Sorting out the mess

And six months later…



While I haven’t been in the studio, I have been busy. It is hard to believe that our little girl is almost six months old. What an amazing journey. But now that things are starting to settle down and we are finding our routine, I am hoping to get back to a daily practice of making art.
 

Where did this mess come from?

Every now and then my studio becomes a dumping ground for the rest of the house. I can try and blame my family for that, but really it’s my own fault. It’s the curse of having a home studio. Sometimes it is just easier to hide things away behind the closed door rather than deal with them. Out of sight, out of mind. But since I was literally on the last stitch of my Quilt National submission when Maya was born, things have gotten out of control in the studio. Six months of clutter. Plus, I never cleaned up my studio back in September. That’s not how I like to leave things. I may be messy during a project, but afterward, I like to put everything back in its place. So, while I have not had time to create in the studio over the last six months, I decided that a good swift cleaning was in order before I start on anything new. First things first, getting control of my fabric.

Like most textile artists, I have an abundance of fabric. And while I typically purchase fabrics with a particular piece in mind, sometimes those fabrics don’t work out exactly the way I planned. So they stack up. And stack up. For a while I used a series of hanging organizers in my closet to hold them all. When I outgrew those, the fabric piled up in baskets. It really became too much. So I have emptied out the drawers in my studio armoire and started folding the fabric on boards.





It was a huge effort, but most of the fabric is now neatly tucked away in the drawers. Slowly the studio is coming back to life. Of course, that just takes care of the larger yardage. For those who have seen my work in person, you know that I often use pieces smaller than a pencil eraser. So, there is more organizing on the horizon. Look out scraps. I have my eye on you.



This week I am grateful for:

1. baby giggles
2. sunshine
3. iced tea
4. having a studio space
5. nap time

What are you watching?

People often ask about how I work in the studio—do listen to music, catch up on NPR, watch TV, or enjoy the beautiful silence that can only be appreciated when you have a moment away from your toddler?  While the privacy and silence cannot be overrated—closing the door, taking a deep breath and combining my moment of sanity with some art is VERY fulfilling—I do my best work when I have something going on in the background, be it music or a movie.  

In the studio, I have a TV mounted on the wall on an articulated arm. This allows me to turn the TV to face me when I am working. The screen lines up just over the top of my sewing machine so that I don’t have to strain to see it. I also have wireless headphones which have made it possible to listen to music or hear movie dialog in the studio while everyone is sleeping, something that makes me immensely happy.

While we don’t have cable in the house (long story), we do have Netflix and Hulu.  I get my mileage out of both of them. Right now I am obsessed with art documentaries. Love love love them. I have my Netflix queue filled with them.

This past week I watched Rape of Europa. I found it absolutely captivating and can’t recommend it enough. Seeing images of the Louvre stripped bare of paintings and Michelangelo’s David bricked up to protect it from bombing and looting were eye-opening. Here is a description from the documentary website:

The Rape of Europa tells the epic story of the systematic theft, deliberate destruction and miraculous survival of Europe's art treasures during the Third Reich and the Second World War.

In a journey through seven countries, the film takes the audience into the violent whirlwind of fanaticism, greed, and warfare that threatened to wipe out the artistic heritage of Europe. For twelve long years, the Nazis looted and destroyed art on a scale unprecedented in history. But young art professionals as well as ordinary heroes, from truck drivers to department store clerks, fought back with an extraordinary effort to safeguard, rescue and return the millions of lost, hidden and stolen treasures.

Make sure you watch it.

Of course with this one crossed off of my list I am on the look out for a new documentary. Any recommendations? What are your favorites?

Back to work

After seeing the RITUALS exhibit last week and attending the festival, I couldn’t wait to get back to the studio to start working again. I am at the beginning stages with a new piece and I am consumed by it. I want to work on it every spare minute of the day and night. This is a good thing. When things are going right, I can’t spend enough time in the studio. I stay up late. I think about my work when I am driving. I talk about it incessantly. Of course when it is not quite working I can procrastinate with the best of them. I want to avoid the studio at all costs. This has been something I have been working on over the past year. Even when I am struggling, I force myself to go “do the work anyway”. I know that eventually I will figure things out. I just need to put in the effort and that means getting into the studio. 

But today, things are going well and I have reached a point where I am in the groove. I am past the early stuff that I don’t enjoy as much—setting up my workspace, washing fabrics, creating patterns for important elements, and establishing the foundation. Today I am sewing, and it is exciting to see things develop. As I start sewing, I get to see if my fabric choices are really coming together. I see what needs tweaking. I stab myself a thousand times on straight pins. And I relish every minute.