sketch book and then write about it for future thought...if it is the color that draws me in, the texture, the composition, whatever. I will even make little thumbnails of the composition to consider for future use in some way. The trick is to learn from other artists but to not do their work. so I like to collect the stuff, write and draw about it and then let it sink in until I filter it through my processes.

The problem that I have is that I have so many images floating through my head but not the time to start doing them right now. So, I am really trying to be a good artist and jot down notes or thumbnails in my sketch book of the ideas I want to try....like paint two layers of color and scratch through the top layer to bring out some of the bottom layer...this works on stretched canvas or board, I have got to figure out just how to process it for fabric. I have started doing painting on raw canvas using acrylic paints, not necessarily textile paints. My plan is to do these and then cut them up and use them in collages....

Now you know all my secrets...by the time I get around to doing it, everyone else will have jumped on it and figured it out and did it well...then I won't have to do it.

In this last batch of postcards I started incorporating curved lines with satin stitching which echoes the painted lines on some of the fabric. I really like the way it looks. I am starting to see my wiggly satin stitch now in other work so I will not be using that so much...not that I feel I started it, but it is interesting to see elements that one has used frequently but hasn't seen around in other work start to all of a sudden pop up in different work! Just keeps me on my toes. I know there is nothing original in this world but how we put it all together speaks of us and who we are. So we just keep struggling to find the next step up the ladder and to explore more and more to keep those creative juices flowing.

I think I am currently spending about 10 hours a day or maybe more on my art career...either reading about art, keeping in touch with artists, studying art, writing about art and maybe once in a while, creating art...and then there is the business part of it like spending an hour to down load Adobe software, another hour getting it all set up, registered, etc. Not the fun stuff.

Oh well, back to writing my lessons...thanks for listening to me...at least I hope someone besides Gerrie listens to me...what would I do without Gerrie? She keeps me going and makes me feel so good...speaking of Gerrie, it has been really fun to watch her develop her art skills over the past four or five years that I have known her...way to go, Gerrie!