Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Please Excuse me while I Whine

And here I am. In a creative funk. Feeling overwhelmed. Surrounded by so much beauty and inspiration, yet unable to capture it. I look at the incredible work of others in this webring, and should be inspired. Instead, I'm in that "I could never create anything so incredible" place. And that place sucks!

So, what to do? Scrubbing the kitchen floor comes to mind - I already cleaned bathrooms and organized my beads. If the kitchen floor doesn't cure me, I guess it will be off to tidy my stash. And read a few books. And watch the season finale of Lost. And wish I was on a tropical island, kept busy by freaky uber-natural occurences. Isn't uber a fun modifier? Or whatever grammatical part it is? AAARGH! Brain cannot focus.

I think maybe it is time to bring out the big guns: Barbara Olson's Journey of an Art Quilter, and Sandra Meech's Contemporary Quilts Design Surface and Stitch. I've been saving them for just such an emergency. Yup, I firmly believe that a creative funk IS an emergency for a fiber artist. Especially when I look at my work of the last few weeks - other than the rust dyeing, it has all been traditional style quilts. Maybe Sandra M. and Barbara O. will jump start my creative juices. If not, I will crawl into a hole and hibernate for a week. Or, commit myself to making a minimum of one 8 1/2" x 11" piece per day, for the next week - trash or treasure, at least I will be working.

And if that doesn't work, I will dump my stash out on the floor, lay down in it, sprinkle myself with beads and feathers, and stay there until I'm okay again.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sounds delightful--rolling around in your stash and all--may I join you?

I know what you mean, having a creative block. I lovingly created a totally original, one-of-a-kind art/story quilt top, and was extremely happy with it. As it was too big for my home machine, I trustingly placed my treasure into the hands of a self-confessed, excellent long-arm quilter. The results were mixed. Some original, beautiful quilting, and some that even a child could have done, and the rest so out of sync with the theme of the quilt, that I could have cried. Am still fighting the tears every time I look at it. Have had a creative block ever since. Do you think that if I roll around with you amongst all those feathers and beads, I might get my nerve up to start unpicking the worst of the quilting?

Logan said...

Sorry, stash rolling must be kept as a private luxury. :)

Congruence - here I am with my creative block, and a local friend lends me a book of meditation and breathing exercises to try. At the same time, I read the first few chapters of the Barbara Olson book, and she recommends meditation as a means of centering the creative energies. Guess I'll just have to try meditating.

Re: your unpicking issues, Pangaea - have you considered sitting outside on your deck or in your garden, in a comfy chair, with a glass of lemonade and your stitch ripper? Make the unpicking into a garden meditation. Sun, flowers, bees buzzing, hummingbirds visiting, etc. Just think of what nesting birds could do with all of those loose thread bits!

Sonji Hunt said...

Logan, over the past few months, when I feel uninspired to create I make something anyway. I force myself. It has worked well for me and I still get some cool things done. I don't feel at all inspired at the moment and haven't for over a month, but I just keep plugging along. Even that great PAQA meeting didn't inspire me, so I know that I'm in a BIG A@% FUNK. Wallow a little, roll in the stash and clean, but finally make something. We need to keep our pity parties to a minimum amount of time otherwise we believe them. Sew on, sister.

Deborah Boschert said...

Excellent idea to look through inspiring books. I also find it helpful to go shopping for (and buying) inspiring books. You should see my Amazon wish list. And small pieces are a great idea too. How about some post cards?!

Debra said...

First. uber is a modifier... a very good prefix. The Germans just do some words right. (though not most).

Secondly, I'm glad you seem to be working yourself out of your funk. (from the posts above this).

Third, isn't garnet stitch FABULOUS???

Fourth, if you wish to capture the beauty around you, trying using one element of it (like I am using the colors of eucalyptus groves... not trying to make a realistic quilt that looks like a grove...).

Fifth. Howz come I can't find your email on your blog??? YOu left a message on my blog and I wanted to responded...