Just Do It!

 There are some car designer shows that I love to watch. One of several reasons I love to watch them is because they are self-taught, and that fascinates me because I think it is FABULOUS! While some artists are drawn to the academics of art, design, theory, and all the rest that goes with it, there are some that would absolutely suffocate under those learning parameters and therefore it would do more harm than good to them. These are the artists that just need to "Do It". They feel the art, the pull of the materials, the lure of the colors, and can't help but get busy with their vision. They can't explain why this thing went with that piece, but they can tell you how exciting it was to put them together, because they felt in their soul that it was supposed to go that way. They don't mind the immense amount of exploration with certain materials in order to get a good feel for what they do and how they do it, they revel in the just doing of it.

Now please don't get me wrong, I believe that an academic component is critical for the survival of art, and those artists that pursue the education before the doing are certainly on their preferred path. I applaud them and their efforts every bit as the untrained artist. However, I also believe that there are those of us that know with the first touch of a needle or thread, or a blow torch and hammer, or colors of encaustic wax, that this is ours and we have to own it. The skill comes to us from the doing, the hours and days and months and years of doing it and experimenting and learning what works and what doesn't. We use books to reference techniques and YouTube to see examples of them, we visit places that carry supplies we love in search of tried and true and the next great thing, we are always moving forward to understand, to try, to succeed and sometimes to fail too. The important thing is that we recognize that inner fire to do it and give it license to burn.

So while I believe that academically trained art is wonderful, I want to give a special shout out and show of appreciation for those that cannot wait to get their hands dirty, their workspace a blast of chaos, and that piece of fabric or canvas a going over of fiber color, because these are the pioneers of today and the masters of tomorrow, every bit as those that learn in the classroom.

Artist Statement?

The modus operandi for artists has the requirement of an artist statement. Now I have read a lot of artist statements and some are interesting and others I have a hard time understanding. Not that there is anything wrong with the sophisticated explanations, but they are confusing to me as to the pertinence of their art. So after all this research I have tried on a lot of different explanations for my art and tried to be brief, all encompassing, in-depth, insightful, funny, etc., etc., etc.. None of these really gave me an honest story about what I do and why so I experimented more with other variations on this theme and here is what I have come up with that states the who, what, why and how of my artistic endeavors.

My Artist Statement:

I am a self-taught mixed media needlework artist, with a long experience in various types of embroidery, crewel, and cross stitch embroidery, skills passed down from my grandmothers and mother, while others I acquired on my own. Needlework captured my imagination at an early age with its variety of stitches and fibers giving it an almost inexhaustible array of applications and beautiful design possibilities. With the discovery of beads, fibers other than ordinary cotton embroidery floss, and mixed media items that I could use, I soon started coming up with works of my own that employed a variety of these elements. My primary inspiration is the magnificent designs of the famous Faberge eggs. I realized that their quality is what gave them the substance for their longevity and I wanted that same formula for my own work. What makes this work so special to me is that it involves meticulous planning of not only the stitching involved but the placement of all the other elements that make it a beautiful and cohesive whole. That detailed planning and then time exhaustive completion of each project makes the end result more than just rewarding, it is downright magical for me. My future plans are to keep doing the work I enjoy tremendously and make it more interesting and diverse as time goes on, but always, and without fail, to keep it authentically mine.

I understand that there is the general, overall artist statement, but that there are others that will be needed specifically for the actual projects. I believe those will be easier to describe as they are more focused on a particular work or works. So after what seems like hundreds of revisions of the original, I hope this is what is needed for people to understand what I do and why. I believe what is most important for me to stress now is that what I do is truly a labor of love, cultivated over many years, that is still my preoccupation and heartfelt obsession.