Wednesday, March 30, 2011

art happens

I've been thinking about a Housewarming gift for my son.  I know that he needs a toaster oven, but I had something more fibery, something cozier, in mind.
Something along these lines might be perfect.  I also found a piece of fabric that I'd purchased when he first talked about getting a dog (and keeping it at the firehouse ... funny how things cha cha cha change!)
Maybe I'll go ahead and make a big fluffy bed, fill it with cedar and such, and send it over, just in case.  His new house has a fenced in back yard and it won't surprise me to find it occupied by a new dog one day!  Harley likes it here at the 'firehouse' and I think that he's staying.  Just sayin'...
I've started my aprons for Apifera Farm.  Their Pino's Pie Day will be here before you know it!  This is an incredibly good cause.  In case any of you fine seamstresses out there in blogland feel like whipping up some aprons to save old donkeys, you might want to skip over there and check them out.  I don't know about you, but I just FEEL better when I can lend my God-given talent to a good cause.  In fact, this is something that I've been ruminating on for quite a while.
Why do I always lean toward creating for someone/thing else?  I mean, seriously, it's almost an illness, it almost borders on the obsessive.


I'll see a delicious yarn and immediately conjure up a creation for this person, or that.  A walk through the fabric store will have me piecing quilts for every Tom, Dick and Harry that I know!  Forget about the beads.  Art happens - it's like oxygen for the soul of the maker.  If I don't create, I'll suffer and die.  Francis Bacon said - "The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery" and I believe this.  It used to be all about the paint and canvas for me.  Somehow, it was easier then, there were less questions and raised eyebrows - one EXPECTED the painter to paint.  I surrounded myself with people who nurtured my inner artist.


Today I no longer paint.  I avoid it with everything that I've got - and I've got quite the arsenal of weapons ... bolts of fabric, skeins of yarns, bottles of beads, volumes of written pages.  Just for starters.  Maybe it's just easier to make fabric art, less judgmental.  Easier still is the impulse to give the 'art' away without having to ask anyone's permission. Maybe my inner child is at work here and that is all there is to the mystery.


C.G. Jung said - "The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity.  The creative mind plays with the objects that it loves."  God, I wish that he was still here and taking on new clients!
And yes, I AM taking the course, 'The Artist's Way'.  I want to paint again.  I understand that faith is the required ingredient, so I may have a shot at graduating this time.

2 comments:

Delisa said...

Hi Jody, sounds like you have some wonderful ideas percolating! I am like that too, I am always thinking about what I can make for someone else. It brings me great joy and I love to give. But, I know what you mean sometimes it can become a little limiting, especially if I have an idea to create something that is kind of "different", "out there" or doesn't have a particularly practical use. So I came up with the idea of making myself a "gift" every once in a while. On these projects I just let it flow! I have read the Artist's Way too, I especially liked the part about having "artist" dates and making time to explore and see new things. I hope you have a lovely afternoon! Delisa :)

JelliDonut said...

I wanted to paint when I was in high school, then I figured out I have no talent for it. What a marvelous gift you have!