WEEK TWENTY EIGHT (july 10-16)
It seemed to be a week of intermittent doing/intermittent waiting/intermittent interruptions and in these sort of weeks I often find it hard to stay on track.
Slowly I moved the contents of the laundry back after its repaint – editing as I went.
With it looking fresh, and empty, I dream of this area, and the whole studio, being beautiful clear and artfully styled but, alas, it is very much a working studio filled with supplies and function.
Often messy, with usually more than one work in progress, most of the space, apart from artworks on the wall, is a workhorse/workhouse of messy bits and pieces.
There is only so much stuff that I can edit out and even covering the open shelves becomes really inconvenient when I am in full creative flight.
I also love being surrounded by piles of fabrics – even though being uncovered is certainly detrimental to their health.
At the end of the week I decided to continue on with the studio repainting – this time the stairs and its adjacent sections. I have an end of the year deadline. I started clearing on Friday afternoon whilst Flick slept and at five am on Saturday morn I was wide awake, masking skirting boards, and prepping for my expected messiness. Keen.
I did get very lucky as the bloke decided that he could/would help. He painted until the paint ran out, just shy of the two coats needed. It was wonderful to arrive home from the Stitched & Bound opening to see the change. I was expecting to be painting dark paint in the dark and instead we could settle back and watch more of the wonderful/grim/dark The Handmaid’s Tale. I loved the book, the first of many of Margaret Attwood’s that I have read. I love this production too – the colouration is striking just for a start.
Early in the week I packed up K1P1#1 and took it to the Stitched and Bound ‘receiving point’. I am very pleased to have this piece selected and as the week went on I was very pleased to see it hanging at Zig-Zag gallery in Kalamunda amongst a very good array of well made and well conceived artworks running the gamut of styles.
It feels as though there are now plenty of quilters and textile artists – and artists generally – happy to make their mark in this lovely (now more loosely prescribed) format.
I took no photos at the opening as the joy was seeing the works, talking to the clever artists and catching up with textile-loving bods. I’ll be there next week for the artists talks and again with the Quilt Study group so I’ll have a bit of photo and thinking time then.
With K1P1 #1 sent off and K1P1#2 awaiting (hopeful) selection in another exhibition I eagerly moved my head into K1P1#3 realm.
The threads were picked for each of the eleven prints in the trial rows and by the end of the week I have eleven quilted and finished rows.
With another thirty-three to do, I have the fabrics, both digital and wool, ready to make the leap into production as soon as I choose to corral the time.
I also did a bit of a weekend backtrack.
The One Block Wonderz ‘rug’ that I have been working on the last two weekends needed some studio time – finishing the last few triangles. I also arranged the rows in preparation to zig-zagging them together.
I do I feel guilty doing it in the studio rather than down south but I’ll have to get over the guilt because it is so much easier working here as it grows. My coming workload should preclude even thinking about it…but I often choose the the least important project in busy times.
Can I overcome the guilt of prioritizing this? Yes:)
Can I fit it into my weekly schedule? Tricky….
As always, breaks in my solo days are filled with books.
My breakfast and lunch reading this last couple of weeks has been a beautiful book of Agnes Martin’s works (both painted and written works) that has been sitting on the ‘ready to read’ shelf for at least a year.
A while ago I read a biography of Agnes which I loved.
I also have a CD of her working – which I need to look at again – and this book, written by the owner of ‘her’ gallery, Arne Glimcher, gave yet another insight into this most interesting person. Loved it….as I love her spare aesthetic.
When the days are filled with ‘ordinary’, with deadlines, and with frustrations, it is time spent with books that resets me.
