On My Ever-evolving Relationship With My Art

Today I'm sending information on our themed Thanksgivings to NextAvenue

 This photo is 2009

I get up and write…it has been a habit for over 15 years. Back when I wrote by hand in hard-cover journals, from the time I was in college and swore to myself that I’d never let him censor me again, through the Seventies when I lied to myself because of him, to the Eighties, when I hid my journals so I could write freely--and liberated them, mailing the collection to my friend, Fran…they were free before I was. I switched to computer journals in 2004…my hands started to hurt, the presage of arthritis, and I could hide my writing on the computer.

Small plates Thanksgiving  2013

Lately I have been translating my scattered Heroine’s Journey 2 information into concentrated day-by-day essays, and am translating all the photos I took, much of the paper ephemera, into concrete and digital form. As I write more for public consumption, I must exercise more discipline, to organize, make observations that resonate with others, create a finished work out of raw material.

Written/drawn/pasted version of my trip...a work in progress

Leaving Iowa, July 28,2014

 

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Do I draw every day? Do I care that only 10 people out of the billions on the planet look at my blog? How important is it to an artist—to me--to have her work seen, purchased, desired? Why does it seem easier for me to write than to draw?...is putting pieces of fabric and thread together less important, because easier than drawing or painting? Latest portrait below, not finished. Scott Johns.

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I read more about writers writing than about painters painting, perhaps because much writing on visual art is dry and removed. Practice the craft daily is common advice. Anyone who is interested can be taught to manage the tools, but there is a leap of magic in recognizing what’s Good work, when to stop, how to organize.

Fiber/words/images piece I'm working on today. I don't like the framing, am tempted to leave the black stuff at top and bottom off and cut down the overall size...leave it as is and make the next one better?

Impermanence of cleanliness or perfection…change…writing, drawing, and thinking about these topics seems to be what I do.

See the new travel journal essays at my other blog: http://www.hotflashwomen.blogspot.com/