The Polka Dot Debutante

I'm sorry I haven't been very attentive to the blog — I've been very busy. One of the activities that is keeping me busy is the Color Card Challenge. There are seven of us participating in this challenge; you have to pick one of the cards from the "3 in 1 Color Tool," by Joen Wolfren. Then you have to create a quilt or quilts using only the colors on the card. For example, I drew the Magenta card. And I am not a "pink" person, although I have warmed up to it.

Each one of us can set our own parameters for our challenge. I decided to do 5 journal size pieces each representing a fundamental influence in my life. I also want to use a new technique in each piece. So in order to wrap my head around this, I'm really not thinking about magenta at all, just about light, medium and dark. And I'm trying not to be too literal, which is a tendency. So here is my first piece:

I spent Thursday and Friday taking a workshop with Jean Cacicedo called "Building a Design Journal". We started with these very nice journals Jean brought and put in a table of contents. Then she had specific design exercises for each of those pages. Some were extremely challenging for me. Jean talked about the basic design elements like line, repetition, symmetry, etc. She also talked about the concept of Notan. This first picture is of the shape exercise and was done by Susan Bucharest. The second picture is of my Notan exercise. The next two pictures are from the self portrait exercise. The first picture is by Susan Bucharest and the second picture is mine. It was a wonderful two days and I think it will take me a while to digest all the information and learn to incorporate it into my work.

I’ve been debating whether or not to discuss this on my blog, but it is very much a part of my life at the moment — and it certainly affects my creativity.

I recently found out that I have had a recurrence of the cancer that I had in 2005. The prognosis is good, but it means 5 weeks of radiation and then surgery to remove the tumor and all its little tentacles. Yuk! Not much fun. It’s both a blessing and a curse to have done this before and know what is coming.

I have certainly been on an emotional roller coaster since receiving my diagnosis. I bet someone has written a book about the emotional stages one goes through, which I imagine are kind of like the stages laid out by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her book “On Death and Dying.” There is definitely anger; with me right now there’s lots of it. There is fear and sadness and humility and vulnerability. And this time for me, there is also shame. I know that seems odd, but it’s like I’ve done everything I can to make myself strong and healthy after the last go round and here it comes again anyway. I feel like I’ve failed in some way. I realize that is totally irrational but hey, what can I say.

Since this blog is dedicated to my creative process, I’ve decide to talk about my cancer because it definitely affects me creatively. My mind has been so consumed by doctors and decisions and wildly fluctuating emotions that there is not much room in there for creative inspiration. During my previous bout, I didn’t touch the sewing machine for about six months. I hope that won’t be the case this time and I’m going to consciously try to keep working in the studio. Even if it just means sitting in there and looking at art books.

Tonight the color card challenge group met again and there were some wonderful projects shown. I love to see the way every one's mind works, how they are working through their ideas and pursuing their visions. Fun, fun, fun. This is my second piece in the "fundamental influences" series using the magenta color.

Back in January at Wordstock, I saw a children's book by an artist called Shaun Tan and fell in love with it. As it turns out, his books are marketed towards children, but really they are visual stories for people of all ages. HIs latest book is called The Arrival and tells the immigrant story in pictures with no words. The place the main character immigrates to is totally unlike any place you've ever seen but familiar at the same time. There is depth and humor and and emotion and an amazing attention to detail. I really just like the feel of the story. If you go to his website, shauntan.net, you can read about his process and his intention with his books. I found it very interesting. I recently bought The Lost Thing as well and I really like it as well.