Drastic Measures

Kristin today.

One of the art lessons that has made a lasting impression with me was an experience my dad had when he was in art school. He told me that after laboriously drawing the day's model, the instructor had all the students erase their work, turn it upside down, and start again. The moral of the story is not to think that your work is ever too precious for improvement.




I have been working on this quilt on and (mostly off) for over a decade. The whole tale is on my blog today. It had changed in meaning for me, and I have tried to bring it up to date. After much laboring, I have come to the realization that it is just not working, and I have to take drastic, art school type, measures.




Sometimes (probably more often than we are willing to admit) there comes a point where something just can't be fixed and it has to be tossed or completely reimagined. I decided for the latter and painted my heirloom quilt and then cut it up. I plan to stitch some bolder designs over the panels and mount them on canvas as wall decor. It still may not work, but at least I will have been bold and tried; besides, it's not like the original project was going anywhere anyway.



Interestingly, I just read an article on Ragged Cloth Cafe this morning about creativity and fugitive artwork. It's worth checking out.

playing

With plastic in my case. Hi, Natalya here to declare that I have fallen into a deep dark hole that is called experimentation. What if I try this? What if I now do this? What if.......

You would think that after playing around with a material for a while, let's say a year, you run out of the "what if's". Not true in my case.  At least not with the recycled plastic shopping bags. Or dryer sheets for that matter. Here are few detail shots of my recent experiments:

layered with packing material batting, stitched and painted with acrylics

dryer sheet painted with gesso

plastic drop cloth, drawn on and stitched

translucent plastics layered and machine stitched

layered, stitched and sponge painted with acrylics

It's a good thing that there are some deadlines looming, as they make me finish my experiments and draw conclusions. But the experimenting goes on even with the deadlines, it's so much fun I can't help myself. I must find out what if.....

What are you experimenting with?

My Inner Mad Scientist Has Taken Over

Liz Kettle here today...aka Experiment Girl!
Like some of my fellow 8 that Create artists I have been experimenting quite a bit this summer.

Is it the blazing summer sun that has us all asking 'hmmmm...what if I...'?

I don't have a ton of fascinating photos to share with you. I forgot to take one yesterday when the UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) exploded everywhere! But exploration is such a great topic that I thought it deserved some blog time even if I don't have dozens of inspiring photos...or any.

Being the Mad Scientist in the studio has a few drawbacks.

• It isn't visibly productive. At the end of the day yesterday I had a pile of what most people would chuck in the trash and embossing enamel everywhere. That stuff is like glitter in it's propensity to find it's way into ever nook and cranny.
• At least once in the middle of the scientific process you will find yourself saying...this is the stupidest idea I ever had...maybe more than once. Maybe more like 394 times!
• You will feel uncomfortable. 
• You will feel annoyed
• You will feel like chucking things
• You will feel disappointment
• And the big elephant in the room...you will feel frustrated!
• You WILL start talking to yourself. Hence the Mad Scientist label

But, you WILL also learn a lot about the subject of your experiments.

You may uncover a new way of looking at your work

or a new process that captivates your soul.

You may discover a very cool technique.

Even if all your experiments fail you will discover what doesn't work and one night at 3am a couple months from now you will get an out of the blue bolt of lightening inspiration that sends you running back to the laboratory excited to ask again...what if I...