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This is how I felt today. Not sure if I am getting a cold or have sinus issues. I also think that I am having sleep problems due to the time change. I just could not get moving. I had some veggies that I needed to cook so I dragged myself to the store to get some other ingredients to make a big pot of soup.
Tonight was the arts commission meeting at Trinity and I have missed the last two so I wanted to go. Fortunately, the soup revived me. I am glad that I made the effort. Our current chair is retiring and we have no one to replace her at the present time so we are going to try to keep things going as a committee.
While I was lolling on the sofa with my herbal tea, I was trying to keep up with the conversations happening on two of the lists that I subscribe to — Quilt Art and SAQA. On Quilt Art, they were discussing what to call ourselves – fiber artists, textile artists, quilt artists. I don’t think it matters much what you call yourself or your work. I think you need to love what you do. Do it the best you can. Keep learning and growing. And occasionally throw it out in the world and see what others think about it.
On SAQA, the conversation was very heady. There were words like derivitive and context thrown around. The usual suspects were weighing in with their very educated and erudite opinions. I sometimes feel so outside the circle. That doesn’t really bother me. I just feel as if I am eavesdropping on conversations that I can never be part of.
What I know is that I love what I do and I keep working at it and sometimes it is worth throwing out there. Perhaps, tomorrow, I will get back to work.
Gerrie,
I think you do everyone a disservice when you say that “derivative” and “context” are not words you can deal with. Baloney. You speak English and are well educated. These aren’t art-speak words, they are words that deal with how we see and what we see and what we do with what we see. How we see, etc. are what artists need to sort out. These are words artists use to try to more fully sort out what they are doing. To figure out how they might be used one way or another is important.
It’s patronizing of you to pretend you don’t understand and are an outsider in these discussions. I suspect that with your cold you didn’t want to bother thinking; you’d rather be playing with the children or dyeing fabric or eating hot soup. And that’s just fine. That happens to me a lot.
But to say: “There were words like derivitive and context thrown around. The usual suspects were weighing in with their very educated and erudite opinions. I sometimes feel so outside the circle. That doesn’t really bother me. I just feel as if I am eavesdropping on conversations that I can never be part of” — to say this means you have no desire to be part of the fine arts at all — and I know that’s not true. Those words weren’t “thrown around.” They were being used by people who are trying hard to comprehend what they do, who want to move away from just throwing fabric at the wall and hoping it sticks in a pretty way. Your comment smacks of an anti-intellectualism that does not serve you — or any other quilting artist — well.
I am so outside the circle that I have mostly ceased reading the SAQA list. It is the same people espousing the same stuff. Who cares anyway?!!!
Hope you feel better soon. Yeah, those discussions bore me to tears. They’re kinda like national political discussions — in the end they don’t really effect me or my art, and hell if I’m going to waste my time and energy getting into the fray. Love to you, my friend.
I’m right there with you. If I had the energy I’d track down the person who gave me this cold and give it back!
I hope you fell better soon!
Thank you for your comments on what to call ourselves.
I, for one, am sick of the discussion over and over. I am with you on just doing what you love, learning and growing and throwing it out there once in a while. Love that! The heck with how you label yourself.
Good thoughts, Gerrie. Love that photo. Feel better soon.
Lots of rest & fluids! Feel better soon.