Week 34 in my yearlong sketchbook practice.
sketchbook : week 34
Tag: creativity
my big creative year : doll – part 1
Historically, I’ve gotten hugely annoyed when described as a doll maker. Nothing against dolls – I love them so much – in all their forms – and there are so many incredible doll makers I admire. But still, I have felt resistance about creating anything that could very officially be called a doll. I told myself – it just isn’t what I do. Except it keeps coming up…. So I decided to make a doll. And ran right into a bunch of nuttiness and resistance – all the usual suspects:
- I had a million ideas – I wanted to make LOTS of dolls – it felt impossible to choose where to begin – I was overwhelmed.
- I got all weird about what people might think.
- I wanted to make the best and most perfect doll ever – right out of the gate.
I stayed stuck and thinking for quite a while and then got past that the only way there is – by starting. By taking a small action – gathering supplies. Sorting through boxes and boxes of old garments and fabric with doll in mind made me see all sorts of new possibilities and qualities in things I’ve looked at a hundred times before. I got a lot of momentum from that exercise and started drawing, drafting and experimenting – in that good place of letting something evolve. You can see the very beginnings of the thinking, experimenting, drafting and refining process – my wonky first steps – below.
Stay tuned for doll #1.
sketchbook : week 33
Week 33 in my yearlong sketchbook practice.
sketchbook : week 32
Week 32 in my yearlong sketchbook practice.
my big creative year : the forest and impermanence
The pace of time seems to escalate in the spring and fall – the shortest and sweetest seasons. Everything changes so quickly. I went into the forest last week with the intention of soaking up as much as I could and spending time making something that wouldn’t last.
I began to experiment with something small – sort of a mini loom – to get a feel for manipulating things. I made a frame from twigs and string and wove in what I liked, looked for more with fresh eyes and tried things. It made me look at everything differently, more thoughtfully and with deeper appreciation. I saw qualities and details of grasses and vines and mosses I had never seen before.
The next day I went back out wanting to try something larger, with only what I could find in the forest. I walked and gathered and felt my mind ticking briskly along, seeing lines, shapes relationships and intersections I hadn’t seen before. I chose a spot and started experimenting without much of a plan, the idea that it did not need to, and could not last opened me to all sorts of possibilities. I played for hours and it turned into a sort of arch – a magic passage for creatures who might come upon it before it blew away.
I went out with a lantern that night for a look and to imagine what it might be like to come upon such a thing in the forest unexpectedly. The next day the huge golden ferns and most of it’s other finery had wilted or blown away and it wasn’t much more than an odd pile of sticks. I had a marvelous time.
sketchbook : week 31
Week 31 in my yearlong sketchbook practice.
my big creative year : the magic of small
I am deeply interested in what happens when things get small. I always have been. Mini is intriguing. There is a lot of magic in smallness.
When the scale changes – our ideas and presumptions about lots of other things change. All sorts of fresh possibilities are revealed. It is an invitation to look harder at everything. Scotch tape dispensers can become a perfect glass display case for this melancholy little scene. I get excited about that sort of thing.
Of course this works in both directions but I’m much more attracted to small – I think in part because it is accessible, it can be approached in a personal and solitary way. For me that is part of the beauty of small. Big leaps of imagination are possible and mood and atmosphere can be fine-tuned because the scale is manageable.
So much of what I love to do has been about this kind of play – it has always been a deep drive and fascination for me. Even at it’s simplest I find it compelling.
But why is it magic? I think because things can exist at an intersection of real and pretend by virtue of their unorthodox and unexpected size. There is instant mystery, instant story – what kind of world might this tiny thing be part of? You can see it and touch it and if you choose to, be nudged a little further down the road to make believe.
sketchbook : week 30
Week 30 in my yearlong sketchbook practice.
sketchbook : week 29
Week 29 in my yearlong sketchbook practice. The point of this daily exercise is to play, experiment, to try things in a small un-intimidating way. But sometimes it is still to much and it’s hard to sit down, hard to make a mark – paralysis. There are a few useful tools to get myself started – like ink splatters or a random word or color and one of my favorites is number piles. I paint a series of numbers – one right on top of another at different angles, without much thought, and then respond to the shapes and spaces that the pile creates. It never fails to get me unstuck and open. The square – second down on the right is a pile of 3 numbers: 187.
sketchbook : week 28
Week 28 in my yearlong sketchbook practice. I love looking at other people’s sketchbooks. I have collected a some here and if you have a favorite or your own sketchbook you feel like sharing please link in the comments – I’d love to see.
sketchbook : week 27
Week 27 in my yearlong sketchbook practice (I’m working in the Adirondack mountains this week so my postings are off schedule). The closest internet spot is about 30 miles away at the homemade icecream store – not so bad right? Having a lovely time – hope you are too.
sketchbook : week 26
Week 26 in my yearlong sketchbook practice. Fragments, snippets, thoughts, beginnings, experiments – I love having a library of them. I’m almost ready to bust out of my 4 and 1/2 inch squares and try something bigger. Bigger and maybe a sturdier substrate too – I love paper – even it’s limits – but it would be interesting to be heavier and deeper – I’m curious about it. I’m almost ready – making time and space for it is a little tricky right now – it might be a winter thing.
