Stress abated, art ideas spring up, yay.

The last few weeks have been about all kinds of things, but not much about original art ideas and excitement of that kind. More about the sort of work that experiments with known forms and ideas, great to noodle with, but lacking that thunderbolt of excitement that happens when you see an elegant idea coming at you.

I have to thank the EGA friends for this one, since at yesterday's guild meeting I was showing the brain project stitching kit I'd been given by Cynthia, and had been unable to get going on for various reasons. One is that in winter my thumbs and fingers needed for stitching are badly cracked no matter what care I lavish, and are either exposed and too tender to handle needles, or protected and too clumsy to do it. that goes for spinning, too.  Can't spin the shaft with bandaids in place, not enough friction.


Anyway, I was also a bit stymied because the image, painted on the canvas, was oriented backwards. That is, the visual narrative ran right to left, very uncomfortable for a Western artist to handle. the brain project is an exciting idea,  the creation of a neurologist,  it encourages the acceptance of stitching and creative work for anyone as a great brain function and exercise, which is all good. If you look here, you'll see that there are also canvases oriented left to right.  You'll also see some great ideas that people have put into action on the project.

And some people were putting their brains minds to this, Ginny suggesting I just look through the back and trace the outlines in reverse, work that way.  Which went a good way toward the solution, the only prob being that I wanted to preserve some of the original painted color in the finished work, and working from the back wouldn't do that. 

Then after I got back from a lovely hike this afternoon, it burst on me how to do it and be happy, and have a much more meaningful result.  I would photograph the canvas, print out the image on my fine silk, reverse the silk, layer the two together and have a much better run at this.  

I can stitch right through the silk, with care not to fray it, maybe tape it down all around, though removing the tape might be a real trick.  But anyway, that's only process. The idea is there. The notion of the self reflexive brain, the hemispheres, the overlaying of complex thought and action, it's all there...in fact it's better than the original concept.

Alas, can't actually stitch it yet, you should see what a time I had just getting the silk organized and the pix done, with my out-of- commission thumb.  But it will heal again and I'll seize whatever days I get before it acts up again.  So thank you all!  very happy outcome here.

Also, Ginny, you have a lot to answer for, just as well you don't read my blog, one of the books you handed around at the program had doll patterns, for making dolls...and I remembered knitting all the body parts for Kate in my Knit your own Royal Wedding. Clearly dates me, since she now has two kids.  But anyway, back then I knitted her body in a nice silk yarn.  

So, having kept it in a little bag in the KYORW book, I took it out today.  And, smugness here, since I had at one point actually got all my dollmaking bits into one place, I was able to pick out stuffing, and hair making yarn, and stiffening wires, and all that.  

So I think I can do that even with a gimpy thumb.  I'm going to take a try anyway. 

It also gives me an idea of maybe teaching some simple dollmaking to kids at this year's Festival of the Arts in September. Must think more on that and see if the PTB like it.  No, no, mustn't add yet more to my plans...but it might be fun, all the same..