I am knitting a small cowl from a pattern and from handspun yarn. And I realize clearly that it would not fit into my "non"definition of an art project for "Suzie's 52". I'm following a pattern, however loosely. I'm not making up stuff. I guess this is a craft. I ran out of yarn, about 9/10ths of the way through. I have been thinking about how I will finish.
Since the yard is hand spun, from a batt purchased from an independent vendor several years ago, it is not duplicatable. The batt was made by the vendor's grandchildren, who were given leave to create some batts by tossing whatever they liked into the drum carder. It wasn't even labeled with the fiber contents, exactly. Oh it might have said "wool, angelina" or some such, but no proportions, no measurements, no records. No duplication possible.
This batt is art.
The handspinning was one of my very earliest attempts. I can even see where in the single I began to get better. I believe I plied it back on itself, so that the very beginning was plied with the very end, and the middler parts with other middle parts. This handspun is not art. Just like the drawing that children do before they have learned to control their finger motions is not art (usually).
Handspinner's first attempts are often likened to "art yarn". And we are often told that once we get better we will not be able to reproduce our first feeble attempts. Some spinner's dislike calling beginner's yarn art yarn, and I agree with this point of view. My father saved some of my early drawings and some of my first postcards home. I cannot really draw or write that way any longer. I write more easily now that I did in first and second grade. I write more clearly, more neatly, more controlled. I hope that I will continue to improve in my spinning as I have in my penmanship.
Some art, often called primitive, attempts to mimic this early handwriting style, or the picture-making ability of a six-year old. If you are trying to get that "primitive" or "first grader" look, and you have an idea in mind, an image you want to preserve, a message you want to publicize, an intent that this look will convey, then go for it. But your very deliberateness, your skill, your craft, your knowledge, removes this from the "beginner" category and into the art category.
Hopefully, you will no longer have someone say about your picture of your dog, Spot, "Nice picture of a cow you have there." Hopefully, as an artist, people will not have to be primed to say "Tell me about your picture" lest they insult you by mistaking a dog for a cow, or visa versa.
So I have not yet defined "art" for my 52, but I do think I know what it is when I see it. And I know what I like when I see it, and what I consider just dumb.
Stay tuned, and hopefully, you will know what you like when you see it too.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Not sure
Already I am doubting myself. What if I can't do this? What if I get bored? What if I don't want to make 52 different things? What am I doing to myself?
I have decided to soldier on. I will do something. I will start in May and attempt to continue for one year.
May the force be with you, and with me, too, of course.
I have decided to soldier on. I will do something. I will start in May and attempt to continue for one year.
May the force be with you, and with me, too, of course.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
The Rules
Here are my rules:
1. It is my blog/project/artwork. I get to make the rules. I get to change the rules. I get to stop completely if I want to. If you don't like it, make up your own. If I don't like it, I get to change it.
2. I wanted to start with a definition of "art" but I decided that instead, I will use that as one of my goals. The goals of this enterprise are:
a) to see what I like,
b) to see if I can do it,
c) to discover what I think art is, and what I think craft is, and what I think doesn't fit in either category,
d) to figure out what I like doing, what is a chore, and what I simply LOOOVVVVEEE, and
e) other goals as I find them.
3. I will create and complete "52" "small" art or craft "projects" and blog about them. 52 is one a week, however, my goal is just to complete 52 in a year, not necessarily one per week. The 52 weeks, 52 projects relationship is just to provide some indication of how I am progressing towards my goal. If after ten weeks, I have only completed two, I may have to rethink what I am doing.
4. Small means I am going try for easily completed, quick to do, simple projects, that will take perhaps one evening to complete. If I was working, I would be doing this in my spare time, what there was of it, on free evenings or weekends, in between the regular stuff of living like laundry, grocery shopping, TV watching, etc. Don't worry, I usually have nothing whatsoever to do between 2 am and 4 am so I will have plenty of time to complete these.
5. Project means that the "whatever" is a completed item. However, this does not mean, necessarily, that I have something now ready to wear, use, or gift. The "project" may be the center medallion for a quilt, an interesting border quilting, fiber dyed to some "artistic" specifications to be later spun and knitted, the front intarsia portion of a sweater, or some other piece of what might be thought of as a completed project. However, my rule is that the artistic piece of the action is completed. IE, if an intarsia portion of a sweater, the head and neck of a kitten still missing it's body, doesn't count, nor would fiber dyed pink to which I am later going to add purple dye. I know what I mean by completed project, but can't seem to define it succinctly (or spell succinct, sussinct? no that is not right, succinst, no, lets go back to succinct).
BTW, designing the "page" that this blog appears on was a project in itself. It took several hours to get the picture to show the way I wanted, the Title and Subtitle to show up on the picture background with the "right" amount of contrast, and other items to appear the way I liked. So I think it would qualify as a "project" if I had done it within the 52 designated weeks.
6. Art or craft means, well, I'm not sure. Somebody told me yesterday that to them, craft meant you followed some one else's pattern, basically, although perhaps you made slight changes. However, I don't think this is really craft. I have always thought of art and craft this way, that craft created useful, reproducible items, whereas art just created beauty. I am not sure that this is a good or useful definition either, though. I know that if I ever resort to crayon lines on a piece of paper to create my weekly project, I am not doing what I set out to in this blog. I want to create some completed piece of art each week, but I can't be more specific than that. Hopefully more definition will arise out of the experience.
7. Open for later additions to the rules.
I hope that you too will be able to set the rules for some part of your life.
1. It is my blog/project/artwork. I get to make the rules. I get to change the rules. I get to stop completely if I want to. If you don't like it, make up your own. If I don't like it, I get to change it.
2. I wanted to start with a definition of "art" but I decided that instead, I will use that as one of my goals. The goals of this enterprise are:
a) to see what I like,
b) to see if I can do it,
c) to discover what I think art is, and what I think craft is, and what I think doesn't fit in either category,
d) to figure out what I like doing, what is a chore, and what I simply LOOOVVVVEEE, and
e) other goals as I find them.
3. I will create and complete "52" "small" art or craft "projects" and blog about them. 52 is one a week, however, my goal is just to complete 52 in a year, not necessarily one per week. The 52 weeks, 52 projects relationship is just to provide some indication of how I am progressing towards my goal. If after ten weeks, I have only completed two, I may have to rethink what I am doing.
4. Small means I am going try for easily completed, quick to do, simple projects, that will take perhaps one evening to complete. If I was working, I would be doing this in my spare time, what there was of it, on free evenings or weekends, in between the regular stuff of living like laundry, grocery shopping, TV watching, etc. Don't worry, I usually have nothing whatsoever to do between 2 am and 4 am so I will have plenty of time to complete these.
5. Project means that the "whatever" is a completed item. However, this does not mean, necessarily, that I have something now ready to wear, use, or gift. The "project" may be the center medallion for a quilt, an interesting border quilting, fiber dyed to some "artistic" specifications to be later spun and knitted, the front intarsia portion of a sweater, or some other piece of what might be thought of as a completed project. However, my rule is that the artistic piece of the action is completed. IE, if an intarsia portion of a sweater, the head and neck of a kitten still missing it's body, doesn't count, nor would fiber dyed pink to which I am later going to add purple dye. I know what I mean by completed project, but can't seem to define it succinctly (or spell succinct, sussinct? no that is not right, succinst, no, lets go back to succinct).
BTW, designing the "page" that this blog appears on was a project in itself. It took several hours to get the picture to show the way I wanted, the Title and Subtitle to show up on the picture background with the "right" amount of contrast, and other items to appear the way I liked. So I think it would qualify as a "project" if I had done it within the 52 designated weeks.
6. Art or craft means, well, I'm not sure. Somebody told me yesterday that to them, craft meant you followed some one else's pattern, basically, although perhaps you made slight changes. However, I don't think this is really craft. I have always thought of art and craft this way, that craft created useful, reproducible items, whereas art just created beauty. I am not sure that this is a good or useful definition either, though. I know that if I ever resort to crayon lines on a piece of paper to create my weekly project, I am not doing what I set out to in this blog. I want to create some completed piece of art each week, but I can't be more specific than that. Hopefully more definition will arise out of the experience.
7. Open for later additions to the rules.
I hope that you too will be able to set the rules for some part of your life.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Climbing on the Bandwagon
It seems that "everyone" these days is doing stuff by the numbers: 10 scarves in 2010, 11 shawls in 2011, 52 socks in 2011, even 365 self-portraits in a year. These ideas sounded intriguing to me, but none really "rang my bell" so to speak.
Then I read a blog or heard a podcast or something (I am sooooo sorry I can't credit the idea springboard for this) talking about creating 52 small art projects, in 52 weeks. I could do that, I thought. Her idea was to get a notebook and make 52 finished drawing, paintings, etc. to go in the notebook. Each would therefore be less than 8 1/2 by 11 inches in size. But I don't draw or paint, bummer. Even, she suggested, a tiny quilt, or a piece of pottery whose picture could be put into the journal/notebook. BINGO. I quilt. I take photos. I'm in.
Since I read this in about February it was too late to start in 2011. And by next January I might have forgotten all about this. But the idea persisted in my head. I didn't forget, at least during March. So . . . .
It occured to me that starting on my birthday and finishing a year later would create a personal, useful time frame for this type of project. And it also occurred to me that ordinary notebook sized paper sucks for most quilt type projects. And that I didn't know what art was. And that it was my blog, so I got to make the rules. And that I wasn't even clear about what "a project" is, since I was not going to limit myself to notebook sized paper, or even paper. And that I knew WHY I wanted - was going - to do this, but I was not sure I could put it into words.
So this entry is to start setting the rules for myself, my projects and my blog. Because if you don't know the rules, you don't know if you've broken them, right?
What is art, and what is a project? What is small, and what is finished?
Stayed tuned for the answers to these important questions, and more. And, feel free to create along with me. I invite you to copy what I do, do something similar, do something that my project inspires in you, OR do whatever you like each week. AND of course, you can also just simply read along, and spend your time climbing your own mountains, figuratively or literally. Let me know what and how you are doing, if you like.
Then I read a blog or heard a podcast or something (I am sooooo sorry I can't credit the idea springboard for this) talking about creating 52 small art projects, in 52 weeks. I could do that, I thought. Her idea was to get a notebook and make 52 finished drawing, paintings, etc. to go in the notebook. Each would therefore be less than 8 1/2 by 11 inches in size. But I don't draw or paint, bummer. Even, she suggested, a tiny quilt, or a piece of pottery whose picture could be put into the journal/notebook. BINGO. I quilt. I take photos. I'm in.
Since I read this in about February it was too late to start in 2011. And by next January I might have forgotten all about this. But the idea persisted in my head. I didn't forget, at least during March. So . . . .
It occured to me that starting on my birthday and finishing a year later would create a personal, useful time frame for this type of project. And it also occurred to me that ordinary notebook sized paper sucks for most quilt type projects. And that I didn't know what art was. And that it was my blog, so I got to make the rules. And that I wasn't even clear about what "a project" is, since I was not going to limit myself to notebook sized paper, or even paper. And that I knew WHY I wanted - was going - to do this, but I was not sure I could put it into words.
So this entry is to start setting the rules for myself, my projects and my blog. Because if you don't know the rules, you don't know if you've broken them, right?
What is art, and what is a project? What is small, and what is finished?
Stayed tuned for the answers to these important questions, and more. And, feel free to create along with me. I invite you to copy what I do, do something similar, do something that my project inspires in you, OR do whatever you like each week. AND of course, you can also just simply read along, and spend your time climbing your own mountains, figuratively or literally. Let me know what and how you are doing, if you like.
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