Playing "Catch up"

Lately I have been playing “catch up”.  After my trip to the Timber Barn in Ohio, I had to take time to think.  A number of persistent thoughts were circulating in my mind.

The class I attended was called Working with Intent. We were to arrive prepared to work with a specific plan.  I thought about my plan for weeks.  I took photos, made sketches and reflected.  What did I want to accomplish in this class?  My on going complaint about my work is that I wish the finished pieces were larger.  I often see wonderful additional compositions after my work is finished.  I often say, “If I could just extract this part” and “wouldn’t it be grand if the finished size were (really) large!”  This is my dream.  I have tried to work on a large scale but I end up working sections and not the entire space.

So, during the class presentation I stated that my intent was to work on a larger scale.

This seemed like a huge expectation to me but I was prepared to stick to it.

Other people had much more complex statements of intent.  After listening to everyone speak I realized how each of us brought unique intents to work on.

On the last day of the class we again gave a presentation.  This time we explained what we had accomplished and state whether or not we reached the goal of our planned intent.

I did manage to create two rather large pieces which I put many hours into.  I was proud of the results.

My presentation was brief and to the point.  Yes, I thought I accomplished my intentions.

Others took 10 to 15 minutes pontificating upon their efforts.  I came away thinking, “Was my goal truly worthy of intent?”  And further more, “Do I work with intent, in general?”  These questions began to permeate my thinking.  I started to question my work and pondering about the question of substance.  What is the substance of my work?  Is it necessary to have substance?  The word: intent haunted me.  I was depressed about the whole concept of intent and had no interest in working at all!

After about a week of going in circles and sinking with self doubt, I decided to at least finish the work I was doing in the TAG TEAM workbook study group.  There are 9 chapters with exercises and I had five more to go.  The next one was on collage.  I have a lot of experience with collage and started to skip that one but then I decided to go forward.  I had a good image I had printed onto habotai silk.  My water theme had turned out to be a good choice.  I have realized and confiremed that water is truly an ongoing theme in my life and flows smoothly from my mind.  This was just the medicine I needed; to free my mind of the trappings of self doubt.  As I began to work the piece quickly fell into place; I was back in business.

Collage with image transfer on silk

A stream of possitive thoughts began to flow so I took advantage of the renewed energy to play “catch up”. The next chapters that appealed to me were about painting on fabric and thread painting.

I had some pieces of white Kona cotton that I had already hand painted earlier in the study.  These were done when I was first exploring the water theme.  I used a 15×22″ piece of the painted fabric to begin an underwater scene with fish and nautilus sea shells, which are my favorite shells.

I used a set of new paints that I had not opened yet.  These fabric paints are “Moire” by Jaquard; what  luscious effects! The paints create a translucent quality that truly resembled an underwater appearance.  I wanted the composition to have a freedom of movement.

Step 1 fish and shell shell are set up with a base coat

A base coat of assorted colors were washed onto the surface spontaneously to set up the shapes of the fish, water and sea shells. The subjects swirl around together as they would in water.

A the cloth was placed over a layer of timtex, batting and backing (in that order) to make a “sandwich” for stitching.  Now it was time to initiate thread painting.  The subjects were outlined with variegated rayon thread.  In addition, two words “under” and “currents” were added in all caps.  This is only the beginning stage of the stitching and are actually quilting at this point.  I plan to develop this effect further with thread painting as the piece progresses.

Next, details were added for definition.

Fish scales were enhanced with shades of orange, red and green moire paint.  The patterns of the sea shells were highlighted as well as the areas of water.

Close up of the fish

The composition is well underway but does need more work.

In the meantime, my mind was alleviated from stressing out about “intent”.

I have decided that my TRUE intent is to enjoy myself and that is what it is all about.

Now I feel like I can get on with my life!