Artist's Voice
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 9:00AM Do you know that you are helping me in my artistic journey?
The act of writing and trying to share my ideas with you helps to crystallize my thoughts. Otherwise, my creativity just get shuffled in with the let-out-the-dog, clean-the-kitchen, go-to-work, clean-the-toilet mantra of everyday life. It is difficult for artistic things to take shape amongst all the noise.
Over the last 11 months I have given a lot of thought about my artistic voice. We are all unique; here are some things that make up my unique voice:
Techniques I don’t enjoy: Precision piecing on a large scale ( I have a great sense of accomplishment with the first block…not so much with the 20th block.) Don’t misunderstand, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE a quilt with hundreds of precisely pieced half square triangles. I just do not love piecing all those half square triangles.
Techniques I sort of enjoy: Appliqué (machine or freezer paper), silk screening and stamping when I can get predictable results ( I like to be in control). Serendipity is fine but only occasionally!
Techniques I really enjoy: Painting, computer manipulation of images, paper piecing designs that look complicated (but are not) and free motion machine quilting.
Design elements I struggle with:Too much subtlety (some of my quilts are best viewed from 2’ not 20’ away) and color palettes I personally would not want to live with
Design elements I am drawn to: Borders, leaves/trees, birds/wings, architecture, rural/farm, vintage photographs, and tribute quilts. I try to only do other’s designs for learning a technique or taking a workshop.
Most importantly, I need to do original work. For me, it is the most nourishing and satisfying.
half square triangle in artist voice
Reader Comments (1)
I absolutely agree with you Suzan, regular writing does help to formulate the ideas and thoughts.