Playing and filling the empty creative well

Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it.   
Andy Warhol

After exhibition exhaustion has crept in.  And a few weekends away haven’t helped.

I have spent way too long trying to tidy my workspace and completing a work for the Margaret Oppen competition (Embroiderers’ Guild NSW)  and now I have began to play.  

I’m not much interested in doing anything too serious.  All the things I put off for the last six months are on the table.  

Polymer clay earrings

I have pulled out my polymer clay and fired up the toaster oven and made some jewellery.

I looked through all that crewel wool and started some simple meditative stitching.   I am a few stitches away from completing a panel.   I think it will become a cushion.

Bargello in browns and greens

I have heaps crewel wool so another is planned.   This one will be a palette of blue greys and planned a little more rather than the serendipity of just grabbing a colour and stitching with it.

And yes, there are projects in the wings.   I am thinking about a small body of work for a joint exhibition with several felters in the middle of next year.  As the primary focus of these textile workers is wool the aforesaid cushions may end up being part of that exhibition.   Or they may end up on my couch.  Time will tell 😊.

I have postponed finishing/starting/making some soft sculpted dolls and have a “Sweet Alice” pattern printed out begging to be made.   The pattern has been shared by doll artist Sharon Mitchell on her Facebook group Cloth Doll Crafters.  I have been a member for quite a while and enjoy seeing what people create.   Now I’m going to indulge myself. 

Cloth over air dry clay

And I have a rabbit head sculpted in air dry clay that has been waiting for a body for 12 months.   His time has come.   I have missed doll making.   Yes some of them are cheesy but so much fun.  Doll making involves practising observational skills, thinking in 3D, painting, sculpting, fabric , found objects and stitching - just about everything that floats my boat.

The balance of this year is going to be play.  But play with a purpose.   Whilst playing I am thinking about future works.   I will use the play as a way to sample/process some ideas.   

Some polymer clay jewellery WIP - just to show I venture past black and white !

There are four local exhibitions and/or competitions I want to enter next year.  And I would like to continue exploring bees in fibre art form with perhaps another exhibition.  But not till mid 2021 .  Lol.    I did learn some lessons about over extending myself this year.

I have been negotiating with a public gallery towards a group exhibition in 2022!  Yes, that’s miles away but galleries plan so far in advance it is absolutely imperative to plan ahead.

And did I mention I am so excited to be going to the Contemporary Craft Retreat at Canberra in October and a mosaic play weekend with my sister at Moulemien in November.  Yep.  Its all happening!  I'm filling those wells of inspiration with activity.  And there will be one last hurrah to Sydney to catch up with fellow artists and collect my Off the Beaten Track works after they bump out of the last exhibition space there.