Inspiration with katie armstrong
The ever inspiring, the ever wonderful - Katie Armstrong and her latest beautiful animation.
Go see her Tumblr to keep in the loop on her process, life and creations. ONE MORE TIME!
Katie also has a vimeo channel - here!
gratitude
A photo from my commute, currently consciously recognising the fantabulous aspects of my life, of which there are many. One last week was the sunshine pouring in through the train window as I commuted, my favourite building glowing in an unusual London morning. I stopped my stitching and took an iphone hipstamatic photo.
my work - completed heart flag
So this is the first image I have posted since last year of a finished flag. I am currently nearing the end of this current making process with my prayer flags. It is like reaching the end of a really good book as you get closer to the end you almost want to slow down reading to make it last longer while at the same time being desperate to see where the conclusion leads.
Really lucky to be enjoying my day job so much at the moment while being in my usual quandry about what to do next with my usual thinking of sorting out my life, starting a business etc etc etc
The best way for me to be is just to go straight back to my making process where my focus strengthens and all tigers of the mind disappear.
my work - the process of the heart part II
Following on my my drawing monoprint experiments, with this flag on boxing day using my little magic red sewing machine(a Christmas gift) I stitched onto the canvas.
my work - the process
There are many steps along the way as I am making 64 flags. One of them has been experimenting with drawn monoprints directly onto canvas and other fabrics. After a few attempts I think the results have been ok. Make the decision on this technique for yourself.
making making
When I am creating and making there is a certain sense of peace and joy that envelopes me..... pure pleasure on a stick. Even when I am going through the dirty dark bits I am still having a great time. This includes making cakes, cooking when not for pure function, making of any type of image or stitch. So when I was sent this photo of an early me it pretty much summed up how I feel today, and has certainly become a fav photo of little me.
This photo reminds me that I knew all this when I was young, there were just many years when I forgot and it really took me until my late twenties to be able to hold on to what I knew.
kelly rae: why photos mean the world to me.
kelly rae: why photos mean the world to me.: I loved this post from kelly rae and it reminded me of how I feel about photos from when I was a baby. Also a reminder of why I am so attached now to photographs and especially any I discover of myself when I was a baby or little girl.
away for a long time making
I have been away from this blog for a long time, working working, or should I say most of the time stitching stitching!
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.
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
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.
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 04
Flag 04 - face in the dirtThis 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.
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 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.
- Conforming to fact and therefore worthy of trust, reliance, or belief: an authentic account by an eyewitness.
- Having a claimed and verifiable origin or authorship; not counterfeit or copied: an authentic medieval sword.
- Law. Executed with due process: an authentic deed.
- Music.
- Of, relating to, or being a medieval mode having a range from its final tone to the octave above it.
- Of, relating to, or being a cadence with the dominant chord immediately preceding the tonic chord.
- 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.
