Podcasts and Lectures and Classes…Oh My!

It doesn’t matter what field you’re in, continued education is a must.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, we’re not born with all the information and skills we’ll need for the rest of our lives.  If you’re not growing, learning, and exploring, everyone around you will leave you in the dust.  The same goes for our physical, emotional, spiritual, and artistic lives.

Truth is, we can’t know everything about everything.  I know a lot about textile art, but I have limited knowledge about other mediums. Listening and learning from others gives me insight into the lives of other artists, while giving me ideas to translate to my own art.  Here are a couple of examples to punctuate my thoughts.

The other evening, I went to a lecture by a photographer who takes people on safari in Tanzania.  He takes those interested in photography on safari shoots.  I’m not a photographer, but I was looking for that one tidbit to add to my creative toolbox. He didn’t disappoint.  He was giving examples of different shots and he said, “Edit before you click”.  Brilliant! His point was too many of us take one hundred pictures, come home and plough through the truckload of shots.  It made me think of Coco Chanel.  She is known for saying (directed to women), “Get dressed and before you leave the house, edit, take off one thing.”

I listen to podcasts every day.  I’m hooked on Daphne Cohn’s The Creative Habit.  After I subscribed, I went back to the beginning and I’ve been listening to them in order. I want to hear the progression of the interviews.  I think of it like collecting building blocks.  The artists she interviews come from all walks of life.  They have different educational backgrounds.  They work in different mediums.  They have unique business models.  The one thing they all have in common is the love, desire, and commitment to creating art.

Last year I decided I wanted to take a class to learn something I’ve never done before.  I have a friend I met in graduate school who is a phenomenal weaver; thanks Sarah Haskell (www.sarahhaskell.com).  I decided to take a weaving class, not with one of those gigantic looms, a small handheld loom.  I wanted to understand the motivation for an artist working in fiber, but differently than me.  I wanted to explore texture.  I wanted to experience something aside from sitting at the sewing machine.  I enjoyed the class and may continue to create weavings, but I’ll stick to art quilts.  What the class did do for me was reinforce the desire to take other classes and expand my repertoire.

I know there aren’t enough hours in the day to explore every class, podcast, magazine, book, exhibition, etc.  Be selective! Be mindful of your priorities! Have an idea of what you want to achieve giving you a direction to expand your interests, abilities, and vision.

How will you apply these ideas to your own areas of expertise, interest, or desires?

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Time “Warp”

If you were thinking this was an homage to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, I’m sorry to disappoint.  As a side note, I’m sure Dr. Frank-N-Furter would approve of my color choices for this project.

As you know I decided to focus my meditation during the Feast for the Soul on the concept of “protection”.   I’m looking at how the concept and protection is experienced in all walks of my life and those around me.  I’m meditating on how I can better protect those in harm’s way.  Harm can take many forms, and while I’ve been meditating, the thought that keeps floating to the surface is suicide.  This isn’t about my suicidal ideation, but those who are experiencing immense pain with no safety net or protectors in sight.

The piece I’m creating will be based on the design of a shield.  To accomplish this goal, I’ve chosen to weave the fabric that I have cut into strips last week.  The warp for those who aren’t weavers are the long, or longitudinal, strips that are affixed the frame.  It’s the foundation for the weaving, and as you know, we all need a solid foundation.

I met Sarah Haskell (www.sarahhaskell.com) in graduate school.  We both were enrolled in the arts and healing program.  I learned that Sarah is a weaver and during the course I got to see some of her work.  I’m mesmerized by weaving and have considered taking it up for many years.  I may learn to weave on a table loom at some point, but the large looms I’ll leave to Sarah.

Why do I bring up weaving and Sarah’s work?  I’ve followed Sarah for ten years and what I have learned the most from Sarah’s social media posts is the amount of patience it takes to weave.  Setting up the loom takes and enormous amount of time and physical exertion.  The biggest lesson, and that’s what I want to focus on is the amount of patience it takes to be a weaver.

Over the course of my meditation, I’ve been feeling, in my body, what patience feels like.  For me, it has become a visceral experience.  It involves some degree of body tension, but it’s counterbalanced with the release when the warp is set.  It shows what time and attention can accomplish.

The tension in my body mirrors the tension a weaver needs when setting the loom.  The warp needs to be tight enough on the loom to allow the weaver to maneuver the weft.  I’m affixing my warp strips to a painting canvas.  It’s sturdy so I can pin the strips to the top and bottom of the frame creating sufficient tension for the design.

What are the takeaways from today’s meditation?  Tension isn’t always a bad thing.  We all need a strong foundation on which to build our ideas and actions in life.  Taking time to focus on one thought, idea, experience allows you to go deeper and experience it on multiple levels.  What are you weaving in your life?