Vacation cottage
It's been a few years since I made this little quilt of our cottage at Jensen's in Captiva, FL. The piece was part of a month-long project I'd forgotten about. But this morning, as I was searching my files for an old poem, I stumbled on a how-to piece I'd saved. I liked what it said. Then it dawned on me that of course I liked it -- I wrote it! It's about my month of tiny projects. Finding it has inspired me to do the same thing this summer. Here it is:
I was drowning in a sea of ideas, techniques
and materials to explore. Then I tried a
month of tiny projects. At the beginning I was a wanderer; at the end, people
were calling me an artist. Working hard every day for a month without thinking
too much about perfection gave me speed, discipline, and freedom to integrate
my creative self. If you too feel fractured, try this.
It began one morning as I looked out my
studio window while it was still dark. The full moon floating behind the pecan
tree was so beautiful that I gasped. Right then I decided to make art every day
for a month, starting with the pecan tree and moon.
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| Pecan tree and moon |
Here’s the process:
Pick a schedule. Mine was a piece a
day, but it could be weekly or even monthly.
Pick a theme. Mine was gratitude. I expected something
amazing every day for my subject. Other themes might be: a dream a day, or a
world event, or a visit to a new neighborhood or fresh piece of your city. Alternatively,
you could be inspired by the same place (or person) over and over, noting subtle daily changes. Or make art based on the day’s recipe, or prayer, or
confusion, or memory, or your first thought of the day. I want to make art
about my evolving definition of God. Choose anything you want to explore. Don’t
worry too much at this point.
Limit your size and/or materials. I decided to
make 6 ½-inch squares that would be quilted – three layers that would have a
muslin base and batting, with the top varied. For many I used the sewing
machine. You could just as easily make a larger piece each day – say, every
day’s work would involve some material you found in nature, like a branch or
feather; or it could be based on a daily foot-square rubbing of some part of
your neighborhood’s surface.
List techniques you want to explore. I was
forever jamming the printer when I tried to copy a photograph onto fabric, so I wanted to
master that machine! I also wanted to try out different ways of writing on
fabric, and to work in three dimensions, and to alter fabric with stamps and
markers and paint, and to make new surfaces from old materials, making faces,
and to freely collage with fabric. And practice free-motion quilting. You could explore color all month, or line,
or another element.
List your inspiration. My inspiration was the poet A.R. Ammons, who said,
"Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful."
List references as you find them. I bookmarked
web sites and put pertinent books and magazines in a special spot on the shelf. I saved only the most helpful web sites. As I learned to print on fabric, I
explored many, but one was most helpful.
Be easy. I let a few days go blank. I needed some space to write about the pieces and write a poem. But I
didn’t stop, not even while we took a week’s vacation at the beach. I packed small
pieces of fabric and a tiny sewing kit that included glue, scissors, and muslin
squares. Every day I worked on a picnic table outside our cottage.
Pretend you are not in charge. Let the day tell you
what your subject is. The day we drove to Captiva Island had plenty
of inspiration: the long trip, meeting old friends, and seeing the lovely
Gulf of Mexico. But at 10 p.m., as a group of us were finishing a late dinner at a restaurant, we were shocked by a frightening flash, and
then the island went dark. Naturally, this blackout was my subject, trumping all the other highlights of the day.
After it’s all finished, look for trends. What are your colors, lines, subjects? Much to my surprise, I didn’t
use yellow! I seem to love layers and texture. I write messy. I want to explore
printing.
I want to do this again.
