How to avoid writing an ARTIST'S STATEMENT

I am sitting here very early in the morning while a nor'easter rages outside, trying to think about my art and come up with some kind of ARTIST'S STATEMENT for two shows that I have coming up. I thought that reading some of the old posts here would help, and it has somewhat, but writing a new post about what I have been doing lately is much easier than writing that ARTIST'S STATEMENT . I am finally facing up to writing a real ARTIST'S STATEMENT because my friend Joei was here this weekend and working on hers for one of the shows. She shared the information she found about how to go about writing the dreaded ARTIST'S STATEMENT , for example we found this website helpful for getting the ideas and words flowing; http://artiststatement.com/ . The funny thing is that I think writing an ARTIST'S STATEMENT could be very enlightening for me if I had the time to fully examine what my art is. The conundrum is that I need the pressure of a deadline to actually do the work. I have several other deadlines to meet the next two weeks so instead I will escape by writing about the fun I had with Joei this weekend.

Joei has been wanting me to teach her how I do my landscapes and since she is my best friend and we share so much I gave her a private lesson. Besides a year ago she showed me how she makes her beautiful nuno felt pictures, including the secrets of sanders, dryers, and fussy cuts! We started the weekend in our usual way; talking, drinking, and making flowers for the guild. Only three got done but we had a lot of catching up to do since we had not seen each other since before the holidays.

Unfortunately I forgot to get a photo of Joei's finished landscape. You will have to look at her blog for that. I did remember to take some photos of her layout though.

And I got one of her doing her needle felting after the wet felting.

She really wanted me to teach her how to render the light in a landscape and I think she nailed it. In between giving her advice I worked on none of the things I should have been doing. I made this instead. It is a fish candy dish. I think I have to get some Swedish fish to put in it...I would use gummy worms but I think they would get covered with fibers. I am going to put it in the Huyck show so the time was sort of spent on one of the things I should be doing.

I did do just a little work on what was going to be my banner for the Huyck show but when I held it up for Joei and my sister Beth to look at they could see the light coming through the thin felt and it added a wonderful new dimension to the piece. I decided that I would save that piece for a show in Rochester, NY and hang it in such a way that it could be softly lit from behind. The hanging will take a bit of experimenting to figure out since the felt is too thin and uneven to hang nice and flat, but I think I may have figured out a way. Here is what it looks like hanging in a window. The light shines through the really thin spots and looks like dappled sunshine in a forest, exactly what I was trying to depict.

I have to make a new banner to put in the Huyck show now. Here is the start of the layout (sideways because it is so big I have to stand on a stool and hold the camera over my head to get a photo of all of it).

On Monday I had another reason/excuse for not working on that ARTIST'S STATEMENT. My sister needed my help to boost her spirits. She was feeling like giving up on her endeavors in felting landscapes after seeing how well Joei's picture came out. Beth had been my guinea pig first student when I started teaching the landscape class and my teaching has improved since then. She had been doing some pictures on her own that are charming in their simplicity ...

...but she could see how differently Joei was laying out the fibers and how many colors were being used. She wanted to try doing something more complex. Her piece came out beautiful. Here it is after the wet felting.

So now that I am caught up on my blog i guess I have run out of excuses and need to work on my ARTIST'S STATEMENT. Unless of course I go out to shovel some of this.

On my way back from giving the chickens water.

The chicken tractor looks like a chalet.

I love the sculptures.

Getting the morning paper took some doing...just trying to get dressed. Here is Dad on his way out.

He shoveled the steps on the way back in...now i think he will need a nap...hard work just walking when the snow is up to your knees. And it is still coming down.