Sunday, November 20, 2016

The Need to be Committed

No, I don't need to be locked away (unless it's in a fully stocked creative space with  great coffee).

I need to commit to participation.
Having other people count on me to finish a page, enter a quilt or mail a postcard makes me accountable and forces me to finish (and start) projects.  I have been careful not to over extend myself so that I don't 'flake' or drop out of a group.  Spreading the mediums make my creating more interesting.  So what have I committed to this year?

I am at the tail end of an altered book round robin.  Each artist chose a theme for her book and we each took four or so pages to alter.  Fellow participants chose varied themes ranging from Africa and Edgar Allen Poe to Galileo and Nick Bantock.  My book has a travel theme and I look forward to getting it back and seeing each interpretation.  

I belong to two quilt guilds and each had a themed challenge.  One was 'masks' and the other was 'log cabins'.  I struggled to be inspired for the mask challenge - actually I had some great ideas that I sketched but was not able to execute them in time - so I back out.  The log cabin quilt turned out adorable in my opinion.  I liked the final piece!

Most recently I signed up for iHanna's DIY Postcard Swap.  Hanna is a blogger from the Netherlands who hosts the international swap twice a year.  I made ten postcards and sent them around the world.  In turn, I receive ten in my mailbox.  As of today I have received four - each unique and wonderful.  
Here are the postcards I created:



"Just Go Forward' had always been one of my mantras.  I always found that if I am moving in a positive direction - no matter how small of a step - that it is a good thing!  I have also often drawn arrows.  So this is what came out of my art (the post-election sentiments may have had a bit of an influence as well.) 

So that's it.  Do you find committing to participate motivates you or stresses you?  What are you committed to lately?


1 comment:

  1. The first time I did iHanna's swap, I was pretty stressed. But the more I did it, the more fun and relaxing it got. My first journal round robin didn't end well -- my journal ended up getting lost (along with a participant), so I'm a bit shy about trying another. In April I joined a very fun collage website (http://losdiascontados.com) where participants all make a different collage each day based on the same starting image. It's inspired me to make a collage a day for 9 months!

    ReplyDelete