Martha Stewart

Over on Rhymes With Magic, Heather Eddy mentions the book The Martha Rules (Martha Stewart's book about business). Heather's paper foldings are amazing, and it's worth taking a look, as well, for the great Neil Gaiman quote on a recent post. But, back to the business at hand. From time to time there are lists of influential women/influential men and women, etc.--you know the type. I've always wondered why Martha Stewart isn't on these lists. (Perhaps she is, and I've missed it.), although the burgeoning DIY business of today--all the books, blogs, and cable channels--really owe their success in a way to Martha. She was the one who took "arts and crafts" out of the "macaroni necklace for mom" realm and made it universally appealing, giving people of both genders the confidence that they could do just about anything if they just figured out (or were shown) how. She asked the question we all ask, "I wonder how that's done," found the answer (yes, with lots of help), and shared that answer. Whatever anyone thinks of her personally, I think it's a shame that this has not been acknowledged. (And isn't it interesting, likewise, that she went to federal prison when there are so many huge, obvious, blatant good ole boy securities law violators who did real harm who have never even been given a slap on the wrist.) Okay, stepping off the soapbox. And drifting back over 20 years--I remember sitting with my dark-haired child watching a young Martha fix three different kinds of Thanksgiving  Day dinners and decorate three different ways. We were both enthralled. (I mean, she even took the wheelbarrow out to the garden and harvested the pumpkins for the pies, for pete's sake!) That year (and that year only!), I made the turkey in pastry crust (which looked just like Martha's), and I still slip herbs and butter up under the skin of a turkey before I roast it all these years later--just like Martha. I bought the book on sale at a used bookstore years later, and it still was amazing.

And if you really want to try living the Martha life, here's the January Calendar. Whew! Okay, I'm over Martha. But thanks for the memories (and, Martha, I still get rave reviews about my moist, flavorful turkey, girlfrend).

No Stress Art

Found via Fiber Art Now. :

This video about artist Peter Kiss

Art of Craft | Peter Kiss from Resolve Design on Vimeo.

2012 - Art goals

Okay, the blogs are full of discussions on goal-setting for the new year (and I can tell that lots of folks resolved to blog more often, because the first three days of 2012 were sizzling with new posts from folks who generally post only sporadically). For 2012:

1. Complete one year of public collaboration on the "Looking for Lake Ella" living library project.

1.  By September 2012 (National Literacy Month) have 4 bookhouses installed at the Lake, and coordinate at least one public park event to celebrate the bookhouse pilot project
2.  Join with others in collecting at least 25 oral histories related to Lake Ella memories
3. Talk to the organic growers who come to the Lake once a week about becoming "living books" for the library project
4. Develop and conduct at least two interactive artmaking adventures at the Lake, including an artist bookmaking workshop to encourage written memories of  Lake Ella
5. Contact food merchants for possible discounts to increase their business during events
6. Contact the  American Legion Hall for use of their great space for public projects
7. Finalize plans for a collaborative community art project to be initiated and completed in 2013 with the goal of adding a permanent art project in the environs of the lake

2.  Work 20 hours a week in the studio (thank you Lisa Call for motivating me to put a specific number of hours on this goal instead of the usual "put in more studio time")

3. Complete 4 additional icon pieces for the leaper series

4. Develop 3 letterpress projects for the leaper series

5. Complete 3 large wallpieces for the leaper series

6. Find a venue for exhibiting the leaper pieces in 2013

7. Research and find a better way to keep track of all the stuff running through my head

8. Dedicate work and attention to Lisa Call's "Series" workshop.

9. Participate in Sharon Boggon's TAST challenge to expand hand embroidery "vocabulary"

10. Launch AFCs project collaborative project

11. Complete a wrapping cloth for mom's 2012 gift, working with Karen Ruane

12. Complete 3 artist books

Letterpress

Pamphlet printed at Bookworks in Asheville, NC. Part of "Leap" series dealing with transitions in the lives of girls and women.

Out and About in the Rest of the World - My kind of fabric shop!

Cafe Ray-Stitch in London (a bit of a commute, but tempting!).

Happy Holidays

Just some lightheartedness silliness.

Inspirational quote and more Pre-New Year's Frenzy

This from  the amazing artist Chuck Close, but found via this really interesting  fiber artist Susan Lenz (who apparently had a pre-New Year's Frenzy of her own):

"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case."
-Chuck Close.

Still fighting the housecleaning battle. I really want to be done before 2012.

In the New Year, do you want to end clutter? Lots of people on the web think it can be done in ten easy step: http://www.tinyrevolution.us/2010/09/29/end-clutter-in-10-steps/ (come on y'all--really? If this person is decluttering, how come there are multiple identical articles on those lovely shelves?) http://www.hodu.com/clutter.shtml (I particularly like the step that requires that you make a list of all areas of your life that need organization--guaranteed to spiral you into a deep depression curable only by a bottle of wine, a box of chocolates, and a good steamy bit of pulp fiction.) http://www.oprah.com/home/Peter-Walshs-10-Tips-to-De-Clutter-Your-Home ("create a hanger system for the clothes you wear most" - shortcut version: wear jeans and dark tee-shirts everywhere--have  two hangers for the two no-iron man-tailored long sleeve shirts that go over the dark tees to make them look grown-up and respectable). Anyway, you get it - google ten ways to de-clutter, and the universe is at your service. Ain't it grand?

Pre-New Year's Frenzy

I hate to start another year with my house and brain full of clutter, so  I decided to attack the house (and it's fighting back big time)! Moving the home office from its cramped quarters to a larger room, and resolved not to transfer chaos. Here's the before picture. I'll post an after picture if I survive.

In the meantime, maybe in the new year you'd like to:

Write every day: Try 750words.com

Sketch every  day: Be inspired by Elizabeth Perry. Back in 2007, she had already reached 1000 daily sketches, and she is still sketching today.

Run, walk, exercise, eat right every day: Be coached for free at SparkPeople.com

More Interesting People Doing Interesting Things

Maybe by the week-end, I'll actually have some work of my own to post, but I've been on a run of chaos since early October. In the meantine, Deirdre Adams has a posted a four-part description of how she conceived and executed a public art commission. She described the project as being a "new public art project to be installed at Anythink Bennett, a library serving residents of Bennett, Strasburg, and Watkins, a group of small towns on the eastern plains of Colorado. The project, whose theme is “Life on the Eastern Plains,” is the first in a planned series of collaborative, community-inspired artworks for the library district, under the umbrella theme of ”This is Who We Are.” This press release has full details." I'm hoping to embark on a multi-media community-based art project in 2012, so the information so generously provided is timely and helpful.

Interesting People Doing Interesting Things -

Stumbled upon the blog of Judy Martin of Ontario Canada. Lovely, touching work. This quote struck a chord: “Immensity is within ourselves. It is attached to a sort of expansion of being that life curbs and caution arrests, but which starts again when we are alone.” Gaston Bachelard . Be sure to scroll down through Ms. Martin's blog. It's worth spending some time there.

And this lovely Thanksgiving Day post from artist Christine Mauersberger.

Linocut Monogram

One of the exercises in Dijanne Cevaal's in linocut workshop is to develop a monogram print block. I like this idea a lot--the idea of having a personalized mark of some sort that could be stamped or printed on a piece of work. Anyway, the results were not too bad--not spectacular, but the seed of an idea. For the one on the left, the block was charged by dragging fabric paint across the surface using a credit card. The one on the right was charged using a damp sponge roller. Same print block. Interesting. These prints are on paper. There's an interesting discussion about the "rules of monogramming" and how they are shifting to accommodate societal changes here.

Linocuts - continued

A new type of lino surface - carved like butter, but didn't like to take the paint. Definitely need to practice my "inking" technique.

J. fabric paint on cotton

Jacquard fabric paint on paper

Take One Wire Hanger

and $10 worth of Christmas balls from the dollar store. Thirty minutes later--voila! Found by my daughter-in-law on pinterest which is--fair warning--a very mixed bag of interesting DIY projects and other "stuff" submitted by random individuals. Quick and dirty: buy a bunch of cheap balls (there were 80-100 in this wreath, 10 for a $1 at the Dollar Tree--get a variety of sizes). If necessary, hot glue the loop end to the ball (the loop end on the balls from the DT were permanently attached to the ball, so no need to glue) (By "loop," I mean the place where you would normally insert a hook if you were hanging the ball on a tree.). String the balls onto the hanger, twist together the hanger ends, and add bow. (Daughters and daughter-in-law made the wreaths while kids did their own crafting at the kids' table. A great post-Thanksgiving Day tradition!)

And if you're in the mood to munch while you snack, Kathleen Turner has some wonderful recipes on her blog (and some interesting quilt projects).

Skillbuilding - More Linocuts

Continuing--slowly--to work through Dijanne Cervaal's linocut exercises. This time, a small block for background patterns. No time to print, but I did do a shiva rubbing. I believe I'll switch from using a block form to using unmounted lino. That would enable me to use the baren effectively to get a better print and probably give added flexibility. I'm finding that doing lino print plates can be a nice "kitchen counter" kind of activity--something to keep handy at the kitchen counter and do some cutting in the odd moment. I used the kitchen counter method to get pieced quilt tops done when I had a house full of kids. Get the pieces cut, put each block into individual baggies, keep the sewing machine set up on the end of the breakfast bar, and stitch away in those bits of time that lurk in the cracks between school, sports, work. Yike. No substitute for those luxurious times when you could sit down and get lost in a project, but better than nothing!

Take a Stitch Tuesday Embroidery Challenge

One of the best deals on the web is Sharon Boggon's Take A Stitch Tuesdsay stitch challenge. Each week for 52 weeks, Sharon offers instruction on a hand embroidery stitch, and folks participating in the challenge learn the basic stitch (if they do not already know it) and then see how far they can push the stitch creatively. The TAST challenge offers two wonderful benefits. First, you become familiar with a variety of stitches, some of which may be new even to experienced embroiderers. Secondly, you have access to flickr sites and other sites where your fellow embroiderers post an amazing array of work. You can't help but be inspired.

The best part: it's all FREE! Register on the pintangle website, and prepare to add a lovely skill to your creative toolkit. Whether you participate in all 52 weeks of the challenge, or just come and go as time permits, TAST is something you won't want to miss.