Currently my mind feels a little jumbled up about my 'what next'. What do I want to focus on? What do I want to play with? The only way I've ever found out of this maze has been to, like Nike says best, just do it. It? Anything! If I wait for the perfect thing to arrive, it could be days, it could be never. But when I decide that just doing something is enough, then I can get started with whatever catches my fancy on that day... and the funny thing is, that always leads to the next exciting thing.
Of course my mind is snarky and tells me how entitled of me to 'just play', but the truth is, something deeper always emerges for me through the play. And the reality also is that this 'play' time is finite. I'm a mom, so there's mom stuff, I have client projects that have deadlines and deliverables, I'm a dairy-free human who gets hungry and has to make lunch for self most days, I have a dog that makes soulful eyes at me asking to be played with....not to mention the laundry and dinner and homework that are often unavoidable. (though I do successfully ignore laundry often :)
Anywho. Yesterday I felt lost again, but remembered I had started a thing that had felt exciting but had to be put away because of all the house renovations stuff. So I pulled it out and played with that for a bit.
I've been excited all my life by color, patterns and textiles with color and patterns! So I've been playing with those three and the possibilities feel infinite. A good problem to have! Here I've painted cloth (plain cotton) using watercolors or acryla gouache. In some places I played with wax resist (using a white crayon), I've embellished with embroidery and beads and sequins in some places. I loved how the color bleeds like it does on watercolor paper. I've also added details with markers.The color palette is inspired by desert stuff.
It all started with a pencil sketch. It's strange but I get a feel for the color palette by looking at the sketch and then sometimes I make a quick note so I don't forget if theres a gap. I painted onto a strip of cloth I found, then colored and embroidered on it, and then cut it out. Now I'll play with the arrangement and see where I want to go next!
As you can see, my notes say cloth + stitch+sequin BIG! earthlike colors.
On a nostalgic note. This memory popped up. A sketch of me and my then 11 year old. I remember wanting to capture the sweet moments of having a little chat with him before he became a sullen teenager who didn't want his mom around. Luckily that never happened, but look how I was still having fun with textiles and stitches!
And thats all I got for you today! Like I said before, I'd love to hear your thoughts, suggestions for this blog and general chatter! Leave me a message if you have any questions about this thing I made...and don't forget...just do it! And remember the focus is on 'DO' and not 'IT'. It doesn't matter what the 'it' is!