Last night, the teacher of the Art Appreciation class introduced me as a fiber artist. I find it interesting that after all these years, my first response to being introduced as any kind of artist is to say, "Oh, I'm not really an artist." Even as I've been paid for my writing work, I tend to deflect being introduced as a poet or a writer. Yet anyone who knows me knows that I spend much of my day writing. I get up at an ungodly hour (in the eyes of most people) so that I have time to do my own writing. Then I go to work where I write e-mails and documents of all sorts. When there's time, I take breaks and work on my own writing. If we're still allowing people to have smoking breaks, then I shall claim my poetry breaks!
I used to think of myself as a fiber artist, back when I was doing more of that kind of art. Not only did I make quilts, but I made these assemblages out of cloth and fibers and often beads:
Once I made full-size quilts.
Now it seems to take forever to make a baby quilt.
So, let me think about what I've done since we moved to our new house. Could I still call myself a fiber artist?
I'm still thrilled by fibers, and I've been helping a friend as she devises cool scarves out of textured yarns, ribbons, and other threads. But I haven't done any of that myself.
I've finished a baby quilt that I made myself, and I helped with another. I've also made curtains for the cottage, a project which took several week-ends. It's not exactly art, but I didn't work from a pattern, so it took a lot of plotting and planning.
In fact, it's important for me to remember that I had two big projects this fall that kept me from returning to other art forms. I helped my spouse reconstruct the cottage. And I learned how to teach online and then taught two classes. Those activities consumed a lot of free time.
Now that it looks like we'll be mandated to stay in our offices more than we once were, I wonder if there's a way to bring fiber arts into my work day. The benefit to creating with words is that it looks like I'm working on work projects, no matter what file is open. If I'm weaving a creation of fibers and beads, hmmm.
I'd like to do assemblage at work. Later, I'll post more pictures from last night's field trip, but I'm fascinated by the work of Samantha Salzinger who creates small vistas and then photographs them from a very close frame. So you might end up with this picture that looks like a volcanic explosion but it's actually a creation made of cotton and paint in a shoebox:
Could I do this at work? Hmmm.
Speaking of work, it's time for me to get ready for spin class and then work. I will continue to think about how to weave art projects of all sorts into the fabric of my days, regardless of where I spend those days.
1 comment:
Thank you for the link to Salzinger's work, which is so imaginative.
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