2011 Challenge

Our InspiredArts Guild met the last week.  On the agenda was a decision regarding the 2011 challenge.  Several suggestions, ideas and random thoughts were made.  We ended up choosing Paul Klee's painting "The Balloon".  Everyone is fascinated by the images that this painting evokes.  The colors are a plus too - although we are not limited by color nor even by design.  Each of us will take this picture and redesign it in our own way.

Among our members' skills are felting, rug hooking, punchneedle, jewelry, beading, photography, stitchery - need I go on!  I can only imagine what each person will create with inspiration from this picture.

Luckily for us, and by design, we have given ourselves until the August meeting to meet the challenge.  I can hardly wait until the unveiling in August -- but then I don't want to hurry it because I too will be meeting this deadline and no there's no fun in hurrying!

"Art washes away the dirt of everyday life" - Anonymous

Abstract Design

 Art by San Base

abstract: (adj) ...of or pertaining to nonrepresentational art; using only, lines, colors, generalized or geometrical shapes, etc.

I'm thinking in the abstract these days.  So far my punchneedle has been very representational - landscape scenes and folk art birds.  My mind seems to see things all in neat formal patterns.  A tree here, carefully balanced against the sky and the mountains.  Not that there is anything wrong with that -- BUT these days I feel the urge to just put color and thread down on fabric in all sorts of patterns.  I want to feel the freedom of free-form shapes, of colors that I don't normally think of 'going together'.  I want to start a new journey!

Art by Georgia O'Keefe

I've been using the internet and books from the library to look at what constitutes abstract.  I've found that some of the designs are free of any desire to convey a thought or mind picture while others represent 'something' in their abstract forms.  I would love to look at an object or a landscape and be able to translate it in my mind (and eventually down through my fingers) into an abstract design.  To tell you the truth I'm not sure I can do it -- after all these many years thinking one way.  Can I turn my mind inside out (which is what it feels to me) and make stitchery that doesn't represent something 'real'?  Can I create my own reality through needle and thread? 

"There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality". - Pablo Picasso

"Planting Time"

Every time I've gone out recently I've seen another plot of land with the dirt turned and ready for planting.  What a sign of hope this is to me.  Each year people dig, and turn and prepare the earth for seeds and seedlings.  Each year there is the hope that the sun and the rain will bring forth yet another year of crops.  Can anything else be more hopeful?

This punchneedle design is a stylized vision of a local road winding past a turned field.  Notice the pale green trees/bushes in the foreground.  At this time of the year that is my own version of hope as our tree limbs are still bare of bud.  They will soon sprout their pale green leaves fulfilling spring's promise.

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all". - Emily Dickinson

Morning Has Broken

As I welcome this 'first day of spring' I can't help but sing!  While winter has the feel about it of curling up in a safe warm cocoon, spring has a 'busting out all over' feel.  Its time to stretch my arms to the sky and welcome the sun and the early green into my life.

Morning has broken, like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird

Praise for the singing, praise for the morning

Praise for the springing fresh from the word

Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven above

Like the first dewfall, on the the first grass

Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden

Sprung in completeness where his feet pass

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning

Born of the one light, Eden saw play

Praise with elation, praise every morning

God's recreation of the new day

                                                            written by Eleanor Farjean/sung by Cat Stevens

Happy Spring everyone!

"Homespun Heart" Bird

I really thought that my 'heart' month was over.  But then I came up with this design and just had to try it.  Here I am, ready for spring and all things green and I end up engaged with deep pinks/corals and blue.  I blame it on Caron's 'Wildflowers' yarn titled 'teak' -- once I saw the combination I had to use it.

This is the first time I've used 'Wildflowers' for the overall bird (rather than just the design) and it was an interesting experiment because it seems to have ended up looking 'homespun' - like a rag rug that has been made into a bird.  I discovered some wonderful grey buttons that I could use for eyes. I'm now on the lookout for 1/4" buttons in various colors.  Who knows what will come next - but I think I have hearts out of my system for awhile.

"Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken". - Albert Camus