14 February 2009

March Challenge Topics

It's my turn to come up with a topic for next month's challenge, and I think I am getting a good list together. It's a little harder since I want to find something that I can produce a finished piece on even with the limitations of our current housing situation (primarily that all my stuff is packed away in the garage in preparation for putting our house on the market!), but I don't want to do another month with me just bringing in sketches and ideas and nothing done.

So far this is what I've got:
transition
home/country
faery
transfer [technique challenge]
writing [incorporate somehow into final piece]
complementary colors on color wheel
triptych
tile [give everyone one to do or use however they wish]
mini canvas + easel

As I look at these, I think that faery is the one most appealing at the moment. It's whimsical, could easily be given many different interpretations, could go into literature for inspiration (A Midsummer Night's Dream!) . . . not sure how I could execute on it but it ought to be doable even with limited tools.

We'll see what else pops into my head over the next week . . .

Being Without

We have spent the last month frantically getting our house ready to go on the market. There hasn't even been headspace to think about any projects, let alone blog about them or explore them in my sketchbook. And now that we are nearly ready and the headlong rush has paused a bit, I find myself at a bit of a loss since all my stuff is packed up in the garage, waiting for a new house and space to come out. I miss all my things, my boxes of beads and charms and ink pads, and wonder how it will feel when I finally get to unpack them. Could be one month, but probably more like two or three, and more if we are unlucky. Fingers crossed for a speedy resolution to the whole process.

I'm finding that since A. and I started this monthly challenge thing, that's all I do (except for making the Christmas cards). That's okay with me right now. It's a function of how much time is available, and with a four-year-old it's still pretty limited.

This month's challenge topic is "experiments". I won't have a finished project to show since all my stuff is packed, but I did get out my new sumi painting set last Wednesday on my birthday and tried a couple of things. One thing I found out is that I had never used a brush to do calligraphy--in the past I've always used a calligraphy pen. I love the way it looks with a brush! And I will try to work that into something soon. Our showing is a week from tonight, and I'd like to do something else but am not sure what. Before all the house stuff started, I had already ordered a miniature chemistry set off of eBay and was going to make a shadowbox, but I just don't think I can do that now. It's too hard to go through boxes to get just what I need and then put it all back up again. I guess I could think it through and set it up, at least. After last month and thinking about what turns something from "craft" into "art" (not that it's important necessarily, I know), we concluded that art definitely involves the personal expression of the artist. So I have tried to think of what I could do with the background to personalize my shadowbox. Maybe use a couple of pictures--the one of my dad as a toddler being held up by his dad to press the doorbell, and print one from last summer with Daddy and Jonathan in the granary with the chemistry set in sepia tone--that might be nice.