Well I didn’t turn into a pumpkin! I got my May TIF Challenge piece done yesterday (just) but too late for taking photos.
I decided to create something that included some of the techniques I love most, and to try to express how I often feel as if I’m exploding in all directions – there’s such an onslaught of possibilities it seems impossible to choose between them.
For the background I used a piece of indigo-dyed shibori I made at a workshop taught by Nell Dale. I applied scrim that I’d dyed and torn, and some little bits and bobs – hand stitching, machine stitching, felt, knitting, dyeing, batik, printing, and layered fabrics. I also love textiles with writing, so I added the phrase that Neki of A Moveable Feast picked out from my thoughts on the challenge question – ‘naming is not defining – it is choosing’.
But choosing means saying no as well as yes. I long to learn to focus enough to practise, in every sense of the word. I enjoy exploring so many things but I also value skill and mastery, and to attain those things one must make choices and leave some roads untravelled. For now, as a student, I’m constantly trying out new paths and revisiting old ones, but I also hope that on the way I’ll discover which directions take me “further up and further in”… that I will learn my name.
Links to the beautiful and thought-provoking work being done for Sharon’s Take it Further Challenge can be found on her blog In a Minute Ago, the Flickr group, and the Take it Further Challenge blog.
Beautiful and thoughtful piece. I like the way you’ve used other colours with the indigo,( I’m stuck in a rut only using indigo with indigo – must break out of that)
Well done on finishing – my May TIF joins the April one in being planned and assembled but awaiting stitching.
So so well said! I associate with it completely! And such a pretty interpretation!
So lovely a work you have done and this is a most well-written post! I completly know what you mean when you say there are many directions you would like to explore but at the same time you would like to master them too. It is a conundrum! You seem to have this medium well mastered in any case!
Emily
naming is not defining it is choosing has to be the best phrase to come out of this months challenge. I like the way you illustrated it
I really like your piece, and the concept of learning and following a path, which leads to other ideas and skills,and revisiting trails sums up my own approach so beautifully.i too like embroiderd text.
Fiona, I love this piece! I echo so much of what you have said here. I often feel that I will explode with the number of things I want to try. What a great way to describe it!
This piece is like a compass, and it will tell you which way you should go..or at least show you the possibilities. Lovely work.
A beautiful idea and so wonderfully expressed
This is a really beautiful explosion!
I really relate to what you are saying about heading off in different directions.
I’m really hoping to learn my name too one of these days or perhaps as artists we need to just get comfortable with the fact that our name is always changing?
CX
energy!
Naming is a goo dway to see it. I feel like I am still finding my own style of “hanwriting” when i am trying to create soemthing that is “me”
‘naming is not defining it is choosing’, what a wonderful way of explaining what a lot of us are thinking Fiona. I know exactly what you mean and would like to do it all, but only very little of what I do can be as good as I would wish. Your explosion is very successful.
gorgeous piece.
Your piece speaks to my heart, I love the colors and the design.