December 8, 2019 Uncategorized

Sunflower Wall Clock, Joy Gregory Studio 

Do you ever get to the end to your day and wonder where the heck it all went? Do you often feel like you slaved away for hours and yet got nothing accomplished? I think that’s a pretty common feeling for many of us, especially those of us who are self-employed and thus self-accountable, often working from home where distractions abound. Even when you create as a hobby or a fun part-time side gig, it can be really frustrating trying to carve out the time to get your artwork done. Finding the hours to create can be one of the biggest barriers to completing creative projects and living a life as an active and fulfilled artist.

I generally feel I’m pretty good with time management, but I have really needed a refresher and kick in the pants as of late. Being off my schedule with these restricted hours, my organization and process has had to change but I didn’t do it in a conscious and planned manner. I’ve just been kind of winging it.

Well, this past week, my laissez-faire attitude back fired and I didn’t get nearly enough done. I thought I had been prepared for all the changes we are getting into with closing down one magazine and starting a new project, but then old Murphy decided to test my methods. Several rather sticky technical issue arose on the back end of the website requiring 3 straight days of work on my end to straighten it out as my tech guy was sick and I couldn’t move forward with this week’s plans until it was fixed.

That’s left me only 3 days more to complete the subscriber credits calculations, draft those promised subscriber emails, as well as a newsletter and this blog. But, instead of proceeding in an orderly fashion with the time I had, I kind of ended up all over the place – trying to get all the work stuff done, get my workouts and physical therapy in, take care of the everyday household stuff, and still get some decent sleep was a challenge that I went at all willy-nilly and got next to none of it done or done well. So, today I decided to review my time management process and get back on track. With that in my mind, I started writing this blog, so guess what we are going to talk about today?

I know… time management is probably the least interesting, stimulating, or creative sounding stuff I could possibly bring up, but it is immensely important! And, wanting to save you poor souls from a fate similar to mine this week, I gave myself a challenge–could I talk about time management and make it fun and interesting and maybe even attractive? Let’s see!

Wrestling Hours to Your Will

Even if you are great at time management there’s always something new to learn. So, I’m going to share a handful of tips along with some literal and metaphorical examples, primarily through the art of polymer. Art is great for metaphors, isn’t it?

• Here is my #1 little tip that really gets my day going in the right direction – Prioritize what you need to do, starting with the most dreaded things first! Why would you want to start with the things you most want to avoid? Well, so they won’t be hanging over your head all day for one. You are also less likely to waste time procrastinating on things that don’t need to get done while trying to put off those dreaded tasks. And it feels so, so good to get those out of the way! Then you can focus (and accomplish) the fun stuff. I’m telling you… you won’t believe how helpful just getting those tasks off your list can be.

• You probably know this one, but do you do it? If at all possible, put away or turn off your phone. Also turn off any kind of mail or other notification on computers and tablets. You don’t need to answer people right away just because we have the technology to do so. Every time you stop to read a text, answer a call, look through your email, or check the latest update to your Facebook or Instagram page, your mind switches gears and you lose your flow. Most of the time, it really can wait.

Working on detailed techniques like these mandala cane earrings by Silvia Ortiz de la Torre, can go so much faster if you can stay focused on the project. Being interrupted would make this kind of work take so much longer than if you just sit down and work on it without distractions.

• You don’t need to work business hours – try instead to identify quiet hours. You’ll get a lot more done when there is nothing to distract you, which, for a lot of people, is primarily at the start or the end of the day. If you can break up your day, try working in the first few hours and the last few hours of your day. You see, if it’s too early or too late, you can’t make phone calls, run errands, or do anything else that is normally accomplished during standard business hours. Also, in the morning, many of us take a while to wake up fully, making it great creative time because our internal critic tends to be a bit sleepy too and, studies have suggested that your brain is more creative first thing, still cycling off REM sleep and hypnagogia (that state between dreaming and being awake). Then, at the end of the day, you’re more likely to let go of the to-do list of everyday life and can just focus on creative tasks.

• Don’t multitask. Simply put, you’ll do less with less quality when you multitask. It may feel like you’re doing more but multitasking requires you repeat and review things over and over again as you switch your focus between tasks. Not only is this inefficient, chances are you will make mistakes, forget some necessary thing, and won’t be able to identify things that need changes, all requiring fixing or redoing later which means more time. Focus on one thing at a time, do it right, and do it well. It’s also a much less stressful way of working.

Can you imagine trying to work on multiple sections of this little piece by Leah Radlett, at the same time? You can see that she works one color at a time and progressively from top to bottom across her little 4” x 4” canvas. Consider it a bit of a metaphor for how you need to work on anything. Work focused and progressively so that you do it well and ensure it gets completed.

• If you want to speed up, especially if you’re at all competitive, use a timer and challenge yourself to get tasks done within a set time. Your oven timer will work although there are apps of all kinds for this as well. Simply set yourself a goal, like 30 minutes to get through your emails and social media notices, or limit time on your breaks, especially those breaks where you sit down and start watching a Netflix show and next thing you know you’ve binge watched for 3 hours. Put the timer out of reach, too. Then you have to get up to turn it off and that should break the spell of any Facebook rabbit hole you went down or Game of Thrones episode you were re-watching.

• Group similar tasks, ones that require the same type of mindset, into the same work session. For instance, I do all my accounting on Mondays (because I dread it, so I try to get out of the way first thing!) and do most of my writing the second half of the week. My most visually creative days are midweek and weekends. I tried doing a couple hours of each kind of task every day but constantly switching gears meant I was having to take time to get into a new mindset several times each day. Staying in one mindset for a good length of time is much more efficient, less stressful, and you’re also more likely to finish something and feel accomplished at the end of the day.

Below, Barbara Fajardo shows her studio table where she is focusing not only on the same techniques but the same shapes. Working this way (or with the same type of back end business tasks, or online work, etc.) allows you to complete a lot in a short period of time due to uninterrupted, focused sessions. This is not just for creating a lot of the same pieces either.You can make a many unique pieces quickly by switching it up within a similar approach, like Barbara has done with her lovely mokume gane earrings on the right.

• If you only do one thing every day to help manage your time, have that be making a list at the end of the day for the next working day. Make the list with the most important and/or most dreaded items at the top. This way you know what you’re going to do when you get up and you’re less likely to fritter away the morning in a fog of aimlessness. When you get one item done on the list, cross it out and go to the next. This will keep you focused and far less likely to be sidetracked by the laundry (when that’s not on the list at least) or an online shopping excursion. It is also easier to stop thinking about work at the end of the day once it’s written down, all safe and sound in black-and-white. You can mentally set it aside and truly relax with the family or friends, and, hopefully, fall sleep easier because you don’t need to think about your next work day until you get up.

So now, what tips might you have that you find to be of paramount importance in guaranteeing you have the hours in the day that you need to do what you want to get done? Help out all us poor souls and insert a comment at the end of the post. Remember, if you get this by email, click the title of the post to go directly to the website, then scroll down and insert a comment. This is an area where our shared wisdom can really boost us all!

Do as I Say and, Now, as I Do

So, I am writing this at the end of my Saturday with a working Sunday ahead of me and I’ve got to make my list, so off with me! I promise I will take some time off to relax (I love how many of you write to tell me to ease up and take care of myself. I promise I do try!) But I’ve got to get those active subscriber emails out.

I’ll also get a newsletter out early in this week to give you all an update. I’m hoping I will have more details on the Virtual Art Box as well as some new (to our shop, not new publications) stock of books by Christi Friesen in the shop. These are the first of the books I’m adding to the shop so you have more options to spend store credits on or buy for Christmas gifts as well as being the start what I hope to be a fantastic one-stop shop for all the great polymer related books you might want.

If you’re not on the newsletter list but find you are interested in the timely news there, you can sign up on the homepage at https://tenthmusearts.com/

In the meantime, I wish you a wonderful, easy-going, productive, and creative week!

November 24, 2019 Uncategorized

How do you determine the composition of the pieces that you make? Is it purely intuitive in that you just start putting things down until you find something you like or do you look to the designs of other artists to get ideas about how to arrange the layers, patterns, and shapes that make up your creations? Perhaps it is mother nature that you get your inspiration from or maybe your work is highly conceptual and designs arise from planning in your sketchbook.

I remember a couple years into being a full-time polymer artist that it struck me that I had no idea why I composed my work the way I did. I definitely leaned toward symmetry and horizontal arrangements but was that because it was something I’d succeeded at previously and therefore it was comfortable or was that really what I needed for what I wanted to express?

To answer that question, I just started asking myself what I was thinking about before and during the design process and I found that when I was working on jewelry, necklaces in particular, I thought about the body and its symmetry but for wall art, or secondarily for adornment, most of my designs seemed to be rooted in scenery. Desert scenes, mountain scenes, scenes of babbling brooks, scenes with roads and streets running off into the distance, and even the scene of a long studio table scattered with work in progress were fodder for my compositional ideas. I just really like the whole picture, especially anything that could be seen as landscape, which helped to explain my penchant for horizontal compositions. From then on, I thought a lot about design in terms of whole scenes and landscape in particular.

I have found the observation of scenery a great way to educate oneself about composition. It doesn’t matter whether you prefer to create one big beautiful leaf or an abstract design with not a single recognizable shape. There are lessons to be learned by observing the scenes around us.

Most of us react emotionally to wide open scenes, especially those that are not part of our day to day because their novelty allows us to look at them with fresh eyes. If are stopped by a scene because it visually strikes you, chances are, there are compositional elements you can draw inspiration from. For instance, looking across a field to the front of a dense forest, you might admire the line of tall trees reaching up to the sky in unison, recognizing how very strong and invincible they appear. Creating a design with a lot of closely arranged vertical lines can impart that same sense of strength. Looking down a long meandering road running through a desert of rusts, hazy purples, and cream colors may feel calm and relaxing to you. You can re-create this atmosphere in a mokume stack of similar colors with long undulating lines as the impressed texture.

Scenes as compositional inspiration is a huge subject since there are so many different types of scenes to draw from but I thought, this week, we could look at work that literally recreates scenes as the template for the designs and from that, you can consider the composition, how it might translate into more abstract elements, if you work in an abstract or purely decorative mode, or how your own imagery can be used to create a scene and convey emotion or atmosphere. But, really, this is about just getting you to consider scenery itself as inspiration, if you don’t already do so. So, let’s go consider.

Set the Scene

When it comes to literal scenes using cane, Wendy Jorre de St Jorre is an absolute master. Inspired by the landscape in and around where she resides in Western Australia, she creates scenes using multiple but visually connected canes for variation. The care she takes in developing these perfectly lined up canes creates scenes that looks seamlessly continuous and varied. Just look at this three-tier box opening this post. It was created with the canes you see below. Wendy made them so that the canes can be re-arranged in multiple ways to make several slightly different scenes. She even inserts a single small scene on the inside of each polymer box as well. She really likes scenery!

Here is a piece from way back by Carol Simmons. These days we associate Carol primarily with her bright colored canes but I have always had a fondness for this piece. The canes are laid out in lines to show the different strata in scenes she saw while at a polymer clay retreat in 2010. The application of canes onto a piece can be so nicely informed by the variations in natural landscape scenes, city scenes, and even scenes you see any room, and it doesn’t have to all be from the same scene. You can take bits from the various scenes you come across and put them together if they are related or you recognize similarities in mood, form, or compositional elements. Carol’s horizontal bands are a mix of things seen in the landscape outside a window and organisms found on seaside rocks. The commonalities she looks to have drawn from seems to be the textures and patterns, made cohesive by repeating the horizontal bands (also likely an element she was seeing in the scenery) but contrasted with a tall vertical form in which it is all framed.

Of course, imagery using canes is not the only way to re-create compositions from scenes. You can also go textural and sculptural. Jo Anne St. James uses cabochon focal bead forms for her scenery inspired, textured and sculpted compositions. They include everything from literal interpretations of beach side scenes to silhouettes of birds and plant life on cool colored backgrounds. You can see here how the Grand Canyon inspired texture and color in a pretty direct interpretation. However, without the reference photo, some of these might come across as abstract textured pieces but are just as interesting when not associated with the actual canyon scene.

Here’s a great example of mixing literal scenery and decorative inspiration in a scenic composition. Karen Harry is very much inspired by the decorative details and symbology of medieval times as well as the Victorian Gothic era but also seems fond of mixing the sources to create her own fantastical scenes. The sky portion of this mixed media mosaic draws from decorative details of these past times while the building on the sloping land next to a stylized sea looks to be a rendition of an actual place Karen is familiar with. The result is an impression of the joy and beauty she draws from the present-day reminders of the past.

Drawing directly from a scene that you see does not have to be about the forms, lines, colors, and patterns only. Often times, we are inspired by the energy of a scene, the literal movement. Think of a waterfall, the ocean crashing against rocks, the rush of clouds ahead of a thunderstorm, the flutter of fabric in the wind, or the coordinated flow and flight of a cloud of starlings. The dynamic energy of a scene may be the entire reason that it captured your attention. Such movement can also be fantastic inspiration for your compositions.

The most impressive piece of visual movement I’ve seen in recent months has to be this mosaic below by Mia Tavonatti. Mia paints in both oils and in mosaic stained-glass. And, yes, saying she “paints” with glass is appropriate, don’t you think? It’s a term commonly associated with her mosaic work in particular. This immense 7’ x 13’ (215cm x 400cm) glass mosaic won second place in the largest and probably most prestigious (and, I think, most lucrative at a $200,000 for 1st place) art competition in the world, Art Prize, in 2010.

Although the woman in the scene is a natural focal point since we are compellingly drawn to faces, her head is slightly cut off, showing a diminished importance. It’s really the energy and color of the scene, particularly the energy in the flow of the fabric and the color variation and contrast between the fabric, the water, and the rocks beneath it, that dominates the subject. (Be sure to click the image and scroll down the page it takes you to see the detailed photos of the glass mosaic work in this piece. It’s just amazing.)

So, really, everything in a scene that catches your eye, from line to texture to color to energy, can be drawn on for inspiration. And re-created scenes, even in the abstract, are something people can readily connect to in your work since landscape and other scenery is familiar to us all.

Leaving the Scene

I feel like I could talk about the inspiration of scenery for quite a bit longer but I’m going to stop here. There is still a lot to do to implement changes for getting the production end of the Tenth Muse Arts business going again and being shorthanded is not helping. I’m also having to learn how to schedule things within limited work hours and not just work every waking hour to get something done when I get behind. It’s not easy! Who would’ve known?

I will be sending something out this week to existing subscribers for the magazine and hopefully a newsletter as well to give you all a bit of an update. It doesn’t look like everything will be in place as of this week, especially with the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, but I have at least two bits of news I’ll be able to share once we get some changes made on the website in the next couple days.

So, I plead once again for your patience and understanding. I just need to arrange everything into an organized and sustainable situation before I start blathering about our new projects and what you can look forward to seeing from Tenth Muse Arts in 2020. Because I know there will be questions and I want to be sure I can answer them without a lot of ifs, ands and buts.

With my focus on Tenth Muse Arts business this week, I haven’t quite finished the mosaic backsplash in the kitchen but being Thanksgiving is at our house this year, all of my breaks between work and other things is on that backsplash. I can’t wait to share that with you too!

In the meantime, look around you wherever you go and see the beauty in the scenes before you. What details are you drawn to? What are the feelings and emotions they bring to the surface for you? Grab inspiration from these observations and see what you can transfer into your studio time. I’m sure a good number of you in the US will be out and about, road tripping to be with family for Thanksgiving or getting out to enjoy time with visiting family. Take advantage of the less common scenes you’ll see out the car window or that you’ll stroll by while out and about. And we will chat again next week if not before! Very happy Thanksgiving to my American readers!

November 17, 2019 Uncategorized

What does the word “monochrome” bring to mind? Do you think boring? Monotonous? Unexciting? I know that you know that monochrome color palettes don’t have to be humdrum and spiritless but does the idea of working in monochrome leave you less than thrilled?

Of course, a lot of people come to polymer because of the color possibilities, so I think, as a whole, we may have a bias to using lots of color or at least a lot of contrasting color. If you’ve never worked in a monochrome palette, however, you may be surprised at just how much you can learn by doing so. Not only that, you can create some wonderfully stunning work with little to no color.

Monochrome refers to the use of one hue but also includes its variations in tone, tint, and shade. For a quick reminder if you don’t recall the meaning of those terms, tone means to add gray in order to “tone” down a hue, tint refers to adding white to lighten it, and shade means adding black to darken it. A piece that includes red but also pink and brick red is still monochromatic because these are all versions of the hue of red. Monochrome can also mean shades of gray, including everything from black to white. That is also one of the most important monochrome palettes and I’ll explain why in just a few.

Okay, now that were all on the same page with what we mean by monochrome, how can working with a limited palette of this kind help you improve your work including your design sense? Well, it comes down to two very important things. One, when you aren’t working with a variety of color you stop thinking about your work in terms of color and start focusing on the other design element. And secondly, it really makes you aware of color value. Let me explain and show you an example.

There’s plenty of work out there that is completely dependent upon its color palette for its impact. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it can mean that there are missed opportunities in the design. When you’re not thinking about the color, you will have to lean on form, line, texture, and pretty much every other design characteristic to create work that expresses your intent and garners interest, including color value which refers to the lightness or darkness of a color.

I think it’s quite a worthwhile exercise to take your work and photograph it in black and white both to emphasize the role color plays in the piece and to recognize the differences in color value. Go ahead… grab a piece that you have on hand and take a black-and-white photograph of it (look for a “grayscale”, “noir”, or “mono” setting on your camera or phone), or take a photo you already have and change it to grayscale in photo editing software or print it out on a black and white printer.

How does the black and white version of the work change the impact and your impression of the piece? If it really loses its impact or loses all its energy without the color, maybe there are some area of its design that could be improved.

Let’s look at a design by Kathleen Dustin. I’ve always loved this pair of earrings but is it because of its color or are there other elements that really make this work well?

Wouldn’t you say that the impact of this pair of earrings is rather dependent on the color? I think it is, so the question becomes, can the design stand up to being switched to black and white? Well, what you think of this –

It’s just not the same, is it? This is not to say that the earrings were poorly designed because they were not. But the design was heavily dependent on color to give it the interest and appeal I believe she intended. However, even in grayscale, there are still quite lovely. The folding of the lines around the elongated pod creates a graceful flowing movement and the pointed, arrow like ends add strong directional movement, giving energy to the piece regardless of the color. There is also a fair amount of contrast in the color value within those flowing lines and even a touch of textural contrast with both a matte and a shimmer in the clay finish, further supporting the energy of this piece.

So, that was an example where the color carried the design but other design elements were shown to support it. However, those other design elements became much more evident when seen in black and white. Taking black-and-white photographs also helps you recognize color values which will help you determine whether to increase or decrease contrast as you prefer.

Which brings us to the reason I said that I think a black-and-white/grayscale palette is the most important of the monochromatic pallets. Just like looking at photos of your work in black and white, working in grayscale forces you to look for opportunities for contrast, especially in color value. Now, there is no right or wrong in terms of high contrast versus low contrast. They’re both relevant and useful approaches to designing your work — it all depends on your intention.

If, for instance, you want to create a calm, subdued piece, the first choice you might make is to lean heavily on the most psychologically calm color, blue. But then you may come to depend too heavily on color to express your intention and may not make intentional design choices in other aspects of the design that could really help support the look you are trying to create. Low contrast in the values, texture, line, etc. could also support a calm, subdued look. If you work in black, white, and grays, you’ll end up working with those other elements a lot more, and the more familiar you are with them, the more likely you are to use them intentionally in future designs.

If you’re thinking that working in monochrome just wouldn’t be any fun, that you are too in love with color to work with just one color or none at all, maybe sampling the world of monochrome art might change your mind. Let’s go see.

The World in One Hue

Hopefully, if even thinking of monochrome means black and white, the previous bit of conversation will disabuse you of that notion. You can still work with color and play with monochrome and make just stunning pieces. These decade old caned pieces by Judy Belcher that opened this post are still quite stunning. I know I have an image of three different colors in it but each set is a monochrome necklace or beads that will become a single necklace with just one color in different shades and tints, such as the necklace below.

The high-energy of these beads come from the wide range of value of each color as well as the contrast of shapes. Notice the circular beads have a lot of straight lines and the rectangular beads have a lot of circular accents. There’s also a lot of variety in the shapes of the layers, direction of line, and the presence, or lack of, pattern. These are anything but boring!

The work doesn’t need to be all high contrast to add energy to a monochromatic set. I blogged about this set by Russian artist Natalia Lemeshchenko before because it’s such a great example. The background color that might appear to be a cream does have a tinge of green, just enough to keep it in the green color set. There is a touch of color besides green in the gems, but they just add a bit of glimmer to an otherwise matte finish and is not really about the color they add. The fine flowing lines and details create energy but the symmetry along with the muted green support a quiet and sophisticated feel for the set.

Now if you want to really see what value contrast can do for a piece, work in grays. Bénédicte Bruttin’s pendant, channeling Betsy Baker’s crackle and domed shapes and Jana Lehmann’s form and style but without the saturated color, allows form, texture and value contrast to create energy and interest.

Also, consider that silversmiths, or other metal smiths who choose to work primarily in one metal, have to create primarily in monochrome. Not that they can’t use stones or patina, but you have to admit there is plenty of stunning metal jewelry that needs no color. On Facebook recently, Melanie West posted work by Teresa Kiplinger. Teresa calls herself a “silver poet”, including poetry in parts or on the back of her work but I think its visual poetry as well. She contrasts extremely delicate lines with swathes of open space and contrasts the natural metallic sheen with the matte of patina finishes. The effects are gorgeous and haunting. And there’s no color.

Now, what about work that is all one color with no variation in shade or tint? Can the work be impactful, beautiful, and exciting? Of course. But you REALLY need to focus on things like form and texture. And shadows. Since we work in a three-dimensional material, we have the option to create shadow and make that part of our value contrast in our work.

Angela Schwer masterfully uses shadow into her well-known dimensional tiles, done completely in white polymer, with only the dark spaces for contrast.

You can do this in black as well, even though shadows themselves are black. You just need the right finish. Give the surface a little bit of sheen or gloss and the shadows, which don’t reflect any light, will always be darker. I found this amazing black vessel on Colossal, an article sources for contemporary art you should check out if you have not already. Hitomi Hosono, using nothing but form and texture, creates dramatic and dense vessels, with shadow defining the contrast in texture.

So, what do you think? Curious about trying something in monochrome, if you haven’t already gotten on that train? Give yourself a play session with it. Pick one color and/or some black and white and just sit down and play. If you are used to starting with colors, look to other elements you like to work with:

–Big on texture? Use your favorite texture applications and let the textured play the staring role.

–All about surface design like mokume, caning, or alcohol inks? Just plan these in monochrome and remember to choose color values with high contrast so patterns show well.

–Do you like to play with creative shapes? Work out some interesting shapes in one color and then add layers, canes, or accents in different shades and tints of your one hue, going for high contrast to increase the energy and minimal contrast for something soft and subdued.

Really, just let yourself play and see what comes of it when lots of color isn’t your primary focus.

A Long and Winding Road

I had hoped, by now, to be ready with news about changes I am making with the magazine and production going forward for publications as well as having ready new stock in the shop. Unfortunately, I live in California and I had to jump through some unanticipated hoops just to get some services I need. But… This whole next week is dedicated to resolving everything that needs to be resolved and getting things set up so we can move forward.

In the meantime, I’ve been trying to get the mosaic kitchen backsplash done. I am absolutely loving the process but it’s easy to get lost in it and I can be just ridiculous about getting things just right. So, it’s taking a while but it’s looking pretty good. Here are some work-in-progress shots. It’s really awesome to be doing something creative and big and just for fun!

Mid-week, all the stone was finally up and the glass mosaic was started. Yeah.

Four days later, the glass mosaic is coming along. Slooooowly.

Nothing much to report on the health front. No real progress but no backsliding either this week so holding steady. I did get back to the gym, although I’m feeling like a wimp because I can’t do all I used to do and I can’t use a lot of weight on many of the machines. But it’s better than being a lump! I aim to get back to some light trail running this week as well. I hope you all are taking care of yourself as well. It’s hard to on your creativity, and pretty much anything else, if you’re feeling poorly.

So, off with me for now to do a bit more work on the backsplash. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a beautifully energized, while possibly monochromatic, week!

November 10, 2019 Uncategorized

Do you ever find yourself steering clear of the studio for fear of failure or frustration in your projects? Do you ever just throw down your tools in the middle of a project and think to yourself, “I suck!”? This is not uncommon but is also highly detrimental to your ability to both create and to get the fulfillment and other benefits from your creative pursuits. I know its hard when you’re anxious to do something well, to recreate the work you see in your head, and what happens on the studio table is something else entirely. Ugh. It is so disappointing. But the important thing to do when that happens, is to keep going.

My husband and I just started working together on an online class series in figure drawing. As a storyboard artist and director, my husband has to work with the movement of bodies all the time so he is always looking for ways to improve his skills but I found this particular artist, Mike Mattesi, had some very interesting insights plus the fact that I’m so rusty at figure drawing and it’s something we get to do together, which is important as we are both so busy all the time.

We’ve only gone through a couple of the lessons so far, but we’ve found there is both fear and loathing in our drawing sessions, on both our parts. I am frustrated at being so rusty when this kind of thing is where I shined in art school and so I loathe my diminished ability. My husband fears that he doesn’t actually have enough skill to do draw the human figure in the way he would like even though he’s made a living from his drawing skills for over twenty years. I tell you this just to show you that it doesn’t really matter what point you are at in your artistic endeavors, – there is always trepidation and frustration, especially if you are brave enough to be learning something new.

In one of the course videos, Mattesi makes an interesting statement that goes something like, “You can’t be fearful and learn at the same time.” How true! You can’t improve your skill if you’re afraid of doing something wrong or are afraid of the inevitable failings and frustration. You will not learn and you will not grow if you let fear steer you.

Have you ever known a child to be afraid to try something new? Sure, there are some children that are fearful of trying new things at some point in their young lives but, for the most part, children will just dive in. There is no ego and there is no expectation. They are just explorers in a new (to them) world and they take it on with such wonder and zest. It’s only because we have learned to evaluate and judge ourselves that we feel the strain of judgment from others upon us and allow these carefree explorations of our childhood to be replaced by highly critical little devils on our shoulders. Wouldn’t you like to do without that little devil? Some artists do. Look around and see if you can identify those who approach their work with fearless, childlike abandon and maybe seeing what others are doing well I you to let go.

The Artist as Fearless Child

I think Wendy Wallin Malinow has always put exploration and her childlike curiosity first, creating some of the most fantastical, disparate, and, yes, sometimes, disturbing work. I love the abandon of her creativity that runs rampant through her pieces. It was hard to pick out just one piece as an example of Wendy’s playfulness so here is a sampling of her playing around with embroidery and polymer, both in the confines of the traditional (albeit very small) embroidery hoop and “in the round” on sculptural pieces.

It’s more a suspicion than anything that Claire Maunsell approaches her work in a fearless childlike manner. Her work is highly textural and includes a variety of surface treatments that aren’t widely different from one another, but her work is very organic looking, coming across as being formed in the process rather than planned. This is, of course, is the way most children create. Claire does return time and again to pods but just look at the selection here opening this post. There is no repeatable process that can be discerned. I think she must simply sit down and work away and see what comes of it. Of course, just playing with materials will hone your skills until you can re-create the textures, colors, and other techniques you come up with in an unerring and controlled manner.

Knowing Melanie West a bit, I’d say her change in direction of late has much to do with wanting to recapture or expand her fearless child as well as fire up her motivation. Over the past couple of years Melanie has been exploring fiber arts. Although she has combined felting with polymer in the past, more recently she’s been combining various fiber techniques, such as felting with silk painting as seen here. Take a look at her gallery of fiber work. It’s interesting to see how her polymer work has informed her fiber art as well.

I think childlike fearlessness must be at the core of what Debo Groover and Tina Torrance create in their fantastical wall art. There is so much energy, color, story, and sense of joy in their compositions. I’m sure the intensity of the type of work it takes to create one of these can be very arduous, but they never lose that spark. You can see what I’m referring to in these pieces that hang on the wall of LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Working fearlessly is not just about letting your child play but is also about challenging yourself. I know Donna Greenberg struggled with the piece you see here. It is, in part, a self-portrait, literally, with a drawing of herself in the background layer. If I recall correctly, I think it was primarily Donna’s concern about what she wanted a self-portrait to really be about that she struggled with. It doesn’t really matter whether the challenge is conceptual or skill driven though, as long as we keep challenging ourselves so we will continue to grow and to learn.

The Fearless You

So, I’d like to propose that, this week, you tell your inner critic to take a vacation. Create without concern for whether the work is good or bad. Don’t post your new work online either, not right away, so you are less likely to be thinking about what others will say about it if you put it out there. Just explore and learn fearlessly as a child again.

Too Tired to Be Loathing

For me, this week has been too busy for any real loathing to creep in but childlike fearless creativity has also been in check. As always, I wish I’d gotten more done but it was a week of family and friends in need, mostly in need of my ear, so I spent a lot time on the phone instead of working out business plans but I did you get some progress on production for this coming year. I didn’t get much farther on finding books for the new shop but I do think those of you who threw me a few suggestions and for all the well wishes I continue to get from you wonderful people. I would love to continue getting suggestions since I am a one-woman band over here for the time being.

It’s been a rough week physically too. I swear I’m laying off the arm, I even draw left-handed for the little online class we sneak in every few nights, but apparently, I can do something that seems quite benign and set myself back. I do loathe how long it takes to heal when one gets older! But we are trying some new things. My blood sugar has been more regular though so yay for that! I still need to see more consistent normal numbers but I’m getting there!

Still working on that kitchen backsplash, a little at a time. This may be the real reason I have fear in creating on my mind! I keep making little test boards to check my technique and designs but took a while to actually get to installing it. I finally came up with something that we are both happy with and that I can do, more or less, one-armed (I won’t use the tile saw one armed!) Here’s a peek at the final test board the backsplash is being based off of.

And, no, it doesn’t show any polymer, not yet. I don’t know if you can see the round object in the center set of glass shards. It’s a magnet. I decided I want to make multiple polymer pieces for the backsplash that we can trade out as the mood strikes but I needed to have a backsplash that was fully sealed. So, magnets in the wall followed by magnets or metal in the polymer pieces I create for the backsplash will give us that freedom. My husband really likes to spontaneously redecorate so I wanted to give him something he could change on a whim. Just gotta get the darn thing done.

Ok, off to relax with family and recharge. Go forth and fearlessly create this week and maybe this will be the start of really keeping fear and loathing at bay in the studio!

November 3, 2019 Uncategorized

Do you prefer to make pieces that are high-energy or calm and still, or something in between? I ask because a lot of my recent posts, especially in September, talked about high energy approaches to designing your art work. However, I don’t want anyone to start thinking their work has to be high energy. It can be as high or low as you want it to be. It all comes down to your intention.

The level of energy in a piece is integral to directing our emotional reaction to it. So if you want something fun and exciting, sure, use high energy approaches like lots of saturated and contrasting colors and  visual or kinetic movement, but if you want to create something that reflects your introspective morning walks in the woods or those quiet moments watching the sun go down from your porch, you would be better off with muted colors and calm, horizontal lines and shape orientations. The quieter look can still have a strong and awe inspiring impact on the viewer but the emotional reaction will be of the more tranquil variety. There is a place in everyone’s life for both excitement and tranquility. So, instill the kind of energy you want to convey to the viewer or wearer of your work.

A lot of times creating a calm energy entails the use of simplicity because the more complex the work, the more likely it is to be infused with layers of energy. But here’s the thing… even calm looking pieces have discernible levels of energy. It’s not about having no energy, it’s about the quality and level of it. Honestly, it would be hard to have a good design that didn’t have some energy. It just doesn’t have to be a lot.

I did find that it is really, really hard to keyword search for designs that are more tranquil. Tranquility and similar terms just don’t seem to be what people think to put in their descriptions. I’m not sure why. I did come to realize that the work that I gather and set aside for future blogs tends to be high-energy as that’s what I’m drawn to, as are most polymer crafters. So, the search for designs with a more minimal level of energy has been a bit of a challenging and intriguing experience for me. Let’s go see what I found on the quieter side of design and see how much they speak to you.

Cool, Calm and Collected

When first I went searching for pieces I thought represented this idea of tranquil energy, Genevieve Williamson’s artistic jewelry came immediately to mind. Her work is definitely an example of undeniably evident energy that nonetheless conveys a comforting tranquility and calm, like early mornings on a clear fall day or lazy late afternoons when you have nothing pressing to do.

However, her work tends to have some small deviation from the balance and symmetry that she employs to help relay this calmness. They are little things, like the uneven nature of the colorants on the left side earrings you see opening this post. On the gorgeous set on the right, the scratch lines are very similar between the two earrings until you get to the bottom of the larger triangle of the right-hand one and suddenly all the lines go horizontal. Things are just off a touch, just a little out of place or unexpected. There is an honesty approachability to her brand of intentional imperfection which adds to the relaxed feeling and calm emotional response so much of her work tends to elicit.

Key to good design, when trying to create with a minimal level of energy, usually involves employing cool and/or muted colors, symmetry, and an even balance. In France’s Sophie Pollion’s set here, we see all three of those go-to calming design elements but with one deviation, where the perfect circle is broken as a section threatens to break away. This creates a point of interest and just enough energy to keep such a combination of characteristics from being too static or rather dull. It is not unlike what Williamson does above, but it is more obvious.

That is not to say that design with perfect balance and symmetry is boring. Such pieces can be absolutely transcendent if done well. Look at this set of earrings. The design seems so simple – completely symmetrical and perfectly balanced without any deviation in the symmetry between the earrings. And yet, they have a gorgeous sophistication and beauty. Why is that?

The reason this works without being boring is because there is a tremendous amount of subtle contrast. The jewelry designer, Maike Barteldres, connects the softness of a solid round object and a thin delicate circle with a rigid straight line. She also pairs the perfection of shiny, hard-edged, man-made metal components with the matte, organic form of a pebble. And, of course, there is the stark contrast in value with the near whiteness of silver against the near blackness of the stone. So, the energy is minimal, but the allure of these artful juxtapositions is not.

For all that balance and symmetry does for creating calm and tranquility in a piece, I think the most dramatic and impressive low energy design choice is to simply provide a tremendous amount of “white space”. The term “white space” does not necessarily mean that the space is white but rather that it not complicated with texture, line, focal points, etc. Such work really needs to keep the focus on form and the finish, as evidenced, I think, in this wood turned vessel by Carlyn Lindsay.

I was really hoping to find a polymer piece that exemplified the heavy use of white space to convey calm energy but we sure are a group that loves our texture, line, abundance of color, and pattern. I would say that most people come to polymer because of the variety of surface design as well as sculptural possibilities so, yeah, pieces with lots of white space are not going to be easy to find. Who would like to change that? Can you create a piece, using your favorite techniques and forms, but create areas of calm where you would normally puts a lot of pattern or texture? Or, if you already do that quite a bit, maybe challenge yourself to see just how much white space or other element of calm you can use in your work with while still creating a satisfying piece.

The whole idea of calmness in your work may not suit what you prefer to do or want to express but, like anything else in design, you can make an intentional choice about the amount of energy you want to have in any one piece. It’s just something to think about.

A Bid for My Own Serenity and Sanity

Okay, as mentioned last week I have a lot of things I’m working on, albeit slowly between being a one-armed bandit and being short-staffed as my assistant has not been able to return to work. So, I am rather on my own right now, but I have moved forward with a few things.

Expanding the Tenth Muse Book Store

One of my primary goals for Tenth Muse Arts is to support our working artists in any way I can. It occurred to me a while back that there are a lot of artists who publish their own books but struggle to sell them to a wider audience because they are the sole promoters. I want to change that. So, I’m looking to expand the publications we sell on the website to include books by artists who are independently publishing as well as procuring some classic but hard to get titles I believe every ardent polymer crafter should not be without.

I’ve already started to get some stock in but have to get it organized and posted to the shop. I also have a long way to go in getting all the books from independent artist-authors. So, if you are an artist-author with a book that you think we should carry, please contact me. If you have any suggestions for independently published polymer related books that you would like us to carry, please do let me know by using the contact link at the top of the blog page or, if you get this by email, simply respond to the email.

As soon as I have this first round of stock ready in the online shop, I will have a celebratory opening sale. So, keep an eye on the newsletter (if you aren’t signed up, go to our home page here and scroll down to the newsletter sign-up form) as that will be the first point of notification for the sale but, of course, I’ll also let you know on the following Sunday right here.

If I’m lucky, I’ll get that done in about a week. Just send out good vibes that we will no longer be threatened by fires or have to deal with the precautionary power outages our crazy fire season has necessitated this past week here in California. We’ve stayed safe here so far but flash backs of last year seeing a wall of fire at the end of our street has made our high fire danger days a bit distracting.

The Question of Production

One of the other reasons for expanding the bookstores is to diversify the business since it is pretty certain now that I will not be able to produce books and magazines so much on my own anymore. The bottom line is that my arm has not healed all that much over these last three months and my last consultation was not overly encouraging. It is more than possible that I have some permanent damage in my arm and I need to plan future projects accordingly. I can still work but gone are the days of marathon layout sessions and long nights of photo prep. Don’t you hate it when your body tells you to slow or stop working? What a wimp.

So, although I was told to take up to 6 months and it’s only been 3 months of rest, I can’t keep our magazines subscribers hanging much longer so after much number crunching and creative problem-solving, I’ve decided on a plan but have a few more details to work out before I can share more about the production of The Polymer Studio magazine. You, my subscribers, are always on my mind though. Know that.

With calm and serenity on my mind for the rest of the weekend, I’m going to take a little time off and do some fiction writing. Since I can talk to my computer, I’ve been doing a lot more of that kind of thing these days as I haven’t even editing or layout to fill my creative needs. You’d think I would have worked in some polymer time, and I had hoped to, but I’ve been a little worried on how working with hand tools would affect the arm plus, to be honest, the studio still hasn’t recovered from the invasion of the family during the remodel. So maybe I’ll do a little cleaning up around here too while the husband is home to assist and remove that excuse. All this talk about calm and serene energy is really got me thinking about some new designs.

I am also pondering trying Patreon for a little side income (although for my poetry and prose writing, not my art). I kind of thought it would be a neat way to try the platform and see how well it works (which I can then share with all of you) and keep me motivated (aka accountable!) to continue my creative writing. Have you been curious about Patreon or would you be interested to see what kind of creative nonsense I write? Leave a comment in this post’s comment section or write using the contact page, or just hit reply if you get this by email.

Ok, off with me and with you. I hope my chatter has gotten your own creative juices flowing. Maybe you’ll consider a change up in the energy level of your work just to see what fresh ideas it might bring you this coming week.

October 27, 2019 Uncategorized

When you think of Halloween themed art, do you think fun and goofy or maybe dark and gothic? Do you ever think of it as beautiful? Of course, we all know that there is beauty in all kinds of art but holiday and seasonal pieces tend to be more lighthearted and lean towards fulfilling the need for family fun and entertainment or tasteful but not overly obtrusive décor.  Halloween, however, is not about being unobtrusive, and although we see a lot of fun and silly things, there is always the underlying theme and the reason for the season … the observance of our connection to the dead.

Halloween, and the root of the name, comes from the Christian observance of the eve of All Saints (aka Hallows, as in hallowed people) Day which occurs on the 1^st of November. In Scotland, the word for “the eve of” something is ‘even’, commonly contracted to e’en. And so the name, Halloween, is a mash up of Hallow and e’en.

Although Halloween is the day before a Christian day of observance, it was actually built upon a pagan observance, Samhain, representing the last day of they pagan calendar because, being a calendar focused on the seasonal and agricultural cycles, it was approximately the last day of harvesting, and the bounty of the year’s harvest would be celebrated. Being this was the time of year that folks turned to face the coming Winter, there was a lot of superstition surrounding the day and many came to believe it was the time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was thinnest and so it made sense to consider one’s loved ones who had passed on at this time. I bring this all up to show that the origins of Halloween was one of celebration and love for family and friends lost and not born of a fear of evil or the devil as some might assume.

Halloween is definitely my favorite holiday. For one, I like that we take a day to address and symbolically stand up to our innate fear of death and darkness. Death is a part of our cycle of life and without it, how well would we appreciate the days we have? We are physiologically wired to avoid and dread death, of course, otherwise we’d not likely have survived very long as a species. (As it is, we have dummies taking ridiculous risks for selfies and adrenaline junkies just taunting the grim reaper. What we be doing if we had no fear of our demise?) But it awaits us all so why not face its existence and embrace that it makes our every moment more precious? Sorry I got a bit heavy there! Moving on …

Another reason I like Halloween is that people get so dang creative. From home decorating to lawn displays to costumes to self-adornment, this feels like the holiday that most everybody has tried their hand at creating something of their own. Craft stores, fabric stores and thrift stores are mobbed and people get excited about making their ideas a reality. I love that energy.

Another huge reason for my love of this holiday is that we see a lot more of the dark side of beauty circulating through art, fashion, and décor. There is beauty in all facets of this world of ours and the dark side is no exception. So, in the spirit of this season, let me show you some of the beauty being created on the darker side.

The Dark and Lovely Arts

When you opened this post, did you cringe or think “ew” at the sight of the skull adorned journal cover, or did you react with appreciation and a desire to take a closer look? Skulls are creepy, I’ll give you that, but it’s mostly because of what they represent. You can find similar lines and forms in plants and geological formations and those we think are amazing because they don’t remind us of our final days. I think you have to do something a bit different with a skull to get people to look beyond the symbolism so they can gain appreciation for what it actually is—the formation of bone that is the base for the human faces we know and love.

Poland’s Alexandra ClayMaiden chose a difficult, but much more interesting angle, than the standard skull, to create her bas relief sculpture on the journal cover that opens this post. The three-quarter view allows Alexandra to create flowing lines and elegant forms not usually associated with skulls as well as more of a sense of movement with it being tilted. Straight on or profile skulls look both still and, well, dead. There is a liveliness here that makes these rose adorned bones take on a marvelous splendor.

As morose as the death’s-head hawkmoth appears, the beauty of the colors and, in particular, the textures, especially in this piece by Julia Galisina, are easy to see if you ignore the skull pattern. If it weren’t for the symbolism, the look of this work would be simply a gritty beauty all about the innate color sense of mother nature as interpreted by Julia. But with the skull on the back of these moths, and one exaggerated by the artist here, this moth carries a symbol of our dreaded end, which may be hard to get past. I think the lovely detail and colors do, however pull us past that symbolism to focus on the beauty of this work. I am grateful when an artist can show us that something is more than what it symbolizes.

And of course the Raven, with it’s black plumage and scavenging ways has long been a bird people have been wary of but this time of year, it gets to share a spotlight. Edgar Allen Poe didn’t help their image, being referred to so prominently in his famous poem. Melissa Terlizzi, however, does them proud with this beautifully textured, sculptural rendition complete with a ruffled and unkempt look one often sees in wild ravens. Although head feathers are not usually so ruffled, I really like the artistic choice to make them more dimensional and heavily textured, bringing your eye to its head and onto the eye of the raven in the process.

Ok, this next artist’s work completely creeps me out but I also can’t stop looking at it. Skink Chen creates some of the most beautifully disturbing sculptures, mixing human forms with and insect and reptilian components into create highly unusual creatures that would be easily fit in any otherworldly nightmare. However, the graceful lines and delicacy in the details makes them things of beauty. They just feel like they are going to be dangerous.

Isn’t it interesting that something most people will find utterly creepy, like tentacles, especially those wrapped around your neck, can end up looking like an elegant kind of lace, simply by changing the colors to pure white? This necklace, as best as I have been able to gather, is actually part of a wedding jewelry line. Chelsea Komschlies just thought it would be popular since beach themes are so prevalent in weddings these days. I was thinking HP Lovecraft and other fantasy fans would jump on something like this for their fan based weddings, which are also popular these days. But mostly I picked this for you just to consider what one single design change–color in this case–can do to take something from purely creepy to disturbingly beautiful. Or just beautiful, for those who have a keen appreciation for sophisticated cephalopods.

Ok, so, we’re not going to get through this holiday with out at least one good laugh. Mr. Barghest takes creepy to hilarious heights with these pieces (I think they’re magnets). There is a lot of funny and even cute Halloween themed work out there but having a refined style like this brings the imagery alive. The uneven placement of teeth, the slight cross of the eyes and the antiqued texture carries the goofiness in designs that are well balanced and skillfully sculpted.

Preparing for the Hallows

So I am just back from traveling for nearly 4 weeks, which was weird because I was originally only going to be gone just over 2 weeks. It was supposed to attend 2 weddings and do some visiting with family and friends with a couple days dropping in on the house I rent out to friends there in Colorado to make a couple small repairs. But, you know … best laid plans don’t hold. The house needed a lot more than a faucet replaced plus things got slowed down when my assistant became ill so I was doing a lot more business work than expected, hence the delay in returning home. But I am here now, still without an assistant (seems to be the year of taking breaks to attend to one’s health, which is a good, if difficult thing) but getting back into the rhythm of things. I still have that darn backsplash to finish so that is on tap this week. Plus I should have a real update on the magazine and some cool news on new projects we have decided to get going on in the very near future. Still ironing a few things out so give me a couple more weeks and thank you so so much for your incredible patience with me!

While I was in Colorado, I got to hang with a couple of my favorite polymer people. Here is Christi Friesen, Debbie Crothers, and I creating our own little red hat society in one of our runs through a Denver thrift store.

The next day we saw Christi off to Tennessee then Debbie and I wandered around an area in northwest Denver dubbed RiNo (River North) and saw all this incredible stuff and more!

Oh, the beauty and laughs you can find just getting out and about!

Well, I hope you all have time to enjoy and admire a little beauty on the dark side and more than a few laughs this Halloween week. I’m off to enjoy some overdue California family time carving pumpkins and watching old holiday appropriate movies with some of the nephews before heading out to check out the creatively, and sometimes insanely, decorated haunted homes of a few of our like-minded friends. I wish you all treats and no tricks this week and tons of creative time!

October 20, 2019 Uncategorized

My apologies that there was not a blog this Sunday morning. A confluence of unfortunate circumstances got in the way. Working while traveling is a bit of gamble but at the end of this trip, I have found that I am short an assistant for the time being and I have had some unexpected family issues to attend to among a lot of little bits of craziness. But … I head back tomorrow! Phew! Looking forward to getting back to a normal-ish schedule and get back to working on some new projects that I will share with you shortly.

In the meantime, since so many of you seem to love the little historical bits I bring up on occasion, here is a great Ted Talk about how and why our society differentiates art from craft and why painting and sculpture are thought of as fine art while jewelry and quilts and the like are called craft. Its rather interesting and, really, kind of silly. Let’s see what you think.