my work - Flag 08

Flag 08 - family
somewhere when making this flag I hit my stride in using stitch in the making process. Embracing the slowness and the concentration required, this deep concentration gives to me a great deal of peace. I am also feeling like I can create a little finesse with the stitch now, rather than awkward accidental beauty.

amazing discovery - something for Amanda

Surfing the interwebs as I do for inspiration - I went to check on a fav website by Keri Smith and for some reason I got jumped to a post on July 9th 2008. I think it was written for another Amanda, but I also think it has been written for me. The title even says it - truthful things about being an artist and a mother, (for amanda).

One of those moments that lights my thoughts and feelings that I am part of a bigger system, a message written 2 years previously that speaks to one of my burning questions. As I finally hit upon my creative gold am I willing to risk it for another life that includes being a parent?

Today it is my Dad's birthday, he would have been 65.... he didn't make it. In times like this when life, death and meaning are so big in my daily life. It makes the parenting question have a different light. It feels like such a gift to make the discovery of Keri's writing.

Maybe a reverse birthday present from Dad.
x

This week has been a little different, not as much making, more feeling, my flags are still progressing and there is more to share and for something different snapshots of the making in the environments I work in (bus,my room, college).

my work - Flag 07

Flag 07 - untitled 07

This was my first flag where I distinctly and specifically was drawing with stitch. I followed my instincts and stitched from a feeling. The flag was prepared cutting up family clothing with a really bad pair of scissors (have since invested in sewing scissors) then my painting it with gesso, next step inspired what to do next.

I am guessing it is against all principles of what should be done, but I am genuinely discovering things as I go. Just like I did when I made things when i was a kid, with no formal instruction or person who knew such things, I made made concoctions, of wood, leaves, nails, or badly making barbie clothes.

my work - Flag 06

Flag 06 - oh Perrier how fizzy the sound

my work - Flag 05

Flag 05 - the places where he lived

my work - Flag 04

Flag 04 - face in the dirt

This project will have 65 flags, I will share each on my blog and it will be no easy feat.

They be shown as flags only maybe only as photos, or in situ or maybe they will burn. All I know is I I need to make this work, I am note sure where it will lead or become.

I am trusting that it will head in it's own direction and the making will be my focus.

my work - Flag 03

Flag 03 - the magic of paradise

artist to watch - Nicholas Hedges

on the vast interweb yesterday I discovered Nicholas Hedges who is currently artist in residence in Newscastle, Australia. I was moved by his work, and his articulation of time, discovery and his art and in writing on his many blogs. In my current personal work I am referring to memories and family and the below jumped out, 'the past too is like this. It appears fixed in its final shape by history, but when we observe at length we begin to see things differently.... the shape not unlike the present constantly chnages it shapes around us; because the pas was once present' Nicholas Hedges.

here are the links to his websites and blogs:
the lockup residency
personal blog
mine the mountain

my work - Flag 02

I promise to reveal more as I feel I want or able to, in the meantime - FLAG 02.

my work - Flag 01

On the topic of my current personal work, I have lots to tell but I want the work to say it more.

The first of a particular number, FLAG 01

'authentic' the word and all it's baggage

adj.

1. Conforming to fact and therefore worthy of trust, reliance, or belief: an authentic account by an eyewitness.
2. Having a claimed and verifiable origin or authorship; not counterfeit or copied: an authentic medieval sword.
3. Law. Executed with due process: an authentic deed.
4. Music.
   1. Of, relating to, or being a medieval mode having a range from its final tone to the octave above it.
   2. Of, relating to, or being a cadence with the dominant chord immediately preceding the tonic chord.
5. Obsolete. Authoritative.

[Middle English autentik, from Old French autentique, from Late Latin authenticus, from Greek authentikos, from authentēs, author.]

authentically au·then'ti·cal·ly adv.

SYNONYMS authentic, bona fide, genuine, real, true, undoubted, unquestionable. These adjectives mean not counterfeit or copied: an authentic painting by Corot; a bona fide transfer of property; genuine crabmeat; a real diamond; true courage; undoubted evidence; an unquestionable antique.
ANTONYM counterfeit

acknowledgement to http://www.answers.com/topic/authentic

part of me has a sense right now that this word is now in the category of overuse. The perplexing thing is I don't even have a word before that I have felt this way about. In recent weeks I have been super busy and engrossed, in love and enthralled with my life of making. It is perplexing that something about the word authentic and authenticity has been really bothering me.

I have been thinking about writing a post about a moment that could be described a breakthrough, where my art becomes more authentic but quite frankly that word now holds a lot of baggage for me. Right now that words rings alert for a tosser. So you can see it is bringing up a lot of feelings.

I was even thinking of avoiding this blog altogether and never posting again, maybe it is all a giant waste of time.

Never the less I am here, I am in a new place my personal project and art has become incredible personal and once again I feel reinvigorated and like I moving towards goodness. At previous moments like this I may have described this as being more authentic but these descriptions have caused a reaction. Which I find interesting in itself as I remember many many years ago reading the seminal Sarah Ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance and all the talk of authenticity was inspiring and revolutionary, and I guess the word and all it holds for me has now moved somewhere else.