Archive for December, 2013

fa la la la la la la la la

Sunday, December 22nd, 2013

While many females seem to be in various stages of holiday coma I am in the studio, listening to classical music and designing. By not leaving the house today I have become even more insulated from the hurriedness of the season.

Several decades ago I unplugged the Christmas machine and began to create my ideal holiday which shockingly did not include baking 200 iced snowmen and gingerbread or going to the woods to cut a live tree, hauling it home, decorating it for hours and spending the rest of its natural life either watering it or trying to keep the domestic animals out of it; then fast forward 2 weeks to the undressing of the tree, putting all the ornaments away and hauling the dying tree out of the house, getting sap all over and vacuuming needles until kingdom come. Or making stops at every boutique in the county to find just the perfect trinket to decorate the shelf in the guest bath. Or the buying of stuff that no one needs or likely wants just for the sake of having something to gift them. Or the countless parties with eggnog, sugar, glogg, bourbon balls, toffee, coffee, gingerbread people, See’s candy and more eggnog and oy why do I feel so awful?

And it IS women’s work! When was the last time you heard a guy utter how stressed he was about the holidays? My choosing to do minimal decoration and celebrate family is the secret to why I have time to make art on the winter solstice. OMG only 4 more shopping days!

So back to the studio where I have been laboring for a couple weeks now on an abstract landscape…actually two identical landscapes but in different seasons. I spent nearly a week fighting with the oak trees in the background. My in-house art critic reported that the trees were the wrong size and not in proportion with the foreground. After I threw him out of the studio, I removed all the trees, cut them smaller and re-pinned 100 oak trees in the background. They still looked too big to me so I called in the live-in art critic and asked and he agreed they were still too big. So I cut them down again, only this time I cut the previous trees into quarters. So what if the edges were not round? It’s art! In pops uninvited the art critic and says the trees don’t work. Grrr!

At that point I am so hating this work anyway and why did I start this dumb thing and where’s a can of red paint when you need it yada, yada, yada?! Off came every single tree as calm spread throughout the studio. As my friend Jenny Lyon says …a forehead slapping moment! I decided to stitch the oak trees instead… Duh.

I spent most of today building fences. They are now perfection and tomorrow when there are just 3 shopping days…gasp! I will proceed onward with a renewed sense of adventure.

Posted in new work, shapes | 3 Comments »

got socks?

Thursday, December 19th, 2013

I used to knit a lot. In fact I knit my first sweater, with buttonholes no less, when I was a teenager and recovering from major surgeries.

When my mother died suddenly on my 47th birthday I picked up knitting needles and knit a coat. I didn’t follow a pattern. I just knit…a visual manifestation of my grief.

I learned to knit wool socks about 15 years ago partially as a self-dare…oh I could never do that, they are so difficult, they are round with many needles! Not only could I do it but I enjoyed it and have been doing it since.

When I travel I knit socks. When I have to sit through an important meeting that would otherwise put me to sleep, I knit socks. Knitting socks allows my visually oriented brain to focus on the subject at hand while keeping my hands busy.

As part of my recent closet purge I happened across a myriad of knit socks as well as wonderfully designed cotton mens socks of which I have also amassed a collection. Some designer finally said heh, why should men (and women with long feet) have to wear ugly socks? So my collection of awesome cotton socks is now growing too.

Today I ventured into a store (which I generally avoid in December) and bought some nifty drawer organizers for my burgeoning sock collection. I wasn’t sure how many to buy as I was putting them into two drawers. I bought just enough with two slots to spare. I can now finish the current pair on the needles and just one more then I need another organizer or to toss some of the older ones.

I am pretty jazzed to have this art sculpture in my sock drawer!

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

just because i can…

Tuesday, December 17th, 2013

Years ago I was waxing on about something I should do when a friend said…“Just because you can doesn’t mean you have to!” This little tidbit of wisdom has since been a beacon in a sea of indecision and revisited again in the middle of last night. Just because I can doesn’t mean I have to! Sheer brilliance…

I had been sorting & culling clothes from my closet and cloth from my studio over the weekend. It was a combo of creating robust energy in my surroundings and prepping for year-end tax-deductible donations. As the daughter of a war bride I inherited many of her quirky habits; you know the ones like recycling and reusing! Additionally cast off clothing was always given to someone whose face you would recognize. I continue to have that quality to this day where I want to either remake old clothing or give it to someone I know. Fast forward 60 years… upcycling and repurposing are now the chic words for remaking.

There is a store in Berkeley that sells all kinds of repurposed clothing. Recently I bought a gorgeous cashmere scarf there thinking of course that I could have done this myself.

The idea that I could repurpose tired fleece pullovers into some jazzy, snazzy one-of-a-kind jacket/vest/pullover/you name it had been festering for a while now. I’ve obsessed about the pattern, should I use something ready made, an old pattern or perhaps design a new one? So yesterday I tossed in an ‘intend to repurpose’ pile two fleece vests…one with broken zipper, a brand new pullover for the man who refuses to wear fleece and a tired old red pullover.The pile nearly covered my ironing board which then created unwanted stress about more stuff in my studio!

As I lay in bed the fleece transformation came to mind. I just wasn’t sure which pattern, which shape, how do I get the neck right, yada, yada, yada until voila…an epiphany! Just because I can doesn’t mean I have to! Just because I have the equipment and skills to do this task I don’t have to do it. Undoubtedly the people repurposing clothing love doing it. I don’t!

When I got up this morning I went directly to the fleece and repurposed the pile! I put the new pullover on the shelf for me to wear, the two vests went into the charity bag and the red fleece back on the shelf because sometimes there are days when a gal just needs some red, old or not!

I also sorted my fabric and pulled a lot of small pieces and books for the Legacy, a local thrift shop carrying sewing supplies.

All the remaining fabrics were arranged by color.They had been previously sorted by color and I laughed about how one value was now darker than the last time I sorted it. I am about to start a new series and the thought has come about making each piece in a different color-way in an effort to whittle down the stash. Hmmm….just because I can…

When I was a youngster learning the ways of my depression era parents it was considered selfish and even verboten to refuse to do things one could do. Today it just seems incredibly brilliant!

Posted in color, procrastination, surface design, Uncategorized, wisdom | 1 Comment »