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Process not product

Today I really had to remind myself that this project is about process: the practice of art. I have too much on my plate right now and I've become more analytical about this project.

I am fascinated by how little says so much with line. The eyes bring the stitching to life. If I tell myself that the mouth is an issue, then the mouth becomes an issue.

Dolores asked if I intended to only draw females. It is true that they seem endlessly interesting to me. With women, there are lots of ways to think about hair. And I'm not much interested in facial hair. I continue to do a pencil thumbnail sketch before stitching and I've sketched some interesting males. The pencil seems so much more dynamic: there are variations of thick and thin with so little effort.

I've been looking at photographs in the news and in ads so some of the faces are attached to names but that gives me a headache!

#28

Like stitches

powerlinerflyers from wes johnson on Vimeo.

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My Daily Art Performance Practice

Christine asked me how I make my faces, whether I just let thread and images flow out of my needle. I just loved that image! I begin by making thumbnail sketches in my sketchbook. I have been looking at books, magazines, paintings, sculpture, and pottery for inspiration. When I see a face that appeals to me, I make a line drawing of the essentials.

On most days, I begin my day with my daily art practice, first choosing a thumbnail sketch or an inspiration piece, then sketching or re-sketching the face of the day in pencil. I then stitch it. Occasionally, I have repeated a face but I find that to be more difficult. The less I think about it, the better. When I've dated the piece, I put it aside and upload an earlier stitching. I do this because I find that my inner critic isn't in full form at this point.

I had been very attracted to strategies such as the morning pages described in the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron but it seemed counter-productive to spend time writing each morning when my creative interests were visual. Several times I tried using her guidelines but the process just didn't fit. In fact, I'm thrilled to see a stack of 4-1/2 inch squares and not a stack of paper or another half-filled journal. I love the idea of the artist date and I really need to make time to just look around and record what I see. That was something I had hoped to do more of.

I really hope that this might be a practice for life but I am pleased and amazed that I have stuck to it for 28 days. There are only 337 days left in the year 2010!

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Likeness and Freshness

I couldn't get my computer to log on to the internet yesterday but I got my stitching done.

Joanne at Journeys in Art posted interesting thoughts by Edgar Whitney on painting watercolor portraits.

Read the book here.

Whitney talks about the nature of watercolor as a medium and the need to avoid overworking. Freshness is the goal. Good advice for stitched portraits. A watercolor labored over loses freshness. But the other issue is likeness. How to get a likeness but maintain freshness. Whitney says it takes 5-6 attempts to get down the shapes/elements. After 4 or 5 studies he has the architecture down. To achieve freshness, he works quickly.

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Mid-January 2010 Faces Project Report

I finished number 16 this morning. I've managed to make a face every day in 2010. I stitch first thing in the morning, before my coffee, before I have a chance to talk myself out of it. I try not to be too critical of the newest work. I try to remember to find the line that I love in each sketch. There have been some bumps along the way but my rule is to leave each face alone after stitching it.

Last weekend my critique/support group met and offered a lot of encouragement. Terry Grant wrote a wonderful post about her interest in faces. I've checked out some books of favorite artists from the library for inspiration.

Kathy Loomis has started a blog, Art With A Needle. She has written about her art-every-day journey. It was really her post to the quiltart listserv that challenged me to start this project. What struck a chord with me was that she feels this practice enhances her creativity. I'm believing it.

For documentation, I am using my scanner and it is giving me fits. Each piece is 4-1/2 inches square but the scanner doesn't care. The images it produces are all different sizes. Sometimes Photoshop (PE) will tell me that it can't use my scans. I hope to figure out how to make mosaics of the images. I know it will be very encouraging to see the volume produced by making something every day.

Did I mention that my sewing machine is working like a dream? For my "canvases," I am using a tightly woven, batik-like top fabric; Quilters' Dream Cotton batting; and Pellon fusible interfacing as stabilizer/backing. I'm using a 75/10 embroidery needle and DMC embroidery thread (50/2) on top with Sew Fine in the bobbin.

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#2 Art Every Day

Art Every Day #1

Days 6 & 7: Art Every Day

I haven't fallen off the wagon, I've just been busy. Days 6 and 7 got done. Last night I dug out Mona Brooks, Drawing With Children. It was just what I needed.

Day 5: Art Every Day

Several things happening today. I must remind myself that not every day will be a great day. Or maybe, there is greatness in every day but I will just have to look for it. Today's block is done and that's about all that I can say about it. My routine did not happen today. I didn't pop-up-like-toast and stitch. Today I'm not sure if I'm making excuses or if it's just general negativity. I am also wondering about process. I tried stitching directly, with no pencil warm-up and with no prior sketches to work off, except a notion that I wanted to "fix" yesterday's work. Right now, I can see no value in what I did: no freshness. This might be something to explore over the next 360 days.

Art Every Day - Day 4

No. 4 is done! I keep telling myself that it's just like baking bread: one loaf after another. Yesterday I went to the fabric store and bought some "substrate." I didn't need any fabric but I told myself that this was necessary to make things easier. I had initially thought that I would use my hand-dyes -- neutrals. But that required decisions and I need to have everything ready to go. My practice is to get up and stitch before I do anything else. There seems to be less resistance. For the first four days I used a "sandwich" from another project. It has a fusible stabilizer on the back, batting, and the top is a light batik that I bought for some class. I cut it into roughly 4" squares. Last night I had to make more canvases so I am good to go for 4 more days.

Stitching Every Day

The recent discussion on the quiltart listserv about doing the work one is meant to do, came at an interesting time. I am very much trying to figure out what that is. I know I am easily captivated by the art I love to look at. This Faces project that I am undertaking is about to exploring line, in particular stitched line. I love to stitch by hand and by machine but usually the "quilting" is an afterthought. It is functional but needn't be perfunctory. I am hoping to elevate my stitching. I completed only day 3 and doubt is beginning to creep in.

Fear and Art Every Day

Christine's comment on my Jan. 1 blog post has been something I've been thinking about since I decided to start this project: will I blog about it every day? I chose words in 2008 (Focus) and 2009 (Gentleness) and I didn't really accomplish all that I had hoped. I knew I would need courage to tackle a daily art commitment. Somehow, blogging about it seems too dangerous right now. I will begin by doing the work, every day, first thing in the morning. (Day 2 is done! 363 to go!). I will begin to show the work when it seems right. What I need to do is to grow my confidence and my practice. I read somewhere, perhaps in Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers (review or here is also an excerpt from the New Yorker, but now I'm not so sure) that it takes 30 days to form a habit. The practice and the habit are what I'm after.

I will say, as a further way of documenting my project, that I am currently calling it Faces. I have been an avid follower of Danny Gregory's EDM list (Every Day Matters). I have sporadically worked on my drawing skills but it has always felt like a distraction to what I thought of as my real work. Tomorrow I will write about that.

PS: Gladwell does talk about the 10,000 hours required for mastery in Outliers. That's a good bit of work.

2010, Courage, Art Every Day

I've chosen courage as my word for 2010. Christine Kane talks about setting one's intent for the whole year by selecting one word. I intend to post the word in my bathroom and acknowledge my word every day.

Last night I read a post by Kathy from KY on the quiltart listserv that was galvanizing. She described her yearly art resolutions and the satisfaction she has gained from them.

I felt as if she challenged me personally to begin a practice of daily art. I felt very uncomfortable. I could begin an art performance project or I could resort to my usual art cogitation projects. That would take courage. The rules are to: 1) Make your own rule, but write it down on January 1 and follow it; 2) Do it every day; and 3) Document it.

I know that the discipline of doing something every day, no matter what it is, would be good for me, and as Kathy said, would foster creativity. I began this morning but beginning is always easy for me. 364 days to go.

Brunch

My friend Carol gave me this luscious book by Gale Gand for my birthday.

After taking Andrew to SFO, SOB!, I made a version of the cover egg dish for Steven for breakfast. (Did I mention that I've read the whole book!) I had some Canadian bacon that I needed to use up so I diced it and put it in the bottom of a ramekin in place of the ham shown in the picture. I put in the dollop of pesto and two eggs (another gift of local eggs--beautiful orangey yolks!); I didn't have any fresh mozzarella so I used some sharp cheddar that Steven likes and chopped up and added a small tomato. I baked it at 375 for 15 minutes and promptly forgot to take a picture of it before he devored it. We were both impressed. It's a keeper! I'm looking forward to making it again.

Merry Christmas Panettone

Pre-Heating for No-Knead Stirato

Candice asked me if it was really necessary to preheat the oven for an hour before baking my no-knead bread. Here is what I learned from my latest experiment. I made three loaves yesterday to bring to a party. I turned on my oven (containing the covered baker) before shaping my first loaf for its second rise. My kitchen is quite cool, 68 degrees. The second rise took 45 minutes so the oven and container had preheated for 45+ minutes. I baked the first loaf for 30 minutes with the cloche on and then ten minutes with the cloche off (leaving the cloche in the back of the oven so it would stay hot for the next loaf). I have been reducing the oven temp to 425 degrees for the last 10 minutes because the crust gets quite dark if I leave it at 475. I like a dark bake but some of my eaters ask me if I've "burned" the bread.

After taking the first loaf out, I raised the temp back up to 475 and it took about ten minutes for the oven thermometer to register 475. The second and third loaves were baked with the same timing and temps and each loaf came out darker. Even though the oven registers 475 after 10-15 minutes of pre-heating it may not be optimal to get the best color and crust. For great crumb, you want the internal temperature of the bread to be 200-210 degrees when you take it out.

My Latest Loaf

This is my version of Jim Lahey's Stirato (an Italian baguette!). I'm making a 500g loaf and I'm supplementing it with a wild yeast starter that Linda made.

I'm baking it in one of these

I've also changed the bake time. I'm baking it with cloche on for 30 minutes at 475 degrees and then removing the cloche and reducing the temperature to 425 degrees for ten more minutes.

Fall Planting

I finally planted my onion starts (a yellow and a red) and my 9 varieties of garlic. I ordered the garlic last May and it was shipped in August. Alice and Linda and I split two gourmet sampler assortments for warm winter areas which included Creole Red, Ajo Rojo, Burgundy, Native Creole, Kettle River, Inchelium Red, Susanville, Shilla, and Korean Red. I think the Korean Red was rotten. Oh well.

I love these Atlas garden gloves for planting. I discovered that if I double glove with a pair of disposable surgical gloves, my hands stay dry and warmer. Of course with the temperature at 38 degrees today, ski mittens would really have been a better choice. I hope the garlic has long underwear.