Inspiration

Last evening I attended an art sale fund raiser that included a fibre artist.  Her work was about half way along the continuum from traditional quilting to pure art worked in fibre. Sales appeared to be going well.

Today I attended a "Fibre Festival".  A very large exhibition building, with live sheep and alpacas at one end. The baby Alpacas were s-o-o-o cute!  There were demonstrations on sheep shearing, cleaning, preparing, and carding the wool, spinning, knitting weaving. There were even a couple of booths that were selling individually constructed garments.  These had hand dyed fabrics, often decorated in some "one-of-a-kind" way.  There was felting, wet and dry.  And everything for sale from raw wool to beautiful spun yarn to buttons and embellishments to slumped glass bottles (?!?)


To say that my brain is on overload would not be an exaggeration. I am overwhelmed with colour, and realize that exuberance and colour have been missing from my work for awhile.  Awhile ago, a friend(?) told me that she could always tell my work because it was controlled and  elegant.  I have valued that comment as a compliment, but now wonder if it has, in someway, limited my use of any childish approach and certainly in the use of vibrant colour.  Once I add my frequent forays into depression, it's no wonder my work sometimes appears lifeless, and that sales have been off in the past couple of years.

Now I look at the piece I'm currently working on, and almost feel despair.  The colours are pale and the design static. But--there are already three more designs wrestling for position in my brain. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll get some of them into my sketch book.