Art Every Day, Thursday, January 31, 2013

Good Afternoon,

What joy! I love, love, love this quick and easy piece.  I just set back and listened to the piece of dyed canvas.  I pulled out a mess of hand dyed ribbons, trims, cheesecloth and other weird stuff and watched as my hands danced over it and laid it in place.  I tied it all up in a bow then stitched it all down. Pleased. Very Pleased. A great way to finish off my first month of making art every day. 

Hope your day has been a delight,

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Wednesday, January 30, 2013,

Good Morning,

Last night while watching an episode of ART21 I heard this artist say the most wonderful thing.  I'll have to go back and get her name, but to paraphrase it she said; "When the line wavers, when it's imperfect, that's where the beauty is".  I couldn't have said it better myself.

This new piece plays with more of my rayon ribbon, this time it's rainbow dyed and laid atop either black or white.  I added some rainbow dyed rattail in a maze like structure and threw it across the other areas too.  The maze like quilting in the negative spaces between the strips of ribbon repeat the rattail maze and cohere the piece together.

It makes me happy.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Tuesday, January 29th, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece.  I'm still playing around with that delicious cheesecloth and rayon ribbon. I think I may have overdone it with this piece.  The swath of color is so large in comparison to the size of the background that it dwarfs it.  Scale is so important especially when working really small or really large.

My intent was to really invite the color in to the black background but now looking at it as a photograph I see that I could have made each strip of color about half the width and made sure that all of the colors together did not take up more than one third of the design field rather than half of the field which is what I did.  Basically, I didn't leave enough background to support the foreground.  

I do however, like the quilting in the negative space and how it tries to support, through repetition, the focal point.  Ah, I love to learn!

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Monday, January 28th, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece.  Normally I crop the photo so that it looks neat and tidy on all sides, but the bits hanging over the edges of the top and bottom of this piece are playing vital roles so I wanted to show you the whole thing.

Today I wanted to continue playing with embellishments and began this piece by laying out strips of dyed rayon ribbon in a mix of yellow through blue green. Once the ribbon was stitched down, I added the flow of cheesecloth and lightly stitched it in place then glued on the string of bone beads.

I like it overall, but find the placement of the beads a little too predictable.  I might add some more, but, maybe not. I do like how the color in the strips of ribbon are playing off as negative space.  I will likely explore that some more.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Saturday, January 27, 2013

Good Afternoon,

I took the rare opportunity this morning to sleep in.  It was nice not rolling out of bed till 9:00.  But it sure does make it hard to fit in everything you want to do on your day off when you get started two hours later than usual!

Here is today's new piece.  It's all about texture.  I'm always sorry that you all don't get to see the rough edges in these pieces.  Seeing them squared up like in the photo above isn't nearly as good.  Well, anyway, I began this piece with some dyed painted batting that I layered up with two different colors of cheesecloth along with three different dyed, crumpled fabrics, some cotton ribbon, wool fibers and a strip of velvet. Everything is stitched down rather loosely and bone beads were added at the end. 

I risked mayhem by adding so many different mediums so I kept the color way very simple with mostly red  violets and yellow orange (gold),  Before adding the bone beads and the dark strip of velvet, there were no focal point or counterpoint, just a bunch a texture strewn about the surface.  I like how the hard, round and triangular beads move your eye across the surface and with the help of the ribbons/fibers/velvet drive the eye as though going through a maze. This is one of my favorite color ways but I think it ended up a little heavy on the red violet and doesn't have enough of the gold.

Making it felt a bit like making one of my sculpted quilts. Plus it was a lot of fun using so many of my hand dyed products.  All in all, a great way to start the day.  Now, a bit of housekeeping, then a movie with my man.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

Art Every Day, Saturday, January 26, 2013

Good Morning,

This morning I was pondering, as I have been for about a week now, the meaning of beauty. I watched a documentary on the painter/cartoonist/writer, Wayne White, last week and he finished off a lecture he was giving with the words, "Make beauty". All week I've been wondering what the hell that means.  Clearly what he considers beauty is different from what I consider beauty.  

Today's new piece is a bit of writing on the subject of beauty.  I simply layered some green dye painted batting with some yellow dyed silk then set on a piece of blue cotton and blue dye painted Lutradur.  I then stitched a flower in the blue area and cut away the excess from the edge of said flower.  Next, I stitched some sentiments in the background using matching thread.  I then finished the edge with some twisted, rainbow dyed rayon ribbon then went after the flower with the heat gun.  The bonus; the gun burned the silk! Yeah, I love the burned silk around the "damaged" flower.  Is it still beautiful? For me, there is no beauty without meaning and power.  This was a great exploration!

Till tomorrow,

Heather

Art Every Day, Friday, January 25, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece, in two orientations.  The way I designed it on the bottom and the way I believe it should hang on the top.  Note how the squares on the upper half of the piece shown in the bottom photo  look as though they might make the piece topple over on you whereas all of the squares in the photo on the top look as though they are moving out toward you, flowing from the bottom.  

My reason for doing this piece, which is very similar to one that I made earlier but with circles, was to see how adversely effected the foreground of warm colored squares would be by the highly decorative triple clam shell design stitched in the cool negative space. I was very pleasantly surprised by the fact that the background stitching has not overwhelmed the foreground.  The color as well as the on top positioning of the squares is trumping the texture in the background.  Plus, the quilting is quite heavy and is contributing to the color of the background's desire to recede.  All in all, a very good study!

Off to the studio to dye!

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

P.S. Thanks again to both Steph and Christa for your comments. I can't tell you enough how nice it is to get feedback on these design studies.  I'm so glad you're journeying with me.

 

Art Every Day, Thursday January 24, 2013

Good Afternoon,

I made this colorful baby this morning but was late for a coffee date and didn't get this entry done.  Well, coffee turned into lunch and yada, yada, yada...... So here it is afternoon, but better late than never!

I'm really enjoying this piece, both the making of it and looking at it.  It began with lots of smallish pieces of colorful hand dyes adhered down on a surface of black batting.  I topped that with white fabric in four segments - because I didn't have one piece of white that was large enough.  For a moment there, I thought I wouldn't be able to make this piece until I brought home some more white fabric from the studio (which I've been trying to remember to do for more than a week now). But then I reminded myself that I HAVE EVERY THING THAT I NEED IN MY STUDIO TO MAKE ANYTHING I WANT TO MAKE RIGHT NOW! So, I just ripped the long narrow pieces of white that I had and overlapped them slightly so that the covered all of the bright colored bits.

After all the white was pinned in place I stitched a bunch of rectangles in both horizontal and vertical orientations, leaving just a few small areas with no stitching.  Then, I cut away the white fabric from inside the long rectangles to reveal the multicolored ground underneath it.  I love the piece.  I love that I can faintly see the colors beneath the white fabric, the raw edges of all of the fabrics, the energetic play of both the vertical and horizontal lines and mostly, the bold vivacity of the piece as a whole.  What Fun!

Now I need to get this damned inventory finished!

Till tomorrow,

Heather

Art Every Day, Wednesday January 23, 2013

Good Morning,

Some days I just want to quilt. Do you ever feel that way? Well I guess today is one of those days for me.
Today's new piece began with a piece of hand dyed, heavy canvas layered on top of black batting.  I then cut a big swoop of bright yellow green velvet and set it down of the canvas and topped it with a piece of dye painted Lutradur in colors similar to the background colors but lighter. 
Then I quilted the hell out of the Lutradur section with circles and linear elements and quilted the background canvas with a highly decorative mix of swirls, swirly flowers, arcs and paisleys.  I used the same, bright red violet thread for all of the quilting.  It shows up great against the yellow green velvet and against the yellow portion of the background and melds a bit with the lower, pinker portions of the background. 
The small photo below shows the piece before I burned out the Lutradur section with a heat gun.
I really like the amorphous shape in this piece. It looks at once amoeba like and skeletal.  I simply love non-objective design!

Hope you have a wonderful day.
Till tomorrow,
Heather  

 

Art Every Day, Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece. I have to admit it took about 1 1/2 hours - all that precise cutting out! My goal here was to add a little musical chaos to the very graphic/geometric design field.  The addition of the swoosh of yellow cheesecloth along with the three narrow wedges that look as though they are drifting across the piece are doing just what I wanted them to do.  I had to quilt the hell out of the bright white to get it to stay in the background and all I did with the black bits was to quilt them down just inside their edges in hopes that they would stay in positive space in the mid ground which I think they are managing to do.

Because the white base fabric is sitting on top of black batting there is some dulling of it therefore keeping down the feeling of simultaneous contrast that could have overwhelmed the small piece. 

It's so nice when things work out the way you had planned.

Which, brings me to the piece above  from a few days ago.  I originally showed it oriented like it is in the photo on the left.  But when I went to hang it in my dye studio with all of the others, I realized the the balance was a lot more pleasing when I hung it upside down like it is in the photo on the right. I like the new orientation so much better.

Well, it's off to work I go,

Till tomorrow,

Heather

P.S. Thanks for your comments Steph.  I understand how helpful it is to have real visuals to "prove" the processes of attaining depth in quilting.  I'm so happy to share.

 

Art Every Day, Monday, January 21, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece.  I really enjoyed making it and looking at the finished product. I wanted to play with this empty square shape and wanted high contrast thus the cool/warm color choices.  But, when I placed the strips that make the squares down on the background there was no pop, no sizzle. Then I thought about adding the cheesecloth underneath and once I repositioned everything it began to sing - and it was a song I could dance to - with my machine that is.

The bubble quilting in the cheesecloth helps to bring it into the mid ground and keep it above the rest of the negative space which is quilted with a very energetic all over, triangular design. Because the green/blue green, empty squares are physically on top of all of the other fabrics rather than pieced into them, they manage to read as positive space and hold their own as focal points.

It's a good day when it begins with things working out the way you had hoped. Now it's off to the studio to rinse out some fabrics and package some others.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, Sunday, January 20, 2013

Good Morning,

Thank you to Christa, Chris, Rona, and every one else who is following and commenting.  This is becoming such a fun adventure! I'm so glad that you have been joining in on it with me.

Here is today's new piece.  For those of you who don't know this horrid little fact, a few years back I tried my hand at designing fabric for one of the big companies.  Well, due to a lot of crap along the way, it didn't pre-sell well and they never printed it. However, I still have all of my master prints and have decided to add some of them to these pieces.  So, here are some of them at play.

I loved this deep olive,yellow green background. Especially mixed with the lovely melony red accent.  The black and white prints were designed from hand carved stamps and are a nice bold design element here.  I wanted to explore the element of scale with both the size of the prints as well as the width of the strips. I wish I had placed the strip widths in a different order, with the widest near the middle of the quilt, the narrowest in the middle and the mid size one on the outside.  The way it is now makes it very heavy on the right hand side.  There is no way that the square on point (which I was trying to use as a focal point) can get as much attention as the bold zig-zaggy print in that widest strip. 

All in all the piece is filled with yummy design elements but is just as full of weaknesses in principles. We play, we learn, we live to play another day,

Till then,

Heather

 

Good Morning,
First off, an apology for not getting Thursday the 17th's piece up until yesterday (Friday).  It was a rough day and when I finished previewing the post, I forgot to go back and hit the publish button - yikes!

 

Art Every Day, Saturday, January 19, 2013

Here is today's new piece.  It features a simple background made from torn segments of white and tan fabric on top of black batting which was then quilted horizontally with straight lines 1/4" or so apart. Next, I added the two black strips and stitched them down.  Then came the two red violet heavily stitched lines made with two threads through the needle.  Finally I topped the whole thing with the three stitched swirls done in two threads also, one yellow orange and one orange. I really like the simplicity of the piece and the way the simple shapes and lines play off of the crisp background.  It feels very minimalistic, crisp and clean to me.  It's a stylization that I definitely want to play with some more.

Enjoy your weekend, till tomorrow,

Heather 

 

Good Morning,

Here is today's piece.  It was a reminder of what I don't really like; precision. It took a long time to cut out; I had to draw it first then cut the drawing apart into templates, yada, yada, yada. And for what? A piece that looks manufactured rather than created.  This is just not what I enjoy looking at or making.  Lesson learned! Tomorrow, back to more free form.

On a positive note, I do like how the triangles are managing to hold there own (almost) against that bold orange mix background.  I quilted the orange with the tiniest of stipples in hopes that it would recede enough to let the lighter quilted triangles come forward. I guess all in all it was a good experience, but not one that I want to repeat again any time soon.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

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Art Every Day, January 18, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece.  I'm quite pleased with it.  The woven portion of the left was a great exploration of the mix of various browns with crisp white and I love the way the two are contrasting off of each other.  The portion on the right is one of our embroidered hand dyes. I chose it so that I could replicate the tiny flowers with larger flowers in the quilting.  All in all a very satisfying creative morning!

Well, I'm off to teach some ladies how to dye.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, January 16, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece.  I'm really enjoying playing with circles and line.  With this piece I wanted to see if I could pull it off with just one, strong, bold line if I quilted the negative space with lines that moved in the opposite direction to it.  I think it works pretty well.  

Because of the size of the background, I struggle with wanting to add to much.  There needs to be enough background to support the design elements on top and I think that the balance between the two here works pretty well.

I've got a crazy, busy day ahead with critique group this morning, a fabric embellishing class this afternoon and an artist's therapy class this evening.

I'd hate for anyone to see the mess my house is in.... 

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, January 15, 2013

Good Morning,

Here is today's piece.   I so enjoyed yesterday's stitched swirls that I wanted to do it again today. But this one just isn't the same.  Should have stuck with just thread and no applique! I like the background of this one with its horizontal and vertical stripes. I stitched the verticals with wavy lines and the horizontals with straightish lines. I think the circle is a bit on the large size, but a CD is what I had in front of me for a template so I used it.

Well, I'm off to the Denver Art Museum to meet with some of the women who are putting together next years big fiber show.  They want to feature some of my art and have me do some demos- yeah!

Till tomorrow,

Heather

 

Art Every Day, January 14, 2013,

Good Morning,

Here is today's new piece and boy did I learn a lot.  This process is affording me so much growth with just a little bit of work... who knew!  

On this piece, I started with black batting and layered it with a collage of various values of hand dyed gray fabrics.  That layer was then topped with a scattering of warm colored strips.  It wasn't very interesting, but I had hopes.  I began the quilting by stitching down the strips with matching thread color.  Next, I loaded two threads in my machine; a pure white one and a slight cream colored one, and stitched the large swirls.  It then started to feel overwhelming.  But, tight stitching in the background with a medium valued gray fixed it right up.  I put no stitching inside the open ended swirls which allowed them to rise to the surface with the warm "sticks" behind them and the grays in the far background.

I really love the movement and depth in this piece.  I love it even more when I'm able to prove my idea.

Till tomorrow,

Heather

P.S. I'm ready this fabulous little, ditty of a book by artist/poet, Austin Kleon.  It's called "Steal Like An Artist". It takes about two hours to read and is filled with all kinds of inspiration and tricks to keep you on the artistic track.  Check it out! 

 

 

Art Every Day, January 13, 2013,

Good Morning,

As I laid in bed this morning (can't really sleep in, but I can laze about) all I could think about was all the stuff I am behind on; dyeing, packaging, house work, bills.  Seems I have always been behind. After a few moments of self pity, I turned my attention to my day and decided that all of those things could wait and I would get up, do my daily art piece then finish a new sample that is two weeks late and then - begin a new piece that is begging for my attention. 

Today's piece is a response to my wanting to play.  I stuck with the warm/cool color way because all of those fabrics were on my cutting table but instead of messing about with lots of different shapes I decided to do what I love most and concentrate on the quilting, specifically my "dream tree".  I've been doodling this dormant Oak tree since I was about ten and it is the first shape I ever mastered in free motion quilting.  Here I present it as a simple landscape with a moody, cool sky and deep warm ground.  The early evening moon adds a nice nuance to the sky. I finished it in about 40 minutes.  If my inks weren't at the studio, I would have time to color in the tree.

Hope you have a great day,

Heather

P.S. Thanks to both Steph and Christa for your comments, interest and feedback.  I so appreciate them!

 

Art Every Day, January, 12, 2013,

Good Afternoon,

What fun, what fun.... I enjoyed yesterdays warm/cool piece so much I just had to do it again.  With this piece I not only concentrated on the visual temperature, I also chose to use the juxtaposition of line, squares and circles. The bodacious colors are all set on black which is set on top of white which is set on top of a gray, dye painted batting.

It's a great day when you don't have to go to work, you start it off with coffee and chatting with your good friend and still have time to spend in your studio.  Now, I'm going to sit and read a book called "Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon.  

Till tomorrow,

Heather

Art Every Day, January 11, 2013

Good Afternoon,
Well, this one is my favorite so far.  I'm a sucker for high contrast and it doesn't get higher than warm against cold.  I'm quite pleased with the way the warm circles are playing off of the cool, tight, linear background.  I definitely want to play with this composition on a larger scale.  I especially love the tiny border of orange dye painted batting.  Not only does the piece have great depth, it's really energetic too.  Plus, it's a lot of fun!
Till tomorrow,
Heather

 

Art Every Day, January 10, 2013

Good Afternoon,

Here is today's new piece.  It's weird how some colors photograph.  The background in this isn't nearly as opalescent as it looks in the photo.  The background is a piece of thin Silk Fusion setting on top of dyed Bamboo felt.   With this piece I wanted to play with adding a sense of movement to otherwise stagnant, still, geometric shapes.  I began by adding some angled lines then topped the composition with some dyed cheesecloth.  I quilted the cheesecloth with swirls and stitched whirls in the negative space.  The shapes and lines are top stitched along their edges.  I'm quite pleased with the juxtaposition provided by both the cheesecloth against the shapes and the curved stitching against the hard edges of the shapes. All in all, I like this piece.

Till tomorrow,

Heather 

 

Art Every Day, 1/09/13,

Good Morning,

Some days, all I want to do is free motion quilt. Today was one of those days. So, I hunted out a hand dye that would challenge me a bit and I found this red violet/yellow green combo that I had resist dyed using a triangle folding technique.  Because this color combination is temperature neutral and neither color comes forward or recedes, I new I would have a pretty good challenge on my hands as far as creating any depth with the quilting - I like a challenge! I thought that I could probably do something cool with the intersection of the pinks so I ripped the fabric with that intersection in the center of the rectangle. I layered it with black batting and some backing and began stitching.

The flower was simple because the pink sections looked like petals so I began with that. I really like what I did with the pink segments in the lower portion. I think they look fun and whimsical. I wanted to really show of the stitched flower so echo quilting in the green negative space was the easiest answer. I still don't think the piece has much depth but the contrast in color and stitch line is allowing the flower to dominate.

The whole thing is bordered with twisted lengths of ripped fabric and a zig zag stitch. It was very satisfying to find a good use for this very funky fabric and I got my ya-ya's in by beginning the day with free style (no marking) free motion quilting.

Hope you enjoy your day, till tomorrow,

Heather

Art Every Day, 1/08/13

Good Afternoon,
Here is today's installation.  It is similar to the piece that I made on the 3rd.  The colors are slightly different and the quilting is really different. On this piece, I heavily quilted the red dye painted batting with a small stone stitch. The black background is quilted in a miniscule stipple to make it recede. I added the yellow, horizontal shapes in thread to heighten the visual interest.  Though this one is similar to the one from the 3rd, as far as design motif, it has a very different look because of the way it is quilted.
I've become enamored with this stylized circle.  We'll likely be seeing lots more of them.
 Till tomorrow,
Heather

p.s. I thank you Ms. Christa for your response to the last four entries - It makes me quite content to know that you are joining in on these lessons with me.

 

Art Every Day, 1/07/13,

With today's piece, I was exploring the manipulation of line.  The stamped flower is very line based. I wanted to see what would happen to those lines if I separated them; how much of the continuity would be lost, if the motif would be lost or feel incoherent. And, as usual, I also wanted to see how the stitch line played out against the shapes in the foreground. 

I am quite please with how well the flower motif held it's own even when separated by about 3/8" and with how well the quilting done in the yellow green portion helps it act like a frame around the flower print. 

Mostly, I really like the organic mushiness of the monks cloth and cheese cloth along the bottom and how the vintage glass buttons play on top of it and it's strange but strong relationship with the large square motifs above it.  Color is so powerful. It even managed to cohere these two very diverse design elements. 

It's a great start to the day.

Till tomorrow,

Heather 

Art Every Day, 1/6/13,

Here is my project for today. I was going for something nest like, but I'm not sure that I hit that particular nail on the head. I like it, a little - I like the scrunchy background and all of the colorful bits of thread from our dyeing dryer.  What I'm not happy with is the shape of the opening. It's a little vaginal - which was not my intention.  I love the color - it's hard to go wrong with direct complements.
The rest of my day, a blessed day off, I will spend reading Barbara Kingsolver's new book; Flight Behavior.
Till tomorrow,
Heather

Daily Art, 1/5/13,

Here is today's daily art installation.  With this piece I really wanted to experience how the stitch line can  relate to the fabric that it is stitched on.  I simply laid the colored pieces on top of dye painted batting, using segments that are squares and rectangles with no lines added.  I placed them all so that they surrounded and were on top of the black square to help it recede.  The black square was quilted with a bold sun motif in pale yellow and the rest was stitched with "straight" lines (all free motion) that echo the black square.  Those straight lines really unified all of the warm colored squares and rectangles making them work together more as a team than as individual pieces, an affect I was striving for.  Had I quilted each colored section individually with it's own stitch design, each section would have wanted to play on it's own and unification would not have been achieved.
Unlike yesterday's piece that took just 30 minutes to quilt, but 1 hour to cut away, this piece took just 45 minutes from beginning to end and, I really like it. Now, I'm off to the dye studio to dye some pieces for more cut work.
Happy creating,
Heather 

Art Every Day, 1/4/13,

Here is today's new piece.  It really doesn't seem to matter which direction it hangs - it looks good any way. Good balance I guess. I'm finding that one of the best things about this art every day process is that because the piece are quite small I get to try out new techniques to see if I like them before jumping into a larger project.
This piece features a very simple process of layering two layers of fabrics on top of a piece of dye painted batting with a backing fabric behind it.  Then I quilted the flowers and leaves in an orange thread and filled the negative space with a filigree design in a green thread. Once all of the quilting was done I then cut away the top layer of fabric just inside the stitch lines of the flowers to reveal the fabric beneath.  I cut away the second layer of fabric in the center of each of the flowers to reveal the violet dyed batting. The smaller photo above shows what it looked like with just two of the flowers cut away. When I was done with all of the cutting I zig zagged some rattail just inside the outer edge of the piece to finish it up.
What fun!  Now, I want to dye some fabric with concentric circles of color to layer under another fabric and stitch a mandala.  Love, love, love this technique.

Till tomorrow,
Heather

 

Art Every Day, 1/3/13

Good morning everyone.  Here is today's little art installation. I was bragging yesterday at the studio about how excited I am to have culled all of the commercial fabrics and stuff I really don't need from my home studio.  Low and behold, what I needed this morning to make this piece - I did not have.  I use Fine Fuse or Misty Fuse as an iron on adhesive - but alas, it has no release paper and I did not have a Teflon pressing sheet or any parchment paper in my studio at home. They were all here at the studio in Golden. So, this piece took me a little bit longer than I thought it would, 'cause I had to hand cut the adhesive separately from the fabrics pieces - laborious! 

But, all said and done, I really like this piece.The triadic color way is working beautifully and the interaction between the circular shapes, the long blue lines, the organic yellow shape and the horizontal stitching lines in the negative space are just what I was trying to achieve.

This little experiment of making art each morning is giving me benefits that I just didn't expect.  I feel on fire. Not just creatively, but in every aspect of my life. Go Me!

Till tomorrow,

Heather

Art Every Day ~ Day #2, 1/2/13

Here is today's piece of art. I really loved this group of red/gray/black fabrics that I dyed, but no one else seemed to like them as much as me - so, I guess they're supposed to be mine.

I wanted to see how my little bird looked stitched out without coloring her in.  I like the sketched look and how without adding extra color, the stitched lines remain dominate. I also like the idea of mixing a modern color way along with a modern technique and embellishments with something as vintage looking as the dyed gray eyelet and the stylization of the bird.

Happy Creating,
Heather

New Beginnings ~ My "Art Every Day" Project for 2013

Art Every Day ~ Day #1, Tuesday, January 1, 2013

I'm one of those rare people who feel that blogging can be very self centered and boring (I say as I sit here writing in hopes that someone will be reading...). So, I don't like to do it unless I feel like I've got something valuable to offer.  Last year and the year before, it was easy for me to add entries because I was doing my "Machine Quilting Challenge". Many of you joined me in that journey and I thank you for the company.

Well, I've been wanting to get back to the blogging, but have been waiting to be inspired by a new idea to share.  Low and behold, as I was up late one night I came across some art on the web that led me to  the website of an artist that was creating something every day.  So, after I entered the words "art every day" into my search box, I was pleasantly surprised by how many people are making art every day.

I am constantly advising my students to find a way to include creative endeavors in their lives every day, but in the last year, I've struggled to get into my personal studio.  I spend so much time in the highly creative activity of dyeing fabrics, fibers and other goodies, that I thought I was getting my creative juices going on a regular basis - but, not so much.

So, I've decided to challenge myself - really challenge myself and not only spend creative time in my studio each day, but to make a finished piece of art every day.  Yes, every day. I was really surprised at how many of my co-workers and friends tried to talk me out of the "every day" idea, suggesting once a week instead.  But, like many other creatives, I really need the daily practice so, I am not heeding their advice, instead, I'm jumping in nipples and all! Here are the parameters that I've set up to follow;

• Each piece will measure 9" x 11" - This will make them easy to store and easy to show.
• Each piece will be made from nothing but my own hand dyed/hand painted products - I don't want to invite any other artists into my playroom.
• Each piece will include layering and machine stitch - no piecing allowed. It takes too long and I don't really like it much.
• I will strive to finish each piece in just one hour - strive, but not kill myself doing so!
• My goal is to use the experience to learn more about the interaction of shape and line with negative space. I will also work on adding movement and direction to each piece.
• Each day I will upload a photo of each new piece to this blog and will add just a few sentences to describe the process of making it or what I learned.

The photo above is my first piece. It uses a base of dye painted batting, some solid black canvas, hand painted cotton and hand dyed cotton and cheesecloth. I really liked it until I added the stitched black flowers. They make the negative space too crowded.  I've got to learn that just because I like to stitch something doesn't mean that it's going to look good where I stitched it (I know this - I just don't like practicing it!)

Happy New Year to You All,
Heather