A few posts ago I discussed creating water from only a few fabrics.  Yes, it is easy to create the feeling of moving water using only three fabrics–a light, medium and dark value.  But when you want to turn up the volume, multiple fabrics make the water more interesting.

I will not show you the whole piece (so many shows now do not want work that has been seen, even on the artist’s blog) but I will show you the water part.  Here, I used multiple fabrics, many unexpected choices for water, and personally I like the results.

The idea here is to create water that looks like it is flowing rapidly.  This was done using a variety of fabrics, but the starting point (as always) was one light, one medium and one dark.  The difference here is the addition of several “zingers” in the mix.  A zinger is a fabric that does not have one specific value because it is made up of several values–like the the blue and white checked fabric.  Just look at the closeup of the fabrics in here:

A lot of these fabrics don’t exactly scream water, but the cacophony of patterns creates movement that I think looks really nice.  I have used this idea in depicting other things besides water:

Like the hair in “The Endless Dance of the Ponytail”

to tree bark…(notice the addition of an african fabric in the mix)

The take-away?  Open up your stash and use all those little scraps you have left to create something wonderful–whether it is texture or just movement, have fun and embrace the process.  The results are great.

I don’t usually have a hard time finding the right fabric for the right spot, but on occasion there is something that just baffles me and requires a lot of auditioning before I am happy.  This is one of those times.  I decided to share the options with you, and talk about what I like and don’t like about each one.  I find when I teach that showing students what is wrong and explaining WHY it is wrong is more instructive than showing them something that works and expecting them to see why.  So here goes, like standing in front you all in a bathing suit!

Option #1

This works, the value is different enough from both the dog and the man’s pants to stand apart, and I like the lines in it.  But I am afraid this is just too literal, and I really want to break out of the mode of directly translating a photo without a little pizzazz.

Option #2

Love this fabric, don’t love it here.  Too dark, too busy and too distracting.  Back in the stash it goes.

Option #3

I would definitely use this so that the pattern ran horizontally, put it in like this to evaluate color and value.  Not loving this choice, too dark to distinguish the pant legs clearly, too much pattern fights with the great print in the dog’s legs.

Option #4

Sometimes when a fabric is too dark, the perfect solution is the back.  Not in this case.  Just like the original I spent so long pulling out, this is just too close to the dog and it all blends together.

Option #5

Again, love this fabric, but not here.  Too dark, pattern is too swirly.

OK, so let’s move away from being so literal and only considering gray fabrics.  Let’s move onto other colors.  So far I have decided that the pattern can’t be too strong and that horizontal lines work well.  Moving on–

Option #6

Seems like it would be right, horizontal pattern, right value.  Looks like dirt.  Next…..

Option #7

ARGH!  Looks like they are standing on a giant pillow.  Nope.

Option #7

Hmmmm, like the value, love the writing on the fabric, relates to the writing on the dog, gives a wonderful sense of dimension.  But I still am not sold on the brown color.

Let’s think about colors.  Reds and oranges will blend in with the traffic cones, which I quite like so they are out.  Yellow?  Too much.  Purple?  Eh.  Green–too much like grass.  Maybe I need to look at blue fabrics, being careful not to make them look like they are standing in water.

Option #8

Like the horizontal, like the color.  Interesting….

Option #9

Nope.  Too close in value to the dog.

Option #10

Didn’t even consider the front of this fabric as it was the same value as the pant legs.  This is the back.  Interesting, changes the whole look of the piece.

I haven’t made a final decision yet, I suspect it is for one of two reasons–either I haven’t found the one that resonates with me yet or I have been at it too long and need to walk away for a bit so I can see it again with new eyes.  The take-away from this is to remember that not every piece, no matter how experienced the artist, goes together without changes and exploring the options.  (Usually not this many!).  But you have to keep trying until it clicks for you.

If you want to make an omelet, you have to crack a lot of eggs!

In the past several months I have addressed the concept of size in my art quilts.  Although it may not seem that way, the size you decide to work is very significant not for the resulting work, but for the working methods employed in order to get there.

Let’s start by discussing the impact of the overall size.  Large pieces demand attention.  Even from across the room, a large piece has presence and drama.  An artwork that is five feet square will make more of a statement than a grouping of smaller pieces.

There are advantages, however, to working small.  A small piece requires that the viewer move in close and really examine the work.  It becomes more of a personal viewing experience, less dramatic maybe, but there is an opportunity to fit a lot of drama into a little space.

Most of us work somewhere in between very large and very small.  I know for myself, no matter what I tell myself when I get started, I always seem to end up with a piece that is in the 24″ x 30″ range.  Maybe a bit larger or smaller, but really not far from these proportions.  This size must be my comfort zone.  But although many artists would consider this to be small, for me it was just too large.

Why too large?  That is where the technical aspects come into play.  Let’s look at this piece “Dreaming of Brandon”

This piece is in that same size range.  Despite the fact that it is not a huge piece, I did think it had some drama in that the closeup was so tight that there was an immediacy and impact to the piece.  Here is the problem for me:

If you look closely at this detail shot of the arm, you can see where my frustration comes from–the functional stitching that must go on every fabric work layered with batting.  If you work with these materials you know the requirements–any areas that are not secured with functional and/or decorative quilting will eventually look puffed out and may sag.  Therefore, quilt stitching is necessary for an area like this arm which is only about six or seven inches wide.

Although many fabric artists WANT that stitching to add texture to their work, there are areas in my work where I do not want the additional texture or pattern of the necessary stitching.  This was one of them.  This is neither right nor wrong, just the way I ultimately see the finished piece.  So for me, even working 24 x 30 when the piece contained large pieces of fabric became a problem.

So by contrast, here is a piece still on my design wall, almost completed:

Of course, it is hard to compare apples to oranges on a computer screen, without being able to see the actual size of the two pieces.  But this piece is only 12″ square.  That means by the time I secure the edges of each piece of fabric, I do not need to add additional lines of quilt stitching in order to prevent puckering or sagging:

These resulting smaller pieces work for me, because I can use more elaborate stitching where I want it, as opposed to where I need it.  This might not be a problem for others, but it was for me.

Frustrations in your art are an invitation to make changes in the way you work, to evolve and grow.  For now, this change is working for me.  It does restrict my ability to enter shows, as the trends now is for ever larger pieces that fill the gallery space with big impact.  But unfortunately for us as artists, the reality is that we need to do what we do, what we are driven to create, regardless of the trends around us.

I just completed a piece showing water breaking over rocks which will be exhibited in Taiwan next year.  It got me thinking about water, and wanting to share some easy tricks.

Depicting water using fabric may seem difficult, but it only requires a few fabrics.   Usually, only three are needed–a light, medium and dark fabric.  Sound familiar?

Here is a closeup of the water in “Seascape” showing the three fabrics.  The lightest tone is the base, the medium tone shows movement and the darker tone looks like shadows around the base of the rocks.

The pieces are cut into random shapes, the darker pieces go closer to the rocks.  Since the base fabric has some movement, it does not appear to be flat, and therefore doesn’t need much help.

In this piece, called Pinebrook, the water is a single fabric.  Because it is a tie dye look alike with lots of highs and lows already in it, it serves well, especially as a narrow strip through the woods.

The water in this series of beach scenes is done with one base fabric and one darker fabric in strips, stitched closely to add more “texture” to the surface:

Want to know a secret?  The base fabric is actually the back of the fabric used as the accents.  Sometimes, all you need is ONE fabric.

Water is reflective, so often it is necessary to add more fabric to depict what is being reflected:

The more curvy and ripply those lines are, the more they resemble reflections in moving water.

Here four fabrics were used; the blue base,  a darker one (actually if you look closely you can see it is a blue print on white), the green, and the white highlight.  Bits of the flamingo fabric are tucked in to look like reflections, and the same curvy lines from the beak into the water.

Remember that water is usually not blue, it is more likely to be gray, green, or even brown.  Here is a bit of the lake seen through some trees:

Light, medium and dark, the curvier the lines, the more it looks like it is moving.  Simple.

What more complex?  Not necessary, but here goes:

The base fabric here is plain (meaning without a pattern or print) and there are multiple randomly cut pieces that give the water it’s movement.  Not sure you can see it in this picture, but there are lots of unexpected prints in here, all kept from getting out of control by the solid base.

Finally, that new piece.  I won’t show you the whole thing (that waits until it is exhibited) but here is a closeup of the water, inspired by a recent trip to Northern California.  I got lucky, I found a tie dye look alike that already had lots of colors and movement in it and was striated to look like water all on its own:

All I needed were those curly pieces of white fabric to look like the white caps breaking over the rocks.  And the rocks themselves?  A single tie dye look alike had enough going on to look like rock.  Easy.  Try it.

I know I have discussed value in this blog before, but I wanted to address it again as part of the recent posts on color.  Value is my big thing, if the values are right, any colors will work.  If the values are wrong, the art quilt just won’t work.

The easiest way to think about value is to look at black and white photos.  This is value at it’s core–no color just value.  And it doesn’t matter that no one has a gray face, if the gradation between light (white) and dark (black) and everything in between is correct, the brain sees the image properly.

When I used to teach photography, I would tell students to turn the color dial to black and white on their TV set.  I am not sure you can do that anymore, but most photo programs on the computer will allow you to change from color to grayscale mode.  This is a good way to see how colored images translate into simple value studies.

If you have my book you have seen this image (and I have probably posted it before as well).  It is Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.  In choosing the fabrics for the skin tones, they must graduate from light to dark.  In this first example, they do, but it was subtle–the result:

Look at the fabric selections in the lower corner.  Even to the naked eye, they appear to move from light to dark.  But they do not move dramatically enough, and the result is that the darkest area of her face (the shadow around her ear) is so light that it doesn’t appear to be a shadow at all.  Everything seems to blend together and looks like one flat surface.

In this example, the values do change more, but the addition of that pink in the middle range is off.  It draws too much attention to that area of the face, making her look like girl with a pearl earring and a skin rash.  We are still suffering a bit from the flat surface syndrome, but it is getting better.

Now look at the final example:

The values move from light to dark with enough contrast to make her face look contoured.  It is also important, when working from a photo (and one of the reasons I prefer to work this way) to use the photo as a guide to value placement.  I start this process by choosing more skin tones then I know I need.  If there are five in the pattern, for instance, I might lay out eight from light to dark.  Then I can compare the lightest values in my assortment with the lightest value in the pattern.  If they look like the same value (put the fabric right next to that area of the pattern and look at them together with your red viewer) that is my #1 fabric.  I do this with each subsequent fabric, making sure the value matches the value in the pattern, until I have chosen all five fabrics.  Then I know they not only move from light to dark, they move in the same values as my original.

Often, I do not want to create an art quilt in the same colors as the original, and in that case I deliberately remove all color first, making a pattern in black and white.  Here is the original pattern for girl with a pearl earring without any color:

This would allow me to follow JUST THE VALUES without the distraction of any color to throw me off.  Using a red viewer (like a “ruby beholder”) I can compare the fabric values to their corresponding areas in the pattern in order to choose the correct fabrics.

As discussed in a recent post, color can be used to direct the viewer to focus on a certain part of your composition.  Color can also effectively set a mood.

Every color has a personality, can establish a mood, and can conjure certain emotions.  This is true not just for quilts, but for clothing, home decorating, and advertising–anywhere color is used.  The world is filled with colors, and each and every one of them elicits a feeling in humans.  We are all drawn to certain colors because of the way they make us feel.

Every color has a temperature.  Blues and greens are cool colors, they conjure up feelings of tranquility–of water and grass and the serenity of nature.  They will establish a mood that is calm and restful.

Reds and oranges, on the other hand, are warm colors–passionate, the color of fire; hot and exciting.  Yellow is the color of sunshine, the more orange is added to the yellow, the hotter the color temperature.  A quilt in these colors will be bold and energizing.

Purple, being made of both a warm and cool color can swing both ways.  If the composition of the purple is 50% red and 50% blue, it will serve equally well as either a warm or cool color.  But shift the percentages and it will lean in one direction–a bluer purple (more blue in the mix) is cooler, a warmer purple (more red in the mix) is warmer.

Using white will make other colors in your quilt look crisp and clear; black will intensify the colors around it, and beige make your quilt romantic and feminine–and will work better with grayer colors–like dusty rose, lilac and soft sage green.

The other component is saturation.  Saturation is like dye–if you put a piece of white fabric into blue dye for only a few minutes, the resulting color will be a nice light blue.  Leave it in a long time and you get a deep rich blue–or a color that is highly saturated.  Saturation is different from value, it is the intensity of color.

If you add white to a saturated color, it gets lighter.  Add black and it gets darker.  Add both white and black and the color becomes “dusty” or grayer.  The grayer a color becomes; the less saturation it has.

For juvenile quilts, primary colors are simple and straightforward.  Using highly saturated red, yellow and blue with the addition of complementary green, orange and purple will result in a quilt with lots of energy and visual excitement.

On the other hand, baby quilts, where energy and excitement is not the goal, do better in a single color range like yellow, blue, or pink. Keeping these colors lighter and unsaturated, mixing them with white without complementary color accents will result in a quilt that is soft and soothing.

Look at these two water quilts.

Here the colors are highly saturated, they give the impression of a hot sunny day in a tropical climate.  The addition of the yellow brings more “sunshine” and brightness to this quilt.  Mixing it with its complement, purple, makes it really stand out.

In this one, however

The colors are grayer, less saturated, and set a mood of a foggy day.  Sticking to only cooler blue tones, with no complementary accents, sets a mood that is naturally cooler than the quilt above.

Here, the hot colors extenuate the movement of the woman’s arms, to set a mood that is exuberant.  Even though there is blue in the background, it is highly saturated.  Compare this to the more somber mood set by these colors:

If this had been executed using highly saturated warm tones, it would not have set the same mood as the man himself.  Look at this example, which set a cooler mood due to color:

Now look at what happens when I take that image into Photoshop and increase the saturation of the colors, and warm them up…

Changes the mood completely.  Makes me wonder why that guy is wearing a winter hat.

What is the mood here:

Cool tones, grayer saturation, just a spot of warm color at the face for focal point.  Does this quilt say warm and happy to you?

The depiction of a face is no different–color can support the mood and expression.  A face does not need to be done in accurate flesh tones to be readily recognizable as a face, just like a black and white photo, if the values are correct the brain understands the color shift.  Here, the face of the woman is fleshy and happy.  Using peachy tones (which are not realistic) make her look happy and healthy:

In this next example, however, the face of the woman is sad, using peachy tones would have been a contradiction.  By using green tones, which are also not at all realistic, we set a mood that feels sickly and depressed–which is better suited to her expression, and therefore amplifies it.

Whether you make traditional, updated traditional or art quilts, it is important to understand how the colors you choose and where you put them in your quilt will impact your final results.  Understanding these principles will help you plan and execute the quilt you envision.

Color and the choices you make in your artwork can set a mood or create a focal point.  In this post, I will discuss using color to create a focal point in artwork.  The rules are pretty simple–the concept of complementary colors.

Complementary or opposite colors refer to the color wheel, but I am not a big proponent of using a color wheel.  I see too many people in quilt shops, trusty color wheel in hand, looking like a deer in headlights.  Everything you need to know about color you learned in nursery school.  Remember finger paint?  That was your complete color education, and you didn’t even know it.

We all know the basics–there are three primary colors; red, blue and yellow–and all other colors are made from them.  Black and white, although not really colors, can lighten or darken colors mixed from the primaries.  I am sure you know the formulas:

Red plus blue equals purple.  The remaining primary is yellow–the opposite of purple.

Blue and yellow equals green.  The remaining primary is red–the opposite of green.

Yellow and red equals orange.  The remaining primary is blue–the opposite of orange.

Red, blue and yellow together equals brown.  Technically, brown has no opposite color.

So lets talk about brown for a minute.  True brown is made from equal amounts of red, blue and yellow; but what changes the character of brown tones is the amount of each component color.  Some are more red, some more yellow, some more blue.  To determine the undertone of brown, hold it next to each of the primary colors and see what it most closely matches.

The same is true of gray.  Not all gray is alike because it is not all made of black and white alone.  Some are warm, meaning they have more red in them, some are cool–more blue.

Brown and gray together make taupe.  Same rules apply about their undertones.

Now you know everything you need to know about color theory in order to use it effectively in your art.

Using just a hint of a complementary color creates a kind of visual vibration, which draws the eye, therefore making the complement the focal point.

In The Boy in the Banyan Tree, the trees are gray, but a blue-gray.  The complement of blue is orange, so dressing the boy in orange makes him the center of focus.  If the grandfather were in orange, the piece would be about him:

Since so much of Patience was either black, white and gray or green, putting the woman in red draws the attention directly to her, rather than the lion, which is so much larger:

This works in reverse, as well.  Create the focal point and then find a background that complements the main colors.  In Little Lotus, she is in orange with orange in the background, so she is haloed in blue:

Remove the blue and loose the impact:

The same is true for this art quilt of my son, Jordan.  Look at the central figure with no background:

Now let’s try black, many people think black always creates a dramatic background:

Black looks good, but the whole piece is sort of flat.  I think I can do better.  His shirt is green, what about green:

Again, ok, but it doesn’t wow me.  What about a blue tone, since the pants are blue:

This is a purple-blue, to distinguish between the pants and background.  But it is still just ok.  The primary color of the central figure is his green shirt, right?  So you know where I am going with this, the compliment to green is red:

Here is the finished piece with the red background.  The choice of red makes the figure stand out and the overall effect is more visually stimulating and exciting.

Even used more subtly, the rules still apply.  Here is the flamingos quilt from my book:

Flamingos are pink and pink is a light shade of red (red plus white equal pink).  The complement to pink is green.  Putting a touch of green in the water behind the flamingos makes them stand out more against the blue of the water.

Look at how complementary colors pumped up this piece from the original photo:

Jordan again (sorry, Jordan).  This place we stayed while skiing one year was fairly colorless.  By making the sofa more red/orange and using a green wallpaper…..

Here is the final Catnap.  Get it?  I also added the sneaker, which also draws the eye into the composition and the cat–which I like but here he wasn’t part of the original photo, so the proportion makes him look like a 40 pound cat.  Never mind, he works.  Also, look at the corner of the wall behind the sofa.  The lighter area of the wall was done using the back of the wall fabric.  I always use the back of fabric, it can be just the right thing in so many situations!

So remember that using a complementary color as your focal point will draw the viewer’s eye directly to that point, making your point.

Yesterday I went into NYC to have some of my work professionally photographed for the book I mentioned in my last blog.  It went well and I have nice clear images.  It always seems strange for me to hire someone to do what I used to do professionally, but there are times when it matters.

For the most part I photograph my own work.  This is fine for the blog, the site and for entering shows.  But when the image will appear in print, that is when I want the benefit of a professional with the right equipment and proper lighting.

When shooting your own work, there are some important basics to keep in mind.

• Pin or tape the piece to the wall so there are no hands, feet, rods or other distractions in the background.  Nothing says “I shot this myself” more than the garage door or the kitchen cabinets showing in the photo.  I use a white background for most work, a gray for anything that is substantially white and would therefore blend into a white background.  Take your time to hang it straight (I use a level) and make sure all the corners are flat.  If the image isn’t straight and flat before you shoot, it certainly won’t be in the photograph.
• Use a tripod.  Trying to shoot hand-held will result in an out of focus image.  Set the tripod about 3 to 5 feet from the work. I use a level here, too, so I know the camera is straight.
• Measure the artwork and then set your tripod so the lens of the camera is at the halfway point of the artwork.
• Make sure there is lots of light.  The biggest problem most of us have when shooting our artwork is insufficient light.  Buy daylight balanced 5000K bulbs and set your camera to “daylight”.
• Use the highest resolution available on your camera.

The biggest advantage to the new digital cameras is that the results are instant.  You can shoot and look at the image and reshoot if something is wrong, unlike the old film cameras where we had to wait a few days only to find out it needed to be redone.  Pay careful attention to little bits of thread on the surface, wrinkles, or anything else that may not be instantly noticeable but will show up on the image.

It isn’t hard to shoot your own work, but it is also important to know when to hire a professional.

Artist Statements–we love them, we hate them.  OK, mostly we hate them.  Well, we hate writing them anyway.  Some of us say too little, some too much.  So what belongs in an artist statement?

Give us the facts, just the facts.  An artist statement is supposed to tell someone about your work when you can’t be standing there to tell them yourself.  Why do you do what you do, what techniques do you employ–is there a reason you employ them?  What influences you?  Are you trying to make a statement in your work?

Please don’t tell us where you went to school and how many kids you have.  We don’t really want to know about your dog, your bladder condition or that you drive carpool to soccer on Thursdays.  Unless, of course, any of this information is directly relevant to understanding your work.

And PLEASE don’t try to make your artist statement ART all by itself.  If someone walks away scratching their head, more confused than before they read it, your artist statement has failed.

Some exhibitions will ask for a specific artist statement just for that one piece.  In that case the rules are the same, just specific to one artwork.

Artist Statements are the same regardless of your medium.  A few general rules:

• Write in the first person, this is you talking, it isn’t a review by Art in America.
• Keep it to a page unless you have been specifically asked to write something longer.
• Try to avoid “artspeak” terms and language.  Write for an audience who has never seen your work and who may not be artists.
• Start with a paragraph of introduction and then get into more detailed information
• Be careful of grammar and spelling.  It counts.

Just for fun, here are two artist statements, one good and one, well, not so good.

Artist statement #1:

Susie Creamcheese is an amazing art quilter, sculptor, multimedia performance artist and she has written two books of cowboy poetry that she self-published. She likes to explore the extraordinary in everyday things. And nature is inpriational. Juxtipoze organic shapes and spiritual awakening. Her dreamscape of images conjure up the changing landscape of the human predicament and our delicate environment while morphing her creative energy into a synergy of beautiful expressions of wind-water-sky where the landscape of the fabric surface becomes like the universe. Colors vacillate between pastels and a palette that explodes with radiance not unlike the ocean.

Susie has been an art quilter for ten years, but has been making art since she was three years old. Her interest in art began with fingerpainting in nursery school and she won the “best painting” award in high school. Besides making art quilts she is well known for her macramé toothbrush holders and exquisite macaroni necklaces. She majored in accounting and interpretive Nordic dance in college, and has worked in the meat packing industry for the past twenty years. Currently she is taking classes at a local community college and was highly influenced by a five day retreat with fiber artist Raven Starlight-Rosenblatt. I am married to an architect and have two beautiful children, three dogs and a cat. I grew up in Oklahoma, now I live California where she am also on the PTA. The Journal Star Ledger-Chronicle called her work in a recent show in the local library “really nice.”

Art is life.

______________________________________

What have we learned about her art?

What her work is—art quilts

Why she does it—we don’t know

Her methods—we don’t know

Why she uses the materials she does—we don’t know

Why she uses the techniques she does—we don’t know

How she works—we don’t know

Influences and inspirations—we don’t know

Does her work have a message—we don’t know

Why does she tell us what her job is—we don’t know

Why does she tell us where she lives—we don’t know

What does her work say—something about organic and spiritual and the human predicament and wind-water-sky and the universe and nature.

Anything else? Misspellings, grammar issues and written in the third person with a slip up. This artist statement is unfocused and the information contained in it is irrelevant and unhelpful. We do not know anything more about her work after reading this statement.

_____________________________________________________________

Artist statement #2

Susie Creamcheese

www.susiecreamcheese.com

Living on the beach in Southern California, I watch the ocean and the way the light changes throughout the day. The reflections of surrounding buildings and clouds fascinate me. It is these distorted reflections, the unexpected colors and movement of the water that I try to capture in my hand appliquéd water quilts.

I use silk because its beautiful reflective quality, the smooth sheen of its surface and the intensity of its color all remind me of water. As part of my commitment to preserve the environment, I use only organic plant-based dyes on plain white silk, dried in the sun.

The edges of my fabrics are turned under and sewn by hand so that there are no loose threads and the curved lines are clean and pure. I work spontaneously, making artistic decisions as I go, with no particular plan in mind. Small faceted glass beads are added to the surface to catch the light.

My job as an environmentalist has made me keenly aware of the importance of protecting our oceans. For me, water has always represented peace and serenity, and my work celebrates this magnificent endangered resource.

____________________________________________

What have we learned about her art?

What her work is—hand appliquéd water quilts

Why she does it—she lives near the ocean and is inspired by the changing light and reflections on the water

Her methods—hand dyed fabric, hand sewn and beading

Why she uses the materials she does—silk has qualities that remind her of water, dyes that are natural protect the environment, beads reflect light

Why she uses the techniques she does—hand sewing provides clean smooth edges

How she works—spontaneously without a plan

Influences and inspirations—water and reflections in the water

Does her work have a message—yes, protecting the ocean and the environment

Why does she tell us what her job is—it is directly relevant to her theme and working methods—it speaks to who she is and what moves her to do the work she does

Why does she tell us where she lives—her work is a reflection of where she lives and therefore speaks to who she is and what she does in her art

What does her work say—that the ocean is serene and peaceful and we should appreciate and protect it

Anything else? She has included a web address so we can see more of her work.

Written in the first person, this artist statement makes us feel as if we were standing next to her as she talked about her work. We have a better understanding of who she is and why she does what she does in a very short and to the point statement.

_________________________________________________

Get it?  Hope you didn’t recognize anything in that first artist statement that sounded familiar!  If you did, maybe this is the week to start working on a replacement!

I have always thought of myself as fairly organized.  All my photos are nicely placed in folders on my computer, and all the actual pieces are stored together in my guest room.  Every piece is photographed when it is completed, and the measurement and year finished recorded.  Most of this information goes onto my website, and I thought it was all well organized in my “finished artwork” folder as well.

That was until this weekend when I had an inquiry from a design firm for some images of my work.  In looking at my folder, I noticed that some pieces were not included, and then I realized that some had completely slipped my mind.  I needed to get my act together and make sure it was all in one place–besides the website (which doesn’t have everything, either).

So my project yesterday was to make a full data base of all my work, including photos, dimensions, year completed, prices, and any notes about in which shows the piece was exhibited or if it was sold, to whom and when.  I thought this would be an ongoing project that would take a while, but I was pleased to see that it didn’t take as long as I had thought.

To begin with, I made a list of all pieces and all the appropriate information in a spread sheet.  No, I had never used a spread sheet before, but it wasn’t quite as scary as I had suspected.  The good news is that all I had to do was list them as I remembered them and then the spread sheet organized them for me alphabetically (I considered organizing by year completed, but I just can’t remember what was finished in what year, so that seemed more complicated).

Once I had a complete list (some info still needs to be filled in, mostly dimensions on some pieces that have never been submitted to any shows) I was able to make sure every piece in the data base was also pictured in a folder.  I was really surprised that despite the fact that every piece had been photographed, that more than half of them were not in my “finished work” file.  But the search function on my computer was able to locate all of them, and pop them into the new “complete database of work” folder for me.  Once the photos were all included (and arranged alphabetically just like the data base list) I took some time to go through them and make sure all the sizes were at least similar, and that they were all named consistently–that means title of work, year completed, dimensions.  By naming them this way they fall into the file in the same order as the list, making them “line up” perfectly.  Some had my name on them–some first name, some last name, which meant they were not in any order at all.  Was this boring?  Yep.  Am I glad I did it?  Yep.

For my purposes, I was also able to separate all the quilts made specifically for my two books, and although those are in the data base (with the book listed in the notes section) the photos are in separate folders by book, all included in the main folder.  This keeps them in the record, but separate and apart from those available for exhibiting and sales.

Now I have one folder with the full list and all pertinent info and a photo record of everything I have done.  This will serve me well for more than one reason.  First of all, I have a record of everything, and whenever I need to find a specific piece, or have a need like the one that started this process, I can find it all in one place.  Entering shows, I will be able to look at what I have and make a quick appraisal of what might be appropriate.  I may have to change the photo names when I send them off to other places, but that will be with copies of the photos so that the original file will remain untouched.

This also gives me a complete list of all pieces and sizes for insurance purposes.  Not all of my work has been appraised, but having a complete list will help me if anything ever happens.  At least I will know what was lost.

Using a data base also allows me to do sort by in different ways–so if I want to see what was completed by year, I can have the data base show me that.

I will admit that once I knew everything was in one place, including where each piece was exhibited or sold, and all the dimensions and prices (I had price lists but they were in a separate folder) I was able to sleep better, knowing that it was all well organized and easily retrieved.

Was it fun?  Nope.  Do I recommend it?  Absolutely.  Well worth the trouble.  Now that I am up to date and organized, as each piece is completed, I will add it to the data base and photo file right away.  Ahhhhh.