every-single-day

Creative language

I did get some schooling in art, it wasn't fine art training so much as vocational artists training. The fine arts training that I have acquired is as a result of being released into this creative world of ours. It takes time to integrate what you learn in school and to make it your own. I think it is a lifetime pursuit. (Don't believe for a minute that you need to go to school to embark on this journey).

I have to say that school learning is dry and perfunctory-the playing field needs to be leveled in order to lay a ground work, learning for the self and for the passion of making is much juicier, tasty like. Last night I had a little epiphany. What would happen if I replaced the dry thoughts of learning past and recreated a language of design and composition that works for me in my current world?

So as I look at and evaluate ideas in design and composition as they relate to me and my creative language, I see patterns, repetition, and acts of play. I am also exploring my three words for the year, Mend, Intuit and Random.

This little nude asked for creative release, that is when I sewed the smattering of scallops along the left hand border. Last night I began thinking about the sleepy pose of the nude and what this little gal might be dreaming about. Which made me think of Repose in Yellow.

Do you see the connections and flow of my thoughts?

So our dream gal is dreaming of music, perhaps sleeping to tunes that are soothing to her soul. In my creative/visual dictionary, beside loving music and needing to listen to it as I create, I often break out in dance to release the exuberance of the making. Music is also my husband (a musician), a connection to intuit. So...dream, exuberance, intuit, love.

Will you join me in exploring your own creative language? What and where do your ideas and images connect? Can you implement these ideas into elements of design? This is creative voice.

Creating a sense of movement.

I have been cross posting on the Quilting Arts Community web site for the last 9 months, time that has seen the release of my book, my efforts to promote it, my move back to the East Coast, and the settling back into my creative center after having written a book. These are and were major pieces in the fabric of my life.

It is time for me to make melanietesta.com and this blog my home again. I would like to spruce this ol' blog up, give it another face lift, as it were, and I would like to reevaluate the manner in which I choose to blog. More on that soon.

If you are coming here from the Quilting Arts site for the first time, welcome! If you are a mainstay of this blog and have always read this blog in this location, thank you.

This is the only image I have of the following Boro tatter prior to fixing it up.

This piece or Boro tatter has captured my creative imagination. Originally, it was covered in lint, probably as a result of having been part of a garment and being laid against cotton insulation. It had a few more rips in it and a few less patches. And, you are looking at the 'wrong' side of the cloth, although, this really is the right side of the cloth. At least for me.

I love the composition of patches and felt the need to patch up a few additional and neglected holes. I await a shipment of water soluble stabilizer. I have plans for this little piece of blue...

Then there is the Slow Nude I have been working on.

This piece came to a halting stop and I couldn't figure out why. So I put it aside.

A few months ago, maybe even a year ago, a friend gave me a stack of handkerchiefs. They are a collection handed down from an aunt, many are well used and stained, all are heavily washed and very soft and some are down right playful. I love the entire collection.

So I took out the lot and started playing with the little hemmed squares.

When I saw the little calico scallops and how well they played with the colors of my Nude, I knew that what the piece was asking for was a sense of movement. A move away from what it had been and toward what it could be. The little scalloped addition to this Nude is an opening, a broadening of what the piece could be. This piece seeks completion and has been jogged out of its comfort zone, sparking a new sense of awareness and excitement.

Very suitable, I think.

The Winner is....

Using the Random Number Generator, commenter #21 won...

That means Judy Haas WON!!!

Congrats Judy, see you soon! Thank you all for visiting my site and I do hope you will join in on one of my upcoming classes, Freezer Paper, Paint, Oh my! or Mark Making and Hand Dyed Embroidery Floss. I have been having great fun creating the classes and would love to see you there.

mend, random, intuit.

I do not make resolutions in a yearly manner. I don't feel compelled to make a particular change on a particular day, but this year I have been thinking about words for creative exploration.

After some thought I have come up with: mend, random, intuit.

mend: I am in love with stitches that are not intentional. Or perhaps I should describe it as stitches that are purposeful without the willful intent of beauty or symmetry.

random: disparate imagery cobbled and pulled from different sources. The connections might be evident or private, you never know.

intuit: I don't want to use the word intuitive. Intuit. Intuit feels more present-tense somehow. Ituit feels embodied, trusting, internal.

I have been exploring stitch. Hand Stitch. Slow stitch. Slow cloth. I have joined a group on facebook called Slow Cloth and am enjoying thinking the idea through. The term is akin to slow food, as it might to compared to the more ubiquitous, fast food.

Slow Cloth is intentional, takes time, energy and thought. It doesn't necassarily mean that you sew by hand, it also means you make the cloth you use, paint or dye, it can mean that you sew by machine. But more often than not it means that you engage in the path of mastery, intention and wonder of materials.

This weekend, my Man and I went to Sri Threads here in Brooklyn. The man who owns the gallery collects Boro cloth and garments. Indigo dyed cloth-rags and tatters, for the most part that has been mended and repurposed for long term use.

I beelined it for the rag basket. I really want scraps. I found a few gems, I didn't go overboard because the lil buggers can be expensive. Now I need to search my cloth bins for some other pieces that will go with.

Lacey!

I have been making cloth and enjoying every minute of it! In a moment of, 'What if?' I created a freezer paper resist that reminds me of doilies and lace. I printed it on a green ground, where if you look closely you'll see rodeo arches, doors, dog houses and church steeples. It was a piece of cloth I'd dye printed years ago and slowly whittled away.

The broad open areas are calling to me. They make me want to paint a toile like scene in them, the scene would need to be irreverent like the green fabric itself.

Anyway, this is a sample for my upcoming Freezer Paper Resist class over at Joggles. Have you put your name in the hat to win a spot in the other class I will be teaching there? Please do. Or just scroll down to the next post.

Awesome Give Away!

I am offering not just one but two classes through Joggles.com and would love it if you were to sign up now!

BUT!

Barbara at Joggles.com and I have come up with a promotional idea I think you will LOVE. We are offering you the chance to win one free spot in my Mark Making class.

The class will teach you to dye threads and make marks on cloth using that thread. We will make a three page sampler book similar to the video you will see below (If the embedded video does not work for you, follow this link to youtube).

The Rules and Regs follow the video clip.

Here are the rules:

1. Sign up for an account at Joggles. It is free and entails your giving basic information about yourself.

2. Leave a comment here on my blog. If this is all you do, you will have one chance to win a place in my class.

But you may want to double your chances.

---->2a. For an additional chance to win a spot in the class, embed this video on your blog and leave a second comment with a link to your blog post on this post.

----->2b. Don't have a blog? Forward this posts link to 5 of your friends CC'ing me in that same email, then leave a second comment to this post. It helps if you tell them what the link is about!

The drawing for this give away will occur on January 23.

Please note! You must leave a second comment to this post with the address to your blog with embedded video or a reminder of your cc'd email (this helps me keep things straight but it is your responsibility to do it).
I suggest you double your chances.

Reread these rules. May the excitement begin!

And. Erm. Happy New Year! More personal posts about my time away will come soon!