Motivation

I haven't posted in a while.  I don't know why, but every time I come to the computer with the intention of writing something, I find a million excuses not to.  Where has my Motivation gone?  It has been a stressful Spring and Summer personally and I have come up with every possible excuse not to blog.  Similarly, I have produced little fiber art over the past couple of months.  I need a swift kick in the rear, so hopefully, this post is a start.

The trip to ArtFields that I wrote about in my last post was definitely the highlight of the year.  It was incredibly stimulating, but somehow that energy faded much too fast.

The piece I created for our regional SAQA exhibit at the Savannah Quilt Show, "Downtown", was my entry into the Columbus Artists Guild Member Show in July.  It was awarded a blue ribbon, which was a real surprise.  I'm the only fiber artist (art quilter) in the guild and I'm never quite sure how the other members view my work--is it art, or is it craft?  Everyone is very nice, but I don't go to many meetings, since they're held in the evenings and it's a 100 mile roundtrip.  So, it's a nice validation of my work when I receive recognition in that show.  There are some very, very talented people (almost all painters in one medium or another) who display their work every year.
 

I hate pictures of myself, but when they include my work with an award attached, I can deal with it.

I attended a 3 day class in Atlanta last month, taught by Esterita Austin.  If you're not familiar with her, check her out on google--she has a website.   There were about 15 of us in the class--all part of the GA/SC regional SAQA group.  It was a great experience.  We all had to bring large, close-up photos of ourselves to do a self-portrait.  It was really hard to look at that 11 x 17 view of just my face, but the class was very interesting and definitely took me outside my usual comfort zone. 

We were given a yard of multi-color, hand-dyed fabric (think purple, blue, orange, yellow) and told to use that to complete our portrait.  It was an exercise in looking at value and not color.  If you go to Esterita's website and look at the portrait section, you'll get the idea.  It was amazing that they all ended up looking like the person.  We did rely on fabric paint to do the eyes and highlight some areas and blend others.  I'm still working on mine.  We are supposed to finish our pieces by the first of February and put together an exhibit.

My 3 entries in the Fine Art Show at the GA Nat'l Fair were delivered to Perry last week.  They include "Downtown" (shown above), "End of Day", and "Simple Pleasures", which is my latest big project.

 

"End of Day"

"Simple Pleasures"

    I have a trunk show coming up October 28th, with the Spirited Quilters Guild in Duluth, GA.  I'm looking forward to that--it's always a fun time, and I'm looking forward to finding my Motivation.  I'm sure it's around here somewhere.