I began this blog a few years ago because I wanted a place where I could discuss creativity, art, inspiration and being an artist.  Since life has always informed my art, I came up with the name – Where Art & Life Meet.  Art has always been the thing that saves me.  When I am creating I am completely present, focussed and I am most at peace.  I’m in the zone, an almost trance-like state of being.  I feel happy and serene.  So when life gets turbulent, when I am scared, when the world feels chaotic and unpredictable, art is the thing that beckons me, soothing me, allowing me to appreciate life and it’s beauty, if only in that fleeting moment.  However these last two weeks have been particularly difficult, so much so that for an entire day I couldn’t do any art at all.  Nothing.
Thankfully, I had my online class, Dyeing to Design given by Elizabeth Barton, which I’ve written about ‘here‘ and ‘here‘ and we had another project due, so I forced myself to focus.  We began with some basic shibori dyeing.  Shibori is the Japanese art of wrinkling, creasing, folding and binding fabrics before dunking them into dye.  One can get a great variety of patterns from Shibori.  Here are some of mine.
But once the fabrics were dyed, I felt at a loss as to what to do with them. Â I am drawn to shapes and usually sketch out my ideas first, but these fabrics are so bold, even bossy, that I couldn’t figure out how to respond to them. Â Finally I had an idea that I began to play around with, but it was going to be far too complicated and I didn’t have enough time to create it…
So I refined and came up with this…
I plunged in and began cutting out shapes, putting them up on my design wall, pulling things down, putting other things up.  Eventually I designed this.
In part this piece was in response to a comment about how things seemed dark, but the sun would shine again.  That red was glaring and SO red, so I went back to my design wall and did this.
And here’s the back and the label.
In between working on this piece, I lost myself in the bliss of hand painting some of my pots that I threw over  a month ago.  They make me happy.  I am calling them “Message Pots.”  The next batch will feature a more diverse population, which I’m looking forward to creating.  Did I mention that I haven’t been sleeping much?  I think all these guys look sleepy.
To all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, have a happy one. Â To all who are feeling frightened and despondent, know that there are many feeling the same.
As for me, I will be losing myself in several days of cooking, another art form(!) before getting back to my painting, dyeing, quilts and designing.
Last May we pulled our daughter, Emma from school and began homeschooling or non-schooling or… I’ve written more about all of this on the other blog, the one I share with my daughter:  Emma’s Hope Book.  One of the many benefits of homeschooling, aside from the huge relief and plummeting stress level, is that we get to explore, together and separately.  The beauty in exploring is that the goal is to be curious and discover.  There’s no right or wrong and there’s tremendous comfort in that. The entire process of learning becomes one of joy and experimentation without the burden or stress of feeling one should know something before having learned it.
So it was, some eight months ago when I sat down with Emma and asked her what she was interested in learning about.  She typed that she wanted to learn German and take a ceramics class among a number of other things.  So we bought Rosetta Stone for German and Emma began taking pottery lessons at a nearby ceramics studio.  Her teacher, seeing my obvious excitement and interest, asked if I might like to make some things too.  I eagerly said, “Yes, please!”
Learning anything new is full of experimenting, exploring, tweaking, practicing and refining techniques learned.  To dive into something you’ve never done before can be daunting, but only if you are comparing your work to another’s.  Particularly crushing is if you expect you will be able to produce something that is of similar expertise as someone who has been studying and refining their technique for decades.  The exhilaration comes with the process of learning, practicing and improving.  But so often we are not taught that this process is wonderful at all.  In fact, we are taught that it is hard work and the end product, only produced after years of practice and toil, is all that is of value.  Everything else pales in comparison.
I disagree.
This cereal bowl that Emma made for me is perfect for walking while eating. Â It has an indentation that perfectly fits one’s thumb while cupping the bowl in your palm. Â Why hasn’t anyone designed a bowl like this? Â I’ve never seen one before, but oh, how I love it. Â This is my new, favorite bowl.
My favorite cereal bowl made for me by Emma.
The platter below? Â “It matches” was what Emma typed in reply to my exclamation that I thought it perfect for serving cheese and crackers or maybe a brioche en croute with fresh baguette.
Emma’s Platter
This bowl that Emma made used cookie cutters and then she painted after joining all the shapes.
An Autumnal Bowl
A few months ago, or maybe it was years, (this is an aspect of getting older, the years feel like months, yet another example of that saying people tell you when you first become a parent – the days are long, the years are short)  I asked Emma if she had any interest in learning to knit.  She said she did, and as I love knitting (I wrote about some of that “here“) and used to design knitwear, I thought we’d start with something simple, like a scarf.  Emma chose a light blue yarn.  After a couple of tries, she lost interest and so I began making a long scarf using an alternating knit 2, purl 2 pattern.  I rarely use knitting patterns or cooking recipes for that matter, but that’s another post.  Anyway the scarf began like this.
Light blue scarf in alternating Knit 2, Purl 2 pattern with the beginning of a navy blue chenille infinity scarf in the background.
The finished scarf ended up measuring 87 inches in length and 11 inches wide.  What you don’t see is the other side where I changed my mind after an inch or so and decided to make the pattern more elongated.
The Finished Scarf
This is the edge where I began knitting and decided to change the stitch. Â Three times. Â The final stitch pattern is a Knit 2, Purl 2 for three rows and then Purl 2, Knit 2 for 3 rows and repeating for the remainder of the scarf.
The I-Changed-My-Mind-Edge
I’m hoping Emma will try knitting again sometime, but in the meantime, I’ve started a couple of other projects, one is this deep blue chenille yarn that I’m knitting, using a newly learned brioche stitch, into an infinity scarf for a friend.
The makings of an infinity scarf using a brioche stitch
And finally this is one of my ceramics projects.
Pebbles in a Plate
For those familiar with my jewelry, this may remind you of something else…
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