Run out of steam

I seem to have come to a temporary full stop, artwise.  No motivation to finish all the things I've got on the go, so I've temporarily put them away.  The reason is probably that I have been working on things without a break for the last two years, and didn't even stop over the two Xmas breaks, so I've just run out of steam.  Time for recess.  This last week I did nothing except read, and help my daughter with sewing knitted squares together for a blanket.  I'm giving myself a full two weeks off.  I'm not stopping myself thinking about projects entirely, but won't let myself take any notes.  If I forget what I thought of this week, well, I'll think of something else.  I had to journal about it to find out why I'd lost my motivation - I do that about all sorts of things because I find journaling helps me find out what I'm really thinking, feeling or imagining back there on the backburner.  Sometimes I find thoughts I didn't know I had in my conscious life.  Fascinating!  Can't do without journaling.

©Christine Linton

This page is from a journal I made from an altered book found in an op shop.  I was using a linoblock I made on a white painted page.  I was exploring using the same linoblock in different colours in a journal about birds.

Ice Crystals as embroidery

One of the constants in my artwork is nature.  I love walking in nature, studying nature, and while birds are my favourite thing, sometimes I see a natural form that is so beautiful I want to interpret it in stitch.  This is what happened here.  While browsing Christi's blog Sweetpea Path, I found her beautiful photo of ice crystals (Ice Crystals photo, look at the blog and go down three photos) and she kindly gave me her permission to use it as the basis for some embroidery.  This is free-machine embroidery.  It is only a sample so I was experimenting and used three different metallic threads, working on some silk on to which I had transferred encaustic wax (always sounds so CAUSTIC but actually is a very gentle technique, just melting wax).  It has rippled because I didn't use a hoop but it actually gives it a more organic appearance.  Like ripples!

Embroidery by Christine Linton

©Christine Linton from a photo by Christi, Sweetpea Path blog

Climbing out of the rut

Just been to see the Turner exhibition at the South Australian Art Gallery in Adelaide - well worth a visit; though I'm not keen on his maritime ship paintings, the others which show the effects of light are great.  I think seeing these international exhibitions is valuable even if they are not in the media that you work in yourself.  Opens the mind, broadens the viewpoint, stimulates the brain - well done SA Art Gallery.

I spent a thought-provoking morning browsing the "Turner from the Tate" and the newer additions to the Contemporary Galleries (finding the fantastic new acquisition, by Ben Quilty "Evening shadows, Rorschach after Johnstone 2011", which you can see at my link Ben Quilty masterpiece) then after lunch I made notes in my journal about what I had seen and my current/future plans sitting in comfort up in the State Library - I think it's important to review what I'm doing regularly because I get bogged down in a rut - I hate to admit it but that's my comfort zone - and I need to get back to experimenting to keep fresh.  I'm still inclined to be over-organised and had to pull myself up in this journal-writing session and face the high edges of that rut and jump over into the mud, and get scratchy again.

Textile riches

One of the lovely things about working with textiles is their richness, their lushness, their texture.  I find silk threads and satins irresistible and used them to make a sewing machine cover.

satins and silk threads make the sewing machine cover 

©Christine Linton 

Also I used the reverse side of a sequin jersey to make my "glitterfly" with beads and wire for antennae and free-machining on the wings (vilened for stiffness).

"glitterfly" 

©Christine Linton 2012

But I have a long way to go before producing items like these:

http://sweetpeapath.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/beautiful-wear-and-tear.html

Imagination

Where would we be without imagination?  It's where our art comes from.  I made some leaves using three techniques, free-machining over wire, over watersoluble fabric, and over sheer "bits", but my plan to put them in a basket meant they didn't show to their best advantage.  So I imagined a way to display them such that they could be turned around to see both sides but they could also all be seen at once.  I made a panel from my hand-dyed old sheeting, and strung the leaves from the dowel at the top.

Leaves Panel 

©Christine Linton