Some Rambling and Some Thoughts on Art

I am still hard at work trying to get all my projects out of the way so that I can get to doing what I really need to be doing.  I don't know whether I am stalling or being responsible, but I guess time will tell.  I spent today quilting one of the beautiful quilts I am hoping will sell this Fall.  I sure hope somebody out there loves it as much as i do!

I did do something radical and drastic last night.  I cut my hair.  Short.  I had been growing it out for the last couple of years, trying to get it all long enough to put in a ponytail, but it just looked horrid most of the time.  I could have given the wicked witch of the west a run for her money!  So I finally gave up and started hacking it all off last night.  I think I am going to go even shorter, but I wanted to take it in stages.  It looks pretty good now, just a little too poofy for me, so I will hack away at it some more in a day or two.

I have cut my own hair for decades.  I hate going to the salon.  They always screw up my hair, usually badly.  I have very thick, rather coarse, wavy hair on the top of my head, and curly hair on the sides and back.  It has to be cut uneven and choppy for it to look decent.  Still trying to work up the courage to color my hair.  Its funny I have spent hundreds of hours dyeing clothes and fabrics, but I have never dyed my hair!  I just turned 45 last week and I have never colored or permed my hair in my life!  Not sure if I really want to start now.  It might be fun to try out a different color for a while, but I have heard so many horror stories that I am not sure if it is worth it.

Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, and we did so in our own classic style.  Take out deli chicken and instant stuffing at home with the boys.  I know a lot of women would be disappointed with the lack of fanfare, but I really prefer it.  I have always been a cheap date.  I don't like a lot of fuss and hoopla, its more bother than it is worth to me.  I got to spend the day doing exactly what I wanted to do.  To me that is the best celebration I could ask for.

 I have been doing a lot of research into other fiber/textile artists out there, and just what it is that qualifies as an "art quilt".  That's what I really want to do you know, I am not sure if I have ever come right out and told you all that before or not.  Anyway, I want to make "art quilts", the kind you hang on the wall and look at rather than cuddle up in.  So I have been looking at other people's work to see just where my skill level measures up, and I have to say, I apparently have no eye for "art".  What some of these people put out there and call "art", I just don't get it.  I could have done that kind of stuff when I was 12!  A lot of it is absolutely stunning and awe inspiring, but a lot of it seemed pretty primitive and childish to me.  I know, I know, art is subjective.  All I can say is that I hope I manage to get a break some where down the line because I know I can produce work worthy of the title "art", I just need somebody else to see it!

Its funny, the one subject I avoided in school was art.  I Love to make it, but I never had any interest in studying it.  A big part of that was due to the way I was raised.  Art was not considered a "real" career choice.  It was a hobby, it might might make you a couple of bucks, but it certainly wasn't something you wasted your time learning about.  Most of my life I rejected the label of "artist", preferring instead to view myself as a crafts-person, but again, that was due, at least in part, to the devaluation of art in my upbringing.  Coming to terms with the reality of my nature as an artist has taken a great deal of time and energy.  Producing completed works will take a great deal more.  But, I am getting there.  One step at a time.  One day at a time.  One minute at a time when necessary, but I am getting there.