Spurred on a by a friend, I have entered the Sanlam Vuleka Art competition. We sent in our entries together. There are cash prizes, but I am not aiming for any of those, I am simply aiming to be juried into the exhibition, which will run for most of next month in Cape Town. Last year 48 out of 388 entries went on exhibition. Stiff competition. I had to enter in the 'Other' category; - when will Fibre become recognised as more than a Cinderella medium??
The competition aims to showcase "new work... aimed at encouraging creativity, innovation and adventurous art from all cultures". I like to think that every time we can get something fibre accepted into a mainstream art exhibition, that that it will be another step towards changing the mindset that fibre cannot be 'real' fine art. It might not be my home-grown, outsider art, which does this, but I can hope!
Following on from Robyn's comment (thanks Robyn!):
Stupidly, I didn't even take a photo of one of them. I only just completed it and my camera has been out of juice :( (I have to laugh - what a lame excuse!) This means that should it get lost in transit, I have no record of it. Since I was quite proud of it, that will be some loss. But let me not be negative.
A pic of the other entry (I sent two) is here.
Friday, August 28
Saturday, August 22
Ideas, ideas
NOW the ideas are flowing again. So many things I want to do. For seven months, while I was not working and had ALL the free time I ever wanted, I didn't do a thing! I could not drag myself to be interested in anything.
Now that is just killing me! When I think what I could have accomplished in this time, the fun I could have had, the techniques I could have played with and learnt about.... boo hoo :(
Mainly the fun I could have had playing! I am doing some of that now - making paper cloth a la Beryl Taylor. Glueing paper to cloth, then painting it with any coloured medium (fabric paint, acrylics, paintstiks etc) and scribbling on it with any kind of pen, pencil, koki, crayon - anything that writes. Then you maybe add some more paper, or tissue or paint and the idea is to get a textured surface with many layers that show through at various depths.
It's great, finally, getting to use my Shiva (Markal here in South Africa) paintstiks. They're awesome! Some gel pens are good on the paint too. It's such a lot of fun. Fun. What? I can't believe I am playing and having fun. When last...?
I'm also getting tons of inspiration from the US magazines I've been subscribing to, Quilting Arts and Cloth, Paper, Scissors. They're expensive when you convert our little Rands, but I read them again and again, so I feel justified. During my last manic episode, I must've not felt I had to justify anything to anyone,(!) so I blithely renewed both subscriptions, without a twinge of caution! I remember feeling sure that the universe would provide. When the credit card statement arrived, the universe was conspicuously quiet. What happened to "leap and the net will appear"?
Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits. This new medication is pretty sedating and does slow me down, but I am confident that between the psychiatrist and I, we can tweak it so I'm alert in the day and sleepy at night. Whatever, however, I am going to make it work; just being myself again, after that long, dark winter, is a gift worth treasuring, and I am going to nurture it. Appreciate what I have.
I have yet to locate my camera. Things are in a slightly messed up state around here. Well, okay, I think a hurricane blew through while I was sleeping. My four-seater couch can narrowly fit one person on it. Both of my tables in my "studio", yeah alright, lounge, are covered with STUFF to the depth of about 20cm. But it's all such nice stuff! As a friend of mine says, my style is very... err... "organic".
You know how, when you're choosing colours, you have to pull out all the fabrics, beads, etc to see how they go together? And you know how you can't do this in one session, they have to lie there, so you can walk past them for a couple of days, and mull them over? And you know when you have about 10 ideas at the same time, and want to get things out for each one of them, so you don't lose the concept or pictures in your head? And you know how the pieces you haven't yet finished, have to lie out, so you can mull over them too, and consider how they want to be finished? Add the internet, a coffee maker, a fistful of pills, (alas, a necessary evil) and you have a little self-contained eco-system. THAT, dear friends... is "organic"...
Ahh, at times like these, 'tis a joy to live alone... :)
Now that is just killing me! When I think what I could have accomplished in this time, the fun I could have had, the techniques I could have played with and learnt about.... boo hoo :(
Mainly the fun I could have had playing! I am doing some of that now - making paper cloth a la Beryl Taylor. Glueing paper to cloth, then painting it with any coloured medium (fabric paint, acrylics, paintstiks etc) and scribbling on it with any kind of pen, pencil, koki, crayon - anything that writes. Then you maybe add some more paper, or tissue or paint and the idea is to get a textured surface with many layers that show through at various depths.
It's great, finally, getting to use my Shiva (Markal here in South Africa) paintstiks. They're awesome! Some gel pens are good on the paint too. It's such a lot of fun. Fun. What? I can't believe I am playing and having fun. When last...?
I'm also getting tons of inspiration from the US magazines I've been subscribing to, Quilting Arts and Cloth, Paper, Scissors. They're expensive when you convert our little Rands, but I read them again and again, so I feel justified. During my last manic episode, I must've not felt I had to justify anything to anyone,(!) so I blithely renewed both subscriptions, without a twinge of caution! I remember feeling sure that the universe would provide. When the credit card statement arrived, the universe was conspicuously quiet. What happened to "leap and the net will appear"?
Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits. This new medication is pretty sedating and does slow me down, but I am confident that between the psychiatrist and I, we can tweak it so I'm alert in the day and sleepy at night. Whatever, however, I am going to make it work; just being myself again, after that long, dark winter, is a gift worth treasuring, and I am going to nurture it. Appreciate what I have.
I have yet to locate my camera. Things are in a slightly messed up state around here. Well, okay, I think a hurricane blew through while I was sleeping. My four-seater couch can narrowly fit one person on it. Both of my tables in my "studio", yeah alright, lounge, are covered with STUFF to the depth of about 20cm. But it's all such nice stuff! As a friend of mine says, my style is very... err... "organic".
You know how, when you're choosing colours, you have to pull out all the fabrics, beads, etc to see how they go together? And you know how you can't do this in one session, they have to lie there, so you can walk past them for a couple of days, and mull them over? And you know when you have about 10 ideas at the same time, and want to get things out for each one of them, so you don't lose the concept or pictures in your head? And you know how the pieces you haven't yet finished, have to lie out, so you can mull over them too, and consider how they want to be finished? Add the internet, a coffee maker, a fistful of pills, (alas, a necessary evil) and you have a little self-contained eco-system. THAT, dear friends... is "organic"...
Ahh, at times like these, 'tis a joy to live alone... :)
Thursday, August 13
"I would not be convicted...
... by a jury of my peers,
Still crazy after all these years...." - Paul Simon
---- Kleenex moment coming up :) -----
Yes, I'm back, I really am. I'm me again. My wellness is sustained. I can't believe my luck; I'm grateful, tearful, awed, peaceful, jubilant and did I mention grateful?
As I wrote last time, it's phenomenal what the right combination of medications can do. The enormous pharmaceutical industry may be all about the bottom line, with less-than-ethical tricks, corruption, counterfeiting, blatant profiteering and many other dubious practices, but this aside, drug development is also about improving peoples' lives and treating "the heartache and the thousand natural shocks, that flesh is heir to". (Shakespeare) And some may say that psychiatric drugs are heavy-duty, dangerous, harm you more than they heal and are therefore 'bad'; well, all I can say is I'll take this 'bad, dangerous, whatever', over the hell of the last 8 months ANY DAY.
When you're on the receiving end of a drug that works for you, that works in such a way as to enable you to pick yourself up again, that restores you to to yourself and that literally gives you your life back, it's... well... dare I say it, miraculous. Within just a few weeks of starting to take it, I wasn't depressed any more, I could think rationally again, I could think CREATIVELY again. I'm so deeply impressed. Just a little tweaking of some neurotransmitters in my brain! And I'm not high, I'm not a zombie, I'm not crazy, I'm not anything other than just 'me'! -- {laughing}, okay, some may say the 'not crazy' is debatable, but hey, this is a craziness I can live with!
I'm back to my art. I've finished 2 of my UFOs - UnFinished Objects - and had an idea for a new 'object'. I have to find my camera and take pics, so I can show them here. I have an inordinate number of things I have to catch up with again, not least of which is to find a job! Some days I'm daunted and I have to remind myself that Rome wasn't rebuilt in a day. I just won't be posting as much, that's all.
One thing at a time, I'll get there. I have a fighting chance now... :)
Still crazy after all these years...." - Paul Simon
---- Kleenex moment coming up :) -----
Yes, I'm back, I really am. I'm me again. My wellness is sustained. I can't believe my luck; I'm grateful, tearful, awed, peaceful, jubilant and did I mention grateful?
As I wrote last time, it's phenomenal what the right combination of medications can do. The enormous pharmaceutical industry may be all about the bottom line, with less-than-ethical tricks, corruption, counterfeiting, blatant profiteering and many other dubious practices, but this aside, drug development is also about improving peoples' lives and treating "the heartache and the thousand natural shocks, that flesh is heir to". (Shakespeare) And some may say that psychiatric drugs are heavy-duty, dangerous, harm you more than they heal and are therefore 'bad'; well, all I can say is I'll take this 'bad, dangerous, whatever', over the hell of the last 8 months ANY DAY.
When you're on the receiving end of a drug that works for you, that works in such a way as to enable you to pick yourself up again, that restores you to to yourself and that literally gives you your life back, it's... well... dare I say it, miraculous. Within just a few weeks of starting to take it, I wasn't depressed any more, I could think rationally again, I could think CREATIVELY again. I'm so deeply impressed. Just a little tweaking of some neurotransmitters in my brain! And I'm not high, I'm not a zombie, I'm not crazy, I'm not anything other than just 'me'! -- {laughing}, okay, some may say the 'not crazy' is debatable, but hey, this is a craziness I can live with!
I'm back to my art. I've finished 2 of my UFOs - UnFinished Objects - and had an idea for a new 'object'. I have to find my camera and take pics, so I can show them here. I have an inordinate number of things I have to catch up with again, not least of which is to find a job! Some days I'm daunted and I have to remind myself that Rome wasn't rebuilt in a day. I just won't be posting as much, that's all.
One thing at a time, I'll get there. I have a fighting chance now... :)
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