Earlier this year I was contacted by artist Serena Kovalosky. Among her many talents, she creates beautiful sculptural pieces out of gourds. You really must see them! She's also a traveller, a foodie, a writer...... well, she's a woman with many sides and talents! This year she started a blog project entitled, "365 Days of Everything I Love About Being an Artist". Each day she writes a short missive about something on her artist mind - topics that I think any creative can relate to. She also includes images of a different artist's work each day, which gives a wonderful introduction to so many artists we may not know of. A couple of days ago (Day 28 to be exact!) I had the distinct honor of having two of my quilts featured on Serena's "365 Days....." blog. She selected two pieces from among my work. One of her choices, "Thirteen Moons", surprised me, actually. I might not have chosen that one, mainly because it's a little older, I guess. But once I saw it there it seemed a most appropriate selection.
 Thirteen Moons 47" x 26"
©2007 Martha C. Hall
Since the begining of this year I've been having a hard time finding my creative zone and not too happy about it either! As it happens, "Thirteen Moons" was made at a time several years ago when I was in the exact same state. I hadn't made much art and was feeling restless. Then I had an idea for this quilt. It involved using some letter fabric as a starting point for adding text. I brainstormed a bunch of words and phrases that related to art-making and also feeling blocked in art-making. Using the letters cut from fabric as my starting point, I 'wrote' out the words and phrases with rubber stamps. Creating "Thirteen Moons" ended up being a really fun process and broke the spell of creative block for me. Right after that I started making my "Split Circle" quilts, which is a series I've been coming back to time and again ever since. This quilt hangs on my studio wall as inspiration and as a reminder during fallow times to keep on doing the work. Seeing it anew on Serena's blog was a chance to revisit the piece in my own mind and know that "this too shall pass". So, Serena, thank you for sharing your ideas, and for scouting out so many creatives to share with us, and especially for including me among the wonderful artists on your blog, and for giving me a creative nudge! Until next time - MCH Comments (1)
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Then I opened up my scrap bins and started piecing together small bits and strips of fabric saved from other projects. Combining the pieced sections with my phrases, I built the quilt up to what it is now. The machine quilting was a form of practice and learning too, as I was still kind of new to it at the time.
Some say that today is 'Blue Monday', the most depressing day of the year - kind of a convergence of Christmas bills coming due, seasonal lethargy and depression, regrets over broken New Year's resolutions, etc., etc. Well, that explains today, anyway, but not exactly the past two months. I haven't made any art for two months, hence I have not posted on the blog for two months. There was a slew of deadlines to meet last Fall and I was working like crazy. Then, BAM!, it just stopped. When the holiday season commenced I never got my momentum back. I was hoping for a major shift when the New Year started, but that hasn't happened. In the past few days I have yielded to what is and come to accept the lull. I know that most artists experience an ebb and flow of production, but I can't say it ever feels good. There are so many opportunities ahead for me this year. Maybe that's the problem . . . . deciding where to start and overcoming the overwhelm. So . . . I've been spending the time getting my ducks in a row, but to paraphrase Seth Godin, it's time to do something with my ducks! I will keep you posted . . . . Until next time- MCH P.S. I do have one quilt out showing. My QR quilt "Double Talk" is currently at "Form, Not Function" - Quilt Art at the Carnegie. Small consolation that I'm not a total deadbeat.
I've been making a lot of small art lately. More saleable work to put at the various venues where I've been showing recently. The small birds and nests have been selling very well - three at the Morris Museum and three more at the recent Hilltop Art Show. Now, if only the large work would sell! Oh well, I do enjoy making the small works too. I noticed that birds were a common subject matter at the Hilltop Show. TraillWorks Gallery is having a new showing for the upcoming holiday giving season - "Good Things, Small Packages". For a change of pace I thought I'd get away from fabric for a little while and do something different. Not that I haven't done it before, but I decided to do some paper collage. Little bits of paper instead of little bits of fabric! Still plenty of color though. Music is my theme this time around. Here is what I delivered to the gallery this week. I will continue to make more of these small pieces, maybe even some birds.
These pictures are all made on 6" x 6" cradled wood panels. I used liquid gloss medium to secure all the papers and to give a finish coat. My papers are hand colored assorted types, old books and sheet music, scrap and found papers. The images only show the face of each picture, although the images wrap around the edges on all of them. The detail shot of "Jim Has A New Drum" shows an example of how the picture wraps around. Messy and lots of fun, so I'll probably make more! These are all available for sale at TraillWorks Gallery through January 8, 2012. The opening reception is this Saturday, November 12th, 5-8 pm. For the special pre-opening sale on November 11, click here to register. Until next time - MCH
I've spent the last couple of weeks readying smaller work for the upcoming Hilltop Art Exhibition and Sale.
Hilltop Country Day School is a small private school here in northwest New Jersey. The Art Show and Sale is their annual fundraising event and draws many viewers from the local area. I have attended as a visitor in the past and this is the first year I have been invited to attend as an exhibiting artist. This is another opportunity to get my work out in front of the local community of "hopefully" art buyers! A percentage of all sales benefits the school, of course! New this year is a very fancy reception on Friday evening. Wine, food, etc. - should be quite elegant and fun. Admission on Saturday and Sunday is free. I do hope you'll drop by to see all the artwork if you're anywhere in the area. There are approximately 40 artists exhibiting in a wide range of media. From the Hilltop website you can click through to see images of individual artist's work.
Now, back to the studio..... Until next time - MCH |
