Life
This year: A wedding, bad news, and @#$% Trump.
A room of my own - before and after.
It Made me think of George Carlin's riff on Stuff
I imagine that we all have "stuff stories."
Mr Fix-it and I have accumulated a ton of stuff after living here for 30 years.
We have built new spaces to hold more and more stuff, including additions, a big barn, garage, garden shed, woodshed, pool house, etc. Last year, our mothers moved in with even more stuff to add to what the kids left behind. Long before they moved in I remember that I never seemed to come home empty handed.
There is a room in the barn that seems to just be for the overflow, and I want it for myself. The stuff has to go, it takes up too much air, time and energy.
Weeding-out seemed to be a process. At first I wanted to save a lot of it for the kids. It turns out that they already have enough stuff and they don't want anymore. We really had to get rid of it. We started hauling things to Goodwill, "take-it or leave-it" at the dump, and moved things along via Craig's list. It felt soooo good.
Now I have a place of my own with plenty of free and clear space where I can think and draw, knit, sew, compute, or whatever. I made a pact to come home empty handed as much as possible and to think twice before I add more stuff to my life. A friend at Grace, used to say, "You can't take it with you, there are no pockets in a shroud."
The Story of Stuff.
Mr Fix-it and I have accumulated a ton of stuff after living here for 30 years.
We have built new spaces to hold more and more stuff, including additions, a big barn, garage, garden shed, woodshed, pool house, etc. Last year, our mothers moved in with even more stuff to add to what the kids left behind. Long before they moved in I remember that I never seemed to come home empty handed.
There is a room in the barn that seems to just be for the overflow, and I want it for myself. The stuff has to go, it takes up too much air, time and energy.
Weeding-out seemed to be a process. At first I wanted to save a lot of it for the kids. It turns out that they already have enough stuff and they don't want anymore. We really had to get rid of it. We started hauling things to Goodwill, "take-it or leave-it" at the dump, and moved things along via Craig's list. It felt soooo good.
Now I have a place of my own with plenty of free and clear space where I can think and draw, knit, sew, compute, or whatever. I made a pact to come home empty handed as much as possible and to think twice before I add more stuff to my life. A friend at Grace, used to say, "You can't take it with you, there are no pockets in a shroud."
The Story of Stuff.
Traveling Clothes--A little idea
I started making miniature clothes one day. I felt inspired by my fabric collection and I was thinking about an illustrator I like, Lisbeth Zwerger. The clothes she draws are ever so slightly weird. And...I had just visited one of my favorite fabric stores - Delectable Mountain in Brattleboro, VT.
I also have a small suitcase that I want to put all the clothes in. I am lining it with an old textile fragment. I want it to look like an artifact from a time when mills were not closing and textiles were something not massed produced. I wanted to make "traveling clothes" for an imaginary trip, and I don't want them to look like doll clothes.
Another influence:
Alexander McQueen's show, Savage Beauty at the MET in 2011. Amazing.
There was something repulsive and misogynistic in the work and in the presentation. BUT there were also parts that were simply stunning. The work reminded me a little of how I feel when I see some of Robert Mapplethorp's images.
A reviewer, of McQueen's met show, Martin Filler said, "By rapid and random turns it is breathtaking, creepy, decadent, dreamlike, fetishistic, grandiose, grotesque, hilarious, infantile, majestic, meretricious, nightmarish, perverse, ponderous, ridiculous, sentimental, stately, tawdry, touching, and wondrous, often in contradictory combinations of those traits." Phew.
Another influence:
Alexander McQueen's show, Savage Beauty at the MET in 2011. Amazing.
There was something repulsive and misogynistic in the work and in the presentation. BUT there were also parts that were simply stunning. The work reminded me a little of how I feel when I see some of Robert Mapplethorp's images.
A reviewer, of McQueen's met show, Martin Filler said, "By rapid and random turns it is breathtaking, creepy, decadent, dreamlike, fetishistic, grandiose, grotesque, hilarious, infantile, majestic, meretricious, nightmarish, perverse, ponderous, ridiculous, sentimental, stately, tawdry, touching, and wondrous, often in contradictory combinations of those traits." Phew.
I would love the duds to somehow capture the fantastic airy quality McQueen achieved. Of course they won't have the scale and craftsmanship but a little air and fantasy would be nice.
If I make the clothes flat, so that one can't imagine putting them on anything, can I still somehow make them have the illusion of volume? The "clothes" are for a trip and they need to be made from different materials to suit different climates. With all these requirements, this may end up being an empty suitcase! Or maybe I will need a bigger one.
One thing always leads to another and while I played with all the textiles and imagined sheepskin coats and fur trimmed dresses -- I ended up with sheepskin cases for phones and ipads and other cases made from oilcloth and leather. I will get back to the fantasy traveling clothes.
Images will be placed on the blog as they are made.
This Friday I am painting with my friend, Tess. The ideas for my paintings have nothing to do with these traveling clothes.
Finally...I love what Chuck Close said, "Creativity is for amateurs." You can't wait to be moved, you just have to keep working. So in between caring for our mothers I need to set up a space and get back to work.
If I make the clothes flat, so that one can't imagine putting them on anything, can I still somehow make them have the illusion of volume? The "clothes" are for a trip and they need to be made from different materials to suit different climates. With all these requirements, this may end up being an empty suitcase! Or maybe I will need a bigger one.
One thing always leads to another and while I played with all the textiles and imagined sheepskin coats and fur trimmed dresses -- I ended up with sheepskin cases for phones and ipads and other cases made from oilcloth and leather. I will get back to the fantasy traveling clothes.
Images will be placed on the blog as they are made.
This Friday I am painting with my friend, Tess. The ideas for my paintings have nothing to do with these traveling clothes.
Finally...I love what Chuck Close said, "Creativity is for amateurs." You can't wait to be moved, you just have to keep working. So in between caring for our mothers I need to set up a space and get back to work.